Royal Meeker to Woodrow Wilson

In the absence of Secretary Wilson, I am venturing to write you concerning work that I think the Bureau of Labor Statistics should be carrying forward but which I am unable to do because of the smallness of my appropriation and the enormous demands put upon my Bureau for information regarding labor matters.

The whole war is but a series of highly specialized and enormously important labor problems. Fighting at the front is but a new and extra hazardous industry which has been undertaken by us. The labor of fighting the Germans face to face is no whit more important than any other labor in the great industry of beating the Germans, though it is undoubtedly more dangerous.

I am receiving inquiries from all over the country, asking for information concerning strikes, lockouts, wages, hours and conditions of labor, substitution of men for women, accident rates and health conditions, especially in the manufacture of explosives and other munitions of war. I am receiving the most contradictory statements in regard to the scarcity of labor. The trade union representatives stoutly maintain that there is no scarcity, while employers as stoutly maintain that their operations are greatly handicapped and their output reduced because of the very stringent scarcity of labor. I am asked to state authoritatively as the head of the fact-gathering agency of the United States Department of Labor which of these two contradictory statements is correct.

All these inquiries are perfectly legitimate, and the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics should have the information in hand to answer these questions intelligently and completely. I should have a large enough force of capable and trained agents in the field so that my Bureau would be in possession of the latest and most accurate information as to the number of strikes, their causes, the number of workers directly involved, the number indirectly affected, and the results of each strike and lockout. In addition, I should be able to furnish the facts needed by conciliators or arbitrators as to wages, hours and conditions in these industries in which industrial disputes arise. I should be able to give the War and the Navy Departments much fuller information than I have been able to give them as to rates of wages and hours of labor in different sections of the United States. I should be able to answer inquiries as to the effect of speeding up, overtime, and the employment of new and untrained workers upon the accident rates and the time losses due to accidents in at least the great basal industries of the country. I should be able to give fuller information regarding health hazards growing out of the enormous expansion in the manufacturing of explosives, coal tar products, aeroplanes, and other industries connected with the war. These industries must use large quantities of industrial poisons, some of which are now in this country, and, therefore, especially deadly in their effects upon green and uninformed workers.

I have recently begun a study of the employment of women in occupations formerly filled by men in the manufacture of certain kinds of munitions. This survey should be pushed through with the utmost speed if the desired results are to be achieved. Thus far, I have been able to assign only two agents to this study.

In order to determine what is meant by "scarcity of labor" and whether or not this scarcity exists, we must know what rates of wages, hours, and conditions of labor are offered in the different industries of the country.

To keep you and your advisors fully informed of the labor situation throughout the United States, it seems to me necessary to maintain agents in the field in all the principal industrial centers at least to keep tabs on the labor supply and the labor demand and to report immediately all important happenings in the labor field to the Federal Government in Washington.

I am sure I do not underestimate the importance of the work performed by the field agents of the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Commerce. It is immensely important to know the quantities of wheat, corn, potatoes, eggs, etc., in the hands of the farmers and in warehouses throughout the country. It is also immensely important to know the market prices of commodities and the railroad and shipping facilities for transporting these commodities. It is, in my judgment, at least equally important that we should know accurately the amount, kind, and distribution of the labor force throughout the country.

I shall not indulge the passion for platitude by pointing out that agriculture, industry, and commerce are absolutely dependent upon labor, but I do wish to point out that the most economical utilization of the existing labor force in this country requires the most accurate knowledge obtainable as to the number of men and women in industry, the occupations they are engaged in, the feasibility of substituting women for men in certain occupations, and the possibilities of substracting men and women from nonessential production for the purpose of increasing the production of war materials and other essential commodities.

I feel that if we are to win this war we must lay down a definite labor policy immediately and adhere to it rigorously. Price regulation and price control seem to be absolutely essential to the successful carrying on of this war. It seems to me just as essential to regulate the price of labor as it is to regulate and control the price of wheat, of sugar, and of coal. In fact, I think it wholly impossible to carry through the regulation of the prices of commodities without also working out a system for the control of wages. Before any such wage regulation is attempted, however, it is absolutely necessary, in my judgment, that we ascertain the amount and kind of labor power in the country.

If you will grant me a conference, I shall be glad to go over more in detail with you a program of labor surveys and estimates of the costs.

Sincerely yours,
(Signed) Royal Meeker.
Commissioner of Labor Statistics.


The President,
The White House,
Washington, D. C.