    [Thirty-First Annual Report of the Secretary of Labor for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1943]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

    ﻿partment
    ANNUAL REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF LABOR
    FISCAL YEAR ENDED JUNE 30, 1943

    THIRTY-FIRST ANNUAL- REPORT
    OF THE
    SECRETARY OF LABOR
    FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDED JUNE 30
    1943
    UNITED STATES
    GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
    WASHINGTON : 1944
    For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U. S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C Price 10 cents (paper cover)
    3 1336 05750 2768
    OFFICIALS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF LABOR, 1943
    Frances Perkins, Secretary of Labor.
    Daniel W. Tracy, The Assistant Secretary.
    Mary La Dame, Special Assistant to the Secretary.
    Frances Jurkowitz, Administrative Assistant to the Secretary.
    Douglas Maggs, Solicitor.
    James V. Fitzgerald, Director of Information.
    L. Metcalfe Walling, Administrator, Wage and Hour and Public Contracts Divisions.
    Verne A. Zimmer, Director, Division of Labor Standards.
    James E. Dodson, Chief Clerk.
    Robert C. Smith, Director of Personnel.
    John R. Steelman, Director of Conciliation.
    Isador Lubin, Commissioner of Labor Statistics.
    Katharine F. Lenroot, Chief, Children’s Bureau.
    Mary Anderson, Director. Women’s Bureau.
    Laura A. Thompson, Librarian.
    ii
    THIRTY-FIRST ANNUAL REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF LABOR
    LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL
    Department of Labor, Office of the Secretary, Washington, D. C., December 8, 19^3.
    To the Congress of the United States:
    In accordance with section 9 of the act of Congress approved March 4, 1913,1 have the honor to submit a report of the business of the Department of Labor for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1943.
    Respectfully submitted.
    Frances Perkins, Secretary of Labor.
    in
    THIRTY-FIRST ANNUAL REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF LABOR
    The period covered by the Thirty-first Annual Report of the Secretary of Labor to the Congress was marked by effective contribution by wage earners of the United States, in cooperation with management, for the production of record quantities of the implements of war. This gigantic production helped our fighting forces and those of our allies immeasurably.
    American labor demonstrated skill, speed, and endurance, cooperation and vision in planning work during the year. Whole industries were converted to new products with the cooperation of labor. New methods of working were introduced with the full cooperation of workers. Labor-saving devices were worked out on a large scale. Skilled labor was diluted with unskilled labor and skilled men taught the unskilled how to do a part of the work which they had learned through apprenticeship and years of experience.
    The Nation’s wage earners not only worked continuously in factory, on assembly line, in shipyards, arsenals, mines, and on the farms to help the United Nations win the war. They bought 300 millions of dollars worth of war bonds per month out of union treasuries and by individual subscription. They also made additional savings to ward off inflation and thus spare themselves and their country from the confusions of an economy in chaos. They gave 2,000,000 of their members of military age to the armed forces.
    Membership in trade unions has shown a remarkable growth during the war period due to a number of reasons: (1) The great increase in the number of employed persons, particularly in the heavy and high skilled industries, (2) the vigorous organizing programs of the trade unions, and (3) the protection given to organizing by the general acceptance of the National Labor Relations Act. The membership reports of the current year indicate that 13,500,000 persons in the United States belong to free trade unions. Membership is distributed among unions affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, the Congress of Industrial Organizations, and the Railway Unions. A very large part of these organized workers are in the industries whose primary purpose is to supply the implements of war. Between 60 and 80 percent of the industrial wage earners in the country are covered by collective bargaining agreements.
    Union rules were laid aside in the interests of the war production program to a marked extent, under agreements among employers and labor and the Government that there would be no exploitation of those who had made the sacrifice.
    The no-strike pledge of labor leaders and no-lockout pledge of management for the duration was kept at a rate of better than 99 percent during the fiscal year. The ratio of man-days lost through strike to time worked was %Oo of 1 percent. That is a good record in any field of human relations. Most of the few strikes and lockouts
    1
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    were of short duration because responsible leadership promptly ordered those on wildcat stoppages back to work and because Government provided the machinery by which industrial disputes could be adjusted in all fairness. The leaders of the labor movement for the most part cooperated with the Conciliation Service of the Department of Labor and the National War Labor Board in bringing about settlement of differences.
    Conciliation Service records show that from Pearl Harbor until the end of this fiscal year, it settled over 14,000 disputes, practically all of them without stoppages of work. The preventive work done by organized labor leaders, in keeping with the no-strike pledge of the leaders, is generally overlooked, but it has been effective in these settlements.
    No strike is justified in wartime. There are today ample Government facilities for adjustment and settlement of industrial disputes which do not yield to negotiation. They should be used by labor and management. For the most part labor agrees and practices its agreement.
    Many war duties placed upon Department.
    The Department of Labor, which is the Government agency charged by statute with the duty of promoting the welfare of the wage earners, had many new and difficult duties placed upon it by the demands of the war enterprises during the year. The technical services of the Department proved to be reliable in this emergency and were relied on by war agencies for facts and for advice in the labor and industrial field.
    The estimating of the number of persons needed in manufacturing per dollar of Government contracts, a figure needed in planning the war production program, proved to be available through the ingenuity and experience of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Problems of retarding industrial accidents and rate of absenteeism proved largely possible of solution due to the technical knowledge and services in the Division of Labor Standards.
    The question of how to use women with effectiveness and in safety in heavy industries and for skilled production was worked out by the Women’s Bureau, on the basis of long experience.
    Specialized inspection to report to various war agencies on problems necessary for their planning and their check-up was intrusted to the regular inspection staff of the Wage and Hour Division, which ordinarily enforces only the Fair Labor Standards Act.
    The new emergency and infant care program for the wives and babies of men in the armed services was turned over to the Children’s Bureau for administration.
    Labor and management cooperated with the Department of Labor in all this work. Both are cooperating in the Department’s efforts to increase the efficiency of labor by providing those human adjustments which are so necessary to the highest production. Continued high production levels are necessary in order to shorten the war, and all who have worked in factories and mills and shipyards know that in order to have sustained effort and sustained output, the working conditions have to be conditions which are favorable for human activity and drive.
    ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR	3
    Good working conditions are needed.
    Unguarded machinery, slippery floors, unprotected stairways and openings make for accidents. Accidents injure people and lay them up for days at a time. Poor ventilation, lack of drinking water, lack of sanitary facilities, and uncomfortable positions at a machine which could be altered by a little thought, unnecessary reaching, unnecessary stooping—all cause fatigue, which in turn slows down or interrupts production. Failure to provide proper facilities for eating, fresh drinking water and a chance to rest, all contribute to the slowdown of industry, to a high turnover in employment and to preventable absence.
    A realistic approach in every individual plant to the solution of these problems tends to remove the causes. When they are relieved the result in increased output is impressive. The cooperation of labor and management in effecting these changes has been so good that it deserves public acknowledgment and thanks.
    In the one field of industrial accidents alone, in a test check of 10,000 factories which were visited and given service by the Department of Labor, there showed up on the records a 75% decrease in the lost-time accidents. This means a saving of millions of man-days of working time.
    These become matters of vital importance to the war effort because of the effect on production and it is reassuring that there will continue to be full cooperation by labor, management, and Government in their handling. This spirit of cooperation is one of the great lessons we are learning in this second world war and it should stand us in good stead as a Nation when the fighting ends and there is a return to the normal ways of peacetime.
    It is already making for a better and more sympathetic understanding between labor and management, an understanding which should improve in the years to come and bring about in this country a reliance on the process of adjustment rather than on the strike or lockout as a method of settling industrial disputes. We know now, out of our experience since Pearl Harbor, that such disputes can be reasonably and fairly settled by a systematic and judicial method and we are not likely to forget that lesson. The work of the War Labor Board in setting up a final tribunal to settle and determine the answers to industrial disputes which are not settled by negotiation and conciliation is proving of great value in stabilizing the situation. The special industrial panels have given realism to the analysis and prevention of disputes.
    The labor dispute which attracted most attention and created the greatest tension was the dispute in the coal industry in which no settlement was reached by the usual method of negotiation between the parties directly and which was certified to the War Labor Board on April 24, 1943, after 6 to 7 weeks of negotiation. Many things contributed to the confusion surrounding this case. A series of strikes eventually resulted with the taking over of the mines bv the Government in order to insure the regular production of coal. The problem is not completely settled at this writing and no full report can therefore be made on the stoppage.
    4	ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR
    Agencies agree on desirable working conditions.
    Among the most striking events of the period has been the joint statement issued by all the production agencies, the Army, Navy, War Production Board, Maritime Commission, Manpower Commission, Public Health Service, Department of Commerce, and the Department of Labor, with regard to the desirable hours of work and working-conditions in war industries for the purpose of achieving higher production records and satisfactory quality. Copy of that agreement is inserted at this point for its historical value. It should be borne in mind that this is not a Department of Labor statement but a joint statement in which all the experienced agencies joined and represents, therefore, a settled policy based on experience that good conditions lead to good production.
    In view of the wide discrepancy in labor policy on hours of work among establishments—both private and governmental—working on war production, and in order to secure observance of those standards which experience shows are best for sustained maximum output, the following statement of policy is issued as a guide to Government establishments, to field representatives of procurement agencies, and to contractors working on war production.
    Nothing herein contained in any way diminishes the urgency of securing round-the-clock, 7-day week operation of plants and tools. The primary reason for this statement of policy is to secure increased production, by calling attention to certain practices that have been found to increase the efficiency of the human factor in production.
    1.	'Weekly day of rest.
    One scheduled day of rest for the individual, approximately every 7 days, should be a universal and invariable rule. The 7-day workweek for individuals is injurious to health, to production, and to morale. It slows down production because of the cumulative effects of fatigue, when not broken by a period of rest and relaxation, and it leads to increased absenteeism. Only in extreme emergencies and for a limited period of time should workers or supervisors forego the weekly day of rest.
    2.	Meal periods.
    A 30-minute meal period in midshift is desirable for men and women from the standpoint of the worker’s health and from the standpoint of productivity. In occupations that involve contact with poisonous substances workers must have time to wash before eating, as an elementary health precaution.
    3.	Daily and weekly hours.
    Daily and weekly hours of employees in war production plants should be reexamined to assure those schedules which will maintain maximum output over a long war period. Hours now worked in some plants are in excess of those which can be sustained without impairing the health and efficiency of workers and reducing the flow of production.
    When daily and weekly hours are too long the rate of production tends, after a period, to decrease, and the extra hours add little or no additional output, the quality of work may deteriorate during the whole period of work, not only during the hours of overtime; absenteeism rises sharply; the loss of time due to accidents and illnesses
    ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR
    5
    tends to increase. Effects upon the health and morale of the worker may be slow in appearing but are cumulative in nature. Irregular attendance disrupts the flow of production because certain operations call for a balance of trained.forces. In order to conserve irreplaceable skilled and supervisory manpower, uneconomical schedules should be revised.
    When plants drawing on the same labor market compete for labor through the device of offering heavy overtime payment the resulting unrest and turnover interferes with war production. In order to stop this type of labor pirating there should be uniformity in the hours schedules of plants in the same industrial area.
    .While a 40-hour week is generally accepted in peacetime there is a widespread and increasing agreement as a result of actual experience, both in this country and abroad, that for wartime production the 8-hour day and 48-hour week approximate the best working schedule for sustained efficiency in most industrial operations. While hours in excess of 48 per week have proved necessary in some instances due to a limited supply of supervisory and skilled manpower, there has been some tendency to continue longer schedules after sufficient opportunity has been afforded to train additional key employees.
    Plants which are now employing individual workers longer than 48 hours a week should carefully analyze their present situation with respect to output and time lost because of absenteeism, accident, illness, and fatigue. They should reexamine the possibilities of training additional workers now, in order to lessen the need for excessive overtime during the long pull ahead. As rapidly as is feasible these plants should introduce the hours schedules that will maintain the best possible rate of production for the duration.
    4.	Vacations.
    The policy of providing opportunity for restoration of energy of employees by a vacation period away from the job is demonstrated to be conducive to sustained production and is even more sound under emergency conditions of industry today than in peacetime. Experience demonstrates that by providing regular opportunities for men to have a limited period of time away from the job makes it easier to control sporadic absenteeism.
    Industry in planning vacation programs must exert the utmost ingenuity to obtain the benefits without paying an overbalancing cost in productive hours lost.
    Vacations should be staggered and spread over the longest possible period. Vacations should not be permitted to excuse any shut-down of any department of any war production plant except where such shut-down would not curtail production.
    The year has been marked by a number of important and interesting visits by labor delegations or students of labor conditions from a number of the South American countries, and a delegation of British working shipbuilders who came to study ship-production methods. For each of these delegations the Department of Labor has planned a program of inspection and conference designed to give the visitors access to everything they wished to see and know and designed also to promote the cooperation and interchange of information between the countries.
    557885—44--2
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    ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR
    The Smith-Connally bill designed to prevent strikes in wartime by imposing penalties upon those who promote or call strikes in plants which have been seized by the Government, and to prevent strikes by requiring the giving of notice 30 days in advance of intention to strike, with penalties for failure to do so, was passed in the closing days of the fiscal year over the veto of the President and against the advice of the experienced labor relations officers of the Government, as well as of organized labor. The testimony of the labor relations officers of the Government was to the effect that the Government relied upon the nostrike pledge of organized labor to prevent serious stoppages of work and interference with the production program,; that it believed this pledge had been reasonably well performed by most unions (99 percent) and that it preferred to rely upon this pledge and this voluntary method. It is too early to report the degree of effectiveness of the act and the methods of procedure are now being devised under that act in the Department of Labor.
    Great interest was attracted in the mid-winter months to the problem of absences of workers in the war industries and considerable well-meant legislation was introduced in an attempt to prevent such absences. No legislation was passed and the general conclusion appeared to be that such absences of workers were frequently unavoidable, due to weather, new recruits, increase in women workers and married women, living conditions, transportation problems, etc., and that so far as they could be prevented it was best to rely upon the voluntary methods recommended by the Division of Labor Standards, which was in direct contact with employers and workers and reported considerable success in the adoption of voluntary plans to reduce absenteeism.
    Plans to cope with workers’ post-war problems.
    In the midst of our concern for getting on with the war, it is but natural that labor, industry, and Government should think about what lies in store for our people after the war. It is natural, too, that we should define standards that are practical and desirable in the field of labor and employment for the United States and the nations cooperating in the post-war period.
    There are now about 54 million workers in the labor force of the United States, in addition to the millions in the armed forces. This is the top American employment record. About 4 million of these people, it is anticipated, will automatically disappear from the labor market when the war ends. They are the young who will go back to school (iy2 million), the old people (% million) who have postponed their retirement, and the women who are married and will have returning soldiers or children to make homes for (2 million), but it will probably be necessary to find regular and steady work for about 40 million people in this country if we are to maintain high American standards and an expanding economy. Many qualified persons think this can be done. Much effort is being put into achieving this by industrialists, financial institutions, local and Federal Government agencies, and trade unions.
    The U. S. Employment Service will be of prime importance in the post-war period as an agency to assist in the demobilization and reassignment of wage earners as the munitions industries decline and the consumers industries increase in their demands for workers. It
    annual report secretary of labor
    7
    should be maintained in a strong and vigorous position in the postwar period as an agency to bring workers and jobs together and to ease the strain of the change-over in distributing manpower effectively and fairly under new conditions.
    The existence of a social security system within the United States gives a great sense of stability to those who plan for the post-war period. We already have unemployment insurance, old age insurance, as well as old age public assistance and public assistance for dependent children. This will be the foundation upon which an expanded social security now generally approved can be built. An expanded system of social security, as well as a special service and a Bureau within the Employment Service, can play an important role in the aid of veterans of the war as they are demobilized and must be adjusted and absorbed into civilian industries and occupations.
    Need for extension of social security system.
    The social security system should be extended to all workers, including farm and domestic workers. It should be made available to selfemployed persons who wish to buy into the system, that is, business and professional people, operators of farms, etc. Benefits for unemployment extended in time to meet individual needs should be provided and probably more generous retirement benefits for those who retire at 65 or 70, benefits to provide for vocational rehabilitation of those who must transfer to new and unfamiliar jobs, benefits to cover disability due to illness or nonoccupational accidents, to cover hospitalization and even maternity benefits to families of insured persons. The continuation and extension of social assistance to various groups not originally provided for through ordinary social insurance is all possible and is planned in detail. It is a wise and intelligent program for effecting a suitable and comfortable social security in a free industrial system with free enterprise and capital investment.
    Veterans of the war on discharge ought to be admitted to social security system automatically and be eligible for the various benefits and also eligible for public works assignments as a part of unemployment benefits.
    It may be necessary for the Government to develop at least a temporary public works program on a sound and reasonable basis, probably a local basis, as unemployment is likely to be spotty rather than general in the transition period. The main reliance for industrial recovery is in the development and manufacture for sale by private industrialists of goods for which there is a pentup need by the consuming public. Both publicly and privately financed housing developments to meet the needs of the public, for good housing will be of extreme importance as a stimulant for the revival of business generally, as well as meeting a great consumer need.
    A variety of public works programs have been developed on a local and regional basis, much of the program engineered and audited, making it possible to put it into operation quickly. The Department of Labor has contributed both to the planning of these programs and to the prediction of the areas where they are most likely to be needed.
    The consumer demand for all kinds of goods will be high. The American working man has savings today, some of them in war bonds, some of them in banks, more of them in the stocking. The high earnings and shortage of goods to buy have pointed out to thoughtful
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    ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR
    observers the fact that the banking facilities of the country for the savings of working people are probably not adequate to the need. Savings banks are not developed throughout the country and such savings departments and savings banks as there are have the usual limited hours which are not always convenient for working people on payday. Moreover, there are wide areas in which the distance to a bank make it almost prohibitive to make deposits regularly.
    The Postal Savings System is not sufficiently used by Hie working people in this country and probably should lie made better known to them. The Rural Free Delivery man goes everywhere, and even in great cities the branch postoffices are open at all hours of most days of the week. This system offers admirable means to workers to establish permanent savings accounts, not merely Christmas funds. A limit of $2,000 may be too low, although not in ordinary times. Trade unions might well take it upon themselves to encourage the use of the Postal Savings System or to work out with local banks methods of facilitating the deposit at reasonable rates of interest on savings from wages.
    Increasing importance of I. L. O. in setting labor standards.
    American workers, much as they are concerned with the social security program expansion, are concerned, too, with post-war world cooperation and the part labor will play in it. The International Labor Organization which was born after the First World War, in the aspirations and the experience of the organized workers of all nations, is today of increasing importance as an effective international body in the field of labor and social advance. Bona fide representatives of labor, management, and government of each country are regularly seated in the policy-making conference and in the Governing Body.
    It is now recognized that the I. L. O. will play an important role in establishing and administering labor standards in the post-war world. Moreover, with worker representatives from the various United Nations as members and with long experience in world problems in this field it is admirably adapted to being a practical medium of expression for world labor in the deliberations of the peace conference.
    No one can disagree with the aspiration for a better standard of living for the millions of the depressed population of the world and for the maintenance of reasonable and expanding standards of living for those who have already had subsistence. Good labor and social standards in a nation result not only from planning but from productive capacity and productive investment. It is therefore of increasing importance in the consideration of those who look to the welfare of labor to be alert to planning of larger and better production. The standards of living cannot rise unless the goods are produced, the tools developed and the raw materials discovered and exploited out of which such standards can be supported. It is important for those planning the labor conditions in the post-war world to keep this idea clearly in mind, for good soil, good domestic animals, good agricultural processes, as well as raw materials and industrial capital, competent management and capable labor, are essential for the development of a comfortable world or a comfortable community'. Productive capacity, good tools, soil that can produce food, natural resources combined with accessible essential services such as education,
    ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR
    9
    both moral and vocational, and science to develop and train people to participate in a program of using their facilities are essential.
    The ordinary man in the United States expects to have opportunity to earn his living in useful pursuits. He wishes to make contribution to his society, as well as to live out of its activities. He wishes also to live in a world which makes some provision for the helpless and handicapped groups of his community, for the young, the old, the sick, those without adequate bargaining power and education, and those whose resources make it impossible for them to develop their capacities. It is desirable that in considering the terms of peace the United Nations should establish systematically a program of good labor standards. Wise social legislation, combined with the collective bargaining by free trade unions with free employers, can develop a practical but varied series of standards which will add to the comfort and opportunity for cultural and spiritual development of those who work together under a covenant of peace.
    Programs to aid nation after war ends.
    Within the post-war programs in the United States already set up (tentatively), either in the Department of Labor or other agencies of Government, there are a number of actions which can be taken as soon as peace comes, which will facilitate the orderly return of the industrial population to normal peacetime ways. Many of these functions are in the field of financing and business development. A number of them, however, have at least some machinery in the Department of Labor or the agencies closely allied to it. Among the actions which should be taken promptly when peace comes are the following:
    Revocation of all permits which have been issued for the employment of minors for more than 8 hours a day, or the employment of minors in ordinarily prohibited occupations.
    Revocation of all permits for the work of women beyond 8 hours and for the work of women on the graveyard shifts.
    Promote the reduction of hours of labor under the Fair Labor Standards Act to 40 hours a week to spread the work.
    Revocation of Executive Order 9240, and abolish Sunday work, holiday work, and overtime work so far as possible.
    Unfreeze labor under the War Manpower Commission’s right to issue directives and reestablish the freedom and mobility of American labor.
    Make the U. S. Employment Service a strong and effective instrument for moving workers out of war industries and into civilian industries.
    Set up a fund which might be loaned through the U. S. Employment Service to help workers who have no funds with which to get back home, or to reach a place where there might be opportunity for employment in civilian occupations.
    Encourage the immediate retirement of those over 65 on their old-age benefits.
    Encourage the return to education of any person under 20, to school or college or vocational training institutes.
    Advise and assist women who are merely pin-money workers who came into the labor market only because of the war need to leave the
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    labor market and make opportunity for girls who must work regularly.
    Provide for proper Government assistance for loans to businesses which can reconvert quickly for the manufacture or distribution of civilian goods for which there is a market and which will provide large employment.
    Encourage and revive the luxury, transportation, and amusement industries and trades which are healthy and good for the public judged by normal standards.
    Develop Government aid for settling certain qualified groups on the land with a scientific program of assistance in crop planning and marketing and supervision.
    Open up the planned public works in those localities where there appears to be a considerable pool of permanently resident people for whom no immediate private employment is available.
    Renew all the techniques of stabilized employment which were partly developed during the last depression, such as orders in advance ; extension of rural electrification, manufacturing, Government and other capital industry orders on a regular basis, etc.
    Release the housing programs now found to be necessary and give appropriate Government assistance to private construction, as well as to public programs for housing improvements.
    Encourage normal purchasing by the public through use of war savings on a regular and systematic basis rather than speedy, reckless spending.
    Encourage purchasing of permanent consumers’ goods, like refrigerators, vacuum cleaners, furniture, kitchen utensils, automobiles, necessary textiles, etc.
    Encourage cultural and recreational activities as a means of employment as well as a method of achieving a sound society and balanced economy.
    These are merely suggestions for what could be done immediately. The long pull requires vision, persistence, and fidelity to the ideas of unity and human values.
    CONCILIATION SERVICE.
    The Conciliation Service continued its efforts during the year to bring harmonious labor-management relations to our wartime economy. This was a larger task than in previous years because of a new realization throughout the Nation of the value of labor-management harmony in meeting production schedules.
    The case load of the Service increased over 100%, rising gradually quarter by quarter, and reached an all-time maximum of over 5,000 assignments in the last quarter. Twelve thousand three hundred and fifteen disputes were settled, involving more than 6,000,000 workers. In other words, the Service settled 33 disputes a day during the last fiscal year. More commissioners of conciliation were employed than at any previous time, and offices were established for 12 regional representatives of the Service to effect cooperation with the National War Labor Board. Other channels of information and liaison were maintained with the principal war agencies. Additional work was undertaken both by the technical and arbitration units. The arbitration unit handed down more awards than at any other time; in fact, the increase over the previous year was over 100 percent. The technical
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    unit extended its service into a total of 35 industries, answering increased demands for information on job evaluation, classification, and wage incentive methods.
    Following general patterns of current governmental procedure, the decentralization of the Service was initiated and plans laid for a continued development. Decentralization was first established in the Chicago area, where tests were made to prove an effective coordination with a comparable area of the National War Labor Board, as well as to offer a more immediate attention to local needs. Current evidence indicates the success of these measures.
    During the fiscal year the Service answered requests of employers, employees, and other interested parties and disposed of 17 559 situations involving 10,974,611 workers. Of these situations 1,701 were strikes and lock-outs involving 799,465 workers; 9,457 were threatened strikes and controversies involving 4,905 237 workers. During this time 2,539 disputes were certified to tlie National War Labor Board; jurisdiction was assumed by other agencies in 647 others. The remaining 3,215 situations included investigations, technical services, arbitrations, requests for information, consultations, etc.
    The facilities of the Service were used in 29 major industrial fields, such as building trades, manufacture of food, iron and steel, textiles, transportation equipment, etc., and were utilized by employees and employers in 48 States, the District of Columbia, Alaska, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, and the Virgin Islands.
    APPENDIX A.—SITUATIONS DISPOSED OF BY U. S. CONCILIATION
    SERVICE
    [Classified as to type of situation, July 1, 1942, to June 30, 1943]
    	Number	Workers Involved
    Labor disputes
    Strikes	- 	 	 - -			1. 671	791, 017
    Threatened strikes	 	 ._	 		 -		__	1, 839	1,166,988
    Lock-outs _ _ _ _ _ 		-				 		 		-	_ --	30	8, 448
    Controversies 	 -		 -	- 				7, 618	3. 738, 249
    Subtotal	_ _ 	 --	--				11,158	5, 704, 702
    Other situations
    Investigations		 	 	 -	-		694	103. 564
    Technical services		 -					148	104,366
    Arbitrations	_	..			1.069	240,116
    Requests to conduct consent elections. 	 	 	 _	33	2,586
    Requests for verification of union membership			 _			11	1, 460
    Requests for information	 _ _		 _ _ 	 		118	515
    Consultations	..		 _		 _	_.	...	787	2, 612
    Special services of commissioners. _ . 				...	248	66, 273
    Complaints	._	 . 	 .		_ _	.....	167	321
    Subtotal 		.	_		 .			3, 215	521, 813

    Disputes referred to other agencies during negotiations
    To National War Labor Board. 	 	 . __ . ... ... _ 	 ..	2,539	4, 343,824
    To National Labor Relations Board 	 	 		401	208, 812
    To other Federal agencies	.	..	_ _	. 			88	94, 329
    To Wage Adjustment Board	 _ 		 	 ... .. ...	52	63' 270
    To nongovernmental agencies	 _ . .	_ .	.... _ 		65	30, 049
    To State agencies..	.	-----		 . - 			41	7^812
    Subtotal.-. _	_		 .. -------------	 __ _.	3,186	4, 748,096
    Total 		17, 559	10,974, 611

    N. B.—Referrals: During the fiscal year 1,532 cases involving 800,197 workers were adjusted, subject to approval of the wage provisions by the National War Labor Board: to hearings officer or arbitration procedure, with the hearings officer or arbiter to be selected also by the National War Labor Board.
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    ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR
    APPENDIX B.—SITUATIONS DISPOSED OF BY U. S. CONCILIATION SERVICE
    [Classified as to type of disposition, July 1,1942, to June 30,1943]
    Disposition
    Number
    Workers involved
    Signed agreements_____________,___________
    Renewal of signed agreements______________
    Verbal agreements.—_______________________
    Written statements terminating situations_
    Disputes called oil; no further action required Unable to adjust__________________________
    Investigations completed__________________
    Referred to National War Labor Board______
    Referred to National Labor Relations Board-Referred to other Federal agencies________
    Referred to Wage Adjustment Board_________
    Referred to nongovernmental agencies______
    Referred to State agencies________________
    Decisions rendered in arbitration_________
    Consent elections held____________________
    Union membership verified_________________
    Information furnished_____________________
    Technical services completed______________
    Total_______________________________
    931	444,932
    2,167	824, 636
    4, 164	2, 289, 931
    2, 982	1, 830, 572
    679	274,047
    235	40, 584
    694	103, 564
    2, 539	4, 343,824
    401	208, 812
    88	94, 329
    52	63, 270
    65	30,049
    41	7.812
    1,009	240,116
    33	2,586
    11	1,460
    1,320	69, 721
    148	104,366
    17, 559	10, 974,611
    APPENDIX C.—SITUATIONS DISPOSED OF BY U. S. CONCILIATION SERVICE
    [Classified by States, July 1, 1942, to June 30, 1943]
    State	Number	Workers involved	N umber	Workers involved	Number	Workers involved
    Alabama ...				211	102, 457	39	3, 812	250	106 2691
    Alaska				 			4, 511	2	404	9	4 91#
    Arizona.. 			76	39, 936	15	1, 462	91	41, 398
    Arkansas		74	22^ 328	19	660	93	22, 988
    California.. _ _ .. ..	.. ...	1, 195	722, 959	192	47, 369	1, 387	770 328
    Colorado	...-		' 120	75', 913	12-	2, 534	132	78, 447
    Connecticut		156	192, 307	44	3,046	200	195, 353
    Delaware	 	 ___ _	25	37, 090	3	49	28	37,139
    District of Columbia		84	57,208	50	6,469	134	63, 677
    Florida... 	 __	190	82,168	58	8, 150	248	90 318
    Georgia		no	34, 587	43	13, 549	153	48,136
    Hawaii		 . _	... _ __	1	117			I	117
    Idaho		45	17. 214	5	744	50	17,958
    Illinois ..	1, 226	628, 589	221	44, 358	1, 447	672, 947
    Indiana		' 503	250, 299	123	30, 344	626	280, 643
    Iowa		204	94, 166	37	1,989	241	96,155
    Kansas		114	29, 001	12	736	126	29, 737
    Kentucky. _ 		 .	160	62, 982	30	3, 713	190	66, 695
    Louisiana. ...	191	89, 755	55	2, 046	246	91, 801
    Maine		36	98, 350	30	3,979	66	102, 329
    Maryland ... _ ... ...	147	374, 202	33	4, 295	180	378,497
    Massachusetts		379	213, 333	263	34, 789	642	248,122
    Michigan. . ..	1,129	1, Oil, 187	287	27, 701	1, 416	1,038, 888
    Minnesota	 ...	' 237	81, 357	27	2,121	264	83, 478
    Mississippi	 _______	76	60, 648	20	3, 595	96	64', 243
    Missouri... .......	481	197^ 249	90	10,118	571	207', 367
    Montana	 .	82	22', 451	4	544	86	22, 995
    Nebraska... ...... ... __	80	18, 551	9	1, 416	89	19, 967
    Nevada. _	. .	18	10, 810	1	45	19	10, 855
    New Hampshire	41	11, 201	31	1. 328	72	12, 529
    New Jersey		568	392', 767	91	37,040	659	429,807
    New Mexico.		 _	47	16, 503	5	855	52	17', 358
    New York		1,305	2,056,101	235	56,879	1. 540	2,112, 980
    North Carolina		146	87, 805	34	6' 142	180	93,947
    North Dakota..	... _ .	10	570	3	226	13	796
    Ohio _ 			 . _.	1,361	816, 733	280	30,126	1, 641	846,859
    Oklahoma.. _. ...	95	22, 793	51	4,192	' 146	26,985
    Oregon _ _ _	272	203' 411	38	1,519	310	204, 930
    Pennsylvania			1, 183	1,099, 727	227	50, 239	1, 410	1,149j 966
    Puerto Rico 	 _ ._	' 120	' 294^ 866	73	800	193	295, 666
    Rhode Island 	 _	... ..	74	60^ 013	36	6, 449	110	66, 462
    South Carolina .. 				50	23,912	40	10,195	90	34, 107
    South Dakota		14	4, 279	1	7	15	4,286
    ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR
    13
    APPENDIX C.—SITUATIONS DISPOSED OF BY U. S. CONCILIATION
    SERVICE—Continued
    State	N umber	Workers involved	Number	Workers involved	Number	Workers involved
    Tennessee 		281	97, 465	49	11,327	330	108, 792
    Texas			253	144,345	60	7, 704	313	152,049
    Utah			47	15,682	11	1,254	58	16,936
    Vermont - 		10	3, 650	3	98	13	3,748
    Virgin Tsl an (Is			1	53			1	53
    Virginia		 		160	74,141	45	2,655	205	76, 796
    Washington			312	194, 705	62	15, 575	374	210,280
    West Virginia			172	62,075	37	5,130	209	67, 205
    Wisconsin _ 			440	135, 740	76	11, 902	516	147, 642
    Wyoming		25	2,536	3	134	28	2,670
    Total					14, 344	10, 452, 798	3, 215	521,813	17, 559	10, 974, 611
    APPENDIX D— SITUATIONS DISPOSED OF BY U. S. CONCILIATION SERVICE
    [Classified by industries, July 1, 1942, to June 30, 1943]
    Industry	Disputes		Other situations		Total
    	Number	Workers involved	Number	Workers involved	Number	Workers involved
    Agriculture		 -			43	139,742	6	30	49	139,772
    Automobile	_ _	___			1	200	1	'200
    Building trades	 __			643	453,014	206	31,689	849	484,703
    Chemicals		 —	527	197,284	105	28,457	632	225,741
    Communications		115	242,201	30	2,435	145	244,636
    Domestic and personal		426	. 102,174	76	8,064	502	110,238
    Electrical equipment		404	781,006	68	18, 742	472	799, 748
    Food	--	—	1,328	562,699	255	49,129	1,583	611,828
    Furniture and finished lumber		550	135,968	66	7,018	616	142. 986
    Iron and steel-_	- 	 -	2, 291	1,630, 714	385	50,801	2,676	1,681,515
    Leather _ -	-		272	101,937	177	18, 592	449	120; 529
    Lumber	-			425	330,123	77	5,097	502	335,220
    Machinery		 - -		709	437,356	136	27,415	845	464, 771
    Maritime _ _	-- 	 -	—	94	37,453	7	146	101	37i 599
    Mining	__ __		189	643,359	19	1,930	208	645,289
    Motion pictures 	 - -	- -	27	4,358	9	191	36	4, 549
    Nonferrous 	 -			589	351,960	99	15,235	688	367,195
    Paper		 - 			189	51,819	37	2,686	226	54,505
    Petroleum __	-	 		 -	210	71,169	85	16,434	295	87,603
    Printing	-	-			295	62,317	49	3,441	344	65,758
    Professional 	 	 		36	14,164	6	79	42	14,243
    Rubber		 - - 		166	152,797	42	11,379	208	164,176
    Stone, clay, and glass		580	184,333	115	16,108	695	200; 441
    Textile	-	_	- -	733	559,826	303	40.650	1,036	600,476
    Tobacco	_ _ _	_	63	54,001	11	6,049	74	60,050
    Trade	- - - - - - 		838	171,909	193	20,348	1.031	192,257
    Transportation		 - - - - -	756	401,246	145	13, 558	901	414.804
    Transportation equipment		939	2,280,687	194	96,835	1,133	2,377, 522
    Utilities		 - 	--		197	87,262	■ 62	2,355	259	89,617
    Miscellaneous		710	209,920	251	26, 720	961	236,640
    Total		14,344	10,452, 798	3, 215	521,813	17,559	10,974,611
    DIVISION OF LABOR STANDARDS.
    The manpower shortage and the need for war materials have emphasized the waste of skills and productive time caused by industrial accidents. As the defense program got under way in 1910 the Department recognized the increasing accident rate that would come with increasing production, and the necessity for organizing efforts to combat it. The National Committee for the Conservation of Man.-power in Defense Industries (later changed to War Industries) was: 557885—43-------3
    14	annual report secretary of labor
    set up, and the services of experienced safety men employed by private industry were solicited. At present over 600 safety engineers contribute about 20 percent of their time on a $l-a-year basis in assisting the Division in promotion of safety and prevention of industrial accidents.
    ■ During 1943, 8,400 plants received advisory safety service from these voluntary agents assisted by 22 full-time field representatives of the Division. Approximately 4,400 of these plants kept accident frequency rates, which measure the effectiveness of a safety program. These records show that 74 percent experienced a decrease in accident frequency rates after safety service was given.
    As war production was stepped up the supply of safety engineers was rapidly exhausted, and war contractors requested short training courses for key supervisors. Out of this has grown War Safety Training—a cooperative program financed by the Office of Education through Engineering, Science, Management War Training, with text material selected and prepared by the safety experts of the Division of Labor Standards and taught by safety engineers from private industry. usually Special Agents of the National Committee.
    Courses had been held in 116 engineering colleges throughout the country by July 1,1943, and some 39,000 key supervisors trained. The courses have been used extensively for safety training in the Army Air Forces, Army Arsenals, Navy Yards, and shore establishments.
    The Division has continued its cooperative safety programs with State labor departments through assistance in drafting safety bills and codes and training factory inspectors. The States which received assistance in code drafting during 1943 were: New Jersey, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, Kentucky, Illinois, District of Columbia, South Carolina, Puerto Rico, and North Dakota. Lack of staff made it impossible to meet similar requests from 4 additional States.
    For a number of years the Division has conducted training courses for safety inspectors, and up to July 1, 21 such courses had been held for inspectors from 23 States. During the last year courses were held in which 2 States participated; it was necessary to refuse the requests of 3 States for this service.
    The Division helps to coordinate the activities of State and Federal workmen’s compensation administration through services rendered the International Association of Industrial Accident Boards and Commissions. All American countries have been invited to membership in that organization, which has made it necessary to examine the laws and administrative experiences in South American countries. The State Department supplied funds which enabled the Division’s specialist in workmen’s compensation to visit several of these countries.
    The Division cooperates with the National Bureau of Standards and the American Standards Association in developing uniform standards on safety and health for the guidance of State and Federal agencies, management, and labor. Members of the Division’s staff on committees of the American Standards Association have helped to develop basic material, correlate policies, and have given final approval on some 40 codes covering such subjects as war safety clothing, occupational footwear, head and eye protection, limits for toxic substances, safety standards for woodworking and for bakery machinery.
    ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR
    15
    The Division also collaborated with the Illuminating Engineering Society in developing detailed lighting standards which have now been adopted as an “American Standard Recommended Practice” of the American Standards Association, and in 1943 reprinted this code so that it will be generally available to the thousands of plants now in need of this practical guidance.
    At the request of the War Production Board a series of pamphlets is being prepared on engineering control of health problems in the fabrication of articles from synthetic rubber. In 1943 a number of pamphlets were published which render direct service to labor and management by making more generally available, in popular form, basic information on safety and health standards. Two of these, “Safety Speeds Production, A Message to Supervisors” and “A Guide to the Prevention of Weight-Lifting Injuries,” have had a wide dis-' tribution. The Army Air Forces has incorporated the principles set forth in the latter bulletin in safety practices to be observed at each installation.
    Working conditions and war production.
    The chief objective of the Division is to assist in the establishment and maintenance of working conditions which promote the welfare of wage earners and contribute to maximum efficiency and production. Some types of requests for assistance on working conditions are repeated so frequently that the Division has found it advisable to answer them in part in the form of printed bulletins. Some of the bulletins prepared in 1943 for this purpose were: “Controlling Absenteeism”—prepared from information contributed by management in over 200 war plants; “Auditing Absenteeism”—prepared from record forms and procedures in use by representative war plants; “Settling Plant Grievances”—prepared in consultation with representatives of labor and management* and “Preparing a Steward’s Manual”—prepared in consultation with representatives of labor and management.
    The pamphlets on grievance procedure and steward’s manual make available generally information on programs successfully developed in plants at the request of unions and management.
    Federal policies on working conditions.
    Numerous Federal agencies are concerned with working conditions as they affect war production. The Division has brought together representatives of the agencies concerned to formulate and issue joint policy statements on specific questions, such as hours of work for maximum production, relaxation of State labor laws, and minimum wartime working standards. In this way a common approach to questions on labor standards has been developed which has served to prevent conflicting advice being given to war contractors, trade unions, and State agencies. The statements are revised and kept current as production conditions and the labor market change.
    Legislative services.
    Analysis of State and Federal labor laws and their administration is one of the basic activities of the Division. The information compiled is used constantly by Federal and State agencies, employer
    16	annual report secretary of labor
    associations, and trade unions. It is the only agency in the Government which has such information readily available.
    This year was a heavy legislative year, with 44 State legislatures in regular session. Biweekly mimeographed reports on pending State and Federal legislation were distributed on request to about 850 labor unions, employer groups, and State labor departments. This involved analysis of some 2,000 labor bills.
    The Division was asked by 19 States to furnish technical drafting assistance on labor bills. The subjects covered hours of work, boiler inspection, wages and hours, wage collection, mediation, regulation of private employment agencies, industrial home work, safety and health, and power to grant variations from labor laws for war needs. In drafting such bills the Division advised States on war labor policies through active and continuous contact with the War and Navy Departments, the Maritime Commission, the War Production Board, and the War Manpower Commission. The Division also furnished basic information to 14 States on the subject of occupational disease legislation. At the request of the War Manpower Commission the Division has brought to the attention of States the importance of creating second-injury funds under their workmen’s compensation acts to facilitate the employment of handicapped workers. Such legislation was adopted in 1943 by 6 States; 14 States already had laws of this sort.
    National conference on labor legislation.
    Beginning in 1934 the Secretary of Labor has convened annually a national conference on labor legislation attended by representatives named by the Governors of the States. These conferences guide the Department in its work with State labor departments. The 1942-43 conference considered labor standards and labor legislation as they relate to war problems. The Division is responsible for planning and conducting the conference.
    Federal-State coordination.
    The United States Department of Labor and the State labor departments have joint jurisdiction over the administration of labor laws affecting working conditions. The peacetime need to avoid duplication of inspection becomes increasingly important during wartime, both because of the shortage of qualified personnel for inspectors and because it is desirable to have as few persons as possible going into war plants.
    Considerable progress has been made in 1943 in coordinating Federal and State safety activities under agreements between State labor departments, the Wage and Hour and Public Contracts Divisions, and the National Committee for the Conservation of Manpower in War Industries. The agreements provide for State safety inspectors to inspect simultaneously for compliance with State safety regulations and with the safety provisions of the Walsh-Healey Act. The States report on each inspection of firms subject to the Walsh-Healey Act to the Wage and Hour and Public Contracts Divisions and recommend Federal action necessary to bring about improvement of safety conditions. These agreements also provide for the coordination of the work of the State labor departments and the National
    ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR	17
    Committee for the Conservation of Manpower in War Industries in the promotion of safety programs in the plant.
    The Division has arranged for such agreements in 20 States and the District of Columbia; in addition, arrangements have been worked out between State and Federal agencies for coordinating inspection activities on wage and hour, child labor, and industrial home work in a number of States.
    Adaptation of State hours laws to war needs.
    The Division has continued to work with State labor departments and war agencies on adaptation of State hours laws to war needs. Twenty-nine States and the District of Columbia now report action taken on applications for relaxations of labor laws for war production. The Division analyzes and tabulates these reports to supply information to the States and to Federal war agencies on the extent to which State labor laws are being modified to meet war needs and the nature of the modifications.
    BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.
    The distinctive activities of the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the past fiscal year were mainly the result of further modifications and adaptations of its work to meet the emergency needs of other agencies such as the National War Labor Board, the Office of Price Administration, and the War Production Board. Almost without exception, the tasks performed by the Bureau were designed to be of immediate administrative use; because of the confidential nature of the material, a decreasing proportion was available for publication and general distribution. The Bureau also found it possible during the year to increase the effectiveness of its work by increased use of regional offices.
    It is generally recognized that during the war period major nonmilitary problems include (1) industrial production and the most efficient utilization of manpower, (2) prices and price regulation, (3) the stabilization of wages on an equitable basis, and (4) the improvement of industrial relations to insure continuity of employment. The work of the Bureau was increasingly focused on supplying to Congress and to administrative agencies the basic information required for formulating and carrying out the national policies in these closely interrelated fields.
    Bearing particularly on the problems of labor demand, labor supply, and labor utilization was the work in the fields of employment statistics, labor turn-over, hours of work, accidents, absenteeism, labor productivity, incentive wage systems, industrial relations, and housing construction. Similarly the extension of the areas of price control and control of the flow of production through rationing gave increasing importance in public policy to the statistics of wholesale prices, retail prices (including rents and various services), and cost of living.
    It has been necessary, of course, to make many adaptations in methods of operation to serve the immediate emergency needs for facts bearing on the making and administering of policies. These changes, however, did not require such departures from the Bureau’s regularly assigned work as to impair the continuity of most of its work. It was recognized that the basic statistical series, notably those
    18
    ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR
    on employment, pay rolls, labor turn-over, accidents, hours, earnings, union rates of wages, entrance rates of wages of common^ labor, construction, wholesale prices, retail prices, and cost of living, have become integral parts of the factual materials used both publicly and privately in economic analysis, business planning, and the procedures of industrial relations.
    Also, during the year, considerable attention was given to the preparatory work of handling post-war labor problems, both those that are purely national and those that are involved in our relations with other countries. The Division of Post-War Labor Problems, in cooperation with agencies in related fields, was engaged in laying the groundwork of research and analysis essential to the effective handling of post-war problems in the field of labor. In addition steps were taken to collect and analyze labor data relating to foreign countries, especially Axis countries and Axis-occupied countries. It is expected that information in these fields can be made to contribute significantly to the handling of the unavoidable complications of post-war international relations as affecting labor. Such information will be needed not only after the war but was initially assembled for use during the war as the United States assumes joint responsibility for the temporary administration of territories recovered from Axis rule.
    Prices and cost of living.
    Full and accurate information on prices and the cost of living was a greater and more urgent requirement during the fiscal year 1943 than ever before in the Nation’s history. The extensive Bureau files of retail and wholesale prices of specific commodities provided the immediate basis for numerous administrative actions by war agencies, and the regular current collections of price data were supplemented by many special studies of wide variety conducted for the Office of Price Administration, the Office of Economic Stabilization, War, Navy, and other Government Departments.
    The rapid wartime changes in industrial and consumer markets required special emphasis on the continuous review and revision of the indexes of wholesale and retail prices and the cost of living—the official barometers of wartime price changes used by the President, the Congress, the directors of war agencies, the press and the public. Revisions were made during the fiscal year to reflect the influence of rationing, shortages, population shifts and other wartime changes. These indexes show that prices of farm products and foods rose substantially during the fiscal year while prices of most other commodities in primary and retail markets were fairly stable under Office of Price Administration ceilings. Prices of all commodities in primary markets rose 5.3 percent from June 1942 to June 1943, as compared with a 13.2 percent increase from June 1941 to June 1942. However, average increases during the 1942-43 fiscal year amounted to 10.4 percent for foods in primary markets and 20.9 percent for farm products. The cost of living as a whole rose 7.2 percent from June 1942 to June 1943; retail food prices rose 15.2 percent during the same period. In the preceding fiscal year—i. e. from June 1941 to June 1942—the cost of living as a whole rose 11.3 percent.
    In the files are approximately 11,250 price series for commodities in primary markets, some dating back to the 1880’s. At the con
    ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR
    19
    sumers’ level more than 136,000 retail price quotations, covering over 400 goods and services, and rent reports for 71,000 American homes are obtained quarterly for use in the cost-of-living index. This information has been supplemented by a series of special studies made at the request of the war agencies. Special studies conducted for the OPA included, among others, those on retail prices and price margins for foods for use in the community “flat” pricing program and for other purposes; retail prices of textile products, rubber, drug sundries, and paper products; retail prices and price margins for housefurnishings and housewares; changes in rents in war production centers and other areas. Nearly all these studies were used directly by the OPA for setting dollars and cents maximum prices or ceilings based on “flat margins” to replace the initial “firm-to-firm” price freeze established under the General Maximum Price Regulation.
    Trained personnel have been employed to set up central price files, price series and indexes and to aid in contract and procurement analyses for the purchasing divisions of the Army and Navy. Living costs have been surveyed in specific industrial areas at the request of the War Labor Board for use in stabilizing wage structures. A cost-of-living study was conducted in Puerto Rico and plans prepared for similar studies in Hawaii and Alaska. Technical advice and assistance in establishing cost-of-living indexes for several of the States were also provided. Files of foreign cost-of-living indexes are maintained continuously for the use of agencies desiring information on price movements in other countries.
    During the fiscal year the first part of an extensive history of wartime prices in the United States was completed and is now in press. Analyses of prices and price movements and market situations were prepared from time to time for the Office of Economic Stabilization and for other war agencies. Information was provided for the certification of prices for use in the requisitioning of essential materials by the Board (Office) of Economic Warfare. Other studies on prices, rents and housing requirements were conducted for the National Housing Agency, the Lend Lease Administration, the State Department and other Government agencies.
    In line with its long-established practice of obtaining the best technical advice, the Bureau requested that the American Statistical Association be asked to appoint a committee to review and appraise the Cost-of-Living Index and to make recommendations on ways in which the index could be improved to serve the many wartime demands now being made upon it.
    Industrial hazards.
    For many years the annual survey of industrial accidents has furnished a bench-mark for safety engineering. Thus, the finding that accident frequency in manufacturing was 10 percent greater in 1942 than in 1941 provides a vital measure of one of the unfortunate effects of the war effort ; and when shown in detail by industry, the data on accident frequency also reveal the fields where safety work can be most effective.
    The chief lack in the annual figures on accidents has been the delay in collection and publication. To overcome this difficulty, a monthly report on industrial accidents was inaugurated, beginning in January
    20
    ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR
    1943. By June 1943, this report,was based on returns from 12,000 establishments in 80 industries.
    A further extension of the usefulness of the accident figures occurred during the fiscal year when arrangements were made, with the consent of the reporting’companies, to make available the accident reports of individual plants to the armed services and to the Committee on the Conservation of Manpower. These special monthly reports allow the appropriate safety engineers to concentrate their efforts on the plants which most need assistance in preventing industrial accidents.
    Allied to the problem of preventing accidents, is the problem of the schedule of working hours which will promote the'maximum long-run effectiveness of effort. The Bureau has been seeking answers to this problem by detailed surveys of selected plants which have had some measurable experience under sharply different schedules of working time. The effects of changes in working hours are being measured in terms of such factors as production, absenteeism, turnover, spoilage, and accident rates.
    Industrial relations.
    The strike statistics, a series running back to 1881, are now accepted as the only comprehensive and reliable indicator of the extent to which industrial relations reach the boiling point. The reliance on the overall strike reports was increased further in January 1942 when an interdepartmental committee decided to abandon its special series of figures on “War Strikes” and to rely on the Bureau’s regular figures for the purpose of measuring the extent of the interference of strikes with the war effort. During the period January to June 1943, it was found that the number of man-days of idleness during strikes was equal to 0.16 of one percent of the man-claj^s of work available. Excluding the major coal strikes, the ratio was 0.04 of one percent.
    The positive aspect of employer-employee relations finds expression in the many ways of seeking mutually satisfactory terms of agreement. To assist in this positive process, the Bureau maintains the only comprehensive file of current union agreements, 15,000 in number. Every day reference to these agreements provides suggestions to private parties or to the War Labor Board as to the ways of arranging terms of employment which will promote harmony and maximum production. To make these materials more wideley available, the Bureau published during the fiscal year a bulletin entitled Union Agreement Provisions. This is a factual handbook giving examples of the clauses that are actually used to meet various specified problems of collective bargaining.
    Labor supply and employment statistics.
    The Bureau, in cooperation with the War Manpower Commission, has prepared the official estimates of overall manpower requirements among war production industries and essential civilian establishments, as well as estimates of the potential labor supply available to meet the needs of these industries. Forecasts of labor requirements for two years in advance are maintained. Also, the current monthly releases on employment which formerly came out at the end of the following month have been speeded up and are now released around the tenth of the following month.
    annual report secretary of labor
    21
    Many special employment studies were made during the year for various planning agencies, giving information on employment by specific industries, by occupation, and by regions. During the past year, the Bureau, in cooperation with the Materiel Command, Army Air Forces, was engaged in analyzing labor and plant utilization in the aircraft industry. Indications of the departure of individual aircraft plants from the “norm” were made available to the Army Air Forces for corrective measures.
    Statistics on public employment indicate that during the fiscal year there was an increase of 28 percent in civilian employment of the Federal Government.
    Wages and hours of labor.
    The collection of information on wages and hours of labor continued to be one of the Bureau’s major activities, the demand for and use of such information being, of course, greatly expanded by war conditions. The data collected, as in previous years, fall into three main categories.
    The first consists of monthly compilations showing industry averages for all major manufacturing industries and a large number of nonmanufacturing industries, including coal and metal mining, public utilities, building construction, and wholesale and retail trade. These industry averages are useful in showing both the comparative wage and hour structure of different industrial groups of workers and the general movements of wages and hours by such groups from month to month. Thus, based on reports from some 35,000 cooperating establishments, it appears that total time worked in manufacturing was almost 100 million man-hours greater per week in June 1943 than in the corresponding month of 1942. During this period, factory employment rose 1.500,000 to a total of 13,827,000.
    As regards average earnings for all manufacturing establishments, an increase of $7.00 per week over the year reflects the lengthening of the workweek by 2.2 hours to a level of 45.1 and an increase of 11 ■cents in average hourly earnings. Average weekly earnings in June 1943 were $43.25 and average hourly earnings were 95.9 cents.
    These figures of total hourly earnings may be compared with estimated straight-time average hourly earnings of 89.3 cents in June 1943. So-called straight-time earnings excluded payment for overtime, shift differentials, and production bonuses.
    General average earnings by industry, although serving many useful purposes as noted above, are not sufficiently detailed for problems and controversies when the issues concern occupational and other factors necessitating a more intimate knowledge of the wage structure of an industry. To meet this need detailed surveys are made of individual industries as conditions require.
    During the war period these surveys have provided the chief body of wage information required for the program of wage stabilization. For this purpose Bureau resources were augmented by funds allotted by the National War Labor Board and by personnel lent by the Department’s Wage and Hour and Public Contracts Division.
    To meet the new demands emphasis was shifted from special wage studies for individual cases to a broad survey of occupational wage rates. Under the latter project, basic rates or straight-time
    22	ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR
    earnings were sought for a limited list of carefully selected and defined “key” occupations in 175 industries, nonmanufacturing as well as manufacturing, in each community of over 25,000 population and in a sample of the smaller communities. During the 4 months, March to June 1943, this information was obtained for 34,000 establishments in 43 communities. On completion of the first convass, by October 15, 1943, a total of 65,000 establishments in 450 communities had been visited. This survey has provided the largest body of information on occupational wages ever assembled by any country.
    While chief emphasis has thus been given to the over-all project for collection of occupational wage rates, other types of field surveys of wages have not been neglected. (1) Detailed industry surveys of wages on a Nation-wide basis were made during the fiscal year in the case of aircraft engines, parts, and propellers; book and job printing; fertilizers; machinery (32 separate divisions) ; rubber goods (tires and mechanical); shipbuilding;-and western pine lumber. The annual survey of common labor, by industry, was expanded and improved. (2) Special xvage studies were made in over 1,000 cases during the fiscal year, to assist in the settlement of wage disputes, to meet the peculiar requirements of the regional and central offices of the National War Labor Board and of other war agencies and in response to joint requests of employers and unions. (3) Union wage surveys were conducted as in the past, to obtain the terms of collective agreements as to wage scales, hours, and working conditions in the building, printing, bakery, motor truck and street railway industries. The results of all of these surveys have been put to immediate use by the National War Labor Board and by a number of other agencies.
    Productivity.
    Studies of wartime productivity indicate that output per man-hour advanced after 1939 in aircraft, shipbuilding, and munitions industries. In nonmunitions manufacturing there was an initial rise followed by a slight decline between 1941 and 1942. In such service industries as railroad transportation and electric power generation, productivity advanced after 1939 as capacity was utilized more fully. Since the war, productivity has declined somewhat in telephone and telegraph communications. The war and our closer contact with many foreign countries has brought about a greater interest in the productivity of American labor and the Bureau’s research in this field has continued, as it is realized by everyone that a shortage in manpower requires the utilization of available labor at its maximum efficiency.
    The “Monthly Summary of Technological Developments Affecting the War Program” has been distributed in the past year to an increasing number of Labor Management Committees and plants engaged in war production. Requests have also been received from officials concerned with production in Canada. Great Britain, Australia, British India, and British South Africa.
    Absenteeism.
    In March 1943 the Department survey of absenteeism was begun in 25 manufacturing industries and in metal mining and anthracite
    annual report secretary of labor
    23
    and bituminous coal mining. The survey now covers approximately five thousand establishments employing about 4^ million wage earners. This survey will be continued at least for the duration.
    Labor turn-over.
    Expanding employment and the extremely tight labor market resulted in an increase in the total separation rate in manufacturing from 6.46 per 100 employees in June 1942 to 7.04 in June 1943. As is to be expected when the supply of workers is nearly exhausted, the quit rate increased from 3.85 to 5.17 per 100 employees, while the lay-off rate declined from 1.21 to 0.50. Whereas in June 1942 lay-offs represented 18 percent of total separations, in June 1943 they declined to only 7 percent of the total. Quits on the other hand represented 60 percent of total separations in June 1942 and increased to 74 percent of the total in June 1943. Recurring absenteeism, inexperienced labor, and the increased use of women with many household duties were primarily responsible for the doubling of the discharge rate over the period. Turn-over rates for June 1943 were based on reports from 7,300 manufacturing establishments.
    Post-war.
    The research in po§t-war labor problems continued along the lines indicated in last year’s report and is divided into three main fields: area studies, industry studies, and demobilization studies. Studies of industrial areas most severely affected by the war were released and others are in preparation. Bureau representatives have been interviewing leaders of industry, trade-unions, and independent research organizations in an effort to build up a realistic picture of possible post-war employment, industry by industry. The demobilization and reconversion problems of the Nation as a whole are being studied statistically and analytically. In its studies of post-war labor problems the Department is cooperating with other agencies and has also effected a close relationship with post-war committees of labor unions in an effort to prepare material which will be of maximum use. In connection with this work, analyses are being made of economic developments after World War I which throw light on problems that must be faced after the present war.
    CHILDREN’S BUREAU.
    The Children’s Bureau has three main functions : Investigating and reporting on the conditions surrounding children and child life; administering grants to the States for maternal and chi Id-welfare services cinder title V of the Social Security Act, including the new emergency maternity and infant-care program for the wives and infants of men in the armed services; and administering the child-labor provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.
    The work of the Children’s Bureau during the year has been directed almost entirely toward the development and application of policies that will conserve to the fullest possible extent, under wartime pressures and strains, health, home life, educational opportunity, and community safeguards for children. In striving for this objective it Works with other Federal agencies, State and local agencies, private organizations, and citizens’ groups. Its services are limited by reduced
    24
    ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR
    appropriations for advisory and administrative work. Even with the most careful planning and utmost effort the staff of the Children’s Bureau can meet only a small part of the needs and opportunities for service that challenge its attention.
    Outstanding progress was made during the year on (1) the provision of maternity and infant care for the wives and infants of men in the armed services; (2) development of State and local leadership for the organization of community programs for services for children of working mothers; (3) defining the coordinated programs needed for the prevention and control of juvenile delinquency in wartime; and (4) developing safeguards for young workers employed part time or full time in wartime agriculture and essential war industry..
    Following its adoption of the Children’s Charter in Wartime in March 1942 the Children’s Bureau Commission on Children in Wartime in August 1942 adopted a 10-point program of State action based on the charter. Suggestions for State legislation needed for the protection of children during the war period were sent out in January. To make the program effective, the Commission proposed the organization of representative State and local committees on children, preferably associated with defense councils, to take the lead in studying children’s wartime needs and developing programs to meet these needs. The Office of Civilian Defense and the Office of Community War Services cooperated with the Children’s Bureau in encouraging the appointment of these committees. Such committees were organized in 26 States and the District of Columbia. In a number of other States defense-council committees were planning for coordinated programs of care of children of employed mothers, safeguards for employed youth, and other special programs affecting children.
    The Chief of the Children’s Bureau attended the meeting May 28-30 in Montevideo, Uruguay, of the Council of the American International Institute for the Protection of Childhood of which she is the official United States member. Under the program of inter-American cooperation developed by an interdepartmental committee under the auspices of the Department of State, the Children’s Bureau gave consultation service to the American International Institute for the Protection of Childhood, and on request of the Governments concerned, to official agencies in Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Peru. Spanish and Portuguese editions of Prenatal Care, Infant Care, and The Child From One to Six were distributed widely in the American Republics.
    Payments to States.
    In the administration of grants to the States under parts 1, 2, and 3 of title V of the Social Security Act, the Children’s Bureau cooperates with State agencies in the development of their maternal and childhealth and child-welfare programs. These grants are made to the 48 States, the District of Columbia, Alaska. Hawaii, and Puerto Rico. During the year the Bureau was given responsibility for administering grants to States for emergency maternity and infant care.
    Federal-aid payments were made to the States during the fiscal year as follows:
    annual report secretary of labor
    25
    Under the Social Security Act:	1 States
    Title V, part 1. Maternal and child-health services—to State
    health agencies_____________________________$ 5, 740,218
    Title V, part 2. Services for crippled children—to State crippled children’s agencies, usually health or welfare departments______________________________________________ 3,862,531
    Title V, part 3. Child-welfare services—to State welfare agencies 1,582,774 Emergency maternity and infant care for families of enlisted men in
    the armed forces—to State health agencies---------------- 1,200,000
    In addition the Bureau was responsible for the promotion and coordination of community services for children of working mothers. Payments to States from funds allocated to the Office of Defense Health and Welfare Services (now the Office of Community War Services) from the President’s Emergency Fund, under plans of State welfare agencies approved by the Children’s Bureau, amounted to $108,221.
    Fact-finding and advisory service on health needs of mothers and children.
    The increases in 1942 in the birth rate, which was 21 per 1,000 population, and in the number of babies born, which was 2,808,996, the highest figure so far attained in the United States, are war-connected phenomena that must be taken into account in planning programs. The maternal and infant mortality rates for the United States in 1942 were the lowest on record—26 deaths of mothers from puerperal causes per 10,000 live births and 40 deaths of infants under 1 year per 1,000 live births.
    A folder prepared on Standards for Maternity Care and Employment of Mothers in Industry, was welcomed by many employers. A study of maternity policies in operation in war-industry plants was the basis for a second folder, Maternity Policies in Industry.
    A new’ publication, The Selection and Training of Volunteers in Child Care, was prepared for use largely in volunteer programs of local defense councils.
    Among the other wartime health problems on which the Bureau prepared material or provided consultation service were: Health standards for young workers; standards for hospital care, under wartime conditions, of newborn infants and maternity patients; and food requirements for mothers and children in wartime.
    New editions of Infant Care and Prenatal Care, revised to take advantage of recent medical knowledge, were issued. A new publication, Food for Young Children in Group Care, was issued.
    Grants to States for maternal and child-health services.
    Because of the withdrawal of doctors and nurses from communities to go into the armed forces the main problem in the administration of maternal and child-health services has been to readjust maternal and child-health programs through replacement of personnel when possible, and through reorganization of programs to make it possible for limited personnel to serve larger numbers and to provide preventive health services for families that previously obtained them in the private physician’s office.
    In spite of war shortages and readjustments the report on maternal and child-health services rendered under State health department supervision for the calendar year 1942 as compared with 1941 showed
    26
    annual report secretary of labor
    at most points actual increases in the amount of service given. There was a slight decrease in the amount of medical supervision given expectant mothers in prenatal clinics and in examinations given school children by physicians, but there was some increase in medical supervision of infants and preschool children in child-health conferences and a marked increase in immunizations for smallpox and diphtheria. An increase in public-health-nursing service was reported at all points—maternity service and infant, preschool, and school health service—except that there was a decrease of almost one-fifth in the number of mothers given home-nursing service at the time of delivery. There was also increased emphasis on health-education programs with special attention to nutrition.
    Emergency maternity and infant care for families of men in the armed forces.
    During 1942 the health departments of 21 States, under plans approved by the Bureau, undertook to provide maternity care for the wives and pediatric care for the infants of men in the lowest four pay grades of the armed forces, using such funds as could be made available from Federal grants for maternal and child-health services (Social Security Act, title V, part 1). By March 1943 maternity care, including medical care and hospitalization, had been authorized in some 6,377 cases and medical care for children had been authorized in 320 cases. Evidence of urgent need for extension of the program was presented to the Bureau of the Budget and to Congress. An appropriation of $1,200,000 for this purpose was approved March 18, 1943, for the remainder of the fiscal year 1943, to be administered by the Children’s Bureau following procedures for grants to States for maternal and child-health services. By June 30, 1943, 39 State health agencies had Stat§ plans in operation and the initial appropriation was fully obligated. Reports from 32 States showed that 16,111 cases had been authorized for care by June 30, 1943. At that time the Departmental appropriation for the fiscal year 1944 was under consideration, and the bill as passed carried an appropriation of $4,400,000 for this purpose and extended the coverage to include care for the wives and infants of enlisted men of all seven pay grades.1
    Grants to States for services for crippled children.
    The effects of the war were keenly felt in the field of services for crippled children through the withdrawal of hundreds of surgeons, nurses, and physical therapists for service in the armed forces; shortages in hospital facilities and services; difficulty in arranging transportation to clinics, hospitals, and convalescent homes; and restrictions on the manufacture of metal appliances. One favorable circumstance was that in 1942 the number of cases of poliomyelities was smaller than in any year but one in the past decade.
    The number of children listed on State registers showed an increase of 18,724 from the previous year (347,001 as of December 31, 1942, compared with 328,277 as of December 31, 1941). The services
    1 Because of the rapidly increasing number of requests for care this sum was entirely allocated to States before the end of September 1943, and Congress appropriated for the fiscal year 1944 an additional sum of $18,620,000, including $20,000 for Children’s Bureau expenses in administering the program. The provision of care was limited to wives and infants of men in the lowest four pay grades of the armed forces.
    ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY 'OF LABOR
    27
    reported by the State crippled children’s agencies for the calendar year 1942 showed some decrease in the numbers of crippled children under care in clinics, hospitals, and convalescent, or foster homes and some decrease in public-health-nursing and physical-therapy service. The volume of medical-social service increased as compared with the previous year. There were 92,646 admissions to clinics for diagnosis and treatment and 26,474 children under care in hospitals during 1942.
    Care for children with rheumatic fever and resulting heart disease is going forward in 14 States. Opportunities for broad expansion ultimately to meet the needs of hundreds of thousands of children now exist. The need for the program is indicated by the fact that this condition affects more children than are affected by poliomyelitis.
    Grants to States for child-welfare services.
    Long-standing child-welfare problems intensified by war conditions call for the expansion of basic child-welfare services.
    The social-security program for child-welfare services during the year has provided State public welfare departments with approximately 300 children’s workers paid in whole or in part from Federal funds to give assistance to local workers. They included consultants on community organization, day-care services, group care, foster-home care, and juvenile delinquency. On June 30, 1943, 653 social workers and 121 clerical workers employed in State or local child-welfare programs were paid from Federal funds, 80 giving part time to childwelfare service. Of the 653 social workers, 272 were on State staffs, 75 in areas of special need, usually war-affected areas, and 306 in rural areas. Services were provided in 426 counties and other local areas in the 48 States and in Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico. These workers were giving individual social service to 40,918 children at the end of May 1943, 69 percent of them receiving service in their own homes or the homes of relatives. More than a thousand childwelfare workers paid entirely from State and local funds give similar services to children. There are still many communities, urban and rural, where there are no child-welfare workers employed under public or private auspices, and, even where such workers are employed, they are usually far too few in number to meet the needs.
    The Bureau regional child-welfare consultants have been called on by the State agencies to aid them in planning child-welfare services for congested war areas, to assist in developing State and local programs for services for children of working mothers’, to expand the service for licensing day nurseries and foster-family day-care services, and to develop protective services for boys and girls in danger of becoming delinquent or needing social service to overcome behavior problems.
    Services for children of working mothers.
    The Bureau continued to make available information and advisory service on community programs for the care of children of working mothers. The organization of day-care committees in 42 States and the District of Columbia and in hundreds of local communities was evidence of growing public concern over the inadequate care available for children of mothers employed in occupations essential to the war effort.
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    ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR
    On August 28, 1942, the President allocated $400,000 to the Office of Defense Health and Welfare Services (now the Office of Community War Services, Federal Security Agency) for grants to the States to aid in the development of programs for care of children of mothers working in occupations essential to the prosecution of the war. The Children’s Bureau was given responsibility for the administration of that part of the fund granted to State welfare agencies to enable them to promote and coordinate local community day-care programs.
    To carry out its responsibility under this program the Bureau established a Day Care Unit in its Child Welfare Division and its regional child-welfare consultants aided the State welfare agencies in working out State plans. These plans provided for State leadership and supervision in developing community plans for services for children of working mothers, including advisory and counseling service for mothers, day-care centers, foster-day-care services, homemaker service, and health services for children under care, and for coordination with nursery-school and extended-school-service programs developed under school auspices. By June 30,1943, the plans of 28 State public welfare agencies had been approved, Federal grants from the fund allocated from the President’s Emergency Fund had been made, and the programs were in operation. This program ended with the close of the fiscal year but many of the State public welfare agencies continued their activities as part of their program for child-welfare services.
    The Bureau regional child-welfare consultants reviewed and the Bureau certified need on all local projects for community services (not under school auspices) for children of working mothers submitted to the Federal Works Agency with requests for funds from the Work Projects Administration, during the first part of the year, and under the Lanham Act (Community Facilities Act) during the latter part of the year.
    Juvenile delinquency.
    Closely related to the problem of child neglect that necessitates a day-care program is the mounting juvenile delinquency associated with wartime dislocation of home and community life.
    Statistics on juvenile-court cases collected by the Bureau show for 83 courts serving areas of 100,000 or more population more than 75,000 delinquency cases disposed of in 1942 as compared with about 65,000 in 1940, an increase of almost 16 percent. The percentage rise in the number of delinquency cases was greater for girls than for boys (38 percent as compared with 11 percent), although the number of boys’ cases outnumbered girls’ cases four to one.
    Studies carried on in this field included a study of children under 16 held in county jails in representative communities of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia; a study of nine cities greatly affected by the development of war industries or proximity to Army camps or Navy bases to obtain a picture of the behavior of young people as affected by the war; a study of curfew ordinances and their social implications; and a study of four training schools for socially maladjusted children in West Virginia.
    Other wartime social problems.
    Among the other problems accentuated by the war to which the Bureau gave special study and on which there was great call for
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    29
    advisory service from the Bureau, were service for unmarried mothers, adoption of children, and licensing and supervision of agencies placing children in family homes, group-work and recreation programs, homemaker service, and special problems of Negro children. The formulation of policies and procedures relating to guardianship was undertaken by a committee representing the Bureau, the Bureau of Public Assistance of the Social Security Board, and the School of Social Service Administration of the University of Chicago. Many requests for advisory service on proposed child-welfare legislation were received when the State legislatures were in session during the early months of 1943. The Bureau cooperated with the Bureau of Public Assistance of the Social Security Board in studying needs for services to children in Newport News and Pulaski County, Va., and assisting in the development of plans for coordinated community programs for children in these areas.
    Safeguarding wartime employment of young workers.
    The pool of nine and one-half million youth 14 through 17 years of age in this country has become during the war an important source for the recruitment of labor. Reports received in the Bureau showed that the number of youth 14 through 17 receiving employment certificates for full-time or part-time work in June 1943 was more than double the number in June 1942. It is estimated that in midsummer 1943 there were approximately five millions in this age group employed— two in five of the 14- and 15-year-old children and two in three of the 16- and 17-year-old youth. Other thousands under 14 were working chiefly on farms but also in jobs such as delivery boys, news carriers, and helpers in stores.
    Effort has been directed toward maintaining child-labor protective measures wherever possible and toward restatement of essential principles of youth employment worked out in the light of wartime demands and youth needs. These objectives are being attained through cooperative action with other Government agencies, the support of both public and private employers, and an aggressive campaign to enlist the active support of community groups in protecting their youth.
    After preliminary negotiations with the Bureau and the Office of Education of the Federal Security Agency, the War Manpower Commission on January 30, 1943, issued a Statement of Policy on the Employment of Youth Under 18 Years of Age which constitutes a National policy on the place of youth in the labor market during wartime and sets standards for their employment. It states that youth under 18 can best contribute to the war program by continuing in school and, when their services are needed, by accepting vacation and part-time employment, and sets up 10 basic safeguards to govern the employment of young Americans in industry and agriculture.
    Following the issuance early in 1942 of Policies for Recruitment of Young Workers for Wartime Agriculture, the Bureau, the Department of Agriculture, the Office of Education, and the U. S. Employment Service made a joint survey of 1942 experience in programs for the employment of non-farm youth on farms. A Subcommittee on Young Workers in Wartime Agriculture set up under the Bureau’s General Advisory Committee on the Protection of Young Workers
    30	ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR
    made recommendations in November 1942 that were embodied in the Bureau’s publication, Guides to Successful Employment of Non-Farm Youth in Wartime Agriculture, prepared in consultation with the Department of Agriculture, the Office of Civilian Defense, the Office of Education, and the War Manpower Commission. An article on farm-accident hazards was also issued and distributed. After responsibility for supplying labor for work on farms was transferred by the War Manpower Commission in January 1943 to the Secretary of Agriculture, the Industrial Division of the Children’s Bureau maintained close working relations with the Extension Service and the War Food Administration of the Department of Agriculture on the conduct of youth labor programs during the 1943 season.
    With thousands of young workers entering industry the Bureau undertook to supplement its hazardous-occupations orders issued under the Fair Labor Standards Act by issuing advisory standards for the employment of workers 16 and 17 years of age. With the advice of its Advisory Committee on Occupations Hazardous for Minors, the Bureau issued seven folders before the end of the fiscal year covering the employment of young workers in war industries in general and in shipbuilding, in lead and lead-using industries, on metal-working machines, in welding occupations, and in employment involving exposure to carbon disulfide or chlorinated solvents. These folders were distributed on request to many employers who were adding workers under 18 to their labor force during the war period.
    Child-labor administration.
    The existence of reasonable minimum standards for employment of children established by the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, operating without regard to State boundaries, has been of inestimable value in helping to hold the line of protection of the children and young people of this country from too early and harmful employment under war conditions.
    The cooperative relationships built up with State labor officials have enabled the Bureau to assist State and local officials in meeting State child-labor problems and at the same time have strengthened the structure of Federal administration. Likewise cooperative relationships with the Wage and Hour and Public Contracts Divisions have made possible a more comprehensive program of child-labor inspections under the act than would have been possible otherwise in view of the depleted Children’s Bureau staff.
    The Children’s Bureau closed 3,961 inspection cases during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1943. Of these, 824 represented inspections made'by the field staff of the Bureau; 2,959 were positive-findings cases reported by the Wage and Hour Division, that is, reports on establishments found to be employing minors in violation of the act or without certificates of age on file; and 178 were positive-findings cases reported by three States with Federal-State agreements for inspection service.	.
    Increasing disregard by some employers of child-labor laws is clearly shown in figures on violations derived fr;om inspections made under the child-labor provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act. A total of 1,722 establishments were found in violation in the inspection cases closed in the fiscal year 1943. This represents a 33-percent in
    annual report secretary of labor	31
    crease over 1942 and a 197-percent increase over 1941. Forty-five hundred and sixty-seven minors were found illegally employed in 1943, representing an increase of 12 percent over 1942 and of 159 percent over 1941.
    Many of the 4,567 children found working contrary to the act were very young: 800 (18 percent) were under 14 years of age, 2,668 (58 percent.) were 14 or 15 years of age, and 1,099 (24 percent) were 16 or 17 years of age and were employed in occupations declared hazardous by the Chief of the Children’s Bureau. A large proportion of the youngest workers were found in the canning and packing industry, and in the printing, publishing, and allied-products industry.
    During the year 66 civil cases and 9 criminal cases involving violations of the child-labor provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act were closed. This compares with a total of 42 civil and 5 criminal cases dosed during the year ended June 30,1942.
    The Bureau has continued its cooperative age-certification program with 44 States, Hawaii, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. Employment and age certificates issued in these States and Territories are acceptable as proof of age under the child-labor provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act. In four States—Idaho, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Texas—Federal certificates of age are issued by representatives of the Children’s Bureau with the cooperation and assistance of State and local officials.
    No new hazardous-occupations orders were issued, but four amendments to existing orders were made. Order No. 4 was amended as of September 12, 1942, and again as of June 25, 1943, to exempt from coverage of the order certain of the least hazardous of sawmilling and logging occupations. Both amendments were based on serious labor shortages in lumbering areas and are effective only for the duration of the war and 6 months thereafter. The other two amendments, also occasioned by labor shortages caused by the War, are permanent: Order No. 5 was amended as of November 12, 1942, to permit 16- and 17-year-old minors to operate woodworking machines as part of the apprentice training in crafts that are not considered hazardous; Order No. 1 was amended, as of February 13, 1943, to permit persons under 18 to be employed in small-arms ammunition plants in occupations not involving exposure to explosives.
    WOMEN’S BUREAU.
    The close of the fiscal year 1943 coincided almost to a day with the close of the first quarter-century of the Women’s Bureau’s existence, the organization having been set up originally on July 8, 1918. Thus the Bureau has fought the good fight for women workers in two world crises, and between these crises has built steadily on the wisely laid foundations of its early experience.
    During the year, war labor demands have added more than 2^ million women to the ranks of workers in industry in this country, the total including nearly 17 million women at the end of the fiscal year. Unforeseen problems always accompany such a rapid absorption of an enormous new labor force. The myriad ways in which the accumulated knowledge and resources of the Women’s Bureau could be of use in the war production program of the Government have
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    ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR
    been keenly recognized; and with the progress of the war, calls for service of one sort or another have been increasingly numerous and pressing.
    The Bureau organized a conference of Federal and State agencies early in the year to consider standards for women’s war work. The Bureau continued its close cooperation with War and Navy Departments, Maritime Commission, War Manpower Commission, War Labor Board, Office of Defense Transportation, and other war agencies; employment and labor-supply services both Federal and local; State labor departments; employers, employees, labor unions; education authorities, labor-relations groups; health and welfare agencies; housing, child-care, and other community activities; and Federal and commercial information services. A number of the evidences of such cooperation are indicated in the following brief description of the Bureau’s chief lines of activity in the past year.
    War demands for woman employment.
    The urgent war demands for Women’s Bureau work continue to focus on two major objectives:
    (1) To meet requirements for expanded labor forces: Analyses of jobs sdited to women in various war industries; a consideration of the best methods for selection of women; the interesting of women in the need for their services and the kinds of work they can do; and recommendations as to means of arranging plant schedules for part-time use of women.
    (2) In response to calls for data on the best methods for utilizing a woman labor force: Obtaining and disseminating scientific data as to effects on women workers of new techniques and new substances in industry; varying hours of work; relaxing established standards for women’s work; and a multitude of particular health and safety situations to be met if women, in many cases unaccustomed to industrial surroundings, are to give maximum performance for employers unfamiliar on their part with women’s job capabilities and needs.
    In addition, a sound economic basis for the work of both men and women continues to require the Bureau to watch women’s wage standards and to keep abreast of trends in their employment ; full cooperation with our allies and neighbors requires knowledge of policies affecting woman employment in such countries as Great Britain, Canada, and various Latin-American States; furtherance of war labor demands on many fronts requires consideration of problems of women in special occupation groups, such as the clerical forces whose work is vital to war plants and civilian services; and attention now must be paid to the newly emerging necessity for wise programs to assist women workers in the transition period following the war.
    Analysis of war jobs suited to women.
    Continuing to aid war-plant employers in a knowledge of jobs on which women can work to meet labor shortages, the Bureau made detailed job analyses in the cannon and small-arms, machine-tool, and shipbuilding industries, and in ordnance depots, and began study of airplane-engine factories and copper and brass and steel mills.
    Cannon plants employ 5 to 14 percent women and could use up to 40 percent. Small-arms plants employ 3 to 30 percent and could
    annual report secretary of labor
    33
    stretch to 75 percent. This was learned in visits to 4 Government arsenals and 4 private plants, employing 75,000 workers. Survey of 15 machine-tool plants employing well over a fourth of this industry’s labor force showed that not quite 3 percent of the productive workers are women, though one plant employed up to 10 percent women. Thirty-four private yards and 7 Navy Yards were visited, and women, constituting nearly 6 percent of the productive employees, were in ■some cases as many as 15 percent.
    Besides their detailed analyses of specific jobs, pointing out where women are employed and making recommendations as to additional jobs suitable for them—these studies inquired into the ■ recruitment, selection, induction, and training of women; their hours of work; methods and rates of pay; reclassification and upgrading; food, medical, and other services; uniforms and safety clothing; plant personnel policies and work; and to some extent women’s problems of living and transportation in war-congested communities.
    Further assistance the Bureau has given to increasing the womanlabor supply includes issuance of the following booklets, which have been called for by the thousands: A leaflet summarizing the best-known principles to aid in choice of the right woman for the right job; a 6-page folder suggesting ways in which women could use their skills in war-industry jobs; a small bulletin indicating how employers can take advantage of available labor force by providing suitable schedules and conditions for the part-time work of women.
    Safety and health of women in war plants.
    Managements with expanding woman-labor forces turn to the Bureau for information as to the plant physical requirements and the work arrangements necessary for women’s efficient performance. Queries come from plant superintendents, personnel directors, training supervisors, medical advisers, and others. Such calls are met when possible by personal visits to the plants by the Bureau’s industrial advisers, who have this year visited in such a capacity nearly 200 plants in 37 States. In addition to many requests by telephone, others made over the same period by more than 1,500 individual firms have been met by correspondence in the Washington office. Some of these have dealt with preventive measures for women in plants using dangerous chemicals; incidence to women of industrial injuries, and of absences clue to illness; types of shoe soles impervious to cutting oils; extent to which women can handle the heavier work: methods and necessary time for training and upgrading women workers; measures of women’s skill; characteristic medical needs of women workers; and other such questions.
    On some of the subjects very frequently asked for the Bureau issues leaflets, small special bulletins, or articles. This year these have included: Type and introduction of safety caps; standards for lighting industrial plants; importance of good posture and seating to effective work; suitability for women of work on abrasive wheels; proper washing and toilet facilities; night work and shift rotation for women; employment policies for women if pregnancy occurs.
    Evidences coming to the Bureau of increasing fatigue among women workers, contributing to high accident rates, absences from work, and a slowing down of production rates, has pointed to the need for investigation of the effects of war-plant conditions on health and efficiency.
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    ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR
    A beginning in this was made by a survey of 137 war plants in a major industrial State, and visits to 700 homes of women who worked in them, to study effects of lengthened hours, night work, overtime, rotation of shifts, and other conditions. Recommendations made were appreciated by the plants, • which in many cases made corresponding changes and improvements.
    Closely allied to conditions on the job are those in the communities, where housing, food facilities, transportation, recreation, and opportunities for child care influence the availability and effectiveness of women workers. Bureau agents studied these situations in 26 communities in 15 States. Leaflets were issued giving pertinent suggestions for women workers living away from home and for managers of their boarding homes.
    Regional representatives.
    To meet more quickly the urgent requests for resolving difficult local problems and for counseling services to management, and to obtain immediate information on plant and community labor situations, the Bureau assigned its field staff to offices in particular regions, an arrangement conforming to the Department’s regional set-up covering the entire country. These representatives were available on short notice to local Federal and State authorities, and to employer, employee, and citizen groups, to attend conferences, advise with employers, make addresses, comply with requests for inspections, and furnish needed data. All told, the field staff surveyed some 275 war plants having more than 1% million workers in 33 States. As more and more appeals come in, their work as well as that of the central office is so heavy that many of the calls cannot be met without additions to the staff.
    A minimum wage and equal pay for women war workers.
    The Bureau has worked closely with the National War Labor Board in the effort to make a reality the equal-pay principle, which the Bureau always has furthered and which has been advocated by Federal agencies for more than 40 years. Recent studies in gun and other war industries have shown that time and again women are paid a rate on comparable operations lower than that paid men at work on the same machine and same part. A war period when many women are performing processes formerly done by men particularly requires the maintenance of standard wage rates for women on the job.
    The Bureau made basic job evaluations to aid in setting equitable, pay rates in plants making ammunition, and lumber, steel, and aluminum products; has cooperated with the War Department in adjustment of women’s rates in certain Government arsenals; aided equalpay action for unions by investigation of cases, and in some instances by preparing factual material for briefs, for electrical, rubber, bakery, and textile workers, bookbinders, boilermakers, telephone workers, and retail clerks; and met public demands bv drafting'a bill to eliminate wage discrimination against women, which was introduced into several State legislatures. The Bureau also responded to repeated requests from employers and union officials by preparing a small bulletin on “equal pay” showing official Government support of this principle and its inclusion in union agreements, and summarizing experi
    annual report secretary of labor
    35
    ence as to related subjects, such as standards of women’s output and their special skill in the light industrial processes now so widely demanded in the manufacture of war necessities.
    Cooperating with State minimum-wage authorities, the Bureau has rendered technical assistance on all phases of minimum-wage administration, enforcement, and adjustments of living-cost budgets to current price levels. Aid in drafting wage orders was given to 13 States, with special reference to service industries, and orders have been reviewed for practically every State that has taken such action during the year.
    Women workers in Latin America.
    As a part of the State Department’s program for cooperation with our sister American republics, a Bureau representative spent seven months in Brazil, Paraguay, Peru, and Ecuador. Reports of these visits give data on industrial and social conditions related to women in the Latin-American States, and Bureau data also are aiding in the problems of woman employment, many of which are identical with our own—as for example those of labor legislation, home work, organization of unions and of women’s groups, wages, occupations, hours of work, working conditions and service facilities, safety and health.
    A forward look.
    American victory will be measured chiefly by our ability to put our own economic house in order. The war peak in woman employment is estimated to run to at least 18 million, and it is believed that there will be around 15 million in the labor market after the war, in contrast to the pre-war labor market of 12% million. Bureau thinking and research is beginning to be directed to the problems of an orderly, transition after the war, which are of one piece with the present problems connected with woman employment.
    A center for research and information on women workers.
    As the center for information and advisory services on matters affecting wage-earning women, the Bureau conducted research in a variety of fields, analyzing and interpreting these data as affecting women. Among the lines of such investigation were those on trends in women’s employment and wages; women’s responsibility for family support, and their living costs; status of women in labor unions; wage standards of clerical workers; legal status of women; experience and policies as to women workers in Great Britain; and changes in the enactment and administration of labor laws affecting women. The specialized knowledge acquired over many years by the Bureau’s staff, and the wealth of material in the files of the Bureau, are made use of constantly by Army, Navy, and other war agencies, employers, employees, and the public.
    The Director and other staff members continued their participation in conferences of all types on a variety of subjects concerning women workers, including this year at least 20 conducted by agencies of National and International importance.
    36	ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR
    WAGE AND HOUR AND PUBLIC CONTRACTS DIVISIONS.
    Promotion of the war effort has been a primary goal in the administration of both the Wage-Hour and Public Contracts Acts which are the responsibility of these Divisions. By the end of the first quarter of the fiscal year, the integration of the Wage and Hour and Public Contracts Divisions had been completed and the plan of joint activities was in operation in the field, eliminating duplicate inspections. Business men found that with one inspector examining their records for compliance with both the Fair Labor Standards Act and the Walsh-Healey Public Contracts Act, their accountants or bookkeepers spent considerably less time than formerly required when, holding public contracts, they were subject to both Acts.
    The problem presented the newly merged divisions was a formidable one. It was first necessary to train Wage and Hour Division inspectors in Public Contracts inspections, and similarly the Public Contracts inspectors had to be trained in inspections under the Fair Labor Standards Act. Simultaneously there was a constant drain of trained personnel into the armed services from both Divisions. The War Production Board was utilizing an increasing number of inspection personnel in surveys and audits while the Wage Stabilization program of the War Labor Board was soon to absorb the total efforts of half the Divisions’ normal inspection force which was temporarily thrown into the breach until added personnel could be recruited. Altogether, by the end of the fiscal year, it was necessary to absorb almost 1.600 new inspectors. The supervisory staff and trained inspectors had to be used in the immediate performance of duties for the War Agencies as well as in the training of the new recruits. Between November 1942 and April 1943, these obstacles were overcome and the Divisions’ .normal activities, as well as these emergency assignments, were in full swing well before the end of the fiscal year so that the total inspections made for the year was within four thousand of the number contemplated.
    During the year, a total of 61,650 establishments was inspected under both Acts. Of the 61,356 inspected under the Fair Labor Standards Act. 56,994 were covered; of these violations were found in nearly three-fourths and failure to pay the minimum wage or overtime in almost half. A total of nearly 8,000 inspections was made under the Public Contracts Act in the period following consolidation, all but 300 of which were concurrent with the' Wage-Hour inspections. In about one-third of these violations were found and in almost one-fifth of them, violations of the minimum wage or overtime provisions. During the fiscal year, restitution of approximately $16,800,000 in wages illegally withheld under both Acts had been agreed upon by employers or ordered paid to almost 390.000 employees in about 20,000 establishments.
    The rapid expansion of coverage under the Public Contracts Act, noted in earlier reports, continued as war industry continued to expand. Once again, the number and value of contracts reported to the Divisions were both approximately double the figures of the previous year. In number they nearly equalled and in value they exceeded the total for the previous five years and nine months under the Act. During the year, 101,224 contracts with a value of $30,935,631,889 were reported
    ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR
    37
    to the Divisions, not counting secret, confidential and restricted contracts that were not reported as compared with less than 4,000 valued at about $200,000,000 for the first fiscal year.
    Of the nearly 8,000 inspections made under the Public Contracts Act, 1,419 establishments were found in violation of the minimum wage or overtime provisions and 1,340 paid restitution. Integration of the two Divisions made possible a considerable increase in the number of inspections under the Public Contracts Act. In the year, five firms were blacklisted for serious violation.
    Restitution of wages illegally withheld under the Fair Labor Standards Act was ordered or agreed to in 19,343 establishments. More than one-third of these cases involved failure to pay the minimum wage of 30 to 40 cents an hour.
    These figures show clearly why, despite the current high level of wages and the work done by the Divisions for war agencies, it is still essential to continue to enforce the Acts widely, vigorously, and effectively. There are approximately 530,000 covered establishments. When an inspection of 62,000 firms under both Acts discloses restitution totaling almost $17,000,000 in withheld wages due 390,000 employees, the necessity of continued emphasis on enforcement is obvious.
    Three general types of inspections are conducted. The first is in response to complaints received as to individual violations. The second is reinspection of firms with records of serious monetary violation or poor safety and health standards on previous inspections. The third is a spot check of companies which have not previously been inspected but which are located in industries or in areas in which other inspections have revealed a high proportion of serious monetary or other violations.
    The Wage and Hour and Public Contracts staff is charged with the inspection of safety and health devices in those plants holding public contracts. The Public Contracts Act provides that compliance with safety and health provisions in State Laws is prima facie evidence that the requirements of the Public Contracts Law are being met. Following this provision, argeements have been made with numerous States providing for inspection of safety and health facilities by State inspectors.
    The Division of Labor Standards of the U. S. Department of Labor has developed safety programs to reduce the number of on-the-job accidents in war industries, organizing a National Committee for the Conservation of Manpower, composed of 600 safety engineers located in. al] sections of the country. In those States in which there is no agreement between the State and the Wage and Hour and Public Contracts Divisions, the National Committee for the Conservation of Manpower in War Industries provides a technical advisory service, under the supervision of the Division of Labor Standards, to assist the Divisions in seeing that the requirements of the Public Contracts Law are being met.
    The Wage and Hour and Public Contracts Divisions had just been merged when they assumed the additional job of representing the War Labor Board in the wage stabilization program. On October 3, 1942, the President issued Executive Order 9250 which prohibits any increase in wages above the level of September 15, 1942. except under regulations as devised by the War Labor Board. The War Labor Board had no facilities for handling the hundreds of thousands of inquiries
    38
    ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR
    which poured in by personal calls, by mail, and by telephone and called upon the Wage and Hour and Public Contracts Divisions for aid. By November 9 the more than 100 field offices and 1,000 inspectors of the Divisions were servicing employers and employees in every section of the country, empowered to issue jurisdictional rulings as to whether or not proposed changes in pay schedules required the prior approval of the Board, according to official releases and orders of the Board / itself.
    By the end of June, the Divisions had acted on over 100,000 requests for rulings and handled about 900,000 informal inquiries relating to wage stabilization. In 65,000 applications the applicants were assisted in filling out the required forms for the War Labor Board which were then forwarded to the Board for action.
    At the request of the War Labor Board, inspectors of the Wage and Hour and Public Contracts Divisions before the end of the year made inspections to determine whether or not employers had complied with the Executive Order of the President. These indicated that a large percentage of violations were unintentional. Education in the requirements of the order and the regulations of the War Labor Board, therefore, has become an integral part of the inspection program.
    The last annual report described assistance of the Divisions to various other war agencies in the period which followed the attack on Pearl Harbor. These assignments included taking inventories of aluminum for the 0PM, tire inventories for the OPA, and silk, copper and scrap inventories, as well as a survey of defense housing for the WPB. Throughout the year, besides work for the War Labor Board, inspections were conducted for the War Production Board under its Production Requirements Plan. To this was assigned a group of inspectors in each region selected because of special qualifications. When this program began in June of 1942, about 200 inspectors were trained in the technique of conducting inventory audits of firms operating under PRP. During the year, nearly 28,000 establishments were inspected under this program with such effective results that assignment of 353 inspectors for the 1944 fiscal year was asked to audit the records of firms operating under the Controlled Materials Plan of the War Production Board which succeeded PRP. CMP is the War Production Board’s system of balancing the scarcity of critical materials against the tremendous demand for such materials.
    Proceedings for injunctions against future violations of the wage .or hours provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act were instituted in 487 cases, while the criminal penalties which the statute provides for cases of wilful violations were invoked in 51 cases during the year. During its 1942-43 term the Supreme Court heard argument and rendered decisions in seven cases involving the Fair Labor Standards Act and denied certiorari in nine others.
    Walling v. J acksonmlle Paver Co., 317 U. S. 564, 63 Sup. Ct. 339 (1943) and Higgins v. Carr Bros. Co., 317 U. S. 572, 63 Sup. Ct. 337 (1943) concerned the application of the Act to the employees of wholesalers engaged in ordering and receiving goods from extrastate sources and distributing the same to local retailers. The Court held that such goods “remain in commerce” from the time they leave their extrastate source until they reach “their final destination.” This “final destination” is not the warehouse of the wholesaler unless the
    ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR
    39
    goods are destined for the warehouse where they are to be held in stock in the manner of goods held by a local merchant for local distribution. Accordingly, the Court concluded that goods ordered pursuant to pre-existing contracts or understandings between the wholesaler and his customers remain “in commerce” until they reach the customer, and the employees of the wholesaler who are engaged in the ordering and receiving of extrastate goods and in the local distribution of those goods brought in pursuant to prior contracts or understandings, are entitled to the benefits of the Act. In Overstreet v. North Shore Corp., 318 U. S. 125, 63 Sup. Ct. 494 (1943), the Court, agreeing with the Division, held the Act applicable to employees maintaining and collecting tolls on a toll road and a drawbridge which formed a part of the road. The road connected an interstate highway with an island off the coast of Florida and the drawbridge spanned the Intercoastal Waterway. Also, in ~W arren-Bradshaw Drilling Co. v. Hall, 317 U. S. 88, 63 Sup. Ct. 125 (1942), the Court upheld the Division’s position that the activities of employees who assisted in drilling oil wells, the output of which the owner intended to ship in interstate commerce, constituted “production of goods for commerce” within the meaning of the Act. But in McLeod v. Threlkeld, 63 Sup. Ct. 1248 (1943), a five to four majority of the Court held that the Act did not embrace a cook on a railroad camp car whose duties included the preparation and serving of meals to members of the railroad’s maintenance crew. In reaching its decision the Court apparently disapproved its former holding in Philadelphia, B. <& W. R. R. Co. v. Smith, 250 U. S. 101.
    The single opinion of the Supreme Court in the two exemption cases, Southland Gasoline Co. v. Bayley and Richardson v. James Gibbons Co., 63 Sup. Ct. 917 (1943), construed the motor carrier exemption in Section 13 (b) (1) of the Act and concluded that those employees of private motor carriers whose hours were subject to Interstate Commerce Commission regulation “if need therefore is found,” were, under the jurisdiction of the Interstate Commerce Commission within the scope of the exemption, even before a finding of “need” had been made.
    .The wartime manpower shortage and the consequent upward trend of wages during the year but slightly affected the volume of applications for exemptions, rather shifting the emphasis. Interest in the overtime exemptions has increased as a result of the lengthening workweek, the mandatory 48-hour workweek which is in effect in some areas, and the changing factual picture resulting from the war in many industries. Special rulings and administrative actions were found necessary in some instances to facilitate war production and solve emergency problems.
    The number of requests for exemption from the minimum wage for learners has decreased as industrial wage levels have risen and the supply of available untrained labor at less than 40 cents per hour has been reduced. To meet the needs of employers in areas where turnover is large and untrained workers are still available, learner regulations were amended to permit the employment of a greater proportion of learners. At the same time the subminimuni rate at which learners may be employed was increased in most industries to 35 cents an hour.
    40	ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR
    The large scale program of training which was undertaken by the nation’s schools in cooperation with various government agencies brought millions of workers into war industries. These training programs were brought into conformity with the Fair Labor Standards Act and the Walsh-Healey Public Contracts Act through cooperation with the Office of Defense Training, War Manpower Commission, and the U. S. Office of Education. The training program was thus facilitated while preserving the standards provided in these Acts.
    A high percentage of handicapped workers who previously were able to secure and hold jobs only through being certified at subminimum wages under section 14 of the Fair Labor Standards Act are now earning well above the minimum, while other handicapped persons who were hitherto deemed unemployable have entered competitive industry under special subminimum-rate certificates.
    Sheltered workshops, which give work exclusively to handicapped clients, are making a notable contribution to the war effort. Many of these boast Army-Navy merit awards. These shops also are preparing to provide vocational training and rehabilitation for disabled veterans.
    Regulation of industrial homework in industries where it is a serious problem has been found necessary to prevent circumvention of minimum wage orders by employers of industrial homeworkers. Regulations permit industrial homework by those unable to leave home or adjust to factory work.
    The shortage of manpower resulting from the war made it necessary to relax to a limited extent the standards of employment for minors contained in the Walsh-Healey Public Contracts Act. At the joint request of the Acting Secretary of War, the Acting Secretary of the Navy, and the Chairman of the Maritime Commission, the employment of girls between the ages of 16 and 18 on government contract work was authorized by the Secretary of Labor in an order issued on November 11, 1942, subject, however, to certain specified conditions of employment designed to safeguard the health and safety of these girls. Included among the conditions for the employment of the girls between the ages of 16 and 18 was the requirement that they must not be employed for more than 8 hours in any one day, or between the hours of 10 p. m. and 6 a. m. The Secretary of Labor has also granted exceptions to individual plants on recommendation of the Administrator where the facts warrant such action, to permit the employment of these girls after 10 p. m. but not later than midnight, and for as many as 9 hours a day but not more than 48 hours a week. Such modification, however, is granted only if a government contracting agency joins in the request with the applicant and it appears that there is a shortage of labor in the area where the plant is located, and provided also that the proposed working schedule is not contrary to State law.
    A summary of minimum wage determinations and amendments of the Secretary of Labor during the year under the Public Contracts Act follows:
    ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR
    41
    Minimum Wage Determinations and Amendments
    Shoe Manufacturing and Allied Scope extende< Industries.
    42	annual report secretary of labor
    Following the procedure required by Sections 5 and 8 of the Fair Labor Standards Act for establishing minimum wages in specific industries, sixteen industry committees were convened by the Administrator during the year, each of which recommended a 40-cent minimum for its industry or group of industries. By the close of the year the Administrator had issued wage orders establishing the recommended minima for seven of these industries and seven others from the previous year; action had not yet been taken on the recommendations of the remaining nine industry committees. A significant factor in effectuating the work of the industry committees wa& the inclusion of many related industries simultaneously under a single committee. Thus, Committee Number 53 for the metal, plastics, machinery, instrument and allied industries covered products classified in over 150 Census industries.
    The industries affected by committee recommendations during the year employ more than 10 million covered workers, of whom approximately 370,000 would be directly affected by the issuance of wage orders requiring the payment of a minimum wage of 40 cents an hour. In several of the individual industries, as in fruit and vegetable canning and preserving, for example, a significant proportion of the workers were receiving less than 40 cents an hour. It is estimated that in one-third of the industries, between one-fifth and one-half of the workers were earning less than the recommended minimum. Industry committees met during the year and recommended minimum wages of 40 cents for the following industries:	Effective date
    Industry	of wage order
    Seamless hosiery___________________________________________________ 2-15-43
    Handkerchiefs manufacturing---------------------------------------- 2-15-43
    Converted paper products____________________________—_------------- 2-15-43
    Candy and related products manufacturing--------------------------- 3-29-43
    Cooking and heating appliances manufacturing_______________________ 4-12-43
    Printing, publishing, and allied graphic arts---------------------- 6-14—43
    Sugar and related products----------------------------------------- 6-21-43
    Cottonseed and peanut crushing------------------------------------- 8-16-43
    Vegetable fats and oils--------------------------------------------. 8-16-43
    Metal, plastics, machinery, instrument, and allied industries------ 9-13-43
    Mattress, bedding, and related products---------------------------- 9-20-43
    Miscellaneous textile, leather, fur, straw, and related products—-- 9-20-43
    Canned fruits and vegetables and related products__________________10-18-43
    Pens and pencils___________________________________________________12-27-43
    Stone, clay, glass, and allied industries--------------------------12-27-43
    Chemical, petroleum and coal products, and allied manufacturing industries______________________________________________________,--------Pending
    Under the terms of the Fair Labor Standards Act, the minimum of 40 cents will apply to all covered workers in October 1945. It is the expectation of the Administrator, however, that by October 1943 industry committees will have met to consider minimum wages for all the industries on the mainland of the United States subject to the Act, and that by the end of 1943 wage orders will have been issued to bring the minimum up to 40 cents for all of these industries in which a lower minimum prevailed at the close of the fiscal year.
    ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR
    43
    Departmental Expenditures.
    The Department of Labor spent $30,179,868 on all the above outlined activities during the fiscal year, of which $12,385,522 was in grants, subsidies, and contributions.
    Amount obligated for the fiscal vear 1943
    $17, 794, 346—Other
    12, 385, 522—Grants
    $30,179, 868=Total
    O

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