REPORT

OF THE

COMMISSIONER OF LABOR.

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE AND LABOR,

BUREAU OF LABOR, Washington, July 1, 1904.

SIR: I have the honor to submit herewith a detailed report of the work of this Bureau during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1904. The report has been made in three parts. The first part relates to the laws under which the Bureau was established and under which it carries on its work; the second relates specifically to the work of the fiscal year ended June 30, 1904, while the third contains a brief description of the contents of each publication made by the Bureau during the period of its existence.

I. ESTABLISHMENT OF THE BUREAU.

The Bureau of Labor was originally established as a bureau of the Department of the Interior by an act approved June 27, 1884. This act provided that the "Commissioner shall collect information on 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." In obedience to this law, the Bureau was organized in January, 1885, and shortly thereafter, on February 4, 1885, the policy of the office was declared, in a letter addressed by the Commissioner of Labor to the . Honorable Secretary of the Interior, as follows:

It should be remembered that a bureau of labor can not solve industrial or social problems, nor can it bring direct returns in a material way to the citizens of the country; but its work must be classed among educational efforts, and by judicious investigations and the fearless publication thereof, it may and should enable the people to comprehend more clearly and more fully many of the problems which now vex them.

Four years after its organization as a bureau of the Department of the Interior, during which time it had issued four annual reports covering the information collected and collated, as required by the organic act, the Congress established a Department of Labor, independent of any of the Executive Departments. The act establishing the Department of Labor was approved June 13, 1888, and provided

That there shall be at the seat of Government a Department of Labor, the general design and duties of which shall be to acquire and diffuse among the people of the

United States useful information on subjects connected with labor, in the most general and comprehensive sense of that word, and especially upon its relation to capital, the hours of labor, the earnings of laboring men and women, and the means of promoting their material, social, intellectual, and moral prosperity.

The act defined the organization of the Department and the duties of the Commissioner, and further provided-

That the Commissioner of Labor, in accordance with the general design and duties referred to in section one of this act, is specially charged to ascertain, at as early a date as possible, and whenever industrial changes shall make it essential, the cost of producing articles at the time dutiable in the United States in leading countries where such articles are produced, by fully specified units of production, and under a classification showing the different elements of cost or approximate cost of such articles of production, including the wages paid in such industries per day, week, month, or year, or by the piece, and hours employed per day, and the profits of the manufacturers and producers of such articles, and the comparative cost of living and the kind of living. "It shall be the duty of the Commissioner also to ascertain and report as to the effect of the customs laws, and the effect thereon of the state of the currency in the United States on the agricultural industry, especially as to its effect on mortgage indebtedness of farmers," and what articles are controlled by trusts or other combinations of capital, business operations, or labor, and what effect said trusts, or other combinations of capital, business operations, or labor have on production and prices. He shall also establish a system of reports by which, at intervals of not less than two years, he can report the general condition, so far as production is concerned, of the leading industries of the country. The Commissioner of Labor is also specially charged to investigate the causes of and facts relating to all controversies and disputes between employers and employees as they may occur, and which may tend to interfere with the welfare of the people of the different States, and report thereon to Congress. The Commissioner of Labor shall also obtain such information upon the various subjects committed to him as he may deem desirable from different foreign nations, and what, if any, convict-made goods are imported into this country, and if so, from whence.

SEC. 8. That the Commissioner of Labor shall annually make a report in writing to the President and Congress of the information collected and collated by him, and containing such recommendations as he may deem calculated to promote the efficiency of the Department. He is also authorized to make special reports on particular subjects whenever required to do so by the President or either House of Congress, or when he shall think the subject in his charge requires it. He shall, on or before the fifteenth day of December in each year, make a report in detail to Congress of all moneys expended under his direction during the preceding fiscal year.

SEC. 9. That all laws and parts of laws relating to the Bureau of Labor created under the act of Congress approved June twenty-seventh, eighteen hundred and eighty-four, so far as the same are applicable and not in conflict with this act, and only so far, are continued in full force and effect, and the Commissioner of Labor appointed under said act approved June twenty-seventh, eighteen hundred and eighty-four, and all clerks and employees in the Bureau of Labor authorized to be appointed by said act or subsequent acts, shall continue in office and employment as if appointed under the provisions of this act, and until a Commissioner of Labor, other officer, clerks, and employees are appointed and qualified as herein required and provided; and the Bureau of Labor, as now organized and existing, shall continue its work as the Department of Labor until the Department of Labor shall be organized in accordance with this act; and the library, records, and all property now in use by the said Bureau of Labor are hereby transferred to the custody of the Department of Labor hereby created, and on the organization of the Department of Labor on the basis of this act the functions of the Bureau of Labor shall cease.

Under this act the Department of Labor issued fourteen annual reports of the information collected and collated in accordance with the organic act, nine special reports, and a number of miscellaneous reports, many of which were made in compliance with the special direction of the Congress. Since November, 1895, the Bureau has also published a bimonthly bulletin, in accordance with a law approved March 2 of the same year, as follows:

The Commissioner of Labor is hereby authorized to prepare and publish a bulletin of the Department of Labor as to the condition of labor in this and other countries, condensations of State and foreign labor reports, facts as to conditions of employment,

and such other facts as may be deemed of value to the industrial interests of the country, and there shall be printed one edition of not exceeding 10,000 copies of each issue of said bulletin for distribution by the Department of Labor.

In accordance with the plan adopted, the bulletin has at least four regular departments of information in each issue, as follows:

First. The results of original investigations conducted by the Bureau or its agents and experts.

Second. A digest of State labor reports.

Third. A digest of foreign labor and statistical documents.

Fourth. The reproduction immediately after their passage of new laws that affect the interests of the working people, whether enacted by Congress or by State legislatures; and accompanying this there is the reproduction of the decisions of courts interpreting labor laws or passing upon any subject which involves the relations of employer and employee.

Under the act approved February 14, 1903, establishing a new Executive Department, to be known as the Department of Commerce and Labor, it was provided that, among other offices, the existing Department of Labor be placed under the jurisdiction and supervision of the new Department, this provision to take effect and be in force July 1, 1903. In accordance with the provisions of this act, the former Department of Labor, on July 1, 1903, became a bureau of the Department of Commerce and Labor. Inasmuch as no provision was made for any change in its general design and duties, its work has been carried on during the past year along practically the same lines as formerly.

II. -OPERATIONS DURING THE FISCAL YEAR 1904.

During the fiscal year ended June 30, 1904, the Bureau of Labor has issued its eighteenth annual report that for 1903. This report presents the results of an extended investigation into the cost of living for workingmen's families, and the retail prices of the principal staple articles of food used by such families. The object of the investigation into cost of living was to determine the cost of housing, fuel, lighting, food, clothing, etc., in the average workingman's family in the United States. The object of the investigation into retail prices was to determine the changes in the prices of the staple articles of food for a period of years, and thereby to determine as nearly as possible the changes in the cost of living in the several years covered.

Reports of income and expenditure in 25,440 families in 33 States, representing the leading industrial centers of the country, formed the basis of the study in regard to cost of living. The information relating to each family was secured directly from the husband or wife, or both, by the personal visit of a special agent of the Bureau. The most important inquiries propounded were those relating to the earnings of the husband, the wife, and the children, and the expenditure of the family for housing, fuel, lighting, food, clothing, and other purposes during the year.

That part of the report which relates to retail prices represents the first extended investigation into retail prices covering a long series of years that has been made in this country. All previous price studies covering a period of years have dealt solely with wholesale prices, which, of course, do not represent accurately the cost to the small

consumer.

In order to ascertain the course of retail prices of food for a series of years and the consequent changes in the cost of living as regards food the Bureau, through its agents, secured from the books of 814 retail merchants, in the same localities from which data relating to family expenditures were obtained, the retail prices of the principal staple articles of food. These figures in all cases represent the actual sales to consumers and may, therefore, be considered entirely trustworthy, and covering as they do all parts of the country they may also be considered thoroughly representative. Prices were taken for each month during the fourteen years of 1890 to 1903, inclusive, which was as far back as it was practicable to go.

An idea of the amount of work involved in an investigation such as the above may be gained when it is stated that the field work of gathering the data upon which the report is based represents the work of the entire force of agents of the Bureau for a period of thirteen. months. The examination of these original reports and their tabulation and summarization involved a work equally great.

The Bureau has also completed during the year and transmitted to the Secretary of Commerce and Labor, and through him to the Congress, its tenth special report, which is a compilation of the labor laws of the United States and of the various States. This is a new edition, completely revised, of the second special report, issued first in 1892 and again in 1896. The report as now issued is printed with marginal index throughout, the laws being annotated also by abstracts of such decisions of the courts as have been made bearing upon the laws. The whole report has been very carefully and thoroughly indexed in order to make its use as a work of reference as easy as possible. All the work upon this report has been performed by the regular office force of the Bureau, and represents the work of five employees for the period of twelve months.

Another report completed and transmitted by the Bureau during the year is the eleventh special report, relating to the regulation and restriction of output in certain trades in this country and in England. The materials for this report were collected and prepared in the main by special agents of the Bureau, assisted in certain trades by experts temporarily employed.

The question of the regulation and restriction of output, both by employers and by employees, has been the subject of much discussion during recent years, but no official report dealing with the subject has heretofore been issued. In addition to the question of restriction, the information obtained and embodied in the report throws much valuable light upon the relations of employers and employees. The report covers 30 trades, being nearly all, if not all, of those which are alleged to have regulations or restrictions governing output. The report can therefore be considered as thoroughly representative of the conditions relating to the subject.

During the past year the bulletin of the Bureau has been issued regularly every other month. For the fiscal year the issues were numbers 47, 48, and 49 of volume 8, and numbers 50, 51, and 52 of volume 9. Each number has contained, in addition to one or more special articles, important agreements between employers and employees, digests of recent reports of State bureaus of labor statistics, digests of recent foreign statistical publications, decisions of courts affecting