Labor Policy Case Study #1
H.R. 1340, Bureau of Labor Statistics
Compelling Policy Question: Should government labor policies interfere in the complex relationship between workers and their employers?
Policy Case Study:
H.R. 1340 a bill to establish and maintain a Bureau of Labor Statistics
There shall be established a department of labor statistics, run by a commissioner, who shall be appointed by the President.
The commissioner shall acquire all useful information on the subject of labor, its relations to capital, and the means of promoting the material, social, intellectual, and religious prosperity of laboring men, and women.
He shall investigate the various industries of the United States; the capital invested in them; the division of labor and its results, machinery and its effects; and the number of persons employed as laborers. He shall categorize the number of males and females, married and unmarried, skilled or unskilled, convict labor, Chinese labor: the number and ages of children, nature of their work, their attendance at school and church; the wages paid to the different classes; the hours employed, the cost of living comparing the difference between wages and price of necessaries of life; the sanitary, educational, social, and religious condition of laborers; the average duration of life; accidents related to employment; insanity; epidemics; factory, mill, mine, and home inspections; schools and churches, and extent to which they are enjoyed; statistics of crime, trade-unions and labor associations, the number, membership, and objects; strikes, their effects, and remedies.
The commissioner shall make an annual report to the President and Congress of the information collected by him.
Historical Context:
America’s Industrial Revolution began in 1790 when Samuel Slater built a textile factory in Rhode Island. By 1880 the majority of Americans were no longer working in agriculture. Many had moved to factories and were working over ten hours a day, six days a week. Factories were dominated by machines, they were dangerous and unsanitary.
Changes in labor led to the growth of Labor Unions, (workers group together to ask employer to make changes such as workplace conditions, wages, etc.). While unions were in America before Independence, the number of unions, and the number of members grew rapidly in the 19th century. (These included: National Labor Union (NLU)- included all workers no matter sex, race or industry (factory or farm). Wanted higher wages, gender and racial equality and an 8 hour work day. Knights of Labor (KOL)- more radical, wanted gender and racial equality, child labor laws, work safety codes, income tax, government owned railroads. American Federation of Labor (AFL) - led by Samuel Gompers, open only to skilled workers. wanted better treatment from management. Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) - far more radical- said factories should be owned by workers
In 1867 the NLU asked the Government to create a Department of Labor. They felt having a representative of working people in the Government would gain them more support. Massachusetts became the first State to establish a State bureau of labor statistics in 1869. (other states created their own in: Pennsylvania, 1872; Connecticut, 1873; Missouri and Kentucky, 1876; Ohio. 1877; New Jersey, 1878; Illinois and Indiana, 1879; New York, California, Michigan and Wisconsin, 1883; Iowa and Maryland, 1884)
In 1878 the KOL called for the establishment of Bureaus of Labor Statistics. During the 1878 House of Representatives committee hearings on the causes of the general depression, a labor leader, and the former Deputy Chief of the Massachusetts agency, called for a Federal Bureau of Statistics.
In 1883- Senate holds hearings on the relationship of capital and labor. Union leaders testified in favor of a national Bureau of Labor Statistics. 1884- both political parties include a national Bureau in their political platforms. March 7, 1884- Senator Blair introduced S.140, “bill to establish a bureau of statistics of labor” (it did not pass).
Section #1 - Why do people believe the Government has a responsibility to create policies to help workers?
In 1884, in his speech introducing H.R. 1340 to Congress, a Democratic Congressman from Pennsylvania named James Hopkins said...
(modified source/link to original)
Hopkins was the chairman of the House Committee on Education and Labor. His Biography
This bill is not intended to advance any political theory, but simply to supply the facts so wise statesmanship can happen.
The Government can perform no more useful work than in adding to human knowledge. And certainly a knowledge of our fellow-men and fellow-citizens is the most important information.
It is necessary to be informed of the conditions of the men who toil in the fields, the mines, and the mills. The Government depends on them as supporters in peace and as defenders in war.
It is time to give more attention to the American man. Corporations have had more than their share of favors from us, but laws to help the working people are rare and limited.
This bill will not cure all the problems of the laboring classes; but it will help Congress gain knowledge of their situation which is essential to any just legislation upon matters affecting them.
I speak in behalf of over ten millions of toilers in this country, and in the interest of more than fifty millions of citizens, for all are interested in promoting the welfare, increasing the prosperity, and happiness of all our people, and in thus perfecting the stability, and the beauty of the Republic. A sympathetic community, using considerate action, can remove disagreements, solidify patriotism, erects barriers impenetrable to foreign foes, and destroy the possibility of internal strife. I trust the House will show that it is in harmony with the people by the quick passage of this bill.
John J. O’Neill (D)Missouri,Speech to Congress on H.R. 1340, 1884, (modified/link to original) O'Neill's biography
The labor organizations of the United States demand from congress the creation of a bureau of labor statistics, to gain the knowledge needed to secure for the toilers all those rights and privileges necessary to enjoy the blessings of good government.
While the State bureaus are doing valuable work, a national bureau could gather much more complete and reliable information.
A national bureau will lead to a better sanitation in the homes and workshops of the mechanic and laborer. It will result in the spreading of knowledge, and in the better education of the young. It will secure an equitable distribution of the products of labor, and remove all cause of strikes and lock-outs.
It will promote “the general welfare,” and prevent fighting by providing a way for workers to share their grievances with the law-making bodies of the nation. It will promote higher civilization and better citizenship. It will give Congress data from which beneficent legislation can be made.
There are a thousand reasons why this bill should become a law and not one good reason why it should not. Pass this bill. We cannot afford to be deaf to workers’ demands. Workers produce our wealth, and are the power in this country. The safety of this Republic rest on the intelligence and patriotism of the working classes.
Martin A. Foran (D)Ohio, Speech to Congress on H.R. 1340, 1884, (modified/link to original) Foran's biography
Many people believe bad laws originate in the greed and selfishness in human nature. This is only partially true. A large portion of the imperfect legislation the people justly complain about is caused by a lawmaker lacking knowledge.
To aid the legislator is the principal object of this bill. The statesman can use these facts provided by the bureau to promote the well-being and happiness of its citizens.
This data will determine how problems creep into our society, as well as pointing out the safest and surest way to remove them.
Only a few days ago we passed a bill creating a bureau of animal industry to prevent diseases among animals. It is strange that a bill to improve the condition of humans would be opposed.
To produce better men, freer men, men of more advanced thought and civilization, should be the goal of every law placed upon the statute-books of the Republic. We have statistics concerning the wealth of the country, but there is nothing to show the condition of the vast army of men who produce all this wealth.
I again repeat, we have no reliable or accurate data, or information; and I insist that in the absence of such data and information we are not qualified to legislate as wisely as the best interests of the people of the country, “as a people one and indivisible,” demand.
Platform of Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions Of The United States and Canada, 1881 (modified/link to original)
WHEREAS, A struggle is going on in the nations of the civilized world between the Oppressors and the oppressed of all countries, a struggle between the capitalist and the laborer, which grows in intensity from year to year and will work disastrous results to the toiling millions of all nations if not combined for mutual protection and benefit; and
WHEREAS, The history of the wage-workers of all countries is but the history of constant struggle and misery engendered by ignorance and disunion; and .
WHEREAS, The history of the non-producers of all ages proves that a minority, thoroughly organized, may work wonders for good or evil.
It therefore behooves the representatives of the workers of North America, in Congress assembled, to adopt such measures and disseminate such principles among the people of our country as will unite them for all time to come, to secure the recognition of the rights to which they are justly entitled.
1o. We recognize the wholesome effects of a Bureau of Labor Statistics as created in several States, and we demand the passage of an act establishing a National Bureau of Labor Statistics, and recommend for its management the appointment of a proper person, identified with the laboring classes of the country.
Samuel Gompers, Testimony during Senate hearings on Capital and Labor in 1883 (modified/link to original)
Gompers was an English Immigrant, and Labor Union leader. He was invited to the Senate hearings on Capital and Labor by Senator Blair.
(3) We ask also, for the purpose of procuring information for the legislators of our country (who frequently find a very good excuse for non action by saying that they are ignorant as to the true condition of the working people), the establishment of a national bureau of labor statistics. Such a bureau would give our legislators an opportunity to know, not from mere conjecture, but actually, the condition of our industries, our production and consumption, and what could be done by law to improve both. Our State governments would undoubtedly follow the lead of the national Congress, and legislate in the interest of labor; but we see that so long as our national legislators have an excuse for saying that they do not know the condition of labor, there is very little chance of obtaining legislation.
Carroll D. Wright, Testimony during Senate hearings on Capital and Labor in 1883 (modified/link to original)
Wright was the head of the Massachusetts Bureau of Labor Statistics, and was called before the Senate hearings by Senator Blair
Q. Will you state to the committee the scope of your duties?
A. The bureau is conducted, of course, as a scientific office, not as a bureau of agitation or propaganda, but I always take the opportunity to make such recommendations and draw such conclusions from our investigations as the facts warrant. I do this more to bring the results of investigations to a focus than with any hope of the adoption of the recommendations. In the fourteen years we have covered a very wide range of investigations.
Q. The object of the bureau, I suppose, is the improvement, so far as can be done by these methods primarily of the condition of the wage working population
A. That is the prime object of the bureau; by giving information of real conditions, the hope has been that, through public sentiment or legislation, conditions that are not favorable may be improved.
Charles Stewart (D)Texas. Speech to Congress on H.R. 1340, 1884, (modified/link to original) Stewart's biography
This is a good bill. More than 10,000,000 of our citizens, one-fifth of our population, are engaged in manual labor, and this Government has not provided any way for obtaining information that will serve and give greater prosperity to these worthy citizens.
The bill does not seek to create an office and give its leader extraordinary powers. The budget is small compared to the amount of taxable wealth annually produced by labor, and is insignificant compared to the good it will accomplish,
It is high time there should be some legislation in behalf of the workers of this country, in behalf of those whose brain and muscle have contributed so much to the development of this great country.
I have no doubt the information obtained by this bill will bring about such investigations and cause such arrangements to be made as will cause greater harmony between capital and labor, and be of mutual advantage to both.
Yet, with all its imperfections, this bill can and will do much for the good of the toiler. If the commissioner performs his duties, the bureau will promote the welfare not only of the working men but of all men in this country, for labor creates all wealth, and that any measure which gives prosperity to the laboring classes gives prosperity to all other classes.
John Morrison, Testimony of a Machinist before the Senate Committee on Labor and Capital, 1883 (modified/link to the original)
John Morrison was a young machinist who worked in New York City. He was one of hundreds of Americans who testified before a Senate committee investigating the causes of recent industrial strikes. Morrison focused on the changes he had seen in the workplace over the previous nine years. Like many American workers of the era, he believed that mechanization had led to a decline in both the status and demand for skilled labor (
Question: Is there a difference in the way machinery is made now and 10 years ago?
Answer. A great difference. The work has been subdivided over and over. More machinery is used now. A man makes one part of a machine and knows nothing about other parts of the same machine.
Q. Have you noticed the effect this change in work has had on a man?
A. It is demoralizing. A worker is constantly doing one thing, He becomes almost a part of the machine
Q. What are the chances for a man who works in one of the factories, a man who is smart and hard working to become a boss or a manufacturer of machinery himself?
A. Well, there is almost no chance.They make so little working in the shop, all they earn is needed to live, they cannot save enough money to open their own shop.
Q. Dividing the public into the upper, middle, and lower classes, where is the average workingman?
A. When I entered the trade I believed they were barely hanging on to the middle class, ready to drop out at any time. Now they have dropped to lower class
When Dr. John B. Whitaker explained the Impact of the Factory on Worker Health in his 1871 Report to the Gentlemen of the Massachusetts Bureau of Labor Statistics, he said...
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1. Accidents and casualties are numerous, part due to the exposed machinery and part to carelessness.It is painful to see the workers’ hands and fingers mutilated, a consequence of accidents.
2. Unnatural working positions caused workers spines to curve and legs to bow.
3. Exhaustion from overwork. From the long hours of work and the great speed of the machines, so much exhaustion is produced, in most cases, that immediately after eating supper, the tired workers drop to sleep in their chairs.
4. Work by artificial light is injurious to the eyes causing many eye problems
5. Breathing in particles causes stomach problems. Workers vomited balls of cotton.
10. Pelvic diseases. Among the female factory workers this produces difficulty in pregnancy. Working in the mills while pregnant can deform a pelvis.
11. Many cases of sexual abuse.
12. Cases of Depression of spirits. ... Factory life increases people’s depression.
In the Knights of Labor's 1878 Constitution, they declared...
(modified)
The Knights of Labor wanted gender and racial equality, child labor laws, work safety codes, income tax, government ownership of railroads.
The alarming division between the rich and the worker will make the toiling masses of workers poor and hopeless. The laborer must be given rewards for his work. The Knights of Labor will organize the power of the industrial classes. The K.O.L. will
Secure to the toilers a proper share of the wealth that they create
Give the workers more of the free time that rightfully belongs to them
To arrive at the true condition of the producing masses in their educational, moral, and financial condition, by demanding from the various governments the establishment of bureaus of Labor Statistics.
The end of all laws that do not bear equally upon capital and labor.
Create laws for the health and safety for workers in mining, factories, or construction
The prohibition of the employment of children in workshops, mines, and factories
To secure for both sexes equal pay for equal work.
The reduction of the hours of labor to eight per day....
I.G. Blanchard,“Eight Hours”, 1878
Context In 1850 the average work week was 70 hours, in 1900 it was 60 and in 1920 it was 50. In the 1840s unions began working for a 10 hour day. The fight for an eight hour day began after the Civil War. Congress passed an eight hour law in 1868, but it was largely ignored. In the 1880s the issue started again. This song was the official song of the movement. (source)
We mean to make things over,
We are tired of toil for naught
With but bare enough to live upon
And ne'er an hour for thought.
We want to feel the sunshine
And we want to smell the flow'rs
We are sure that God has willed it
And we mean to have eight hours;
We're summoning our forces
From the shipyard, shop and mill
Chorus:
Eight hours for work, eight hours for rest
Eight hours for what we will;
Eight hours for work, eight hours for rest
Eight hours for what we will.
The beasts that graze the hillside,
And the birds that wander free,
In the life that God has meted,
Have a better life than we.
Oh, hands and hearts are weary,
And homes are heavy with dole;
If our life's to be filled with drudg'ry,
What need of a human soul.
Shout, shout the lusty rally,
From shipyard, shop, and mill.
Chorus
The voice of God within us
Is calling us to stand
Erect as is becoming
To the work of His right hand.
Should he, to whom the Maker
His glorious image gave,
The meanest of His creatures crouch,
A bread-and-butter slave?
Let the shout ring down the valleys
And echo from every hill.
Ye deem they're feeble voices
That are raised in labor's cause,
But bethink ye of the torrent,
And the wild tornado's laws.
We say not toil's uprising
In terror's shape will come,
Yet the world were wise to listen
To the monetary hum.
Soon, soon the deep toned rally
Shall all the nations thrill.
Chorus
From factories and workshops
In long and weary lines,
From all the sweltering forges,
And from out the sunless mines,
Wherever toil is wasting
The force of life to live
There the bent and battered armies
Come to claim what God doth give
And the blazon on the banner
Doth with hope the nation fill:
Chorus
Hurrah, hurrah for labor,
For it shall arise in might
It has filled the world with plenty,
It shall fill the world with light
Hurrah, hurrah for labor,
It is mustering all its powers
And shall march along to victory
With the banner of Eight Hours.
Shout, shout the echoing rally
Till all the welkin thrill.
Eight hours for work, eight hours for rest
Eight hours for what we will;
Eight hours for work, eight hours for rest
Eight hours for what we will.
1880 Census Table of Occupations. (source)
Numbers are in hundreds of thousands - The United States first started taking a census in 1790. A census is a survey of people. It records not just the number or people to determine population, but also collects other data such as occupation. The United States conducts a census every ten years. The 1880 Census was the tenth census by the United States Government.
Population Density by County map from the 1880 Census.
The darker the shade of the county the more densely populated the county. (source)
In 1883, the artist Friedrich Graetz drew a cartoon in Puck Magazine titled, "The Tournament of Today -- A Set-To Between Labor and Monopoly",
Print shows a jousting tournament between an oversized knight riding horse-shaped armor labeled "Monopoly" over a locomotive, with a long plume labeled "Arrogance", and carrying a shield labeled "Corruption of the Legislature" and a lance labeled "Subsidized Press", and a barefoot man labeled "Labor" riding an emaciated horse labeled "Poverty", and carrying a sledgehammer labeled "Strike". On the left is seating "Reserved for Capitalists" where Cyrus W. Field, William H. Vanderbilt, John Roach, Jay Gould, and Russell Sage are sitting. On the right, behind the labor section, are telegraph lines flying monopoly banners that are labeled "Wall St., W.U.T. Co., [and] N.Y.C. RR".
In 1883, the artist Bernhard Gilliam drew a cartoon titled "The Protectors of Our Industries," in Puck Magazine...
(summary)
The “Protectors of American industries” business owners Cyrus Field, Jay Gould, Cornelius Vanderbilt, and Russell Sage shown as bloated parasites sitting on bags of "millions," and protected from the sea by a wall held on the backs of industrial workers making only $6 to $11 a week.
8 Hours movement illustration
Maps Showing the Progressive Development of U.S. Railroads - 1830 to 1880
From the pamphlet "AMERICAN RAILROADS: Their Growth and Development" The Association of American Railroads (source)
Bernhard Gillam, Hopelessly bound to the stake, Puck, 1883 (summary)
Bernard Gillam, The slave-market of to-day, Puck, 1884
Friedrich Graetz, The tournament of today - a set-to between labor and monopoly: Published by Keppler & Schwarzmann, 1883
Library of Congress Summary: Print shows a jousting tournament between an oversized knight riding horse-shaped armor labeled "Monopoly" over a locomotive, with a long plume labeled "Arrogance", and carrying a shield labeled "Corruption of the Legislature" and a lance labeled "Subsidized Press", and a barefoot man labeled "Labor" riding an emaciated horse labeled "Poverty", and carrying a sledgehammer labeled "Strike". On the left is seating "Reserved for Capitalists" where Cyrus W. Field, William H. Vanderbilt, John Roach, Jay Gould, and Russell Sage are sitting. On the right, behind the labor section, are telegraph lines flying monopoly banners that are labeled "Wall St., W.U.T. Co., [and] N.Y.C. RR".
Section #2: Why do people think it is not the Government's responsibility to create policies to help workers?
In 1884, a Democratic Congressman from Tennessee named Hiram Casey Young gave a speech to Congress on H.R. 1340, in which he said....
The topic of this bill is important. It has more of an impact on the financial and political future of our Government than any other. I feel a deep and sincere interest in everything that affects the well-being of the laboring classes, for I know their life is a hard one. I propose, with an amendment, to give this measure my support.
One of the complaints against the legislation of the past two decades is that has enlarged the machinery of government, made it more difficult to use, less effective, and more expensive. We should not create new governmental departments, but should give those we have what they need to do the work.
The Department of Agriculture already supervises two-thirds of our toiling laborers, why should there be another department with similar duties toward another group of laborers? I propose amending the bill to establish in the Agricultural Department a bureau of labor statistics. They should have charge of the whole question of labor, whether in the mines, the workshops, or the fields. This will also help end the rivalry between the workers in the mines and the factories and the tillers of the soil. Let us strengthen the natural unity which should exist between the interest of the farmer and that of the mechanic. Pass this bill as it is and the farmer may conclude it discriminates against him.
Debate between John T. Morgan (D)Tennessee and Henry W. Blair (R)New Hampshire, over H.R. 1340, 1884, (modified/link to original) Morgan's Biography, Blair's Biography
Mr. MORGAN. I am aware that Mr Blair thinks that it is the highest duty of statesmanship in this country to wet-nurse the States.
Mr. BLAIR. The Senator does not need to sneer.
Mr. MORGAN. I believe the States are able to take care of themselves.
Mr. BLAIR. I think the Senator is hardly pursuing a line of argumentation consistent with the Senatorial character.
Mr. MORGAN. I am against prying into the affairs of the people and telling them how to act. The Senator from New Hampshire has distinguished himself in his effort to push his personal views on the people of the United States.
The people will eventually realize they can self-govern and self-control and self-educate. This bill will make inquiries among all classes of people in respect to their conditions, their personal habits, their morals, their food and clothing, their social feelings and sentiments, their health, and their intelligence.
This inquisition into the condition of all the laboring classes of this country reaches into the very sanctity of the homes of the land. The inquiry provided in this bill includes social and domestic matters that are not necessary in order for us to legislate wisely for the people.
In 1884, John J. Ingalls , a Republican member of Congress from Kansas, said in a speech to Congress on H.R. 1340...
I sympathize with labor. I am descended from generations of laboring men, and I represent a State made of them.
I have no sympathy with those who say there is an unsolvable conflict between capital and labor and which demands legislation against men because they are rich and against corporations because they are strong. Labor and capital are not enemies.
The legislator or the citizen who attempts to turn the laboring man against the capitalist, is an enemy not only of the laboring man, but is the enemy of the country. These self-proclaimed champions of the people are trying for evil and selfish purposes, to turn the people of this country against each-other.
The intelligent laboring people of this country understand legislation will not fix everything. There are differences in individuals that will, under a free government, result in inequality.
The philosophers who support this bill believe that a universal cure for all the evils that afflict human society is to be found in the publication of statistics. A farmer coming home to his humble cottage and to his poorly clad children, and to his tired wife would not feel any better if he stopped at the village post-office and bought a volume of statistics of the relations between capital and labor.
James H. Blount (D)Georgia, Speech to Congress on H.R. 1340, 1884, (modified/link to original) Blount's biography
Mr. Hopkins argued that we had a Bureau of Mining, a Bureau of Agriculture, a Bureau of Education, etc. Well, sir, I think instead of our concluding that we should have some more of them, we had better conclude that we have been getting very far beyond what had been the practice of our Government from the beginning.
I have no faith in the information when gathered. My experience has been that these bureaus were made for the purpose of advancing some political thought.
The bill also proposes to make inquiries into the religious condition of laborers. Is this a limited government? Can we do anything and everything we please: What do you call religion? Where do you get the authority to inquire about the religious condition of any American citizen?
Mr. HOPKINS. I have no objection to taking out the word religion, as it meets with objection on both sides of the House. We might establish a bureau of statistics and inquiry as to the sanitary and religious condition of members of Congress, in which probably some of us would not fare so well.
In 1878, founder of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, Allan Pinkerton wrote in his book "Strikers, Communists, Tramps and Detectives"...
(modified/link to original) Context: Allan Pinkerton was a detective before the civil war, then during the war he became the head of the Union Intelligence service (the early version of the Secret Service). He founded the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, which was a private police force. They were used by many companies to break up worker strikes led by Unions. His book focused on the Great Railroad Strike of 1877
The motto of many of these unions is "Liberty, Fraternity, Equality." What kind of "liberty" is the result of a rule of force upon one class of people by any other class?
No good thing can be seen in the labor movement, unless it is considered good to have among us a dangerous communistic spirit which is demoralizing workingmen, continually creating a deeper and more intense hostility between labor and capital.
It must be crushed out completely, or we shall be forced to submit to greater excesses and more disasters in the near future.
The causes of our great strike of '77 seems clear. For years all types of labor unions have been forming. No manufacturing town, nor any city, has escaped this evil. Though many of them say they oppose communism, it still has a dangerous influence on them.
Labor has gradually become cheaper, and its demand less. Workingmen have not adjusted to the changes in the economy.
Workers have been taught they were being enslaved and robbed. They were told all that was necessary for improving their condition was a general uprising against businesses.
In 1874, the artist Thomas Nast, drew a cartoon titled "The Emancipator of Labor and the Honest Working-People" in the magazine Harper’s Weekly.
Nast shows a skeleton dressed in a suit wearing a sash with “Communist” written on it.
Many people accused Union leaders as being communist.
The skeleton has approached a worker and his family and seems to be inviting the worker to join in the violent events going on behind him.
What happened to the Bureau of Labor Statistics
Since its creation in 1884 under the Bureau of Labor Act, the Bureau has been moved around a few times, and has had some name changes. When the Bureau of Labor Statistics was created in 1884 it was located in the Department of the Interior. In 1888 it was moved into the Department of Labor by the Department of Labor Act. In 1903, the Department of Commerce Act moved the Bureau of Labor into the Department of Commerce and Labor. In 1913 it made its final move into the Department of Labor.
It still has the same basic responsibility today, as when it was created in 1884. The Bureau researches statistics related to workers in order to give policy makers information to help them shape policy. One number you hear often that is researched by the Bureau is the unemployment rate.
You can visit their website to find all kinds of statistics and information.