"IN THE INTEREST OF WAGE EARNERS" 1913-17 Secretary Wilson was well equipped to express the purpose of the new Department. In his first annual report he stated what have become its guiding principles: "The Department of Labor was created in the interest of wage earners of the United States. This is expressly declared by the organic act. . . . "There is of course no authority in that declaration to foster, promote, or develop for wage earners any special privileges; but the inference is irresistible that Congress did intend to conserve their just interests by means of an executive department especially devoted to their welfare. "Nor is there any implication that the wage earners in whose behalf this Department was created consist of such only as are associated together in labor unions. It was created in the interest of the welfare of all wage earners of the United States, whether organized or unorganized. Inasmuch, however, as it is ordinarily only through organization that the many in any class or of any interest can become articulate with reference to their common needs and aspirations, the Department of Labor is usually under a necessity of turning to the labor organizations that exist and such as may come into existence for definite and trustworthy advice on the sentiments of the wageearning classes regarding their common welfare. . . . Manifestly, then, the Department of Labor must invite the confidence and encourage the cooperation of responsible labor organizations. . . if it is to subserve its prescribed purposes through an intelligent and effective administration of its authorized functions. "While the Department of Labor sustains friendly relations with labor organizations, as in the interests of all wage earners and of the general welfare it ought to do, nevertheless this attitude must not be exclusive. Similar relations with unorganized wage earners, and also with employers and their organizations to the extent to which they themselves permit, are likewise a duty of the Department. The great guiding purpose, however the purpose that should govern the Department at every turn and be understood and acquiesced in by everybody-is the purpose prescribed in terms by the organic act, namely, promotion of the welfare of the wage earners of the United States. "In the execution of that purpose the element of fairness to every interest is of equal importance, and the Department has in fact made fairness between wage earner and wage earner, between wage earner and employer, In accordance with section 5 of the act approved March 4, 1913, creating a Department of Labor, I have directed that the property listed below be transferred to your Department: One bay horse ("Mike"), 16 hands high, weight about 1200 lbs. ✓ One set of single wagon, brass mounted, harness. (The bay horse named Mike hauled all of the Labor Department's mail and freight for some time after his removal from the Commerce Department's stable in 1914.) between employer and employer, and between each and the public as a whole the supreme motive and purpose of its activities. The act of its creation is construed by it not only as a law for promoting the welfare of the wage earners of the United States by improving their working conditions and advancing their opportunities for profitable employment, but as a command for doing so in harmony with the welfare of all industrial classes and all legitimate interests, and by methods tending to foster industrial peace through progressively nearer realizations of the highest ideals of industrial justice." (1913: 5-7) Coordination of Functions Under section 10 of the organic act, the Secretary was required to “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 . . . with a view to further legislation to further define the duties and powers of such Department of Labor." (1914: 99) ... In January 1917 Secretary Wilson made his report on this matter. The underlying intent of the act, he pointed out, was to bring within the jurisdiction of the Department "those administrative agencies of the Federal Government which are or may be designed to conserve wage-working interests." (1917:94) He inferred from the provisions of the act that "Congress intended to establish an executive department in the interests of wage earners yet, uncertain at that time of the ultimate form for it, had . . . left systematic additional construction to future legislation based upon information which the Department of Labor was directed to gather and formulate into a plan of coordination." (1917: 94) The Secretary also reported that, within the Department itself, attention had been turned to the work of the bureaus "to the end that contractual relationships and possible overlapping of functions might be analyzed and regulated or corrected if found to exist." (1917:94) Administrative rules had been developed to avoid duplication of endeavor and conflicts of authority. As a result, the "problem of intradepartmental regulation of functions and the scope of operation is thus effectually dealt with, and it is not believed that this branch of the subject needs additional statutory authority beyond that already vested in the Secretary of Labor by the organic act itself." (1917: 94) Turning to the contractual relationships and overlapping of activities between the Department of Labor and other governmental establishments, he said it was "obviously a matter of considerable difficulty to fix and specify a boundary for administrative inquiry that would at once comprehend all those matters which might come within the declared purpose set forth in the organic act creating the Department of Labor rather than have a collateral or indirect bearing upon such purpose.' (1917:94) Although a study had been made, he declared, showing that further legislation would undoubtedly be necessary to coordinate the scattered administrative functions relating to labor and its conditions, it would nevertheless be "neither feasible nor advisable to place directly within the jurisdiction of this department some of the concurrent authority at present conferred upon other branches of the public service. . . ." (1917:95) It was found that functions of the Public Health Service overlapped with those of the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the study of occupational diseases; with the Children's Bureau in the study of infant mortality, birth rates, dangerous occupations, and accidents and diseases of children; and with the Bureau of Immigration in the medical inspection of aliens (although here the relationships were found to be complementary, rather than overlapping). Questions were raised regarding overlapping functions of the Bureau of Mines and the Labor Department in connection with health and safety, rescue work, labor and its conditions in the iron and steel industry, occupational diseases, and the issuance of publications on safety appliances. As to the Department of Agriculture, areas of overlapping functions were noted with respect to the collecting and reporting of wholesale and retail prices and farm wages. Questions of jurisdiction also arose in connection with the Commerce Department's issuance of licenses to masters, pilots, engineers, and others, and its concern with the hiring and welfare of seamen. The Interstate Commerce Commission, it was pointed out, had the function of safety inspection on railroads, and the Board of Mediation and Conciliation performed functions similar to those of the Department of Labor, though limited to interstate railroad operations. Without arguing that all of these functions should be transferred to the Department of Labor, the Secretary submitted the matter for consideration by the Congress. It had repeatedly been shown, he wrote, that "other governmental establishments, acting more or less directly pursuant to broad statutory powers granted in general terms, have been, are now, and will probably continue making investigations and conducting active work in fields which should and do come within the purpose and scope of the Department of Labor as declared by its organic law. The objects hoped to be attained may be different, but the overlapping of functions is itself confusing and tends to reduce the confidence of that portion of the public which is repeatedly called upon for similar data, in somewhat altered form perhaps, but still the same.” (1917:100) The Secretary was concerned chiefly with the need for coordination and clarification of functions in investigative work. He therefore proposed and urged that there should also be "statutory provision requiring that the results of investigative work performed by other governmental establishments, in so far as they concern labor and its conditions, should become immediately accessible and available to the Department of Labor upon request, without |