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The First Hundred Years of the Bureau of Labor Statistics

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The First Hundred Years of the Bureau of Labor Statistics U.S. Department of Labor William E. Brock, Secretary Bureau of Labor Statistics Janet L. Norwood, Commissioner September 1985 Bulletin 2235 The First Hundred Years of the Bureau of Labor Statistics Joseph I? Gold berg and William T Moye For sale by the Suporintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Washington, D.C. 20402 his volume reports on the first century of a government agency whose founders hoped that, by publishing facts about economic conditions, the agency would help end strife between capital and labor. TThe Bureau's early work included studies of depressions, tariffs, immigrants, and alchoholism and many assignments to investigate and mediate disputes between labor and management. Most of these func- tions-especially those involving formulation of policy-passed on to other agencies. The Bureau today remains one of the Nation's princi- pal economic factfinders. This account of the Bureau's history is based on 4 years of research by two historians, Joseph P. Goldberg and Willii T. Moye. Dr. Goldberg holds degrees in history and economics from the City College of New York and Columbia University and has written exten- sively on the maritime industry, collective bargaining, labor law, and labor history. He has served as special assistant to the Commissioner of Labor Statistics since 1955. Dr. Moye holds degrees from Davidson College and the University of North Carolina and has been with the U.S. Department of Labor since 1976, specializing in the history of the Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Department and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In conducting their research, Drs. Goldberg and Moye had full Goldberg, Joseph P., 1918- The first hundred years of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. access to the records of the Bureau and of the Department of Labor and also used the collections of the Library of Congress, the National (Bulletin /Bureau of Labor Statistics ; 2235) Bibliography: p. Archives, and other public and private institutions. In addition, the Includes index. authors conducted interviews with recent Commissioners and Secre. 1. United States. Bureau of Labor Statistics-History, I. Moye, William T. 11. Title. 111. Series: Bulletin taries of Labor and others familiar with the work of the Bureau. At (United States. Bureau of Labor Statistics) ; 2235. the Archives, Jerry N. Hess and Joseph B. Howerton provided valua- HDB064.2.G65 1985 353.0083 85-11655 ble assistance, as did Henry P. Guzda of the Department of Labor ISBN 0-935043-004 Historical Office. ISBN 0-935043-01-2 (pbk.) Rosalie K. Epstein, the book's editor, worked closely with the aurhors in helping them fashion their voluminous research into a book-size manuscript. Several expert readers helped improve the work through thoughtful critiques. They included Richard B. Morris, Gouverneur Contents Morris Professor of History Emeritus, Columbia University; Professor Irving Bernstein, Department of Political Science, University of Cali- fornia, Los Angeles; Dr. Jonathan Grossman, Historian, U.S. Depart- ment of Labor, from 1962 to 1982; Dr. H.M. Douty, author and economic consultant; Dr. Herbert C. Morton, Director, Office of Scholarly Communications and Technology, American Council of Learned Societies; and several members of the staff of the Bureau of Labor Sratistics. Book design was supervised by Richard Mathews. Scenobia G. I. Origins Easterly and Elizabeth M. Johnson assisted with manuscript prepara- tion. 11. Carroll Wright: Setting the Course In writing the book, Drs. Goldberg and Moye had full freedom to interpret events in accordance with their judgments as historians, 111. Charles Neill: Studies for Economic and Social Reform without conformance to an "official" view of institutional history. Given the perspective made possible by passing years, the aurhors IV. Royal Meeker: Statistics in Recession and Wartime offerbroader evaluations of the Bureau's early history than of contem- porary events. V. Ethelberr Stewart: Holding the Fort Henry Lowenstern VI. Isador Lubin: Meeting Emergency Demands Associate Commissioner, Office of Publications Bureau of Labor Sratistics VII. Ewan Clague: An Expanding Role for Economic Indicators VIII. Four Commissioners: An Economy Going by the Numbers IX. History as Prologue: The Continuing Mission Appendix: BLS Publications Source Notes Index Origins hen President Chester A. Arthur signed the bill ere+ ating the Bureau of Labor in the Department of the Interior on June 27, 1884, it was the culmination of almost two decades of advocacy by labor organiza- tions that wanted government help in publicizing and improving the status of the growing industrial labor force. Those two decades had seen vast changes in the American econ. omy and society. A truly national economy was developing, epito- mized by the transcontinental railroads. Industry was attracting increasing numbers of unskilled workers, recruited from among immi- grants, freedmen, women, and children, into the urban centers. And, with the emergence of the industrial worker, unemployment, slum conditions, and labor unrest were on the rise. The altruistic concerns of social reformers, largely directed against slavery in the pre-Civil War period, increasingly focused on ameliorating the conditions of American workers-men, women, and children. Some of these reformers supported the emerging national unions as aids to such amelioration. Further, they challenged the prevailing view that the primary role of government was to preserve The First Hundred Years Origins order and protect property and that control of the economy was to be In Senate hearings on the relationship of capital and labor in left to the captains of industry. They believed that the state should 1883, union leaders testified in favor of a national Bureau of Labor have an ethical and educational role, one that was indispensable to Statistics. Samuel Gompers, chairman of the legislative committee of human progress. the Federation, felt that Congress should no longer be able to justify It was in this era of ferment and demands for reform that the its inaction on labor matters by pleading ignorance of workers' condi- Bureau of Labor was born. tions. A national Bureau "would give our legislators an opportunity to know, not from mere conjecture, but actually, the condition of our The campaign for a national labor agency industries, our production, and our consumption, and what could be done by law to improve both [sic]." He cited the useful role of existing The campaign for a national labor agency had begun with the call for a State statistical agencies as exemplified by a recent investigation of Department of Labor at the 1867 convention of the short-lived factory working conditions by the Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics National Labor Uni0n.l In 1869, in response to the growing strength of Labor under the direction of Carroll D. Wright.5 of a labor reform party in the State, Massachusetts established the first Wright appeared as an expert witness. He administered the Mas- State bureau of labor statistics. But, under the leadership of labor sachusetts Bureau, in his words, "as a scientific office, not as a Bureau activists, the new agency stirred controversy which almost destroyed of agitation or propaganda, but I always take the opportunity to make it. In 1873, the governor appointed as chief Carroll D. Wright, a such recommendations and draw such conclusions from our investiga- former State legislator who was not associated with the labor reform- tions as the facts warrant." He stressed that the agency should be free ers, and Wright soon put the bureau on solid ground. Other States of political influence. There was need for Federal "investigations into followed suit, and, within 10 years, 12 more States had established all conditions which affect the people, whether in a moral, sanitary, labor bureaus. educational, or economic sense," thus adding "to the educational On the national scene, the Industrial Congress, later renamed the forces of the country a sure and efficient auxiliary." The resultant Industrial Brotherhood, carried on the fight but did not survive the statistical progress of the Nation would indicate "its great progress in depression years of the mid-1870's. Then, in 1878, the Knights of all other matter^."^ Labor adopted the preamble of the Brotherhood almost verbatim, In 1884, backed by the powerful Knights of Labor and the Feder- calling for "the establishment of Bureaus of Labor Statistics" at the ation, the establishment of a national Bureau was included in the various levels of go~ernment.~That same year, a Select Committee of platforms of both parties. In the same year, the House passed a bill the US. House of Representatives held hearings on the causes of the establishing a Bureau of Labor, but in the Senate, Nelson W. Aldrich general depression. In their testimony, Hugh McGregor, later a leader of Rhode Island secured an amendment putting the Bureau under the in the American Federation of Labor, and George E. McNeill, former Department of the Interior. Attempts to ensure that the head of the Deputy Chief of the Massachusetts agency, called for a Federal Bureau agency would be identified with workers failed. of Statistics or Ministry of Labor to gather facts and figures.3 In the debate on the issue, Representative James H. Hopkins of From its founding in 1881, the Federation of Organized Trades Pennsylvania pointed out, "A great deal of public attention in and out and Labor Unions, later reorganized as the AFL, joined the drive. At of Congress has been given to the American hog and the American its first convention, the Federation urged the passage of an act estab- steer. I submit, Mr. Chairman, that it is time to give more attention to lishing a national Bureau of Labor Statistics. The 1883 convention the American man."7 Hopkins and Senators Henry W. Blair of New endorsed the creation of a Department of Industry and Statistics to Hampshire and George F.
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