A centennial view The AFL and a national BLS: labor's role is crystallized From the labor federation's first convention in 1881 to the establishment of the Labor Department in 1913, relations between the union movement and the BLS often were influenced by the needs of the times and by the personalities of Samuel Gompers, and Commissioners Carroll Wright and Charles Neill JOSEPH P. GOLDBERG AND WILLIAM T. MOYE The American trade union movement, which last year and Canada, which marks the centennial beginning of celebrated the centennial of its founding, and the Bu- the AFL-CIO, included in its statement of principles and reau of Labor Statistics, which soon will observe its action a call for a national Bureau of Labor Statistics: own 100th anniversary, grew up together, sometimes in confrontation, but more often in mutual-though dis- . we recognize the wholesome effects of a Bureau of tant-respect . The relationship between the American Labor Statistics as created in several States, and we Federation of Labor and the Bureau was affected both urge upon the Congress the passage of an act by the needs of the times and by the personalities of the establishing a national Bureau of Labor Statistics, and leaders, AFL President Samuel Gompers and BLS Com- recommend for its management the appointment of a missioners Carroll D. Wright and Charles P. Neill. proper person identified with the laboring classes of the This article reports on some of the common and di- country."' vergent interests of the two organizations, from their beginnings until 1913, when BLS became part of the Earlier, the short-lived National Labor Union had present Department of Labor. called for a Department of Labor in 1867. By 1878, when the Knights of Labor called for national and ad- Campaign for a bureau ditional State bureaus of labor statistics, Massachusetts The convention in 1881 of the Federation of Orga- (1869), Pennsylvania (1872), Missouri (1876), and Ohio nized Trades and Labor Unions of the United States (1877) had established such bureaus .z The efforts of the labor organizations, and the grow- Joseph P. Goldberg is special assistant to the Commissioner of Labor ing awareness of the national political parties of the po- Statistics . William T. Moye is a historian in the Office of Publications . tential governmental influence of labor and the socio- 21 MONTHLY LABOR REVIEW March 1982 e The AFL and a National BLS economic effects of industrial growth, culminated in the eral candidates, President Arthur finally appointed establishment of a Bureau of Labor within the Depart- Wright, whom the Senate confirmed about 6 months ment of Interior in 1884. The uncertainty of Federal after the act's passage .6 policies during this period resulted in metamorphoses of Wright swiftly established professionalism and impar- the agency as an autonomous, but non-Cabinet-level tiality in the national Bureau, as he had in Massachu- Department of Labor from 1888 to 1903; combination setts. Striving to obtain labor interest, he invited Gom- with other agencies in the new Cabinet-level Depart- pers and other delegates to visit the Bureau during the ment of Commerce and Labor in 1903; and ultimately 1885 Federation convention. Gompers had known transference to the new Department of Labor in 1913. Wright for years, and had long been actively interested Samuel Gompers, along with other union officials, in the role of government labor agencies. The two men strongly supported the establishment of a national Bu- had previously discussed the plans and methods of the reau in the Senate hearings on Capital and Labor in newly established New York State Bureau of Labor Sta- 1883. He felt that there had been excessive pleading of tistics. Their meeting left mutual favorable impressions.' ignorance by Congress of workers' conditions to justify The Bureau's value was further confirmed by the Com- Congressional inaction on labor matters. A national Bu- missioner's first annual report, a comprehensive treat- reau "would give our legislators an opportunity to ment of the causes of the depression of 1882-86. The know, not from mere conjecture, but actually, the con- study was included in Gompers' periodic references to dition of our industries, our production, and our con- the intensification of the displacement of manual labor sumption, and what could be done by law to improve by machinery over the years.' While the report noted both [sic]." He cited the useful role of existing State the advantages of mechanization, it also asserted that statistical agencies as exemplified by a recent investiga- the effect of the temporary displacement of labor was to tion of factory working conditions by the Massachusetts assist "in crippling the consuming power of the commu- Bureau of Labor under the direction of Carroll D. nity."' Among the remedies suggested for coping with Wright.' the depression, Wright included some general proposals Wright also appeared as an expert witness at the suggesting that capital and labor "each shall treat with hearings, providing a look at such a bureau's role, the other through representatives" in disputes, and that which largely paralleled Gompers' view. He had admin- "the party which declines resort to conciliatory methods istered the State bureau "as a scientific office, not as a of arbitration [is] morally responsible for all ill effects Bureau of agitation or propaganda, but I always take growing out of the contest."'° the opportunity to make such recommendations and The growing status of the Bureau, and a campaign by draw such conclusions from our investigations as the the still powerful Knights of Labor resulted in the facts warrant." He stressed the need for Federal "inves- transformation of the Bureau in 1888 into an indepen- tigations into all conditions which affect the people, dent Department of Labor, without Cabinet status. Re- whether in a moral, sanitary, educational, or economic flecting Wright's concerns, the enabling act specifically sense," and thus "add to the educational forces of the called for studies of: the domestic and foreign costs of country a sure and efficient auxiliary." He saw the re- production of dutiable goods for the ongoing tariff de- sultant statistical progress of the Nation as indicating bates, national trade and industrial production, the "its great progress in all other matters. 114 This back- causes and circumstances of strikes, and other special ground and philosophy were major factors in Wright's topics. The basic functions of the agency had not subsequent appointment as U.S. Commissioner of La- changed, but for 15 years it was more independent. bor. Moreover, Congress, in a separate statute relating solely In 1884, backed by the then powerful Knights of La- to railroad disputes (Arbitration Act of 1888), had au- bor and the newly organized Federation, the estab- thorized the President to designate the Commissioner of lishment of a national Bureau was part of both parties' Labor, with two other ad hoc commissioners, to act as platform.' In that same year, overwhelming majorities a board of inquiry in such disputes. This investigatory in both houses of Congress voted to establish the Bu- provision was used only once-during the aftermath of reau of Labor in the Department of the Interior. Ap- the Pullman strike of 1894." proved by President Chester Arthur on June 27, the Gompers and Wright action provided for a Commissioner of Labor ap- pointed by the President for a 4-year term. The Com- Although the AFL had not pressed for an independent missioner's mission was to "collect information upon labor department, it maintained a keen interest in the the subject of labor, its relation to capital, the hours of work of the agency . Gompers' thoughts on the develop- labor and the earnings of laboring men and women, ment and expansion of information on the status of and the means of promoting their material, social, in- workers, labor-management relations, and the statistical tellectual and moral prosperity." After considering sev- supports for these developments, were expressed regu- 22 larly during Wright's stewardship. He requested studies alert to Department of Labor reports on the subject, as that would explore "the influence of the labor organiza- he responded quickly to the release of the 10th Annual tions upon the moral and national welfare of the wage Report on strikes, "which sets forth clearly that in earners in particular, and the whole community in gen- those States or localities, the industries in which the eral." Increased contact between the Department of La- workers were organized, the largest numbers of bor and State bureaus, according to Gompers, would successes were secured and concessions granted."Z° achieve greater uniformity, simultaneous investigation, When Wright found that unions did not always cooper- '2 and assistance by the States . ate in investigations and studies, Gompers urged coop- Asked to comment on the forthcoming 1890 census, eration. "Let there be light," he wrote, "confident that Gompers called for inclusion of the number of unem- impartial investigations create numberless sympathizers ployed, and the duration of their unemployment ." in our great cause."" Gompers endorsed the establishment of a permanent Census Bureau in the Department of Labor, citing Labor-management disputes '4 Wright's performance in Massachusetts. Wright and Gompers played prominent roles in two By 1893, there were a national Department of Labor landmark labor-management disputes during this peri- and 32 State Departments of Labor and Bureaus of La- od. The investigative reports and recommendations on bor Statistics, with factory inspectors in 19. Gompers the Pullman dispute in 1894 and the anthracite coal could cite these as the results of successful labor efforts strike in 1902 bore the imprint of Wright's evolving in obtaining measures which "a few years ago were re- awareness of the importance of labor organization and garded as chimerical and useless expenditures of public its capacity to balance employer domination and money [which] have come to be looked upon as a prime achieve stability and continuity through agreement.