SUSPENSION OF CURRENT WORK FOR EMERGENCY WORK.

The CHAIRMAN. Then you ask that the director be authorized, upon the direction and approval of the Secretary of Commerce, to suspend any current work and to devote the force employed for any waremergency work.

Mr. ROGERS. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. Why is that?

Mr. ROGERS. Well, we have certain current work which would include, say, marriage and divorce

The CHAIRMAN (interposing). The object of this is that if you are called upon to make some calculations growing out of this war situation, you may be permitted to utilize the force in your office and if necessary to divert them from the work for which they have been specifically provided?

Mr. ROGERS. Yes, sir. Will you allow me to say just one sentence about this increase I have asked for of $20,000 for the employment of seven men?

The CHAIRMAN. Eight men.

Mr. ROGERS. Yes. If the work that is assigned to me to do or which I am called upon to do does not require the services of eight men, I want only the few that are necessary to do it. It might not be more than two or three or four at a time, but whatever number I desire to employ and put on this work, not exceeding the number I have suggested, I would like to have.

The CHAIRMAN. Have you any other items, Mr. Secretary.

Secretary REDFIELD. Mr. Chairman, an estimate has been sent in to the President for approval, of which I will leave a copy, which will speak for itself. We will transmit with the estimate for your record a letter to the President of July 19 and I will hand you as the argument in the case a pamphlet, of which I will furnish a number of copies, on the matter of the use of the internal waterways.

PROMOTING THE DEVELOPMENT OF INTERNAL WATERWAYS.

The CHAIRMAN (reading):

(See p. 703.)

For promoting the development and use of the internal waterways of the United States in the transportation of freight, for studying the needs of water transportation as regards terminals, railway connection, and vessels, for investigating the existing relations between the railway system and water transportation and the attitude of shippers toward the use of waerways, including personal services in Washington, District of Columbia, and elsewhere, purchase of reports and contingencies of all kinds, $37,500.

Is this authorized by any statute, Mr. Secretary?

Secretary REDFIELD. Not further than under the general organic law of the department and under the law creating the Council of National Defense, for this is to be done in cooperation with the committee to promote the use of inland waterways of the Council of Natinal Defense, of which the Chief of Engineers of the United States Army is the chairman. The whole matter is fully explained in this pamphlet. It is a matter of somewhat serious and urgent importance, and I should be very glad to throw any light upon it

I can.

TUESDAY, JULY 20, 1917.

DEPARTMENT OF LABOR.

STATEMENTS OF HON. W. B. WILSON, SECRETARY OF LABOR; MR. ROBERT WATSON, CHIEF CLERK; MR. RAYMOND F. CRIST, DEPUTY COMMISSIONER OF NATURALIZATION; AND MR. ROYAL MEEKER, COMMISSIONER OF LABOR STATISTICS.

OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY.

ADDITIONAL WATCHMEN.

The CHAIRMAN. The first item is, "for two additional watchmen at the rate of $720 each per annam during the fiscal year 1918, $1,440."

Mr. WATSON. The legislative bill for 1918 carries five watchmen for the Department of Labor, and this increase of two would permit us to have two men on each shift throughout the day for each of the three shifts, thus giving a relief man to provide for sickness and enforced absence.

The CHAIRMAN. You have moved into the new building now?
Mr. WATSON. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. Do you require more men there than in the other building?

Mr. WATSON. We never had adequate supervision in the watch force in the other building. For instance, take the case of the night shift when we have money in the building. One watchman can not handle the situation, for the reason that he has got to make his rounds, and at the same time exercise supervision over the telephone and the receipt of telegrams at the main entrance. He has got to go all the way up to the ninth story, and unless there are two men on the shift there is nobody to look after the entrance and departure of persons from the building. It is absolutely essential to have an additional man at night, and that condition is also true of the day shift.

The CHAIRMAN. How is it, when you asked for only five watchmen and got them, that you now have to have two additional ones? We can not consider this at this time.

Mr. WATSON. One of the reasons manifestly is the emergency that has resulted from the war. We require closer supervision than we did in time of peace. We feel more or less uneasy about the money in the building. We applied to the superintendent of police for assistance, having been led to believe that we might expect some help from them; but we were told that it was up to us to provide for the supervision of the building. Of course, in some of the departments, the situation is met by detailing certain employees for military duty; but the only supervision we have in our building is that provided by our own watch force.

COMMISSIONERS OF CONCILIATION.

The CHAIRMAN. For commissioners of conciliation your appropriation was $75,000, and you are asking for $150,006

4400-17-12

Secretary WILSON. Mr. Chairman, we found last year that the $75,000 was not ample for the work we have performed, and as a result of that we had to allow a great many labor disputes that should have been cared for to go uncared for during the month of June. We had to do that because we did not have the financial means to send commissioners of conciliation to take care of them. We had to lay a number of commissioners off that we had been using almost continuously, because of the shortage of funds. The war conditions have created a great deal more work in that line than we have had. heretofore. The Council of National Defense in its efforts to stabilize conditions and to get away from the hysteria that undoubtedly existed in the country immediately following the declaration of war issued a statement in which it suggested the maintenance of standards, including standards of living, and suggested that before labor disputes reached the strike stage the mediation services of the department should be called in to adjust the trouble. The immediate effect was a large number of additional applications for conciliators to adjust labor disputes. That condition still continues, and when this estimate was made up I not only feared that we would not have ample funds to carry us through the last fiscal year, but I feared that the $75,000 that was made available for this fiscal year would not be ample under the circumstances to carry us through until the next session of Congress. This is not a class of work that can be apportioned at a regular definite ratio throughout the year. When a labor dispute arises we must deal with it then, or we can not deal with it at all; and I feared then, as I fear now, that the $75,000 that has been allotted will not be ample to carry us through until the regular session of Congress convenes.

The CHAIRMAN. It will not carry you until December?

Secretary WILSON. I fear that on account of the troubles we will have to adjust that the $75,000 will not be ample to carry us until Congress meets and can act.

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Secretary, will you state what has been done by these commissioners of conciliation during the last year?

Secretary WILSON. Well, we have adjusted a great many labor disputes. The longshoremen situation on the Pacific coast was one of them; the miners situation in the central Pennsylvania coal fields was another. I might say in regard to the central Pennsylvania coalfield dispute that they had voted to strike on the 15th of May of this year unless certain conditions were granted. Through the mediation services of the department, the strike did not go into effect. The central Pennsylvania coal field is the coal field that Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, and the great bulk of New England depend on for their steam fuel. There were about 75,000 workers involved in that, and we succeeded in adjusting it without a stoppage of work. We have pending just now a matter in which the department's mediation service had been brought to bear, and that is the strike situation in the shops of the southeastern railways, some of them centering here in Washington and involving 40,000 workers all told. That is a matter in which, through the influence of the mediation service, we succeeded in getting the workmen to withdraw their strike order pending an offer of adjustment on the part of the department. We have definite assurance now that the strike will not take place, because if the mediation service fails to bring them to a

mutual adjustment of the difficulty they have agreed to leave all the points still at issue to the department to decide. So we have a definite assurance now that the shop strike on these systems will not take place.

Then we had a strike situation in the fisheries on the New England coast that involved a large number of men, or nearly all of the fishing industry along the New England coast centering at Gloucester was involved. We succeeded in bringing about an adjustment of that. We have adjusted a large labor dispute at the Schenectady Locomotive Works, and, we have adjusted a difficulty in a torpedoboat factory at Bridgeport. Then we adjusted a labor dispute with the teamsters in connection with the produce exchange in New York City. The teamsters were hauling from the dock. All told, we have adjusted in the neighborhood of 200 labor disputes during the year, involving several hundred thousand workers directly and a great many more indirectly. I think we have adjusted approximately 90 per cent of all those that were brought to our attention and that we participated in. Most of them were adjusted before they reached the strike stage, and consequently there was no publicity in connection with them. Some of them were adjusted after they reached the strike stage, and many of them are in process of adjustment now. For instance, take the copper miners' situation in the mountain regions of the West: In Utah we succeeded in bringing about an adjustment. In Butte we have succeeded in adjusting the dispute in so far as it applies to the electrical workers, who were the center of the storm to begin with, and, as to the blacksmiths, boilermakers, and other mechanical trades, with the situation working out in a satisfactory. manner as reported by our commissioner there. We are also working in an effort to bring about an adjustment at Bisbee, Morenci, and Clifton. We have adjusted one dispute at Jerome in connection with the copper industry. And so it has been throughout, and during the past two or three months the number of cases that have been brought to us by representatives of both sides to have us use our good offices in bringing about adjustments have been very materially increased, and I feel that this amount of increase is necessary in order to assure the continuance of the work.

The CHAIRMAN. Now, the Council of National Defense, through its advisory commission, has a committee on labor conditions, has it not? Secretary WILSON, Yes, sir; the Council of National Defense has created a number of committees, seven of them. It first named one of the advisory commission as chairman of the particular committee on the subject matter in which he was supposed to be expert, and one of the committees that was created was the committee on labor, of which Mr. Gompers was made the chairman. That committee has had a great many meetings, and it has created a number of subcommittees. Among the subcommittees that it has created is a subcommittee on mediation and labor adjustments. They do not undertake to directly adjust, but they do tender their services to the mediation service of the Department of Labor to assist wherever they can in bringing about an adjustment, and on some occasions we have utilized the services of their representatives in various parts of the country in bringing influence to bear to secure an adjustment of labor disputes.

The CHAIRMAN. Does the activity of that committee relieve the necessity for any of the work done by the commissioner of conciliation?

Secretary WILSON. No, sir. So far as that committee is concerned, it has taken no direct active part in mediation.

The CHAIRMAN. They simply exert their influence?

Secretary WILSON. Yes, sir. They have appointed a number of men in various parts of the country as members of their committee, and they have notified us of the names of the people they have selected, and whenever we have a labor dispute in any of those localities, and we feel that the man they have can be of assistance to us in bringing about an adjustment, either because of his influence with the employers or because of his influence with the employees, we get in touch with that man and use his influence in our efforts to bring about an adjustment.

The CHAIRMAN. He is not a commissioner?

Secretary WILSON. No, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. He does not act as a commissioner of conciliation? Secretary WILSON. No, sir; except in one instance. In one instance, in the case of a strike occurring in Los Angeles, Cal., I detailed our inspector in charge of immigration at Los Angeles to act as mediator in that labor dispute, and then I appointed Mr. Weinstock as a commissioner of conciliation to assist him in carrying out the work of adjustment. Mr. Weinstock refused to accept any compensation for his work.

The CHAIRMAN. What I wanted to have made clear was this: Whether what is done through the subordinate committees of the advisory commission of the Council of National Defense relieves the department of any of the labors that devolve on it?

Secretary WILSON. It has not thus far.

The CHAIRMAN. That is, whether the creation of that organization will result in the elimination of the necessity for additional services here.

Secretary WILSON. No, sir; it will not. The position that the Council of National Defense has taken with regard to the advisory commission and with regard to the committees it has created through the advisory commission is that they are purely advisory; that they may advise what should be done, and if there is any established agency of the Government for the doing of that kind of work that agency of the Government already established is the agency through which the work shall be done. Otherwise, you would lead to a duplication, a triplication, and all kinds of multiplication of work. In all of these things I have insisted as the head of the Department of Labor, as well as a member of the Council of National Defense, that those things that the Department of Labor is authorized by law to do and has been furnished the means to do with, must be done through the Department of Labor; that we are willing to listen to their advice, and, when we believe it is the proper thing to do, to accept the advice that may be given to us by the advisory commission, or by any of its committees, but upon us rests the responsibility of doing the work that we are authorized to do, and because the responsibility rests upon us we are the ones who should do it.