INDUSTRIAL AND LABOR CONDITIONS

Annual Report of the Secretary of Labor, 1930-31

HE Nineteenth Annual Report of the Secretary of Labor, for the

the various bureaus and other offices of the United States Department of Labor. A brief résumé of some of these activities is given below:

United States Employment Service

THE last Congress appropriated the sum of $883,780 for the United States Employment Service, and this has made it possible to effect a reorganization and greatly to widen the scope and effectiveness of its activities. To-day, in addition to the cooperative offices, there is a Federal Employment Service in each State in the Union and in the District of Columbia. The aim also is to make available quickly to every kind of employer the specific type of worker that he needs. The secretary states that with the present Employment Service organization there no longer exists any reason why an employer or employee need apply to a private fee-charging agency.

Veterans' employment service. The Department of Labor, in connection with this service, recently has instituted an intensive campaign to assist in the relief of unemployment conditions obtaining among veterans of our wars.

Bureau of Immigration

FEWER immigrants are now being admitted than at any time during the past hundred years. Only one immigrant is admitted now where five were admitted a year ago. Still more striking is the comparison of June, 1931, with June of 1913, when under the open-door policy then prevailing, 176,262 immigrants were admitted, as against 3,534 for June, 1931. Virtually fifty times as many were given entry for June, 1913, as for June, 1931. In the Secretary's opinion there is no more important work before the Government and the people to-day than the administration of the immigration laws. These laws have a twofold purpose: (1) To protect the social and political structure of American civilization from persons who seek to come here with strange, new doctrines of government which threaten the institutions and practices that we in this country regard as essential to the onward progress of our people, whether native born or naturalized; and (2) to give economic protection, particularly as to available employment, to those who for both legal and moral reasons should receive first consideration in the blessings of the workaday life.

There are in this country many aliens who have come here illegally. No reasonable estimate of this number can be made, but the number of illegal entrants has been materially checked through the activities of the immigration border patrol.

During the fiscal year ending June 30, 1931, more than 18,000 aliens were formally deported. Many thousands of others who might have been expelled were permitted to depart voluntarily.

Bureau of Naturalization

THE combined declarations of intention and petitions for citizenship filed during the past fiscal year showed an increase over the number of these papers filed during the preceding year, which was the first year under the amendatory act of March 2, 1929. There were 106,272 declarations of intention made, comprising 83,474 by men and 22,798 by women; 145,474 petitions for citizenship were submitted to the courts, of which 108,642 were made by men and 36,832 by women; certificates of citizenship were issued to the number of 143,495, of which 106,715 were issued to men and 36,780 to women. Included in these are 3,224 veterans of the World War who acquired citizenship up to March 4, 1931, at which time the amendatory legislation expired that had exempted veterans of the World War in the American forces from compliance with many of the general statutory provisions leading to naturalization. There were 7,514 applicants for citizenship denied admission by the courts. During the preceding fiscal year 62,138 declarations of intention and 113,151 petitions for citizenship were filed, and 169,377 certificates of citizenship were issued.

The 2,904 new certificates of citizenship and 4,834 new declarations of intention issued made a total of 7,738 new naturalization papers issued by the bureau in lieu of those declared by their owners to be lost or destroyed.

There were 2,427 applications received from persons who believed themselves to have derived citizenship through the naturalization of their parents or through marriage, and of this number 226 certificates of citizenship of the derivative character were issued.

Reports received by the department of violations of the naturalization and immigration laws in and around New York City caused an intensive investigation to be undertaken in the latter half of the year. Startling disclosures of illegal and fraudulent naturalizations were the immediate results of these investigations. In certain quarters of New York City it appeared to have become settled in the minds of ignorant and unsuspecting aliens that naturalization could be obtained only through intervention of those posing as political leaders and claiming influence with the administrative and judicial authorities. Sums varying from $5 to $150 were shown to have been paid. to such imposters, grafters, fixers, runners, and other unscrupulous individuals by their dupes. Naturalization would have been conferred and could have been secured by many of these aliens without the payment of more than the statutory fees. The admission of many would have been deferred because of ignorance until they had become qualified according to the standards of the courts in New York City. At the close of the fiscal year these investigations were being prosecuted with vigor.

Conciliation Service

DURING the fiscal year under review 582 specific cases of trade disputes, strikes, threatened strikes, and lockouts were handled by the Conciliation Service.

Those cases came from 37 States of the Union and involved 379,585 workers directly and indirectly.

There has been a gradual change in the relationship between management and men in American industry since the first case was submitted to the Department of Labor in 1913. Since that date the service has handled 10,187 labor disputes, involving directly and indirectly 13,418,903 workers.

In the earlier days of the work of conciliation in labor disputes the service was continually confronted with the long-existing and pretty generally accepted belief that the interest of employers and employed were opposed, and that any movement designed to benefit employees was bound to be detrimental to the interest of the management. So it was that the many efforts put forward by the employers were looked upon with suspicion by the employees.

But the day of distrust on the part of the workers and of casual treatment of labor relations as a business factor in industry is gradually passing in this country. Management and men now perceive the invisible, though none the less important, economic losses that follow in the train of misunderstandings and strife. Labor now approaches its problems with a much broader and more practical sense of responsibility to the real interests of the workers than was the case even a few years ago. We find now on both sides of the industrial relations table an earnest desire for industrial peace and uninterrupted employment.

Since April 3, 1931, the effective date of the Davis-Bacon prevailing rate law, which was approved by President Hoover on March 3, 1931, the Conciliation Service of the Department of Labor, in cooperation with other services and bureaus of the Federal Government, has been particularly active in assisting in bringing about the application of this law. This law specifically provides that the rate of wages for laborers and mechanics employed on public buildings of the United States and the District of Columbia shall not be less than the prevailing rate of wages for work of a similar nature in the State, town, village, or other civil division of the State or Territory in which the public buildings are located.

Bureau of Labor Statistics

THE disturbed industrial conditions of the past several months have greatly stimulated the interest in and the use made of labor statistics. This interest has been directed primarily to matters of employment and unemployment, but by no means exclusively so, as consideration of employment problems leads ultimately to questions of wage rates, short-time work, prices, cost of living, technological changes in industry, old-age pensions, labor productivity, and similar subjects. The problem confronting the Bureau of Labor Statistics, therefore, was to expand very considerably its work in the immediate field of employment statistics without too seriously curtailing its activities in other directions. Necessary financial assistance was obtained in the form of a special appropriation by Congress. This additional appropriation permitted the bureau to make plans for extending its work in the field of employment. This extension of work has been mainly along two lines: First, the expansion of the bureau's monthly statistics on volume of employment, and, second,

more comprehensive studies than had previously been possible of the effects of technological changes in industry upon employment.

In addition to building construction the following industries were added to the list covered by the bureau's monthly employment. reports: Beet sugar, beverages, cash registers, typewriters, laundries, and cleaning and dyeing. With these additions the total number of establishments covered in June, 1931, had passed 50,000, the number of employees was close to 5,000,000, and the weekly pay roll more than $110,000,000. For most of the industrial groups it is felt that the coverage is now sufficient, and attention is being directed primarily to the inclusion of new groups.

Next to securing the facts regarding the trend of employment on as comprehensive a scale as possible, the most important work which the bureau can undertake at this time undoubtedly lies in the field of so-called technological unemployment. Certain aspects of this subject have been covered in the bureau's reports on labor productivity in the glass, printing, merchant blast furnaces, cargo handling, and other industries. Other studies, dealing specifically with technological unemployment, are now under way for the telephone and telegraph industry, cigar manufacture, and professional musicians, and still others are planned for the immediate future.'

Also bearing on the subject of employment was an important although brief survey made by the Bureau of Labor Statistics as to the practicability of winter work in the construction industry.

In connection with the subject of unemployment there should also be noted a study by the Bureau of Labor Statistics of unemployment benefit plans in the United States.

A study of the operation of State old-age pension systems in the United States, made early in 1931, gives a fairly complete picture of the present status of this important subject in this country.

Children's Bureau

DURING the fiscal year 1931, 19 new and revised publications were issued and 4 were in press at the close of the fiscal year. The most important of those issued are as follows:

Maternity and infant hygiene.-No. 203, The Promotion of the Welfare and Hygiene of Maternity and Infancy-The Administration of the Act of Congress of November 23, 1921, for fiscal year ended June 30, 1929; No. 4, Prenatal Care (revised July, 1930); The Federal Government in Relation to Maternity and Infancy; Present Status of Maternity and Infancy Legislation; The Seven Years of the Maternity and Infancy Act.

Child hygiene.-No. 202, Are You Training Your Child To Be Happy? No. 205, Posture and Physical Fitness; Folder No. 9, Keeping the Well Baby Well (revised July, 1930).

Child labor.-No. 199, Child Labor in New Jersey-Part 3, The Working Children of Newark and Paterson; No. 204, Children of Working Mothers in Philadelphia-Part 1, The Working Mothers; First Regular Employment Certificates Issued to Working Children in 1929.

1 Since the period covered by this report, the results of the studies of musicians and the cigar industry have been published in the Monthly Labor Review (issues of November, 1931, pp. 1-15, and December, 1931, pp. 11-17).

Delinquency and dependency.-Collection of Social Statistics by United States Children's Bureau; Cost of Family Relief in 100 Cities, 1929 and 1930.

Child Welfare News Summary.-The Child Welfare News Summary was issued 28 times and sent to a mailing list of approximately 1,000 persons actively engaged in child-welfare work and child-welfare agencies and publications.

General increase in the work of the bureau.-Demands on the bureau have greatly increased during recent years, especially the past year, because of the cumulative effect of the bureau's nearly 20 years of service, the depression, and the White House Conference on Child Health and Protection.

Child welfare in Porto Rico.-At the request of Gov. Theodore Roosevelt the bureau sent a specialist in child care to Porto Rico in January to study dependency and neglect of children in the island and advise with him on the organization of such additional or special services as seem called for on the part of the Government to meet the needs of Porto Rico. The bureau's assistance was requested in working out plans for more adequate administrative organizations for service to children. An advisory committee was organized, consisting of the commissioners of health and education, the attorney general, and the members of the board of child welfare. The governor was of the greatest assistance to this committee. A preliminary study of the two public asilos was made, and plans were developed for the reorganization of the work of the board of child welfare and for the administration of the boys' asilo. The governor has requested the continuation of the consultation and advisory service by the bureau for the coming year.

Women's Bureau

THE bureau has recently completed several studies that should prove useful in the Nation's concerted effort to learn the causes, alleviate the consequences, and prevent a recurrence of the existing stagnation of business. One of these reports is on fluctuation of employment in the radio industry and the other two studies, still in manuscript form, are: Wage-Earning Women and the Industrial Conditions of 1930, a survey of South Bend, and The Effects on Women of Changing Conditions in the Cigar and Cigarette Industry. The radio report shows clearly that this new industry is itself so seasonal that it can not be looked to for the permanent absorption of labor displaced in other lines of manufacture. The second presents the findings of a house-to-house canvass of certain industrial wards in South Bend and Mishawaka, Ind., in the late summer of 1930, when 3,245 women contrasted their employment status earlier in the year and at time of interview. In some 2,700 cases the other wage earners in the family also were reported upon. Corroborative figures were secured from employers' pay rolls. For a week in September, 1929, and one in September, 1930, average hours and earnings are contrasted, and for a smaller number of women the fluctuation from month to month during the 12-month period is shown. The third report deals with the effects on women of the substitution of machine for hand labor in the cigar and cigarette industries.

The bureau has a number of important projects in hand, notably its many-sided study of human waste in industry, involving changes