Royal Meeker to Woodrow Wilson
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My dear Mr. President
I received in due course your letter of the 7th instant in which you ask me to make an estimate, even though it be but approximate, of the cost of carrying out the program I suggested in my letter of November 6.
I trust you will pardon my delay in replying to you. Many things that I could not postpone have taken up my time so that I was unable to give proper attention to fulfilling your request intelligently. Also it has been necessary for me to consult with those connected with other Governmental agencies in order to avoid estimating for work already being carried out. In making up my estimates of cost I have made some allowances for voluntary assistance which I feel sure can be secured from teachers and students in our colleges and universities. I have made my estimates on the basis of my knowledge and my four years' experience in conducting surveys of the kind I have suggested.
I feel fairly confident that for the sum of $450,000 the work outlined by me in my previous letter, together with an expansion of our work in retail prices and cost of living, can be carried through.
I did not mention the Bureau's retail prices and cost of living studies in my letter of November 6 because I felt so uncertain about the plan you had in mind for determining cost of living as the basis of adjusting wage disputes. My Bureau is the agency now furnishing the information on this subject, and it seems to me and others that it would be most economical to expand our organization to cover the ground adequately rather than to create a new Governmental agency or agencies to perform this absolutely essential work. Strikes occur or are threatened most frequently on the ground of the increasing costs of living and settlements are being effected throughout the country on the basis of the reports issued every month by my Bureau.
I have been cooperating with the Office of the Chief of Ordnance and the Office of the Quartermaster General of the War Department and with the Shipbuilding Labor Adjustment Board by furnishing them wage scales and retail and wholesale prices for different cities throughout the country.Mr. V. Everit Macy and Prof. Henry R. Seager tell me that the material I have furnished them has been of great value in bringing about adjustments of wage disputes in the shipping yards and allied industries on the Pacific Coast. I enclose a copy of a letter received by me this morning from Mr. Macy, which seems to me to indicate the necessity for greatly expanding and speeding up our retail price work and for making further rapid budgetary surveys in the shipbuilding centers and other industrial cities. Mr. Macy's letter also emphasizes the importance of centralizing the collection of such data in a single Governmental agency, so as to prevent duplication of effort. He also points out the value of having the needed facts gathered by a permanent Governmental bureau, so that the work may be continued after the war and serve as a basis in making the necessary industrial adjustments which are bound to follow upon the advent of peace. If these surveys can be performed satisfactorily for the Shipping Board by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, it would seem that the information collected could be made available for the War and Navy Departments in adjusting wages on contract work and for the various other wage adjustment boards and commissions that have recently been created, especially the War Industries Board. The findings of fact would be most helpful to private employers in the essential industries, even if not working on Government contracts.
I give below in summary form my estimates for the surveys needed:
Sincerely yours,(Signed) Royal Meeker.
Commissioner of Labor Statistics.
Enclosure.
The President,
The White House,
Washington, D. C.
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