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 offices, clerks, and employees not 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 $5,000 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 co-ordination of the activities, duties, and powers of the office of the Secretary of Labor with the activities, duties, and powers of the present bureaus, commissions, and departments, so far as they relate to labor and its conditions, in order to harmonize and unify such activities, duties, and powers, with a view to 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."

CHAPTER XVI

THE ORIGINAL BUREAUS

CREATED by act of Congress approved June 27, 1884, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (at first called the "Bureau of Labor," then the "Department of Labor," again the "Bureau of Labor," and finally the "Bureau of Labor Statistics") was the nucleus for the Congressional legislation which culminated nearly thirty years later in the creation of the present Department of Labor.

When first organized, January, 1885, the Bureau of Labor was under the direction of Carroll D. Wright as Commissioner of Labor. By the act of its creation the commissioner was required to "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, intellectual, and moral prosperity." Its policy was formally declared (February 4, 1885) soon after its original organization, in a letter addressed by the Commissioner of Labor to the Secretary of the Interior, as follows:

"It should be remembered that a Bureau of Labor cannot 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."

During the four years after its organization in the Department of the Interior, this Bureau issued four annual reports covering the information collated as required by its organic act. The act of Congress. which at the end of that period made the Bureau independent of any of the executive departments, under the name of the Department of Labor, but without representation in the Cabinet, 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 material, social, intellectual, and moral prosperity."

Under that act, approved June 13, 1888, the Department of Labor, as this Bureau was then named, issued 14 annual reports and 9 special reports, and between July 1, 1903, and July 1, 1912, as a Bureau of the Department of Commerce and Labor, it issued 7 annual and 3 special reports. A number of miscellaneous reports, many of which were made in compliance with the special direction of Congress, were also issued by the Bureau.

In November, 1895, the Department began the publication of a bulletin under an act approved March 2 of the same year. This bulletin was published bimonthly up to the close of the fiscal year ending June 30, 1912. Its general departments of information were as follows: (1) Results of original investiga

tions; (2) digests of State labor reports; (3) digest of foreign labor and statistical documents; and (4)' current decisions of courts interpreting labor laws or passing upon any subject involving the relations of employer and employee, and the reproduction at the end of each year of new laws affecting the interests of wage workers, whether enacted by Congress or by State Legislatures.

The publication of the series of annual and special reports and of bimonthly bulletins having been discontinued at the close of the fiscal year ending June 30, 1912, bulletins have since then been published at irregular intervals. Each number is devoted to one of a series of general subjects. Thus far these have been as follows: "Wholesale Prices," "Retail Prices and Cost of Living, " "Wages and Hours of Labor," "Women in Industry," "Workmen's Insurance and Compensation" (including laws relating thereto), "Industrial Accidents and Hygiene," "Conciliation and Arbitration" (including strikes and lockouts), "Labor Laws of the United States" (including decisions of courts relating to labor), "Foreign Labor Laws," and "Miscellaneous" series.

As previously explained, the former Department of Labor became, July 1, 1903, a bureau of the Department of Commerce and Labor, its name being altered to "Bureau of Labor." Inasmuch, however, as no provision was made for any change in its general design and function, its work was continued along practically the same lines as formerly. The act approved March 4, 1913, establishing the present executive Department of Labor, which transferred the Bureau of Labor from the Department of Commerce and Labor