5. Unified direction of the labor administration of the United States for the period of the war should be established. At present there is an unrelated number of separate committees, boards, agencies, and departments having fragmentary and conflicting jurisdiction over the labor problems raised by the war. A single-headed administration is needed, with full power to determine and establish the necessary administrative structure. [Since this report was written the direction of the labor administration for the war was delegated to the Secretary of Labor.] 6. When assured of sound labor conditions and effective means for the just redress of grievances that may arise, labor in its turn should surrender all practices which tend to restrict maximum efficiency. 7. Uncorrected evils are the greatest provocative to extremist propaganda, and their correction in itself would be the best counter propaganda. But there is need for more affirmative education. There has been too little publicity of an educative sort in regard to labor's relation to the war. The purposes of the Government and the methods by which it is pursuing them should be brought home to the fuller understanding of labor. Labor has most at stake in this war, and it will eagerly devote its all if only it be treated with confidence and understanding, subject neither to indulgence nor neglect, but dealt with as a part of the citizenship of the State. We have quoted this part of the Commission's report at length, since nowhere else, it is believed, can there be found in so brief a compass such an acute analysis of the causes of industrial discontent and the steps that should be taken to remove it. Furthermore, the principles of action here laid down constitute the ones which the National Government, acting through its other agencies, has consistently sought to put into execution. The arsenals of the War Department and the navy yards of the Navy Department were direct competitors for many classes of labor. It was manifestly both in equitable and detrimental to efficiency that these two classes of institutions should pay different rates of wages for the same labor or in other respects provide for divergent labor conditions. To secure unity of action between the two Departments in respect to such matters, the Secretaries of War and of the Navy, acting in cooperation with the Secretary of Labor, in August, 1917, created a body known as the Arsenals and Navy Yards Wage Commission. This Commission, composed of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Stanley King, Assistant to the Secretary of War, and Rowland B. Mahaney, mediator of the Department of Labor, had as its function to pass upon all wage questions arising in arsenals and navy yards. On September 17, 1917, announcement was made in the Official Bulletin that the Commission had completed its work of revising the scale of wages paid in arsenals and navy yards. In making this revision the Commission, although paying attention to wages paid in other local establishments, sought to standardize wages as far as possible. Among the agencies created by the War Department for the handling of labor matters, special mention should be made of the Board of Control for Labor Standards in Army Clothing. The clothing industry is, as is well known, one in which the evils of "sweating" are especially severe and difficult to control. Following the placing of the enormous orders for the manufacture of uniforms for the Army, complaints began to pour in upon the Government that this work was being performed to a large extent under sweatshop conditions of the worst sort. To prevent this and to insure that proper working conditions were being observed by all contractors for the Government in this field, the Secre tary of War on August 24, 1917, established a board composed of Louis Kirstein, of Boston, as Chairman, Mrs. Florence Kelley, Secretary of the National Consumers' League, of New York, and Captain Walter G. Kruesi, of the Quartermaster Corps, U. S. R., to prescribe the labor conditions to be observed by all contractors for the supply of Army clothing. In announcing the establishment of this Board, Secretary Baker said: Through this board the Quartermaster-General will be enabled to enforce the maintenance of sound industrial and sanitary conditions in the manufacture of Army clothing, to inspect factories, to see that proper standards are established on Government work, to pass upon the industrial standards maintained by bidders on Army clothing, and act so that just conditions prevail. The Government cannot permit its work to be done under sweatshop conditions, and it cannot allow the evils widely complained of to go uncorrected. Only through the establishment of such a body as the board of control now created will the Government be assured that Army clothing is manufactured under recognized industrial standards and in an atmosphere of good will between manufacturers and operatives. This alone will assure fit clothing and its prompt delivery for Army needs. This Board in discharging its duties did an exceedingly important piece of work. It secured the services of experts and made an intensive study of the cost of labor of each of scores of distinct operations involved in the manufacture of clothing. On the basis of this study it fixed the remuneration that should be paid in each case, besides determining the other conditions of labor that should be observed. In a word, it determined the labor standards for the clothing industry. There is no doubt that this work will have an effect after the termination of the war in stabilizing this industry, which more than almost any other important industry had need for such stabilization. On January 24, 1918, the Secretary of War was able to announce that the work for which the Board has been created had been so largely completed that it was unnecessary longer to continue it. The Board was accordingly abolished, and the enforcement of the standards prescribed by it was turned over to a division of the Quartermaster-General's Office. Mr. Kirstein, after continuing for a time as administrator of labor standards for Army clothing, resigned, and in April, 1918, his place was filled by the appointment of Professor W. Z. Ripley of Harvard. This work was then constituted a branch of the Industrial Relations Division of the Quartermaster-General's Office. In addition to the foregoing agencies created by the National Government for the determination of labor conditions and the settlement of industrial disputes, each of the three great war agencies whose activities involved the handling or control of large bodies of labor-the United States Shipping Board, the Fuel Administration, and the Railroad Administration - had to create special bodies for the performance of similar functions in the fields covered by them. A description of the organization and work of these bodies is given in our account of the agencies of which they formed a part. They are mentioned here only in order that our survey of war agencies for dealing with the problems of labor may be complete. CHAPTER X THE MOBILIZATION OF LABOR; II, WAR LABOR ADMINISTRATION Conditions demanding a centralized administration for the direction of war labor- The Secretary of Labor appointed Labor Administrator - - His Advisory Council The War Labor Conference Board - Its programme and recommendations Creation of the National War Labor Board- - Its organization, procedure, and services - - Creation of the War Labor Policies Board - - Its personnel, functions, and services The Labor Cabinet Problems of labor recruitment - The United States Employment Service - Its statutory authority and development - Its coöperative arrangements with the Post Office Department and other agencies - Its organization and operations servicesIts special war - The United States Boys' Working Reserve - - The United States Public Service Reserve-The Farm Service Division, Division of Stevedores and Marine Workers, and other services - Centralization of labor recruitment and distribution under the Employment Service - Community labor boards - The housing problem - Bureau of Industrial Housing and Transportation in the Department of Labor- - The United States Housing Corporation. -- Notwithstanding the value of the work performed by the several agencies for the determination of labor conditions and the adjustment of labor difficulties that have been described in the preceding chapter, it became increasingly apparent as the war progressed that these agencies, acting individually and independently, could not meet the conditions of labor employment brought about by the war. In our consideration of the problem of the recruitment of labor it will be seen that the necessity arose for the centralization of the work of securing labor in one agency, in order to prevent an excessive turnover of labor and the evils resulting from one plant's seeking to secure labor from another whose work |