Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 11.djvu/711

LABOR. its place have set up the ideal of labor as a necessary means to the fullest self-realization and self-development of the laborer.

Consult: Thorold Rogers, Six Centuries of Work and Wages; Cairnes, The Slave Power; Thornton, On Labour; Brassey, Work and Wages; Walker, The Wages Question; Schoenhof, The Economy of High Wages; Patten, The Theory of Prosperity; Webb, Industrial Democracy; Levasseur, The American Workman. The establishment of departments or bureaus of labor by all progressive countries has swelled the official literature on labor to gigantic proportions. Among the most notable recent Government reports on the subject are: Report of the Royal Commission [British] on Labour (1894); Report of the United States Industrial Commission (1900-02); reports of the Board of Trade (British) on labor statistics, trade unions, etc., and annual and special reports of the United States Department of Labor. For current events, consult the (British) Labour Gazette, published by the Board of Trade, and the (United States) Bulletin of the Department of Labor. See ; ; ; ; ; ; ; etc.  LABOR, A non-secret confederation of trade unions, having for its object the improvement in the conditions and wages of labor; the establishment of self-governing unions of wage-workers in every trade and legitimate occupation, where none now exists; the formation of public opinion by the agencies of platform, press, and legislation; and the furtherance of a civilization based upon industrial progress, by securing to the toilers a reduction in the hours of labor. The American Federation of Labor originated in an attempt to found a general organization of American workingmen, distinct from the Knights of Labor, on a trade-union basis. A preliminary convention was called by the Knights of Industry and the Amalgamated Labor Union—the latter composed largely of seceders from the Knights of Labor—and met in Terre Haute, Ind., August 2, 1881. The first convention officially recognized as such met at Pittsburg in November, 1881, at which the name of the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions of the United States and Canada was adopted. This federation merged itself with an independent trade-union congress held at Columbus, Ohio, December 8, 1886, when the present name and organization were adopted. On January 1, 1903, there were affiliated with the American Federation of Labor 101 national or international unions, 26 State federations, 475 city centrals, and 1825 local unions. In May, 1902, the secretary estimated the aggregate membership of affiliated unions at 1,100,000, excluding duplicates. Among the oldest and most influential of the affiliated unions are the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners, the International Typographical Union of North America, the Cigar Makers' International Union, and the Granite Cutters' National Union of the United States of America. The largest affiliated union is the United Mine Workers of America. The American Federation of Labor is growing very rapidly, about 800,000 members having been added from 1897 to 1902. It has practically taken the place of its old rival, the (q.v.).  LABOR, The first bureau of statistics of labor in the world was created by act of the Massachusetts Legislature in June, 1869. While political expediency may have had influence in establishing this bureau, its functions were defined by law for the general good of the State as follows:

"The duties of such bureau shall be to collect, assort, systematize, and present in annual reports to the Legislature, on or before the first day of March in each year, statistical details relating to all departments of labor in the Commonwealth, especially in its relation to the commercial, industrial, social, educational, and sanitary condition of the laboring classes, and to the permanent prosperity of the productive industry of the Commonwealth." This expresses the purpose of every State bureau of similar character in this country, the United States Bureau of Labor (later the Department of Labor) and similar offices in other nations.

The United States Department of Labor was organized in 1885 as one of the bureaus of the Department of the Interior, and Carroll D. Wright, who had been signally successful as Chief of the Bureau of Statistics in Massachusetts, was selected as Commissioner. He declared its policy to be chiefly educational, by judicious investigations and fearless publication thereof to enable the people to comprehend more clearly and more fully many of the problems which now vex them. After the bureau had been in existence three years it was changed to the Department of Labor with independent functions. Since November, 1895, a bimonthly bulletin has been published. Since its organization it has issued annual reports, nine special reports, and the bimonthly bulletins. The annual reports have been on the following subjects: Industrial Depressions, Convict Labor, Strikes and Lockouts, Working Women in the United States, Railroad Labor, Cost of Iron and Steel and Cognate Products in This and Other Countries, Industrial Education in Different Countries, Building and Loan Associations, Work and Wages of Men, Women, and Children, Economic Aspect of the Liquor Traffic, Hand and Machine Labor, Water, Gas, and Electric Light Plants under Private and Municipal Ownership, Wages and Hours of Labor in the Principal Commercial Countries of the World. The special reports deal with similar topics. Congress now appropriates more than $175,000 annually for the administration of the department, exclusive of printing.

Thirty-one of the States in this country have offices similar to that initiated in Massachusetts in 1869. Thirteen of the State bureaus of labor publish a biennial report, and eighteen an annual. The Association of Officials of Bureaus of Labor Statistics of America meets annually to promote the objects of the bureaus by discussing methods and presenting subjects for investigation. The Federal and State bureaus have published over 400 volumes. Several of the State bureaus conduct free employment agencies, notably those of New York and Connecticut, while the inspection of factories and mines is an important function of many of them.

Increased authority has recently been granted a number of State bureaus for conciliation and arbitration in labor disputes, by providing for special commissioners under the direction of the bureaus. The bureaus have been kept free from partisanship, and the exact information they