[Seventeenth Annual Report of the Secretary of Labor for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1929] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov] ANNUAL REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF LABOR FISCAL YEAR ENDED JUNE 30, 1929 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, Washington, D. C. ------ Price 15 cents 3 1336 05750 2628 OFFICIALS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF LABOR, 1929 Hon. James J. Davis, Secretary of Labor. Hon. Robe Carl White, Assistant Secretary of Labor. Hon. W. W. Husband, Second Assistant Secretary of Labor. W. N. Smelser, Assistant to the Secretary. Peter F. Snyder, Assistant to the Secretary. Theodore G. Risley, Solicitor for the Department. Hugh L. Kerwin, Director of Conciliation. Francis I. Jones, Director General of Employment. Lulah T. Andrews, Director, Industrial Housing and Transportation. Samuel J. Gompers, Chief Clerk and Superintendent. Ethelbert Stewart, Commissioner of Labor Statistics. Harry E. Hull, Commissioner General of Immigration. Raymond F. Crist, Commissioner of Naturalization. Grace Abbott, Chief, Children’s Bureau. Mary Anderson, Director, Women’s Bureau. Laura A. Thompson, Librarian ii 9 CONTENTS Past I Page Activities of the department____________________________________________ 1 Office of the Secretary_____________________________________________ 1 Improved labor conditions_______________________________________ 2 Cooperation_____________________________________________________ 3 Employment______________________________________________________ 3 Liberal wage____________________________________________________ 4 Advanced-age retirement_________________________________________ 4 Accidents—Safety________________________________________________ 4 Vocational training_____________________________________________ 5 Rehabilitation of the disabled man in industry------------------ 5 Community life__________________________________________________ 5 Labor turnover__________________________________________________ 6 Department’s purposes___________________________________________ 6 Office of the solicitor_____________________________________________ 7 Bureau of Labor Statistics__________________________________________ 8 Bureau of Naturalization____________________________________________ 8 Bureau of Immigration______________________________________________ 10 Inspection abroad______________________________________________ 11 Application of selective principle needed______________________ 11 New immigration legislation____________________________________ 14 Emigration from the United States______________________________ 14 Immigration stabilized under the quota system__________________ 15 Progress in law enforcement____________________________________ 17 Court proceedings______________________________________________ 18 Consolidation of immigration laws______________________________ 19 The Women’s Bureau_________________________________________________ 20 Children’s Bureau__________________________________________________ 21 The Conciliation Service___________________________________________ 23 United States Employment Service___________________________________ 27 Cooperation with State agencies________________________________ 27 Farm labor activities__________________________________________ 28 Junior placement work__________________________________________ 30 Employment service for Indians_________________________________ 30 Employment aid to ex-service men_______________________________ 30 United States Housing Corporation__________________________________ 31 Requisitioned property_________________________________________ 32 Litigation_____________________________________________________ 33 Insurance______________________________________________________ 34 Government hotels______________________________________________ 34 in IV CONTENTS Activities of the department—Continued. Page Office of the chief clerk__________________________________________ 35 Department quarters_______________________________________ 35 Personnel_______________________________________________________ 36 Officials and employees_____________________________________ 36 Transfers____________________________________________.»__ 37 Retirement__________________________________________________ 38 Disbursing office_______________________________________________ 39 Appropriations---------------------------------------------- 39 Expenditures______________________________________________ 40 Miscellaneous receipts______________________________________ 41 Unexpected balances_________________________________________ 42 Publications and supplies________________________________________ 42 t* Printed stationery__________________________________________ 43 Envelopes__________________________________________________ 43 Editorial section___________________________________________ 43 Books and blanks____________________________________________ 43 Duplicating work____________________________________________ 43 Supplies---------------------------------------------------- 44 Department library__________________________________________________ 44 Recommendations_________________________________________________________ 46 Part II Activities of the bureaus_______________________________________________ 49 Bureau of Labor Statistics__________________________________________ 49 Wages and hours of labor________________________________________ 50 Employment______________________________________________________ 50 Unemployment____________________________________________________ 51 Labor turnover__________________________________________________ 52 Five-day week_________________________________________________ 52 Retail and wholesale prices------------------------------------- 52 Cost of living__________________________________________________ 52 Safety codes____________________________________________________ 53 Industrial health_______________________________________________ 53 Labor legislation and court decisions affecting labor------------ 54 , e Workmen’s compensation__________________________________________ 54 Foreign information_____________________________________________ 54 Bureau of Immigration_____________________________________________ 55 Race or peoples__________________________________________________ 56 el <* Rejection at ports______________________________________________ 56 Statistics of immigration and emigration------------------------ 57 Emigration from the United States_______________________________ 57 New immigration legislation_____________________________________ 61 The national-origins plan_______________________________________ 63 Bureau of Naturalization-------------------------------------------- 66 Three important court decisions_________________________________ 67 Legislation_____________________________________________________ 68 Visa archives___________________________________________________ 69 ■1^ CONTENTS V Activities of the bureaus—Continued. Page Children’s Bureau____________________________________________________ 70 Administration of the maternity and infancy act------------------ 70 Research in maternal and child health---------------------------- 72 Prevention and treatment of delinquency and dependency--------- 72 Other investigations of special interest----------------------- 73 Current statistics as to employed children--------------------- 73 Uniform reporting of juvenile-court statistics----------------- 74 Conference of State departments of public welfare-------------- 71 Legislation relating to children------------------------------- 75 New reports issued and distribution of bureau publications----- 75 The Women’s Bureau_________________________________________________ 75 Women’s earnings in the cotton-textile industry---------------- 76 Labor legislation________________________________________________ 77 State study—Florida---------------------------------------------- 77 Women in limited-price chain department stores----------------- 78 Conditions for women in laundries_____________________________ 79 Variations in employment trends of women and men--------------- SI Conditions of work in spin rooms-------------------------------- 82 Causes of absence for men and women in four cotton mills_______ 83 Library research------------------------------------------------- 83 Division of public information___________________________________ 84 The most important exhibit features of the year________________ 85 The Conciliation Service_____________________________________________ 85 Typical cases____________________________________________________ 85 Appendix—Act creating the Department of Labor___________________________ 103 seventeenth annual report of the secretary of labor LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL Department of Labor, Office of the Secretary, Washington, November 1, 1929. To the Congress of the United) States: In accordance with section 9 of the act of Congress approved March 4, 1913, I have the honor to submit a report of the business of the Department of Labor for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1929, and with it reports of investigations and conclusions. I also submit for your consideration certain recommendations which to me seem important and necessary. Respectfully submitted. Secretary of Labor. VII SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF LABOR PARTI ACTIVITIES OF THE DEPARTMENT The Department of Labor is divided into administrative units consisting of the Office of the Secretary, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Bureau of Immigration, the Children’s Bureau, the Bureau of Naturalization, and the Women’s Bureau. The Office of the Secretary is not only the administrative division of the department but includes also the services directly under the supervision of the Secretary of Labor known as the Conciliation Service, the United States Employment Service, and the Bureau of Industrial Housing and Transportation. The administrative subdivisions of the Office of the Secretary include the Assistant Secretary, the Second Assistant Secretary, Assistants to the Secretary, the solicitor, the chief clerk, the disbursing clerk, the appointment clerk, the Division of Publications and Supplies, and the departmental library. The Assistant Secretary of Labor performs the duties assigned him by statute and such others as may be delegated to him by the Secretary. In the absence of the Secretary he acts as Secretary of Labor. The Second Assistant Secretary of Labor performs the duties assigned to him by statute and such others as may be delegated to him by the Secretary of Labor, and in the absence of the Secretary and Assistant Secretary acts as Secretary of Labor. OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY The act of Congress creating the Department of Labor provides that its purpose “ shall be to foster, promote, and develop the welfare of the wage earners of the United States, to improve their working conditions, and to advance their opportunities for profitable employment.” 1 2 ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR To an unusual extent the work of the department has been devoted to carrying out the terms of its charter, for practically all its activities are concerned with promoting the welfare of wage earners. The Bureau of Labor Statistics is the central source of statistical and other information concerning labor and related matters; the Bureau of Immigration enforces laws enacted in large part for the protection of American wage earners; the Bureau of Naturalization deals with immigrants who are seeking citizenship; the work of the Women’s Bureau is entirely devoted to the welfare of women in industry and that of the Children’s Bureau in part to the problem of the young wage earners. The department library has one of the world’s best collections of material relating to labor and its reading room is open to students. The Conciliation Service is devoted to promoting peace in industry. The Employment Service seeks to aid those unemployed to find employment. The United States Housing Corporation, which is nominally a part of the Department of Labor, operates hotels for government workers and is concerned with disposing of homes that were built for workers during the war period, the purchasers of which are mostly wage earners, and the Secretary of Labor is chairman of the Federal Board for Vocational Education, wThich, under Federal appropriations, cooperates with the States in promoting vocational education and the rehabilitation of disabled men in industry. This report is largely devoted to the accomplishments of these various bureaus during the fiscal year 1929. The widespread activities of the department touch practically every phase of the wage earners’ problems in every part of the country, and nearly if not quite 45,000,000 of our people are gainfully employed, about 27,000,000 being actual wages earners, about 5,000,000 of whom are affiliated with organized labor. The department is cognizant of both the encouraging and discouraging aspects of the situation. It sees both the lights and the shadows, but on the whole it is clear that the general trend is forward and along some lines the advance has been rapid. Improved labor conditions. Unfailing proof of America’s sense of economic justice in industry and labor is more than evidenced by the remarkable improvements in labor conditions which have taken place in the last two or three decades. The continuing increase in wages, which has gradually spread all over the country, has been accompanied by shorter hours of labor, better working conditions, better homes, better schools, more parks and playgrounds, improved roads and highways, and, in fact, everything that goes to make life better and happier for mankind generally. ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR 3 These changes and improvements have kept fully apace with the improved methods of machinery, and, particularly, the labor-saving devices and machines in all divisions of industrial life. Machines have done away for the most part with arduous hand labor, have taken a heavy burden from the backs of the toilers, and, through the conservation of both muscular strength and time, released man to the greater enjoyment of his labor life and of his leisure when off the job. This trend bespeaks, indeed, a continuation of progressive advancement throughout all phases of industrial endeavor in the years which lie before us. Cooperation. There is great cause to rejoice over the new human relationship between employers and workers, the two principals in our productive forces. With the spread of education and consequent better understanding the new mutual regard between these two great groups has developed rapidly and gratifyingly during the past few years. The old spirit of hostility between employers and employees has all but disappeared, because the general assumption that they occupied two hostile camps, which were always to be opposed to each other, has given way to the new spirit of teamwork and cooperation. Each realizes that mutuality of interest in production should bind them together, since each is the complement of the other; and we find now that both are interested in securing a full measure of production from mine, mill, and factory, all of which are now producing more than ever before, with the result that there is more to divide between the producers themselves. With mass production, skilled workers, and modern methods of management the worker of to-day has been enabled to purchase not only the necessities in abundance but of the luxuries of life. His children have better advantages in the way of education. The three “ r’s ” are no longer considered a sufficient educational equipment. The high schools and colleges are filled with the children of wage earners, and I look for the worker and his family to go still further forward, keeping pace with the advance in science, invention, education, and recreation. Employment. Questions of unemployment will eventually be solved so that every person who desires work will be provided with an opportunity. We are constantly raising the standard of our own people and in so doing we are raising the standards of the people of the entire world. Largely because of protective tariff and restricted immigration the American wage earner of to-day enjoys the highest standard of living in history. Our whole economic policy in recent years has been built 4 ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR on the premise that the American wage earner is entitled to share in the increased production, and I firmly believe he will continue to progress in that direction during the coming years. The liberal wage. The wisest American business men to-day realize that our 45,000,-000 gainfully employed and their dependents, constituting as they do the great bulk of our entire population, are the greatest purchasers of American products, and that, accordingly, it is a poor, unjustifiable economic principle to curtail their purchasing power by refusing them a just share in the fruits of increased production, because so doing means nothing less than automatically cutting off the most important buying element in our markets. Advanced-age retirement. Advancement has been made in disproving the false philosophy that men are through when they reach 40 to 50 years of age. This is one of the grave economic problems that deserve our particular consideration at the moment and in the coming years I expect to see a great lessening in the practice of retiring from employment the workers of middle or advanced age. It has been adequately proved that efficiency is not served by the enforced retirement of our middle-aged artisans in industry; nor is humanity made happier by the bringing about of sudden work adjustments which these displaced men are frequently called upon to meet. On the other hand, more and more it is becoming the experience of our most enlightened employers that men of the age of 40 or 50 years or over are often better qualified by experience, ability, and settled habits to render more valuable service than are those of a younger age. Accidents—Safety. The fact that there were more than 97,000 fatal accidents in the United States during last year and that in industry alone 24,000 persons were killed needs no elaboration to make us realize that we should be continually striving to remove accidental means and hazards. Such a high toll, especially in industry, which is the source of so many of our necessities and luxuries of life, is a constant reminder that our mental and our physical safeguards must be increased until virtually all accidental deaths and injuries are eliminated through paying proper attention to safety practices, discipline, competency of employees, physical fitness, and mental fitness, and by reducing mechanical hazards to a minimum. To workers in industry I want to say again that your country needs your product, your employer needs your skill, your wife and children need their breadwinner. Avoid accidents. Help your employer and your associates to keep you safe. ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR 5 Vocational training. The trend of modern industry is so far-reaching in importance that it is interesting to mark its influence upon so many phases of our national life. The demand for efficiency and preparation in connection with gainful pursuits has become so much a part of our progress that the youths of to-day have become the subject of industrial preparation through vocational training courses in our school systems, both public and private. The time was when youths were trained for industry solely through the means of apprenticeships, but within the past two decades, particularly, the vocational school has been developed so as to take a needed place of importance supplementary to or equal to apprentice training, through guiding the youth during his most impressionable years into trades and vocations well fitted to his mental bent and physical ability. Labor unions, fraternities, and other societies have recognized the value of vocational training and have established trade schools or classes in various crafts. In this way the square peg is being kept out of the round hole, and skill and inclination are being directed into the avenues in which they will be most helpful to the youthful industrial prospect. Within the coming years I look for the science of vocational training and adaptation to revolutionize the prospects of our youth which are being turned into industry at the rate of more than two millions a year. Rehabilitation of the disabled man in industry. The Government itself has undertaken a great program in this same work. No longer are we going to permit the disabled man to stand on the street corner and proffer the tin cup for his livelihood. We are helping him to rehabilitate himself. By virtue of my office as Secretary of Labor, I have been a member of the Federal Board for Vocational Education for nearly nine years, and during that period have also been the chairman of the board. During these nine years the board has rehabilitated 40,000 disabled persons so as to restore them to earning power, either in their former occupations or in new ones even more highly paid than the old. In all my official life no experience has touched me more than this of making the world over for those who might have had to live lives of want and misery. And we are going right on expanding this work of restoration. Community life. Community plans are also of special interest and the community life of those who labor is of great concern to the whole State. Such importance attends the worker’s environment while off the job that 6 ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR the public interest of the future will more strongly than ever strive to build up the worker’s community life, through improving the schools, homes, parks, water supplies, and varied opportunities provided by nature, so that the worker in his leisure may not only be comfortably rested but may have available for himself and his family the most modern means of self-improvement and advancement. Labor turnover. Through research in labor turnover, industry is beginning to place its finger on those hidden causes of misunderstanding, suspicion, and distrust so often reflected in high turnover and attendant increasing cost. Manufacturers are realizing more fully the necessity for statistical data on the subject of labor turnover, as is evidenced by the fact that the employers in 350 companies in 22 States, employing 500,000 workers, have been willing to compile and give their company figures regularly once a month to such a large and representative statistical bureau as that which is a part of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. It is the intention to the Department of Labor to build on this foundation an index which will include, it is hoped, every State in the Union and represent thousands of companies employing millions of workers. The increasing demand for exact information on this subject makes comparative figures fundamentally necessary, and the department will be in a position, through the cooperation of the country’s employers, to compile and compare information on this subject in such a way as to be of great benefit to employers, employees, and the general public. Employers in the past have been inclined to look upon high labor turnover as an evil to be borne and for which there was little, if any, effective remedy. To-day, however, a careful study of labor turnover statistics is leading employers to realize that this is a controllable cost which may be reduced, if not averted. Department’s purposes. The Department of Labor intends to expand the statistics in labor turnover and employment, with the aid of employers. It aims also to ascertain the causes of and remedies for excessive turnover in industry generally. The object of the department will be to help both the worker and the employer to arrive at sound methods whereby turnover may be reduced to and kept at the lowest possible point consistent with sound business. Through its conduct of this national index, the department hopes to assist both management and employees so practically that they will find greater satisfaction in their work, and it thus hopes to aid industry by uncovering hidden causes of dissatisfaction and distrust and thereby decreasing labor costs. The opportunity in this connection is in a sense a challenge and one which the Department of Labor gladly accepts. It is my earnest ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR 7 hope that the employers of this country will collaborate with the department and the various cooperating agencies which have signified their willingness to aid in this national study so that it will grow and become a powerful aid to those responsible for conducting industry in a manner profitable to employers, employees, and to the community which they both serve. OFFICE OF THE SOLICITOR The Solicitor for the Department of Labor is an officer of the Department of Justice, and the members of his staff are also em-’ ployees of that department. The work of his office, however, is devoted entirely to matters of law arising in the Department of Labor and therefore should be included in this report. The details of that work for the fiscal year ended June 30,1929, are as follows: Legal opinions rendered, formal and informal (memorandum)------------ 272 A great many oral opinions, of which no record is kept, were also rendered during the year. Contracts and leases examined, approved, or disapproved-------------- 256 Bonds on contracts examined, approved, or disapproved---------------- 16 Bonds, alien immigrant, examined, approved, or disapproved-----------3, 416 Bills drafted and redrafted------------------------------------------ 5 Departmental regulations drafted------------------------------------- 1 Petitions for rehearing of cases in Supreme Court drafted------------ 1 Briefs for cases in Supreme Court drafted---------------------------- 1 Executive proclamations drafted-------------------------------------- 1 Power-of-attorney cards, authorizing agents to execute official and contract bonds for surety companies, examined------------------------4, 225 Miscellaneous matters embracing everything submitted for advice or suggestion of the solocitor, or for the formulation of departmental action, not included in the foregoing--------------------------------------- 792 Total_____________________________________________________________8,986 The above list covers office work only. In addition, the solicitor and his staff have appeared a considerable number of times in court in cases in which the Department of Labor had an interest. The solicitor appeared before the board of pardons of the State of Florida and argued petition and successfully urged commutation of death sentence which had been imposed in the State court upon Fred Brownlee, a deputized patrol officer of the Immigration Service who had been convicted of first degree murder in the case of a suspected smuggler of aliens. He also appeared for the department in the cases of George Clive Gurley and Philetus R. Farrell, immigration patrol officers, who were pardoned after being sentenced to life imprisonment in connection with the same case. Members of the solicitor’s office have appeared in the United States courts in the District of Columbia, Detroit, and Buffalo, and the United States Circuit Court 8 ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR of Appeals for the Second Circuit, assisting United States attorneys in behalf of the Secretary of Labor and his subordinates in matters arising under the laws administered by the department. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS The Bureau of Labor Statistics is the oldest unit of the department, and the annual report of the director, a summary of which appears elsewhere, shows that it is making good headway in carrying on the important work for which it was created. The bureau’s functions are limited to collecting and publishing facts concerning labor and related subjects, but in our modern civilization this may and does mean nearly all the important phases of our complex national life. In every line of activity we are very wisely, and to an ever increasing extent, depending upon knowledge as the only safe guide. Our great industries have established watchtowers from which every important happening or trend in industrial, business, and financial circles is carefully observed. In recent years the economic statistician has become as important a factor in manufacturing and finance, as the actuary has long been in life insurance. Forecasting business conditions has become a recognized profession, and, while not an exact science, the business world is to a considerable and growing extent regulated by its findings. Automobile and other great manufacturing interests now control their output on the results of extended and continuous study of general business conditions. Industries, like agriculture and others, which can not or do not utilize this modern method but still follow the old haphazard practice of producing without regard to the probable demand for their products, are the sources of most of the hard-times complaints. The bureau carefully refrains from forecasting of any nature or kind, but it is a pioneer in the field of collecting and publishing facts which show trends and conditions in its particular field of activity. The value of its work along these lines is widely appreciated both at home and abroad. It is criticized at times in some particulars, as is inevitable in work of this nature, but on the whole its findings are regarded as dependable contributions to economic knowledge, and they have been generally accepted as standard on the subjects concerned. BUREAU OF NATURALIZATION Following in the main recommendations made by the department, Congress by act of March 2, 1929, made important amendments to the naturalization laws, an outline of which appears later in this report. During the year American citizenship was conferred on 224,728 aliens in the more than 2,000 Federal and State courts having ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR 9 jurisdiction in naturalization matters. Subjects of Italy held first place, 44,843 men and women of that nationality having taken their final naturalization papers. Other countries making large contributions to the year’s record were Poland, 31,801; Russia, 18,291; Germany, 16,700; and Ireland, 13,162. A total of 41,014 former subjects of the British Empire acquired citizenship, including 8,223 Canadians. Only 664 nationals of New World countries, aside from Canadians, were naturalized during the year, Mexicans leading with 164. There is so little immigration from Latin American countries other than Mexico that the small number of their nationals who become naturalized is not surprising, but when the number of Mexicans who become naturalized is compared with the great immigration from that country, the result is significant. Immigration from Mexico is not a new thing, for there were nearly 480,000 natives of that country in the United States according to the census of 1920, and more than 430,000 have been admitted since that census was taken. In the case of most other nationalities this would have meant plenty of work for the Naturalization Service and the courts, but as a matter of fact only 569 Mexicans, or an average of 114 annually, have become citizens during the past 5 years. It would be gratifying were it possible to say that all aliens who apply for citizenship do so because of a real attachment to the United States and solely because of benefits and privileges which American citizenship confers. It is very clear, however, that a considerable part of the applicants during the past five years have sought citizenship with more than usual diligence because of the fact that under the immigration act of 1924 the wives and minor children of citizens are exempt from quota limit requirements and their fathers and mothers are granted a preference in the issuance of quota immigration visas. There have been instances in which courts have refused to confer citizenship because applicants stated they desired it in order to facilitate the coming of their wives and children. This motive, of course, is commendable, but in my judgment it is a matter of regret when American citizenship is sought for that reason alone. The extent to which applicants seek citizenship from this motive is in part indicated by the fact that considerably more than a majority of the relative visa petitions that are now filed in the Bureau of Immigration come from newly naturalized citizens. Moreover, the number of such petitions are increasing, for in the last fiscal year 40,774 were received, compared to about 29,000 in the fiscal year 1925. The fact that a nonquota status is accorded to the wives and children of American citizens very largely accounts for the fact that the number of immigrants of some nationalities admitted during 80114—29----2 10 ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR the fiscal year is several times as great as the quota allotment of the country concerned. In the past year for example 19,083 immigrant aliens of the Italian race were admitted, while the quota of Italy was limited to 3,845. The explanation of this excess is largely found in the fact that 6,305 wives and 7,202 minor children of American citizens of this race were admitted under a nonquota status. What is true of immigration from Italy is also true of Greece, Poland, Russia, Hungary, Portugal, and in fact practically every country in the quota area. But, whatever the motive for acquiring citizenship may be, it is gratifying to know that the standards which applicants must reach have become higher with the passing years and in the fiscal year 1929 11,848 petitioners were denied citizenship because of ignorance of our Government institutions, unsatisfactory moral character, and for other reasons. BUREAU OF IMMIGRATION The summary of the annual report of the Commissioner General of Immigration (seep. 55) shows that 279,678 immigrants and 199,649 nonimmigrant aliens were admitted, and that 69,203 emigrant and 183,295 nonemigrant aliens departed from the country during the fiscal year. It may be explained that the terms immigrant and emigrant refer to permanent admissions and departures, while nonimmigrant and nonemigrant mean the temporary inward and outward movement of aliens. Europe furnished 158,598, New World countries 116,177, and Asia 3,758 of the permanent immigration of the year, the three principal sources being Canada, 64,440; Germany, 46,751; Mexico, 40,154, and Great Britain and Northern Ireland, 23,576. No other single country contributed as many as 20,000 persons. There were 142,132 male and 137,546 female immigrants; 47,935 were under 16 years of age, 207,990 from 16 to 44 years, and 23,753 over 44 years. A considerable majority, 182,307, were single, 88,673 were married, 7,976 widowed, and 722 divorced. Deportations of aliens found to be unlawfully in the country reached the new high total of 12,908 for the year, compared to 11,625 in the fiscal year 1928. A total of 18,127 alien applicants for admission were debarred from entering the country under various provisions of the immigration laws, 16,094 such rejections occurring at land border ports and 2,033 at seaports. Rejections in both instances were largely occasioned by the fact that the applicants were without proper immigration visas— 15,509 at the land borders and 1,828 at seaports. There is nothing to prevent aliens from applying for admission at the land border without immigration visas, but a heavy fine imposed on steamship companies for transporting aliens without proper documents largely pre ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR 11 vents such applications at seaports. This forces an intending immigrant to apply for the needed visa at an American consulate, where, under the immigration act of 1924, the consul is authorized to refuse a visa to an applicant who appears to be inadmissible to the United States under the immigration laws. Inspection abroad. In this connection surgeons of the United States Public Health Service and experienced immigrant inspectors have been detailed to serve as technical advisers in immigration matters in the principal consulates of Europe, and as time goes on the wisdom of this plan becomes more and more apparent. So many more or less intricate formalities are required of an applicant for admission under our present rather complicated laws that a person intending to come to the United States is greatly benefited by having his admissibility practically determined at some place near his home rather than on arrival at a United States port. On the other hand, it is obvious that an inspection of immigrants abroad affords opportunities for a more thorough examination along certain important lines than could possibly be made at a United States port. The immigration officers and Public Health surgeons who act as technical advisers have no authority whatever in the matter of issuing or withholding immigration visas, that function being solely within the jurisdiction of the Consular Service. However, the fact that representatives of three departments of the Government have succeeded in cooperating so successfully in this important work is, I think, entirely worthy of special comment. The inspection of intending immigrants in foreign countries does not eliminate the necessity for further inspection at ports of arrival, as the law provides, but in practice it has insured that with remarkably few exceptions immigrants arriving at our ports of entry who have been examined under the joint consular and technical adviser system which prevails in Europe are physically and mentally sound and not morally undesirable. Application of selective principle needed. I am convinced that our present system of immigration control is lacking in one highly important particular, for, as I have repeatedly pointed out, there is no authority under existing law for selecting our immigrants with a regard to their economic or occupational desirability. I can best explain my meaning by referring to the present situation in Europe, where upward of 2,000,000 persons are said to have taken some step toward securing immigration visas at the various consulates, while the annual quotas of the countries concerned are only about 150,000. 12 ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR Under the present law the fathers and mothers of American citizens; husbands of citizens by marriage occurring after May 1, 1928 (husbands of citizens by prior marriage have nonquota status); the wives and minor children of aliens lawfully resident in the United States, and persons skilled in agriculture, are entitled to a preference in the issuance of visas, 50 per cent and in some instances an additional 25 per cent of the allotted quotas being available for this purpose. Otherwise the visas are necessarily issued on the principle of first come first served. I would not, of course, deny the preference privilege to applicants whose near relatives are waiting for them in the United States, but I have long been convinced that the remainder of the various quotas ought to be utilized when necessary to expedite the coming of immigrants for whose services along some particular line there is legitimate demand in the United States. I would not increase the present quotas for this purpose, because I believe they are large enough already, but would simply give a preference to immigrants who are needed here after the demands of preference relatives have been satisfied. Cases are constantly arising in which some American industry, institution, or interest can very clearly demonstrate that it needs the service of some particularly qualified person resident in a foreign country. But there is no provision for expediting such immigration. A man whose services may be sorely needed as the key man in some new industrial development which, when under way, might afford employment to hundreds or perhaps thousands of Americans, simply has to wait his turn with other visa applicants and before that turn is reached possibly hundreds of immigrants, or even several thousands, with no family ties in the United States, may be permitted to come here to seek employment in some industry in which there is already a surplus of workers. Obviously this is wrong, and I have repeatedly recommended and shall continue to urge that Congress extend the principle of selection, strictly within the allotted quotas, so that persons whose services are actually needed in the United States, and whose coming might provide profitable employment for American workers, may be admitted in advance of those whose entry would bring no needed labor, but, on the other hand, might directly or indirectly increase the unemployment that constantly prevails in some of our great industries. I recall an instance in which a European manufacturer was ready to buy an abandoned factory in a New England city and with his own capital establish an industry, the products of which are now imported. He wanted to bring his family here for permanent residence, and also two or three key men who were experts in the manufacturing processes involved and their families. Because of a long, ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR 13 waiting list of applicants for quota visas in the country concerned this group faced a delay of upward of two years before visas would be available and under the law no relief was possible. We admitted from that country last year 228 miners, 3,422 clerks and accountants, 1,615 locksmiths, 198 textile workers, more than 1,000 followers of needle trades, and hundreds of other workers who came because of their own desire rather than because there was need for their services in this country. In another case a native of a European country was needed to superintend a large plant devoted to manufacturing a comparatively new article for which there is the kind of phenomenal demand that occurs only in the United States. The man wanted was a recognized expert, who was not subject to the contract labor law, but when he applied for a quota visa he could only take his place at the end of a waiting list of 100,000 earlier comers. We admitted 1,000 miners, 200 textile workers, and nearly 1,500 clerks and accountants from the same country last year. In several instances it has been amply demonstrated that the services of a foreign scientist, chemist, engineer, or member of some other learned profession was actually needed in the development of some industry or in connection with some highly important undertaking involving research. In a few cases the need to bring in a limited number of highly skilled workmen has been shown, but earlier applicants for quota visas, who were coming for no specific purpose, had to take precedence. The solution I have in mind is very simple. It would provide that industries or other interests in the United States needing the professional services of some particular individual could allege to the Secretary of Labor that it was necessary to bring the needed talent from a foreign country. The Secretary, after full hearing and investigation, would authorize that a preference in the issuance of immigration visas be accorded to the particular person named. Other cases might arise in which there was an alleged need to bring in certain skilled artisans because like labor, unemployed, could not be found. In such cases possibly interested parties would be notified, open hearings granted, and full investigation made, all for the purpose of determining whether there is a bona fide and probably continuing need for such skilled labor which can not be supplied in this country, whether labor trouble of any nature exists in the industry concerned, and whether wages to be paid imported labor are up to the American standard. These facts having been favorably determined, the Secretary of Labor would authorize that preference visas be given to a specified number of applicants who possess the qualifications desired. With such authorization the various consuls could go over their record of applicants and if among them were 14 ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR found individuals possessing the needed qualifications they would be accorded a preference without reference to the particular place they happen to occupy in the long waiting list that may be on file. New immigration legislation. As explained at greater length elsewhere, two important laws affecting immigration were enacted during the year. Under the act of March 2, 1929, an alien resident of the United States concerning whose admission to the country no record is available, may secure registration provided he (1) entered the country prior to June 3, 1921, (2) has resided in the United States continuously since such entry, (3) is a person of good moral character, and (4) is not subject to deportation. This legislation was occasioned by the fact that in earlier days, before immigration was limited by quota laws, aliens could cross the land borders without careful inspection or could land as seamen and remain here without a record being made. In the absence of such record of entry the foreign-born resident could not acquire citizenship, secure a reentry permit, or enjoy other privileges that were available to regularly admitted immigrants. The registration law makes favorable adjustments possible in such cases, and thousands of desirable residents will undoubtedly benefit thereby. Our immigration authorities have repeatedly recommended that some punishment be provided in the case of aliens entering the country unlawfully after being arrested and deported. There are cases of record where the same alien has been deported as many as five times and as many as three such deportations were of common occurrence. The act of March 4,1929, not only makes reentry after deportation a felony punishable by fine and imprisonment but provides that any entry without inspection shall be a misdemeanor, and finally, that any alien theretofore or thereafter deported shall be forever barred from admission into the United States. The last-named provision immediately brought to light so many distressing cases that I recommended'a modification of the law to provide that the Secretary of Labor in his discretion might give aliens deported before the passage of the act permission to reapply. Congress did modify the law by act of June 24, 1929, by providing that aliens deported prior to March 4, 1929, permission to reapply having been granted before that date, alone might take advantage of such permission. This afforded deserved relief in a few cases, but the vast majority who have been deported in past years are still under the ban, regardless of circumstances or possible merit. Emigration from the United States. The Commissioner General of Immigration refers to the interesting fact that during the past 22 years (1908-1929) nearly 4,000,000 ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR 15 resident aliens left the United States with the stated intent to live permanenly in some foreign country. About 12,000,000 immigrant aliens were admitted to the country during the same period. The number leaving the country has diminished greatly since the quota law went into effect, but even now 25 alien residents emigrate for every 100 immigrants who enter for permanent residence, compared to 33 emigrants for 100 immigrants for the whole 22 years. The exodus from the country, however, is not limited to aliens, for during the past 12 years (1918-1929) more than 435,000 native-born and 62,000 naturalized citizens have left the United States to take up a permanent, or at least an extended, residence abroad. Immigration stabilized under the quota system. It is interesting to note the extent to which the quota-limit system has stabilized immigration from Europe in contrast to that coming from New World countries, natives of which are not subject to any numerical limitation. (The number of immigrant aliens admitted from Canada and Mexico, nonquota countries, and frojn Europe, where quotas apply, during the five years since the present law became operative, show what has happened in this respect: Immigrant aliens admitted Fiscal year 1925. 1926. 1927. 1928. 1929. 102,753 93, 368 84, 580 75, 281 66,451 Canada and Newfoundland Mexico Central and South America *32,964 3,669 43, 316 4,481 67, 721 5,548 59,016 5,917 40,154 5,260 Europe 148,366 155,562 168,368 158, 513 158, 598 The annual quotas allotted to European countries during the five years aggregated 161,422, and, while the above figures are not entirely comparable to the quota totals, nevertheless they serve to illustrate the important fact that immigration from Europe has been established at an annual volume that closely accords with the limit set in the quota law. It is possible that in future years the number coming from Europe may be considerably below the quota allotments, but it is not likely ever to exceed them to any appreciable extent, although liberal use is being made of the provision of law under which the wives and minor children of United States citizens are given a nonquota status. There is no such assurance, however, with respect to the volume of future immigration from New World countries, natives of which are not subject to any quota limitations. This is plainly evident from the figures relating to the 5-year record of immigration from 16 ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR Canada and Mexico. There has been a constant and considerable decline in the number coming from our northern neighbor, but immigration from Mexico has fluctuated both upward and downward to a marked extent, and undoubtedly this will continue so long as there is no limit to the number who may come if they so desire. This absence of any restriction or limitation on natives of New World countries coming here for permanent residence is the only obstacle in the way of complete numerical control of immigration and in my judgment the matter has already been too long neglected by Congress. Comparatively few permanent immigrants come to us from Central and South America. However, the trend has been upward in recent years and continued increases may be expected. Europeans who would come to the United States except for quota restrictions are now going in increasing numbers to Latin American countries. These persons themselves can not continue on to the United States except under the quotas of their native countries, but their children, born in the New World, are not subject to such limitations. It is well known that a good many of these immigrant families in South American countries have near relatives in the United States, and it is not difficult to conceive that in the future we will have very considerable immigration from such sources. In a previous report I expressed the opinion that the whole problem of immigration from New World countries could be satisfactorily solved by extending a modified quota system to countries the natives of which are now free to come to the United States in unlimited numbers. I suggested that more liberal quotas and an increased minimum quota be allotted to New World countries than in the case of others and pointed out that such action could not well be objected to as discriminatory in view of the fact that we already accord the privilege of open immigration to our neighbors of North, Central, and South America and at the same time impose quota restrictions on other countries. To my mind the modified quota system I have suggested would be less discriminatory than the present one. I further suggested that authority should be given the Secretary of Labor to admit a small number of persons from each of the contiguous countries to supply legitimate demands for seasonal or emergency labor. In the meantime, however, the national-origin system of computing the quotas has become effective with respect to Europe, and if that system is to be continued it might be extended to the present nonquota countries on some basis that would bring about the desired results. In advocating the adoption of some measure that would stabilize our immigration from New World countries, I want to make it clear that the proposal refers only to permanent immigration and ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR 17 not to travelers coming to the United States for business purposes or for pleasure. Provision ought to be made that such intercourse between the United States and every New World country shall not be hampered in any particular. My proposal is that the coming of permanent settlers shall be fixed at a limit which, although generous as compared with European countries, shall fortify against drawing away from our neighboring countries the native-born population which they so greatly need and which is not needed here. It must be remembered that practically all our New World neighbors are immigrant-receiving countries, not having reached the saturation stage which impelled the enactment of our own restrictive laws. Some of them are actively engaged in promoting immigration to their undeveloped lands, and under such circumstances it is hardly a neighborly act for the United States to continue a system of immigration control which to some extent already does and inevitably will continue to induce their native-born people to come to this country. Progress in law enforcement. I am convinced that further progress has been made during the year in the difficult task of bringing about uniform and reasonably adequate enforcement of the immigration laws. The Immigration Service, with the cooperation of department officials, has worked steadily toward that end during the more than eight years I have been Secretary of Labor, and, looking backward, I am more than gratified at what has been accomplished during that period in spite of the many obstacles that had to be overcome. At the very beginning of my administration the first quota law (1921) was enacted. The purpose of this law was to limit immigration from Europe to around 350,000 annually at a time when millions were making every effort to get to the United States, although millions of wage earners were then out of work here. The quota barrier greatly reduced legal admissions, but its application immediately resulted in the development of a variety of well-laid schemes for circumventing the law. The field force of the Immigration Service had not yet recovered from the disorganized condition into which it had fallen during the war period. Ellis Island, always the gateway of most European immigration, was in a deplorable physical condition. Available appropriations were materially reduced. Smuggling European aliens into the country by way of Cuba, Mexico, and to some extent through Canada, became a very considerable industry, and thousands were gaining admission by coming in the guise of seamen and deserting ships in our ports. In an effort to bring their human freight within the monthly quotas, steamships raced into port in the early morning of the first day, often with enough immigrants 18 ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR aboard to tax the inspection machinery for two weeks or more, and from almost every viewpoint the situation was highly discouraging. Bringing order out of such chaos was a most difficult undertaking, but it was accomplished. The machinery of law enforcement was effectively developed; a newly created border patrol eventually made alien smuggling from Cuba and over the land boundaries a hazardous occupation. Of course individual and organized efforts to defeat the law still persist and succeed to some extent, but when we think of the extent of our coast line with its innumerable harbors, inlets, and tributary rivers; the Great Lakes and other international waterways and the 6,000 miles of land boundaries, all of which must be watched; when it is considered that a million seamen come to our ports and that over 50,000,000 persons cross and recross the land borders every year, of which over 30,000,000 are aliens, it can be truthfully said that in spite of limited funds our immigration laws are being effectively enforced. Court proceedings. The tendency of the Federal courts in some districts to supplant the administrative prerogatives which the law accords to the Secretary of Labor in matters relating to the admission and expulsion of aliens continued to increase during the year. Recourse to the courts is the undenied right of an alien in the event the Secretary exceeds the authority given him by the immigration law, but certainly it was never intended that his legitimate administrative acts should be subject to review by the courts. The law, which vests the administration of the immigration laws in the Secretary of Labor, seems plain enough, and there is a long line of judicial decisions supporting it, but unless the principle involved can be firmly reestablished by the Supreme Court, it is my opinion that it ought to be reasserted in the law in terms which can not be misunderstood or misinterpreted. Otherwise there is grave danger that the regulation of immigration—which, as it ought to be, has always been an administrative function—will be taken over by the courts, and when it is considered that in the course of a year about 40,000 decisions of various kinds are made by or for the Secretary of Labor, the growing danger of substituting judicial for administrative control becomes regrettably apparent. In upholding the validity of Immigration General Order 86 in April, 1929, the United States Supreme Court contributed materially to enforcement of the immigration law on the land boundaries. This celebrated case grew out of the department’s ruling that aliens residing in foreign contiguous countries and entering the United States to engage in existing employment or to seek employment in this country will not be considered as visiting the United States ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR 19 temporarily for business, but will be considered as aliens of the “ immigrant ” class. In other words, it was ruled that aliens residing across the land borders could not pursue regular employment in the United States without first complying with the law governing permanent admission, including payment of head tax, and compliance with quota requirements. A generous time allowance was made for the adjustment of cases in which residents of Canada and Mexico were already employed on this side of the boundaries, but new applicants were denied admission unless the law was complied with. In habeas corpus proceedings the district courts sustained the position taken by the Immigration Service until overruled by the circuit court of appeals in an opinion which promised to paralyze immigration law enforcement. The Supreme Court, however, unanimously sustained the department’s point of view and incidentally put a more severe and far-reaching construction on the provision of law involved than had been attempted by the Immigration Service. Consolidation of immigration laws. In a previous annual report and in other ways I have pointed out that the various laws relating to immigration ought to be consolidated into one comprehensive statute. There are so many of these laws, either in the form of separate acts or amendments to the general immigration law of 1917, the Chinese law, or the quota limit act of 1924, that only those who are familiar with every individual enactment can possibly know what the provisions of the law really are. At the last session of Congress, for example, a law was enacted which modifies both the general immigration statute and the quota act in highly important particulars, and later on at the special session the new law itself was amended. This sort of thing has happened so frequently since the last general statute was passed in 1917 that the whole fabric of our immigration law has become a thing of shreds and patches. A former official of the Department of Labor, who is now on the Federal bench, has very aptly said that “ the immigration act of 1917 (the general law), as a piece of legislative draftsmanship, is an impossible jumble, unintelligible, confusing, and unreadable. Some of the paragraphs are so long, refer to so many subjects, and have so many provisos making exceptions to what goes before, that no human being can possibly know what they mean after reading them.” Since the 1917 act was passed our traditional open-door immigration policy has been supplanted by a policy of drastic restriction. Consular control, authorized under the 1924 act, has made possible a system of partially sorting intending immigrants in their home countries, which vitally important function was formerly entirely limited to our ports of arrival. Laws relating to the deportation or expul 20 ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR sion of aliens have been amended and to some extent strengthened. An entirely new method of limiting oriental immigration has been adopted. A border patrol for preventing illegal entry over the land boundaries and along the sea coast has been added to the enforcement machinery of the Bureau of Immigration. The Federal courts in some districts have little by little usurped administrative functions which the law clearly intended should be the responsibility of Immigration Service and department officials, and formerly important provisions of law have become conflicting, some obsolete, and others useless and even detrimental. For these and other reasons there is urgent need for thorough renovation, reconstruction, and simplification of the statutes which relate alone to immigration control. The department has already taken the first step toward the needed consolidation by preparing and submitting to the appropriate committees of Congress a compilation in which related provisions of the various statutes are brought together without change of text. The next need is to rewrite these provisions without omitting or modifying essentials, leaving all questions of policy until the last. Obviously the rewriting process ought to be done by those who are thoroughly familiar with every detail of the various statutes, the relations of such details to like provisions of other laws, and administrative practice and judicial decisions relating thereto. The Department of Labor and Bureau of Immigration would be glad to undertake the none too easy task of carrying the work to the next stage, or to cooperate with the committees of Congress to that end, if instructed so to do by Congress. (For recommendations see p. 46.) THE WOMEN’S BUREAU The act of Congress authorizing the creation of the Women’s Bureau directs that it shall “ formulate standards and policies which shall promote the welfare of wage-earning women, improve their working conditions, increase their efficiency, and advance their opportunities for profitable employment.” The bureau is directed by a woman, its staff of workers is entirely made up of women, and it is gratifying to be able to report that during the year they have worked untiringly in carrying out the purposes for which the bureau was created so far as available resources would permit. Women have long been factors as wage earners in industry as well as in many other lines of activity, but in recent years the tendency to seek employment outside the home has materially increased. Moreover this tendency is not limited to those seeking gainful employment but is found among women generally. The average family is much smaller now than in earlier days and mechanical and other labor-saving devices have so lessened the bur ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR 21 den of work in the home that even homemakers have far more spare time for outside activities than ever before. Women who have no need to seek gainful employment are more and more spending that spare time through participation in educational, civic, political, and other activities, while many more devote it to some occupation which affords a livelihood or supplements a family income. The considerable increase in the number of gainfully employed women that has occurred during and since the war has been attended by a good many maladjustments of a nature which affects health, safety, and often the family life. The work of the Women’s Bureau has been largely along the line of studying such maladjustments and suggesting possible remedies for unfavorable conditions that may exist. During the past year, for example, it has collected, consolidated, and in large part published data concerning women employed in 5, 10, and 25 cent stores; meat-packing plants; Hawaiian pineapple canneries; the cigar industry ; laundries; and other industries. It has studied the trend of women’s wages and hours of labor during recent years in various States. It has compiled and published up-to-date information concerning the laws of various States that affect employed women, and court and other decisions affecting such laws. At the request of the Governor of Florida and the Florida League of Women Voters, field workers of the bureau made a comprehensive survey of conditions under which women are employed in the various industries of that State. It made a survey intending to show the trends of employment for women and for men in the State of Ohio during a period of 11 years. It made a study which included more than 17,000 negro women workers in 15 different States and continued an earlier study of the causes of lost time among men and women in cotton mills. In addition to original surveys and studies the bureau annually compiles and publishes a great variety of information concerning women in industry derived from other official sources and in general has become a recognized source of information concerning the important subjects which come within the scope of its activities. In addition to all the foregoing the director and her assistants find time to confer with and advise State and other organizations engaged in a similar line of work, and, on the whole, the bureau renders a valuable and much needed public service. CHILDREN’S BUREAU As in the case of its other bureaus, and, in fact, of the department generally, the act of Congress creating and defining the duties of the Children’s Bureau is brief and conspicuously free from ambiguities. The act states that it shall be the purpose of the bureau to 22 ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR investigate and report “ upon all matters pertaining to the welfare of children and child life among all classes of our people,” and particularly to “ investigate the questions of infant mortality, the birth rate, orphanage, juvenile courts, desertion, dangerous occupations, accidents and diseases of children, employment, legislation affecting children in the several States and Territories.” When it is considered that about one-third, or somewhat more than 35,000,000, of the inhabitants of the United States are children under 15 years of age, it is obvious that the bureau has an almost unlimited field for its helpful activities. From the beginning the bureau has worked along scientific lines. Associated with it are some of the country’s, if not the world’s, leading experts in matters pertaining to motherhood and child life. Its publications are not only widely circulated in the United States but are in demand in all civilized countries of the world, and there can be no doubt that the results of its work have materially aided in gaining better knowledge and control of the diseases of childhood and in the reduction of infant mortality that has occurred in recent years. Detailed references to the work of the bureau during the past year appear elsewhere in this report. It is not necessary for me here to discuss at length its manifold activities. I may refer, however, with regret to the fact that with the close of the fiscal year 1929, Federal and State cooperation under the so-called Sheppard-Towner maternity and infancy act came to an end by reason of failure of Congress to provide further authorization for the work. It will be recalled that the Sheppard-Towner Act, which was approved November 23, 1921, provided for Federal and State cooperation in promoting the welfare and hygiene of maternity and infancy for a 5-year period. This was later extended for another two years and by 1929 45 States and the Territory of Hawaii were cooperating with the Children’s Bureau under the act. It was the obvious purpose of Congress in enacting the law that the Federal Government should lead the way in providing for the better care of the mothers and children of the Nation and to that end it made generous appropriations from the Federal Treasury for use in States which made like appropriations for the same purpose. The Children’s Bureau has administered the law during the seven years and in that time has succeeded to a marked degree in creating interest in the purpose of the legislation and in promoting cooperation and uniformity of effort among the participating States. The usefulness of the work has, to my mind, been very clearly demonstrated, and it is my hope that the States will carry on, even though Congress in its wisdom has declined to permit further financial sup- ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR 23 port on the part of the Federal Government. Although Federal funds are no longer available for actual participation, it is the purpose that the Children’s Bureau shall continue its recognized leadership in maternity and infancy work in collecting and publishing helpful information, as well as in an advisory capacity. THE CONCILIATION SERVICE The conciliation service, of which Hugh L. Kerwin is director, operates immediately under the Secretary of Labor, and as the years go by the helpful efforts of the department’s trained conciliators in smoothing out difficulties between American employers and employees have become increasingly effective and more widely appreciated. Since the creation of the department in 1913, 9,048 trade disputes have been submitted to the conciliation service for its good offices. These cases involved, directly and indirectly, 12,637,809 workers. As it is well understood, the department does not as a general policy intervene in labor disputes on its own initiative. It prefers to utilize its good offices on invitation of one of the parties concerned or the public directly affected. The force of conciliators is made up of men and women who have become or are becoming familiar with all phases of every important industry in the country. They have been carefully trained to preserve an absolutely unbiased attitude, and this, together with their knowledge of industry, makes it possible for them to render service of a very high order. They have been called the peacemakers in industry, and I feel that I am not overstating the fact when I say that the better relations which exist between employers and employees are in no small part due to their helpful efforts. I believe that the personnel engaged in this excellent service should be gradually increased. During the fiscal year 1929 a total of 522 strikes, lockouts, or controversies were referred to the department for adjustment. These disputes were distributed in 28 different States and the District of Columbia, the great majority of them being centered in the industrial States of the North. Pennsylvania led with 139, New York was second with 98, Massachusetts and New Jersey were tied for third place with 41 each, Illinois had 36 and Indiana 34. Delaware, Maine, and Oregon had but one each. This does not mean that no trade disputes occurred in some of the other States, but rather that disputes arising in these States during the year were of minor importance and it was not deemed necessary to send commissioners of conciliation for long distances away from their official stations, especially when negotiations were in progress locally. These States 24 ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR are found mostly in the extreme southern and southwestern parts of our country. Of the 522 cases presented to the department, 385 were adjusted, 40 were found impossible of adjustment, and 21 were recorded as unclassified, which implies that settlements were immediately effected by the parties directly concerned, the commissioner arriving after agreement was reached, or the case did not warrant the services of a Federal representative. Seventy-six cases were pending at the close of the year. Of the cases pending at the close of the last fiscal year, 11 adjustments were subsequently secured, bringing the total cases adjusted during the year to 396. Many of the remaining cases recorded as pending are also in process of settlement. In the function of conciliation in labor disputes, a point developed is the fact that too much publicity not only affects the work of our officials but often disastrously affects the relationship of those concerned, even after the' controversy has been terminated. As in the diplomatic service between nations not all the real negotiations can be published, so this might be designated as the diplomatic service of American industry, and in its work, at times, neither the negotiations nor the results of mediatory efforts can be given any publicity, because of the tensity of feeling existing and the necessity for a period of “ cooling time ” in which the feelings engendered in the actual breach may lose all their bitterness. For, after all, human pride is a common attribute of both employers and employees, and must always be taken into account. The record of specific cases handled—and the great bulk of them were adjusted through the joint efforts of the interested parties, guided and assisted by the commissioners of conciliation—has brought forcibly to light many other interesting human characteristics. We have not, in this particular service, received full credit as a direct result of our helpfulness, for reasons peculiar to the situations which could not be even officially recorded in the statistics which have been quoted. For instance, recently, in one of our great cities a contracting concern engaged on projects involving several millions of dollars was faced with a suspension of operations on several buildings. A strike followed on a Saturday, and it was desirable that no publicity should be given to it; that no record be made of the particular case; and that the work of restoring peace in that situation be pursued quietly. On the following Tuesday morning work was resumed on all of the projects. It was evident from the first that publicity would injure the construction activities of the firm in other cities, and the department was particularly concerned that no word of the controversy get into the press. ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR 25 Similar instances have often arisen, and the department has realized that the real measure of the effectiveness of this service can not be accurately measured by the statistical records, because of the hundreds of cases in which its representatives have acted in an advisory or consultant capacity. Many of these would have resulted in strikes or developed a degree of unrest which would have interfered with the progress of the plants or operations. By this method matters were arranged without any credit coming to the service other than that known to the directly interested parties. By this means scores of strikes have been prevented. Increasing numbers of employers and employees whose relationships have become involved in dispute call on the department for the assistance of these experienced conciliators. This has been a great satisfaction to the department, inasmuch as it is believed that the very best sort of settlement that can be reached between employer and employee in disagreement is by the council-table method, where both sides sit down like business men, in a real conciliatory spirit, with the department’s representatives acting as neutral third parties, without power to make awards or insist upon the enforcement of any of the decisions, but simply guiding the conference and drawing upon their experience gained through the years in handling similar situations, thus bringing about a meeting of the minds and causing discord to give way to harmony. Settlements reached in this approved manner are enduring and respected, because each interest was a party to the making of the agreement and is in honor bound to carry it forward in good faith. Both also realize that the Government representative has a knowledge of the various steps taken to reach the adjustment, and they have a pride in demonstrating their faith in it. That knowledge and the moral pride in the given work of each side tends to establish rigid adherence to the terms of the agreement. The gradual reduction in the number of trade disputes is due in no small part to the constant circulation, among the employers and employees of the commisisoners of conciliation, who, without bias or interest, are in position to give of their knowledge and draw upon their experience in such a way as to give fullest assistance to the parties in controversy. In all workmen’s compensation acts in this and other countries, prevention of accidents is one of the great underlying motives of the law. So, in the work of conciliation, the underlying motive is the prevention of strikes and lockouts. It is coming to be understood and appreciated that conciliation and meditation as practiced in this country constitute the real Ameri- 80114-29—- 26 ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR can way of keeping peace in industry. Of course, it is realized that when these methods fail, as sometimes they must fail, arbitration is the next step, and the department has not hesitated at any time to suggest this method when it seemed best to do so. When a dispute reaches the point where arbitration is the logical course to pursue, then the points in dispute should be definitely stated; and nothing except the items set forth in the submission should be subject to arbitration. Many arbitration cases have failed because of the injection of extraneous matters which developed after the original submission of the case. Cooperation and good will between management and men is the real purpose of the Conciliation Service. Cases reported from various States during the fiscal year 1929, by months State July Aug. Sept. Oct. Nov. Dec. Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May June Total Arizona 2 3 2 15 9 1 3 36 34 10 4 1 3 41 2 3 8 3 41 98 6 29 1 139 6 10 5 2 2 8 California 3 1 1 1 3 1 2 2 1 5 1 1 3 2 1 1 Connecticut Delaware District of Columbia. Illinois 1 1 5 1 7 5 3 1 4 3 4 1 3 4 2 1 3 2 1 2 4 1 2 5 5 2 Indiana 1 2' Iowa Kentucky 2 Maine 1 Maryland 1 1 1 10 1 2 Massachusetts 1 2 5 4 3 7 4 1 1 2 1 5 19 5 Michigan Minnesota Missouri 1 1 1 2 1 New Hampshire 1 3 6 1 1 10 New Jersey 2 3 2 5 8 11 6 10 3 10 8 10 5 3 3 5 1 3 New York 3 6 North Carolina Ohio 2 8 2 3 8 Oregon 1 8 Pennsylvania 9 7 5 15 7 5 7 3 12 2 35 1 6 16 13 Rhode Island South Carolina 4 1 Tennessee 3 1 2 Texas Virginia 2 3 W a.sh i n g t on 1 3 1 Total 31 30 23 59 21 20 40 39 43 100 72 44 522 Summary of workers affected, by months Month Workers affected Month Workers affected Directly Indirectly Directly Indirectly 1928 July 51,464 10.076 42. 598 14, 497 11,045 4, 247 11,165 6,909 68. 240 34,193 6, 394 2,068 1929 January ... 4, 669 28,126 19, 167 55, 399 121,911 21,410 8, 531 2,534 14, 240 27,222 27, 253 63, 882 August September _ February March. . A pril _ November May . . December June Total 384, 607 272, 631 ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR 27 Summary of cases, 19H-1929 Cases 1914'1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 Number___ 33 I 42 277 378 1,217 1,789 802 457 370 534 544 559 551 545 478 522 Adjusted__________ Unable to adjust.. Pending___________ Unclassified______ 28 5 26 10 5 178 22 21 6 248 47 42 41 865 71 7 66 1, 223 111 13 214 ,vj-; 96 9 101 338 48 24 47 266 41 31 32 428 27 60 19 346 62 67 69 392 64 42 61 377 61 43 70 395 57 24 69 307 57 53 61 385 40 76 21 Cases pending at end of last fiscal year and now adjusted, 11, Total number of adjustments, 396. / To illustrate the general character and variety of work done in the conciliation service, a brief description of a few typical cases are shown. They appear on pp. 85 to 102 of this report. These specific cases have been selected from the many industrial controversies on which commissioners of conciliation were engaged during the year. UNITED STATES EMPLOYMENT SERVICE A function of the Department of Labor, as defined by the law creating it, is that of advancing wage earners’ opportunities for profitable employment, and Congress has specifically authorized that such purpose may be furthered by regularly collecting, furnishing, and publishing information as to opportunities for employment; maintaining a system for clearing labor between the States; and cooperating with and coordinating the public employment offices throughout the country. The United States Employment Service, of which Francis I. Jones is director, conducts this work under the direct supervision of the Secretary of Labor. Every month the service collects employment information from all parts of the country and issues a monthly bulletin containing comment on conditions in each State and in approximately 590 industrial centers. This information is collected by direct contact with industrial leaders, labor-union officials, State labor commissioners, chambers of commerce, business men, and others who are in a position to supply reliable data. The monthly bulletin is supplied to all cooperating public employment offices and to others directly interested in the trend of industrial and agricultural employment. Cooperation with State agencies. In order to facilitate cooperation with State agencies, directors of public employment offices are designated as representatives of the United States Employment Service, usually with only the minimum compensations necessary under the law which forbids the Federal Government’s accepting voluntary unpaid service. In some 28 ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR instances the service pays, wholly or in part, the salary of employees needed to carry on its work where sufficient State funds are not available, but such financial participation is both necessarily and purposely limited. In commenting upon the cooperative work with State agencies, the director general of the service says: To meet the changing conditions and to give more effective service, the several States now cooperating with the United States Employment Service should place more money at the disposal of their public employment services. Practically all offices are undermanned and many are inadequately housed in undesirable locations. Many of the offices of the cooperating service are unable to give proper attention to higher class placements, by reason of the lack of facilities. It is a matter of much regret that the public employment offices in many of the cooperating States have made no advance or forward movement in the development of the Employment Service in their States. In fact, some States, instead of making progress, have lost ground, and some have ceased to function owing to the legislatures of their respective States failing to make appropriations to maintain the same. Farm labor activities. The United States Employment Service maintains no independent employment offices except in connection with supplying farm labor to meet seasonal demands in the larger agricultural sections of the country. This activity is carried on strictly as a Federal operation under the general direction of the administrative office. Annual reports of the farm labor division cover calendar rather than fiscal years, and the following comment is quoted from the director general’s report covering the year ended December 31, 1928: The wonderful growth and development of this division is evidence of what can be accomplished by the United States Employment Service under Federal supervision. For the past seven years there has been a gradual growth and expansion of this division, it having increased from one original office in Kansas City, Mo., to 11 permanent offices located at the following named strategic points: Main office, Kansas City, Mo.; Forth Worth, San Antonio, and El Paso, Tex.; Shreveport, La.; Denver, Colo.; Sioux City, Iowa; Sioux Falls, S. Dak.; Fargo, N. Dak.; Spokane, Wash.; and Medford, Oreg. More than 100 temporary offices were maintained during the harvest season to meet the farm-labor requirements. It is gratifying to report that accomplishments for the past year surpasses all previous records. This was possible by reason of a small increase in the appropriation granted by Congress to the United States Employment Service. Your attention has heretofore been called to the farm labor needs of New Mexico, California, Utah, Arizona, South Carolina, and other southern States. It is hoped that funds will be forthcoming in order that the farm labor division may be extended to these important agricultural sections of the country. The farm labor division, with its main office in Kansas City, Mo., functions practically the entire year in order to take care of the seasonal demands of the several agricultural sections of the country. Its first field of operation is in the 60,000-acre strawberry area of Missouri and Arkansas. Strawberry pickers are recruited from outside the territory, as very few pickers are avail ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR 29 able locally. In order that the service may function with maximum efficiency and direct its work intelligently, special agents, under the direction of the field director, made a survey of labor requirements for tlie season. Newspapers, posters, and bulletins giving information as to the needs of this area were of invaluable assistance in recruiting strawberry pickers. It is expected to soon extend the service to include the strawberry area of Louisiana. Following the strawberry harvest, the next field of operation is the wheat harvest in Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas, continuing northward to North Dakota. The requirements of wheat area in the inland territory of Washington and Oregon, as well as Idaho and Montana, are taken care of by the assistant director, with headquarters at Spokane, Wash. The combine, which harvests the wheat in one operation, is in general use in Kansas and Oklahoma, and where this machine is employed labor requirements are reduced. However, owing to excessive rains, which delayed the harvest fully two weeks in north central Oklahoma and south central Kansas, causing the simultaneous harvesting of the crop in these States as well as in Nebraska, an extraordinary demand for harvesters prevailed. After the harvesting and threshing of wheat and allied grains, the gathering of the sugar-beet crop, the digging of potatoes, the gathering of apples and other fruits in the States of Washington and Oregon, and the harvesting of the important corn crop, make heavy demands upon the service. These crops were harvested successfully, due to the splendid work of the farm labor division in supplying the men necessary. The gathering of cotton presents many complicated and intricate problems for the farm-labor division. The demand for pickers begins in the early part of July in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, and picking continues in that State until late in December. Frequently it continues on into January. Texas being the most important cotton-growing State in the Union, the farm-labor division has been developed in that State to a higher degree of efficiency than in any of the other cotton-growing States. Plans are now under way to give the same efficient service to other cotton-growing States not now being served by the Employment Service—namely, South Carolina, Georgia, and Mississippi. Arizona is rapidly becoming an important cotton-growing State, and its demands upon the service for pickers have been met as far as possible. The El Paso office has been very helpful in directing cotton pickers to the Arizona cotton growers. Where the farm-labor division is in operation in cotton-growing States, it is no longer necessary for the cotton growers to leave their plantations and go to labor centers for the required help, as their request by letter or telephone is given immediate attention. By special arrangements made with automobile transportation companies, the pickers are dispatched to the points where needed. The cost of transportation is frequently advanced by the cotton growers and refunded to them by the pickers as soon as it is earned. Reports have been circulated that cotton-picking machines were instrumental in gathering most of the cotton crop. From our personal knowledge cottonpicking machines have had no material effect upon the demand for labor. The director of the farm labor division makes the following report for the year under review: Men reerpited for seasonal harvesting--------------------------------- 541. 280 Men directed to general farm work_____________________________________ 18, 291 Total__________________________________________________________ 559,571 The money expended to conduct the farm-labor division was approximately $65,000, making a per capita cost of about 12 cents. 30 ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR The farmers who are served by the United States Employment Service are appreciative of what the Federal Government is doing in supplying them with harvest laborers at the right time to harvest their crops successfully, and the value of the service to the agricultural interests now being served can not be measured in terms of dollars and cents. The directing of permanent farm laborers is not essentially the work of the farm-labor division, as that is regarded as more largely a local responsibility. The chief function of the farm-labor division is the recruiting, directing, and distributing of seasonal farm labor, involving the movement of men from area to area and from State to State, which is a proper Federal function. Acknowledgment is made of the splendid cooperation given by the commissioners of labor of the States in the area served, the several chambers of commerce which assisted the service by providing free space, heat, light, and telephone service, and the generous publicity given by the newspapers. Junior placement work. The service assists in the operation of junior placement offices in 31 cities in 16 States. This cooperation is effected through the public schools, and in Wisconsin and New Jersey through the State labor departments. During the fiscal year 31,369 juniors were placed in employment. Employment service for Indians. Negotiations are now pending with the Indian Service of the Department of the Interior to establish a Federal Indian public employment service for the express purpose of developing opportunities for employment for Indian boys and girls who have graduated from Indian schools. In the event this service is established it will be a step forward by the Government in its efforts to serve the Indian. Through the proposed employment service, the young Indian men will be given special attention with the hope of directing them to industries where they may receive training and become skillful mechanics or engage in other lines of work to which they may be adapted. It is hoped to find employment for the Indian girls leaving school, either as domestics, or for those who are equipped for other work, efforts will be made to place them in work comparable with their qualifications. Through the proposed Indian employment service it is hoped to place in employment on highways and in agricultural pursuits, the Indians who are now wards of the Government living on the reservations. Employment aid to ex-service men. Negotiations are now under way with the Veterans’ Bureau for establishing an employment service specifically to aid ex-service men in finding employment. It is proposed to give special attention to the handicapped veteran. It is not reasonable to expect that the cooperating State employment offices can give special attention to this particular phase of the Government’s responsibility, as very ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR 31 few of the offices have sufficient personnel to discharge their present obligations, without taking on additional work. UNITED STATES HOUSING CORPORATION The Housing Corporation, of which Lulah T. Andrews is president, during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1929, collected from its real property holdings the total sum of $1,142,089.19, which may be divided as follows: Disposal of properties--------------------------------------------$929, 938. 41 Operation of properties------------------------------------------- 8, 837. 71 Interest on loans------------------------------------------------- 203, 313. 07 Disbursements on account of appropriations affecting these collections totaled the sum of $56,284, or 4.93 per cent of the amount of the collections. In this connection it should be noted that $212,150.78, that is, operation and interest, was realized and exceeds expenditures by $155,866. In addition to the moneys above mentioned there was realized from the operation of the Government Hotels in Washington, D. C., during the fiscal year just ended, $288,737.49. The total expenses for that period aggregated $280,981.37, making an excess of receipts over disbursements of $7,756.12. Although this amount should not be considered as profit (neither interest nor amortization having been calculated), it does, however, indicate that $7,756.12 more was collected than was expended. During the fiscal year just closed a number of positions were abolished or consolidated, several field offices were eliminated, and the work of others was transferred to banks acting in the capacity of collectors, resulting in a considerable saving in that department. Further reductions hereafter will be made in the field and the work of those offices will be transferred to the Washington office as the indebtedness due the corporation shall be gradually reduced by liquidation. It is, of course, quite apparent that with the closing of field offices and the transfer of those duties, the work of the Washington office has been increased, and will continue measurably to be increased so long as this plan shall be followed. Sales and conveyancing. Total real property sales for the past fiscal year approximated $13,000. During this period 350 deeds of conveyance, deeds of release, and notes and mortgages were drafted, affecting properties sold in the various projects. The aggregate amount of unsold real estate on June 30 was $125,738.39. As has been stated in former reports, aside from the usual routine of conveyancing incident to the closing of purchase contracts by 32 ANNUAL EEPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR deed—or by deed, note, and mortgage—there constantly are arising transactions in connection with which it is necessary to draft such various and miscellaneous other instruments as the peculiar facts and circumstances of individual cases may require. Where numbers of contracts have been in force for 10 years or more, changes in the legal status of the parties invariably must occur, such as death, marriage, insanity, divorce, guardianship, administration, and many others. In fact, every question which may ordinarily arise in the business world in connection with the sale and transfer of real properties is being encountered. The corporation for a number of years past has been without legal representation at its various projects,, and consequently these problems have of necessity been dealt with solely by the Washington office. In last report comment was made on the matter of the Hammond, Ind., conveyancing to the effect that all contracts, with the exception of a few, had been converted into deeds, or deeds, notes, and mortgages. All these cases since have been disposed of, except one that involves the interest of minors, who, by reason of their legal disability, have been precluded from executing a note and mortgage for the balance of the purchase money. This example is typical of the difficulties above discussed. Requisitioned property. As stated in former reports, much of the property of the corporation was acquired by requisition proceedings under the act of the Congress of May 16, 1918, which was a war measure made necessary for the immediate acquiring of title to lands where it was found impossible to obtain them by purchase from various owners or where there was uncertainty as to possible time of transfer. Under the act such lands were taken as against owners and all other claimants. Compensation based on true values was fixed by the Secretary of Labor by order, to be paid to claimants upon proper proof by them as to their former bona fide ownership or other interest. Such claimants as protested the sufficiency of the amount of compensation were, under the act, paid 75 per cent of the amount with the right and option on their part to sue for a larger valuation and award than had been granted originally. All except a comparatively small number of these cases have long since been disposed of, and of the remaining few several have been closed during the past fiscal year. One case will serve as an example to indicate the nature of the complications which often occur: At Bremerton, Wash., the United States was forced to requisition certain lots for the reason that—although terms had been agreed upon with the parties—the owners were not able legally to deliver a good and indefeasible title. The title to the properties had been ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR 33 vested in the wife of one of the claimants. She had died and her estate was in process of administration by the State courts. One child had disappeared and another had died leaving minor issue. Guardianship proceedings were necessary in the case of the infant and another appropriate proceeding was required affecting the interest of the heir who had disappeared. There were certain city taxes and assessments outstanding against the properties which the claimants were unable to discharge and the compensation could not be paid until a full release had been obtained from all the heirs and other claimants showing the title to be clear. Meanwhile the properties were foreclosed to satisfy the taxes and assessments and the claimants finally were able to obtain the funds necessary to discharge the liens and to place them in position to have their claims approved for payment. ’ This has only recently been accomplished. Litigation. In the last report reference was made to a decision of the Supreme Court of the United States involving the question of the assessment of certain taxes against properties sold by the corporation at the New Brunswick (N. J.) project and the consequent difficulties that had been encountered. The point involved was as to whether properties sold by the corporation were subject to State taxation prior to the actual vesting of title in the purchasers who had paid sufficient of the purchase moneys to entitle them to receive deeds upon their executing notes and mortgages covering the outstanding balances of the purchase prices. The United States District Court for the District of New Jersey theretofore had held that such lands were taxable and were subject to sale for nonpayment. Under that decision if the purchasers should fail to discharge such taxes, the corporation, in order to preserve the purchase money liens of the Government, would itself be forced to pay them. Upon appeal, the circuit court of appeals for the third circuit reversed the lower court, holding that such lands were not subject to taxation prior to the dates on which the corporation actually parted with title by the delivery of deeds. The Supreme Court decided that the taxable status of the properties sold by the corporation was to be determined by the laws of the several States where the properties were situated, but that in any event the lien of the United States for unpaid purchase moneys was paramount to the tax lien of the States. The purchasers at the New Brunswick project have since been con* testing the right of the State so to tax, and thus the matter now rests. A similar tax situation has for some time past existed at the Philadelphia project, and the taxing authorities have been awaiting the 34 ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR ultimate outcome of the controversy at New Brunswick. The purchasers at both projects have protested the right of the municipalities to subject their properties to sale for taxes, and many meetings have been held and committees have from time to time conferred with the corporation to the end that relief might be granted them in the premises. Owing to obvious misunderstanding among the purchasers as to the equities involved, it was decided by the corporation that each purchaser should be fully and definitely informed as to the true status of the situation, and a written statement was issued and mailed to all purchasers defining the position of the Government and informing them that, in view of the decision of the court hereinbefore referred to, the corporation was powerless to intervene in the controversy. However, with a view to improving the condition of these workers by furnishing them some financial relief, a proposal was made to allow a discount on all amounts outstanding and not yet due under their contracts, affecting those which were not in arrears' in current payments, provided all balances were paid in cash on or before November 1, 1929. In cases in which purchasers (mortgagors) have defaulted in the payment of purchase money amounts due under notes and mortgages, and after all reasonable opportunity has been afforded them to discharge their indebtedness and they have shown no inclination to comply, it has been necessary to institute suits of foreclosure, as is commonly done by all mortgagees under like circumstances. In many instances, after considerable negotiation, delinquent mortgagors have been induced to reconvey their properties to the Government, thus saving the fees and expenses which otherwise would be required in connection with foreclosure proceedings and in the gaining of posession of such properties for resale. Insurance. Under the contracts of sale affecting improved properties the purchasers are required, at their own expense, to insure all dwellings in the joint names of themselves and United States of America. This feature has necessitated the keeping by the corporation of such insurance books and other records as are usual with the average insurance agency, as well as the mailing out of expiration and other notices incident to the issuing of the policies. At the close of the fiscal year 1929, there were in the files of the corporation 1,648 policies representing the total coverage of $6,362,689. Government hotels. Owing to the fact that the plan ultimately is that all the hotel buildings shall be razed and the area now occupied by them shall become part of the Capitol grounds, there had been, up to the end ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR 35 of the last fiscal year, a gradual reduction m the patronage of Government employees, who sought more permanent homes, but recently the number has been increased approximately by 100 more than was shown in last report, and a still further increase is anticipated during the coming year. The laundry service of the hotels’ plant still is being maintained. During the past fiscal year 2,618,260 towels and miscellaneous other articles were laundered (and delivered) for practically all the Government departments. This recent service exceeds by more than 100,000 pieces the output shown in last report. In March, 1929, the Commission on Enlarging the Capitol Grounds served notice on the corporation that the buildings on the lands bounded by New Jersey Avenue, Delaware Avenue, and B and C Streets be vacated and demolished for the reason that this area is first to be developed. It, therefore, has become necessary that the occupants of those buildings be removed to the plaza group, and that the activities formerly carried on in Administration Building No. 2, and other buildings, be also transferred to that group. OFFICE OF THE CHIEF CLERK Under the direction of the Secretary, the chief clerk has direct charge of the various divisions of the Office of the Secretary. He performs such duties as usually are performed by similar officers in all the executive departments. Department quarters. The need of the department for additional space has been greatly accentuated during the past year by new activities resulting from amendments to the immigration and naturalization laws. The Public Buildings Commission has made every effort to supply additional space, and recently turned over to the department approximately 5,600 square feet in the Ordnance Annex Building and 500 square feet in Temporary Building No. 1. While this is of considerable help, it does not solve the problem. Even with the additional space given the department, it is unable to comply with the building regulations which require the reduction of the height of its files below the danger point. i Several of the bureaus are situated in other buildings scattered over a wide area. The fact that these activities of the department are located in buildings approximately a quarter of a mile distant from headquarters makes efficient handling of the Government business a difficult matter. Due to the necessity of supplying space for other activities dis-posessed by the building program of the Government, the Public Buildings Commission finds it increasingly difficult to comply with 36 ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR the department’s requests for additional space, and the commission has informed the department that it has just about reached the limit. The only solution of this problem is the early erection of the new Department of Labor Building which, as planned, will provide space for all the department’s work, with room for expansion, but at the rate at which this expansion is occurring it would appear that the department will almost fill the new building when it is ready. The activities of the department are housed as follows: In the Department of Labor Building, located at 1712 G Street NW., are the administrative offices of the department, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bureau of Immigration, and Bureau of Naturalization. This building contains 87,292 square feet of floor space, with a net available office space of 63,994 square feet. Several activities of the department occupy space in other Government buildings, as follows: Children’s Bureau occupies 19,385 square feet and Women’s Bureau 7,790 square feet, a total of 27,175 square feet, in Tempo Building No. 4, Twentieth and D Streets. The United States Employment Service occupies 2,543 square feet and the Bureau of Immigration (for storage of files) 2,782 square feet, a total of 5,325 square feet, in Tempo Building No. 1, Eighteenth and D Streets. The Division of Publications and Supplies occupies 1,402 square feet and the Bureaus of Immigration and Naturalization occupy 6,632 square feet, a total of 8,034 square feet, in the Ordnance Annex Building, directly back of the department headquarters. The Naturalization Service occupies 864 square feet in the Walker Building, 462 Louisiana Avenue. The Bureau of Industrial Housing and Transportation occupies 4,634 square feet in the Maltby Building, 200 New Jersey Avenue NW. The total space available for offices, now occupied by the department in Washington, is approximately 120,000 square feet, exclusive of corridors, wash rooms, and the like. PERSONNEL Officials and employees. There was an increase of 384 employees in the department on June 30, 1929, as compared with the number of employees in the previous year. This increase was mainly in the Immigration Service, occasioned by the enlargement of the patrol force of that service, 269 being added. There were small increases in the Naturalization Service, 25; Children’s Bureau, 33; Labor Statistics, 30; and Employment Service, 22. The Women’s Bureau shows a loss of 1 position, while ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR 37 the office of the Secretary was increased by 1 and the Conciliation Service by 4. Of the total number of employees in the department * * *•(4,550), 718 are employed in the District of Columbia and 3,832 in the field service outside the District. There are 213 employees (not included in the above figures) in the United States Housing Corporation, which is the same number as shown the previous year. The total of 4,550 includes 392 who are employed at the nominal compensation of $1 per annum. Of this number, 257 are in the United States Employment Service, 8 in the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 89 in the Children’s Bureau, 30 in the Conciliation Service, 8 in the Immigration Service. In the above there are also included 85 customs officers, without compensation, designated to act as immU grant inspectors. Number of officials and employees of the Department of Labor, July 1, 1929, as compared with July 1, 1928 July 1,1929 Increases Bureau or office In District of Columbia Outside District of Columbia Total July 1, 1928 (+) or decreases (-) Office of the secretary__________________________ Conciliation Service.____________________________ Bureau of Labor Statistics_______________________ Children’s Bureau________________1_______________ Immigration Service------------------------------ Naturalization Service___________________________ United States Employment Service_________________ Women’s Bureau___________________________________ Total______________________________________ United States Housing Corporation________________ 94 94 93 +1 4 168 2 72 68 +4 154 88 <162 132 +30 144 «128 6 272 239 +33 169 7 2, 976 8 3,145 2,876 +269 98 290 388 363 +25 13 ’362 1’375 353 +22 42 — 42 43 -1 718 3,832 4,550 4,167 +384 206 7 213 213 1 Includes 30 at $1 per annum. a Includes 28 at $1 per annum. a All $1 per annum. * Includes 7 at $1 per annum. ! Includes 89 at $1 per annum. ’Includes 98 at $1 per annum. 7 Includes 8 at $1 per annum and 85 without compensation (customs officers designated to act as immigrant inspectors). 8 Includes 55 at $1 per annum. • Includes 257 at $1 per annum. *• Includes 250 at $1 per annum. Transfers. There were 23 persons transferred from other departments to the Department of Labor and 35 from this department to other departments. The table does not show, however, the number of employees who were nominally reinstated in the Department of Labor for the purpose of immediate transfer. The following table shows in detail the number of transfers te> and from the department during the year: 38 ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR Transfers to and from the Department of Labor during the fiscal year 1929 The table showing a comparative statement as to number of employees in the department at the end of the fiscal year and at the beginning of the fiscal year 1930 has been omitted from this report since the number in each bureau or service is identical on both dates. Retirement. The following table shows the number of employees retired and those beyond the age of retirement who have been continued in the service under the provisions of the civil service retirement act, also the amount of deductions refunded to employees leaving the service each year since 1921. There were 8 employees retired during the fiscal year and 18 given extensions. There were 238 applications for refund of deductions, and the total amount of refunds was $33,431.77. The total number of applications for refund for the period 1921 to 1929 was 2,476, with a total of $204,787.05 refunded. Retirements, extensions, and refunds under the retirement act of May 22, 1920, for the period August 1, 1920, to June 80, 1929 Action 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 / Employees retired 26 13 17 12 13 Extensions 20 5 12 10 10 Applications for refund 169 221 242 237 343 Total . - 215 239 271 259 366 Amounts refunded $2,041.21 $8,611.25 $13,402. 78 $16, 598. 39 $21,681.24 ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR 39 Retirements, extensions, and refunds under the retirement act of May 22, 1920, for the period August 1, 1920, to June JO, 1929—Continued Action 1926 1927 1928 1929 Total Employees retired 11 26 15 8 141 Extensions 10 12 12 18 109 Applications for refund 319 394 313 238 2,476 « jr Total 340 432 340 264 2,726 Amounts refunded $26,175. 91 $39,583.25 $43,260.25 $33,431.77 $204,787.05 DISBURSING OFFICE The disbursing clerk prepares requisitions for public funds from appropriations for the department. He also pays its obligations and does the general accounting of the department. Naturalization fees and moneys received by the Secretary of Labor from aliens in lieu of bonds are accounted for by him. Under the operation of the immigration permit fee system during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1929, approximately 121,217 remittances, aggregating $363,651, were received, as against 137,893 remittances, aggregating $413,679.03, handled during the preceding fiscal year. Appropriations. For the fiscal year ended June 30, 1929, the appropriations by Congress to the department and its services were as follows: Salaries, Office of the Secretary_________________________________ $208, 070 Salaries and expenses, commissioners of conciliation_______________ 210, 000 Contingent expenses, Department of Labor____________________________ 55, 000 Rent________________________________________________________________ 68, 000 Printing and binding----------------------------------------------- 205, 000 Salaries, Bureau of Labor Statistics_______________________________ 317, 701 Miscellaneous expenses, Bureau of Labor Statistics_________________ 101, 000 Salaries, Bureau of Immigration_____________________________________ 98, 720 Expenses of regulating immigration_______________________________ 1 7, 557, 855 Immigrant stations__________________________________________________ 50, 000 Salaries, Bureau of Naturalization_________________________________ 106, 438 Miscellaneous expenses, Bureau of Naturalization___________________ 772, 717 Salaries, Children’s Bureau________________________________________ 112, 229 Investigation of child welfare, Children’s Bureau__________________ 144, 936 General expenses, Children’s Bureau_________________________________ 60, 000 » Promotion of welfare and hygiene c2 maternity and infancy________ 1, 057, 646 Administrative expenses, welfare and hygiene of maternity and infancy_______________________________________________________ 50, 354 Salaries and expenses, Women’s Bureau---------------------------- 108, 257 Employment Service, Department of Labor-------------------------- 217, 200 Total__________________________________________________11,501,123 Under the provisions of the act approved May 22, 1920 (41 Stat. L, 614), the following amounts were paid from the appropriations $13,500 deducted and transferred to contingent expenses. 40 ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR for the Department of Labor and placed to the credit of the civil service retirement and disability fund in the Treasury Department: Salaries, Office of the Secretary------------------------------- $5,131. 60 Salaries and expenses, commissioners of conciliation____________ 597. 23 Salaries, Bureau of Labor Statistics---------------------------- 7, 932. 32 Miscellaneous expenses, Bureau of Labor Statistics______________ 500. 61 Salaries, Bureau of Immigration--------------------------------- 2, 864. 49 Expenses of Regulating Immigration______________________________ 172, 803. 66 Salaries, Bureau of Naturalization______________________________ 3, 382. 98 Miscellaneous expenses Bureau of Naturalization_________________ 21, 305. 52 Salaries, Children’s Bureau_____________________________________ 2, 972.18 General expenses, Children’s Bureau_____________________________ 599. 58 Investigation of child welfare, Children’s Bureau_______________ 4, 218. 29 Administrative expenses, welfare and hygiene of maternity and infancy______________________________________________________ 1, 259. 42 United States Employment Service________________________________ 192. 05 Salaries and expenses, Women’s Bureau___________________________ 2, 563. 79 226, 323. 72 Expenditures. The expenditures, arranged according to items of appropriation, were as follows: Office of the Secretary: Salaries, 1928______________________________________________ $7, 892. 76 . Salaries, 1929______________________________________________ 184, 947. 49 Contingent expenses, 1927___________________________________ 1. 50 Contingent expenses, 1928______________________________________ 9, 996. 08 Contingent expenses, 1929_____________________________________ 52, 559. 67 Salaries and expenses, commissioners of conciliation, 1927__ 5. 26 Salaries and expenses, commissioners of conciliation, 1928____ 11, 369. 96 Salaries and expenses, commissioners of conciliation, 1929___ 175, 455. 25 Rent, 1928----------------------------------------------------- 5, 666. 67 Rent, 1929-------------------------------------------------- 62, 333. 33 Printing and binding, 1928____________________________________ 79, 045. 44 Printing and binding, 1929____________________________________ 81, 361. 02 International Exposition at Seville, Spain, 1928____________ 61. 98 International Exposition at Seville, Spain 1928-1930________ 2, 923. 98 673, 62O.~39 Bureau of Labor Statistics : Salaries, 1928_________________________________________________ 9, io5. 91 Salaries, 1929_______________________________________________ 258, 012. 71 Miscellaneous expenses, 1928__________________________________ 7, 811. 87 Miscellaneous expenses, 1929_________________________________ 77, 715. 69 352, 646,18 Bureau of Immigration: Salaries, 1928______________________________________________ 4, 058. 84 Salaries, 1929---------------------------------------------- 86,585.15 Expenses of regulating immigration, 1928____________________ 494,936 51 Expenses of regulating immigration, 1929____________________ 6, 496, 557.14 Immigrant stations, 1928____________________________________ 21, 790. 63 Immigrant stations, 1928-29_________________________________ 148, 437.11 Immigrant stations, 1929___________________,________________ 29, 059. 88 7, 281, 425 26 ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR 41 Bureau of Naturalization: Salaries, 1928------------------------------------------------ $4,105. 26 Salaries, 1929________________________________________________ 93,332. 33 Miscellaneous expenses, 1928_______________________________ 34,120.19 Miscellaneous expenses, 1929---------------------------------- 687, 251. 99 818, 809. 77 Children’s Bureau: Salaries, 1928_____________________________________________________ 4, 491.14 Salaries, 1929____________________________________________________ 98, 542. 66 General expenses, 1928--------------------------------------------- 4, 558. 28 General expenses, 1929____________________________________________ 48, 791. 41 Investigation of child welfare, 1928------------------------------ 10, 358. 36 Investigation of child welfare, 1929----------------------------- 126, 333.39 Administrative expenses, welfare and hygiene of maternity and infancy__________________________________________________ 23,199. 22 316, 274. 46 Women’s Bureau: Salaries and expenses, 1928___________________________________ 6,112. 06 Salaries and expenses, 1929___________________________________ 98, 843. 52 104,955 58 Employment Service: Employment service, 1927___________________________ 3.00 Employment service, 1928___________________________ 12, 610.11 Employment service, 1929___________________________ 191, 544. 75 204,157. 86 Grand total___________________________________________ 9, 751, 889. 50 In addition to the disbursements by the disbursing clerk, the following expenditures on behalf of the department were specifically made: By special disbursing agents for the Immigration Service (estimated)______________________________________________ $166, 551. 99 Claims settled by the office of the Comptroller General_____ 81, 559. 34 248, 111. 33 Miscellaneous receipts. The following receipts from miscellaneous sources have been recorded during the year: Bureau of Immigration: Head tax--------------------------------------------------J$2, 841,114. 00 Fines------------------------------------------------------ 1152. 591. 70 Collection for permits to reenter the United States_______ 363, 651. 00 Forfeiture of bonds_______________________________________ 158, 419. 84 Sales of exclusive privileges_____________________________ 1,155. 30 1 Estimated. 80114—29-----4 42 ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR Bureau of Immigration—Continued. Sales of Government property_____________________________ $246.92 Miscellaneous collections________________________________ 387. 96 3, 517, 751. 68 Bureau of Naturalization: Naturalization fees________________ 930,842.53 Children’s Bureau : Interest on public deposits______________ 2, 397. 49 Total receipts_________________________________________ 4,450,991.70 Unexpended balances. In accordance with the act of Congress of June 20, 1874 (18 Stat. L. 110, 111), the following unexpended balance of appropriation and repayment thereto was covered into the surplus fund of the Treasury Department June 30, 1929: Promotion of welfare and hygiene of maternity and infancy, 1927_$73. 48 PUBLICATIONS AND SUPPLIES Printing and binding. The $205,000 appropriation for 1929 was apportioned as follows: Office of the Secretary__________________________________________________$8, 500 Bureau of Labor Statistics________________________________________ 87, 500 Bureau of Immigration_______________________________________________ 5, 000 Immigration Service______________________________________________________21, 000 Binding manifests________________________________________________________ 3, 000 Children’s Bureau------------------------------------------------- 44, 500 Bureau of Naturalization____________________________________________ 2, 000 Naturalization Service and examiners_______________________________11, 000 Women’s Bureau______________________________________________________ 9, 500 Employment Service________________________,_______________________11, 000 Reserve------------------------------------------------------------- 2, 000 It was found necessary to use the $2,000 reserve before the end of the fiscal year. Against this appropriation 1,298 requisitions were forwarded to the Government Printing Office, aggregating $206,848.90, based on estimates. Bills to the amount of $140,585.83 have been sent in by the Public Printer and payments to that amount have been made, leaving an estimated cost for the completion of pending requisitions of $66,263.07, this being $1,848.90 in excess of the appropriation, which excess will necessarily be carried over to the next fiscal year. There were sent also to the Government Printing Office for the United States Housing Corporation requisitions amounting to $523.40. ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR 43 Printed stationery. During the year 445 requisitions for printed stationery were honored, 165 of which were for the offices and bureaus of the department and 280 for the services outside the department. Envelopes. A total of 337 orders calling for 5,302,415 envelopes were addressed to contractors at an approximate cost of $8,093.59, as compared with 532 orders calling for 5,262,917 in 1928 at a cost of $8,237.12. Editorial section. The editorial work and proof reading are reflected in the figures herewith. Folios of copy forwarded to the printing office, not including reprints and blank forms, 18,278; galley proofs received 4,185, returned 3,798; page proofs received 11,770, returned 12,680; proofs of forms received 159, returned 154. Books and blanks. Requisitions for books and blanks to the number of 5,632 were filled, of which 4,130 were for clerks of courts, 266 for naturalization examiners, 917 for immigration, employment, and customs services, and 319 for the bureaus in Washington. Shipments to the total number of 63,862, with an aggregate of 241,394 pounds, were made. They were divided among four classes: Registered mail, 4,620 packages, weighing 35,287 pounds; regular mail, 5,856 packages, weighing 21,348 pounds; regular mail in bags, 2,411 bags, weighing 182,208 pounds; and letters, invoices, etc., 50,975, weighing 2,551 pounds. Service was rendered to the other divisions in the forwarding of material, as follows: 109 boxes of freight and express weighing 2,481 pounds; 8,091 packages regular mail weighing 17,984 pounds; 827,740 letters weighing 41,386 pounds; a total of 835,940 pieces weighing 61,851 pounds. Supplies forwarded via freight and express covered 4,542 consignments weighing 416,922 pounds, and 75 parcel-post packages weighing 989 pounds, a total of 4,617 shipments weighing 417,911 pounds. The total distribution of mail, express, and freight reached 904,419 pieces weighing 721,156 pounds. There were distributed 10,230 blank books and 11,394,499 blank forms. Packages of blanks received numbered 22,571, containing 228,976 blank forms, while 4,182 packages of supplies, weighing 183,815 pounds, were received. The total number of parcels incoming and outgoing handled numbered 931,172. Duplicating work. The record of duplicating work shows 1,357 mimeograph requisitions, consisting of 2,390 pages, requiring 2,304 stencils, and an aggregate of 1,890,585 printed copies were made. 44 ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OE LABOR Publications were distributed on mailing lists to the number of 422,984 and on franks, of which 249,455 were written, 2,447,824, making the total publications sent out 2,870,808. Supplies. Activities in the purchase of supplies increased tremendously during the fiscal year 1929. This was due partly to the normal increase of the service occasioned by the increase in the activities of the Immigration Service. There were handled during the year 3,117 requisitions, as compared with 2,683 for 1928; 4,530 orders were written, as compared with 3,825 the preceding year. These orders covered 6,960 items, while those in 1928 covered 5,858. The total expenditure covering these orders was $167,224.26, as compared with $137,013.33 the year before. The contingent appropriation for the year of $41,500, together with an authorized transfer for field use of $13,500 from the appropriation “ Expenses of regulating immigration,” makes an aggregate of $55,000. Expenditures from this fund are included in the $167,000 shown above. The expenditures and obligations, so far as can be exactly determined at this time, show $54,540.70, leaving an apparent balance of $459.30. DEPARTMENT LIBRARY The catalogued accessions of the library for the year numbered 9,120 books and pamphlets. In addition much material of ephemeral character, but of real value temporarily, was classified by subject and made available for quick use in the vertical files. About 19,000 index cards were added to the main catalogue. The library has continued to prepare copy for cards to be printed by the Library of Congress for all the publications of the department, of the International Labor Office, and for important current accessions in labor and child welfare. These entries go out on the । proof sheets and later as printed cards to the principal libraries of the United States and to a number of important libraries abroad and help to make known the work of the Department of Labor. Exchange relations have been established with a number of international federations of labor and national labor organizations abroad. The library sends in return certain carefully selected publications of the department. Correspondence has been continued with American trade-unions in the effort to round out the files of publications in the library, with increasing cooperation, 50 responding out of the 55 unions written to this year. The proportion of State federations of labor replying has not been so satisfactory. Because of the pressure of other work no progress was possible on the1 bibliography of American trade-unions. ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR 45 The separate number of periodicals received, recorded, and circulated to the bureaus totaled 48,157. The list of journals currently received was increased during the year by 115 new periodicals, the majority of these coming by exchange as the result of correspondence. The total number of periodical publications received by the library is now about 1,850, including official statistical, labor, and r social-welfare journals from 53 countries. The volume of work of the periodical section has steadily grown. The periodicals received must be stamped and recorded, circulated to the bureaus, charged and discharged, missing numbers requested, and the volumes kept for the permanent collection, catalogued and collated for binding. At present only two assistants are regularly assigned to this work. Another is very greatly needed, for the value of the service depends on the work’s being kept strictly up to date. Five bibliographies were contributed to the Monthly Labor Review during the year. The selected and annotated list on injunctions in labor disputes covered the situation since 1911, the date of the Library of Congress bibliography on the subject. The great interest in the subject of old-age pensions and the frequent requests for bibliographies were responsible for the choice of that subject for three bibliographies covering public old-age pensions in Canada, in Australia and New Zealand, and in the United States. Two aspects of unemployment have received special attention. “ The Older Worker in Industry ” was the subject of a bibliography in the July Monthly Labor Review. The bibliography on technological unemployment or the displacement of labor by machinery will probably be completed during the fall. The reference lists on convict labor prepared for the Monthly Labor Review a year ago were revised and brought up to date at the request of the Department of Commerce for reprinting in its report on prison industries. The library is constantly in receipt of requests for bibliographies on important labor subjects which it is unable to supply. Much of the bibliographical work which is accomplished is done as the result of overtime. The past year has shown greater use of the library by outside organizations. The library of the Department of Labor is the national labor library and as its valuable resources have become better known it has been increasingly used by students of labor problems. A great many requests for information are received also by correspondence. Some of these involve considerable research to answer. The library is aiding in one of the purposes of the department “ to foster, promote, and develop the welfare of wage earners of the United States ” when it is making known through its reading-room service, its correspondence, and its printed bibliographies the facts about conditions in industry. RECOMMENDATIONS 1. Elsewhere in this report I have referred to the many acts of Congress which wholly or in part go to make up our present laws relating to immigration, and I strongly recommend that Congress give serious consideration to codifying or consolidating such scattered legislation into one comprehensive statute. 2. Experience has shown that the enforcement of laws, the violation of which involve smuggling, can be accomplished only through using the same or better weapons than are used by smugglers, and in view of the fact that airships are already being employed by smugglers to violate the immigration and other laws, chiefly on land boundaries, I recommend that provision be made for creating and maintaining an adequate air patrol to be devoted solely to the enforcement of such laws. 3. The detention of aliens held under warrant proceedings has long been one of the serious problems of the Immigration Service, especially in localities that are remote from such immigration stations as are provided with detention facilities. There are almost no such stations except at the principal seaports, and for obvious reasons these are not available for the detention of aliens who are apprehended along the land boundaries, or in the interior of the country, and who must be detained in jails. This already deplorable situation has been made immeasurably worse since the passage of the immigration act of March 4. 1929, which, as elsewhere pointed out, makes illegal entry or attempted illegal entry an offense punishable by both fine and imprisonment. Although this law has been in force for a few months only, nevertheless the detention of aliens awaiting prosecution and their imprisonment upon conviction of illegal entry has in several instances overcrowded available jails along the land boundaries to an alarming extent. The department has long believed that eventually it will be necessary to provide suitable Federal quarters for the detention of aliens, especially along the land borders. In my opinion this need has now become imperative, and I strongly urge that Congress consider the matter with a view to providing detention facilities as may be necessary either for immigration purposes alone, or as may be needed in connection with the enforcement of other laws. 4. As elsewhere explained, the act of March 4, 1929, provides, “ if any alien has been arrested and deported in pursuance of law, he 46 ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR 47 shall be excluded from admission to the United States whether such deportation took place before or after the enactment of this act. ’ This provision was subsequently modified to a limited extent, but in the main the great majority of aliens who were deported prior to March 4, 1929, are forever barred from admission no matter what the circumstances may be. In this connection I desire to repeat the recommendation made to the chairman of the Senate Committee on * Immigration on May 27, 1929, and that the law in question be amended by the addition of the following proviso: Provided, That this act shall not apply to any alien arrested and deported * before March 4, 1929, in pursuance of law, in whose case prior to his reembarkation at a place outside the United States, or his application in foreign contiguous territory for admission to the United States, the Secretary of Labor has granted such alien permission to reapply for admission. PART II ACTIVITIES OF THE BUREAUS As already explained, the Conciliation Service, the United States Employment Service, and, of course, the chief clerk s office, opei ate under the immediate direction of the Secretary of Labor. The separate administrative units of the department and their chief executive officers are as follows: Bureau of Labor Statistics: Ethelbert Stewart, Commissioner. Bureau of Immigration: Harry E. Hull, Commissioner General. Bureau of Naturalization: Raymond F. Crist, Commissioner. Children’s Bureau: Grace Abbott, Chief. Women’s Bureau: Mary Anderson, Director. Condensed reports of the work of these bureaus during the fiscal year 1928 follow: BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS The Bureau of Labor Statistics was created in 1885 and is the oldest of the various units making up the Department of Labor. From 1885 to 1888 it was known as the Bureau of Labor and was in the Department of the Interior. From 1888 to 1903 it had an independent status as the Department of Labor, but was never accorded full departmental rank and consequently was not represented in the President’s Cabinet. In the latter year it was restored to its original status as the Bureau of Labor and became part of the Department of Commerce and Labor. In 1913 it was transferred to the newly organized Department of Labor under its present name. The act creating the original Bureau of Labor stated that its function should be to “ collect information upon the subject of labor, its relation to capital, the hours of labor and the earnings of laboring men and women, and the means of promoting their material, social, intellectual, and moral prosperity.” This charter was broadened somewhat in the act creating the present Department of Labor, which provides that the Bureau of Labor Statistics “shall collect, collate, and report at least once each year, or oftener if necessary, full and complete statistics of the conditions of labor and the products and distribution of the products of the same * * In view of the fact that there are millions of wage earners in the United States, and that the annual appropriation available for the 49 50 ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR bureau’s work is only about $359,000, it is obviously impossible to collect, collate, and report annually full and complete statistics concerning labor and its products. The principal activities of the bureau include the making of continuing studies of certain topics of special interest to labor, and to the general public as well, such as wages and hours of labor, trend of employment, prices, cost of living, industrial accidents and health, tabor legislation, workmen’s compensation, strikes and lockouts, and building operations. In addition to these continuing studies, the bureau makes special investigations from time to time dealing with subjects of current interest, as directed by Congress or as funds are available; for example, during the fiscal year 1928-29 it made rather extensive studies of the hazards of spray painting, radium poisoning, public-service retirement systems, and the care of aged persons in the United States. Wages and hours of labor. Investigations of this character during the year included surveys of wages and hours in 11 important manufacturing industries; the regular annual survey of union scales of wages in selected cities for the principal time-working trades; an investigation of the wage rates and hours of labor of common street laborers in American municipalities; semiannual reports on the entrance rates of common labor in various industries; a review of the 5-day week movement in American industry; a study of minimum-wage legislation and administration in various countries; and a compilation of wage rates in foreign countries. Of much historic interest is a history of wages in America from colonial times to the present, which was completed during the year. This study was based primarily on wage data collected by the bureau during the past 40 years, supplemented for the earlier years by documentary material gleaned from hundreds of old reports and documents which are rapidly ceasing to be available to the average reader or student. Without extended discussion it may be said that during the year there was a small upward movement in wages in several industries and a continuing downward trend in working time. Employment. An additional appropriation made by the Seventieth Congress enabled the bureau to extend its regular monthly employment survey during the year, the activities now included being manufacturing, wholesale and retail trade, public utilities, anthracite and bituminous-coal mining, metalliferous mining, hotels, canning and preserving, ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR 51 and quarrying and nonmetallic mining. The scope of tne employment survey at the close of the fiscal year included more than 31,000 establishments having in excess of 5,000,000 employees. The geographical distribution of these industries makes it possible to observe the trend of employment in different sections of the country, and this affords opportunity to study the growth or decline of industry in one section as compared with another; for example, a study has been made of the cotton-goods industry in New England, the Middle Atlantic States, and the Southern States, which graphically shows the remarkable changes that have recently taken place in this industry. The value of the bureau’s employment statistics is greatly enhanced by promptness in making them public, a summary of the data for each month being issued on or about the 16th of the following month, and a printed pamphlet, containing details, about a week later. It is gratifying to note that the average index of employment for the 12 months ended June 15, 1929, was 2.7 per cent higher than the corresponding average for the 12 months ended June 15, 1928. Still more gratifying is the fact that during the first six months of 1929 employment was 5.5 per cent above the average index for the first six months of 1928, and the average increase in pay-roll totals during the same period in 1929 as compared with 1928 was 9.2 per cent. Unemployment. While the bureau’s reports present an informing picture of employment conditions month by month, they do not show the extent of unemployment. In fact, anything like adequate records of unemployment are practically nonexistent, except in some highly organized crafts or as the result of an occasional local survey in some particular city. The Department of Labor has repeatedly pointed out the need for a country-wide unemployment survey, and there is assurance that such a survey will be made in connection with the 1930 Federal census. This will supply the basic facts regarding the actual number of persons out of work in the country at one particular date, and when this is known employment statistics collected monthly by the bureau may be used in connection therewith to estimate closely the amount of unemployment at other dates. The possibility of stabilizing employment throughout the year is one of the phases of the general employment problem which is now receiving serious attention. In an effort to measure, at least in some degree, the extent to which industry is now unstable in this respect, and to determine whether improvement has taken place in recent years, the bureau has made a number of studies of stabilization. 52 ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OP LABOR Labor turnover. Beginning with July, 1929, the bureau has arranged to take over the turnover surveys formerly carried on by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., summaries of which have been published quarterly in the Labor Review. This work has steadily developed until at the present time more than 300 companies are furnishing reports on turnover, and this number will be greatly increased as soon as sufficient funds are made available for the additional clerical help necessary. It is planned to publish monthly the figures furnished in these reports. Five-day week. Following the adoption of the 5-day week in the building trades in New York City early in 1929, the bureau prepared a brief report showing the progress of this important movement in other places and industries. No field survey was attempted, but material already at hand amply showed that the 5-day week is becoming increasingly prevalent in American industry. It has progressed most rapidly in the building trades, the men’s clothing industry, and the automobile industry, but it is of growing importance in other industries, such as foundries and machine shops. Retail and wholesale prices. The bureau has collected and published retail-food prices for a considerable number of years. Prices of 43 articles of food are now secured from approximately 1,500 retail dealers, including chain and neighborhood stores patronized by workingmen’s families, in 51 cities in various parts of the country. Retail prices are also secured from 240 bakeries, 150 dairies, 225 coal dealers, 80 gas companies, and 70 electric-light companies. Wholesale prices in representative markets of the country are now being collected each month for more than 600 commodities. Cost of living. Index numbers of changes in the cost of living in the United States are compiled by the bureau every six months on the basis of data obtained from 32 cities. There are two essential steps in the process of computing changes in the cost of living. One is to find the differences at stated times in the cost of articles entering into the usual family expenditures and the other is to so “ weight ” the price of each article that such price will have its proper effect in determining the change in the cost of living as a whole. There is urgent need for a new, thoroughly comprehensive familybudget survey, and an adequate appropriation should be made for it. The value of the cost-of-living figures depends very largely upon the accuracy of the measurement of the standard of living as derived ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR 53 from a family-budget survey. The survey now being used for weighting purposes was made in 1918-19, and, although the 12,096 families scheduled were widely scattered, shipbuilding centers were given rather undue prominence because the survey was made primarily for use in wage adjustments in shipyards. During the intervening decade many changes in the consumption habits of the American people have undoubtedly occurred. Even in food habits there have been changes, due to price changes, and, in part at least, to a more general knowledge of food values and the importance of a well-balanced diet. Since the war, also, many new forms of expenditures have passed from the class of luxuries to the class of everyday utilities, such as automobiles, radios, electrical household appliances, and the like. To the extent that these changing consumption habits have seriously affected the distribution of family expenditures, the present weighting system used by the bureau is, of course, out of date and needs revising. It can not be too strongly insisted upon that cost-of-living index numbers are not merely of abstract or scientific interest. They have a very practical value. A study of the actual use of cost-of-living figures in wage adjustments was made in 1928. (Labor Review, March, 1928, p. 1.) This study showed that the bureau’s periodical indexes were being used in wage adjustments by large numbers of private companies, by State and municipal agencies, by arbitration boards, and by organized labor. Safety codes. The Commissioner of Labor Statistics represents the department on the council of the American Standards Association which is carrying on the important work of preparing and publishing safety codes. Of the 40 codes thus far projected 30 have been completed and approved; 14 of these have been published by the bureau for distribution to State boards and to industrial concerns. Industrial health. The bureau has been active for many years in the study of occupational diseases and has taken a leading part in the movement toward reducing casualties among workmen resulting from hazards incidental to their occupations. Because of the effective work the bureau has done in this field in the past both employers and workers look to it for information and advice. The limited funds available, however, greatly restrict activities in this important field, which is particularly unfortunate in view of the need for investigations of the hazards accompanying the development of new manufacturing methods and the introduction of new chemical combinations, the dangers of which are often not understood. During the fiscal year 54 ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR only two investigations of this nature were made, one a study of spray-painting practices and hazards and the other a study of serious and fatal cases of poisoning from the radioactive paint used in the manufacture of luminous watch and clock dials. From the findings in the latter study, which bring out the subtle action of the material, the comparatively long periods elapsing before the appearance of symptoms, and the lack of uniformity in measures of protection, the opinion of the bureau is that the only safe procedure is to give up entirely the manufacture of luminous objects. Labor legislation and court decisions affecting labor. The bureau has continued its helpful work of analyzing and publishing digests of laws affecting labor passed by Congress and by the State legislatures, decisions of courts affecting labor, bills affecting-labor introduced in Congress, reports of official bodies administering workmen’s compensation and labor laws, and the reports of legal aid and kindred organizations. Workmen’s compensation. In less than 20 years all the States except Arkansas, Florida, Mississippi, and South Carolina have enacted workmen’s compensation laws, and the rapidity with which the theory of compensation has been accepted made it imperative that some central impartial organization should gather and publish the results of the experience of each State for the benefit of the others. The Bureau of Labor Statistics has, by general agreement, become the clearing house of information concerning compensation legislation, court decisions, and the’ activities of the various State boards and commissions administering compensation laws. While the bureau compiles some industrial accident statistics, it is highly desirable that funds be furnished to expand this important work, since to reduce industrial accidents it is first necessary to have adequate information as to their frequency, severity, and cause. Foreign information. Very frequent demands are made on the bureau by Members of Congress and others for information concerning wages, hours of labor, cost of living, and so on, in foreign countries. To furnish such data the bureau can only assemble such fragmentary material as may be found in foreign publications, and foreign countries compile but little in the way of labor statistics. The bureau should be permitted to maintain at least four special agents in Europe to collect data. Further details of the bureau’s work will be found in the annual report of the Commissioner of Labor Statistics, but even his report is little more than an outline of the many reports and articles, statistical and otherwise, covering a wide range of subjects, which ANNUAL, REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR 55 appear month by month in the Labor Review and in other publications. The work of the bureau is of great value and it should be permitted not only to continue all its present work but to expand it in several lines. The recommendations of the Commissioner of Labor Statistics in his annual report are approved and urged. BUREAU OF IMMIGRATION The Commissioner General of Immigration reports that 279,678 immigrant aliens entered and 69,203 emigrant aliens departed from the country during the fiscal year. These figures represent the permanent or real immigration and emigration of the year. There was a decrease of 27,577 in the number of immigrant aliens admitted compared with the previous fiscal year, which decrease was due to a falling off in immigration from Canada and Mexico. It is interesting to note, however, that immigration from Europe was almost identical during the past two years—158,513 in 1928 and 158,598 in 1929. In fact, there has been but little variation in the number of aliens admitted from Europe during the past five years, a record which very clearly shows the stabilizing effect of the present quota-limit system. The same stability is noted with respect to Asia, Africa, and other areas which are subject to the quota law, the fluctuations in the volume of immigration during the past five years being almost entirely due to admissions from New World countries, natives of which are not subject to a quota limit. The number of immigrants admitted from Mexico, for example, decreased about one-third as compared with the previous year, but no doubt this was largely due to the disturbance which prevailed in that country during a part of the year. The year’s admissions were the lowest since the war-disturbed period of 1918 and 1919, and, with these two exceptions, the lowest since 1898, another war year. More immigrants were admitted from Canada than from any other country, as has been the case in every fiscal year since 1916, except in 1920 and 1921, when Italy temporarily regained first place as the leading source of immigration to this country, a distinction that country held for a number of years prior to the World War. Other important sources of the year’s immigration were: Great Britain, 21,327; Italy, 18,008; Irish Free State, 17,672; Poland, 9,002; and Sweden, 8,877. All the foregoing figures concern aliens coming for permanent residence, and the countries from which they came, regardless of their nationality or citizenship. 56 ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR Races or peoples. The law provides that immigrants shall be classified according to the race or people to which they belong, as well as by the country from which they come. The races or peoples chiefly represented in the immigration of the year were: German, 55,631; Mexican, 38,980; Irish, 30,922; English, 29,846; Scandinavian (Danes, Norwegians, and Swedes), 19,428; Italian, 19,083; French (largely Canadian), 16,957; and Hebrew 12,479. No other race contributed as many as 4,000 persons during the year. The Bureau of Immigration records show the race or people of all immigrants admitted to the country since 1899 and afford an interesting picture of the ethnological status of the more than 19,000,000 aliens who became part and parcel of our population during the past 31 years. Seven races contributed more than 1,000,000 persons each and five more than 500,000 each to that impressive total. These contributions, in round numbers, follow: Italian (north and south)— 3,894,000 Hebrew_____,_____________ 1, 894, 000 German___________________ 1, 596, 000 Polish__________________ 1,502,000 English__________________ 1, 266, 000 Scandinavian_____________ 1,053, 000 Irish___ Mexican Scotch__ Slovak-Greek _ French _ 1, 008, 000 686,000 567,000 544, 000 515, 000 515,000 The fact that immigration is classified by both country of last residence and race or people sometimes leads to confusion, but the record of the vast influx of aliens during the past three decades would be sadly incomplete if either item had been omitted. Rejections at ports. During the year, 18,127 alien applicants for admission were rejected at ports of entry under the exclusion provisions of the immigration laws. Of these rejections 16,094 occurred at land border ports and only 2,033 at seaports, although nearly 63 per cent of the immigrants were admitted through the latter. This wide difference resulted from the fact that aliens seeking admission over the land borders are free to apply at immigration stations without previously undergoing examination at a United States consulate, as in the case of those who come from overseas countries. In previous reports it has been a source of much gratification to point out that the system of consular examination of intending immigrants, which was operative to some extent under the passport act and was definitely established under the immigration act of 1924, had practically eliminated rejections of bona fide immigrants at ports of arrival. For example, only 939 applicants for admission were debarred at the port of New York last year, where before the present system went into effect the number debarred at that port alone reached several thousand in an ordinary year and it should be pointed out that the great majority of those now rejected at ports ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR 57 have not been examined by American consuls. For example, 1,073 out of the 2,033 aliens rejected at seaports last year were stowaways. Statistics of immigration and emigration. The more important facts concerning immigration to and emigration from the United States during the fiscal year 1929 are shown in detail in the following tables: Last permanent residence of immigrant aliens admitted and intended future permanent residence of emigrant aliens departed, during the fiscal year ended J line 30, 1929, by countries [Residence for a year or more is regarded as permanent residence] Countries Immigrant aliens Emigrant aliens Countries Immigrant aliens Emigrant aliens All countries Europe, total - Austria .- . Belgium Czechoslovakia Denmark France Germany Great Britain: England Scotland Wales Greece Hungary Irish Free State Italy Lithuania Netherlands... Norway Poland Portugal Rumania Russia .... Spain Sweden 279, 678 158, 598 69, 203 47, 281 Switzerland Yugoslavia Other Europe Asia, total China Japan Palestine Syria Other Asia America, total Canada Newfoundland-- Mexico .. West Indies Central America South America Other America Others, total • Africa Australia and New Zealand.. Pacific islands (not specified). 2,140 1, 369 4,697 580 1, 524 825 1,256 669 4,411 2, 525 4,428 46, 751 8,008 11, 892 1, 427 2, 266 1, 045 17, 672 18, 008 625 1, 742 5,977 9, 002 623 1, 707 934 547 8,877 446 538 1,689 486 1, 794 6,330 6, 058 1, 651 56 1,736 761 1,452 12, 311 257 466 963 2, 273 1,919 718 314 1, 159 975 3, 758 1,446 771 600 469 472 116,177 64, 440 2,011 40,154 4,306 1, 557 3,703 6 1,145 509 619 17 5,056 3,626 945 62 154 269 16, 324 2,706 412 7,195 3, 665 736 1,610 542 168 361 13 Immigrant aliens admitted and emigrant aliens departed during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1929, by race or people, sex, age, and conjugal condition Race or people Immigrant aliens Emigrant aliens Race or people Immigrant aliens Emigrant aliens Total ... 279, 678 1,254 929 69,203 425 26 j Slovak 2,443 899 3, 259 1, 659 5,600 142,132 137, 546 47,935 69,072 85,222 36,907 16, 789 23, 753 182,307 88, 673 7,976 722 437 African (black) Armenian. ... Spanish Spanish American 1 Welsh _ 1, 565 1, 755 115 Bohemian and Moravian (Czech) Chinese Cuban Dutch and Flemish English French German Greek Hebrew Irish Italian Japanese Magyar Mexican Polish Portuguese Russian. 1,427 1, 071 2,141 2, 949 29, 846 16, 957 55, 631 3, 025 12, 479 30, 922 19,083 716 1, 342 38,980 3, 507 853 1, 352 .19, 428 21, 926 1, 308 3. 496 1, 166 1, 101 9,960 1,621 7, 383 1, 793 189 1, 659 12, 436 931 820 7, 172 2, 316 1, 961 548 All others SEX Male Female AGE Under 16 years 16 to 21 years 22 to 29 years 30 to 37 years 38 to 44 years 45 years and over.. CONJUGAL STATUS Single. 4, 597 46, 533 22, 670 4,246 3,850 16, 207 17, 502 11. 397 16,001 29, 323 37,422 2, 378 80 Scandinavian (Norwegians, Danes, and Swedes) ?... Scotch 2, 746 1, 677 Married Widowed Divorced 80114—29—-5 58 ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR Aliens debarred from entering, and aliens deported after landing in, the United States, during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1928 and 1929, by causes Causes Debarred Deported Total 18,127 12,908 Insanity, epilepsy _ _ 19 542 Other mental conditions. . . 6 113 Loathsome or dangerous contagious disease - 171 16 Other physical conditions. . 98 1 Likely to become a public charge 269 373 Professional beggars, vagrants, or paupers. _ 1 Assisted aliens _ _ 1 6 Accompanying aliens. . _ 9 Under 16 years of age (unaccompanied by parent). 16 8 Unable to read (over 16 years of age) 45 63 Contract laborers _ 77 11 Criminals _ __ - 35 1,409 Under narcotic act_ _ 52 Immoral classes _ _ 9 395 Had been deported within one year 10 14 Entered without inspection ._ : 652 Under Chinese exclusion act - 33 Under percentum limit act of 1921 (excess quota) 245 Under section 17 of immigration act of 1924 16 1 Remained longer than permitted 2,064 Failure to maintain student status. 24 Without proper visa under immigration act of 1924: 15,509 At land border ports | 6,874 At seaports 1,828 All other causes. 8 12 Aliens admitted during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1929, by specified classes, under the immigration act of 1924, as amended, and by principal places of birth Place of birth Quota immigrants Nonimmigrant and nonquota immigrants Total Total 146,918 332,409 479,327 Europe . 144,167 172, 270 316,437 Asia _ 1,186 19,813 20, 999 Africa _ _ -- 361 859 1,220 Australia and Pacific islands 324 4, 693 5,017 Canada, Mexico, and other America 880 134, 774 135,654 Aliens admitted during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1929, by classes, under the immigration act of 1924, «« amended Classes All classes, total Nonimmigrants, total------------------------------------------------------------- Government officials, their families, attendants, servants, and employees_____________ Temporary visitors for business or pleasure___________________________________________ In continuous transit through the United States--------------------------------------- To carry on trade under existing treaty_______________________________________________ Nonquota immigrants, total--------------------------------------------------------- Husbands, wives, and unmarried children of United States citizens________________________ Returning residents---------------------------------------------------------------------- Natives of nonquota countries..._________________________________________________________ Wives and unmarried children of natives of nonquota countries---------------------------- Ministers of religious denominations and their wives and unmarried children..------------ Professors of colleges, academics, seminaries, or universities and their wives and unmarried children______________________________________________________________________________ Students_________________________________________________________________________________ Women who had been citizens of the United States----------------------------------------- Spanish subjects admitted into Porto Rico------------------------------------------------ American Indians born in Canada__________________________________________________________ Quota immigrants, total. Total 479, 327 99, 974 6, 266 64, 310 27, 776 1,622 232,435 30, 313 101,007 97,251 534 1,074 178 1,898 132 30 18 146,918 ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR 59 Emigration from the United States. The United States has long been, and in spite of the quota law probably still is, the greatest immigrant receiving country in the world, but we have been less inclined to emphasize the fact that for a generation it was also a great exporter of emigrants, and even now the outward movement is of no small volume. Until the immigration law of 1907 so provided, no official statistics were kept of emigration from the United States, but w’e now have a record showing the number of resident aliens who have departed to overseas countries during the past 22 year with the stated intent to reside permanently in a foreign country. During this 22-year period (1908-1929) nearly 4,000,000 resident aliens emigrated from the country. In the same years somewhat more than 12,000,000 immigrant aliens were admitted, so there were approximately 33 permanent departures to every 100 permanent admissions. Emigration from the United States, however, is by no means limited to alien residents, for during the 12 years for which records are available (1918-1929) an impressive total of 436,830 native born and 62,057 naturalized American citizens left the country with the stated purpose of permanently residing in some foreign land. The principal destinations given by such emigrants were Canada and Newfoundland, Europe, Asia, West Indies, and Mexico. In the past year 69,203 aliens, 21,297 native born and 2.146 naturalized American citizens, emigrated from the country. The exodus of resident aliens, of course, is much smaller now than in the days of the open door, but when compared to the number of immigrants admitted—about 25 departures to every 100 admissions during the past five years—it is evident that our immigration is relatively only a little more permanent than in the days when quota limitations were unknown. The numbers now coming and going, however, are of little significance compared to the millions who came and went away during the 25 years or more before the outbreak of the World War, in which period American industry became so extensively—and, we now know, in large part so unnecessarily—dependent upon a migratory European labor supply. Our liberal immigration laws permitted and low steamship fares made it possible and profitable for alien workers to take advantage of higher wages in this country for twTo or three years or even shorter periods and then return to their homes and families in Europe. More than 2,000,000 resident aliens left the country in the seven years just prior to the World War; more than 1,700,000 of these departing to Europe, and 656,000 to Italy alone, with Austria, Russia, and Hungary as the other principal destinations. These emigrants were largely migratory workers or “ birds of passage,” as they were 60 ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR commonly called. This mobile industrial army was for the most part recruited from countries where population pressure had been to some extent relieved through supplying migratory seasonal workers to the more prosperous countries of continental Europe, and so the great immigration to the United States before the war was only an extension across the Atlantic of a situation which had grown up at home. After the war there was a revival of the international migratory labor movement between European countries, and, w'ith a view to regulating it more systematically than before, labor treaties or agreements between supplying and employing countries were in some instances entered into. It soon became apparent that efforts were being made in some quarters not only to insure that the pre-war movement of transient labor to the United States would be resumed but extended and subjected to systematic control by the Governments of countries supplying workers. Fortunately for American labor the adoption of the quota-limit system in 1921 checked the influx of migratory European workers, which was already mounting toward pre-war level, with every indication that it would soon exceed all past records. ' This drastic curtailment of a labor supply from Europe alarmed some American employers for a time, but eight years’ experience has shown that the home supply was ample, except in some limited instances, to provide needed labor even in the great expansion of industry that has occurred during that period. Looking backward we can now see that the employment of migratory European labor in our great industries was surely creating a large class of transitory workers in that part of the home labor supply which had to compete with the army of temporary workers coming from Europe. These Europeans were usually men without families here and so were free to move from place to place whenever they could sell their labor to better advantage, and in slack seasons they could at small cost return to their overseas homes until informed through a well-established intelligence system that jobs were again available here. Their permanently resident competitors were obviously at a great disadvantage. A large part of them had dependent families which must be cared for in seasons of industrial depression as well as in times of activity, and the all too frequent periods of distress which resulted from the instability of their employment are phases of our industrial history which might have been avoided, or at least greatly minimized, had migratory alien labor been regulated 25 years earlier. The effects of this neglect are still all too apparent among wage earners in some of our industries, while in others it has largely disappeared, and happily there are indications all along the line that give ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR 61 promise, or at least a hope, that employment will in the course of time become stabilized to a degree never before known in our industrial history. I am convinced that what has been accomplished in this regard already is due more to our restrictive immigration policy than to all other causes combined, and the need for continuing that policy is clearly obvious. New immigration legislation. Laws enacted during the year are to some extent paradoxical, in that they provide stern punishment for both past and future violations of the statutes in some cases and in others extend a forgiving hand to former violators. One of these new laws, the act of March 2, 1929, is primarily a revision of the naturalization statutes and will be discussed at greater length elsewhere in this report. It concerns the immigration problem in an important way, however, by providing in effect that a legal residential status may be granted to aliens who entered the United States prior to June 3, 1921, and concerning whose entry no official record can be found. In addition to the provision as to entry before June 3, 1921, the date when the first quota limit law went into effect, and that there is no record of admission for permanent residence, the conditions that must be met before amnesty can be granted in any individual instance are (1) that the applicant must have lived in the United States continuously since entry, (2) that he is a person of good moral character, and (3) that he is not subject to deportation. It is anticipated that applicants for the benefits which the law proposes to extend will largely consist of aliens who entered over the land borders at places other than immigration ports of entry or at a time when an immigration officer was not available; aliens who were admitted from foreign contiguous territory as temporary visitors, under the liberal inspection practices then prevailing, and remained permanently; and alien seamen who left their ships in American ports without presenting themselves for inspection under the immigration laws. There was no numerical restriction of immigration in those days, and, with exception of passports during a part of the war period, no consular or other documents were required. Accordingly it is probable that a great majority of these classes of aliens, concerning whose entry no record can be found, would have been lawfully admitted at the time of entry had the formalities been complied with. On the other hand, of course, there is a verv considerable class of aliens in the country who deliberately and knowingly violated the law when they entered and who because of disease, illiteracy, or for some other reason could not have obtained legal admission, but the new law accords the latter the same privilege that it gives to their more innocent fellows. 62 ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR The great majority of those who will be beneficiaries of the legislation are aliens who under prevailing laws could not have been deported unless found within three years after they entered. In the absence of an available record of entry, however, they could not become naturalized; they could not return from a temporary visit abroad without fully complying with our present quota-limit laws; and, all things considered, the situation was an undesirable one from every point of view. By limiting amnesty to aliens who entered before June 3, 1921, no provision was made for large numbers of aliens who gained entry under similar conditions between that date and July 1, 1924, and who can not be deported because the statute of limitation has run. These entries occurred during the life of the first quota act and while the proportion who willfully violated the law is undoubtedly much greater than in the pre 1921 group, nevertheless the same disabilities surrounding them as residents of the United States surround them and the department has felt, and still feels, that forgiveness, possibly in a more limited way, ought also to be extended to their cases. The act of March 4, 1929, however, gives no hint of an attitude of forgiveness on the part of Congress, and in some particulars it is the most drastic general immigration law ever enacted. The outstanding provisions of the act of March 4 are as follows: 1. That any alien who has been arrested and deported, or has departed voluntarily pursuant to an order of deportation, whether before or after the passage of the act, shall be forever barred from admission to the United States. 2. That any alien who enters or attempts to enter the United States after deportation shall be guilty of a felony and upon conviction thereof shall be punished by imprisonment for not more than five years, or by a fine of not more than $1,000, or by both such fine and imprisonment. 3. That any alien who enters the United States other than at an officially designated time or place, or who eludes inspection by immigration officials, or who obtains entry by a wilfully false or misleading representation or the willful concealment of a material fact shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction thereof shall be punished by imprisonment for not more than one year, or by a fine of not more than $1,000, or by both such fine and imprisonment. 4. That an alien employed as a seaman arriving at a United States port shall not be entitled to any of the landing privileges accorded by law to seamen if he has been previously deported. 5. That any alien applicant who is debarred from the United States shall not be eligible to reapply for admission within one year except on consent of the Secretary of Labor. This condition has ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR 63 always applied in case of rejections under the general immigration law, but not in case of rejections solely under the quota and passport laws. It is now applicable to rejections for any cause. In a previous report I called attention to difficulties that had occurred in one State in connection with executing departmental warrants of deportation in the case of State prisoners on parole, until the parole period had terminated. Congress has now removed all doubt as to the department’s authority in this regard by providing that an alien subject to deportation for a criminal offense may be deported whether or not he is subject to rearrest or further confinement. The national-origins plan. When the permanent quota limit law of 1924 was enacted it provided that the annual immigration quota of any country should be 2 per cent of the number of natives of such country who were resident in the United States as shown by the census of 1890, with a minimum allotment of 100. Quotas aggregating 164,667 were alloted to 67 countries or geographical areas, Germany leading with 51,227, and 39 having the prescribed minimum of 100. This was only a temporary arrangement, however, for the same act stipulated that beginning with July 1, 1927, the annual quota of any nationality “ shall be a number which bears the same ratio to 150,000 as the number of inhabitants in continental United States in 1920 having that national origin * * * bears to the number of inhabitants in continental United States in 1920.” The minimum quota of 100 was retained. Immigrants from New World countries or their descendants, aliens ineligible to citizenship or their descendants, the descendants of slave immigrants, and the descendants of American aborigines were specifically excluded from the nationalorigins plan. In a broad sense, therefore, the problem was to find the extent to which the various countries of Europe, as now constituted, had contributed to the white population of the country in 1920, beginning with the settling of Jamestown and Plymouth and continuing down to the most recent immigrant arrivals found by the census takers in that year. The act made the Secretaries of State, Commerce, and Labor responsible for determining the facts “ as nearly as may be,” and, as provided by the law, expert statisticians of the Bureau of the Census undertook the difficult task of making the necessary computations, under the immediate supervision of a committee composed of two officials from each of the three departments concerned. The law provided that the President should proclaim the quotas thus determined on or before April 1, 1927. Before the proclamation was made, however, Congress postponed the date when the new quotas 64 ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR were to become effective one year, or from July 1, 1927, as the law provided, to July 1, 1928, and at the following session it was again postponed to July 1, 1929. In the meantime the statistical experts of the Census Bureau reviewed their earlier work and made some more or less important changes in the national-origins population basis. Finally, however, they expressed the opinion that further study would not appreciably modify the results, and in the absence of further legislation, President Hoover, although he had stated to Congress that did approve the plan, proclaimed the new quotas and they automatically became effective on July 1, 1929. Geographically, the scope of the national-origins plan is identical with that of the 1890 population plan which it supplanted. In other words, natives of Canada, Newfoundland, Mexico, Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, the Canal Zone, Brazil, Argentine Republic, Chile, Venezuela, and other independent countries of Central and South America are still accorded a nonquota status. The total quotas, however, are reduced from 164,667, as under the 1890 population plan, to 153,714 under national origins, the number in excess of the 150,000 limit mentioned in the law being due to the provisions that the minimum quota of any nationality shall be 100. While the reduction in the total quotas is of little significance, the national-origins plan has made a marked difference in the allotment of various European countries, as the following comparison shows: Country Nationalorigins quota 1890 population quota Country Nationalorigins quota 1890 population quota Austria--. 1 413 785 Italy 5,802 3,485 Belgium 1, 304 512 Latvia 236 142 Czechoslovakia 2, 874 3. 072 Lithuania 386 344 Denmark 1' 181 2,789 Netherlands 3,153 1, 648 Estonia _ _ 116 124 Norway.. 2, 377 6,453 Finland 569 471 Poland 6,524 5,982 France 3,086 3,954 Portugal '440 503 Germany 25; 957 51, 227 Rumania 295 603 Great Britain and Northern Russia, European and Asiatic. 2, 784 2,248 Ireland 65, 721 34, 007 Spain 252 131 Greece.._ _ ' 307 ' 100 Sweden.-. 3,314 9,561 Hungary 869 473 Switzerland 1, 707 2, 081 Irish Free State . 17,853 28, 567 Yugoslavia 845 671 It will be noted that while the quota of every country is increased or decreased to a greater or less extent by the national-origins provision, the outstanding result is that the allotment of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Italy, Poland, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Russia, Hungary, Greece, and some other countries have been increased while the former quotas of Germany, the Irish Free State, Sweden, ’Norway, Denmark, and France have been materially decreased. The changed method of establishing quotas created no administrative problems so far as the Immigration Service is concerned. It ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR 65 simply means that after July 1, 1929, fewer consular immigration visas will be issued annually to persons of some nationalities and more to others. There may be, and probably is, some question as to the efficacy of the newly adopted plan as a means of establishing immigration quotas, but this can be determined only through experience. Even if the national-origin method proves unsatisfactory in practice, however, it is certain that the Census Bureau experts have rendered a very valuable service in determining, even approximately, the extent to which the various countries have contributed to the blood content of the American people. The total white population of the country, as determined by the census of 1920, was 94,820,915. Of these it was found that 89,506,558 came from, or were the descendants of, persons who came from countries which are subject to the quota provisions of the law, the national origin of the remainder, 5,314,357, being traced to the so-called nonquota sources which, as already explained, includes Canada, Mexico, and, with some exceptions, other New World countries. Of the total white population, it was found that 41,288,570, or somewhat more than 43 per cent, came from colonial stock, which in this instance means that they were descended from ancestors who were in the United States in 1790 when the first census was taken. The remainder, 53,532,345, were of postcolonial stock; that is to say, they were immigrants or the descendants of immigrants who entered the country subsequent to 1790. The postcolonial population was found to be made up of 13,712,754 immigrants, 19,190,372 children of immigrants, and 20,629,219 grandchildren and later generations. According to the findings of the statistical experts, 39,216,330 out of the nearly 90,000,000 persons considered in computing the new quotas were of English, Scottish, Welsh, and Northern Irish stock. Germany had contributed 15,488,615, the Irish Free State 10,653,334, Poland 3,892,796, Italy 3,462,271, Sweden 1,977,234, the Netherlands 1,881,359, France 1,841,689, Czechoslovakia 1,715,128, Russia 1,660,954, Norway 1,418,592, and Switzerland 1,018,706. No other single nationality contributed as many as one million. The number whose national origin w’as trade to Canada, Mexico, and other New World countries is not stated, but it is certain that the two countries named can be credited with the major part of the 5,314,357 persons recorded as having been derived from nonquota countries. Apparently no attempt was made to find the extent to which oriental races or peoples have contributed to our diverse population. There was no occasion for so doing, as such races were specifically excluded from the operation of the national-origins plan. It would be of interest, however, if the picture could be completed by 66 ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR including in detail the contributions that both New World and oriental countries have made toward the 120,000,000 people now residing within the boundaries of the country. Moreover, if the nationalorigins plan is to be permanently retained, its extensions to the entire world might afford a happy solution of the problems which exist by reason of the fact that the quota system of regulating immigration does not now apply to all countries and all peoples. BUREAU OF NATURALIZATION The records of the Bureau of Naturalization show that 224,728 aliens became citizens of the United States through naturalization during the fiscal year 1929, compared to 233,155 in the previous year. A declaration of intention, which is the first step toward citizenship, was made by 280,645 aliens, compared to 254,588 in the fiscal yeai 1928. The courts denied citizenship to 11,848 petitioners during the year because of inadequacy on their part, involving chiefly ignorance of our institutions of government, unsatisfactory moral character, insufficient residence, and incompetent witnesses. Continuance for further hearing and consideration occurred in the cases of 37,781 petitioners. A total of 255,519 petitions were filed by the approximately 2,200 courts exercising naturalization jurisdiction in continental United States, Porto Rico, Hawaii, the Virgin Islands, and Alaska, an excess of 15,198 over the previous year. The nationalities principally represented among aliens who were admitted to citizenship during the year, exclusive of Alaska, Hawaii, Porto Rico, and the Virgin Islands, were as follows: Italy 44.843 Rumania i 5, 817 British Empire: Serbes, Croats, and Slovenes 5, 573 Ireland England- _ 13,162 _ 9,697 Hungary Austria _ _ 4,824 4,154 3, 610 Canada 8,223 Turkey Scotland 6,218 Norway 3,311 Wales 514 Lithuania . 3. 249 Others 3,200 41, 014 Netherlands Denmark _ 2,100 2,095 1. 931 Poland 31.801 Switzerland Russia 18,291 Finland 1,447 Germany 16,700 France 1, 240 Czechoslovakia 9,215 Syria and the Lebanon 1, 089 Greece Sweden 6,253 5,963 Belgium 1, 013 No other nationalities contributed as many as 1,000 new citizens during the year, the numbers ranging from Latvia, 853, and Spain, 808, to Afghanistan and Haiti, with 1 each. Canada excepted, only 664 nationals of New World countries acquired citizenship in the fiscal year 1929, but of course there is little immigration from most ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR 67 Latin American countries. Mexico affords a conspicuous exception, however, for during the past year that country furnished 40,154 immigrants out of a total of 279,678, and only 164 new citizens out of a total of 224,227. Putting it in a different way, for every 10,000 immigrants admitted in 1929, 1,436 came from Mexico, and for every 10,000 aliens who were naturalized in the same year only 7 were of Mexican nationality. This situation is not peculiar to the last fiscal year, for during the past five years, 1925-1929, a total of 243,171 immigrants, or an average of 48,634, have been admitted from Mexico, and during the same five years a total of 569 Mexicans, or an average of only 114 a year, have been admitted to citizenship. As a matter of fact, Mexicans have never to any considerable extent shown an inclination to acquire American citizenship. According to the census of 1920 there were 478,383 natives of Mexico in the country of whom 22,732, or 4.8 per cent, were naturalized and 2,989 had taken out their first papers. Mexicans ranked below every other nationality in the matter of acquiring citizenship; natives of Albania, 7.4 per cent of whom were naturalized, being the nearest competitors in this respect. Three important court decisions. During the fiscal year the United States Supreme Court rendered three important decisions affecting the administration of the naturalization law. In effect this means that proceedings with a view to canceling certificates of citizenship when illegally obtained may be undertaken by the Government at any time. The case of United States of America, petitioner, v. Rozika Schwimmer, is one in which the district court denied the application for citizenship of the petitioner on the ground that she had failed to show attachment to the principles of the Constitution. The circuit court of appeals reversed the district court and the case was then taken to the Supreme Court. That court held that upon the facts and evidence adduced Mrs. Schwimmer was not entitled to citizenship and remanded the case. The applicant for citizenship in this caes has stated, in effect, that she would not take up arms in defense of the country in the event she was admitted to citizenship, and the court, in effect, ruled that compliance with law and orders of the constituted authorities was paramount regardless of individual opinions. In the case of Anna Marie Maney, the United States Supreme Court in handing down its decision held that the right of the Government to review by a cancellation proceeding under section 15 of the act of June 29, 1906, was not limited to the 90 days during which an appeal might be taken. The third decision of the Supreme Court concerned the provision of the naturalization law that “service by aliens upon ves- 68 ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR seis other than of American registry, whether continuous or broken, shall not be considered as residence for naturalization purposes within the jurisdiction of the United States, and such aliens can not secure residence for naturalization purposes during service upon vessels of foreign registry.” There were two conflicting United States circuit court decisions respecting the provision quoted. In the fifth circuit the court of appeals held in effect that service upon a foreign vessel did not break the continuity of residence for naturalization purposes and the petitioner was granted citizenship over objection by the naturalization examiner for the Government. The circuit court 01 appeals for the first circuit, however, supported the contention of the aturalization Service that service on foreign vessels did break the continuity of residence and the Supreme Court affirmed this view. legislation. At the closing session of the Seventieth Congress two laws were passed affecting naturalization in the most far-reaching manner since the act of June 29, 1906, became law, by which the Federal Government began the supervision of all the naturalization laws by the United States and State courts. This legislation affords relief for those aliens who entered the United States prior to June 3, 1921, and who can find no record of their legal admission under the immigration laws. If such registration has been made these aliens may then petition for naturalization or make the declaration of intention to become citizens of the United States. Certain phases of the naturalization law have been made simpler in their application to the petitioners for citizenship and some questions that have been difficult of administrative and judicial determination in a uniform manner have been clarified. The naturalization fees have been increased so that the various steps ordinarily leading up to the certificate of citizenship will cost the applicant $20 instead of $5 as heretofore. A fee of $5 is required for the certificate of arrival, which has been required for years to be obtained in order to prove that the applicant entered the United States in conformity with the immigration law for permanent residence. The declaration of intention fee is now $5 instead of $1. The fee for the filing of a petition for citizenship, the final hearing on the petition, and the issuance of a certificate of citizenship is made $10 instead of $4 as heretofore. Simplification of the language regarding naturalization of seamen, sailors, soldiers, and marines occurred in this legislation, while the war-time provisions authorizing simplified naturalization for the veterans of the American forces during the World War were reenacted for a further term of two years from March 4, 1929. A uniform rule was adopted regarding the issuance of naturalization papers that have become ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR 69 lost, mutilated, or destroyed, under which the Commissioner of Naturalization alone is authorized to issue such papers. The commissioner is also authorized to issue special certificates of citizenship to naturalized citizens for use in the country of former allegiance to receive exemptions from requirements upon their subjects, and full recognition of the rights of American citizenship. These certificates arc to be furnished through the Secretary of State for transmission to the appropriate authority in the country of former allegiance of the naturalized citizen. A departure was incorporated in this legislation from the historical course pursued since the passage of the naturalization act of 1790. At no time heretofore has a certificate of citizenship been authorized to be issued to any naturalized citizen other than the one who petitioned to the court for admission to citizenship. In the past the wife of the naturalized citizen became a citizen upon his naturalization. No certificate of citizenship was authorized to be given to her. At all times minor children of the parent naturalized have likewise obtained citizenship, but no certificate of citizenship was ever authorized to be issued to any of them. In addition to this, the oath of allegiance was not required to be taken by any naturalized citizen except the one directly admitted by the order of the court. This oath of allegiance is now7 required to be taken by all naturalized citizens as a condition precedent to the receipt by them of certificates of citizenship. Thus, for the first time in the history of the country, those who derive or have heretofore derived citizenship through the naturalization of the petitioner for citizenship may themselves receive certificates of citizenship. These certificates are authorized to be issued by the Commissioner of Naturalization. Photographs are required by this legislation to be placed upon all naturalization papers issued on and after July 1, 1929, the date when the provisions of this law became operative. Authority was also given to the Commissioner of Naturalization to prepare an analysis of the records of the Bureau of Naturalization relating to aliens seeking citizenship and to make classification in statistical form and to prepare such report annually. In this legislation the major portion of the recommendations for legislative enactments that have heretofore been made by the department and the bureau from year to year for the last four or five years have been accomplished. Visa archives This bureau has for five years been the custodian of the immigration visas surrendered by immigrants who have sought to obtain admission for permanent residence in the United States under the prevailing immigration laws. During the fiscal year just closed there 70 ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR were 286,665 of these visas filed in the archives of this bureau, making a total of 1,534,247 received under the immigration act of 1924. In addition to these immigration visas the duplicate of the immigration identification card which was issued to aliens entering the United States on and after July 1, 1928, has been deposited in this bureau. There were 267,928 duplicates of such immigration identification cards deposited with the Bureau of Naturalization. These cards are arranged in alphabetical order on their receipt and are made use of in the bureau to verify the allegations of arrivals by aliens desiring to take steps toward naturalization and those desiring permits to reenter the United States, who arrived in the United States since the operation of the immigration act of 1924. The use of the immigrant identification card has greatly simplified this verification work. There were 91,216 applicants for naturalization and 31,302 applicants for permits to reenter the United States. Including 371 cases on hand July 1, 1928, there were 33,666 petitions for immigration visas to enable beneficiaries under the law to have preferences which the law extends them either in the form of priority or nonquota immigration visas. This number represents a gradual increase during the last three years, from 26,349 in 1927 and 30,797 in 1928. There were 32,706 returned with favorable report and 549 returned where the claims of the petitioner could not be substantiated, with 411 unacted upon at the end of the year. CHILDREN’S BUREAU During the past year the work of the Children’s Bureau has continued along three general lines: (1) Scientific studies of child health, child labor and vocational guidance, recreation, dependency, delinquency, and neglect; (2) cooperation with State departments of health under the maternity and infancy act in the development of an educational program for the promotion of the health of mothers and babies and with State departments of public welfare in the collection of information regarding children who are physically, mentally, and socially handicapped; and (3) preparation and distribution of popular material on maternal, infant, and child care and other subjects. Administration of the maternity and infancy act. With the close of the fiscal year 1929 Federal and State cooperation in promoting the welfare and hygiene of maternity and infancy under the act of November 23, 1921, came to an end. In extending by two years the original 5-year period for which appropriations were authorized, Congress declared in January, 1927, that after June 30, 1929, the act should be of no force and effect. During the fiscal ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR 71 year 1929, 45 States and the territory of Hawaii were cooperating with the Children’s Bureau in accordance with the terms of the act. A review of the annual reports of the States shows a great expansion and improvement in the child-health work being done by the States and by local units of government—county, city, and town—since 1922. In States which had adopted the policy of promoting full-time county-health units the Federal and State maternity and infancy funds were used to add a child-health program to the work of the county-health units which had already been established; and in counties which had not adopted the county-health unit organization, the maternity and infancy funds which could be used for local subsidies for this part of the work induced some county boards to make the necessary appropriations for general-health work. In 361 counties in 28 States the State and Federal money has been providing during 1929 a sixth, a third, or a half, to—in a few—the full cost of a county nurse, a local child-health center, or other activity, while the local community pays the balance. As the complete support of similar cooperative undertakings in previous years has been taken over by the counties, the State and Federal funds have been released for assistance in other local communities. Of the 211 permanent centers established in 1929, 123 were entirely, and 63 were partly supported by local funds. Nation-wide interest in this problem of the health of mothers and babies has been almost as important in promoting the work as the money contribution, but funds are essential if gains that have been made are to be conserved and extended. When the Federal maternity and infancy act came to an end every effort was made by its supporters to secure State appropriations equaling at least the combined Federal and State funds that were expended last year. This effort for increased appropriations was made in order to continue the work that was being done and also because in the event of the enactment of a law continuing Federal cooperation the increased appropriation would make possible an expansion of activities along the lines that experience had indicated were desirable. The State appropriations for next year that have resulted from this effort make a very encouraging showing, especially when compared with the appropriations made by the States in 1922. rIhe threat of withdrawal, however, clearly acted as a two-edged sword, stimulating some States to greater expenditures and influencing others to reduce the work if the Federal Government withdrew. In a third of the cooperating States the money appropriated is sufficient to continue the present activities; in the others doctors and nurses will have to be dismissed, and cooperative arrangements with 72 ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR counties and local communities will have to be curtailed because the Federal Government has ceased to contribute any share of the expense involved. Research in maternal and child health. The most important investigation in this field during the past year has been an investigation of every registered maternal death during the calendar years 1927 and 1928 in 13 States and in 2 States for 1928 only. This investigation was first outlined by the chairman of the bureau’s obstetrical advisory committee at the 1926 conference of the State directors of maternal and infant health. It has been conducted under the general supervision of the bureau’s obstetrical advisory committee, in cooperation with State departments of health and the State medical societies in Alabama, California, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, Virginia, Wisconsin, and Washington. Statistical analysis of the material collected in the New Haven rickets study and of the data collected in the study of 584 Porto Rican children is nearing completion. The weight, height, and age figures for 83,846 white boys and 81,653 white girls under 6 years of age examined during children’s year have been reanalyzed to show average weight for height for boys and girls by smaller age intervals and to present the averages for a larger proportion of the children of these ages. Prevention and treatment of delinquency and dependency. During the year field work was completed on a survey of juvenile delinquency in Maine. A preliminary report was prepared and presented in Augusta at a conference of interested persons called by the State department of public welfare. The final report has been completed and will be published shortly. Plans are in progress for a study of the care and training given to boys committed to State training schools. This study will have two aspects: An investigation of the institution itself, including its equipment and the character of the training given, and a study of the effect of the training as shown by case histories of boys who have been paroled or discharged from the institution. In order to reach conclusions as to the value of the institution in a program for the care of delinquent boys, what are believed to be the best schools in the various sections of the country will be studied. During the past year field work has been completed on a study of the activities and functions of the children’s bureau of the Minnesota State Board of Control made at the request of the State board. This investigation has included two general aspects: A study of the records and administrative procedure of the central office and investiga ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR 73 tion of the actual work being done for children throughout the State as represented by selected counties. Minnesota has been the pioneer in developing a coordinated State and county program for child care, and the results of its experience will be of great value to other States now undertaking similar programs. A general study in 10 representative States of the work of the State departments or boards concerned with the care of children who are socially, physically, and mentally handicapped has continued during the year. The final schedules have been prepared, a preliminary study has been made of legal provisions and administrative development in most of the States selected for study, and the field work in three States has been completed. Other investigations of special interest. From time to time the Children’s Bureau has made studies of the welfare of children in families of breadwinners employed in occupations which, because of the migratory or seasonal nature of the work, or the development of single-industry communities, or for other reasons present special problems with reference to living conditions and community relationships. During the past year the bureau has been engaged in a study of children of maintenance-of-way employees, of whom more than 250,000 are employed by the railroads of the United States in cities, small towns, and rural areas. The field work on this study is nearing completion. To date 504 families representing various nationalities and races have been interviewed in cities and rural districts of 12 States. The principal new undertaking of the industrial division of the bureau during the past year has been a study of workmen’s compensation laws as they affect injured minors. The purpose of this study is to ascertain what provisions are made in the various States to compensate minors injured through industrial accidents and how these provisions are administered. The study will include an analysis of the reported decisions of State courts and of compensation commissions relating to provisions of the workmen’s compensation laws that affect minors. Special inquiry is being made regarding the operation of laws that provide extra compensation for minors injured while illegally employed and of laws that exclude such minors from compensation, and regarding the methods of recording and investigating injuries to minors used by the State agencies to ascertain the legality of their employment and their exposure to preventable hazards. Current statistics as to employed children. The industrial division of the Children’s Bureau has continued to obtain reports of employment certificates issued. Reports were received for the calendar year 1928 from 16 States and the District of 80114—29---6 74 ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR Columbia and from 65 cities in 15 other States. These reports have been tabulated for all States and for cities with a population of 50,000 or over, in which group of States and cities 102,934 children 14 and 15 years of age and 47,335 children 16 and 17 years of age received regular certificates for the first time in 1928. It is estimated, on the basis of the 1920 census, that the number of 14 and 15 year old children receiving certificates in these States and cities represents more than half the 14 and 15 year old children in the United States going to work in occupations for which certificates are usually required under the State child-labor laws. Uniform reporting of juvenile-court statistics. The number of courts cooperating with the Children’s Bureau in its plan for the uniform recording of juvenile-court statistics is steadily increasing. On July 1, 1929, 150 courts had asked for the statistical cards, and at least 100 may be expected to report for the entire year 1929; 65 courts reported throughout the calendar year 192'8 and 43 throughout the year 1927. During the calendar year 1928, 38,882 delinquency cases, 16,289 dependency or neglect cases, and 10,429 cases of children who were discharged from probation or supervision were reported to the Children’s Bureau by the juvenile courts from which figures were received for the entire year. Though a few of the delinquent children had been before the courts as many as five or more times, 80 per cent were there for the first time in 1928; for 11 per cent this was a second appearance. The full statistical report for 1928, which is to be published shortly, will contain general tables giving the data by the reporting area—city, county, or State, as the case may be—for delinquent children as well as for the dependent children who were brought before the courts. Conference of State departments of public welfare. A conference limited to representatives of State departments of public welfare was held at the Children’s Bureau February 13, 14, and 15, 1929. This conference was called by the Secretary in response to numerous requests that have come to the Children’s Bureau from a number of States. Among the representatives of the 32 States who attended were directors of State departments, members of State boards, and staff members engaged in some particular aspect of State work for dependent children. The entire time during the five sessions was devoted to discussion of dependency and child protection, the special topic for each session being introduced in an informal paper by one of the State representatives. The subjects discussed were: The scope of child-welfare activities of a State department; county welfare problems; the supervisory ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR 75 work of State departments; provisions for the care of dependent children by the State department, and minimum statistics that should be obtained by State departments from child-caring agencies and institutions. Legislation relating to children. In the annual report of the Children’s Bureau will be found a valuable summary of laws relating to child welfare passed during 1929 as well as measures introduced that failed of passage, and a review of the work of State child-welfare commissions. New reports issued and distribution of bureau publications. During the fiscal year 1929, 27 new and revised publications were issued, and in addition the reports of the 45 cooperating States and the Territory of Hawaii, from the 1928 report of the administration of the maternity and infancy act, were published as separate leaflets. Three reports were in press at the close of the fiscal year and 28 in preparation. The number of publications distributed during the past year was 1,473,430, an increase of 40,572 over the preceding year. The distribution of the popular bulletins on the care of children was as follows: Title 1928 1929 Child Care - 144, 519 158, 637 Child Management. _. . 48, 573 83, 072 Infant Care _ ______________ 419, 950 432, 306 Prenatal Care _ 159, 797 158, 583 As usual, the bureau has been unable to meet the demand for these popular bulletins for parents. It has still been necessary to hold to a minimum the monthly allotments to Members of Congress and to health agencies in order that a sufficient number might be reserved to fill requests from individual mothers. The distribution of folders, dodgers, and charts brings the total number of popular publications distributed to 1,307,160, as compared with 1,262,431 in 1928. With the utmost care to achieve economy in printing and in distribution methods the bureau has been unable to meet the demand not only for its popular publications but for its more technical publications as well. THE WOMEN’S BUREAU During the fiscal year the Women’s Bureau completed several studies of women wage earners, including a survey of Florida, a study of laundries, and one of employment trends in Ohio. It con 76 ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR solidated and published data collected by the bureau in various States and at various times concerning negro women, and women employed in 5, 10, and 25 cent stores, which reports are important contributions to the literature on these important subjects. Bulletins issued during the year aggregated more than 1,400 printed pages, and various reports were nearly ready for publication at the close of the year. Statistical data on women in meat-packing plants and in Hawaiian pineapple canneries are in process of tabulation, and the field force is securing figures on output in relation to hours in various industries and on conditions in the cigar industry. Data on existing and former scheduled hours in Indiana industrial establishments, collected by the industrial board of that State, have been tabulated by the statistical force of the bureau, as have almost a thousand domestic-service questionnaires made out by Philadelphia housewives for the women’s problems group of the social order committee of the Society of Friends. The year has been prolific in congresses or conferences of importance to working women, in many of which the Women’s Bureau has participated. Women’s earnings in the cotton-textile industry. Because of the importance of the textile industry for wage-earning women in the United States, the bureau has supplemented its own records of hours and earnings of women in the various branches of that industry by analyzing pay-roll figures collected by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on women’s earnings in cotton manufacturing as follows: In 1924 for 33,000 women in 114 establishments in 12 States. In 1926 for 36,000 women in 151 establishments in 12 States. In 1928 for 38,000 women in 158 establishments in 11 States. The 11 States included in the three years’ studies were Alabama, Connecticut, Georgia, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and Virginia, which in 1925 employed almost nine-tenths of all wage earners engaged in cotton manufacture in the United States. The average full-time earnings per week of the women surveyed were found to be— In 1924, $17.94. In 1926, $15.89 (a decrease of 11.4 per cent from 1924). In 1928, $15.66 (a decrease of 12.7 per cent from 1924). Not one of the 12 occupations in the industry for which women’s earnings were reported in 1928 had escaped a decline from the 1924 wage figure. An analysis of detailed figures shows that in the Carolinas, Alabama, and Georgia the level of wages fell little or not at all between ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR 77 1924 and 1928, whereas the weekly earnings of 18,000 women reported in the Northern States surveyed were $2 to $4 (10 to 18 per cent) less in 1928 than in the same occupations in 1924. As a result, for these six Northern States combined, women’s earnings, which had been 54.5 per cent greater than earnings in the South in 1924, were oniy 33.5 per cent greater than earnings in the South in 1928. labor legislation. Although efforts were made in a number of States during the legislative season of 1928-29 to enact new labor laws for wrnmen, or to amend old ones, few of those efforts were successful. In California the coverage of the 8-hour law was extended, and its enforcement provisions were amended; in Texas new exemptions were added to the hour law. In California the law regarding heavy weights was amended by reducing to 50 pounds the maximum weight that women are permitted to lift, and a new provision was added that waitresses shall not be required to carry trays weighing 10 pounds or more up or down stairs that rise more than 5 feet. An industrial commission was created in Massachusetts by one act and by another was specially directed to investigate conditions in textile manufacturing and unemployment in textile and other industries. New York abolished its industrial survey commission, and New Jersey created a new bureau of women and children within the State department of labor, the director to be a woman appointed by the commissioner of labor. Besides legislative enactments several important decisions have been rendered upholding State laws or affecting their application. Tor example, the constitutionality of the North Dakota hour law for women and the right of the California Industrial Welfare Commission to set overtime rates of pay in industries exempt from the women’s 8-hour law have been sustained by local courts. State study—Florida. The bureau’s survey of the hours, earnings, and conditions of work of wage-earning women in Florida was made at the request of the Governor of the State and of the Florida League of Women Voters. The survey covered 18 towns or cities and included 1,412 women in 63 hotels and restaurants and 6,432 in 100 other establishments. About three-fourths of the women studied were white. The special character of the problems confronting Florida wage-earning women is indicated by the fact that the industries in the State are markedly seasonal and therefore tend to cause serious fluctuations in employment. The hours of work for women in Florida were found to be long— more than 9 hours daily for nearly 30 per cent of the white women 78 ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR studied in manufacturing, stores, and laundries, including 15.3 per cent who had a day of 10 hours or more, and 35 per cent a week of more than 54 hours. The day in hotels and restaurants was very irregular, and over nine-tenths of the white women reported had to work 7 days in the week; 17.8 per cent had a schedule of over 60 actual working hours during the week. A few waitresses and kitchen helpers had a week of 80 hours or longer. Over half the negro women in the manufacturing industries and laundries and 14.6 per cent of those in hotels and restaurants had a week of over 60 hours. For 4,425 white women, the median of the week’s earnings—one-half earning more, one-half earning less, than the figure given—was $15; that for 2,824 full-time workers was $15.60. The highest median was $18.10, for saleswomen in general mercantile establishments; the lowest, $9.35, for women in certain food products. For the largest manufacturing group, women in cigar making, the median was $16.65. The median for 940 white women in hotels and restaurants, largely waitresses, was $7.05, and of these 85.9 per cent were furnished with board, lodging, or both. The median of the week’s earnings of 1,266 negro women in manufacturing and laundries was $6.65. The highest median was $7.85 for those in laundries, the lowest, $3.60, for those in miscellaneous food products, and that for cigar makers was $7.10. The median for negro women in hotels and restaurants, largely maids, was $8.80, and 42.9 per cent of those reported had some accommodation provided. Women in limited-price chain department stores. A study was made of the women working in limited-price chain department stores, in which large numbers are employed. Facts were assembled from the bureau bulletins of State surveys for well over 5,000 women in 253 stores, including, for various numbers of women, scheduled hours of work, earnings, age, marital status, living condition, and length of time in the trade. The women studied were in establishments in the following 18 States: Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and Tennessee. Most of them were in 5 and 10 cent or 5, 10, and 25 cent stores; a very few were selling goods up to 50 cents or $1. The majority were in the stores of five important chains, but a few were in independent establishments. Because the dates of the various surveys extended over a number of years, the information on earnings was supplemented by securing pay-roll figures in 1928, in most cases for a week in October. Such data were obtained for 6,061 women in 179 establishments in 18 ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR 79 States and 5 additional cities. Of these women, well over one-half (56 per cent) were employed in the same States, in most cases in the same cities, for which earnings had been reported in the earlier surveys, many identical establishments being included. Hour schedules were reported for 5,224 women, nearly 40 per cent of whom had a day of 8 hours or less. In six States from 60 to 100 per cent of the women had a day of 9 hours; for all States combined, 30.6 per cent had a 9-hour day. About a fourth of the women reporting had a schedule of 10 hours on Saturday, more than a fifth had a day of over 10 and under 12 hours, and 8 per cent had a Saturday of 12 hours or more. Not quite 6 per cent of the women reporting had a weekly schedule of 48 hours or less. About 12 per cent had a week of 54 hours. Close to one in six had hours of between 55 and 60. There were considerable differences among the States in the length of the week. In eight States two-thirds or more of the women had a week of 52 hours or less, while in three States three-fourths or more had a week in excess of 54 hours. The earnings during a week in the last quarter of 1928, taken for 6,061 women in 18 States and 5 additional cities, showed that 7 per cent of the women earned $18 or more, 70 per cent of the total received less than $15, over 40 per cent less than $12, and over 25 per cent less than $10. For all the women studied the median—one-half earning more, one-half less—was $12. Medians in the various States differed greatly, running as high as $16 in California, the minimum permitted by law for experienced workers in that State, $15 in Michigan, and $14 in Kentucky, in each of which figures were based upon women in stores in the largest cities in the State, and as low as $9 in Alabama, Georgia, Kansas, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Tennessee, and even below that in Maryland. In the five additional cities median earnings were $12 in Boston, $13 in Indianapolis, $14 in New York and Milwaukee, and $18 in Chicago. Girls who worked only on Saturday were paid from $1 to $3.50. In a few States the data secured give valid bases for comparisons of earnings in 1928 with earnings in 1925; some reduction is shown in 1928 in the proportions of women receiving the lowest amounts, but no positive indication is given of a general increase in the groups having rates or earnings in the highest range. Conditions for women in laundries. One of the major woman-employing industries of the country is the laundry. The rapid growth of the laundry industry and its importance to the woman worker and to the public warranted a survey which was made with the cordial cooperation of the Laundry 80 ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR owners’ National Association. The report is in preparation for printing. The study covers hours, earnings, working conditions, and certain personal information supplied by the women laundry workers themselves. Records were obtained from 290 of the larger general commercial laundries, doing, as a rule, all varieties of work, in 23 cities in 16 States. The employees in these plants numbered 24,337, of whom 19,758, or 81.2 per cent, were women. For the study as a whole, negroes composed a little more than one-fourth of the women employed. In the South more than 4 in 5 were negroes, while on the Pacific coast there were but 16 in a total of nearly 5,600 women. Taking the entire group of women, the most common schedule of weekly hours was 48. This was not typical of the country as a whole, but was the prevailing schedule in the eastern and western sections, in which, respectively, 44 and 96.5 per cent of the women were reported as having a schedule of 48 hours. In the central or middle western cities, about 41 per cent of the women had schedules of 50 and under 52 hours, and in the southern cities about 41 per cent had schedules of over 50 and under 54 hours. The most common daily schedules were found to be 9 hours, reported for 32 per cent of the women, and 8 hours or less, reported for 30.3 per cent. Like weekly hours, the daily schedule varied widely in the different sections of the country. A half day on Saturday is less generally accepted in the laundry industry than in manufacturing. The compilation shows that 41.6 per cent of the women had a Saturday schedule of 8 to 10 hours. Wage records were obtained for 19,180 women. Over two-fifths of the white women earned $15 and under $20, the median—one-half earning more and one-half earning less—being $16.10. Almost three-fifths of the negro women had earnings under $10, the median for all the women reported being $8.85. For all the women in the 23 cities the range of the medians, $6.75 to $20.70 in a single industry, is unusual and significant. The medians of the white women were from $11.95 to $20.70, and the medians of the negro women from $6.45 to $17.50. Conditions under which the women in laundries did their work also varied considerably. Lighting was satisfactory in more than half the plants, but in one-third of the laundries visited no means of artificial ventilation was found. About 10 per cent of the laundries had hoods with exhausts over their flat ironers, and more than one-half of those with hot tumblers and 11 per cent of those with drying rooms were equipped with exhausts. Sanitary facilities were fairly satisfactory, although only 27 laundries had bubblers in which the water did not fall back on the ori ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR 81 fice and more than a fifth used common drinking cups. Two-fifths of the plants had insufficient toilet accommodations. The majority of the laundries had protection against accidents, with machines well guarded and floors in good condition, but stairs were in bad repair in 30 plants, and the construction of stairways was unsatisfactory in 76. Variations in employment trends of women and men. The figures presented in this report show the trends of employment for women and for men in Ohio in 54 industrial or occupational classifications over a period of 11 years, 1914 to 1924. For each of the classifications, curves have been drawn that show graphically when and to what extent trends for the two sexes have differed or coincided. , Taking them in all, perhaps the most striking fact about the curves is the extent to which they indicate similarity in the trends of employment for women and men. There are four main types of differences between the two sexes that appear in the curves presented as illustrations. The first, and probably the most significant to women, is the difference in the long-term trends. In many of the classifications the figures when separated by sex show a distinct tendency toward an increasing importance of women throughout the 11-year period under consideration. Another kind of difference between the trends for women and men is found in certain of the classifications that are affected by seasonal problems. In some of these there is a distinct seasonal trend for women and not for men; in others the seasonal trend for men is more extreme than that for women. A third type of difference is that caused by some economic situation, such as the war or the depression of 1920-21, and a fourth is seen as the result of strikes that may affect women or men or both. In the analysis of the charts the effort has been made to discover how the resemblance between the curve for each sex and the curve for the total is affected by the size of the classification; by the scope of the industries and occupations included; by the relative importance of the two sexes; by the seasonal requirements of the industries included; by the developments within industry leading to changes in product and methods of production; by the concentration of one or the other sex in certain definite occupational lines; by the influence of general economic conditions, such as the war or the depression of 1920-21; or by local situations, such as strikes, affecting more limited groups included in the classification. Negro women in industry in 15 States. Studies made by the Women’s Bureau have covered more than 17,000 negro women in the following 15 States: Alabama, Arkansas, 82 ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OE LABOR Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. Of the women studied, 12,123 were in the manufacturing and mechanical industries, and the information in the various reports in regard to their occupational distribution, working hours, earnings, and personal history has been compiled in one bulletin. The women in manufacturing included in this compilation comprise 11.5 per cent of the number reported by the census of 1920 as engaged in manufacturing. More than half of those included in the study were in tobacco factories. Over 1,000 were in textile mills, nearly 1,000 in the wood industries, and nearly 900 in meat packing. Certain of the types of work in which negro women were found may be said to represent, for them, distinct if somewhat slow industrial progress. The large numbers engaged in sweeping and in cleaning of various kinds have to a great extent been omitted from the present study, since such occupations represent little industrial advance. Others worked at tasks that would properly be classified under general labor, such as work done in glass factories, in textiles (with the exception of hosiery), in the wood industries, in tobacco rehandling, in meat packing, and so on. Some women were in employments that represented the carrying over of the older traditional occupations into the newer industrial system, such as certain sewing operations. A considerable number of women operated machines of various kinds, many of which involved only simple operations or movements repeated indefinitely, but some requiring dexterity or a degree of skill. There were a few negro women in supervisory posts or in positions involving more or less responsibility or special skill. The hours of work usually were long. Nearly three-fourths of the women reported worked 9 to 10 hours, and nearly ( per cent worked more than 10. Nearly 40 per cent had a week of 55 hours or more, including 6 per cent who worked 60 hours and over, practically all the latter being in tobacco and textiles. Earnings ordinarily were low, except in the case of a few individuals. Complete State and industrial comparisons could not be carried out, as the surveys were made in years diffiering greatly in industrial activity and stability. In four States the median of the week’s earnings of all women reported—one-half of the women earning more, one-half less—was $5.70 or less, in two States it was $11.30 or more; medians in the other five States for which earnings were reported ranged from $6.10 to $8.65. Conditions of work in spin rooms. This report consists of two parts: The first gives a detailed analysis of the records obtained from four cotton mills in which the new method ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR 83 of operating the spinning frames—a division of labor between spinner and cleaner—had been introduced. At the time the records were taken three of these mills still were operating one or more spin rooms according to the old method. The fourth furnished records for an early summer and a winter period before and after the new method had been introduced. In general, it may be said that the new method in the spin room slightly increased the turnover but tended to lessen the time lost. To disclose to some extent what is being achieved in heat regulation in cotton mills where careful management is anxious to have the work run as well as possible is the object of the second part of this bulletin. Dry-bulb readings and wet-bulb readings for 15 mills—7 in the North and 8 in the South—and covering various periods from June, 1924, to November, 1927, were reported. For most of these mills complete temperature readings for a year were available. Causes of absence for men and women in four cotton mills. An analysis of somewhat detailed absence records of both men and women in two northern and two southern mills was made by the bureau during the past year to supplement its 1923 study on causes of lost time among women in cotton mills. As in the earlier study, the principal cause of lost time was the illness of the worker This was true of the men as well as the women. The number of days lost through illness was greater for women than for men, the average in three mills being 2.8 to 5.4 days for men and 4.8 to 9.8 days for women. Very little of the lost time in any of the mills was due to accidents. In one mill they caused less than 1 per cent of the lost time and in another the figure was 4 per cent. More men than women lost time through this cause. It would appear that lack of work as a cause of absence affected the women in these mills somewhat more than the men. “ Home duties ” and “ personal reasons” were causes that differed only slightly in effect from mill to mill but affected women much more than men. Those mills that reported little time lost because of lack of work showed a higher percentage of absence for personal reasons, and those having more time lost because of lack of work had comparatively little absence due to personal reasons. library research. Research activities during the past year have included considerable investigation in connection with every project undertaken by the bureau, and special studies of material issued from other sources, such as the State labor laws, the reports and other publications and records of the various State labor departments and the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, the records of the Bureau of the Census. 84 ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR the reports of the International Labor Office, and investigations and reports made by nongovernmental organizations. The following outline shows the scope of subjects spanned by the research division: 1. An article on the wage-earning woman’s contribution to family support, written for the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science and shortly to be published by the bureau as a bulletin. 2. A study of the economic responsibilities of 103 women who were or had been married and who had applied to a Denver store for employment. 3. An analysis of the Denver Y. W. C. A. employment records, including 345 applicants who were or had been married, to ascertain women’s economic responsibilities. 4. An analysis of data collected by the bureau on 1,776 part-time workers in limited-price chain department stores in 17 States and 5 additional cities, and of the part-time or spare-hand system in cotton mills. 5. A compilation and analysis of figures on hours and earnings of from 38,000 to 48,000 women in several hundred textile mills in 11 States, the State surveys of the bureau being the sources drawn upon. 6. The collection and analysis of data on industrial accidents from various State reports. 7. A study of industrial home work, including a list of references on the subject. 8. The preparation of lists of selected references on the following subjects: The health of women in industry, their working hours, their working conditions, and their share in family support. 9. Work on a general bibliography on women in industry. 10. A continuation of the study of legislation affecting working women in this country and abroad. 11. The News-Letter issued periodically throughout the year. Division of Public Information. ; The work of public information has gone steadily forward during the year. It has included news releases on all new bulletins and outstanding activities of the bureau, popular and technical articles on the various problems connected with wage-earning women for many types of magazines, the furnishing of information to correspondents of newspapers and press associations and to editors of periodicals upon request, eight radio talks, and the preparation and circulation of popular exhibits. ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR 85 The most important exhibit features of the year. 1. An attractive and informative exhibit, depicting women’s wageearning activities in the United States, installed at the Iberian-American Exposition at Seville. 2. Advertising and constant circulation of 11 copies of the two-reel motion picture “ Within the Gates,” just completed at the beginning of the year. 3. The preparation of a new one-reel motion picture, “ The Story of the Women’s Bureau,” portraying the history, activities, and standards of the bureau. 4. Preparation of two new series of charts, one on married women workers, the other on negro workers, and several new posters. 5. The purchase of a motograph and preparation of five strips on subjects pertaining to wage-earning women for use in this machine. 6. Constant circulation of bureau exhibits, which have been sent into every State of the Union and to a few foreign countries. THE CONCILIATION SERVICE Typical cases. The following are the typical cases referred to in the report of the director of conciliation appearing on p. 27. American La France-Foamite Corporation, Elmira, N. Y.—One of the out-.standing labor disputes of 1929, and one which was finally terminated through intervention of the Department of Labor, was the strike of machinists of the American La France-Foamite Corporation, Elmira, N. Y. This company had maintained peaceful relations with the machinists in its •employ for a period of more than 13 years. It never had a contract or agreement with the machinists’ union but manifested no objection to its employees belonging to that organization; in fact, nearly all of the machinists employed .at the plant, some 320 in number, were members of the machinist’s local union. The international officers of the union were desirous of negotiating an agreement with the company that would carry with it recognition. Some negotiations toward that end had been started when the corporation changed its management and elected a new president. When approached on this subject, the new president asked that the matter be held in abeyance for a period of at least six months in order to give him time to become acquainted with local conditions. At the end of that period, after the machinists had renewed their request for a union agreement, the president announced that the “ open shop ” policy, under which the company had operated so long, would be continued. In February, 1928, the union took a strike vote to establish a closed shop, hut held the matter in abeyance pending further negotiations with the management. Wages and hours of labor at the plant had been adjusted through previous conferences and put into effect, leaving union recognition as the only undetermined issue. Both sides were anxious to avoid a strike, but equally -determined that their contentions should prevail. Unable to reach an adjustment, the machinists finally went on strike June 18. 1928, 86 ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR This being a fight for “ union recognition,” mediation by a disinterested third party was impractical until one or both parties manifested some disposition toward conciliation. Conciliatory efforts during the summer of 1928 were not unsuccessful. Not until March, 1929, did it appear possible to bring the situation to an end. Unquestionably, the strike had been very expensive to both sides. As soon as it became apparent that mediation or conciliation might be acceptable, Commissioner of Conciliation William C. Liller was assigned and instructed to immediately confer with both sides and ascertain the exact situation and to endeavor to compose their differences. The proffer of the department’s good offices was now welcomed by both sides, indicating that each party had tired of the conflict and was anxious for peace. However, neither side was willing to make concessions that could be used as a basis for settlement. Furthermore, the company management was unwilling to confer with representatives of the International Association of Machinists. Commissioner Liller first conferred with both sides, in separate conferences at Elmira, and later procured a joint conference with officials of the company and a committee representing the striking machinists, in which a committee of outstanding Elmira citizens (Hon. Daniel Sheehan, ex-mayor; Mr. H. H. Griswold; and Mr. W. Glenn Sweet) participated, but being unable to overcome the barriers between them suggested that they come to Washington and endeavor to work out an adjustment, if possible, in the office of the Secretary of Labor. This proposal was agreeable to both parties, again indicating a mutual desire to end the strife, with the result that negotiations were resumed in Washington. At this conference Secretary James J. Davis and Director of Conciliation Hugh L. Kerwin proposed joint conferences in order to compose the differences, if possible. The president of the company was reluctant to do this, and separate conferences were held. Later, however, a joint conference was arranged which was attended by Messrs. Charles B. Rose and Walter J. Childs, president and executive vice president of the company, respectively; President William Green, of the American Federation of Labor, President Arthur O. Wharton, and Vice President P. J. Conlon, of the International Association of Machinists; Secretary Davis, Director Kerwin, and Commissioner Liller. The first meeting was barren of results, but conferences were continued and finally resulted in an adjustment of the strike on April 26 and accepted on April 29 by the men. A memorandum of agreement was drawn up and signed, embracing the terms under which operations would be resumed. In effect, a “ cooperative agreement ” was reached, whereby, in consideration for concessions made by the company the union will cooperate to increase efficiency in production, effect economies in operation, and assist in promoting the sale of the company’s products. The agreement provided for the reemployment of all the striking machinists, many of whom returned to work promptly. In less than a month all the striking machinists were back at work. Section 8 of the agreement also provides that all issues or controversies between the company and its employees which are not adjusted through direct negotiations shall be arbitrated by the Secretary of Labor. Bemberg-Glanzstoff Mills, Elizabethton, Tenn.—A very serious labor dispute of 1928, and one having the most far-reaching effect^ especially in the southern industrial field, occurred at the American Bemberg and American Glanzstoff mills at Elizabethton, Tenn. The strike began in the Glanzstoff mill on March 13, the workers expressing general dissatisfaction with the wage scale. The mill operatives were entirely unorganized at the time of the strike. It appears that at the Bemberg mill, which was the first unit of a great German rayon ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR 87 yarn industry to be established at Elizabethton, a higher rate of pay was in effect, probably due to the fact that at this mill the management had had more time to effect a permanent organization. The Glantzstoff workers demanded an increase to make their scale equal to that received at the Bemberg mill. The United Textile Workers of America sent their organizers into Elizabethton and began enrolling the strikers into a local union. The strike spread to the Bemberg mill and soon both mills were closed, involving 5,000 operatives. Commissioner of Conciliation Charles G. Wood was directed to proceed to Elizabethton and bring about an adjustment if possible. A committee was selected to represent the strikers and Commissioner Wood obtained the consent of the management of the mills to meet this committee in joint conference. The meeting convened in the John Sevier Hotel at Johnson City, Tenn., on March 21 and remained in session until 2.30 a. m., when it was announced that a tentative agreement had been reached. This tentative agreement was then taken to a mass meeting of the strikers, and, after being read and explained to them, was ratified with enthusiasm. The agreement contained the following provisions: 1. No discrimination on account of union membership, but the plant to be run on an open-shop basis. 2. Operations to be resumed gradually, preference to be given to those who are experienced and to those who have dependents to support. 3. There shall be a committee of workers and should grievances arise the company will meet with the committee. 4. All injunctions pending to be withdrawn. 5. The wage scale for men employees to be the same as the rate prevailing in the Bemberg plant prior to March 18, 1929. The wage scale for women to be 18 cents an hour for beginners, for the first three weeks; 20 cents for the fourth to the sixth week, inclusive; 22 cents an hour after six weeks, and 24 cents an hour after six weeks and efficient service. The increase in wages approximated about 12% per cent. Work was resumed at both mills. However, on April 15 another walkout of the employees occurred, and this strike proved to be a long and bitter struggle. It was alleged by the workers that the company had failed to keep its agreement to meet committees of its employees whenever a grievance arose. The immediate cause of the walkout was alleged to have been the discharge of a committee of employees who had been endeavoring to secure the reinstatement of five boys. There was much confusion as to what actually had occurred, but the walkout was complete and both mills were forced to close. Commissioner Wood at once returned to Elizabethton, and, after carefully reviewing the contentions he announced that it appeared to him that the agreement had been violated by both sides. He further stated that if neither side was able to live up to the understanding or agreement which they had accepted and to which they were obligated, it was a waste of time to talk of a new agreement. The plants remained closed until May 6, at which time the management reopened the mills and invited the workers to return. Some of the workers did return and formed themselves into an organization known as the Loyal Workers. Some new people were employed and the plants operated under military protection for three weeks. In the meantime the Governor of Tennessee appointed Maj. George L. Berry, of Tennessee, as a mediator, but he was unable to bring about an adjustment, and resigned with the statement the concerns did not wish to settle by mediation. At this time the department assigned one of its women commissioners, Miss Anna Weinstock, to make a quiet survey of the situation and then endeavor to bring about conferences. She proceeded to Elizabethton and was courteously 88 ANNU.iL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR received by the management and representatives of the workers. She later arranged that a committee of the strikers should confer with the management and participated in the several discussions which followed. Some minor matters were cleared up at the first meeting and a friendlier relationship was established between the two groups. Other conferences followed, but with no definite result as to an immediate settlement. Commissioner Weinstock then proceeded to New York City for a conference with other officials of the company and received suggestions which it was thought might be helpful in arranging a settlement. Returning again to Elizabethton the joint conferences were renewed and a settlement was finally worked out and ratified on May 25, 1929. The following was the basis of settlement: “All former employees shall register immediately. If any employee is not reinstated, definite reasons will be given such an employee, and if he feels he is being discriminated against, he may refer his case to an impartial person for a hearing and decision. The impartial person to sit on such cases shall be Mr. E. T. Wilson. The management will not discriminate against any employee because of membership in any organization nor because of any legitimate and lawful activities in such organization as long as they are carried on outside of the plants. For the purpose of adjusting grievances which may exist, the management will meet a committee of its employees.” This agreement was formally ratified by the strikers on May 25, 1929. The handling and settlement of this important strike was approved by all concerned and was commended very generally by the press of the country. Building trades, Neto York City.—On May 4, 1929, by terms of an agreement between the Building Trades Employers’ Association and the Building Trades Council of New York City, the 5-day week in the industry was agreed upon, to become effective on August 24, 1929. Coincidental with this date a general wage increase of 10 per cent was granted. The extent of the wage increase was sufficient to enable the building-trades craftsmen to receive the same wage for the 44-hour week that they had previously received for the longer period. The settlement affected nearly 150,000 workers in 25 crafts engaged on building operations valued at approximately $300,000,000. In the face of the above agreement a serious disturbance followed Tn a few days, due to the action of Electrical Workers Local Union No. 3 in refusing to permit its members to work for contractors who were not members of the Electrical Contractors’ Association, even though these contractors were affiliated with the Building Trades Employers’ Assoc'ation. This opposition of the electrical workers’ union was manifested in a refusal to furnish electricians, thus compelling the contractors concerned to employ nonunion workmen. This resulted in the other building-trades craftsmen refus ng to work with nonunion men on the job. This situation reached a stage where the Building Trades Employers’ Association declared that to bring the matter to a head it might be necessary to call for a complete shutdown on all building operat ons, and, in fact, the association declared a lockout to become effective on May 15. The association also rescinded its pervious action in granting the 5-day week and a 10 per cent increase in pay. Commiss’oner of Conciliation Thomas J. Williams was assigned to the case by the Department of Labor. The threatened lockout was finally averted under terms of an agreement worked out in a conference attended by Justice Thomas T. C. Crain, Mr. H. H. Broach, representing the electrical workers, and Mr. C. G. Norman, 'of the Building Trades Employers’ Association. This agreement provided that all sympathetic str'kes against contractors affiliated with the association be de ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR 89 dared off; that the electrical workers’ union permit its members to work for all contractors w’ho were members of the association; and, pending arbitration, that electricians be allowed to hang electrical fixtures that had been macle in. nonunion factories. It also provided for the establishment of a board of arbitration whose members should be Justice Crain, Robert D. Kohn, of the American Institute of Architects, and Henry C. Meyer, of the Institute of Electrical Engineers. This arbitration board, however, never functioned and was later superseded by a joint agreement between the executive committee of the Building Trades Council and the executive committee of the Building Trades Employers’ Association that the joint arbitration plan previously in effect be reaffirmed, to the end that there should be no strikes or lockouts, and that all disputes be settled by mediation or arbitration. In consideration of this agreement the executive committee of the Building Trades Employers’ Association reaffirmed its agreement made with the executive committee of the' Building Trades Council on May 4, to recognize the 5-day week and to grant an increase of 10 per cent over the wages of January 1, 1929, to be effective on and after August 24, 1929, and further, that all agreements should be extended to April 30, 1932. Municipal Pier, Baltimore, Md.—In the spring of 1929 a $4,000,000 pier being constructed by the city of Baltimore, known as the Comas Street Pier, was delayed, due to a general strike of all building-trades craftsmen when one of the contractors refused to employ union men or to pay the prevailing rate of wages in Baltimore to men whom he did employ. This pier, while being constructed by the city, was to be leased to- the Western Maryland Railroad. A definite date had been set for its completion and in the event it was not completed at a specified date the city would have been the loser to the extent of a considerable sum of money. Commissioner Thomas M. Finn was assigned to the dispute. The commissioner interviewed all parties to the controversy and learned that according to the terms of the charter the city of Baltimore was compelled to set a wage known as the “ prevailing rate ” on all city contract work. Accordingly he called upon Mayor Broening and also interviewed all ofiicials in authority, including members of the City Harbor Commission. A committee was appointed by the mayor to determine what was the prevailing rate for the various craftsmen and this action brought the strike to an end. Several hundred men were directly affected by the strike, as this project was the largest single unit of construction in the city of Baltimore during the year 1929. The representatives of the various interests expressed appreciation to Commissioner Finn for his part in bringing about a satisfactory understanding under which work on this important project was at once resumed. Carpenters, South Bend and Mishawaka, Ind.—On May 20, 1929, the agreement between the carpenters’ union of South Bend and Mishawaka, Ind., expired and the carpenters of both cities left their work. On June 4 the good offices of the department were requested and Commissioner H. B. Dynes proceeded to South Bend. On his arrival he found that identical letters had been sent to both carpenters’ local unions advising them that if their members were not back at work on Wednesday morning, June 5, their places would be filled. He called at the offices of the contractors’ association and suggested that they permit him to offer to the carpenters a month’s time to reopen the negotiations, and that the latter return to work during the period of negotiations. The contractors’ association agreed to this proposition. A general meeting was then called, and, while the carpenters did not agree to this plan at that meeting, they did at a second conference two days later. On Monday, June 10, 80114—29------------7 90 ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR Work was resumed and committees were appointed to reopen the negotiations Some of the problems met delayed a settlement a little longer than expected, but a satisfactory agreement was reached that gave the carpenters a 5-day week and an increase of 5 cents an hour beginning August 1, 1929. Building trades, Lorain, Ohio.—Building trades crafts of Lorain, Ohio, comprising bricklayers, carpenters, and electricians, struck on May 1, 1929, for a wage increase of $1 a day. The department designated Commissioner of Conciliation William Robinett to take up the case. When the commissioner arrived he found that the carpenters had already returned to work, having accepted the old scale of wages. The electricians were successful in winning their demands and after a few days idleness returned to work at the new schedule. In the case of the bricklayers both sides were firm and a conference of interested parties was fruitless of results. The mason contractors expressed their determination to resist all efforts to advance the wage scale and for many days refused to consider anything in the nature of a compromise, but finally Commissioner Robinett submitted a proposition that one-half of the increase asked for be considered. It was taken up and agreed to, and the bricklayers readily concurred in the compromise. Thus the strike was adjusted. The rate for bricklayers will be $12.50 a day in Lorain until May 1, 1930. Standard Sanitary Manufacturing Co., Louisville, Ky.—Members of Local No. GO, Metal Polishers’ International Union, of Louisville, Ky., requested the good offices of the department to mediate a threatened strike of metal polishers employed by the Standard Sanitary Manufacturing Co., of that city, and Commissioner George II. Van Fleet was assigned to take up the matter. The metal polishers had demanded an increase of 10 per cent in their wage scale and a renewal of their contract with the company. The commissioner conferred with the company officials and found them utterly opposed to granting an increase in wages. They were willing, however, to renew the contract for another year without any change in its terms. When it was made apparent that no increase would be granted, the local union reconsidered its determination to force an increase and signed the contract for 1929 without change. This company employs 10,600 workers in its Louisville plant, only 300 of whom were metal polishers or directly involved in the dispute. Goss Granite Quarry Corporation, Stonington, Me.—The effectiveness of the Federal Conciliation Service and its ability to maintain or bring about peace in industry is well illustrated in the case of the John L. Goss Quarry Corporation, of Stonington and Deer Isle, Me. A protracted controversy between this company and its quarry workers dated back seven or eight years, when a strike had occurred that resulted in a defeat for the union quarrymen and the placing of the quarry on an open-shop basis. The president of the corporation maintained a sympathetic attitude toward organized labor, believing that it tended to stabilize the business, but asserted that the quarrymen at Stonington were endeavoring to force him to pay a higher rate of wages than was paid by other quarries in that locality. Stone from this great quarry is used largely throughout the country, particularly on bank buildings, public buildings, and great office structures in such large cities as New York, Boston, and Philadelphia. In many localities the granite cutters and other trades have refused to dress or cut this stone because it had been quarried by nonunion men. In other places it has been handled under protest by the building-trades crafts and has been the cause of friction and has delayed the completion of many projects. Various agencies endeavored to clear up the situation but failed, due largely to the unwilling- ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR 91 ‘ness of President Goss to enter into an agreement with. Local No. 74 of the Quarry Workers’ International Union, because of alleged unfairness upon the part of the local and its unwillingness to give him a square deal. The various interests affected by the situation appealed to the Department of Labor to interest itself and through mediation and conciliation endeavor to arrive at a settlement that might be satisfactory to all concerned. To this task the department assigned Commissioner Richard A. Brown, of Concord, N. H., a man with broad experience in all phases of the granite industry. The commissioner proceeded to Stonington for a review of the situation, and after a study of all the factors entering into it, attended a meeting of Local Union No. 74, and laid before its members a proposal for a settlement. The proposal embraced a written agreement between the company and the local union, but stipulated that in case a disagreement arose at the quarry the president should take the matter up with the international officers rather than the officials of the local union. This provision was because of the local prejudice. The question of accepting the proposal was voted upon and agreed to by the local union. It was then given acceptance by the officers of the international union and was finally signed by the officers of the corporation. The diplomacy used by Commissioner Brown in bringing about this settlement, after other agencies had failed, brought to the department the approval of the workers and the company directly concerned in the dispute and of the building industry generally, together with the building-trades men whose work had been delayed from time to time owing to the long-standing controversy. Barbers, Philadelphia, Pa.—Counterclaims for an increase and reduction in wages, made respectively by the Journeymen Barbers’ Union and the Master Barbers’ Association of Philadelphia, Pa., culminated finally in a strike of 2,000 barbers on July 11. 1928. These workers were receiving a guaranteed minimum wage of $30 a week, together with a percentage of the receipts per chair over a stated amount. The barbers demanded that the guaranteed minimum be increased to $35 a week, plus the commission, -while the master barbers contended for a reduction to $28. Commissioner L. R. Thomas was assigned to the case in cooperation with State Mediator P. A. Ramsey. The mediators succeeded in arranging a joint conference of the contending parties, and the meeting which followed was prolonged into an all-night session, with neither side willing to make a concession. Finally they agreed to a renewal of the last year’s agreement without any change in its terms. Work was resumed on July 14. Milk Drivers, Hazelton, Pa.—Milk wagon drivers employed by the Snyder Dairy Co., of Hazelton, Pa., struck on June 23, 1929. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters and Chauffeurs, of which the employees of the Snyder Dairy Co. were members, requested the department’s good offices, and Commissioner Thomas Davis was assigned to the case. The commissioner found that the strikers had made demands for a wage increase, which had been refused; that they had been paid the wages due them; and that their places had been filled by new employees. It has been the experience of the department that when conditions of this kind are met it is a difficult task to bring about a satisfactory settlement. However, upon interviewing the owner of the dairy the commissioner succeeded in inducing him to meet with his old employees. At this conference an agreement was reached that all the strikers should return to work the next day, that the union should be recognized, and that the committee of employees, the commissioner, and the owner should meet again on June 26 to consider the matter of an increase in wages. 92 ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR At this last conference it was agreed that the men should work a 9-hour day, with the same wage that they had formerly received for 12 hours; that 25 days off each year should be allowed with pay; and that three men, whom it was agreed were underpaid, should receive increases of $5 a week. A permanent committee of five was also agreed upon to adjust all future controversies. These provisions were embodied in a contract drawn up and signed by representatives of both sides. This adjustment was due to the fact that the owner of the plant preferred his old employees. Both parties to the agreement expressed their appreciation for the services rendered by the department. Carpenters and joiners, Plainfield, N. J.—On May 1, 1929, 640 carpenters and joiners, members of a local union at Plainfield, North Plainfield, and Dunellen, N. J., struck for an increase of pay. They had been receiving $11.20 for an 8-hour day and asked $12. To this demand the master builders would not accede and a suspension of work followed. The department was advised of the trouble and Commissioner John A. Moffitt was assigned to the case, with instructions to make a survey of the dispute and find a common ground if possible upon which the parties at interest might meet and adjust their differences. After looking over the situation the commissioner invited the workers and the employers to meet in conference. Both sides seemed reluctant to do so, but in deference to the department’s representative yielded and agreed to meet. Several conferences followed without much result until the commissioner suggested that the dispute be referred to arbitration, the strikers to return to work immediately and to abide by whatever decision was made. This suggestion was accepted by both sides and work was immediately resumed. Mr. Allen E. Beals, of the National Arbitration Board, was decided upon as arbitrator. His decision was that the carpenters continue at $11.20 per day until August 29, 1929, and to receive $12 a day thereafter. Carpenters, Monmouth County, N. J.—On or about April 15, 1929, the department received information that approximately 1,740 carpenters of Monmouth County, N. J., had gone on strike. The department directed Commissioner John A. Moffitt to investigate the cause of the strike and to proffer his good offices to the parties interested. A study of the situation developed the following, facts: That on April 12 the carpenters and joiners in 20 towns in Monmouth County struck for an increase in pay from $10 to $12 a day. In some of the towns agreements had been entered into on a basis of $11 a day, while in other towns the carpenters were holding out for $12, notwithstanding the fact that they were all members of the same local union. This seemed unfair to the department’s representative, who suggested that all the master builders should be treated alike, and that there should be no discrimination shown. To this the carpenters’ committee agreed and a conference with the master builders was called. At this joint meeting they agreed that wages should be increased $1 a day and that the 5-day week should be inaugurated in the industry. Charles Warner Co., Philadelphia, Pa.—A sudden strike of truck drivers employed by the Charles Warner Co., of Philadelphia. Pa., occurred in April, 1929. The Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry requested the department to cooperate with its representative in Philadelphia, Mr. P. A. Ramsey. Commissioners H. J. Brown and L. R. Thomas, who were both in Philadelphia at the time, were assigned to the case. The mediators conferred with the representatives of the teamsters and drivers and then called upon the officials of the Charles Warner Co. The company looked with favor upon the proposal for a joint conference, even though a former conference had failed of any good result. The conference was ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR 93 held at the office of the company the same evening and lasted for three hours. The chief contention was the wage question, and this was finally compromised. Other matters of dijference were then fully discussed and a satisfactory solution found for their adjustment, so that the parties adjourned in a spirit of good will and sincere cooperation, having not only reached an accord but consummated an amicable agreement. During the progress of the strike the company had hired other drivers to man their trucks for the delivery of sand, gravel, lime, and other materials to buildings under construction in Philadelphia and vicinity. There had been numerous assaults, followed by several arrests by the police, who had been called out for extra duty to maintain order. The prompt arrival of the mediators and the cooperation of all parties to the dispute culminated in an immediate ending of the strike. The agreement, copies of which are on file at the departments in Washington and Harrisburg, contains eight clauses covering wages and working conditions. It is to remain in effect until December 31, 1930, and, except upon 30 days’ notice by either party thereto, given in writing, shall continue to run from year to year. Plumbers and steam fitters, New Jersey towns.—A strike of plumbers and steamfitters was begun in several towns in Union, Middlesex, and Somerset Counties, N. J., in the spring of 1929, and the department assigned Commissioner John A. Moffitt to the case to render whatever assistance he found necessary to bring the contestants together to adjust their differences in conference. Arriving in Plainfield he sought and was granted an interview with the officers of the Master Plumbers’ Association, who, after a lengthy discussion of the merits and demerits of the controversy, agreed to meet a committee of those on strike. The plumbers and steamfitters also accepted the good offices of the department and appointed a committee to meet the employers. A joint conference was called by the department’s representative and at this meeting it developed that the principal cause of dissention was the number of feet of steamfitting the workers would be allowed to do. The employers demanded 450 feet a day and the steamfitters would not agree to more than 200 feet. On this point the conferees failed to agree. The department’s representative then suggested that matters of this kind could be adjusted by a conference board. This suggestion appealed to the conferees as the proper course to pursue and immediately a resolution was introduced and. adopted unanimously providing for such a board, upon which both sides would be represented in equal numbers. Upon the adoption of this resolution it was agreed that all matters still in dispute, and any that might arise in the future, should be referred to this board for adjustment, and, further, that all men on strike should return to work immediately. Sheet-metal workers, Evansville, Ind— On May 1, 1929, a contract between the sheet-metal workers and their employers at Evansville, Ind., came to an end. The workers asked for an increase in wages of 15 cents an hour to make the scale $1.25 an hour, or $10 a day. A division became apparent among the employers, some 20 companies agreeing to pay the new rate while 6 companies, including the largest in the business, flatly declined. A strike was then declared against these companies and Commissioner Edward Stewart took up the matter in an endeavor to reach an adjustment. Separate conferences were held and the employers manifested a spirit to compromise the differences. However, owing to the fact so many employers had granted the demands in full, the business agent of the union declined to meet with them in joint conference unless assurances were given that the demands would be granted. The position taken by the representative of the workers was not acceptable to the larger companies and no joint conference was held. The strike continued 94 ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR on for a period, but gradually the union terms were accepted by one company after another until the new schedule became effective in all the shops of the city. Bates-Lang Co., Minneapolis, Minn.—The Bates-Lang Co*, an old established firm manufacturing overalls in Minneapolis, Minn., locked out their employees on March 1, 1929, in an attempt to reduce wages. This was an alleged violation of an agreement entered into between a local union of the United Garment Workers of America and the company, dated January 1, 1929. Commissioner F. A. Canfield was assigned to take up the case. This situation presented features of peculiar interest. It developed that Mr. Bates, manager of the company, had organized the first garment workers’ union in Minneapolis many years before, and when organizing his own shop entered into closed-shop conditions with the union and had continued this arrangement until he broke with the union on March 1. He maintained that this action became necessary owing to the highly competitive nature of his business and his inability to compete with similar merchandise made in the nonunion or openshop plants. He also stated that for a few years past his goods had been sold in localities outside the trade centers where the union label had not enhanced his sales; that the buyers had pooled their interests and purchased goods through one unit; that in no single instance could a shop paying the union rates hope to acquire any of this business; and that in self-defence he had been obliged to break his agreement with the union or go out of business. He quoted figures to show that overalls made in union shops in the United States sold at an average of 72 cents a dozen more than the price obtained by the open-shop plants. Commissioner Canfield held many meetings with both the labor committee and the manager of the company in an effort to solve their mutual problems. Business had been poor for both the workers and the company, the latter having, operated at a loss for some time, being able to operate but part time. Being unable to forsee any prospect of better business in the future the company closed its doors on April 15 and retired from the business. Glaziers, Youngstown, Ohio.—A strike of glaziers occurred at Youngstown, Ohio, in April, 1929, and furnishes an instance of what can be accomplished by an agency of the Government working in the interests of industrial peace. Commissioner Fred Keightly, who had been assigned to another strike in that city, was approached by parties interested in the glaziers’ strike, and asked to use his good offices in bringing about a settlement. The strike had been in effect about three weeks. Conferring with the workers’ representatives, the commissioner was informed that the strike was for a renewal of their annual agreement and an increase in the wage rates. No joint conferences had been held because the employers had indicated that they would not discuss the situation with the union representatives. The workers felt equally confident of their ability to continue on strike until the employers receded from their position. Conferring with the employers, the commissioner was informed that the strike was injuring business to some extent, and that while they considered the demands of the glaziers were entirely beyond reason, they were, and always had been, willing to meet with them and endeavor to adjust the matter. However, they did not feel that it was incumbent upon them to make the first advances. A joint conference was arranged by the commissioner, and after several hours of argument an agreement was reached for a 3-year period. So satisfied were both sides with the agreement that it was difficult to decide which side was the more pleased. This settlement is another illustration of where both sides to a dispute felt so strong in their position that neither was willing to make the slightest ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR 95 advance to the other for fear that it would indicate a weakness and thus strengthen the other’s determination to concede nothing. The situation merely needed the services of an outside, disinterested third party to make a contract between the disputants, and this service was furnished by the representative of the department. Barbers, Chicago, III.—It is always with reluctance that the department permits one of its commissioners, whose function is to mediate and conciliate in labor disputes, to act in the capacity of an arbitrator. In rare instances, however, when both sides to a dispute insist that the department’s representative shall himself settle a dispute by rendering an arbitrary decision that both sides have agreed to accept, the department has acquiesced in the arrangement. Such an instance was that of the barbers in Chicago, when the Master Barbers’ Association and the journeymen barbers of that city—being unable to agree upon wages, hours, and working conditions—jointly petitioned the department to name one of its commissioners of conciliation to act as an arbitrator and adjust their differences. Commissionei' W. H. Rodgers was selected to act in that capacity. The commissioner arranged a joint arbitration hearing, which was held in the Federal Building. The old agreement provided for a weekly wage guaranty of not less than $30 a week and 60 per cent of all receipts over $42 a week for each chair. The decision handed down by Commissioner Rodgers fixed a weekly guaranty of not less than $32 a week and 60 per cent of all receipts over $44 per week for each chair. No changes were made in the hours or working conditions. The agreement, which embodies the decision, is effective until the first Monday in May, 1932, and will continue in effect thereafter until a new contract has been agreed upon. Thirty-seven hundred journeymen barbers were affected by the decision. Conemaugh Iron Co., Blairsville, Pa.—Late in December, 1928, the enamelers, a highly skilled group of mechanics whose duty it is to enamel the ironware in various colors after it has gone through the many processes of manufacture, struck against a revision of rates put into effect by the Conemaugh Iron Co., of Blairsville, Pa. Commissioner Thomas M. Finn was assigned to the case in cooperation with William Broad, mediator for the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry. Upon interviewing the parties to the dispute the commissioners found that both sides had a misunderstanding as to the other side’s motives. The enamelers were of the opinion that the management desired to reduce wages, while the company officials felt that the enamelers had called a strike without waiting for the effect of the revision upon the wage scale. A joint meeting was arranged by the Federal and State representatives, which was held in the office of the company. The result was that a satisfactory understanding was reached. The men were directed to return to work immediately, with the understanding that any rates which proved to be unfair or unjust would be immediately changed. This ended the strike, which had been of two weeks’ duration. The impasse that, had been reached was thus easily broken by the intervention of a neutral, disinterested third party. Theaters—Seattle, Tacoma, Portland.—The Naborhood chain of theaters in Seattle and Tacoma, Wash., and Portland, Oreg., was threatened with a strike of projectionists and musicians in October, 1928. Wages and working conditions were factors in the dispute, but the inauguration of the “ talking pictures,” which tended to eliminate large numbers of musicians, in some cases entire orchestras, from their daily employment, threatened serious complications. 26 ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR For their mutual protection an arrangement had been entered into between the American Federation of Musicians and the International Alliance of Theatrical State Employees of America whereby the members of one union would support the other in case of a strike. A threatening situation was developing when Commissioner Harry E. Gilham was directed by the department to proffer its good offices. A general meeting of all parties concerned was arranged to be held in Portland, Oreg., on October 30. At this meeting an agreement was drawn up and signed, covering all points in dispute, the same to be in effect until September 1, 1931. It provided a wage scale of $80 a week for the first year, $82.50 a week for the second year, and $85 a week for the third year. A 6-day week and a 6-hour day were agreed upon, with overtime to be paid for at the rate of $3 an hour, and relief men at the same schedule pro rata. Bakers and helpers, Washington, D. C.—Journeymen bakers and helpers of Washington, D. C., threatened to strike in April, 1929, over the question of a renewal of their agreement with the Master Bakers’ Association. At a meeting of the Bakers’ Employers’ Association, held on April 27, a resolution was passed directing the master bakers to await the action of the bakers’ union relative to a proposition to renew the present agreement for two years with a proviso that if this were not accepted it would be construed as a notice to the employers that the union employees would not continue to work in the plants on and after May 11, 1929. The bakers’ union had promulgated demands for a wage increase and desired to change the duration of their agreement from two to one year. A number of conferences were held at the Department of Labor, with Commissioner James F. Dewey conducting the negotiations. At the second conference on request of the commissioner strike action was postponed for one week. During this time an agreement was effected by Commissioner Dewey in which it was agreed by both sides to renew the present contract for a period of two years. Building trades, Fort Wayne, Ind.—On August 6, 1928, 400 organized workers, comprising the building-trades crafts of Fort Wayne, Ind., with the exception of the bricklayers and electrical workers, struck on a large building being erected by John Stillman for occupancy by one of a chain of stores operated by the Interstate Department Stores Corporation. The general contractor started the work under open-shop conditions; which was an evident change in policy by Mr. Stillman, who had on all former occasions fully recognized all crafts allied with the Fort Wayne building trades. Commissioner of Conciliation Robert M. Pilkington was assigned to the case by the department. A temporary store occupied by this company and the new store were both being picketed by the Building Trades Council. It developed that the contract had been awarded by Mr. Stillman without any thought on his part as to the class of labor to be employed in the erection of the building. However, when the matter was called to his attention he sought some means out of his difficulty. There ensued many conferences with the general contractor and Mr. Stillman who has offices in New York City. A serious complication arose from the fact that the dispute was about to involve the Interstate Department Stores in other cities. On November 8, at the earnest solicitation of Commissioner Pilkington, Mr. Stillman came to Fort Wayne from New York for direct conference with the union officials and the commissioner. A settlement was made with the contractor for the amount of the work completed, and then, under supervision of the architect, the different organized crafts completed the building. This ended a long and bitter struggle, and when the new building was formally opened to the public a large floral offering presented by the Fort ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR 97 Wayne building trades was among those on display, and the utmost harmony prevailed. Shell Oil Co., California.—Continued peace and freedom from any major disputes marked the tenth year of the joint tripartite agreement, known as the Memorandum of Terms, under which the Shell Oil Co. of California and its employees cooperate in maintaining satisfactory industrial relations. This agreement dates back to the war period and recognizes two commissioners of conciliation as the interpreters of its terms. The Memorandum of Terms is the detailed agreement entered into between employer and employee in conjunction with the Department of Labor. It runs for a period of one year, but has been renewed each year since its inception in 1918. It has proved to be an asset, to both the Shell Co. and its employees, because of the mutual confidence it inspires and the protection it guarantees. Negotiations for the renewal of the agreement for its eleventh year were held at Santa Barbara, Calif., on July 15, 1929. Commissioners E. P. Marsh and C. T. Connell attended the conference, the former in the capacity of chairman. A voluntary increase of from 25 to 75 cents a day was granted to those employees who had not received an increase the previous year, Commissioners Marsh and Connell were continued as adjusters and interpreters of the agreement for the ensuing year. Keystone Ice Cream Co., Scranton, Pa.—On June 12, 1929, the department received a telegram from O. C. Skelton, business agent of the teamsters’ union at Scranton, Pa., requesting the assignment of a commissioner of conciliation to take up a strike situation at the plant of the Keystone Ice Cream Co. in that city. Commissioner Hugh D. Friel was assigned to the case. This trouble grew out of the discharge of a delivery teamster for insubordination, as alleged by the company, but the teamsters’ union maintained that it was because of his union activities. The commissioner’s first effort to arrange a joint conference of the interested parties failed because the company declined to meet with any but its own employees, while the union insisted upon its officers conducting negotiations. Various proposals as a basis of settlement were made, some of which were acceptable to the management providing the teamsters’ organization were eliminated. However, since the beginning of the strike a number of grievances were injected, including hours of labor, commission on sales, arrogance of truck foremen, and other conditions incidental to operations, and demands were made that they be remedied. Recognition of the union, however, was the stumbling block to a settlement. Mr. Friel was able to arrange a conference between the company officials and four members acting as a committee of the strikers. An outline of an agreement was reached which included a provision that no objection would be made to the truck drivers’ becoming members of the union, but the management insisted that those teamsters who did not wish to belong to the union should have freedom of action. This proposal was taken to a meeting of the strikers and they refused to consider it without a more definite statement on the union membership clause. With the exceptions noted by the strikers on the proposal the conferences were resumed, and a 4-hour session followed in which the commissioner was forced to use all his diplomacy in averting a breakup of the meeting without a settlement. The management finally agreed to accept a provision that at the end of 60 days every truck driver would be a member of the teamsters’ union, but such an agreement must be with actual employees of the plant, eliminating outside jurisdiction, Minor discrepancies in the wording of the contract were corrected, and with a final revision the commissioner returned to the strikers and earnestly urged them to accept it as the only possible basis of settlement. After much consideration it was agreed to and an arrangement made whereby 98 ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR the signatures were attached by both sides, and the strike ended, making possible the return to work of the employees on Saturday morning, June 22. This was a stubbornly fought case and required all the resources of the department’s representative to keep both sides in line until a way could be devised to compose the difficulties. Industrial Rayon Corporation, Cleveland, Ohio.—On March 26, 1929, about 450 women and girls employed by the Industrial Rayon Corporation, of Cleveland, Ohio, went on strike in protest against a change in the piecework rate, which, they alleged, was equivalent to a reduction in their wages. Commissioner of Conciliation A. L. Faulkner got in immediate touch with the situation. These workers were engaged in the twisting and lacing departments of the mill. The plan of the company was to increase the number of spindles operated per worker from 63 to 95, and to reduce the piecework rate for each pound of rayon produced from 8% cents to 6 cents per pound. The management contended that the proposed change would result in increased production without reducing the weekly earnings of the employees. The workers maintained that it was physically impossible to operate 95 spindles, which the cut in poundage rate required them to do to preserve their present weekly-wage rate. The commissioner’s proffer of his good offices was accepted by both sides. A joint conference was held on March 28 at the office of the company, at which time the company guaranteed that there would be no reduction in wages for a period of one month while the new plan was being worked out. The workers committee agreed to this proposition with the understanding that it would be presented to the strikers at a mass meeting to be called for that evening. The strikers, being unorganized, and having no hall in which to hold the mass meeting, met on the street outside the plant, where the plan to resume work on the trial plan was submitted to them by their committee. Due to a lack of organization at the meeting it broke up in confusion after rejecting the proposition of the committee. Wild charges of having “ sold out ” were hurled at the committee before the meeting adjourned in disorder. At a subsequent meeting, however, a modified form was proposed on the basis of a two weeks’ trial of the company’s plan, and it was agreed to by the employees. Egyptian Transportation Co., Marion, III.—A controversy of far-reaching effect occurred at Marion, Ill., involving the Egyptian Transportation Co. and the Auto Mechanics’ Union. In February, 1929, the department received a request from this company for the assignment of a representative, advising that trouble was anticipated. Commissioner of Conciliation B. M. Marshman was directed to take up the matter. The Egyptian Transportation Co. owns and operates a motor-coach transportation system, supplying passenger service to a large part of southern Illinois. Passenger service on the steam and interurban electric roads in the southern counties of the State is somewhat limited, thus making the Egyptian Transportation system a vital factor in southern Illinois life. Upon his arrival at Marion, Commissioner Marshman met with the president of the company and was informed that the company had lost money through its operations during the year 1928, but had worked out an economy system whereby it could continue to operate and overcome the deficit, if allowed to introduce it without trouble. This program provided for a 10 per cent reduction in wages, together with other provisions for economy. It was found that all the employees of the company had agreed to accept the proposed reduction providing the auto mechanics at Marion would also agree to it. The president advised that he had an agreement with the auto mechanics covering hours and ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR 99 wages that did not expire until May 1, 1929, but that if they would immediately accept the proposed reduction he would agree to negotiate a contract at a later date, covering the whole transportation system, and would further agree that all mechanics working for the system could become members of the union if such contract were consummated. The commissioner took the matter up with a representative of the International Association of Machinists, and a conference was arranged between him and the president of the company. At the conclusion of this meeting a special meeting of the auto mechanics’ local union was called. After the financial standing of the company had been fully explained to the members of the union, some of them expressed a doubt as to the accuracy of some of the statements made. Commissioner Marshman addressed the meeting and pointed out that it was their duty to ascertain whether or not the statements of the company relative to their financial status were accurate, and that if such statements were proved to be correct it would be well to give the request for a temporary reduction serious consideration. Because of the doubt existing in the minds of the men the request was turned down. However, at a later date the Commissioner was able to get the measure referred to the executive board of the union, and in conference with this board a program was outlined whereby all questions regarding the status of the company would be reduced to writing and put into the hands of a committee to investigate and ascertain the facts, these facts to be submitted in writing to the members of the union. The commissioner then returned to his official station, and about 10 days later he received a telegram from the union to the effect that it had agreed to the reduction and requesting his return to Marion to effect final settlement. After conferring with both union and company officials he drew up a temporary memorandum of agreement providing for a temporary wage reduction only, and stipulating that both parties thereto should meet as soon as possible, after April 5, to negotiate a system contract. In the latter part of April the company and the union officials met and consummated a system contract satisfactory to all concerned. Allis-Chalmers Manufacturing Co., Pittsburgh, Pa.—About 300 men employed by the Allis-Chalmers Manufacturing Co., of Pittsburgh, Pa., went on strike in April, 1929, for union recognition and better working conditions. Commissioner M. Emmilinne Pitt was assigned to the case in cooperation with mediators L. G. Hines and William Broad, of the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry. The mediators got in touch with the situation at once and conferred with representatives of both sides, but soon found that the local officers of the company had no authority to make the changes necessary to bring about an adjustment and that they must confer with President Otto H. E'alk at the offices of the company in Milwaukee, Wis. Commissioners Pitt and Broad proceeded to Milwaukee for this purpose and were cordially received by the president of the company. He stated that he had a sincere interest in the welfare of his employees, that he desired that they return to work at once and that as soon as possible he would remedy certain conditions which the men found unsatisfactory. He further stated that while they would not recognize the union, there would be no discrimination against any man for being a member of a bona fide labor organization. At a second conference a memorandum was proposed by the company embodying the following provisions: 1. A guaranty that certain objectionable conditions shall be remedied. 2. The right of access to present important grievances to the management. 100 ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR 3. That there shall be no discrimination against employees for being members of a union. 4. A shop committee a possibility of the future. The company also agreed to restore all men to their former positions as rapidly as possible. After much consideration of these proposals they were finally accepted by the men and the strike was declared off. Musicians, Washington, D. C.—In February, 1929, a dispute arose between the Washington (D. C.) local of the Musicians’ Protective Union and the manager of the National Theater Players over the number of musicians to be employed during the fifth annual season of stock productions at the National Theater. Commissioner E. H. Dunnigan, of the department, was assigned to the case. In taking the matter up with the manager the commissioner learned that for three seasons the theater had been conducted through the stock season without an orchestra; that for the fourth season, upon demands of the musicians’ union, he had employed three musicians; and that for the summer season of 1929 they were demanding that he employ seven musicians, basing their demand on the fact that the manager had signed a contract in 1927 to employ seven musicians during the life of the agreement, which was to run until September, 1930. In answer to this the management stated that to employ an orchestra of seven pieces would cost approximately $9,000 for the season, which was prohibitive, since the top price he could charge was $1 for seats against a top price of $5.50 for road prices when an orchestra of seven pieces is employed. The manager further advised that unless the union agreed to the employment of three musicians, as it had done during the last season, he would be forced to abandon plans for the season and release 14 players, 12 stage hands, and 35 house employees. In conferring with the musicians’ representatives Commissioner Dunnigan got their side of the story, which was to the effect that they had waived the terms of the agreement that stipulated the employment of seven musicians, and had granted the management the privilege of hiring only three for the season of 1928 because of the latter’s inability to pay for a full orchestra during the summer months, but that for the 1929 season the management had the advantage of starting on February 18, which would give them two of the winter months when attendance was better, and that in view of this advantage they should fulfill their original agreement and engage a full orchestra. The union agreed, however, that on April 15 they would probably be willing to grant some relief, but hardly to the extent of reducing the size of the orchestra to three members. The commissioner then called the representatives of both sides into a joint conference. At this meeting the management injected a new question into the discussions, namely, that the stock production at the National Theater was a change in policy and therefore was not covered by the existing agreement, and that the union should adopt a new rule requiring a smaller orchestra than it required for road productions. The musicians’ representatives argued that stock productions came within the purview of legitimate drama, mentioned in the agreement. After much debate Commissioner Dunnigan proposed the following compromise: That five musicians be employed from February 18 to June 1, after which time the number be reduced to three until the end of the season. The management then proposed as an amendment that the number of musicians be reduced to three from April 15 to the end of the season. The musicians took this proposal under advisement and after five days rejected it. A second joint conference was then arranged at which the management again raised the question that stock productions at the theater constituted a change in policy not covered by the agreement. The commissioner suggested that the question be submitted to arbitration, as set forth in the existing agreement. ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR 101 The management then made written demand for arbitration and the union consented to the demand. Each side appointed two arbitrators, and they in turn agreed upon a judge of the United States Court of Customs Appeals as umpire. The judge, after hearing both sides, intimated that he was going to rule that stock productions came within the purview of the existing agreement. He then advised them that it would be more expedient if both sides would come to some agreement among themselves. As a compromise he suggested that seven musicians be employed until the first week in April, that during the month of April five be employed, and thereafter three musicians be retained until the end of the season. Both sides accepted the judge’s suggestion and the dispute was ended. Buffalo Mill, Union, 8. C.—A number of strikes occurred in the cotton mills of North and South Carolina, a typical example! being a strike at the Buffalo Mill, Union, S. C. Having been advised of this controversy, Commissioner Charles Bendheim was delegated by the department to get in touch with the situation. Arriving at the scene the commissioner conferred with a committee of the strikers to' learn the cause of the trouble. He found them considerably wrought up over what they characterized as the “stretch-out” or “stretch-over” system. This method of operation imposed upon them more work than they had previously performed without any commensurate increase in pay. The weavers originally operated from 24 to 28 looms, but under the system installed the number of looms was extended to 72 or more, and finally to 100. It was this final “ stretch-out ” that brought about the strike. When operating 72 looms the operatives received an average weekly pay of $19.85, and when operating 100 looms the weekly pay averaged $22.25, according to information furnished by the mill superintendent. The employees worked 55 hours a week, or 10 hours a day for the first five days of the week, and 5 hours on Saturday. The management contended that the “system” did not impose too great a hardship upon the workers and that much had been done for them in the way of community benefits at the expense of the company. It was pointed out that the company housed most of its employees at an expense of 15 cents a room per week. It was upon the suggestion and advice of Commissioner Bendheim that the mill officials and a committee of the strikers met in joint conference and agreed upon terms of settlement which called for a reduction of the number of looms operated by each weaver from 100' to 84. This concession was accepted by the workers as a basis of adjustment, and the strike terminated. Hollywood Bowl Musicians.—The Hollywood Bowl Association, of Los Angeles, Calif., and its musicians had been operating under an agreement which provided that a union electrician should be employed to control the lighting system on the stage, but the union had not pressed this right due to the continued claim of the management that it could not afford to employ a regular electrician for this work. For sometime the work had been performed by a man who was regularly employed as a gardener, but who was permitted to operate the switchboard during performances at an additional compensation of $3.50 per night. However, each year when the agreement was extended the matter came up for discussion, but the management would not agree to any change or form of compromise offered, and took the public and private stand that the demand of the stage employees for a union electrician was unreasonable. After many conferences the break came, and on the evening of the concert set for July 30, 1929, the audience waited while the director and union officials debated the subject. No result being reached, the musicians refused to proceed with the concert and walked off the stage, the audience being 102 ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR dismissed. Commissioners C. T. Connell and E. P. Marsh were immediately assigned to the case. The commissioners conferred with the business agents of the musicians and stage hands and with the director of the Bowl Association, all of whom accepted the good offices of the department. Following the general policy of the department in such disputes, a joint conference of all parties interested was arranged so that the merits of the controversy could be discussed and a settlement reached by the disputants themselves if possible. The musicians were standing on the clause in the agreement which called for a union electrician, but due to the fact that the Bowl management had wired to President William Green, of the American Federation of Labor, for relief, and that he in turn had referred the case to President Joseph Webber, of the musicians, they now demanded fulfilment of the provision of the contract which called for the employment of a union electrician at the regular scale of $50 a week. After many conferences of the business agents and management had been held without avail, the editor of the Hollywod News was called in. After reading the contract he announced his opinion, which was that the directors should live up to the provision calling for the employment of a union electrician. After two more days of conference a special meeting of the directors was called and at the regular scale under protest. The announcement was made that the adjustment was agreed to in order to avoid depriving the general public of concerts. Final result was that an urgent call was sent out and 100 musicians gathered for the regular concert on the night of August 3, with a union electrician on the job. APPENDIX * ACT CREATING THE DEPARTMENT OE LABOR Be it enacted by the. Senate and House of Representatives of the > United States of America in Congress assembled, That there is here- by created an executive department in the Government to be called the Department of Labor, with a Secretary of Labor, who shall be the head thereof, to be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate; and who shall receive a salary of twelve thousand dollars per annum, and whose tenure of office shall be like that of the heads of the other executive departments; and section one hundred and fifty-eight of the Revised Statutes is hereby amended to include such department, and the provisions of title four of the Revised Statutes, including all amendments thereto, are hereby made applicable to said department; and the Department of Commerce and Labor shall hereafter be called the Department of Commerce, and the Secretary thereof shall be called the Secretary of Commerce, and the act creating the said Department of Commerce and Labor is hereby amended accordingly. The purpose of the Department of Labor shall be to foster, promote, and develop the welfare of the wage earners of the United States, to improve their working conditions, and to advance their opportunities for profitable employment. The said Secretary shall cause a seal of office to be made for the said department of such device as the President shall approve and judicial notice shall be taken of the said seal. Sec. 2. That there shall be in said department an Assistant Secretary of Labor, to be appointed by the President, who shall receive a salaiy of five thousand dollars a year. He shall perform such unties as shall be prescribed by the Secretary or required by law. There shall also be one chief clerk and a disbursing clerk, and such other clerical assistants, inspectors, and special agents as may from I t0 be Provided for by Congress. The Auditor for the State and Other Departments shall receive and examine all accounts of salaries and incidental expenses of the office of the Secretary of Labor and of all bureaus and offices under his direction, and all accounts relating to all other business within the jurisdiction of the Department of Labor, and certify the balances arising thereon to the division of bookkeeping and warrants and send forthwith a copy of each certificate to the Secretary of Labor. Sec. 3. That the following-named offices, bureaus, divisions, and branches of the public service now and heretofore under the jurisdiction of the Department of Commerce and Labor, and all that pertains to the same, known as the Commissioner General of Immigration, the Commissioners of Immigration, the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization, the Division of Information, the Divi 103 104 ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR sion of Naturalization, and the Immigration Service at Large, the Bureau of Labor, the Children’s Bureau, and the Commissioner of Labor be, and the same hereby are, transferred from the Department of Commerce and Labor to the Department of Labor, and the same shall hereafter remain under the jurisdiction and supervision of the last-named department. The Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization is hereby divided into two bureaus, to be known hereafter as the Bureau of Immigration and the Bureau of Naturalization, and the titles Chief Division of Naturalization and Assistant Chief shall be Commissioner of Naturalization and Deputy Commissioner of Naturalization. The Commissioner of Naturalization or, in his absence, the Deputy Commissioner of Naturalization, shall be the administrative officer in charge of the Bureau of Naturalization and of the administration of the naturalization laws under the immediate direction of the Secretary of Labor, to whom he shall report directly upon all naturalization matters annually and as otherwise required, and the appointments of these two officers shall be made in the same manner as appointments to competitive classified civil-service positions. The Bureau of Labor shall hereafter be known as the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor shall hereafter be known as the Commissioner of Labor Statistics; and all the powers and duties heretofore possessed by the Commissioner of Labor shall be retained and exercised by the Commissioner of Labor Statistics; and the administration of the act of May thirtieth, nineteen hundred and eight, granting to certain employees of the United States the right to receive from it compensation for injuries sustained in the course of their employment. Sec. 4. That the Bureau of Labor Statistics, under the direction of the Secretary of Labor, shall collect, collate, and report at least once each year, or oftener if necessary, full and complete statistics of the conditions of labor and the products and distribution of the products of the same, and to this end said Secretary shall have power to employ any or either of the bureaus provided for his department and to rearange such statistical work and to distribute or consolidate the same as may be deemed desirable in the public interests; and said Secretary shall also have authority to call upon other departments of the Government for statistical data and results obtained by them; and said Secretary of Labor may collate, arrange, and publish such statistical information so obtained in such manner as to him may seem wise. Sec. 5. That the official records and papers now on file in and pertaining exclusively to the business of any bureau, office, department or branch of the public service in this act transferred to the Department of Labor, together with the furniture now in use in such bureau, office, department, or branch of the public service, shall be, and hereby are, transferred to the Department of Labor. Sec. 6. That the Secretary of Labor shall have charge in the buildings or premises occupied by or appropriated to the Department of Labor of the library, furniture, fixtures, records, and other property pertaining to it or hereafter acquired for use in its business; he shall be allowed to expend for periodicals and the purposes of the library and for rental of appropriate quarters for the accommodation of the ANNUAL REPORT SECRETARY OF LABOR 105 Department of Labor within the District of Columbia, and for all other incidental expenses, such sums as Congress may provide from time to time: Provided, however, That where any office, bureau, or branch of the public service transferred to the Department of Labor by this act is occupying rented buildings or premises, it may still continue to do so until other suitable quarters are provided for its use: And provided further, That all officers, clerks, and employees now employed in any of the bureaus, offices, departments, or branches of the public service in this act transferred to the Department of Labor are each and all hereby transferred to said department at their present grades and salaries, except where otherwise provided in this act: And provided further, That all laws prescribing the work and defining the duties of the several bureaus, offices, departments, or branches of the public service by this act transferred to and made a part of the Department of Labor shall, so far as the same are not in conflict with the provisions of this act, remain in full force and effect, to be executed under the direction of the Secretary of Labor. Sec. 7. That there shall be a solicitor of the Department of Justice for the Department of Labor, whose salary shall be five thousand dollars per annum. Sec. 8. That the Secretary of Labor shall have power to act as mediator and to appoint commissioners of conciliation in labor disputes whenever in his judgment the interests of industrial peace may require it to be done; and all duties performed and all power and authority now possessed or exercised by the head of any executive department in and over any bureau, office, officer, board, branch, or division of the public service by this act transferred to the Department of Labor, or any business arising therefrom or pertaining thereto, or in relation to the duties performed by and authority conferred by law upon such bureau, officer, office, board, branch, or division of the public service, whether of an appellate or revisory character or otherwise, shall hereafter be vested in and exercised by the head of the said Department of Labor. Sec. 9. That the Secretary of Labor shall annually, at the close of each fiscal year, make a report in writing to Congress, giving an account of all moneys received and disbursed by him and his department and describing the work done by the department. He shall also, from time to time, make such special investigations and reports as he may be required to do by the President, or by Congress, or which he himself may deem necessary. Sec. 10. That the Secretary of Labor shall investigate and report to Congress a plan of coordination of the activities, duties, and powers of the office of the Secretary of Labor with the activities, duties, and powers of the present bureaus, commissions, and departments, so far as they relate to labor and its conditions, in order to harmonize and unify such activities, duties, and powers, with a view to further legislation to further define the duties and powers of such Department of Labor. Sec. 11. That this act shall take effect March fourth, nineteen hundred and thirteen, and all acts or parts of acts inconsistent with, this act are hereby repealed. 80114—29---8 O I JI « t J*