DETAILED STATEMENT OF EXPENDITURES FROM APPROPRIATIONS OF THE BUREAU OF CORPORATIONS FROM ITS ORGANIZATION IN 1903 TO DECEMBER 31, 1912, SHOWING YEARLY Cost of the VARIOUS INVESTIGATIONS CONDUCTED BY THE BUREAU, TOGETHER WITH ADMINISTRATIVE COSTS, BY FISCAL YEARS. [The Bureau does not prorate among the various investigations administrative expenses, nor annual and sick leave, all of which are, with certain other administrative expenses, kept separately. The cost of furniture, supplies, rent, and certain contingent expenses, which are paid out of the Department's contingent expense account, are not included, nor is the cost of printing the Bureau's reports.] DETAILED STATEMENT OF EXPENDITURES FROM APPROPRIATIONS OF THE BUREAU OF CORPORATIONS FROM ITS ORGANIZATION IN 1903 TO DECEMBER 31, 1912, SHOWING YEARLY COST OF THE VARIOUS INVESTIGATIONS CONDUCTED BY THE BUREAU, TOGETHER WITH ADMINISTRATIVE COSTS, BY FISCAL YEARS-Continued. NOTE.-Miscellaneous investigations include that on Cotton Tare, Employers' Liability and Workmen's Compensation, and Patents. They also include more or less preliminary work on several subjects on which the Bureau has made no comprehensive investigation, such as insurance, coal, and a few others, this being largely in the nature of office work. 740.40 6,613.89 425.54 91. 13 516.67 1,223.01 1,380.92 2,603.95 122.79 90.54 213.33 83.85 29.59 29.59 9,256.79 $31,559. 44 10,000.53 91, 833.98 119, 385. 70 16,895.59 106, 834.72 24,692.59 3, 192. 88 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF LABOR. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE AND LABOR, BUREAU OF LABOR, Washington, December 27, 1912. SIR: I have the honor to submit herewith a detailed report of the work of this Bureau during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1912. The report is made in two parts. The first part relates to the laws under which the Bureau was established and under which it carries on its work, while the second part relates specifically to the work of the fiscal year ended June 30, 1912. 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. |