1. Mission

CHAPTER 48

THE DEPARTMENT IN GENERAL

The Department of Labor has jurisdiction of matters pertaining to fostering, promoting, and developing the welfare of wage-earners of the United States, and is especially concerned with improving their working conditions and advancing their opportunities for profitable employment. The department also has supervision over the enforcement of the immigration, Chinese exclusion, and naturalization laws. It further has direction of investigating matters pertaining to the welfare of children and child life.1

2. History 2

Agitation for such a federal department was begun soon after the close of the Civil War, when the wage-workers, most of whom were then veterans of the war, were the victims of a confused economic situation and were suffering from lack of opportunities for profitable employment.

Several conventions of the National Labor Union urged the creation of a federal executive department in the interests of the laboring man. In 1871 a bill was introduced in Congress providing for a Commission on Labor as a temporary expedient, but the bill did not pass.

After various legislative failures to provide a federal agency in behalf of Labor3 a bill passed Congress in 1884 creating a Bureau of Labor in the Department of the Interior.

In 1884 the bureau was made independent as a Department of Labor without executive rank.

In 1903 the Department of Commerce and Labor was authorized by Congress, and the earlier Department of Labor became a bureau. This amalgamated representation of industrial interests was unsatisfactory to the wage-earners, who believed that it contained the possibilities of a hostile agency. Hence there was a renewed and re-enforced demand for a separate department, and at last the tenth executive department came into being.5

The new department took over the Bureau of Labor, its title altered to Bureau of Labor Statistics. So, also, the Children's Bureau. The Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization came to the Department as the Bureau of Immigration and the Bureau of Naturalization. The latter had been a division.

1 See James J. Davis, Humanity in Government, pp. 1-4.

2 See Eighth Annual Report of the Secretary of Labor, pp. 11-20.

3 More than 100 such bills, including resolutions, are summarized at pages 13-21 of a public document, long out of print, entitled "Organization and Law of the Department of Commerce and Labor" (Government Printing Office, 1904). They cover the period from 1864 to 1902.

4 Act Feb. 14, 1903 (32 Stat. 827).

5 Act March 4, 1913 (37 Stat. 736 [Comp. St. §§ 932-942]).

3. Activities in General

In addition to the ordinary administrative affairs necessary to the operation of the Department, which will appear under "Organization," post, and the Bureaus of Immigration and Naturalization, the Women's Bureau, and the United States Employment Service, described in separate chapters, post, these are the following activities:

4. Bureau of Labor Statistics

The Bureau of Labor Statistics is charged with the duty of acquiring and diffusing among the people of the United States useful information on subjects connected with labor in the most general and comprehensive sense of that word, and especially upon its relations to capital, the hours of labor, the earnings of laboring men and women, and the means of promoting their material, social, intellectual, and moral prosperity.

It is especially charged to investigate the causes of and facts relating to controversies and disputes between employers and employees as they may occur, and which may happen to interfere with the welfare of the people of the several states.

It is also authorized to publish a bulletin on the condition of labor in this and other countries, condensations of state and foreign labor reports, facts as to conditions of employment, and such other facts as may be deemed of value to the industrial interests of the United States. This bulletin is issued in a number of series, each dealing with a single subject or closely related group of subjects, and the bulletin is published at irregular intervals as matter becomes available for publication.

By the act to provide a government for the territory of Hawaii, as amended, it is made the duty of the bureau to collect and present in quinquennial reports statistical details relating to all departments of labor in the territory of Hawaii, especially those statistics which relate to the commercial, industrial, social, educational, and sanitary condition of the laboring classes.

5. Children's Bureau

The act establishing the bureau provides that it shall investigate and report upon all matters pertaining to the welfare of children and child life among all classes of our people, and shall especially investigate the questions of infant mortality, the birth rate, orphanage, juvenile courts, desertion, dangerous occupations, accidents, and diseases of children, employment, and legislation affecting children in the several states and territories. The bureau is also empowered to publish the results of these investigations in such manner and to such extent as may be prescribed by the Secretary of Labor. The bureau is charged with the federal administration of the Sheppard-Towner Act for the promotion of the welfare and hygiene of maternity and infancy. Under this act the federal and state governments are co-operating in their efforts to reduce maternal and infant mortality.

Administration of the Maternity and Infancy Act.-Forty states have continued their acceptance of the Maternity and Infancy Act and are working in co-operation with the Children's Bureau under its provisions. All of the 40 states 6 Act March 2, 1895 (28 Stat. 804).

co-operating have matched in full or in part the federal funds-23 in full and 17 in part.

Under the act it becomes the duty of the Children's Bureau to undertake such studies and investigations as will lead to more efficient administration. With the ultimate aim of reducing the number of stillbirths, a series of post mortem examinations are being made in order to determine causes of neonatal deaths. The investigation of maternity homes in Pennsylvania and Minnesota has been completed.

The bureau conducts researches as to child labor legislation in the various states and as to the issuance of permits exempting children from school attendance, so that they may work at home. Studies are made as to useful employment for defective children, the welfare of child workers in rural communities, industrial accidents to minors, the care of children born out of wedlock, public aid to dependent children, the problem of child dependency in general and of dependent wards, and the legal protection of children. Copies of a manual of Juvenile Court Standards prepared by the Children's Bureau are distributed to judges, probation officers, and others interested therein.

6. Activities; Division of Conciliation

Commissioners of Conciliation exercise their good offices to compose labor disputes. They settled 415 of 544 disputes, submitted during the fiscal year of 1924.

7. Bureau of Industrial Housing and Transportation

The mission of the United States Housing Corporation is to liquidate the government's housing undertakings incident to mobilization for the World War.

The corporation was authorized in 1918 as successor to the Bureau of Industrial Housing and Transportation created by Executive Order under the President's war powers. The original act has been amended.

The principal activities of the corporation may be summarized as follows: (1) Rentals and sales of properties.

(2) Collections from rentals and sales.

(3) Liquidation of transportation and public utility loans.

(4) Operation of the government hotels.

(5) Operation of the Norfolk county ferries.

The Director is the president of the corporation and the Secretary of Labor is the trustee for the United States.

8. Decision; Taxability of Property Held by a United States Corporation Property of a corporation organized by the United States for war purposes is immune from state taxation."

7 Act May 16, 1918 (40 Stat. 550 [Comp. St. 1918, Comp. St. Ann. Supp. 1919, §} 3115%a-3115%h]).

8 Act June 4, 1918 (40 Stat. 595 [Comp. St. 1918, Comp. St. Ann. Supp. 1919, § 3115%g et seq.]), and Act March 21, 1922 (42 Stat. 468 [Comp. St. Ann. Supp. 1923, § 3115%]).

9 Clallam County, Wash., v. U. S., 263 U. S. 341, 44 S. Ct. 121, 68 L. Ed. 328.

The Secretary of Labor.-The law creating the Department of Labor provides that all duties performed and all power and authority possessed or exercised by the head of any executive department at the time of the passage of the said law, in and over any bureau, office, officer, board, branch, or division of the public service by said act transferred to the Department of Labor, or any business arising therefrom or pertaining thereto, or in relation to the duties performed by and authority conferred by law upon such bureau, officer, office, board, branch, or division of the public service, whether of an appellate or advisory character or otherwise, are vested in and exercised by the head of the said Department of Labor. The Secretary of Labor is also given authority and directed to investigate and report to Congress a plan of co-ordination of the activities, duties and powers of the office of the Secretary of Labor with the activities, duties, and powers of the present bureaus, commissions and departments, so far as they relate to labor and its conditions, in order to harmonize and unify such activities, duties and powers, with a view to additional legislation to further define the duties and powers of the Department of Labor, and to make such special investigations and reports to the President or Congress as may be required by them or which he may deem necessary, and to report annually to Congress upon the work of the Department of Labor.

(1) Office of the Secretary.-(a) The Secretary.

(b) Assistant Secretary.-The Assistant Secretary performs such duties as shall be prescribed by the Secretary or may be required by law. He becomes the Acting Secretary of Labor in the absence of the Secretary.

(c) Second Assistant Secretary.-The Second Assistant Secretary performs such duties as shall be prescribed by the Secretary or may be required by law; he becomes acting Secretary of Labor in the absence of the Secretary and Assistant Scretary.

(d) Solicitor. While the solicitor is an officer of the Department of Justice, he has his office with the Department of Labor, and his work is devoted entirely to matters of law arising in this department.

He renders formal legal opinions, examines and drafts contracts and leases, forms of bonds, etc., drafts legislative bills, and generally attends to the legal affairs of the Department.

(e) Chief Clerk.-Under the direction of the Secretary, the chief clerk has direct charge of the various divisions of the Office of the Secretary, and performs such duties as are usually performed by similar officers in all of the executive departments.

The chief clerk is charged with the general supervision of the clerks and employees of the department; the enforcement of the general regulations of the department; the superintendency of all buildings occupied by the department in the District of Columbia; the general supervision of all expenditures from the appropriations for contingent expenses, printing and binding, and rents; the receipt, distribution, and transmission of the mail; and the discharge of all business of the Secretary's office not otherwise assigned.

(el) Disbursing Clerk.-The disbursing clerk prepares requisitions for pub

lic funds from appropriations for the department. He also pays its obligations and does the general accounting of the department. Naturalization fees and moneys received from aliens in lieu of bond are accounted for by him.

The disbursing clerk is charged by the Secretary of Labor with the duty of preparing all requisitions for the advance of public funds from appropriations for the Department of Labor to disbursing clerks and special disbursing agents charged with the disbursement of public funds; the keeping of appropriation ledgers relating to the advance and expenditure of all items of appropriations. He has charge of the issuing, recording, and accounting for government requests for transportation issued to officers of the department for official travel; the audit and payment of all vouchers and accounts submitted from the various offices, bureaus, and services of the department; the general accounting of the department; and the accounting for all naturalization receipts received under the provisions of the Act of June 29, 1906.

(e2) Appointment Clerk.-The appointment clerk has charge of all clerical work incident to appointments which are made under the jurisdiction of the department. He is also the custodian of oaths of office, bonds of officers, personnel files, retirement records, and efficiency reports.

(e3) Chief, Division of Publications and Supplies.-The Chief of the Division of Publications and Supplies is charged by the Secretary of Labor with the conduct of all business the department transacts with the Government Printing Office and the correspondence it entails; the general supervision of printing, including the editing and preparation of copy, illustrating and binding, the distribution of publications, and the maintenance of mailing lists. All blank books and blank forms and the printed stationery of all kinds used by the bureaus and offices of the department in Washington and the various outside services of the department are supplied by him. The advertising done by the department is in his charge. Under the direction of the chief clerk he has supervision of all the work incident to the purchase and distribution of supplies for the department proper and for the services of the department outside of Washington and of the keeping of detailed accounts of all expenditures from the appropriations for contingent expenses and printing and binding of the department. He receives, verifies, and preserves the semiannual returns of property from the offices and bureaus of the department which are supplied from the contingent appropriation, and examines and reports on the semiannual property returns of all other bureaus and services.

(e4) Librarian, Department Library.-The library now contains approximately 100,000 books and pamphlets, a unique collection of carefully selected material covering the whole field of social welfare. It is particularly rich in pamphlet material and in reports of special investigations, not to be found usually in general collections. Such reports contain the record of the newest and most significant developments in the field of social research.

(2) The Director of Conciliation.

(3) The Director General, United States Employment Service.

(4) The Director, Bureau of Industrial Housing and Transportation (United States Housing Corporation).