LIBRARY 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 SANTA BARBARA 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 ALICE SCHOTT
 
 W. B. WILSON 
 
 AND THE DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
 
 W. B. WILSON 
 
 The First. Secretary of Lalx>r
 
 W. B. WILSON 
 
 And the Department of Labor 
 
 BY 
 
 ROGER W. BABSON 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 BRENTANO'S 
 1919 
 
 C,K\
 
 COPYRIGHTED, 1919, 
 By ROGER W. BABSON 
 
 All rights reserved
 
 ''There is one part of man in which he is able to 
 read himself. A man may not be able to gauge his 
 ability ; he may not be able to compare his own capac- 
 ity with that of his neighbors ; but he can, far better 
 than his neighbors, gauge his own motives. I know 
 that at least my motives have been to bring happiness 
 to mankind by placing all on a basis of equality as 
 far as physical environments will permit of that 
 equality. ' ' 
 
 W. B. WILSON.
 
 PREFACE 
 
 THERE are many persons to whom the author is 
 much indebted for material in this story. Among 
 them should be mentioned Secretary Wilson's friends 
 and neighbors in Arnot and Blossburg, Pennsylvania, 
 with whom I spent some of the most delightful hours 
 of my life ; also those loyal and efficient co-workers of 
 the Secretary, Assistant Secretary Louis F. Post, 
 Chief Clerk Samuel Gompers, Jr., Solicitor John W. 
 Abercrombie, and Mr. Hugh Reid, Private Secretary 
 to Mr. Post. 
 
 Although I refer to Mr. Hugh L. Kerwin, Assistant 
 to Secretary Wilson, later in the book, I should also 
 here acknowledge my indebtedness to him, together 
 with his associates in the Secretary's office, namely, 
 Mr. Edward S. McGraw, Private Secretary to Secre- 
 tary Wilson, and Mr. Jesse C. Watts, Confidential 
 Clerk, and Mr. Ralph H. Horner. 
 
 Portions of the Secretary's Annual Reports I have 
 used copiously without quotation marks in the last 
 few chapters, and for a few stories I am indebted to 
 newspaper writers. Therefore, if any reader recog- 
 nizes something of his own, may he please accept this 
 as an acknowledgment ? 
 
 Finally, let me acknowledge my indebtedness to 
 every member of the Department of Labor who served 
 during 1917, 1918, and 1919. Every one, among 
 officials, heads of bureaus and services, clerks, elevator 
 men and porters, was exceedingly kind and courteous 
 to me in every way. They not only were a great help 
 in this work, but joined in giving me the two happiest 
 years of my life. 
 
 B. W. B.
 
 FOREWORD 
 
 By JOHN HAYS HAMMOND 
 
 AMONG the many beneficent measures signed by 
 President Taft none was more important than the 
 inauguration of the Department of Labor, the func- 
 tion of which is to improve the condition of the great 
 wage-earning classes of the nation, and in achieving 
 this laudable object to promote harmonious relations 
 between employer and employee. In this way only 
 can the social and industrial peace be established 
 that is prerequisite to the co-operative effort of those 
 engaged in the development of our great national 
 industries. 
 
 It was my privilege to be able to contribute some 
 influence in securing the creation of the Department 
 of Labor. With others interested in the movement 
 I believed that William B. Wilson was pre-eminently 
 qualified to become the first Secretary of the newly 
 created Department of Labor. 
 
 William B. Wilson had been an American wage 
 earner from boyhood ; he possessed that knowledge of 
 and sympathy with wage earners which is an indis- 
 pensable qualification for the head of the department 
 of government whose function is to safeguard the 
 interests of the wage earners of the country. 
 
 He had other qualifications a judicial character 
 of mind, a varied experience and a lifelong and in- 
 telligent interest in public affairs, and above all an 
 unimpeachable reputation for sterling integrity.
 
 x FOREWORD 
 
 Having regard to the many complex problems and 
 the conflicting interests inherent in the problems he 
 has been called upon to solve, the verdict of history 
 will be, I believe, that Secretary Wilson has fully 
 justified the confidence reposed in him by those who 
 advocated his appointment to the very important 
 position of the first Secretary of the Department of 
 Labor in the Government of the United States. 
 
 As a statistician and an authority on industrial 
 problems Mr. Roger W. Babson needs no introduction, 
 and he is specially qualified to make a study of the 
 Department of Labor and to weave into his record of 
 that study the life story of its first Secretary.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 I. BOYHOOD IN SCOTLAND 
 
 II. His FATHER EMIGRATES TO AMERICA. 
 
 III. BILLY ARRIVES AT CASTLE GARDEN . . . 
 
 IV. His BOYHOOD ENDS JOINING THE 
 
 UNION 
 
 V. THE COBBLER'S SHOP 
 
 VI. WHAT A MINE is LIKE 
 
 VII. WORKING FOR THE UNION 
 
 VIII. THE STRIKE OF 1899-1900 
 
 IX. SOMETHING ABOUT FARMING 
 
 X. BUSINESS CYCLES 
 
 XI. RAILROADING IN IOWA 
 
 XII. THE GREAT STRIKE OF 1902 
 
 XIII. RUNNING FOR CONGRESS 
 
 XIV. Six YEARS IN CONGRESS 
 
 XV. CREATING THE DEPARTMENT OF LABOR 
 
 XVI. THE ORIGINAL BUREAUS 
 
 XVII. CONCILIATION WORK 
 
 XVIII. PREPARING FOR WAR 
 
 XIX. DURING THE WAR 
 
 XX. COLLECTIVE BARGAINING 
 
 XXI. SECRETARY WILSON'S POLICIES 
 
 XXII. WHAT OF THE FUTURE?, , 
 
 PAOK 
 1 
 
 10 
 15
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 W. B. WILSON, THE FIRST SECRETARY OF LABOR 
 
 Frontispiece 
 
 HOME OF W. B. WILSON DURING MOST OF HIS LIFE 
 AFTER MARRIAGE 28 
 
 THE KERWIN COBBLER SHOP 34 
 
 WILSON NEIGHBORS ON PIAZZA OF FARM HOUSE 
 PURCHASED IN 1896 61 
 
 THE ENTRANCE TO THE MINE AT ARNOT, PENN- 
 SYLVANIA 102 
 
 PLAN FOR LABOR ADJUSTMENT. . 262
 
 W. B. WILSON 
 
 AND THE DEPARTMENT OF LABOR 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 BOYHOOD IN SCOTLAND 
 
 IT WAS a cold day in February, 1868, in the little 
 town of Haughhead, Scotland, A strike was on, and 
 the "Wilson family, like others, had been evicted from 
 their little two-room brick house. 
 
 But unlike some of the others, the Wilsons stayed 
 by the door of their house, protecting their scanty 
 furniture. There sat the mother and her little boy, 
 William, in the snow. With his left hand William 
 clung to his mother's apron string and in his right 
 hand he held a big knift, as they waited for the 
 bailiff. This boy was William B. Wilson, and his 
 eviction on that cold February day was his first actual 
 experience with the industrial system and the condi- 
 tions that it developed. 
 
 Many years later, when this day was being talked 
 over, a friend ventured the remark: 
 
 "Mr. Secretary, I should think that you would 
 hate all landlords forevermore. Beginning life with 
 such an experience, how can you ever feel as kindly 
 as you do toward those who have property?" 
 
 To this the Secretary replied: 
 1
 
 2 .W. B. WILSON 
 
 "Why, I never feel the slightest bitterness about 
 that day. Of course I feel sorry when I think of all 
 my mother suffered, but it didn't do me any harm. 
 Although only six years old I was a good healthy kid, 
 and would probably have been out in the snow that 
 day anyway. No, to tell the truth, I cannot help 
 smiling when I think how conceited I was standing 
 there with that big knife and figuring what I would 
 do to the bailiff when he came to arrest us. Of course 
 it was a pretty sad time then, but it seems funny to 
 me as I look back on it today." 
 
 Fifty years, almost to a day, had passed. This 
 boy had become the first Secretary of Labor for the 
 United States of America. I had an appointment 
 with him one afternoon in his private office on the 
 seventh floor of the big building on G Street near 
 Seventeenth Street in Washington. There he sat 
 by a big mahogany desk, which was piled with plans, 
 specifications, and numerous other papers. Said I: 
 
 "You look rather tired this afternoon, Mr. Secre- 
 tary. " 
 
 "No," he answered, "I am not tired, but I am 
 'serious, that is all. I have just returned from the 
 White House. The President has made me respon- 
 sible for the spending of $60,000,000, on the greatest 
 industrial housing plan America has ever even con- 
 sidered. It is easy enough to order houses built, but 
 to have these built where they are needed to relieve 
 distress and at the same time not to harm values, 
 requires great study. It is easy enough to talk about 
 equal opportunities, but workers can never prosper
 
 BOYHOOD IN SCOTLAND 3 
 
 by the destruction of values. The confiscation of 
 property is the confiscation of opportunities." 
 
 William Bauchop Wilson was born on the second 
 day of April, 1862. His mother was Helen Nelson 
 Bauchop Wilson and his father was Adam Wilson. 
 William was the oldest child. He had three sisters, 
 named Jean, Jessie, and Margaret, and three brothers, 
 named Joseph, Adam, and James. 
 
 One evening in the early summer of 1918, when the 
 Germans were almost at the gates of Paris, I sat be- 
 side Mr. Wilson at a dinner at the Powhatan Hotel, 
 Washington. He was in one of his very quiet moods. 
 For a long time he said nothing to me and I of course 
 said nothing to him. Somehow or other I felt, yes, 
 I knew, that he was thinking of his boyhood days and 
 how good God had been to him. Some one had just 
 sung one of his favorite Scotch songs. I noticed that 
 the tears came to his eyes. I was right in my surmise 
 as to his thoughts, for when called upon to speak, he 
 began in this way: 
 
 "I have a vivid recollection of the portion of Scot- 
 land that I came from, the valleys of the Clyde in 
 the neighborhood of Hamilton. I have had related 
 to me by my parents the traditions of my family and 
 of the country of my birth. I feel that every man 
 must have a love of the country of his birth. I care 
 not what that country may be, whether it is the beau- 
 tiful hills and valleys of Scotland, the romantic moun- 
 tains and glens of Switzerland, even the famous val- 
 ley of the Khine. While a man may have an intense 
 affection for the land of his birth, he has no business
 
 4 W. B. WILSON 
 
 to come to this country, live in it, enjoy its institu- 
 tions, and partake of the opportunities of working out 
 the destinies of its people, unless he has within his 
 bosom a more intense love for the country of his 
 adoption. I feel that intensity of love. 
 
 "There were things in connection with the insti- 
 tutions of the country I came from that made my 
 parents leave that country and come here. One of 
 my earliest recollections was that of being turned 
 out of our home, evicted in midwinter, and finding 
 shelter in the stables of the tollhouse near by. There 
 was not the human liberty, there was not the human 
 hope, there were not the human opportunities exist- 
 ing there that we found here when we came, and with 
 all my love for that country, I have a greater love 
 for this country, which gives to every man the greatest 
 opportunities for individual development and collec- 
 tive enterprise that exist anywhere on the face of the 
 globe. 
 
 "Not that our institutions are perfect; they are 
 not; I am glad they are not. If they were perfect 
 institutions we should have reached the highest point 
 possible for mankind. There would be no greater 
 heights to climb; and when you have reached the 
 highest possible point, there is only one way in which 
 you can move, and that is downward. So I am glad 
 that we have not reached the highest point that it is 
 possible for us to reach, because, after all, there is 
 pleasure in the vigorous contest for progress and for 
 betterment. I am glad that my days have been laid 
 at a period and in a country where there is oppor- 
 tunity for exercising vigor and intelligence in mov- 
 ing toward higher planes with more splendid ideals.
 
 BOYHOOD IN SCOTLAND 5 
 
 ''Something has been said to you about this won- 
 derful organization of which I am a part. I am 
 going to repeat a thought to yeu that I have stated 
 time and time again, until those who have heard it 
 frequently from my lips may begin to think that the 
 idea is threadbare. This idea is that no great insti- 
 tution, no great accomplishment, ever comes into ex- 
 istence as the result of the brilliant workings of any 
 one mind. Our institutions are a growth. They are 
 the result of building one thought upon another ; the 
 accepting of one idea after another ; and it is because 
 of the larger number of minds that we now have 
 working upon the problem and in consequence the 
 development of a greater number of ideas that we 
 are able to build more rapidly than we were able to 
 build before." 
 
 William was an ordinary boy. He liked to run 
 away, he used to get cross and sulky ; he fought with 
 other boys, and, like others, dreaded Sundays. Al- 
 though Mr. Wilson has always been a very religious 
 man and identified with the Presbyterian Church in 
 all its activities, he has never become reconciled to 
 those Scotch Sundays, when he spent almost all day 
 at the "wee kirk" in Blantyre. Referring once to 
 those days, he said: 
 
 ' ' Those Sundays were sad days. Why, we children 
 hardly dared to speak above a whisper. We couldn't 
 laugh or have anything to do with anyone outside the 
 family. Everything we had to eat was prepared on 
 Saturday and was set before us stone cold. As I 
 think of the old church where we spent nearly all
 
 6 .W. B. .WILSON 
 
 day Sundays, I of course realize now what that dis- 
 cipline did for me and my family. Young people 
 today, however, who attend modern churches, can 
 never understand what it meant to us to sit for hours 
 upright on those hard benches, listening to long ser- 
 mons far beyond our ken." 
 
 The little town of Blantyre, Scotland, where Mr. 
 Wilson was born, is located on the Clyde River, be- 
 tween Hamilton and Glasgow. It is four miles from 
 the big estates of the Duke of Hamilton, and eight 
 miles from Glasgow. Like many another boy, he 
 was not only very poor, but this poverty stood out 
 in sharp contrast to the wealth, luxury, and waste- 
 fulness that were almost next door. The difference 
 between the great mansions on the Duke of Hamil- 
 ton's estates and the little two-room house in which 
 he lived made a lasting impression on his mind. 
 There were children at the great house and they used 
 to ride by William's little home with their ponies, 
 coachmen, and servants. He was born with only a 
 burden of indebtedness, while they were born to great 
 wealth; but this fact never made him the least bit 
 jealous. He would smile at the rich children as they 
 passed and they could not help smiling at him in 
 return. 
 
 Like other kids, he did not care much for school. 
 He cannot even remember the name of his first school 
 teacher. He insists, however, that he never really 
 heard it. Like some school teachers nowadays, this 
 man was selected not on account of his ability, but 
 because he needed the job. In an accident while at 
 work he lost all the fingers of his right hand, and 
 the boys simply called him "Fingerless Jock." This
 
 BOYHOOD IN SCOTLAND 7 
 
 was sufficient for Bill as for the others. Apparently 
 Fingerless Jock didn't teach Bill Wilson anything, 
 for after a few weeks at the school, he was withdrawn 
 from it and was not again sent to school until the 
 following year. 
 
 Bill's real education began when his parents, at 
 great personal sacrifice, sent him to St. John's Gram- 
 mar School in Hamilton. The teacher in this school 
 Mr. Wilson remembers very well. She was a tall 
 woman with black curls hanging down her back. She 
 reached him through the heart rather than through 
 the brain. She won his love, and he couldn't study 
 hard enough or do enough for her. Within a few 
 weeks he had finished the First Header, and the 
 teacher wrote to his father that he was ready for the 
 Second. Until his father could get together the 
 little money necessary to buy this book, Bill studied 
 from one of those at the school. So when his father 
 finally sent the Second Eeader, Bill went through it 
 without a break in a day, and the teacher with black 
 curls sent word to his father that he was ready for 
 the Third Reader. 
 
 W. B. Wilson's father was a coal miner without any 
 education. The only time that he had spent out of 
 the mines was five years when he worked in a cotton 
 mill to recover his health. He was working in this 
 mill when William was born. He began to wonder 
 how it was possible that the boy could learn so 
 rapidly. He forgot that the boy's mother was a 
 woman of education who prayed with her boy and 
 helped him to do his best. To the teacher with the 
 long black curls, and to his mother who helped him 
 at home, William B. Wilson owes virtually his en-
 
 8 W. B. WILSON 
 
 tire school education. With the possible exception of 
 a few months' schooling after he arrived in America, 
 the only schooling that he ever had was that one 
 year in Scotland. 
 
 Certainly this proves that it is not hours of schooling 
 in modern structures or extended curriculums that 
 are needed to give a child an education. A teacher 
 who wins the heart of the pupil, with time and 
 strength to give to that pupil, can, with the co-opera- 
 tion of the home, do in one year what, under modern 
 system, takes years to accomplish. 
 
 At the time of the eviction from the one-story, low- 
 browed cottage (which, by the way, was one of many 
 in a long row along a narrow street) there was a 
 strike. The cottages belonged to the owners of the 
 coal mine where Bill's father worked. Although the 
 father had the means to pay the rent, the owner would 
 not let him remain in the house, because he said it 
 was needed for other workers who wouldn't strike. 
 After this experience it is not surprising that Mr. 
 Wilson has felt that corporation-owned houses are 
 not desirable. As the only real distinction between 
 a free man and slave is the free man's right to quit 
 work, it is only logical that conditions should be such 
 that an honest worker can quit if conditions are un- 
 just. So long as the housing facilities of any com- 
 munity are owned or controlled by the employers 
 there can be no real industrial freedom. Further- 
 more, the very fact that the employer owns the build- 
 ing makes the wage earner more discontented and 
 more apt to strike than if the houses were owned by 
 outsiders.
 
 BOYHOOD IN SCOTLAND 9 
 
 Strange to say, the greatest number of strikes occur 
 in communities where the houses are owned by the 
 mill owners for the purpose of keeping the men from 
 striking. The fewest strikes occur in communities 
 wh-.re the men own their own homes and are perfectly 
 free to strike at any time without fear of eviction. 
 Industrial disturbances are largely psychological. 
 Strained relations between employer and wage earner 
 usually start from the smallest things just as do 
 troubles within a home. Restrictions hedging about 
 an industry to prevent men from striking are but 
 seeds for disorder and discontent. The best antidote 
 for industrial unrest is freedom accompanied by con- 
 ditions which make for freedom. 
 
 Of the action of the mine owners in Haughhead in 
 evicting the "Wilson family during the strike of 1868, 
 Mr. Wilson says: 
 
 "My understanding of the matter is that the action 
 taken by the coal company in this affair was entirely 
 within its rights under the law. But, undeniably, it 
 happens now and then in this world that some people 
 have too many rights while other folks possess too 
 few. At all events, it is not unnatural that, having 
 gone through such experiences as this, I should have 
 started in life with an ingrained ambition to gain 
 rights for labor that coal companies and other or- 
 ganizations of capital would be obliged to respect."
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 His FATHER EMIGRATES TO AMERICA 
 
 THE Wilson family lived for quite a while in the 
 stable under the tollhouse at Haughhead, to which 
 they had gone when evicted from their cottage. When 
 after some weeks the strike was settled, the father 
 found himself facing two alternatives, either he must 
 return to work at Blantyre and be unfaithful to the 
 great cause for which he and his brothers were fight- 
 ing, namely, for better conditions; or else he must 
 leave Blantyre and get work in some other place. Of 
 course, if possible, he would find work elsewhere in 
 Scotland, but the mine owners were banded together 
 and none of them would hire a man who was on a 
 strike in any other section. The father had nearly 
 reached the end of his resources, unless he drew upon 
 the scanty savings of years. His wife and three 
 children must have a place to sleep and something to 
 eat. It was a difficult problem to decide. 
 
 Many people have wondered why it is that miners 
 stay in their work. I have been asked if the saying 
 "Once a miner, always a miner" is true. As a rule 
 this is true, but not from, choice. The miner goes to 
 work so young, he spends so much of his life under 
 ground, his body becomes so accustomed to a certain 
 temperature throughout the year, his eyes become so 
 used to working in darkness, that it is difficult for 
 him to take another job. William's father commenced 
 work as a little "Caliban of the Mines" when he was 
 
 10
 
 HIS FATHER EMIGRATES TO AMERICA 11 
 
 seven years old. He was a little bit of a boy, tender 
 and frail. He trudged away in the dark before dawn 
 every morning with the other men and boys to go 
 down into the bowels of the earth where the light of 
 sun, moon, or stars is never seen. Most of his life he 
 had worked in this darkness, where water lies stag- 
 nant beneath the feet and where there is constant 
 danger from falling earth and tumbling timbers. 
 Therefore, not being fitted for other work, he felt 
 obliged to resume his previous work. 
 
 He felt, however, that this could be but temporary. 
 The eviction had emphasized the extent to which the 
 welfare of the miner, his happiness, and his future 
 were at the mercy of a wholly unsympathetic corpo- 
 ration. At any time in the future it might deprive 
 him and his family of bread and butter and shelter at 
 will, and they would be without means of self-pro- 
 tection. Therefore, he began to consider emigrating 
 to America. Still he did not go at once, but secured 
 work for awhile at Ferniegair, about two miles from 
 Haughhead. 
 
 Mr. Wilson's father was not only industrious but 
 thrifty. He associated himself with others in form- 
 ing what afterward became a great co-operative soci- 
 ety, known as the Cadzow Society. It was named for 
 an ancient castle in the neighborhood of Blantyre, 
 the property of the house of Hamilton. In speaking 
 of this society, Secretary Wilson said: 
 
 "The ruins of Cadzow Castle are still standing. 
 I visited the place some years ago and examined them 
 with more than ordinary interest. It is one of the 
 oldest castles in Scotland, and intimately associated 
 with the history of that country, particularly with
 
 12 W. B. WILSON 
 
 the picturesque border warfare in which the clans of 
 Douglas, Murray, and Wallace were for centuries 
 engaged. Part of it is built on a lofty crag, and part 
 is literally excavated from the mountain, being hewn 
 out of the living rock. 
 
 "The co-operative society paid dividends, which 
 might be drawn as they accrued or allowed to accu- 
 mulate, as the member desired. My father had 
 adopted this method of saving money, and enough 
 dividends had accumulated to his credit to enable 
 him to take the great step of emigration to America. 
 It is a good illustration of the vital importance of 
 having in this world a little money to fall back upon. 
 The poorer the man the more necessary it is that he 
 shall have something saved else in an emergency he 
 is helpless. Had my father not possessed his small 
 savings, we could not have come to America. As it 
 was, we had enough to enable my father to pay his 
 own passage, and to leave us sufficient money to pro- 
 vide for our support until he could obtain employ- 
 ment on this side of the water, and send for his family 
 to follow him. ' ' 
 
 Of course the parting from Ferniegair was sad. 
 America is a long way from Scotland today, but in 
 1870 it seemed thousands of miles farther away. But 
 the father had courage as well as principle. As had 
 the Pilgrim Fathers years before, he set his teeth and 
 started for that free land of America. He left Scot- 
 land in April, 1870. 
 
 On landing at New York he was sent, with others, 
 as so much freight, to the bituminous mines of Penn- 
 sylvania, where the need for men existed at that time. 
 The mine to which he was assigned was in the little
 
 HIS FATHER EMIGRATES TO AMERICA 13 
 
 town of Arnot, a place named for John Arnot, a New 
 York business man who was president of a big coal 
 company there. Arnot is about five miles from Bloss- 
 burg and in the same county of Tioga. The nearest 
 large city is Williamsport, Pennsylvania. 
 
 No one who has not spent some time in a mining 
 town can appreciate the loneliness and barrenness of 
 one of these communities. Arnot was as good as 
 many and perhaps better than some because the 
 workers there were mostly from England and Scot- 
 land. The worst towns are those in which the workers 
 are from southern Europe. God forbid that any more 
 such towns should be built. No, they are not really 
 built; they are simply thrown together. 
 
 Arnot, in those days, consisted of three or four nar- 
 row streets with matched board huts along them. 
 None of these huts were shingled ; only strips of board 
 were nailed over the cracks to keep out the rain, snow, 
 and wind. Not a shack in town was painted, and 
 then none had even vines or trees. There was a little 
 Presbyterian church which William's father attended 
 the first Sunday he was in Arnot, and in which he 
 continued to worship with his family as long as they 
 lived in that place. There were the railroad station, 
 the company store, the company doctor, the various 
 saloons and places of sin and crime. Everything was 
 owned by the company, from the railroad station to 
 the last house. Everything must be bought from the 
 company, from the baby's nursing bottle to the aged 
 man's coffin. 
 
 The two or three main streets led to the mines, 
 which were about ten minutes' walk from the center 
 of the village. The father found a humble place to 
 board and went to work at once. The hours were from
 
 14 \ ,W. B. WILSON , 
 
 six o'clock in the morning to five o'clock in the eve- 
 ning. The pay was seventy cents for each ton of coal 
 mined and loaded. 
 
 It was very fortunate for the people of the United 
 States, yes, for the people of the world, that the Im- 
 migration Service of this country was placed under 
 the Department of Labor, and that the first Secretary 
 of Labor was W. B. Wilson. I say this because W. 
 B. Wilson was an immigrant himself and knows from 
 experience the trials and temptations besetting the 
 stranger who comes to this land. Furthermore, he 
 understands the feelings of labor leaders in their de- 
 sire to restrict immigration. As almost no other high 
 official, he has had a training and experience in both 
 these opposed directions. He understands the feel- 
 ing of the immigrant who is desirous of getting into 
 the country and also the feeling of the labor leaders 
 who desire to keep the immigrant out. 
 
 Immediately upon becoming Secretary of Labor, 
 Mr. Wilson looked into the immigration situation. 
 Most of the cases he personally handled, and was 
 always the court of last resort that decided what 
 should be done in each instance. He also took a 
 great personal interest in the Bureau of Naturaliza- 
 tion, whose work harmonized with that of the Bureau 
 of Immigration. He immediately sought the best men 
 available to place in charge of the Immigration and 
 Naturalization Bureaus. He realized tfcat these men 
 must have hearts as well as judgment, and must have 
 judgment as well as hearts. He first sought men who 
 were just, but he knew that there must be more than 
 justice. Unless justice is tempered with sympathy 
 and understanding, it cannot accomplish the desired 
 end.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 BILLY ARRIVES AT CASTLE GARDEN 
 
 IT WAS a wonderful, wonderful moment. The 
 mother of William B. Wilson, in the little town of 
 Haughhead, Scotland, received a letter from America, 
 inclosing a sufficient sum of money to enable her and 
 the three children to join their father. Of course, it 
 wasn't much money, much less for those four than 
 one of us would spend for an ordinary journey today. 
 But they were going to see Father. They cared not 
 that they were going steerage; they cared not what 
 a terrible two weeks lay ahead of them. All they 
 could think of was America and Father. This letter 
 arrived in the last month of summer in 1870, the same 
 year in which the father set sail. In these few months 
 in America he had been able to save enough to bring 
 his wife and three children to this land of freedom. 
 
 William B. Wilson, at the age of eight, left his home 
 in Scotland, wkh. his little brother and sister holding 
 tight to his hands, and trudged along behind the 
 mother, who was carrying the baggage and all their 
 possessions. They sailed from Glasgow on the 27th 
 day of August, 1870. They came over in the steerage 
 of a small ship. Only those who have traveled in 
 the steerage know what that means, and only persons 
 who came in those early days can appreciate what that 
 mother and the three children went through during 
 that trip. However, they were coming to America! 
 They were coming to meet Father! Nothing else 
 mattered. 
 
 15
 
 16 W. B. WILSON 
 
 At the end of about two weeks they landed at 
 Castle Garden, New York, with a boat load of other 
 poor immigrants. They had no idea of the size of 
 the State of Pennsylvania, nor of the size of America. 
 The father had written that Arnot was near New 
 York, while Arnot is about 250 miles from New York. 
 it is very near compared with Chicago, Denver, and 
 the Pacific Coast. When, however, you compare that 
 distance with the distance from the northern tip of 
 Scotland to the southern tip of England, which all 
 together is only about 500 miles, we see how easy it 
 is to mislead our immigrants. 
 
 Father had written that he would be in New York 
 to meet them when they arrived, but the boat landed 
 before it was expected. When Mother and the three 
 children reached New York, no one had seen or heard 
 of Father. 
 
 "I shall never forget," said the Secretary to me, 
 "when we landed at Castle Garden with that boat- 
 load of immigrants. We expected Father to meet us, 
 but after looking everywhere, we could not find him. 
 I shall never forget how my poor mother sat down 
 on the wharf and cried and cried. Then one by one 
 we all began to cry; but before long we heard some 
 one going tip and down the wharf, calling: 'Mrs. 
 Helen N. Wilson! Mrs. Helen N. Wilson!' " 
 
 This, however, was not the father. He had sent so 
 much money to Scotland to pay for their tickets, that 
 he had not the money to come to New York. This 
 was merely a letter from him. Mother quickly tore 
 it open and in it found just enough money to take 
 the family to Corning, New York. So they went 
 from Castle Garden over to the Erie Railroad, crossed
 
 BILLY ARRIVES AT CASTLE GARDEN 17 
 
 the ferry, and took a train for Corning. Meanwhile, 
 the father was on his way from Arnot to Corning. 
 Surely that was a happy reunion of the Wilson family 
 at Corning. They, however, did not stay long in 
 Corning, but kept on in the dirty little day coach 
 till they reached the town of Arnot very late Satur- 
 day night. 
 
 I once asked the Secretary to tell me about his first 
 view of America. I supposed he would talk about 
 his entrance into the harbor and his experience at 
 Castle Garden. I forgot that he was down in the 
 hold of the ship where there are no port holes, so he 
 could not see the harbor; and that they quickly left 
 Castle Garden for Corning. This was his answer to 
 my question : 
 
 "Really my first view of America was early that 
 Sunday morning following my arrival in Arnot. We 
 did not get to bed until after two o'clock, but boy- 
 like, I was awake and dressed at daybreak. My first 
 impression was one of tomatoes. There was a row 
 on the window sill of the room in which I slept, 
 placed there to ripen in the sun. They were the first 
 I had ever seen. I had not had anything to eat for 
 twenty-four hours, and I could not resist the tempta- 
 tion to bite into one of those tomatoes, thinking it 
 must taste as good as it looked. I thought I was 
 poisoned! I gave one yell and ran out doors. But 
 after getting a good drink of water, I felt able to 
 come in and help the family get breakfast. This was 
 my first American breakfast, and it certainly did taste 
 good after having nothing to eat for so long. But we 
 were awfully poor. Mother had spent all the money 
 for the passage. Father had sent enough to us at
 
 l8 W. B. WILSON 
 
 Castle Garden only to pay our railroad fares. So 
 there was nothing to do but go without eating." 
 
 For a while Father and Mother Wilson and the 
 three children lived in the house where the father 
 had boarded. Later, however, the company built a 
 little shack for them. In this house they spent their 
 lives. The house is still standing. Additions have 
 been made to it, so that it is much larger. A little 
 piazza has been built on the side, where the lad spent 
 many a happy moment. Vines now cover the walls, 
 which are still simply of matched boards, with no 
 shingles or clapboards. 
 
 Within a few days the boy William was put into 
 the public school at Arnot. As the father could 
 barely read, it was his great ambition to give William 
 an education. It was a very happy day for William 
 when he entered this little school at Arnot. He 
 studied hard and made the best of every moment, 
 "for America's sake," he would say. This reminds 
 me of the meaning of Mr. Wilson's middle name. 
 He was named for his mother's father, Bauchop, the 
 Celtic for two words Bauch, meaning little, and Op, 
 signifying son. It was peculiarly fitting as applied 
 to the little son of Helen Nelson Bauchop Wilson and 
 Adam Black Wilson, because William Bauchop Wil- 
 son was the inseparable companion of his father, not 
 only when they sat together in the mines, but when 
 they were together after supper, and by the light of 
 the lamp the small boy read aloud about the things 
 his father wanted to know. 
 
 Of course, the arrival of the mother and children 
 increased greatly the father's burdens. It cost more 
 then to live in America than in Scotland, as it does
 
 BILLY ARRIVES AT CASTLE GARDEN 19 
 
 today. Although wages were higher in this country, 
 the cost of living was likewise higher. The father 
 didn't realize this until the wife and children came. 
 But he gritted his teeth and made his pick go faster 
 and worked longer hours in the damp, dark mines, 
 wheezing now from asthma, "the miner's choke," 
 getting wet from the leaking water, breathing into his 
 lungs the fine particles of dust which rise in great 
 clouds. Words fail to describe the working condi- 
 tions of the mines of those days. 
 
 It was always a disappointment to the Secretary 
 that he had not been able to have immigrants exam- 
 ined in their own countries before sailing. One of 
 the greatest tragedies of modern times is that of fam- 
 ilies selling all their possessions and buying tickets 
 for America, only to be forbidden to land and turned 
 back upon their arrival on our shores. For years the 
 Secretary of Labor tried to remedy this by urging 
 Congress to provide that this examination be made in 
 the home countries. In talking this over with me 
 one day, Mr. Wilson said: 
 
 "I would rather see immigration greatly restricted 
 than to have many more of these tragedies occur. It 
 is not a tragedy for a man not to be able to emigrate 
 to America, however much of a disappointment it 
 may be. To have him sell all and emigrate and then 
 be thrown back is a tragedy." 
 
 Before the war Secretary Wilson sent to Europe 
 an expert investigator, Mr. W. W. Husband, to look 
 into immigration conditions in Germany, Russia, Aus- 
 tria-Hungary, Greece, Italy, and the Balkan Penin- 
 sula. The Secretary had one main object in sending 
 Mr. Husband, to find out the conditions under which
 
 20 W. B. WILSON 
 
 these emigrants left their countries, in order, if pos- 
 sible to decide on some means to prevent their starting 
 when for any reason they would be likely to be sent 
 back. When asked what his expert had learned from 
 his investigations, Secretary Wilson answered: 
 
 "He found that a very large number of aliens are 
 indirectly induced to emigrate to the United States. 
 European countries have laws regulating the emigra- 
 tion of their inhabitants and take upon themselves 
 a measure of supervision over their water transpor- 
 tation lines. No country wants its people to violate 
 its laws. While open efforts to promote immigration 
 are prohibited, thousands of aliens at village markets 
 and fairs are secretly advised to come to America by 
 steamship agents, who get commissions on the tickets 
 they sell. 
 
 ' ' Thus persons who will be turned back at our ports 
 on their arrival here purchase tickets under solicita- 
 tion, not knowing either the law or the facts bearing 
 on the situation. They are poor, often miserably so, 
 but by selling their few personal belongings they get 
 sufficient money with which to pay their ocean pas- 
 sage. When they leave their old homes they have 
 nothing but the clothing they wear and the little 
 bundles they carry in their hands. But they are 
 filled with hope and feel that their luck will turn 
 once they are in the United States. 
 
 "Penniless, they arrive in New York, only to find 
 that they must return to the village they have left. 
 Their homes have been broken up. Their property, 
 turned into money and spent, is gone. It is true the 
 steamships that brought them over are required to 
 take them back free of charge, but they are ruined, 
 none the less.
 
 BILLY ARRIVES AT CASTLE GARDEN 21 
 
 ''It seemed to me, as I became familiar with the im- 
 migrant problem, that something should be done to 
 stop the coming of these aliens who, for one reason 
 or another in our laws, are prevented from entering 
 the country. So I asked Mr. Husband to visit Europe, 
 talk with public officials, with steamship managers, 
 and with priests, rabbis, and ministers. Our purpose 
 was to show just what classes of aliens are prohibited 
 from coming into the United States, and to spread the 
 information in small villages and rural districts and 
 in the people's homes. 
 
 "Wherever Mr. Husband went he was well re- 
 ceived. Public officers, transportation companies, and 
 churches sympathized with what we are trying to 
 accomplish, and promised their co-operation. They 
 saw that a cripple or beggar, or a diseased person, 
 should remain in the village where he belongs, and 
 that if he were shipped to America hs would surely 
 be sent back to his own home in course of time. But 
 before Mr. Husband's report could be put into type 
 Europe went to war. International relations are in 
 so delicate a balance now that we have decided to 
 hold the report back for the present. 
 
 "A plain statement of the immigration laws of the 
 United States has been sent, however, to all our diplo- 
 matic and consular officers in Europe. Full descrip- 
 tions are given of those persons who are debarred by 
 cause from coming into the United States. Publicity 
 regarding these laws ought to prevent persons return- 
 ing to their own countries and not being able to tell 
 why they were deported. During the war many 
 weaklings, derelicts, and criminals, no doubt, tried 
 to get into this country. And now that the war is
 
 22 W. B. WILSON 
 
 over great numbers of broken men and women will 
 want to forget their sorrows and try to rebuild them- 
 selves in free America. 
 
 "Of course, immigration fell off at once at the out- 
 break of the European War. From August 1 to Oc- 
 tober 1, 1913, immigrants to the number of 310,452 
 entered the United States. During the same period 
 in 1914 the number was only 89,789. What effect 
 the war will have on immigration in the long run is 
 conjectural. There are two theories. It is argued 
 that the men and women of Europe, worn out, stricken 
 with poverty, fearful of other wars, will come in im- 
 mense numbers to the United States. On the other 
 hand, it is maintained that ruined Europe will have 
 to be rebuilt and that work at good wages will be 
 abundant for all able-bodied men." 
 
 On being asked a question regarding the restriction 
 of immigration, Secretary Wilson answered: 
 
 "In my opinion, no more aliens should come into 
 the country during a given year than can be properly 
 assimilated, that is, absorbed so completely as not to 
 affect our institutions injuriously. In almost every 
 case the alien landing at our ports is poor. It is 
 necessary that he should have work at once. There 
 are no more free Government lands on which he may 
 settle. If he wants land, he must buy it. He has no 
 money, however, with which to obtain land, no money 
 for tools and livestock, and nothing on which to live 
 until he can grow a crop. So he remains where he is 
 or goes to a nearby mining or manufacturing district, 
 and perhaps adds another unit to the oversupply 
 in that labor market. 
 
 "Now an excess of labor means, of course, that
 
 BILLY ARRIVES AT CASTLE GARDEN 23 
 
 under the pressure of competition wages fall or that 
 the days of work are reduced, and, logically, that the 
 standard of living is lowered. When such things 
 happen a community is not in a sound economic con- 
 dition. A million aliens a year are not too many, 
 possibly, for a country so large and generally so 
 prosperous as the United States, provided that the 
 million is properly distributed." 
 
 There are three ways under discussion by which 
 the stream of immigration can be cut down. An edu- 
 cational test is being urged by many public men. 
 Aliens, these men argue, should, be able to read and 
 write their own language. The reply is made in op- 
 position to this suggestion that the literacy test would 
 exclude many young and healthy aliens, and admit 
 agitators and persons living principally by their in- 
 genuity. 
 
 Another proposal is to base all future immigration 
 on the number of aliens now in the United States 
 from each country. If that idea became a law, there 
 would be a large decrease in the number or immi- 
 grants admitted from Greece, Italy, and Austria- 
 Hungary, but there would be no appreciable effect 
 upon immigration from Russia, and no effect whatever 
 upon immigration from Great Britain, France, and 
 Germany, or the countries of northern Europe. 
 
 A third plan for reducing immigration is to admit 
 immigrants to eastern ports of the country in propor- 
 tion to the population of the countries from which 
 they come, taking into account at the same time the 
 condition of business in the United States. Under 
 this scheme Russia would fare best, and Germany, 
 Austria-Hungary, France, Italy, and England would 
 follow in order as given.
 
 24 W. B. WILSON 
 
 Foreign language societies, Hebrew societies, those 
 political economists who maintain that men should 
 move without hindrance wherever they choose, and 
 certain large corporations which view with compo- 
 sure an over-supplied labor market, are antagonistic 
 to all attempts further to limit the human tide that 
 is sweeping in upon the shores of the United States. 
 
 Organized labor, patriotic societies, and some or- 
 ganizations of farmers are urging additional restric- 
 tive legislation. The literacy test is approved hy 
 organized labor and the patriotic associations. Fifty- 
 six per cent, of the immigrants arriving from south- 
 ern Italy are illiterate. The education laws of Italy 
 are the same north and south. There are striking 
 dissimilarities, however, between the people of the two 
 regions. 
 
 One day I said to Secretary Wilson : 
 
 "Thousands of men working in this country re- 
 turned to Europe at the call of their countries and 
 are now engaged in war. Should aliens who come 
 here to find work be required to take out papers of 
 naturalization ? ' ' 
 
 "I do not think so," Secretary Wilson answered. 
 "The alien who becomes a citizen or takes steps to 
 become a citizen should do so freely and not under 
 any sort of compulsion. He should want to be an 
 American, should believe in our institutions, and love 
 liberty. Such a man will make a good citizen and 
 his children will be patriotic Americans. It would 
 be no gain to the country were he forced to accept 
 citizenship; on the contrary, it would be an injury. 
 
 "Besides, if entrance to the United States were con- 
 ditional on citizenship, nothing could prevent an alien
 
 BILLY ARRIVES AT CASTLE GARDEN 25 
 
 from applying for first papers, thus signifying his 
 intention, and then refusing later to complete the re- 
 quired process. Fraud would be encouraged, and we 
 should be making a mockery, as I see it, of a sacred 
 privilege. ' ' 
 
 In discussing this question of the restriction of im- 
 migration, Secretary Wilson is very sympathetic with 
 the immigrant, but he says: 
 
 "We must not think simply of the man who wants 
 to enter our country ; but we must also think of those 
 who have already come in. They need protection as 
 much as the immigrant needs sympathy. When we 
 let them into a country, we assume a responsibility 
 as well as a burden. We owe it to them not to take 
 in too many or more than the nation can well assimi- 
 late. 
 
 "If men were mere machines, then we could afford 
 to take in anybody who would produce more than 
 he would consume. Under such conditions we should 
 need simply to balance the producing and consuming 
 qualities of our immigrants. But immigrants are not 
 machines. Not only have they souls which we must 
 consider, but they bring with them other things be- 
 sides the power to produce and consume. Immigrants 
 can bring disease, not only of the body but also of 
 the mind. A machine will consume raw material and 
 turn out the finished product. We know its limita- 
 tions as well as its capacity. An immigrant, however, 
 does much more than consume and produce. Every 
 immigrant has a certain moral influence in this coun- 
 try, either for good or for evil. Moreover, he has this 
 influence with a foreign group, a group which it is 
 difficult for the rest of us to reach." _j
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 His BOYHOOD ENDS JOINING THE UNION. 
 
 A slight little fellow, not yet in his teens, 
 
 His arms to his elbows tucked down in his jeans; 
 
 No cares for the present, no thoughts of the past, 
 
 No plans for the future, no troubles that last; 
 
 No bird as it sings o'er its nest in the tree 
 
 Its ode to the morning more happy than he, 
 
 His loud ringing whistle, clear, piercing, and shrill, 
 
 Re-echoes the joys of his heart o'er the hill 
 
 He is starting in life as a miner. 
 
 THIS description of a happy little lad is taken from 
 one of Mr. "Wilson's own poems. We can well imag- 
 ine it pictures his own boyhood. One need only look 
 at the Secretary's face to realize that he must always 
 have been cheery, even when his later life brought 
 him many cares and responsibilities. 
 
 After the family was safely landed at Arnot, and 
 settled in a home, naturally the next thing was to start 
 the children in school. Reuben Howland, an old- 
 time schoolmaster, was in charge of the public school, 
 and what little early education Billy had was attained 
 in this school, supplemented with tutoring by this 
 Mr. Howland. The boy had had quite a vacation 
 since the days with the tall teacher with the black 
 curls in Scotland, when he plunged through reader 
 after reader at breakneck speed. He probably, like 
 other children, had enjoyed the activity and changes 
 of the journey to the new home, in spite of its dis- 
 comforts, but no doubt he was now glad to begin to 
 study again, ' 
 
 26
 
 HIS BOYHOOD ENDS 27 
 
 The happy little fellow trudged along to school, 
 day after day, care-free and full of play. His eager- 
 ness to learn would surely make him excel in his les- 
 sons, and his natural boylike exuberance would cause 
 him to enter enthusiastically into the sports of the 
 playground. We may be sure that Billy was popu- 
 lar; the same traits that have won him the love and 
 support of his townspeople and fellow workers every- 
 where, were present in the small boy's disposition. 
 We can imagine him a leader among the boys, as he 
 afterward became prominent in settling difficulties 
 among workers. This was the one period of Bill's 
 life when he was free from responsibility and bent on 
 getting the most out of life for himself. 
 
 Yet, even at this time, life was not all fun for Bill. 
 He tells of the first money he ever earned, saying: 
 "The first real money I ever earned was about two 
 dollars, collected from the neighbors for carrying 
 water, running errands, and being general messenger 
 and delivery boy for the community. ' * 
 
 This must have been before he left school, and must 
 have been gathered slowly little by little, for other 
 people in that community were poor, too, and we may 
 be sure they could not afford to pay much for the ser- 
 vices that Bill rendered. Now, what did the boy do 
 with this hard-earned two dollars? Did he hand it 
 over to his mother to help in buying necessary cloth- 
 ing or supplies? Did he put it aside for future need? 
 Or did he invest it so that it would bring him some 
 return later? The boy's thirst for knowledge de- 
 cided. His parents wisely let him use the money as 
 he wished. He says : 
 
 "With that large sum I purchased a second-hand
 
 28 W. B. WILSON 
 
 edition of Chambers 's Information for the People, 
 and, as I recall the months that followed, I must have 
 read everything about every subject in those volumes 
 to my father. ' ' 
 
 He did invest it so that it would bring him some 
 return later. With the boy's wonderfully retentive 
 memory, those stores of miscellaneous knowledge have 
 proved a veritable mine of useful information. And 
 this was the boy's choice of a purchase when not nine 
 years old ! No wonder his parents longed to educate 
 him in the hope that he would follow a literary career 
 and become famous in the world of literature. 
 
 Meanwhile, his father was working far beyond his 
 strength, and became ill with lumbago. After sev- 
 eral attacks he was left in such a condition that it 
 was agony to stoop. But he must go on with his work 
 in the mines, for he had been trained to nothing else 
 and the family must be supported. What should they 
 do ? No doubt the parents talked it over many nights 
 after the children were in bed, knowing all the time 
 that there was but one thing to do, but dreading to 
 shatter all their dreams for the future of their tal- 
 ented son. 
 
 Reluctantly they at last came to the point where they 
 told William he must leave school and help his father. 
 Father could sit on the floor of the mine, his power- 
 ful arms could still undercut, getting out the coal for 
 some one else to pile on the cars. That 6ome one else, 
 then, was to be little William, only nine years old. 
 Yes, yes, that boy who was so happy at his first year 
 in school was torn away from his life's hope and put 
 to work in the damp, dark mines at nine years of age. 
 
 Bravely the boy shouldered the burden, his dis-
 
 HIS BOYHOOD ENDS 29 
 
 appointment at having to interrupt his education tem- 
 pered by the thought that he was a helper in the 
 family and indispensable to its support. But think 
 of it ! Think of your own nine-year-old lad, or any 
 other boy of that age of your acquaintance, and how 
 you would like to have him starting out before day- 
 light, trudging along with rough men and boys to the 
 mouth of the mine, there to be put into a little car 
 and carried into the depths of the earth. With only 
 the little light on his cap -to guide him, he must find 
 his way to the spot assigned to him. 
 
 Here, in the foul air, amid the deafening roar of 
 machinery, the little boy, who should have been at 
 play with marbles in the sunshine or in a well-aired 
 schoolroom with the 'books his intellectual soul craved, 
 was condemned to work for our comfort ten hours a 
 day. Because Father could not do it, he must all 
 day stoop and lift the pieces of coal to the little cars 
 which came in an unceasing procession, relentlessly 
 urging the boy to greater efforts. 
 
 Now and then one of the children would get caught 
 in the machinery and be frightfully mangled, or 
 would slip into the chute and be smothered to death. 
 Many children are killed in this way. All are old 
 men before their time. It was during the first year 
 of William's work in the mine that he was buried 
 under the rock in the mine. In talking to the Secre- 
 tary of Labor one day, some one asked: 
 
 "Do you remember anything particularly vivid or 
 dramatic about those days when you were a boy work- 
 ing in the mine?" 
 
 "Let me think," said the Secretary, in his calm, 
 dispassionate voice. "Of course, there are certain
 
 30 W. B. WILSON 
 
 things that are always vivid I don't know whether 
 you would call them dramatic or not. It was when 
 I was just nine years old I was buried under the rock 
 in the mines." 
 
 "When you were working there beside your 
 father?" the questioner gasped. 
 
 "Yes. There was a ledge of rock." (Secretary 
 Wilson could not pronounce rock or prop without 
 betraying his Scotch burr. ) ' ' This ledge of rock had 
 been pronounced unsafe. So, as I had to shovel be- 
 neath it, my father fixed a prop under the ledge to 
 protect me. In some way or other the prop gave 
 way, a bit of rock fell down, and I was caught. There 
 was quite a shower of rock, but it happened 'that the 
 prop fell parallel with the rock, and I lay in between 
 the two till they dug me out." 
 
 "And your father calling, calling 'Wullie! Wul- 
 lie!'?" 
 
 "Oh, yes," answered the Secretary of Labor. "But 
 I was not killed." 
 
 What must have been the father's feelings while 
 waiting and calling for help to rescue his boy! 
 
 At night, after sundown, weary and coal begrimed, 
 the little lad came up with the others and 
 dragged himself home to one of a row of flimsy cot- 
 tages that belonged to the company, with one idea in 
 his mind, to get something to eat before tumbling into 
 bed. For the first few months this was the routine, 
 working and sleeping ; almost too tired to take even 
 a few mouthfuls of the scanty supper of dry bread 
 and porridge which was all they could afford. Even 
 this, "his own childish energy had pitifully helped 
 to wrest from the vast storehouses of plenty hoarded
 
 HIS BOYHOOD ENDS 31 
 
 so inhumanly by capital." What a dismal life for 
 a happy lad of nine, who loved to run about and play 
 in the sunshine, and who had as much right to the 
 pleasure of a care-free childhood as have your own 
 boys. 
 
 After a few months, however, though his growing 
 body still cried out for food and sleep, he became, 
 in a measure, accustomed to the hard work. A strong 
 constitution, inherited from rugged Scotch ancestors,, 
 hardened with the steady toil. His eagerness for in-j 
 tellectual pursuits asserted itself and he found he! 
 could sit up after supper and read awhile. Then his 
 evenings were spent in reading to his father and 
 studying as he might alone. , 
 
 About this time the community arranged for a' 
 night school. Each pupil had to pay a dollar a month 
 to the principal, and for a time, at a sacrifice of much 
 needed food and rest, "William was able to attend. 
 Here he says he picked up a little on his school 
 studies. But the reading with his father seemed to 
 be the main part of his education. Father could not 
 read very well and his wife had always been in the 
 habit of reading to him. As soon as "William was 
 able to take this upon himself, father and son spent 
 their evenings together, studying and reading history, 
 philosophy, and economics, the boy helped by the 
 father's naturally fine mind and wonderful ability 
 to grasp deep subjects. The father was very fond of 
 argument and debate, and his retentive memory en- 
 abled him to enter the lists with those better educated 
 than himself in school learning. William also had a 
 wonderful memory, and could always give authority 
 and reference to prove his father's statements.
 
 32 W. B. WILSON 
 
 For seven years he worked with his father in the 
 mine, at first only loading. Then his father taught 
 him to aid in drilling, and finally he learned all kinds 
 of mining. He continued mining coal for twenty- 
 seven years, and after that he mined coal in the 
 winter and worked on the farm in the summer. He 
 says he was a strong, husky lad he must have been to 
 endure such toil and could load from six to seven 
 tons of coal a day into the little cars that ran in and 
 out of the mines. Just what they had to eat, whether 
 it was little or much, depended on what was loaded 
 into those cars during the week. ' 
 
 When he was eleven years old he became a half 
 member of the Mine Workers' Union. His life has 
 been devoted to the interests of the laboring man. 
 His influence has been all the greater because his 
 knowledge of manual labor has not been theoretical 
 but practical. He sympathized with the working man 
 as few could, and this sympathy was freely bestowed 
 on those who came in contact with him. Yet he was 
 not in the least bitter toward the employer. His 
 feeling toward such was generous. 
 
 Certainly these were hard days for the little fellow, 
 thus robbed of childhood 's right to play and deprived 
 of the chance to attend school. Yet perhaps this 
 early hardship was his making. He was forced to 
 search for opportunities to better his condition, and 
 his mind inevitably turned toward certain ideals.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 THE COBBLER'S SHOP 
 
 A FAVORITE gathering place for the miners of Arnot 
 in the evenings was the cobbler's shop of a man by 
 the name of Hugh Kerwin. As many of the workers 
 in the mines of Arnot were of Scotch, English, or 
 Irish descent, they were of a higher grade intellectu- 
 ally than those of many mining towns of Pennsyl- 
 vania. This Mr. Kerwin was an omnivorous reader. 
 He and his associates had social and political theories 
 of their own. He took newspapers and even sub- 
 scribed for the Congressional Record. 
 
 When these sturdy miners came together, they had 
 lively arguments over national and international af- 
 fairs, and debated questions of philosophy, theology, 
 and economics. The problems connected with the 
 labor world were also discussed, and no doubt many 
 plans for bettering the condition of workers were 
 threshed out in the little back room of Mr. Kerwin 's 
 shop, where they met. There was located the Read- 
 ing Room and library, the only one really worth the 
 name in the village. 
 
 One night young William went to one of these 
 meetings with his father, and heard the men debating. 
 This opened a new world to him. It was the first 
 time he had heard such talk outside his home. From 
 that moment he eagerly looked forward each day to 
 the time when he might go to the little back shop and 
 hear these wonderful discussions. He would sit and 
 
 33
 
 34 W. B. WILSON 
 
 listen entranced and would remember most of the 
 arguments. 
 
 The shoemaker noticed the shy, interested lad, with 
 his keen blue eyes and his bright intellectual face, 
 and lent him books to read. The boy devoured these 
 hungrily, sitting up far into the nights to finish them, 
 and using the few spare moments in the mine to pore 
 over them by the dim light of the miner's lamp on 
 his cap. The shoemaker was curious to know whether 
 the boy really understood such books and got any- 
 thing out of them. So he asked the lad some ques- 
 tions and found that he really seemed to grasp the 
 meaning of those big ideas, and remembered and 
 thought about them. As one has said : ' ' His thirsty 
 mind absorbed facts and catalogued them naturally. ' ' 
 
 After a while he had read and digested all the 
 books in Mr. Kerwin 's library, and still was not satis- 
 fied. Other mine boys, following his lead, had also 
 become interested. To hold this interest more books 
 were needed. So, under the wise direction of Mr. 
 Kerwin, a library society was formed, dues were col- 
 lected (out of the slender pittance these boys earned), 
 and new books were purchased. William was made 
 librarian and to him was intrusted the pleasant task, 
 no doubt with the advice of Mr. Kerwin, of selecting 
 the new books. 
 
 Among the books that the boy read to his father 
 and by himself, in these years before he entered his 
 teens, were the Chambers's Information before men- 
 tioned, Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, Drum- 
 mond's Natural Law in the Spiritual World, Science 
 and the Bible, and, of course, as his family were 
 strict Presbyterians, the Bible itself. His father
 
 THE COBBLER'S SHOP 35 
 
 loved to debate, but gloried in having his facts veri- 
 fied by the best authorities. A controversy involving 
 theology, politics, or philosophy was to him the very 
 breath of his nostrils. When he met with a neighbor, 
 friend, or any one who was as opinionated as himself, 
 an argument was sure to follow, and he liked to have 
 his son at hand to prove his points. 
 
 "Wullie," he would say, "what was it we read 
 about that last night?" 
 
 And " Wullie" was always ready with statistics and 
 facts. Mr. Wilson feels that this was good literary 
 training and had a stimulating effect upon his mind. 
 His naturally good memory was strengthened by his 
 father's dependence on him to verify the statements 
 and quotations used by him in his arguments. It is 
 doubtless true that his knowledge of these subjects 
 was a matter of memory, with only a limited rational 
 understanding of them. But even so, is it not re- 
 markable that a child of ten or twelve could so file 
 these deep matters in his mind as to be able to draw 
 upon them at will upon the request of his father? 
 
 Later, as his mental faculties developed to a greater 
 extent, he continued his reading along economic lines 
 and became a serious student of economic and labor 
 conditions. That study he has kept through his life 
 and has combined it with a general knowledge of 
 literature, so that today he would pass in any gather- 
 ing of cultured people as a man of liberal education. 
 With his other reading he also became familiar with 
 the works of Scott and Dickens, and with the poets 
 Burns, Shelley, Campbell, Cowper, Wordsworth, and 
 Tennyson. He calls Burns his favorite poet, and he 
 himself has a poetic gift, as is evidenced by his volume
 
 36 W. B. WILSON 
 
 of poems called "Memories." He does not claim to 
 have much knowledge of modern novels, as he has had 
 little time to read them, being so occupied in selecting 
 for his library the books that he required for his 
 studies, books of history, poetry, and economics. 
 
 At the age of fourteen William organized a debat- 
 ing society among the boys, where they no doubt dis- 
 cussed and decided the great questions of the day 
 with as much authority and solemnity as their elders. 
 This initiation into the cobbler's shop lyceum was the 
 real start of W. B. Wilson's education. He never 
 forgot or ceased to be grateful to this teacher shoe- 
 maker. Mr. Kerwin has been dead for many years, 
 but Mr. Wilson's first official act after taking the 
 oath of office as Secretary of Labor in 1912 was to 
 appoint as his private secretary the son of the shoe- 
 maker, Hugh L. Kerwin, who had also served as his 
 secretary in the Sixty-second Congress, during which 
 Mr. Wilson was chairman of the Committee on Labor, 
 House of Representatives. 
 
 One has only to hear Secretary Wilson make a 
 speech on any subject to realize that his early train- 
 ing in debate, though irregular, has served him well. 
 He makes his points with logical precision and delivers 
 them with telling and convincing force. His father 
 was considerably worried about his talented son's loss 
 of an opportunity for a school education by having 
 to go to work in the mines so young; but nobly the 
 boy overcame this handicap. He modestly says of 
 himself : 
 
 "If I have managed to get on in the world to any 
 extent, it affords the best possible evidence that this 
 is a country in which opportunity lies in every man's 
 path."
 
 THE COBBLER'S SHOP 37 
 
 The saying is often quoted: "The world owes 
 every man a living." Secretary Wilson put it thus: 
 "The world owes every man the opportunity to make 
 a living. ' ' 
 
 I owe a great deal to Mr. Wilson for helping me 
 to understand human nature. As Director General 
 of the Information and Education Service of the De- 
 partment of Labor, it was my duty to prepare posters, 
 bulletins, and other publicity, which went to the mills, 
 factories, and shipyards, for the purpose of increasing 
 production. Whenever it was possible, I took the 
 copy to 'Secretary Wilson to criticise. It was a long 
 time before I was able to get the correct point of 
 view. For instance, the Secretary insisted that we 
 should use the word "we" instead of the word "you, " 
 never saying "You should produce more," but "We 
 should produce more." He insisted that it is very 
 poor psychology to scold, but that rather we should 
 enthuse. 
 
 "There is always something good we can find," he 
 would say, "and why not find that good thing and 
 praise, rather than hunt for the opposite and criticise 
 it ? We can make headway much faster by enthusing 
 over the good than by criticising the bad." 
 
 The Secretary's psychology applied not only to 
 words but also to pictures. At one time we had an 
 artist painting industrial pictures for use in colored 
 posters. There was one picture of a workingman 
 and a soldier shaking hands, which was selected by 
 the heads of the different bureaus as the best of the 
 lot. It truly was a most appealing picture. When 
 the Secretary saw it, he at once shook his head and 
 said;
 
 38 W. B. WILSON 
 
 "I don't like those overalls." 
 
 "Why," I asked, "don't workmen like to be shown 
 in overalls?" 
 
 "Yes," replied the Secretary, "workmen like to 
 be shown in overalls, but the overalls must be whole, 
 not torn. Working people don't like to be seen in 
 rags any more than the rest of us. Besides, holes 
 Bnd torn places are a reflection on the women folks 
 at home."
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 WHAT A MINE Is LIKE 
 
 AN UNDERGROUND forest becomes an underground 
 city that is the evolution of a coal mine. For city 
 it certainly is, with streets and passages often on 
 different levels for the conveying of the cars of coal 
 and supplies, and the journeying of the miners to 
 their respective places. In an old pit near Newcastle, 
 England, there are no less than fifty miles of pas- 
 sages, and our Pennsylvania mines can excel this. To 
 think that many, perhaps most, of these excavated 
 roads are the result of hand labor, stroke on stroke! 
 
 In digging out the coal, or undercutting, as the 
 first process is called, the miner must sit, crouch, or 
 even lie in an uncomfortable position for hours, wield- 
 ing his pick to get out the coal. Machines have been 
 invented for cutting coal when found under certain 
 conditions, one machine originated in America in 
 1887, which is more widely used here than in England, 
 where a different type is used. But even where ma- 
 chines are employed the 'beginning must usually be 
 made by hand, and in many places it is not feasible 
 to use the machines. Certainly the invention. of a 
 machine in 1887 was of no use to young William and 
 his father in their arduous work ; in fact, even today 
 no machines are used in the Arnot mines. Whatever 
 the work or the manner in which the mining is done, 
 the fact remains that any employment that keeps 
 the worker underground is disagreeable, dangerous, 
 and a menace to the health.
 
 40 W. B. WILSON 
 
 The mine that little William Wilson worked in was 
 not better or worse than others of its kind. All mines 
 are full of dangers, and fifty years ago there were not 
 many of the safety inventions that have since been in 
 use. Dangerous gases are confined underground, and 
 digging for coal frees them. Many of these gases are 
 intensely inflammable, light is necessary for the miner 
 to carry on his work, hence the danger of explosions 
 is great. One of the greatest inventions connected 
 with mining is that of the safety lamp, invented 
 in 1815 by Sir Humphrey Davy. With the improve- 
 ments that have since been made in such lamps, it 
 is possible for the miners, if careful, to be compar- 
 atively safe, so far as explosions are concerned. The 
 slightest breath of an open light upon the dangerous 
 gases is sufficient to cause them to explode, and then 
 partitions are burned away, smoke and fire roll 
 through the passages, pushing their way up the shaft 
 and telling the workers above that their fellows are 
 being suffocated or burned alive. At such times the 
 men show their heroism, many cases of most extraor- 
 dinary sacrifice of life to save others being told in 
 connection with mine accidents. 
 
 There is always the danger of flood. An under- 
 ground stream or spring may be suddenly tapped and 
 the water will pour through the passages, catching 
 unawares the hapless workmen and carrying them to 
 their death. Many mines have to keep pumps going 
 all the time. Even when the miner starts in on his 
 day's work, he puts himself in peril, for in going down 
 the shaft in the cage he trusts himself to the chains 
 and ropes which lower the cage, and they may give 
 way and precipitate him to the floor of the mine.
 
 WHAT A MINE IS LIKE 41 
 
 Another danger is that which little William experi- 
 enced when a prop gave way and he was hurled under 
 the debris. Rules are very strict in most mines re- 
 garding the placing of props to hold up the ceiling of 
 the mine, but men working constantly in the presence 
 of danger become accustomed to it and grow careless of 
 precautions and often do not observe the rules. Some- 
 times, indeed, such accidents are absolutely unpre- 
 ventable. 
 
 Necessarily, the air in a mine must be close, foul, 
 and poisonous, even though not directly inflammable. 
 The pumping of fresh air into mines and the ex- 
 traction of the bad air, its foulness increased by the 
 breath and exhalations of the perspiring workers, is 
 a serious problem, and many and various have been 
 the attempts at its solution. Usually systems are used 
 with two shafts or wells, called respectively the upcast 
 and the downcast. If there is a shaft of any kind at 
 each end of a mine, with connecting passages, a rough 
 kind of ventilation or circulation will necessarily re- 
 sult, but this will not affect the side passages and 
 chambers not directly on this main avenue. 
 
 One plan which seems to give universal satisfaction 
 is to have a specially constructed chamber at the bot- 
 tom of the upcast in which is an immense furnace in 
 which a fire is kept constantly burning. The column 
 of air above this furnace becomes rarefied and ascends, 
 while the cooler air below rushes in and spreads itself 
 in all directions to take the place of the bad air. Ven- 
 tilation fans for changing the air have also been 
 brought to a great degree of perfection. But by any 
 method, a strong current of air would naturally take 
 the shortest and most direct course from entrance to
 
 42 W. B. WILSON 
 
 exit, not penetrating the many offshoots from the 
 main passage. Therefore, there must be a system of 
 barriers and tight closing doors in such a way that the 
 fresh air must traverse all the windings and penetrate 
 every part of the mine. In order that this current 
 may be guided along the passages where it is intended 
 it should go, many boys are employed to open the door 
 to all comers and carefully close them after all have 
 passed through. These boys are called trappers. 
 There they sit, in semi-darkness, with nothing to oc- 
 cupy them except when the welcome call of a wagoner 
 or other workman gives them a moment's diversion 
 and companionship. I well remember passing through 
 these doors in the Arnot mine in which William 
 worked. 
 
 Dry coal dust is liable to explosive action. Frequent 
 watering is necessary to prevent such explosion. Yet 
 the more perfect the system of ventilation, the more 
 will all the moisture be dried up, and the more danger- 
 ously inflammable will this coal dust become. In any 
 case, the miners have to breathe this dust as it rises 
 and their lungs are filled with it, so that it adds to the 
 danger of the pulmonary trouble which is so common 
 among this class of workers. 
 
 The fact remains, however, that, in spite of all the 
 precautions that have been and may be taken, includ- 
 ing the introduction of the most scientific and im- 
 proved appliances for the safety of the miner, his task, 
 working perhaps thousands of feet below ground, 
 continues to be a frightfully hard and dangerous one. 
 Although the most terrible death tolls are usually due 
 to explosions, which happen only occasionally on a 
 large scale, many more workers are receiving fatal in-
 
 WHAT A MINE IS LIKE 43 
 
 juries through the falling roofs and sides of seams in 
 the mines. It is said that not a single day passes 
 throughout the year without seeing the death of at 
 least one miner, and that the average number of deaths 
 every day of every year is thirty and upward. 
 
 More miners are employed in American mines than 
 are needed for getting out the necessary quantity. 
 Therefore some must be laid off at times. It is said 
 that miners work, on an average, only two hundred 
 and twelve days in the year. However fortunate this 
 may be for their health, it is readily seen that they 
 must be idle the remainder of the time. Mining com- 
 munities are usually in a remote section where it is 
 difficult for a miner to obtain other work to do when 
 not occupied in the mine, even if he were fitted to do 
 anything else. This enforced idleness, without pay, 
 of course brings increased suffering to himself and his 
 family. The miner is reckoned on a par with the 
 railroad employee as regards danger, and next to the 
 structural iron worker, who is listed in the extra 
 hazardous callings. 
 
 The life of the miner was summed up by the late 
 President John Mitchell of the United Mine Workers 
 (the body of which Mr. Wilson was Secretary and 
 Treasurer) in these words: 
 
 "First, the boy of eight or ten is sent to the breaker 
 to pick the slate and other impurities from the coal 
 which has been brought up from the mine ; from there 
 he is promoted and becomes a door boy, working in 
 the mine; as he grows older and stronger he is ad- 
 vanced to the position and pay of a laborer ; there he 
 gains the experience which secures him a place as 
 miner's helper; and as he acquires skill and strength
 
 44 W. B. WILSON 
 
 he becomes a full-fledged miner. If he is fortunate 
 enough to escape the falls of rock and coal he may re- 
 tain his position as a miner for a number of years; 
 but as age creeps on and he is attacked by some of the 
 many diseases incident to work in the mines, he makes 
 way for those younger and more vigorous following 
 him up the ladder whose summit he has reached. He 
 then starts on the descent, going back to become a 
 miner's helper, then a mine laborer, now door-boy; 
 and when old and decrepit, he finally returns to th 
 breaker where he started as a child, earning the same 
 wages as are received by the little urchins working at 
 his side." 
 
 A pitiful life story indeed, and one which might 
 have been that of Mr. Wilson, had it not been for his 
 indomitable will, his unusual mental gifts, and his 
 great love and sympathy for his fellow workers 
 coupled with his desire to help them. 
 
 Frequent agitation regarding the making of Child 
 Labor Laws has not materially affected the child 
 workers in the mines. Nominally, no boy under the 
 age of twelve and no woman or girl of any age shall 
 be employed or permitted to be in the workings of any 
 bituminous coal mine for the purpose of employment. 
 Great numbers of such children are, however, em- 
 ployed in the anthracite region. Although they are 
 all supposed to be over twelve, many of them are un- 
 der that age. There are the "breaker boys" who sit 
 all day in little seats a day from seven o'clock till 
 six, with a half-hour at noon picking out slate, dirt, 
 and rock from the coal as it passes through the chutes. 
 
 The breakers are very cold in winter, having no 
 heating facilities, save sometimes a few steam pipes,
 
 WHAT A MINE IS LIKE 45 
 
 usually without steam. The clouds of dust are inces- 
 sant and very irritating to the eyes and throat. Some 
 inhuman fathers for not always is the necessity so 
 great as in the case of little William Wilson even 
 compel their little daughters to join the boys in this 
 dangerous work. Some of the machines in the break- 
 ers are so simple that a child can run them as well as 
 a grown person. But think of the little children de- 
 prived of light, air, safety, schooling, home care 
 everything that we consider a child's birthright until 
 he is well beyond the age when these little toilers are 
 earning the pittance that ekes out the scanty income of 
 the family. 
 
 But what of conditions above ground? Do these 
 miners have a comfortable home in which to spend 
 their hours of rest? Alas, one need only go through 
 the average mining town to see that their home life is 
 only a shade better than their mine life. The com- 
 pany tenement is still found in the mining towns. 
 The owners claim that it is necessary for them to pro- 
 vide these homes, as otherwise the miners would have 
 no place to live. Rows of unpainted houses, each con- 
 taining only two or three rooms, almost exactly alike, 
 flimsy and unattractive, blackened by coal dust and 
 weather-beaten by storms this is a mining town. 
 They are built of the cheapest materials and lack the 
 most necessary conveniences. The water supply is 
 often insufficient, and unsanitary conditions add to 
 the dangers of the miner's life. Exorbitant rents are 
 charged for these shacks. Barely is there any yard 
 in front, but in the rear may be a small space which 
 sometimes shows an attempt at a vegetable garden. 
 Since Mr. Wilson claims that he learned something
 
 46 W. B. WILSON 
 
 from his father in amateur gardening, the Wilsons 
 must have been ambitious in that direction. There 
 are some shining exceptions to this treatment of mine 
 workers in the matter of housing, and the company 
 tenement system shows the greatest improvement in 
 the anthracite regions where the miners' organizations 
 are strongest. Young William Wilson and his fellow 
 members of the Labor Union were instrumental in 
 bringing about these changes in the living conditions 
 of the workers. 
 
 When the Wilsons were working in the Pennsyl- 
 vania mines, they were obliged to get their supplies 
 in the company stores. These stores charged higher 
 prices than regular stores in other places, and even 
 if an independent store was started in a mining town 
 it was soon put out of business by the mine owners. 
 Finally, by agitation, protests, and strikes, the com- 
 pany stores in this part of Pennsylvania were obliged 
 to reduce their prices. This meant a steady decline in 
 their profits and eventually the whole system of com- 
 pany stores was given up. They still exist in some 
 places, but prices are not so much in excess of those 
 in privately owned stores. 
 
 Yet, despite all these lamentable conditions and the 
 fact that every time the miner descends into the pit 
 he is taking his life into his hands, coal must be had, 
 modern life demands it and some one must supply it. 
 Yes, it stuns one to think what would happen to 
 the modern city, like New York or Chicago, if the 
 coal supply should fail some winter there would be 
 no light, no water, no transportation ; hence no food, 
 no clothing! Realizing this, the miner turns phi- 
 losopher. He goes to his daily work with a cheery
 
 WHAT A MINE IS LIKE 47 
 
 smile, and takes his life with its miseries as he finds 
 it. He deserves far better than he gets. What chance 
 has he for physical, mental, or spiritual improvement 
 in his environment ? When Mr. Wilson was Secretary 
 of the United Mine Workers, he wrote, regarding the 
 miner's life, as follows: 
 
 "If there is any man in existence who is entitled to 
 all the necessaries and as many of the luxuries as he 
 cares to partake of, it is the miner, who, taking his 
 life in one hand and his dinner pail in the other, 
 kisses his wife and little ones good-bye in the morning 
 and goes forth with a strong heart to meet the dangers 
 of a most dangerous occupation, with the chances 
 great that he may never meet his loved ones again. 
 Not only does he meet the dangers that come to him- 
 self in the regular pursuit of his labor, but no man 
 ever heard of a miner shrinking from the danger of 
 rescuing his fellow men in distress. When accident 
 has befallen any of their number, when a caving in of 
 the roof, a flooding of the mines, or an explosion of fire 
 damp has cut off all avenues of escape, the courage of 
 the miner asserts itself, and he will dare any danger, 
 take any risk, to reach the entombed men or recover 
 their bodies, if dead." 
 
 In one of these accidents, of which Mr. Wilson 
 modestly told, it is evident that he showed the same 
 self-sacrifice that he praised in others. The alarm 
 was sounded that a comrade by the name of William 
 Hogan was buried at some place in the mine beneath 
 the black avalanche. 
 
 "I started for the rescue," said Mr. Wilson, "with 
 two other fellows, and the shelling of the rock (we
 
 48 W. B. WILSON 
 
 called it 'shailing') was like the booming of a cannon 
 as on and on we dug our way!" 
 
 "You found him, the chap named William Hogan?" 
 asked a listener. 
 
 "Oh, yes, we found him. He was sitting on the 
 floor of the mine, his knees drawn up into his ribs. I 
 thought once I heard a voice calling, ' Hurry, boys, 
 for God's sake !' but when we really found him, I did 
 not think it had been possible for him to have 
 called." 
 
 ' * You revived him ? ' ' 
 
 "Oh, no he was dead." 
 
 Such accidents are often caused by what is called 
 "robbing the pillars." The pillars of coal, really the 
 trunks of prehistoric trees, are originally left to sup- 
 port the roof of the mine. As mining progresses, 
 these pillars, beginning at the farthest back in the 
 mine, are taken down, and wooden props are put in 
 their places. In the above case the men had been 
 sent far in to cut away the stump of a pillar which 
 remained, when all at once the alarm was given that 
 the roof was starting to fall. The other miners 
 escaped, but William Hogan was caught and lost his 
 life. It was a narrow escape, too, for the rescuers.
 
 CHAPTER Vtl 
 
 t WOBKINQ FOR THE UNION 
 
 BY THE time William was thirteen he was a full- 
 fledged miner, when most lads of that age are playing 
 baseball, or if obliged to earn anything, are just sell- 
 ing papers, running errands, or doing some other light 
 work. At this time he became half member of a labor 
 union and has been associated with unions ever since. 
 As Secretary of Labor, he is a union man and has his 
 card. When fourteen years of age he was elected 
 secretary of the local union. 
 
 For some reason his father went in search of em- 
 ployment about this time, and the care of the family 
 was virtually placed on the boy's shoulders. Not 
 until he was sixteen could he be admitted to full mem- 
 bership in the union, and after that he became a 
 journeyman miner. A stanza of his poem, "The Coal 
 Miner," the first stanza of which has already been 
 quoted, is appropriate to this period of his life : 
 
 A youthful-like personage, wiry and strong, 
 Deep-chested, broad-shouldered, limbs supple and long, 
 The coal seems today to be flying more thick 
 Than ever before from the point of his pick. 
 Fast flows the sweat from each pore of his face, 
 As blow after blow brings the coal from its place. 
 What pride in his voice as he says: "By the way, 
 I want you to know I am sixteen today 
 And I want a ' full turn ' as a miner." 
 
 After becoming secretary of the local union in 1876, 
 his activities in the mines, as a trade unionist, at- 
 
 49
 
 50 !W. B. WILSON 
 
 tracted attention outside, and the mine owners began 
 to take notice. By the time he was eighteen he was 
 marked as a dangerous man, and it was not long be- 
 fore he was most unjustly boycotted by the mine own- 
 ers. He was compelled to go from mine to mine to get 
 employment, only to find that he was blacklisted, as no 
 company would hire him. He was, therefore, obliged 
 to quit the mines and look about for other work. 
 He drifted West, and became fireman on the Illinois 
 Central Railroad for a time. He worked in saw mills 
 and in lumber yards. He worked in a printing office in 
 Blossburg, near his home, setting type on a news- 
 paper. With characteristic adaptability, he made this 
 job his teacher in punctuation and capitalization, and 
 in grammatical construction. Everything that came 
 William's way was made to serve the purpose of in- 
 struction, if it could possibly be turned in that direc- 
 tion. All these experiences at different jobs brought 
 him in touch with trades other than mining, and made 
 him more sympathetic with the workers in all lines. 
 
 Meanwhile, at the age of twenty-one, he was mar- 
 ried, June 7, 1883, to Miss Agnes Williamson, who was 
 born within a few miles of his old home in Scotland. 
 Eleven children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Wil- 
 son, of whom nine are living. He still failed to get 
 regular employment, and the little home of the newly 
 married couple saw many hardships and deprivations. 
 It is said there are few great men who have not at 
 some time or other seen the bottom of the meal barrel. 
 The future Secretary of Labor saw it very often dur- 
 ing these days. 
 
 For nearly twenty years this period of irregular 
 employment lasted and Mr. Wilson continued his
 
 WORKING FOR THE UNION 51 
 
 activities as a union leader. He kept up his interest 
 in the miners' organization, encouraged them to hold 
 together, and inspired them with his own enthusiasm. 
 He proved to them his ability as a leader and his ab- 
 solute integrity as a man. Very few of the mining 
 towns had as high a standard of living as had Arnot, 
 with its people of Scotch and English ancestry. 
 Throughout the country, out into the scattered dis- 
 tricts where families, grown men and women, boys 
 and girls, were herded together in degrading prox- 
 imity, in ignorance and sickness and poverty, Wilson 
 traveled. He aroused them out of their indifference, 
 stirring whatever might be good in them, inspiring 
 them with something of his own indomitable courage, 
 and organizing them into unions where they could 
 make effectual resistance against unusual conditions. 
 Once he was tricked aboard a train by agents of the 
 mine owners and taken to Cumberland, Maryland. 
 Here he was thrown into jail on the indefinite charge 
 of conspiracy, but in three days they were forced to 
 release him. In one strike they tried to bribe him, in 
 another to kidnap him. They arrested him for "con- 
 tempt ' ' in West Virginia. They blacklisted him and 
 they enjoined him. He escaped the kidnappers, he 
 laughed at the blacklist, he defied the injunction. * ' An 
 injunction," he said, "that restrains me from furnish- 
 ing food to hungry men, women, and children, when 
 I have in my possession the means to aid them, will 
 be violated by me until the necessity for providing 
 food has been removed or the corporeal power of the 
 court overwhelms me. I will treat it as I would an 
 order of the court to stop breathing." The bottom 
 of the meal barrel must have been visible on more 
 than one occasion in those days.
 
 52 iW. B. WILSON 
 
 Once, as a result of his activities, he was evicted 
 from his house. That convinced him that to be in- 
 dependent of other men he must own his own home. 
 In 1896 a man in Arnot rented him a hundred acres 
 of land, so he undertook to farm this land, and, with 
 characteristic Scotch thrift, to save money to buy it. 
 Under his father's direction, he had done some am- 
 ateur gardening, though one can hardly imagine how 
 he got time for this, with the long hours of a day's 
 work in the mines. But he bravely started in to be a 
 farmer. No doubt his children all contributed, as 
 soon as they were big enough, their share of labor to 
 keep the little farm going. 
 
 While still engaged in farming Mr. Wilson was 
 made a " check weighman," to weigh the coal in be- 
 half of the miners such work being meant to serve 
 as a check against the weighing done by the weigh- 
 masters of the company. 
 
 During all these stormy times Mr. Wilson had a 
 growing family to support, a mortgage of $1,500 on his 
 little home, and never till he was thirty-six did he earn 
 an average of more than forty dollars a month. Some 
 months his pay might reach as high as eighty dollars, 
 but there were so many lean times when it was below 
 that the average was kept down. 
 
 In 1885 Mr. Wilson was one of those who assisted 
 in establishing joint conferences between operators 
 and miners, which have developed the present col- 
 lective bargaining system in the coal mining industry, 
 reducing strikes and improving the condition of both 
 coal operator and miner. In 1899 he was elected 
 president of the Central Division of the Miners' 
 Union, known as District No. 2.
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 THE STRIKE OF 1899-1900 
 
 THIS SAME year, 1899, in behalf of the miners of 
 Tioga County, Mr. Wilson took charge of the situa- 
 tion resulting from a prolonged lockout. A change 
 of managers of a mine property and the abrogation 
 by the new manager of the conference system, the 
 establishment of which Mr. Wilson had previously 
 secured, resulted in a lockout. It was a long and bitter 
 contest, in which Mr. Wilson, while steadily working 
 to bring the opposing forces together and to re-estab- 
 lish the conference plan, sometimes lost the confidence 
 of some of the more radical of the men he was lead- 
 ing. 
 
 As his philosophy of labor is illustrated by the story 
 of this strike, let me briefly tell of its beginning and 
 end. For some years the wage-workers had the bene- 
 fit of collective bargaining. That is, they had got to- 
 gether once a year and appointed a committee to wait 
 upon the mine owners at a conference. A new man- 
 ager, however, announced, early in June, 1899, that 
 the mines belonged to the stockholders of the com- 
 pany and that the company was free to operate them 
 exactly as it saw fit. Hence the manager would no 
 longer hold conferences with the miners, but would 
 operate the mines as he desired without reference to 
 the miners. 
 
 Of course this was a great shock to the miners and 
 especially to their leaders, who through long years of 
 
 53
 
 54 W. B. WILSON 
 
 struggle had established the conference principle. 
 The miners and their leaders immediately met and 
 considered the matter. After considerable debate, the 
 following message was sent to the new manager: 
 
 "We recognize that the mines are the property of 
 the stockholders and as such the stockholders are free 
 to do with these mines as they see fit so long as they 
 do not interfere with the natural rights of others. We, 
 therefore, regret to report that the new manager is 
 within his full legal rights in refusing to confer with 
 us hereafter. We, however, have also concluded that 
 our bodies belong to us wage earners and that we 
 are likewise free to use these bodies as we would, pro- 
 vided we do not interfere with the just rights of 
 others. The stockholders have decided that they will 
 operate the mines only under certain conditions. We 
 have decided that we will operate our bodies only un- 
 der certain conditions. Apparently all of us are 
 within our legal rights, whether stockholders or wage 
 workers. ' ' 
 
 The new manager thought that he won a great vic- 
 tory and went home that night congratulating him- 
 self upon his shrewdness. Much to his surprise, how- 
 ever, not a man returned to work the next morning. 
 That was June 18, 1899, and not a pick was raised, 
 nor a wheel turned, nor did an ounce of coal come out 
 of these mines until March 1, 1900, a period of over 
 eight months. During this time the miners marched 
 every morning and night up to the mines and back 
 again to their homes without violence and without 
 causing any disturbance of any kind. Every morning 
 the manager came to the mine, spent the day and re- 
 turned again at night. Both sides continued to rest
 
 THE STRIKE OF 1899-1900 55 
 
 upon their legal rights, and yet nothing was accom- 
 plished. Finally in February, 1900, both sides saw 
 that no headway could be made by depending on legal 
 rights. There is nothing constructive about legal 
 rights. Whether our interests are as stockholders or 
 as wage earners we get on only as we produce. In 
 production the interests of both sides are mutual. The 
 only opportunity there is for dispute is in connection 
 with how that which has been produced shall be di- 
 vided. This must be determined to the satisfaction of 
 both parties in order to have more production. Such 
 determination can be reached only by representatives 
 of both stockholders and wage workers sitting about 
 the council table in conference. 
 
 Mr. Wilson became the idol of the miners, on ac- 
 count of his work for them. In 1900 they made him 
 International Secretary-Treasurer of the United Mine 
 Workers, when John Mitchell was made President. 
 During the eight years that Mr. Wilson held this 
 office millions of dollars passed through his hands 
 without the loss of a one-cent piece. He took charge 
 of a treasury of $16,000 and turned over $1,027,000 
 to his successor. This organization has three million 
 members and has done much to better the conditions 
 of labor in the mines throughout the country. 
 
 In the great strike of 1899 and 1900 the mine own- 
 ers thought they could discredit him and put him out 
 of the labor movement. They offered him a bribe of 
 $1,500 to desert the miners. He was told it would be 
 an act of kindness to accept the money and end the 
 long bitter struggle ; he had only to leave the State on 
 urgent business and matters would be adjusted. The 
 miners need not know he had broken faith with them.
 
 56 W. B. WILSON 
 
 Fifteen Hundred Dollars was the exact amount of the 
 mortgage on his farm, and he and his wife and eleven 
 children were destitute, as he had turned in his pay 
 as Secretary-Treasurer into the strike fund. Did Mr. 
 Wilson yield to the importunities and representations 
 of the mine owners ? He was not even tempted by the 
 bait ; for answer he took into his home the families of 
 four striking miners and shared with them his meager 
 fare. 
 
 Since that day, in Arnot, a day called Wilson Day is 
 set apart by the miners as a public holiday. Stores 
 are closed, all business is suspended, the people dress 
 in their best clothes and make merry in honor of the 
 man who has proved his superiority to adversity, his 
 ability to overcome obstacles, and has won, by merit- 
 ing them, the respect and love of an entire com- 
 munity. 
 
 Between 1886 and 1894 conditions were very bad 
 in Tioga County. Several men were discharged at the 
 various mines for acting on committees or speaking in 
 favor of organized labor. W. B. Wilson was among 
 the number. He could not get work in any of the 
 mines of the country, except where the superintendent 
 was charitably inclined. Then he would give him a 
 place where the air was so bad that a man could not 
 live in it. A person trying to work under such con- 
 ditions would often be carried out by his fellow work- ' 
 men. 
 
 Mr. Wilson would visit the mining towns for the 
 purpose of making a labor speech, and could not get 
 a building of any kind to speak in, or a person to act 
 as chairman for him when he spoke in the open with 
 the heavens for a roof. After delivering his address
 
 THE STRIKE OF 1899-1900 57 
 
 to a few men who would have the courage to go and 
 listen to him, he would be obliged to walk to Bloss- 
 burg, where he lived. Good-intentioned men wero 
 afraid of taking him in for the night f orfear of being 
 discharged. 
 
 After the 1894 strike Mr. Wilson and Mr. John 
 Lyons were chosen as a committee from a mass meet- 
 ing in Blossburg to go to Red Burn to try and settle 
 a local grievance. On their arrival at Ralston, which 
 is at the foot of the Red Burn plain, they met the 
 superintendent of the mines, Robert Brownlee, and 
 the mine boss, John Wright. The superintendent ap- 
 peared to be pleased to see them, and told Mr. Wilson 
 that he was glad to meet him, as he could prove that 
 the strike had been a mistake. After several hours' 
 discussion, Mr. Brownlee admitted that he did not 
 understand the mining situation as well as he thought 
 he did, and that Mr. Wilson was right. 
 
 Not only do the labor leaders know how to play upon 
 good qualities, such as sympathy, but they also under- 
 stand the force of the bad qualities, such as jealousy. 
 Many a corporation that has had labor troubles 
 really owes these troubles to jealousy within its own 
 management. The employees have been aware of this 
 jealousy and have fanned it, and on account of it have 
 finally won. 
 
 This was especially true in Mr. Wilson's time. A 
 manager of the mines at Arnot was named Lyons, and 
 the head man in New York was named Hines. Lyons 
 was continually trying to secure Hines 's position, 
 while Hines was kept busy maneuvering to hold his 
 own place. The employees knew this, and would ap- 
 peal first to one and then to the other, playing upon 
 the jealousy of both.
 
 58 W. B. WILSON 
 
 The crisis came in connection with the introduc- 
 tion of check weighing. This the men took up with 
 Mr. Lyons, but without success. Then they went over 
 his head to Mr. Hines in New York, who agreed to 
 the men's plans. Lyons, however, was so provoked 
 that he refused to recognize Hines 's orders. The men 
 then secured evidence for Hines that showed him that 
 Lyons had been endeavoring to undermine him right 
 along. The result was that Lyons was fired. This 
 was a great victory for Hines and the men. 
 
 Corporations fail to realize how much more the 
 employees know about the officers and foremen than 
 do the stockholders. The employees don't say much, 
 but they see and hear a good deal. In many instances, 
 employees could tell stockholders why the companies 
 are not earning more and wherein their difficulties 
 lie. In talking with Mr. Wilson once regarding giving 
 labor representation on Boards of Directors, he said : 
 
 " Labor doesn't seem to be very anxious for such 
 representation, and I am not so keen for it as are 
 many ; but I believe that it would be a wonderful thing 
 for the corporations and their stockholders if labor 
 would earnestly take an interest in such plans. I don 't 
 see how the labor representatives on Boards of 
 Directors could do any harm, while I am sure they 
 would give the stockholders a new point of view that 
 would be very valuable. Furthermore, I believe that 
 in many cases it would result in much more efficient 
 officers and foremen." 
 
 "Industrial peace," says Mr. Wilson, "is both an 
 economic and sociological necessity. It is not an idle 
 dream, but a practical possibility. The chief require- 
 ment in achieving it is ability on the part of those
 
 THE STRIKE OF 1899-1900 59 
 
 dealing with issues, as they arise, to put themselves in 
 the other fellow's place; to view the question from all 
 sides faiirly and justly." 
 
 "The reason why you succeed so, Mr. Secretary, is 
 because you have seen all sides you have seen life ! ' ' 
 I remarked one day. 
 
 The Secretary of Labor smiled his kindliest, and 
 his cheeks glowed like the typical Scotchman's. 
 
 ' ' All workers, ' ' he said, ' ' all workers see life ! ' ' 
 
 One doubts that. Many workers are machines, 
 wound up to go so many hours per day and (again 
 one recalls Scripture) because there are those who, 
 having eyes, see not ! 
 
 But the boy who was buried beneath the rock of 
 the Arnot mines when he was nine years old, the man 
 who led the search for William Hogan, the entombed 
 miner, and the man who spent years of his life ' ' rob- 
 bing the pillars" of the Pennsylvania coal mines does 
 know life, because his keen blue eyes were not given 
 him only to pick his way through the dark tunnels 
 under the earth. He can see September from the 
 broad piazzas of his Blossburg farm and sing 
 
 . . . of the dusky shadows falling fast, 
 A gloaming through the valley cast, 
 
 And, when the russet glow had ceased, 
 
 It awed to stillneess man and beast. 
 Each hill and valley, field and wood 
 Seemed but a mighty solitude, 
 So calm and quiet the night had grown 
 Where Nature called the scene her own.
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 SOMETHING ABOUT FARMING 
 
 W. B. WILSON was always known to have good judg- 
 ment. His reputation for giving a fair, unbiased 
 opinion began when he was in his teens. He never 
 was moved by hate or prejudice; neither did he be- 
 come enthusiastic and carried away with new ideas. 
 Although deeply interested in the labor movement, 
 his interest came from a love for his brother workers 
 and their families. He was never a radical, but always 
 a conservative. 
 
 His judgment was appealed to, not only in connec- 
 tion with labor problems, but also in connection with 
 business problems. His advice on "prospects" was 
 eagerly sought. If W. B. "Wilson thought that a cer- 
 tain stratum of coal would pay for working, the men 
 and money could always be found ready for making 
 the attempt. Even the rich mine owners liked to get 
 Wilson 's opinion before opening up a new vein. Even 
 while persecuting him and trying to discipline him 
 for his interest in the unions, they would seek his ad- 
 vice on other matters. 
 
 Arnot, Wilson's home town, is a little village all 
 owned by a corporation. It is about five miles from 
 Blossburg, a borough of about 2,700 inhabitants. 
 About half way between Arnot and Blossburg there 
 are outcroppings of coal. They are clearly visible to- 
 day. I have seen them myself while tramping over 
 these pastures. At one time some men got together 
 
 60
 
 SOMETHING ABOUT FARMING 61 
 
 with the idea of opening some mines here. They con- 
 sulted various people, among them being W. B. Wil- 
 son. Every one of these men advised the opening of 
 the mine except Wilson. His report was that the 
 veins were so located that it would not pay to work 
 them. However, the property was purchased and an 
 attempt was made at mining. 
 
 After a very short time it was found that W. B. 
 Wilson's opinion had been correct, that the property 
 was not worth developing. As more or less money 
 had been spent, and as a farmhouse, outbuildings, etc., 
 already existed on the property, the owner went to 
 W. B. Wilson and said : 
 
 "Wilson, you gave me good advice. You were the 
 only man who gave me good advice. This property 
 is not worth developing for coal, but here are one 
 hundred acres. If you wish to work them as a farm, go 
 ahead and we will share profits together." This was 
 in the year 1896. To one like W. B. Wilson, who had 
 been for so many years working underground in the 
 mines, living only in a stereotyped shanty of the min- 
 ing company, the idea of being free and living in the 
 open, as God intended, greatly appealed. He im- 
 mediately moved his family from Arnot, about three 
 miles down the road toward Blossburg, to this farm. 
 The farmhouse was a humble 'but comfortable dwell- 
 ing, with large rooms and a small piazza. The farm 
 was pretty hilly, with only a few acres suitable for 
 tilling. There were also about forty acres that gave 
 a fair crop of hay. Most of the land, however, was 
 not only hilly but rocky and consisted of woodland. 
 Still, it was near enough to Arnot for Wilson to work 
 in the mines to eke out while carrying on the
 
 62 W. B. WILSON 
 
 farm. In this way, he enjoyed what he always 
 believed to be an ideal condition. I refer to his hope 
 that the time will come when men will be tied neither 
 to farms nor to factories, but will work a few months 
 on their farms and then the rest of the year in fac- 
 tories, or that people should be so grouped in com- 
 munities that they can work, say, six hours in the 
 factories and four hours on the farm. 
 
 Mr. Wilson believed that the isolated farm, where 
 the family works from early morning till late at night, 
 stranded away from all intellectual and social life, 
 must go. He also believed that the factory, where 
 men and women are mere machines from morning till 
 night doing one thing, must go. Neither form of life 
 can develop real Americans, as neither allows true 
 self-expression and the growth of those vital qualities 
 which make up life. The conditions for which we 
 should aim are to have each family have its own few 
 acres and have these grouped about a community, 
 with its social and intellectual life, but to have enough 
 factories in this community so that the people would 
 not be dependent on the products of the soil. 
 
 Here again the Secretary illustrates his faculty for 
 weighing and adjusting. He looked upon everything 
 as having some good and yet, if carried too far, 
 capable of great evil. The old adage, "All work and 
 no play makes Jack a dull boy," he applied to all de- 
 partments of life, whether of the farm or of the fac- 
 tory. The development of mankind must come 
 through a mutual intermingling of the farm life and 
 the factory, with home as a center. 
 
 But to return to his experience at farming Per- 
 haps I can best tell the story by quoting him as he
 
 SOMETHING ABOUT FARMING 63 
 
 tolfl it to me. Let me, however, first say that from my 
 knowledge of the farm I don't see how he ever got on as 
 well as he did. If W. B. Wilson was able even to make 
 a living for himself on that broken and barren tract, 
 b.e certainly deserved the greatest praise. Moreover, 
 when one considers that he had spent so much of life 
 in the mines and knew nothing whatever of farming, 
 the wonder is all the greater. This is the way he told 
 he story: 
 
 ' ' I had had no experience whatever in farming, al- 
 though as a boy, under my father's instruction, I had 
 (done some amateur gardening. This, however, was 
 not enough to deter me from the attempt. I made an 
 arrangement to farm on shares, the owner of the land 
 providing me with a yoke of oxen. The oxen had 
 jbeen broken to lumbering and had no acquaintance 
 with the farming business. 
 
 ' ' I had never driven an ox team, and never save on 
 one occasion had seen a team of these animals driven 
 b.y any one else. When I yoked them up and started 
 in to plow I had trouble. They were fast walkers, be- 
 cause of their lumbering experience, and it was dif- 
 ficult to keep up with them. I could not keep the off 
 ,ox going right. Although I 'hawed' and 'gee'd' to the 
 best of my ability, the furrow was a zigzag. Finally 
 J said to the oxen : 'Go as you please. It's all got to 
 b.e plowed, so take it any way you like. ' 
 
 "The first year I raised beans, because the soil was 
 so run down that it would not produce anything else. 
 f had cows and we made butter. We raised some 
 jchickens; also, when we got around to it, potatoes, 
 cabbage, and other kinds of garden truck. Somehow, 
 I managed to. get along and gain a meager livelihood.
 
 64 W. B. WILSON 
 
 4 ' Eventually I acquired ownership of the farm. It 
 is my home today, in Blossburg, Pennsylvania, a 
 tract of about a hundred acres." 
 
 To a visitor at his farm Mr. Wilson said : 
 
 "We farm our lawn. We have none too much 
 land, and we have deemed it better to work the 
 good land than to try to keep up a lawn. ' ' 
 
 In the stretch in front of the house were a patch of 
 corn, a patch of potatoes, and a field of hay. 
 
 The Secretary said his miner friends at Blossburg 
 and Arnot were fond of joking him about his farm and 
 the cliffs thereon. Upon his return to his home at ono 
 time some of his friends met him at the station. Up- 
 on his asking them how things were, one of them re- 
 plied : 
 
 "Things are all right, Billy, except that your 
 brindle cow fell off your farm and got killed. ' ' 
 
 There are two things on which Secretary Wilson 
 set his heart. One was the establishment of a sub- 
 stantial back-to-the-soil movement, with government 
 aid ; the other, the fostering of seasonal vacations for 
 workers in the cities. 
 
 It is not an easy task to take men from the city 
 where they have become used to the life there and 
 put them on farms expecting them to stay. It is only 
 a question of a short time when they will get back to 
 the city again. It is almost the same with immigrants 
 who come to this country after having lived and 
 worked in communities on the other side. They, too, 
 find the life on the farm monotonous ; there seems to 
 be something lacking, and in course of time many of 
 them also drift back to the cities. 
 
 In this regard Mr. Wilson said: "I have a plan,
 
 SOMETHING ABOUT FARMING 65 
 
 however, and if Congress will only help me, I am quite 
 sure it will be successful. You know that every im- 
 migrant coming into this country has to pay a head 
 tax of eight dollars, and since this tax has been in ef- 
 fect it has yielded $10,000,000 more than the cost 
 of the service. Now if Congress will give us that sur- 
 plus of $10,000,000 to help in our back-to-the-farm 
 movement, I think it will be a question of only a short 
 time when the present congestion in the large cities 
 will be reduced, and the cost of living cheapened con- 
 siderably in addition. While our plans for this back- 
 to-the-farm movement are, of course, in an embryo 
 etate just now, I confidently hope to have them in 
 shape for Congress when it requests them." 
 
 "How will this $10,000,000 help your plan; do 
 you intend to buy farms and give them to persons of 
 good agricultural training living in the cities ? ' ' some 
 one would then ask the Secretary, as he told his story. 
 
 ' ' No, not exactly that, ' ' the Secretary would reply ; 
 "but we do plan to help them financially to get a start. 
 In starting the back-to-the-farm movement going, our 
 first efforts will be to bring about community life. 
 We intend to gather together a number of families 
 who are more or less congenial. They may or may 
 not be all of the same nationality. Then we will buy 
 the land and lay it out, giving each family whatever 
 allotment it needs, of course charging for it. In ad- 
 dition, we also plan to supply them with farm im- 
 plements, and, if necessary, with the means to keep 
 them going until they are able to get a return from 
 their farms. 
 
 "To protect the Government I would have the in- 
 dividual owner of 'each farm give us a mortgage or
 
 66 W. B. WILSON 
 
 note for the money advanced, either for the purchase 
 of the land or implements or the means advanced to 
 keep them until after harvest time. In addition to 
 this, these individual mortgage notes would be in- 
 dorsed or supervised by the other members of the com- 
 munity, so that we shall have a double guarantee that 
 the money will be returned. It would thus become a 
 rotary fund that could be used over and over again. 
 
 "It would not be my intention to establish these 
 farming communities in places far removed from large 
 cities. On the contrary, I propose to get as close as 
 possible to the large centers of population. I mean, 
 of course, as close as the price we believe we can pur- 
 chase the land for will warrant. Why, I have been told 
 that there are 100,000 acres of tillable land within a 
 hundred miles of New York City that can be pur- 
 chased for $15 an acre or less. See what the establish- 
 ment of farming communities in this area would 
 mean to the people of New York. 
 
 "I propose that the Secretary of Agriculture as- 
 sign specialists in the production and marketing of 
 farm products to these various communities, there to 
 aid the farmers in every way to produce the finest 
 crops at lowest cost." 
 
 But the back-to-the-soil plans over which Secretary 
 Wilson worked are no more interesting than his plans 
 for what he called harvest vacation clubs. In brief, 
 these clubs would consist of groups of toilers from 
 workshops and factories who during the summer 
 would be sent to farms for vacation periods to aid in 
 such things as hop picking, berry picking, fruit pick- 
 ing, and the like, as well as heavier harvesting. 
 
 The idea for this form of recreation was brought
 
 SOMETHING ABOUT FARMING 67 
 
 home to the Secretary when, as a little boy, he worked 
 beside his father in the coal mines of Pennsylvania. 
 Still later, when employed in the iron mines of Oneida 
 County, New York, he received a further demonstra- 
 tion of its efficacy. 
 
 "When I was a little boy," Secretary Wilson once 
 said to me, "my father would say to me quite fre- 
 quently, 'William, while you are resting, drill a hole,' 
 or, 'William, while you are resting, set a prop,' and 
 so on. At that time I did not understand the phi- 
 losophy of my father 's words. It was some years later 
 that my father 's philosophy became clear to me, and I 
 learned that a change of work is often a rest. A num- 
 ber of years ago I worked in an iron ore mine at Clin- 
 ton, New York. At that time it was the center 
 of the hop growing industry. One day I was 
 told that the mines were going to shut down, and 
 that every other industry in the neighborhood was 
 going to shut down, and we were all going hop-picking. 
 I didn't quite understand what it all meant until I 
 got into the hop fields. There we lived several weeks 
 in tents, picking hops in the day and attending hops 
 at night time, and I learned that each year all the 
 employees of the industrial plants at Clinton took a 
 vacation by going into the hop fields. It was a vaca- 
 tion that helped the hop farmers, because it supplied 
 them with the necessary labor to harvest their crops, 
 and it was a vacation that proved a great physical 
 benefit to the employees of the industrial concerns be- 
 cause it was something new. It was out in the open 
 and everybody seemed to enjoy it immensely, and re- 
 turned to his work in town greatly benefited in health 
 and no worse off financially.
 
 68 W. B. WILSON 
 
 "Soon after I became Secretary of Labor," Mr. 
 Wilson continued, ' ' the thought occurred to me that if 
 a vacation of this kind was so helpful and successful 
 up at Clinton there was no reason why it should not 
 be taken up advantageously by the larger cities. In 
 fact, my experience last year in supplying labor for 
 the wheat fields has almost convinced me that it will 
 provide a solution for the problem of supplying labor 
 for short periods. 
 
 "Last summer," the Secretary went on, "we sent 
 110,000 men out to the wheat fields. They worked for 
 two and a half months, and then there was nothing 
 for them to do. They had spent their railroad fare 
 to get to these places, and the problem was a serious 
 one. If we had been able to take the men from oc- 
 cupations in the cities, such as glass blowing and 
 foundry work, both of which are confining, and send 
 them out to the wheat belt during the harvest season, 
 how much better would it have been for the men 
 themselves, their employers, and for the farmers. Dur- 
 ing the summer months work at these occupations is 
 dull, and there would be an opportunity to spend two 
 or three weeks working in the open air, which be- 
 cause of its novelty would prove of much physical 
 value. Of course, such a plan can be put into opera- 
 tion only when employers and employees alike accept 
 it and make preparations in advance to put it into 
 effect." 
 
 In this way, the Secretary believed, the health of 
 the men would be much benefited, and at the same 
 time the needs of the farmers would be supplied. To 
 the men who would work it would be a novelty. The 
 work would be out in the open air all day, with plenty
 
 SOMETHING ABOUT FARMING 69 
 
 of good, substantial food and a good place to sleep. 
 It would be a change, and in addition the men em- 
 ployed would receive compensation for their work 
 that would more than pay for their railroad fare. 
 
 Should the plans of W. B. Wilson be successful, 
 pale-faced clerks who spend all their time in badly ven- 
 tilated offices bending over books will be found in the 
 apple orchards, picking the fruit and having a bully 
 good time in doing it. It is also not improbable that 
 pale-faced factory and shop girls will be found in the 
 berry fields and the hop fields engaged in a work dif- 
 ferent from that in the cities, and consequently afford- 
 ing a pleasant diversion. While, of course, the days 
 will be spent in work in the open air, every provision 
 will be made for the recreation of the workers. 
 
 There could be various kinds of entertainments in 
 the evening, so that the mechanic, the clerk, or the fac- 
 tory girl who gives up two, three, or four weeks in the 
 summer to this new kind of work would be benefited 
 in health, and would have all the pleasure to be de- 
 rived from an ordinary vacation, besides receiving 
 reasonably good compensation. 
 
 Of course, Mr. Wilson always had special sym- 
 pathy for the city man. He loved not only people but 
 animals, and everything else that grew and moved. 
 He was especially fond of dogs, and all dogs seemed 
 to know that Mr. Wilson was fond of them. It was 
 not an unusual thing for a stray dog to greet him on 
 the street like a long lost owner. Mr. Wilson never 
 turned a dog away; in most cases he couldn't if he 
 had wanted to do so, with the result that there are 
 several dogs in the Wilson household. 
 
 Many ask me what is the secret of Secretary Wil-
 
 70 W. B. WILSON 
 
 son's success. Many Vender how it is possible for a 
 man who was forced to leave school at nine years of 
 age to become the Labor Administrator of the great- 
 est nation on the face of the earth during the most 
 critical period of history. Many wonder how this 
 man, who has spent twenty-seven years in the mines 
 underground, working in the darkness, has the re- 
 markable knowledge of conditions and events which 
 he has. Those who have heard him speak, and know 
 of his power, wonder where he got it and how he de- 
 veloped it. 
 
 Of course, he secured and developed it by hard 
 work. After his hard day's work in the mines, he im- 
 mediately went to his books and studied. He was 
 always a great reader and a great student. He never 
 wasted a moment. Whenever the opportunity offered, 
 whether by the miner's lamp in the darkness or by 
 candle light at home or on horseback while traveling 
 over the mountains, if he had a spare moment, he 
 would take a book from his pocket and study. Many 
 will give this explanation as the reason for his success. 
 
 People, however, who have studied the careers of 
 great men know that Mr. Wilson's success is not 
 really due to this fact. Lots of people have worked 
 and studied as hard and harder than ever Secretary 
 Wilson did. Moreover, there are thousands of men 
 in the country of whom we have never heard who know 
 infinitely more than Secretary Wilson. Education is 
 a good thing. Work is a good thing. Study and work 
 are necessary for success, but these of themselves are 
 of little value. 
 
 W. B. Wilson's real success is due to the fact that 
 he has a heart, and that he knows how to read other
 
 SOMETHING ABOUT FARMING 71 
 
 men through their hearts. Moreover, this is the secret 
 of almost all success. It is well enough to talk about 
 economics, statistics, logic, etc., but these things really 
 cut little figure in the affairs of life. Possibly five per 
 cent, of what we do we do from reason, but fully 
 ninety-five per cent, we do for love of friends and for 
 the satisfaction of our own desires and emotions. We 
 are apt to think that it is things that make the world 
 go round, but this is a great mistake. Buildings, in- 
 dustries, railroads, steamships, and even schools and 
 colleges are the mere shell of the egg. The life of the 
 egg is the heart throb, and it is the heart throb that 
 makes the world go round. 
 
 W. B. Wilson's heart throbs. It always did. More- 
 over, when his heart is throbbing, it seems to make 
 the other fellow's heart throb also. The result is that 
 he makes friends, these friends mean other friends, 
 and all work together for a common good. 
 
 This spirit of the man is evident in his published 
 poems and in the letters that he has written, but 
 most of all in his love for animals and things that 
 grow. 
 
 His love for others was especially evident to me in 
 connection with the preparation of copy for posters 
 which were used during the war. For nearly all these 
 posters were either written or approved by him. When 
 I wrote the words, " You should stick to your job," 
 he would correct it and say, " We must stick to our 
 jobs." He constantly kept in mind that the other 
 fellow is just as anxious to do what is right as we are, 
 and that the task is to show him gently what that task 
 is without offending him. Sometimes he would dis- 
 approve of copy altogether, and write in the margin
 
 72 W. B. WILSON 
 
 these words, " Don't scold, rather enthuse;" or he 
 would say, " Appeal to the hearts of the men." I 
 first learned lessons along these lines from George 
 H. Lorimer, editor of the Saturday Evening Post; 
 but those were confirmed and emphasized by what I 
 have experienced with W. B. Wilson. 
 
 Manufacturers and other employers would come to 
 him to discuss questions of wages and hours, and he 
 would always courteously discuss these two things 
 with them. After the interview was over, however, 
 and these manufacturers had left the room, he would 
 say: 
 
 "Oh, how they miss the point! It's not wages and 
 hours, as such, in which wage earners of the country 
 are interested. Wages and hours are but temporary 
 means to an end. Wage earners are no different from 
 the rest of us. We are all actuated by the same basic 
 motives. The three great words of life are self-preser- 
 vation, self-reproduction, and self-respect. These are 
 fundamental with all normal persons, whether employ- 
 ers or wage workers. Oh, may the time come when 
 the employer will realize that it is not wages or hours 
 that the wage workers are interested in; but rather, 
 they are interested in self-preservation, self -reproduc- 
 tion, and self-respect! When employers grasp this 
 fact, and so arrange industry as to enable the wage 
 worker to work out his self-preservation, self-repro- 
 duction, and self-respect, then the question of wages 
 and hours will solve itself. We talk about co-opera- 
 tion. We all want co-operation, but co-operation will 
 come only as employer and wage worker unite in de- 
 veloping means whereby both shall have and enjoy 
 self-preservation, self-reproduction, and self-respect.
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 BUSINESS CYCLES 
 
 IN FORMER times, when the telegraph, railroads, 
 and other modern conveniences were unknown and 
 monetary systems were only of the simplest type, 
 cycles in the business world took the form of "years 
 of plenty" and " years of famine"; but with the ad- 
 vent of modern industrial improvements and busi- 
 ness methods we have gradually arrived at a more 
 or less systematic, cyclical condition of affairs affect- 
 ing the commercial and financial interests of the en- 
 tire world. As such a cycle consumed the major 
 portion of Mr. Wilson's life, a description is worth 
 while. 
 
 All history has been marked by distinct economic 
 cycles. Although of different durations, each cycle 
 has consisted of four distinct periods, namely : 
 
 (1) A Period of Prosperity; 
 
 (2) A Period of Decline; 
 
 (3) A Period of Depression; 
 
 (4) A Period of Improvement. 
 
 The idea that reckless prosperity can ever become 
 permanent and will not be followed by a business 
 depression, or the idea that there can be an unlimited 
 period of depression without being followed by re- 
 newed activity, shows both ignorance of economics 
 and utter inexperience in the business world. Theo- 
 retically, there should be a state where everybody 
 is always prosperous and nobody over-extends, where 
 
 73
 
 74 W. B. WILSON 
 
 the cost of living is reasonable, and the wage earner 
 has a margin to save for old age. Yet it is true that 
 we have never so far seen a condition so equable. 
 
 As above fhdicated, if the business of every country 
 were left to progress along a normal line of growth 
 (such as is represented by XY on the Edbson Com- 
 posite Plot], neither being inflated beyond what it 
 should be nor declining below its proper mean, there 
 would be no cycles, and panics, depressions, and booms 
 would be things of the past; but up to the present 
 we have not experienced this. Nevertheless, the vary- 
 ing periods continue less violent in the older, and 
 more conservative countries like England and France, 
 although radical and marked in our own compara- 
 tively new continent where the temperament of the 
 people is so energetic, impatient, and impulsive. 
 
 There are various changes in the business condi- 
 tions of our country which are generally known as 
 minor cycles. These are of a duration of only a very 
 few years (witness such depressions as those of 1884, 
 1903, etc.) ; but these are only incidents in the great 
 general or major cycles of about twenty years' dura- 
 tion 1837-1857, 1857-1873, 1873-1893, and 1893-1914, 
 the last two of which had an important effect upon 
 Mr. Wilson's life. 
 
 Let us examine the various features connected with 
 each period. Let us imagine ourselves in the midst 
 of an era of improvement, such as was incident to 
 the period beginning about 1878 or 1898, at a time 
 when Mr. Wilson and his associates had plenty of 
 work. Let us assume that the accumulated surplus 
 on the merchants' shelves has liow been sold, and new 
 orders are coming in, first with a measured increase,
 
 BUSINESS CYCLES 75 
 
 and later like an avalanche. The workmen who a 
 few years before were despondent and out of work 
 are now carrying the ' ' full dinner pail and singing a 
 blithesome song." Over time and "double shifts" 
 will soon be the order of the day. Railroad affairs, 
 so long in a dormant or unsatisfactory condition, are 
 now awakened into life, first for repairs and equip- 
 ment, then for improvements, and later on for exten- 
 sions and double trackings. 
 
 Consumption now exceeds production, causing a 
 continued rise in prices, merchants buy freely, and 
 stock up with large bills of goods, fully believing that 
 the increasing demand will enable them to sell much 
 merchandise at a handsome profit. In consequence 
 of this new demand, the smaller firms begin to expand, 
 hire more elaborate quarters, add to their working 
 force, and the larger established companies plan new 
 factory buildings and great campaigns for a perma- 
 nently enlarged business. Right at this point the 
 tendency to over-build and over-expand appears, espe- 
 cially among those who have not given sufficient at- 
 tention to fundamental conditions, and watched bank 
 clearings, foreign trade, crops, etc., or all combined 
 as shown on the Composite Plot. 
 
 The big interests plan not only for present needs 
 and growth, but for many years hence, on the sup- 
 position that business will increase indefinitely at the 
 same rapid rate. The more conservative resist at 
 first the temptation to expand unduly; but later, 
 seeing the other concerns preparing to take the lion's 
 share of the extra demand for goods in their line, 
 increase their own plants to keep pace with the ex- 
 pansion,
 
 76 W. B. WILSON 
 
 The cut-throat competition of a few years previous 
 is almost forgotten in the effort to fill orders at fancy 
 prices. This is the period when competition gives 
 way to consolidation, and the manufacturing and 
 other interests, tired of price and rate wars, natu- 
 rally tend to co-operation inasmuch as there is more 
 than enough business for all. They, in fact, inaugu- 
 rate plans for close alliances and consolidation of 
 interest which will do away, as far as they are con- 
 cerned, with the disastrous times they have lately 
 experienced. Such a period of railroad "community 
 of interests" and trust forming existed in 1870, when 
 Billy Wilson as a boy landed at Ellis Island, and 
 then again in 1890, and later in 1910. 
 
 The beginning of this real activity is the sign for 
 the foreign population to rush for the "boom" 
 country. Many laborers, who had a few years before 
 crowded the outgoing steamships to return with their 
 savings to the "Old Country" where living was 
 cheap, now return to take advantage of the great 
 demand for labor and good wages. At first the im- 
 migration figures show a small increase, then a larger 
 increase, until finally every incoming ocean steamer 
 is crowded, and the steamship authorities, intent on 
 making up for lost time, search high and low for 
 European peasants to swell the lists of those who 
 make up their steerage traffic as they come to take 
 advantage of our prosperity. 
 
 Skilled labor also enjoys particular advantages 
 during such periods, as competitive bidding for its 
 hire becomes more and more keen. As the increased 
 demand raises the prices of labor, workers become 
 more and more independent, labor unions and ' ' walk-
 
 BUSINESS CYCLES 77 
 
 ing delegates" thrive, strikes are likely to predomi- 
 nate and increase almost in proportion as prosperity 
 increases. As Mr. Wilson has often said, " Condi- 
 tions make the agitators; the agitators do not make 
 conditions. ' ' 
 
 As the hum of manufacturing activity continues 
 from day to day, and news of high wages, short hours, 
 and double time is scattered abroad, many are at- 
 tracted from the country to the city. In this way a 
 surplus of labor is finally accumulated in the cities 
 at the expense of the farms and agricultural produc- 
 tion. This tends to cut down the amount of raw 
 products, and at the same time raises the price of 
 commodities, all of which still further overstrains 
 the already expanded condition of affairs. Em- 
 ployers, anxious to keep their plants running and 
 turn out their orders, are now likely to accede to all 
 demands of labor. The workmen ask for more money, 
 pleading the increased cost of living, and the em- 
 ployer immediately has recourse to higher prices for 
 his goods. Mr. Wilson enjoyed this period for a 
 short time during his life ; but it did not last long. 
 
 Commodity prices are all this time gradually in- 
 creasing during a period of prosperity. Iron and 
 copper, with other construction materials, are con- 
 tinually on the ascending scale. Food stuffs and 
 clothing enhance in value. Opportunity then exists 
 for the unscrupulous manipulator to corner the neces- 
 saries of life, take advantage of the extraordinary de- 
 mand on the part of manufacturers, and force prices 
 skyward until a smash occurs. These excessive prices 
 and general optimism cause merchants and manufac- 
 turers gradually to extend their borrowing and build
 
 78 W. B. WILSON 
 
 up an inverted pyramid of over-expansion until the 
 day comes when it fails with a stupendous crash. Mr. 
 Wilson was hit by two of these blows in 1873 and 
 again in 1893, with an intermediate crack in 1884. 
 
 But, to go tack a little before this time, when banks 
 are overloaned and everything is strained to the 
 breaking point, there is likely to occur what is known 
 as a "money" or "stock market" panic. The pur- 
 chasing power of the public has reached a limit, a 
 selling movement and a shock occurs, everybody is 
 frightened, and almost before it is known the stock 
 market has collapsed. As may be expected, in case 
 such a "rich man's panic" occurs, the losses are 
 principally in and around the great centers like New 
 York, while the West scarcely feels the effect at all. 
 A recovery, however, usually comes after this first 
 crack. The stock market rallies, and the principal 
 result is that many who were caught in the crash do 
 not again return to speculation. 
 
 Yet railroad earnings continue to increase, being 
 little affected by the temporary Wall Street trouble. 
 The great agricultural sections of our country pre- 
 serve their optimistic attitude. The very fact that 
 the "crash" has occurred (even though it be only a 
 crash in Wall Street), and is now a thing of the past, is 
 reassuring to those who are not sufficiently informed. 
 The best informed investors, however, have already 
 sold the highest grade bonds some time ago, and are 
 now in the process of liquidating their more specula- 
 tive bonds. Consequently bond prices are now grad- 
 ually falling, while stocks may again be engineered 
 for a rise. 
 
 During such a period extravagance runs riot. The
 
 BUSINESS CYCLES 79 
 
 better grade clerks and mechanics, who have been 
 living in cramped quarters since the depression in 
 the struggle to come out "square," move into better 
 and more congenial homes. Real estate sells at 
 nearly top figures. Credit expands, money is easy, 
 and rates are low. Commodity prices climb skyward, 
 wages are increasing, money is made freely and con- 
 sequently quickly spent. The better classes now turn 
 their attention to foreign travel in the effort to spend 
 some of the money which has been made. Long 
 vacations, elaborate excursions, and luxurious living 
 is the general order of the day. Capital is exhausted 
 by such methods, but in the good feeling that pre- 
 dominates, and the extravagance that prevails, the 
 future is mortgaged with the idea that good times 
 will continue indefinitely. All this tends to selfish- 
 ness and self-indulgence, qualities that breed social 
 and moral waywardness, which in turn demands more 
 money and inculcates a disposition to get it by fair 
 means or foul. Hence the awful corruption that is 
 disclosed when the day of reckoning appears. Hence 
 the bitter attitude of the masses when this corruption 
 is disclosed. 
 
 At such a time the whole situation is strained 
 nearly to its utmost limit. Banks are overloaned, re- 
 serves are low, capital is exhausted in this country, 
 and much is drawn from foreign centres. Over-pro- 
 duction is rife, the railroads are clogged with trans- 
 portation, a great shortage in cars occurs, and orders 
 are delayed. The stock market is by this time pushed 
 to new inflated levels, and all is ripe for the inevitable 
 decline. Only some startling event is necessary to 
 start values on a downward scale, and often this oc-
 
 80 W. B. WILSON 
 
 curs in the form of a great earthquake, a fire, assas- 
 sination, crop failure, labor strike, or other conclusive 
 event, and generally the failure of some large banking 
 concern follows. 
 
 For some time the insiders have been selling. At 
 last the market begins to fall. Interest rates have 
 been increasing for some time, as the demand for 
 money for speculation increases, and now rates rise 
 rapidly and a great shortage of loaning ability oc- 
 curs. For a long while the bears have been attacking 
 the market with indifferent success; but now a con- 
 tinuous decline occurs in spite of all the bulls can 
 do to resist it. At such a time stock values have been 
 known to shrink $2,000,000,000 or more within six 
 months. Thousands of business men and others are 
 caught unprepared, and carried down in the rush. 
 Many, carried away with the apparent great pros- 
 perity, do not even dream of such a crash, but wake 
 up too late and find themselves ruined. Failures 
 now abound. Then comes the sad day for labor which 
 W. B. Wilson has seen only too often. These are 
 the experiences that make the friends of labor fearful 
 of the capitalistic system. 
 
 Apprehension now takes the place of confidence. 
 Prices having become so high, people can stand it no 
 longer, especially those living on fixed incomes. Ex- 
 penses are curtailed, high-priced foods and other com- 
 modities are tabooed, and the result is a loss of orders 
 on the part of manufacturers. When production ex- 
 ceeds consumption prices fall owing to the severe 
 competition which follows. This decline is first felt 
 in raw materials, and such articles as pig iron, copper, 
 wheat, corn, and other grains, butter, eggs, and pro-
 
 BUSINESS CYCLES 81 
 
 visions are now due for an extensive slump. As iron 
 enters so largely into railroad construction and many 
 other lines of trade, when caution begins to prevail 
 a great scramble is made on the part of the users of 
 this commodity to cancel orders. This causes still 
 further disaster. Extreme dullness in the iron and 
 steel industry is soon felt in other similar lines. At 
 this period occurs the hand-to-mouth policy so much 
 dreaded by manufacturers. Demand for goods de- 
 creases to a minimum because everybody is hoping to 
 take advantage of still lower prices. 
 
 This leaves manufacturers with large stocks of goods 
 which they not only find it hard to dispose of, but 
 which are often sold at a loss. As these stocks of goods 
 represent a great amount of money, which is not 
 readily available, further failures follow. This also 
 continues to overstrain the banking situation still 
 more. 
 
 At this juncture the farmer, who has been paying 
 enormous prices for his necessities, holds back grains 
 and other products of his fields in the hope of 
 getting better prices later on. Finding, however, that 
 prices do not readily rise, he throws his goods on to 
 the market, and concerted action of many serves to 
 hold the price down by glutting the market. 
 
 Railroads have at this end of the boom replaced 
 their long time bond issues by short term notes, in the 
 hope that the prevailing high interest rates will be 
 lower at the maturity of these issues. At maturity, 
 however, it is found almost impossible to get the 
 market to absorb any new issues at all. New proj- 
 ects are postponed, equipment orders are called off, 
 and while an effort is made not to discharge any men,
 
 82 W. B. WILSON 
 
 a general slackening is felt, causing increasing dull- 
 ness in the iron and steel centers and affiliated trades. 
 This is a period when railroad gross earnings are 
 fairly large, but owing to slackened business and 
 costs not yet liquidated, net earnings tend to show a 
 falling off. At this point the weaker companies, one 
 by one, pass their dividends, more hesitation occurs, 
 and apprehension grows. 
 
 During the previous boom more and more investors 
 and speculators purchased real estate. Land values 
 in city and country consequently appreciated. There 
 seems to be a feeling prevalent that land is something 
 more permanent and substantial, and therefore will 
 not depreciate. On the contrary, however, some of the 
 greatest depressions from which labor has suffered 
 have been in part due to over-speculation in real 
 estate. The law of equal and opposite reaction ap- 
 plies to land values as to everything else. This espe- 
 cially hits the working class, who, at the time of high- 
 priced commodities, are driven little by little from 
 their city homes to the suburbs and country. 
 
 The real estate promoter finds he has over-built, 
 and the farmer also, on account of lower prices for 
 his products, suddenly awakes to the fact that he has 
 overdrawn on the future and inflated farm prices go 
 down. It must be remembered, however, that the 
 farmer generally feels the effect of the decline less 
 than almost any one else, largely on account of the 
 fact that his wares will always be purchased sooner or 
 later, and at some price. 
 
 According to Mr. Wilson's experience, it is at this 
 juncture that labor begins to feel the effect of the 
 downward trend. Immigration has steadily declined
 
 BUSINESS CYCLES 83 
 
 for a considerable length of time, especially since 
 railroad construction and new building projects began 
 to be curtailed. Over time has ceased, shorter hours 
 have begun. Now comes a gradual shortage of posi- 
 tions obtainable, and others, taking advantage of the 
 slow-down, decide to reduce the wages of their em- 
 ployees. This is always a hardship. The men in good 
 times have been educated to better living, and it is 
 hard to curtail. During the latter end of the period 
 of prosperity strikes were prevalent for more pay, 
 recognition of various organizations, etc., but now the 
 workmen are likely to strike to better themselves or 
 to prevent curtailment of their opportunities. This 
 often leads to a long and disastrous labor complica- 
 tion. The unions are conciliated by capital when 
 rush orders are to be filled, and thus strikes are post- 
 poned; but when orders don't exist there is likely to 
 occur a great conflict which extends into the depres- 
 sion and lasts until the laborers see their case is hope- 
 less. 
 
 The stock market meantime continues its downward 
 course. Fear and apprehension increase, and opti- 
 mism reluctantly gives way to pessimism. Luxuries are 
 given up by the wholesale. The people, at last awak- 
 ing to the fact that a wide-spread depression is im- 
 minent, begin to urge reform of every type. The 
 party in power for some time has been scanning the 
 handwriting on the wall, and now opens political 
 agitation for supposed betterments on every hand. If 
 a presidential election is at hand, another party is 
 likely to be intrusted with the reins of government. 
 
 While nearly everything and everybody is assum- 
 ing a pessimistic tone, there is one factor that as-
 
 84 W. B. WILSON 
 
 sumes a hopeful outlook. At the height of the pre- 
 vious prosperity, when speculation was rife in other 
 forms, the slower, safer, and less remunerative bond 
 market was almost deserted. Prices, except on the 
 more speculative issues, had dropped to a low ebb. 
 But now more conservative investors, tired of recent 
 happenings, are turning again to high grade, fixed 
 income securities, and the bond market, beginning 
 with the highest grade issues, is now improving every 
 week. 
 
 Interest rates rise, first slowly, then sometimes with 
 lightning-like rapidity, until money cannot be ob- 
 tained at any rate whatever. These high rates cause 
 merchants who are investing in shares to sell their 
 stocks in order to obtain the necessary funds for their 
 business, and this acts as an additional depressive 
 factor. Everything combines to make matters worse. 
 Many small depositors (and often some very large 
 ones, it is feared) withdraw their funds, a run on 
 the banks occurs, and the panic 'is on. Fear begets 
 fear, and the whole monetary and banking system has 
 in the past been so interwoven that bank failures 
 spread rapidly. In the great depression beginning in 
 1893 several hundred banks went under. Mr. Wilson 
 then saw many of the workers lose their all. 
 
 Money, after the strain is over, gradually becomes 
 as low as it was previously abnormally high, but many 
 can not use it. As firms try to extricate themselves 
 from their financial tangles, failures, large and small, 
 continue among mercantile houses for a considerable 
 length of time. Every week brings news of one after 
 another that has gone under. Imports decrease 
 amazingly, both in quantity and value. Mills close
 
 BUSINESS CYCLES 85 
 
 down, railroads retrench, in fact, it is not remark- 
 able if they go into bankruptcy altogether. 
 
 After such an acute panic there comes a long drawn 
 out period of dullness in which the majority of people 
 are troubled and discouraged beyond measure. Con- 
 fidence, that asset of so vital importance to the busi- 
 ness world, is now destroyed. Not only is nearly 
 every line of business in a depressed condition, but 
 the optimistic spirit of the people which has prevailed 
 so long is now chilled. When optimism turns to pes- 
 simism, it is only a slow, gradual process that will re- 
 place the shattered confiden ^e of the business world. 
 
 The stronger houses continue to exist only because 
 able to carry on business at a loss, all the time hop- 
 ing for the day to come when the tide will turn and 
 they can recoup their extensive losses. It is a case of 
 the survival of the fittest, and those who are sagacious 
 enough to be informed concerning fundamentals and 
 to be strong in cash at such times reap a golden re- 
 ward for their foresight. 
 
 This is why the great business men like Rockefeller, 
 the late Marshall Field, and others, not only were 
 secure in these periods when others were undergoing 
 the agony of failure, but were positively able to lay 
 the foundation for tremendous profits later on. It is 
 an open fact that the great oil magnate stored cash in 
 large quantities against the time when he could buy 
 up his competitors at panic prices. The great Chi- 
 cago merchant, at the time when manufacturers were 
 scraping the trade with, a fine-tooth comb for orders, 
 would contract to take their output for a term of 
 years at a rate even above depression prices, but 
 which, of course, would be low enough to enable him
 
 86 W. B. WILSON 
 
 to make a handsome showing as the country emerged 
 from the depression and entered the period of pros- 
 perity again. 
 
 Mr. Wilson has called these things to my attention 
 not in any complaining spirit, but only as an illustra- 
 tion of why labor feels as it does toward such men. 
 Capital is vigorously assailed by those who have been 
 thrown out of employment, and many times it is 
 blamed for the whole trouble. Strikes are at first vio- 
 lent, but finally the operatives subside into sullen and 
 dogged discouragement, their debts pile up, vagrancy 
 increases, and the situation is one of great hardship 
 for mechanics and operatives. Immigration declines 
 to a minimum, and many of the foreign laborers who 
 came in swarms to our shores a few years before, now 
 return to their old homes, either to live in plenty for 
 the remainder of their lives or to await an oppor- 
 tunity to return when the next boom is on. A period 
 of this sort occurred when Coxey's army marched to 
 Washington and will be long remembered by our 
 people. 
 
 Hesitation marks the attitude of nearly everybody. 
 The hoarded money continues to lie idle, being at- 
 tracted only after a long while from its hiding places. 
 Even good speculative opportunities are passed by in 
 the extreme conservatism. For a time a cash basis is 
 insisted upon. The rule of the day is now hard 
 work among nearly all classes. Extravagance has had 
 its day, the penalty has been paid, and now an era 
 of saving is in force. Small stocks are carried on the 
 shelves, wages are reduced, many are forced to change 
 to other occupations, less expensive quarters are 
 sought out, and the city returns many to the country
 
 BUSINESS CYCLES 87 
 
 where the shattered fortunes may be retrieved. This 
 eventually helps the great West, and opens its re- 
 sources. 
 
 Commodity prices are low, hence exports increase 
 to take advantage of the better prices and better trade 
 conditions abroad, and interest rates continue heavy. 
 Stock market transactions are almost negligible, the 
 brokers are despondent, and many of them go out of 
 business. 
 
 Confidence has suffered fearfully, but little by little 
 the situation changes. Many times matters have been 
 said to be improving, but hope was dashed to the 
 ground. Finally a slight but real progress is seen. 
 Money piling up in the banks, instead of going into 
 use, indicates an abnormal condition that fear still 
 reigns in place of confidence; but the accretion of 
 funds steadily continues until confidence gradually 
 asserts its sway. The growth of confidence naturally 
 depends on the force of the shock it previously sus- 
 tained, and on the various surrounding conditions, 
 favorable and unfavorable. But the knowledge that 
 such great sums are accumulating in the banks of the 
 country is an important factor in restoring confidence. 
 Such an accumulation of money acts as an object les- 
 son and tends ultimately to cheapen the value of 
 money, depriving it of the false estimate that has been 
 put on it for some time past. Finally it becomes 
 necessary for the owners of this capital to get an in- 
 terest return, and the money gradually begins to cir- 
 culate in business channels and thus to start up better 
 times. So again an extreme cures itself. Loans and 
 discounts are the best indices at this time of the re-
 
 88 W. B. WILSON 
 
 turn of confidence, and they form at all times the 
 best barometer of mercantile activity. 
 
 The process of reorganization and rehabilitation is 
 slow and tedious. Capitalizations are scaled down, 
 new managements are placed in charge, and conser- 
 vative measures adopted for carrying on the enter- 
 prises which have been brought into disrepute by 
 reckless speculation. At length the surplus funds 
 seek an outlet for investment, and there is developed a 
 buying of the older and higher grade issues. Railroad 
 bonds and municipals develop a fair market. A few 
 new issues are tried. If success attends them, con- 
 fidence improves, and even while many are complain- 
 ing of the fearful depression, and are beginning to 
 think that there will never be an improvement, bond 
 prices begin to rise. 
 
 The very low interest rates and surplus capital 
 available cause men to turn to the best place for in- 
 vestment. This is not usually the securities market, 
 as they are fearful of getting their funds in an un- 
 liquid form again, and that class of investments 
 which was the first to go down is now the first to ap- 
 preciate in price. The public as yet does not enter 
 the market. Even the investor is not buying, but only 
 those who are students of fundamental business condi- 
 tions and who have been studying the Composite Plot, 
 and thus know that matters are now on a sound basis. 
 The majority of people can not now be induced to 
 buy a stock or bond at any price. The memory of the 
 past is still strong, and they are waiting for every- 
 body else to buy before they buy. 
 
 Good commercial paper is now hard to obtain, and 
 the return on it is very small. Finally, the banks,
 
 BUSINESS CYCLES 89 
 
 seeking an outlet for surplus funds, turn to the bond 
 market, and this starts an active business in this class 
 of securities. This encourages the investor, and little 
 by little the situation improves until a good bull 
 movement in bonds is in full force. .The stock specu- 
 lator, not slow to take advantage of everything, has for 
 some time been trying to work stocks upward. A small 
 rise has been quickly followed by a decline, as some 
 became frightened or sought to take profits, and 
 transactions are very small. As the bond market 
 gets on a good foundation, however, and -as confidence 
 returns, a desire appears to get greater profits than 
 in the higher grade, low interest bearing .securities, 
 and the stock market, for a long while almost de- 
 spaired of, now shows a real improvement. 
 
 The banks and other institutions now endeavor to 
 make a better showing to stockholders, and look for 
 higher yield. The water has been squeezed out of 
 many stock issues, values are better than for many 
 years, the outlook is more hopeful, and these institu- 
 tions now begin to invest in preferred stocks which 
 are believed to be absolutely good. This encourages 
 the investor, who has already found that his venture 
 in bonds was opportune, and gradually an active and 
 rising stock market is developed. 
 
 Meanwhile debts, in a large measure, have been paid 
 off. The economy of the people for some years has 
 relieved the extravagance of the former period. Sur- 
 plus stocks are leaving the merchants' shelves. A 
 large export trade has still further depleted them, and 
 a demand is springing up which is felt first in raw ma- 
 terials, and later in manufactures. Pig iron, always 
 a sensitive barometer, is one of the first commodities
 
 90 W. B. WILSON 
 
 to show an improvement in price, and other metals 
 follow. The necessities of life, and other materials 
 that enter into most general and diversified use, now 
 appreciate. A better demand is felt in our own 
 country, and exports fall off as sales become more ac- 
 tive here. 
 
 The better feeling gradually extends to every form 
 of business. Railroads begin to plan improvements 
 and to enter the market for equipment. New issues 
 are being financed continually. Factories, so long 
 dormant, awake to new life. Labor is better em- 
 ployed. Immigration at last is on an ascending scale 
 again. New construction takes on activity. Plans for 
 new propositions are unfolded and taken up as the 
 improvement in trade increases, gradually at first, but 
 increasing until the boom period is reached again. 
 
 Following the increased activity of and rise in com- 
 modity prices, the speculative element starts a bull 
 campaign in grain, produce, etc., and this gives a 
 still greater impetus to all kinds of business. This is 
 the signal for the farmer and Western land speculators 
 to begin an upward movement in real estate, and land 
 values increase, mortgages abound, and an incipient 
 Western boom is on its way again. Finally, and this 
 is the last thing to move, real estate in the city is also 
 in demand again. New offices are taken, the ' ' to let " 
 signs little by little are removed from the windows of 
 our skyscrapers and dwelling houses, and an opti- 
 mistic view of the situation begins to be taken by all. 
 This completes the cycle and brings us back to the 
 point at the beginning of this chapter coincident with 
 the period of improvement. Only as these cycles are 
 understood by the reader, and it is realized that Wil-
 
 BUSINESS CYCLES 91 
 
 liam B. Wilson has struggled through two of them, 
 can his point of view toward men and money be 
 understood.
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 RAILROADING IN IOWA 
 
 THE GREAT panic of the 'nineties left the country 
 prostrated industrially. No industry suffered more 
 than the soft coal industry ; no part of the country suf- 
 fered more than western Pennsylvania, where the 
 Wilsons lived. 
 
 But the Wilsons suffered not only from the heavy 
 hand of business prostration, but also from the strong 
 prejudice of the mine owners. On account of his 
 part in the strike of 1894, Mr. Wilson was hated and 
 persecuted by the mine owners of western Pennsyl- 
 vania. It was impossible for him to get a job. Al- 
 though of a peaceful and kindly nature, a man who 
 never said a word against another, he was labeled a 
 dangerous agitator. This was simply because he was 
 a member of the National Executive Board of the 
 United Mine Workers of America. He received no 
 salary for this work, but held the position simply 
 from love for his fellows. 
 
 At first the mine owners attempted to scare him. 
 The lawyers, the courts, the police, all were controlled 
 by the big corporations owning the mines, the houses, 
 the stores, the churches, the schools, the railroads, 
 yes everything. These hard-hearted men, through 
 their hired agents, stooped to the meanest possible 
 methods of persecution. They haled Mr. Wilson into 
 court. The court enjoined him for contempt. Only 
 when the masses arose and surrounded the Court 
 House was he acquitted by Judges Hoffman and Boyd. 
 
 92
 
 RAILROADING IN IOWA 93 
 
 The mine owners did not stop at this. When he 
 was acquitted on the above charges, the police, who 
 were simply their hired agents, came and arrested him 
 for conspiracy. This was in Lonaconing, Maryland. 
 Was he taken to Arnot, or Blossburg, or any other 
 place where he had friends? No, he was taken to 
 Cumberland, Maryland, and there thrown into jail. 
 All this was done secretly. His friends did not know 
 whether he had been murdered or kidnapped. But 
 the whole countryside turned out to help search for 
 him and in two days they found him. 
 
 Wilson always had friends. He knew that the mo- 
 tive of life is the heart ; he appealed to others through 
 their hearts and others appealed to him through his 
 heart. And here is where the lawyers with all their 
 intelligence and wealth failed in their purpose to 
 crush him. His friends succeeded in getting him out 
 of jail; they took him before a Justice of the Peace 
 and he was let off on $500 bonds for appearance. 
 
 Was he guilty? I think the fact that the lawyers 
 of the mine owners never would permit the case to 
 come to trial answers that question. He never 
 started a disturbance in his life. He used his whole 
 physical, mental, and spiritual energy to prevent 
 violence. When the courts failed and the jails failed, 
 then the mine owners called out the militia. The 
 whole militia of the district was called to an encamp- 
 ment at Frostburg, Pennsylvania. There the soldiers 
 waited for an excuse to pounce upon Wilson and his 
 followers, but the opportunity never came. 
 
 When everything else failed, there was one punish- 
 ment which the mine owners always had. They were
 
 94 W. B. WILSON 
 
 able to refuse a workman a job. They refused to hire 
 Wilson. They urged others to refuse to hire Wilson. 
 They said : ' ' We can 't crush him, but we can starve 
 him. We will refuse to give him work or let others 
 give him work until his wife and children cry with 
 hunger, and then he will come around to our terms." 
 
 This was the method which the mine owners em- 
 ployed against him in 1881, when, with fifty others, 
 he was thrown out of employment during the cold 
 winter months, without a thing to fall back upon. 
 That was when he found from sad experience what it 
 was to be blacklisted. That was when he was forced to 
 dig ditches as a common laborer, to work in the woods 
 as a lumber jack, wood chopper, bark peeler, and log 
 driver. 
 
 Perhaps one of the most interesting experiences of 
 the time when he was under the ban of the blacklist 
 was when he was railroading. He had tramped from 
 Arnot, Pennsylvania, through New York State across 
 Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, to Iowa, hunting for work. 
 Everywhere the report had preceded him that he was 
 blacklisted. It made no difference how badly he 
 wanted the work or how willing he was to work he 
 was blacklisted. It is his memory of these days that 
 caused him to say with tears in his eyes: 
 
 "The world does not owe every one a living, but it 
 does owe every one an opportunity to make a living." 
 
 For weeks he had tramped and tramped, looking 
 for work. People were anxious to have him until they 
 learned that he was one of the miners of northern 
 Pennsylvania. Then they threw him out and he was 
 obliged to tramp farther. 
 
 Finally he reached Waterloo, Iowa. The first per-
 
 RAILROADING IN IOWA 95 
 
 son whom he hit for a job was a man in charge of 
 the railroad yards, whose name was Densmore. Mr. 
 Wilson went to this man, told him his story honestly, 
 as he always did, and Mr. Densmore replied : 
 
 "If a man is willing to work, I am willing to give 
 him an opportunity. I care not what others say or 
 think." 
 
 So Densmore gave Wilson a job. His first work 
 was in the yard, shoveling coal. He was such a good 
 shoveler that he was soon made fireman on a freight 
 locomotive. After working around the yards on a 
 shifting engine for some time, he was sent out on 
 trips. It was on one of these trips that he learned to 
 become sympathetic with the railroad men. Perhaps 
 the story of his last trip will explain the reason. 
 
 The order had come in for an engineer named Ken- 
 nedy and a fireman named Wilson to leave Waterloo 
 on a certain morning for Fort Dodge, a run of about 
 one hundred miles. At the end of this run, gust as they 
 were pulling in, telegraphic orders came for them 
 to run during the night to Le Mars. They had just 
 reached Le Mars the next morning when orders on 
 the. wire came for them to take the run from Le Mars 
 back to Fort Dodge. This order they obeyed, though 
 it meant that they had been twenty-eight hours with- 
 out sleep. Then, just as they were entering Fort 
 Dodge and were about ready to drop in their tracks, 
 orders came for them to take a train to Ackley and 
 return, a run of sixty miles and two hours additional, 
 each way. On returning to Fort Dodge, they were 
 sent back to Waterloo, and then from Waterloo to 
 Dubuque, a distance of ninety-three miles and return. 
 
 But the boys didn't complain. Wilson said he could
 
 96 W. B. WILSON 
 
 shovel coal as long as the other chap could hold on to 
 the throttle. They had been on a run of about 
 seventy-four hours, when suddenly Wilson noticed 
 that the engineer was nodding. He awoke him and 
 soon saw him nodding again. He woke him the second 
 time, and again found him sleeping. The third time, 
 he told the engineer to lie down on the floor of the 
 cab and Wilson himself took the throttle and acted as 
 engineer. Suddenly the red light of a passenger 
 train came into view a few feet ahead of him. He 
 threw in the reverse, he put on the brakes, and stopped 
 the freight train just as the two trains came together. 
 No one was hurt. The cow catcher was bent and the 
 rear platform of the passenger train was a little 
 dented, but that was all. No, I won't say it was all, 
 for it did do one other thing it satisfied W. B. Wil- 
 son as to railroading. When he got his engine back 
 he said, "No more for me;" but from that day to 
 this he has had a warm spot in his heart for the 
 railroad men of America. This explains why, like 
 the miners, they have been solidly behind him. He 
 has been able to understand them, and what else is 
 there to life other than Jove, hope, sympathy, and 
 understanding? 
 
 After going to bed and sleeping for a day, he again 
 came to himself and started out again to get work. 
 This time he got a job at a stone quarry. 
 
 But the best part of it all is that, notwithstanding 
 these experiences, Mr. Wilson has always felt kindly 
 toward owners and could always see both sides of every 
 controversy. It was only a year or two after these 
 experiences, when he was attending a convention back 
 in Pennsylvania, that he said :
 
 RAILROADING IN IOWA 97 
 
 "Strikes between labor and capital are like wars 
 between nations they bring suffering and privation 
 to the parties involved and often injury to the in- 
 nocent bystander. For that reason working men sel- 
 dom engage in a strike except where they have a real 
 grievance or an imaginary grievance which has all 
 the force of reality to them ; and for the same reason 
 employers seldom permit a strike to occur unless they 
 believe that a vital principle is involved which they 
 cannot surrender. How much better it would be, 
 then, for all parties concerned instead of resorting to 
 strikes and lock-outs to sit around the council tables 
 and endeavor to work out their differences on a basis 
 as nearly equitable as the circumstances surrounding 
 the industry would permit." 
 
 It was owing to this hard experience of tramping 
 from place to place for a job that he insisted on a 
 United States Employment Service when he had the 
 opportunity. In this connection he said to me one 
 evening : 
 
 "To my mind there has always been lacking in our 
 institutions the proper means of connecting the em- 
 ployer and employee. We have had a clearing house 
 for almost every other purpose imaginable clearing 
 houses of finance, clearing houses of cotton, clearing 
 houses for wheat, clearing houses for every kind of 
 human production but we have no clearing house 
 for human labor. The idea, or rather the nucleus I 
 might more properly say the germ was first indi- 
 cated in the Federal law when our immigration law 
 was created. We were receiving from foreign coun- 
 tries large numbers of immigrants. They were people 
 who came here having the vision of human liberty.
 
 98 W. B. WILSON 
 
 They were inspired with the hope that comes for a 
 knowledge of our institutions. They had disposed of 
 all of their little belongings in their home countries 
 and had come to our shores, spending their posses- 
 sions in the transportation, and when they reached 
 here they were not in a position to go on the land, cul- 
 tivate, and live upon it until they could get returns 
 therefrom. They could not go out upon the land as 
 farm laborers, because since the introduction of mod- 
 ern machinery farming has become to a very great ex- 
 tent a seasonal occupation, and so they drifted into 
 those classes of labor where they could secure speedy 
 returns from their toil, where they could be paid at 
 stated periods. They created in our industrial centers 
 a congested condition, and we had large numbers of 
 them unemployed. The number of unemployed varied 
 in different periods, but there was always a condition 
 existing where the man around the corner needed some 
 repairs for his house and the carpenter around the 
 corner needed the work, and neither knew of the 
 needs of the other because there was no clearing house. 
 To relieve that condition so far as it affected the im- 
 migrant there was placed in our immigration law a 
 section creating a division the duty of which would 
 be to find opportunities for the immigrant, and some 
 thoughtful legislature added the words 'and others.' 
 That division maintained an office in the Barge Office 
 at New York. Here and there it was able to place 
 the immigrant in some agricultural pursuit. 
 
 "There was a disposition on the part of labor in 
 industrial pursuits to fear the placement of those 
 workmen in industrial occupations and to fear the 
 competition of those men. To my mind the fear was
 
 RAILROADING IN IOWA 99 
 
 based on a misconception of the economic conditions. 
 I have more fear and I may say that while I was 
 myself engaged in actual physical work I had more 
 fear of the man who had no job than I did of the 
 competition of the man who did have a job. The 
 placing of those men in industrial pursuits was more 
 beneficial to the man who worked for wages than al- 
 lowing them to congregate in our large cities and in- 
 dustrial centers without any occupation whatever. 
 
 "However, the little division struggled along for 
 years, placing a few hundreds of people annually, un- 
 til the Department of Labor was created, a little more 
 than five years ago, and we came to the conclusion 
 then that the activities of that division ought to be 
 extended. That also added but one thought to the 
 thoughts that had gone before. We believed that the 
 field of the division should be made broader and we 
 took steps to accomplish that end. Then came the 
 period of depression in 1914, with millions of workers 
 out of employment ; and at the same time the farmers 
 in the great wheat belt in the Middle West needed tens 
 of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of workers. 
 But the worker idle in the city did not know of the 
 opportunity for work in the wheat fields. We then 
 conceived the idea of bringing the information to the 
 idle workers that employment was to be had for a 
 brief period of time in the harvest fields. We had 
 no funds with which to reach the harvest fields; but 
 we gave them the information, and as a result the 
 farmers saved their crops. 
 
 ' ' That turned my attention to another phase of the 
 problem and the possibility of putting into operation 
 what to me for years had been a dream, and to me
 
 100 W. B. WILSON 
 
 seems yet but purely a dream. Time and again I 
 have presented the thought to different bodies of men ; 
 time and again we have sent representatives of the 
 Department of Labor out with the idea of putting 
 into practical operation the dream which I believed 
 would remedy that phase of the problem. Why 
 could there not be a complete change of work for 
 wage earners during some period of the year? Why 
 could this not be put into actual operation in our 
 great specialized crop sections of the country in har- 
 vesting wheat, in picking cotton, in gathering fruit, 
 and the other specialized farming elements that are 
 seasonal in their nature ? I have hoped that some day 
 it would be put into operation, and I feel that now, 
 when we need the fullest efficiency of our labor power, 
 something might be done to make that dream of mine 
 come true. 
 
 ' ' We are now engaged in a great conflict ; how long 
 it is going to last no one knows, so far as time is con- 
 cerned. The nearest that we can come to stating a 
 definite conclusion of the conflict is that it will come 
 to an end when Prussian militarism has been crushed 
 and our own institutions are free from any menace 
 from them. That may be within a year or two years ; 
 it may not be for a long period of time, and we must 
 prepare not merely for the termination in a short 
 period of time, but we must prepare for the continua- 
 tion of the war until our children have the same op- 
 portunity of working out their own destiny in their 
 own way that we have in working out our destiny in 
 our own way. 
 
 "I am reminded by the situation over on the other 
 side of an anecdote that I once heard of a canny
 
 RAILROADING IN IOWA 101 
 
 Scotch farmer who had a horse for sale, and he ad- 
 vertised it. A man from the city came out in response 
 to the advertisement to look at the animal. He ex- 
 amined it all over carefully. He was a lover of horses, 
 and he found it to be clean of limb, to be sound of 
 wind, not a blotch or blemish upon it anywhere. He 
 was well pleased with its appearance and asked the 
 farmer the price of the animal. The farmer said to 
 him: 'I see you are very well pleased with the horse, 
 but I want to be honest with you, the horse has two 
 faults. I am willing to tell you what one of the faults 
 is before you buy the horse, and I will tell you the 
 other fault after you have bought it.' The man 
 from the city thought that a very fair proposition. 
 Before buying the horse he asked what the first fault 
 was, and the farmer said: 'The first fault is that 
 when he is out in the pasture he is awfully hard to 
 ateh,' The man from the city said that that would 
 not make any difference to him ; he was going to take 
 the horse to the city where it would be hitched up to 
 his carriage, or if not, would be tied in the stable, and 
 so the fact that it was difficult to catch would make no 
 difference to him. Having bought the horse, he said 
 to the farmer, ' Now, what is the other fault 1 ' ' Well, ' 
 said the canny Scot, ' the other fault is that after you 
 have oaught him he isn't worth a d n.' "
 
 CHAPTEB XII 
 THE GREAT STRIKE OP 1902 
 
 MR. WILSON enjoys telling the story of his first 
 strike, when he was a boy working in a coal mine. He 
 had organized a debating society, and later a union 
 among the boys, and was always their leader. They 
 were, therefore, ready to follow his guidance when, 
 their wages having been reduced, he decided it was 
 time to do something. He was spokesman for the 
 boys, and went to the foreman, telling him the boys 
 had decided to strike unless their former wages were 
 restored to them. The foreman looked at him quizzi- 
 cally for a moment, then he settled that strike then 
 and there by taking the future Secretary of Labor 
 across his knees and giving him a sound spanking, 
 while his fellow would-be strikers scurried away to 
 a safe place. 
 
 "Ever since that day," Mr. Wilson said, with a 
 twinkle in his eye, "I have not believed in the use of 
 force to settle labor disputes. Instead of the use of 
 force, what we need is the spirit of justice, of fair 
 play, that will result in a permanent industrial 
 peace. ' ' 
 
 While Mr. Wilson was Secretary-Treasurer of the 
 United Mine Workers of America he always used his 
 influence in trying to settle labor troubles by con- 
 ferences between the operators and miners, and ap- 
 proved an order to strike only as a last resort. He held 
 this position in the United Mine Workers of America 
 
 102
 
 THE GREAT STRIKE OF 1902 103 
 
 from 1900 to 1908, in the meantime, in 1906, having 
 been elected to Congress. 
 
 The United Mine Workers of America is the 
 strongest labor organization among coal miners. It 
 started in 1890 with only a few members, but its 
 growth has been phenomenal. Miners and operators 
 agree that its success as an organization in advanc- 
 ing wages has been wonderful. Mine owners them- 
 selves also admit that it is managed by capable, con- 
 servative men, in a way that has proved as satisfac- 
 tory to them as to the miners. This union does not 
 insist that none but members shall have employment, 
 and it uses no coercion to bring non-union men into 
 the ranks. Colored miners are also admitted and even 
 hold offices in the local unions. 
 
 Whenever possible, the United Mine Workers ' Union 
 promotes the formation of agreements between em- 
 ployers and employees as organizations for the 
 purpose of determining wages, hours, and other con- 
 ditions of labor. Joint inter-State conferences are 
 held for the purpose, when occasion arises, which may 
 be attended by any number of operators and miners, 
 but in which each side and each State has a limited 
 and equal number of votes. A unanimous vote is neces- 
 sary to every important decision. If an agreement is 
 not reached, the question is referred to successively 
 higher authorities until the State officials of the 
 United Mine Workers and the commissioner of the 
 Operators' Association are called in. The national 
 officers of the United Mine Workers are not often 
 asked to help, and in many cases State agreements 
 have 'been accomplished. 
 
 It is hardly possible to understand the great strike
 
 104 W. B. WILSON 
 
 of 1902 without a glance at the previous strike of 
 1900, and some notice of conditions among the miners. 
 The United Mine Workers was originally a bitumi- 
 nous organization, but by 1894 the anthracite miners 
 began to come in and by 1900 the Schuylkill District 
 in Pennsylvania was fairly well organized. After the 
 revival of business succeeding the panic of 1893-1897, 
 the pay of bituminous miners was twice advanced 
 prior to 1900, while the hard coal workers were still 
 suffering the conditions which the panic had imposed. 
 The anthracite mine operators did not consider that 
 it would be a fair thing to raise the wages of their 
 workmen as the bituminous owners had done, and the 
 anthracite miners became more and more discon- 
 tented. 
 
 In August, 1900, therefore, the officers of the 
 United Mine Workers called a convention to devise 
 means and make plans for a joint convention of 
 operators and miners at some future date, to arrange 
 for a readjustment of the price of mining and scale 
 of wages, to discuss the system of docking and the 
 practice of compelling miners to load more than 2,240 
 pounds of coal for a ton. 
 
 This convention met and issued invitations to the 
 operators to meet the miners' representatives in joint 
 conference. No notice was taken of this invitation. 
 The miners' representatives then wrote to the national 
 executive board for permission to strike within ten 
 days. The board was unwilling to sanction a strike 
 until every other means had been exhausted, and di- 
 rected President Mitchell and Mr. Wilson to make an- 
 other effort to bring about a joint conference. To 
 their communications stating that a strike was im-
 
 THE GREAT STRIKE OF 1902 105 
 
 minent and asking that the matter at issue be sub- 
 mitted to a board of arbitration, the anthracite com- 
 panies made no reply. Then the national executive 
 board ordered a strike to commence September 17, 
 1900. 
 
 A hundred and thirty-two thousand mine workers 
 promptly laid down their tools on the day appointed, 
 greatly surprising the mine owners, who had believed 
 that their usually docile and obedient workers would 
 refuse to obey the strike order. The contest continued 
 two or three weeks, when one of the largest companies 
 in the region posted notices offering an advance of 
 ten per cent. Other companies followed with similar 
 offers. The strikers called a convention, which voted, 
 on the recommendation of a committee of which John 
 Mitchell was chairman, to accept the advance, pro- 
 vided the operators would agree to continue it until 
 the following April 1, to abolish the sliding scale in 
 the Lehigh and Schuylkill districts, and to agree to 
 discuss other grievances with the committee of their 
 own employees. 
 
 John Mitchell 's wise management of this strike was 
 greatly appreciated by all classes of people. He re- 
 turned to his office in Indianapolis assured of the high 
 regard and gratitude of the people of the anthracite 
 region. 
 
 Virtually all the anthracite mined in the United 
 States comes from a small area of four hundred and 
 ninety-six square miles in nine counties in Pennsyl- 
 vania, there being only insignificant deposits in Col- 
 orado and New Mexico. Five of these counties, Lack- 
 awanna, Luzerne, Schuylkill, Northumberland, and 
 Carbon, produce ninety-six per cent, of the total out-
 
 106 W. B. WILSON 
 
 put. The other four counties are Susquehanna, Dau- 
 phin, Columbia, and Sullivan. 
 
 Conditions in the anthracite coal fields are different 
 from those in the bituminous coal regions. The bi- 
 tuminous miner spends more time inside the mine than 
 does the hard coal worker, and also at harder work. 
 He frequently must dig lying on his side or even on 
 his back, and usually finishes the process of blowing 
 down his coal, cleaning and loading it himself. In 
 most cases the anthracite miner simply drills and 
 blows down his coal, leaving his laborer to clean and 
 load it. He has to pay this laborer himself, usually 
 about one-third of his own earnings, but even at that 
 it was claimed by operators at that time that he re- 
 ceived on the average higher pay than many responsi- 
 ble employees carrying the coal. Besides, this work 
 takes only a few hours of his time, after which he 
 generally takes an airing above ground; and he can 
 work only when the breakers are running, which is 
 usually but about seven hours and a half a day. 
 
 Of course, the dangerous character of the miner's 
 work must be considered, and the fact that he does not 
 have steady employment throughout the year. In ad- 
 dition to this, an anthracite miner must have distinc- 
 tive knowledge and ability. He can attain proficiency 
 in his vocation only by years of experience. As Pres- 
 ident Baer, of the Reading System said, in one of his 
 lette'rs : "In the anthracite fields a bituminous miner 
 cannot be employed, whatever his skill." But his 
 skill does not fit him for any other occupation. When 
 in the mine he is a superior workman and has a right 
 to demand wages accordingly; but if he leaves the 
 mine he becomes an unskilled workman and can
 
 THE GREAT STRIKE OF 1902 107 
 
 claim wages only as such. Besides, most mining towns 
 are more or less isolated, so that, with no other in- 
 dustries present in the place, the miner has not op- 
 portunity to find other employment when he is laid 
 off. As has been said, miners rarely work more than 
 about two hundred days in the year, so that a living 
 wage must mean more per day than if they could be 
 occupied as they might be in a factory or other in- 
 dustrial plant. 
 
 After the settlement of the 1900 strike, when the 
 miners received an increase of ten per cent., matters 
 went on smoothly for a time, until the miners began to 
 feel that, besides the question of wages, there were 
 other grievances that should be settled. Accordingly 
 at the thirteenth annual convention of the United 
 Mine Workers, held in January, 1902, at Indianapolis, 
 a resolution was adopted directing President Mitchell 
 and the Executive Board to co-operate with the of- 
 ficers and members of the anthracite districts to bring 
 about a conference between operators and miners. 
 The United Mine Workers pledged themselves to aid 
 their anthracite brothers with all possible assistance 
 in case such a conference should fail and a strike be 
 inaugurated. 
 
 Conventions were held in Scranton and Shamokin 
 which voted to send invitations to the operators to meet 
 them in joint conference, but the operators refused to 
 meet the miners' representatives or to recognize the 
 United Mine Workers' organization in any discussion 
 of grievance. A statement was then issued to the pub- 
 lic, declaring that the anthracite miners intended to 
 strike "to secure their just and reasonable claims." 
 Before inaugurating the strike, however, the conveu-
 
 108 ^T. B. WILSON 
 
 tion appealed to the Industrial Department of the 
 National Civic Federation to use its influence with the 
 coal companies to try to adjust grievances. President 
 Mitchell therefore wired to Senator Hanna, then 
 Chairman of the Industrial Department, as follows: 
 
 "Anthracite mine workers have failed in their ef- 
 forts to effect settlement of wage scale, and have de- 
 clared for a suspension of work, to take effect upon 
 date to be designated by district officers. I am di- 
 rected to appeal to Industrial Department of Civic 
 Federation for its intervention to avert the threatened 
 conflict. If you decide to call a special meeting of ex- 
 ecutive committee, kindly wire date and place of meet- 
 ing." 
 
 In response to this appeal, three joint conferences 
 were held, the third after an adjournment of thirty 
 days; but these conferences absolutely failed. The 
 operators refused to consider the demands of the 
 miners' delegates. Still President Mitchell and Sec- 
 retary Wilson were determined to avert a strike if 
 possible. Under their influence, the executive board 
 sent a lengthy telegram to the presidents of the coal 
 carrying railroads, stating the case carefully and sug- 
 gesting that a committee of five from the Industrial 
 Branch of the National Civic Federation should ar- 
 bitrate and decide any or all of the questions under 
 dispute, their decision to be binding upon both par- 
 ties and effective for a year. Further than this, they 
 proposed that, if the first proposition were not ac- 
 ceptable, a committee composed of Archbishop Ire- 
 land, Bishop Potter, and one other person that these 
 two might select, be authorized to investigate wages 
 and conditions in the anthracite regions, and promised
 
 THE GREAT STRIKE OF 1902 109 
 
 to abide by the decisions of this committee, that is, 
 if the committee decided that the anthracite mine 
 workers received sufficient wages to enable them to 
 support their families in a manner consistent with 
 American standards, these workers would withdraw 
 their claims for higher wages and better conditions, 
 provided the anthracite mine operators would agree 
 to comply with any recommendations the committee 
 should make regarding wages and conditions of labor 
 among their employees. 
 
 The operators declined to consider either of these 
 propositions. Therefore, the anthracite miners or- 
 dered a temporary suspension to take effect May 9th, 
 and on the following Monday 140,000 miners stopped 
 work. Two days later a convention was held at Hazle- 
 ton and the suspension was declared permanent. Of 
 the 811 votes cast on this question, 461 1-4 were for the 
 strike, 349 3-4 against, a majority of 111 1-2 votes, or 
 57 per cent, of the convention. Thus the great strike, 
 in spite of the determined efforts of the great leader 
 of the United Mine Workers, was inaugurated. This 
 Hazleton convention also petitioned President Mit- 
 chell to call a meeting of the bituminous miners for 
 the purpose of considering a sympathetic strike. 
 
 Following these instructions, Mr. Wilson, Secre- 
 tary of the United Mine Workers' Union, called a na- 
 tional convention, which met in Indianapolis July 17. 
 These were critical days. If this convention should 
 call out the four hundred thousand miners of the 
 United States, misery and suffering unspeakable would 
 come upon the lives of many innocent people. Besides 
 this, the public would place themselves against the 
 trades union movement and the cause of labor would
 
 110 W. B. WILSON 
 
 receive a setback which it would be difficult to over- 
 come. Most people in the country were sympathetic 
 with the anthracite miners in their efforts to get liv- 
 ing wages and better conditions for themselves and 
 their families, but they had no patience with a sym- 
 pathetic strike which should call out other miners 
 who had less reason to strike. 
 
 President Mitchell spoke very strongly against this 
 proposed strike of the bituminous workers. He stated 
 that he had never known of one solitary sympathetic 
 strike of any magnitude that had been successful, 
 but that in such cases the result had been ignominious 
 and crushing defeat, not only for the branch of in- 
 dustry originally involved, but also for the branches 
 participating through sympathy. He further said: 
 
 "It has been the proud boast of the United Mine 
 Workers of America that during the past few years, 
 since our organization 'became a power in the labor 
 world, contracts based solely upon the honor and good 
 faith of our union have under the most trying circum- 
 stances been kept inviolate ; and in this supreme crisis 
 a failure to live up to the high standard that has made 
 our union pre-eminent among organizations of labor 
 would prove a substantiation of all the charges and 
 allegations made against us by our enemies, and would 
 confirm, beyond the possibility of refutation, the 
 specious argument of the anthracite owners that the 
 United Mine Workers of America is an irresponsible 
 and unsafe body with which to deal. ' ' 
 
 The convention very quickly voted unanimously 
 that, since the bituminous miners had entered into a 
 contract to work for their employers for a year upon 
 the terms agreed upon the previous January, they
 
 THE GREAT STRIKE OF 1902 111 
 
 were in honor bound to stand by the agreement. The 
 American people applauded this decision and showed 
 their appreciation 'by contributions as well as words. 
 Gifts came pouring into the treasury for the help of 
 the strikers in their enforced idleness. This money 
 was wisely applied for the relief of the needy, whether 
 they belonged to the union or not, through relief com- 
 mittees in the local unions. 
 
 In this strike the following were the demands made 
 by the strikers : 
 
 Twenty per cent, increase in rates paid for coal 
 mined by the ton; a decrease in the working day 
 from ten hours to eight without increase in pay ; and 
 all coal mined to be weighed, 2,240 pounds always to 
 constitute a ton. 
 
 The strikers claimed that miners working by the 
 piece were often docked for impurities, such as slate, 
 dirt, and rock, in their coal, that the rate of docking 
 was too high, and that the men who fixed it were 
 arbitrary and not just in their decisions. They 
 claimed that cars supposed to hold a ton seemed to 
 "grow" so that a miner would have to put in more 
 than a ton to fill them. They estimated that, by 
 weighing all loads of coal and increasing the miner's 
 pay twenty per cent., the loss, usually considered be- 
 tween twenty and thirty per cent., would be divided. 
 As to the decrease of the working day, they claimed 
 that by this proposed change the miners would have 
 work for two hundred and forty or two hundred and 
 fifty days of eight hours each instead of two hundred 
 days at ten hours each, and that this would not ma- 
 terially decrease the output of the operators. 
 
 It is only fair to state the operators' side of the
 
 112 W. #. WILSON 
 
 case. They rejected these demands because, first, the 
 miners' wages had been adjusted by the agreement of 
 September, 1900, and they considered there had been 
 no just cause for complaint since then. They claimed 
 that weighing coal at the mines would mean the in- 
 stallation of plants for the purpose, which would add 
 materially to the running expenses, and besides, they 
 did not consider this practicable. As to the increase 
 in the size of the cars used, the system was to pay 
 for loss according to the labor needed to mine the 
 coal in particular veins. If a vein was large and 
 thick, a larger car was necessarily used, the cubic 
 capacity of the car being decided by the nature of 
 the working. With regard to the length of the day, 
 they claimed that in slack times some men must be 
 laid off, while running expenses continued, even 
 though only about sixty per cent, of the capacity of 
 the mines was required to fill orders. Besides this, 
 the miner could work only while the breakers were 
 running, so his day was not long. Some of the oper- 
 ators conceded that the men had a just grievance in 
 1900, but they added that an extra demand for labor 
 found the men unwilling to respond, and that the 
 work was often interrupted by picnics, excursions, 
 and the like. 
 
 Meanwhile, the strike continued. Deprived of their 
 regular means of support, the miners and their fam- 
 ilies had to depend on the relief given by the unions. 
 Often this was irregular and insufficient, entailing 
 great suffering, especially on the women and children. 
 As is usual in places where a strike is going on, roughs 
 and even criminals were attracted and encouraged 
 by the lower class of strikers, so there is no doubt
 
 THE GREAT STRIKE OF 1902 113 
 
 that to a certain extent lawlessness prevailed in some 
 sections. The mining companies declared that a reign 
 of terror existed in the coal field, and that most of 
 the strikers were ready to return to work at the old 
 wages if they could be given military protection. In 
 response to their excited demands, the Governor of 
 Pennsylvania ordered out the whole National Guard, 
 consisting of ten thousand men, to protect the miners 
 who desired to return to work. It was found, how- 
 ever, that a number of non-union men, considering 
 the presence of the soldiers an insult, left off work 
 and joined the strikers. A Citizens' Alliance was also 
 formed with the alleged purpose of preserving law 
 and order in the strike region. President Mitchell 
 declared that the real purpose of this Alliance was to 
 destroy the miners' union and to make useless the 
 efforts of this organization to uplift the standards of 
 citizenship by getting higher wages and better con- 
 ditions of employment. 
 
 Judging by the liberal contributions of money that- 
 poured into the treasury of the union, the strikers 
 might have prolonged the strike indefinitely, so far as 
 they themselves were concerned. Months passed and 
 no settlement was made. But winter was coming on, 
 and the whole country would suffer if the miners re- 
 mained idle. Business interests, of course, had felt 
 the strain from the first, and unless coal were forth- 
 coming great hardship would come upon the general 
 public, especially the poor in the cities. 
 
 President Roosevelt determined that a way must 
 be found to end the strike. He, therefore, sent tele- 
 grams to the presidents of the anthracite companies 
 and to Mr. Mitchell, the President of the United Mine
 
 114 W. B. WILSON 
 
 Workers, asking them to meet him at the White 
 House. All those summoned were present at the 
 conference. In his address to them, the President 
 disclaimed any legal or official right to interfere, but 
 stated that, considering the urgency and terrible na- 
 ture of the catastrophe impending, which involved 
 not only the miners but the whole people, he felt it 
 his duty to use his personal influence "to bring to 
 an end a situation which has become literally in- 
 tolerable." He asked them to meet "upon the com- 
 mon plane of the necessities of the public, ' ' appealing 
 to their patriotism, "to the spirit that sinks personal 
 considerations and makes individual sacrifices for the 
 general good." 
 
 Mr. Mitchell replied that his organization was will- 
 ing to meet the operators and try to adjust the dif- 
 ferences. If that were not possible, the President 
 might name a tribunal to determine the issue and 
 "if the gentlemen representing the operators will ac- 
 cept the award or decision of such a tribunal, the 
 miners will willingly acept it, even though it should 
 be against their claims." 
 
 After an intermission, during which each side pre- 
 pared carefully written statements, the delegates re- 
 assembled. Mr. George F. Baer, President of the 
 Beading Railway System, addressed the President, 
 claiming that thousands of men willing to work in 
 the mines were able to do so only under guard, that 
 they were "abused, assaulted, injured, and maltreated 
 by the United Mine Workers." He described the 
 "reign of terror" in the coal fields, claimed that coal 
 mined was dynamited by Mitchell 's orders, and stated 
 that he believed that, through the presence of the
 
 THE GREAT STRIKE OF 1902 115 
 
 troops, the power of the law was gradually asserting 
 itself and that order would soon be restored so that 
 coal to meet the public wants might be mined. He 
 declined Mr. Mitchell's offer to "let us work on terms 
 he names," declaring Mr. Mitchell had no right to 
 come from Illinois to dictate terms. He said the 
 operators would continue the wages existing at the 
 time of the beginning of the strike and would, at each 
 colliery, take up and adjust any grievance, and if this 
 did not prove satisfactory, would submit such griev- 
 ance to the Court of Common Pleas in said district 
 for final determination. 
 
 Mr. Mitchell reiterated his suggestion that the mat- 
 ter be referred to a tribunal appointed by the Presi- 
 dent. Other railroad presidents and representatives 
 corroborated Mr. Baer 's remarks as to the lawlessness 
 in the coal regions. Mr. Mitchell declared that much 
 of these reports was untrue. Instead of twenty mur- 
 ders, as stated, he claimed that there had been only 
 seven, three of which were committed by the coal 
 and iron police. He frankly admitted that there had 
 been lawlessness, but claimed that a large portion of 
 such lawlessness had been caused by criminals brought 
 into the coal regions to recruit the coal and iron 
 police. He closed his statement with the remark: 
 "I want to say, Mr. President, that I feel keenly the 
 attacks made on me and my people ; but I came here 
 with the intention of doing nothing and saying noth- 
 ing that would prevent a reconciliation." 
 
 The representatives of the operators absolutely re- 
 fused to accept Mr. Mitchell's suggestion, would not 
 recognize him in any capacity whatever, in the settle- 
 ment of the strike, and the conference adjourned hav-
 
 116 W. R WILSON 
 
 ing accomplished nothing. President Roosevelt was 
 greatly disappointed, but not discouraged. He had 
 made up his mind to find a way to end this strike and 
 he wired Mr. Mitchell that if Mr. Mitchell would se- 
 cure the immediate return of the miners to their re- 
 spective places of work, he would at once appoint a 
 commission to investigate thoroughly the questions at 
 issue, and would do all within his power to obtain a 
 settlement of those questions in accordance with the 
 report of the commission. After conferring with the 
 districts' presidents, Mr. Mitchell refused this offer, 
 while assuring the President that he felt keenly the 
 responsibility and gravity of the situation. 
 
 The mining companies had insisted, as Mr. Baer 
 had stated, that the presence of the troops would end 
 the strike ; but the miners met in convention in Octo- 
 ber and voted that they would not return to work 
 until the matters in dispute were settled by a board 
 of arbitration, even if all the troops in the United 
 States were sent into the anthracite coal field. 
 
 The operators realized that their cause was lost and 
 told the President that they were now willing to sub- 
 mit the case to a board of arbitration, but that thir, 
 board must be made up of members whose avocations 
 they should name, and that no representative of or- 
 ganized labor should be allowed on the commission. 
 Mr. Mitchell objected to the appointment of any com- 
 mission that dictated to the President whom he should 
 appoint and that discriminated against organized 
 labor ; and the President agreed with him. The oper- 
 ators after some discussion modified their views to 
 conform to the suggestions of the President, and the 
 following Commission was named : Brigadier General
 
 THE GREAT STRIKE OF 1902 117 
 
 John M. Wilson, Judge George Gray, Mr. E. W. 
 Parker, Mr. E. E. Clark, Mr. Thomas Watkins, and 
 Bishop John L. Spalding; Hon. Carroll D. Wright 
 was selected as recorder. 
 
 A convention was at once called, which recom- 
 mended the miners to resume work at once, pending 
 the decision of the Commission appointed by the 
 President, as seen by the following letter: 
 
 Wilkesbarre, Pa., October 21, 1902. 
 Hon. Theodore Roosevelt, 
 
 President of the United States, 
 
 Washington, D. C. : 
 
 Dear Sir, We, the representatives of the employees of the 
 various coal companies engaged in operating mines in the 
 anthracite coal fields of Pennsylvania, in convention as- 
 sembled, having under consideration your telegram of October 
 16, 1902, addressed to John Mitchell, president of the United 
 Mine Workers of America, have decided to accept the 
 proposition therein embodied and submit all the questions at 
 issue between the operators and mine workers of the anthra- 
 cite coal region for adjustment to the Commission which you 
 have named. In pursuance of that decision we shall report 
 for work on Thursday morning, October 23, in the positions 
 and working places occupied by us prior to the inauguration 
 of the strike. We have authorized John Mitchell, president 
 of the United Mine Workers of America, with such assistants 
 as he may select, to represent us in all hearings before the 
 Commission. 
 
 JOHN MITCHELL, 
 
 Chairman of Convention. 
 W. B. WILSON, 
 
 Secretary of Convention. 
 
 The striking miners, numbering 147,000, returned 
 to work October 23, 1902. The strike had lasted 
 twenty-three weeks and three days, and the United 
 Mine Workers claim that it was the best managed
 
 118 W. B. WILSON 
 
 strike that ever occurred in the United States, and that 
 the inevitable lawlessness committed was not more 
 than would have occurred had the mines been running 
 full time. It was said to be one of the most orderly 
 strikes that ever occurred in any part of the world, 
 and stamped John Mitchell and W. B. Wilson as peer- 
 less leaders of men. 
 
 When President Mitchell was called in conference 
 with the coal operators, he never lost his temper and 
 paid no attention to their rude and insulting re- 
 marks. Even President Roosevelt became angry 
 and rebuked their rudeness. Speaking of these con- 
 ferences afterward, President Roosevelt remarked: 
 "There was but one gentleman present, and I was 
 not that man. ' ' 
 
 The extraordinary self-control and simple unassum- 
 ing dignity of Mr. Mitchell and Mr. Wilson during 
 these trying times advanced the cause of American 
 labor among the American people in all occupations. 
 
 The President of the United States invited Mr. 
 Mitchell to call at the White House without ceremony 
 at any time he visited Washington. But he took these 
 honors modestly and showed no vanity or pride, 
 though gratified at the high esteem of his countrymen. 
 
 At one of the celebrations held in honor of the great 
 victory that the strikers felt had been achieved, 
 President Mitchell was called upon to speak. He 
 closed his remarks as follows: 
 
 "The victory of the great strike belongs to the 
 men who struck ; but behind them were a great force, 
 whose names never got into the papers. They are 
 the brave women and children who endured the suf- 
 fering without perceptible murmur they deserve the
 
 THE GREAT STRIKE OF 1902 119 
 
 credit. I desire to pay a tribute to the men, women, 
 and children of the anthracite coal mines. 
 
 "I hope that this will be the last great strike; I 
 hope there will be perpetual peace and prosperity. 
 But I shall never advise our people to surrender 
 their right to strike. I want our men to be better 
 workmen than the non-union men ; I want our people 
 to demonstrate that union labor is the best labor. 
 
 "I wish the operators no enmity; I do not want 
 them to be our enemies. I believe if they understood 
 our lofty purposes they would meet us in conference, 
 and the days of lockouts and strikes would be elimi- 
 nated. I desire to impress on your minds and hearts 
 that the only safeguard you have is your membership 
 in trades unions. Bear in mind, if you are negligent 
 and give up your union, just so sure the operators 
 will make you pay for this strike." 
 
 The report of the Strike Commission was sent to 
 President Roosevelt March 18, 1903. After prelimi- 
 nary meetings October 24 and 27 in "Washington, the 
 Commission adjourned to meet in Scranton, Penn- 
 sylvania, November 14. Before beginning the hear- 
 ings, the Commission took seven days to visit mines 
 for the observation and investigation of the general 
 conditions under which the miners worked and lived. 
 Every facility was furnished by the operators for a 
 thorough examination of the mines, breakers, and the 
 various machinery for pumping, ventilating, and 
 carrying on generally the mining operations. 
 
 For the convenience of those working in the mines, 
 the Commission heard all the testimony in behalf of 
 the mine workers, including part of that given by 
 non-union mine workers, which was a protest against 
 the dictation of the United Mine Workers in settling
 
 120 W. B. WILSON 
 
 their wages and conditions in the city of Scranton. 
 Then they adjourned to Philadelphia, where was 
 heard the final testimony of the non-union mine 
 workers, that adduced by the operators, and the re- 
 butting testimony of the mine workers. The pro- 
 ceedings were concluded February 5, and adjourn- 
 ment was taken until February 9, to enable the coun- 
 sel to prepare arguments, to the hearing of which a 
 week was devoted. 
 
 The Commission examined five hundred and fifty- 
 eight witnesses, for striking anthracite workers, two 
 hundred and forty; for non-union men, one hundred 
 and fifty-three; for the operators, one hundred and 
 fifty-four ; and those called by the Commission, eleven. 
 An immense mass of testimony and statistics was com- 
 piled, including a long list of alleged riots, assaults, 
 etc., especially among Hungarians in the Lehigh Coal 
 and Navigation territory. At the close of the hear- 
 ing in Philadelphia the Commission adjourned to 
 Washington, to consider the testimony and deliberate 
 regarding its findings and awards. 
 
 Summed up briefly, the result of the Strike Com- 
 mission was as follows: 
 
 "They awarded an increase of ten per cent, above 
 the rate paid before the inauguration of the strike; 
 the right to employ check-weighmen when a majority 
 of miners wished to have them placed on the tipples ; 
 that their wages should foe deducted and paid through 
 the office of the company; that no person should be 
 discriminated against who is not a member of the 
 miners* union, and made provision for a sliding scale 
 of prices to be governed by the selling price of the 
 coal. The awards were to continue in force until the 
 first of April, 1906."
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 RUNNING FOR CONGRESS 
 
 IT WAS one Saturday night in August, 1918. I 
 had invited a number of leading Wellsboro citizens 
 to meet me at the Coles Hotel, Wellsboro, Pennsyl- 
 vania. There were present Mr. Walter Sherwood, 
 a leading attorney; Mr. N. R. White, Deputy Inter- 
 nal Revenue Collector; Postmaster 0. H. Davis, Mr. 
 H. H. Button, Mr. Harry N. Sherwood, Mr. John C. 
 Bradley, and several others whom I cannot at this 
 moment recall. I told the group that I was writing 
 the story of Mr. Wilson's life, and had invited them 
 to the hotel so that I might get from them some facts 
 and suggestions. Of course they told me many pa- 
 thetic stories about the struggles of Mr. Wilson dur- 
 ing many, many years, and also of his most unselfish 
 and kindly disposition through it all. But, having 
 heard these stories before, I pushed along to more 
 recent history. 
 
 Suddenly Walter Sherwood exclaimed: 
 "Well, Mr. Babson, I think we can best serve you 
 by telling how William B. Wilson came to go to 
 Congress. This, to my mind, is the great romance 
 of his life. In this, he accomplished a feat which 
 never was accomplished before, nor has it been since, 
 the only other Democratic Representative in Congress 
 selected from this district since the Civil War being 
 my father, who was elected and served one term dur- 
 ing Grant's Administration. Men, let us tell Mr. Bab- 
 son that whole story about W. B. Wilson's campaign." 
 
 121
 
 122 W. B. WILSON 
 
 The group seemed much delighted with the idea, 
 and the rest of the evening was spent in telling me 
 facts and incidents of that campaign which still stands 
 out as the great event of the Fifteenth Congressional 
 District of Pennsylvania. 
 
 The Fifteenth Congressional District consisted of 
 four counties, Lycoming, Clinton, Potter, and Tioga, 
 the last being the county in which Mr. Wilson lived. 
 These counties had always been Republican, and the 
 Fifteenth Congressional District was looked upon by 
 the Republican leaders of Pennsylvania as one of their 
 strongholds. Moreover, the Congressmen from this 
 district had always been men of means. They had. 
 money to spend not only in being elected, but in tak- 
 ing care of their constituents after the election. They 
 had been men who continually spent more than their 
 salaries. To run against them was something that 
 even men of wealth dared not do. Hence, for W. B. 
 Wilson, without a penny and with all the great cor- 
 porations in the district against him, to attempt this 
 was beyond comprehension. 
 
 The Congressman from the Fifteenth District at 
 that time was Elias Deemer. He was then serving 
 a third term and was a candidate for a fourth. He 
 was a millionaire lumberman, residing in Williams- 
 port, the largest city in the district, and owned a 
 great deal of property and had many working for 
 him in his lumbering operations. It was said that 
 it would be impossible to beat him. Certainly it 
 seemed so. Deemer had a well developed organization 
 in every one of the four counties in the district; in 
 fact, he had two or three strong men in each of the 
 voting precincts in the district, and had another
 
 RUNNING FOE CONGRESS 123 
 
 corps of men traveling continuously during the cam- 
 paign. 
 
 Mr. Wilson virtually faced the impossible, but 
 he went at it with a will. He went from town to 
 town, holding meetings and telling the people frankly 
 what he stood for and what he would do if they 
 selected him as their representative. He held many 
 outdoor meetings and many meetings in grange halls 
 and school houses. His simplicity of manner, hon- 
 esty of purpose, and undaunted courage attracted 
 many independent voters to his side, and notwith- 
 standing that he had no funds to build up an organi- 
 zation or hire workers, he was elected. Truly it is 
 a romantic story, how Wilson, a Democrat and a poor 
 man, with everything against him, was able to defeat 
 Deemer, a rich man and a Republican, in a strong 
 Republican district. He was the first Democrat, as 
 already said, with one exception, elected to Congress 
 from that district since the Civil War. 
 
 Certainly it was a strong Republican district, for 
 the Republicans not only controlled their own ma- 
 chine, but in some of the counties had a working 
 agreement with a part of the Democratic machine as 
 well. In fact, the Republicans of the district not 
 only selected the man to run upon the Republican 
 ticket against Mr. Wilson, but also attempted to 
 select the Democratic candidate, who was defeated 
 for the nomination by Mr. Wilson. In this way, 
 Wilson not only had to fight for election, but also 
 had a hard struggle to secure the nomination. 
 
 Notwithstanding the money and influence used 
 against him, W. B. Wilson put up one of the greatest 
 fights in the history of American politics. He never
 
 124 W. B. WILSON 
 
 made a promise which he could not fulfill, nor a state- 
 ment which he could not prove. He never spoke an 
 unkind word regarding his rival, nor said a mean 
 thing about any member of either party. He ran 
 on a straight clear promise that if he got to Congress 
 he would work for certain labor legislation, which, 
 although thought radical in those days, is now taken 
 as a matter of course. Looking back upon his speeches 
 made during that campaign, it is most interesting to 
 see how the opinions of a nation change. He was 
 called then a dangerous, wild-eyed radical for asking 
 for things for which the most conservative are en- 
 thusiastic today. Still, even in those days Wilson 
 was preferred by the rich interests of the Fifteenth 
 Congressional District to any other labor leader of 
 whom they knew. This was very forcibly illustrated 
 by a statement made during the campaign by Mr. 
 W. S. Nearing, a prominent employer of labor, who 
 said: 
 
 "Wilson is a constructive man, a friend of capital 
 as well as of labor, and one whom no just man need 
 fear." 
 
 At that same conference another big business man 
 of Tioga County said: 
 
 "I will go one better than Nearing by voting for 
 Wilson, although I am a Republican. For when all 
 is said and done, Wilson has done more to keep con- 
 ditions peaceful in these counties than any other man 
 in the district. It is impossible to estimate the mil- 
 lions of dollars in time and property which he has 
 saved by his conciliatory methods. Had it not been 
 for him, this district would have been so honey-combed 
 with trouble that the mines would have been shut
 
 RUNNING FOR CONGRESS 125 
 
 down permanently and disaster would have come to 
 us all." 
 
 He, however, must have been only one of many 
 Republicans who voted for Mr. Wilson, because when 
 the polls were closed and the votes counted on No- 
 vember 2, 1906, W. B. Wilson was found to have a 
 majority of 384. 
 
 It was during the campaign of 1906 that Mr. Wil- 
 son was introduced to the people of Wellsboro at the 
 Court House, which was filled to the doors. The clos- 
 ing paragraph of Mr. Wilson's address is well re- 
 membered in that county seat to this day. After 
 stating the things that he believed in and his attitude 
 upon the public questions affecting the farmer, the 
 laborer, and the business man, and what he would 
 do concerning these problems if they sent him to Con- 
 gress, he closed his remarks with this statement: 
 
 "If the people of the Fifteenth Congressional Dis- 
 trict on election day see fit to send me to represent 
 them in the halls of Congress, I will stand for those 
 things which I believe will be beneficial not only to 
 the people of this district, but to the great mass of 
 the people of the whole country. And I promise you 
 that if I am elected I will return here two years hence 
 and render to you an account of my stewardship." 
 
 Two years later, during his second campaign, 
 he returned to Wellsboro as he had promised, and 
 again we find the Court House filled to the doors. 
 On this occasion Hugh L. Kerwin, who was a resi- 
 dent of Wellsboro and the son of the shoemaker men- 
 tioned in a preceding chapter, was the chairman of 
 the meeting. After stating briefly the matters at issue 
 in the campaign, and the fact that Mr. Wilson was
 
 126 W. B. WILSON 
 
 again a candidate against Mr. Deemer, his former 
 opponent, Kerwin said : 
 
 "Two years ago on this same platform in this 
 Court House William B. Wilson told you that if the 
 electorate of this district saw fit to send him to rep- 
 resent them in the halls of Congress, he would return 
 two years hence and render an account of his steward- 
 ship. Ladies and gentlemen, your Congressman, Mr. 
 Wilson, is here tonight to keep that pledge." 
 
 The people of the district evidently were well 
 pleased with the manner in which Mr. Wilson dis- 
 charged the duties with which they had intrusted 
 him, for they returned him to Congress the second 
 time by a majority six times greater than that which 
 he had received in his first campaign. 
 
 During this campaign Mr. Wilson fought on his 
 record. He advanced no new theories, but simply 
 told the people what he had done and what he had 
 tried to do. Wilson was always a great believer in 
 taking care of his trade, so to speak. He always had 
 time to see any constituent and perform any service. 
 No sacrifice was too great for him to make for a con- 
 stituent. Furthermore, as soon as he was elected he 
 looked upon every man, woman, and child in the dis- 
 trict as his friend. It made no difference to him 
 whether requests came from Republicans or Demo- 
 crats, they received the best of attention. 
 
 The third campaign opened in the summer of 1910. 
 The Republicans were then through with Deemer, and 
 nominated Clarence L. Peaslee, a lawyer, of Williams- 
 port. Again, however, Wilson was successful, with 
 a majority of 3,000. This was considered by all a 
 great and most wonderful victory. I forget which
 
 RUNNING FOR CONGRESS 127 
 
 campaign it was, but it is said of one of them that 
 his opponent spent $1.11 for every vote received, 
 while Wilson's votes cost less than a cent apiece. 
 
 During this campaign of 1910 Mr. Wilson was a 
 delegate to the British Trade Conference, and was 
 there while all but three weeks of his campaign was 
 going on. This of itself was a most remarkable thing. 
 In the previous campaigns it was said that he was 
 successful through his campaigning and personality. 
 But the campaign of 1910 showed that he was success- 
 ful because so many people loved and trusted him. 
 Although far away in England, without power to 
 campaign or take .care of his own interests at home, 
 he still won in a Republican district over a Republi- 
 can candidate by about 3,000 votes. 
 
 Mr. Wilson had one advantage, namely, that he 
 had the following both of the wage workers and the 
 farmers. He was a member both of the Mine Workers' 
 Union and of the Grange. It was his interest in 
 farming that made him so ready to work for good 
 roads. Not only did he believe in bringing the wage 
 worker and employer together, but also in bringing 
 together the producer and the consumer. Mr. Wilson 
 always wanted to bring people together, in order to 
 increase production, reduce waste, and make life 
 easier. He believed that almost everything in life is 
 a question of understanding. "So long as there is 
 understanding," he has often said to me, "there is 
 peace; but when understanding is lacking, then the 
 germs of trouble take root and grow." 
 
 Wilson's last campaign was in 1912. Edgar R. 
 Kiess, an insurance man, was the Republican nominee, 
 and was also on the Progressive ticket Mr. Roosevelt
 
 128 W. B. WILSON 
 
 carrying the district by a large majority. Although 
 Wilson was defeated, this was, to my mind, his great- 
 est campaign and in fact his greatest victory. He 
 received a total of more votes than he had received 
 in the election of 1910 when he won, but Mr. Kiess 
 received 568 more than he did, the respective figures 
 being: Wilson 13,643; Kiess 14,211; the socialist 
 candidate 2,282; and the prohibition candidate 814. 
 Wilson has always been opposed to socialism. For 
 some years there had been a strong socialistic move- 
 ment developing throughout this mining region. Wil- 
 son had continually talked to these people and tried 
 to show them that it is impossible for men to pull 
 themselves up by their boot straps and that only 
 through greater production can we ultimately secure 
 greater 'benefits. 
 
 The Socialists, however, refused to listen to Wil- 
 son's kindly advice. During his entire three terms 
 they worked diligently to build up a party, and in 
 1912 they had a strong organization. Hence, when 
 Wilson began his campaign in 1912, he had not only 
 the Republicans and a large number of employers 
 against him, but also this socialistic group. Yet he 
 was defeated by only 500 votes, although the socialists 
 polled about 2,000. As he went about campaigning, 
 he would appeal for greater consideration for labor 
 and the wage worker, whose welfare he believed to be 
 the oasis of prosperity, but he would always remind 
 the wage worker that if nothing were produced there 
 would be nothing to divide. In looking over the 
 newspapers of those days which reported the cam- 
 paign, I find such statements as these: 
 
 "The Socialists claim that labor should have the
 
 RUNNING FOE CONGRESS 129 
 
 full social value of its product. I believe this; but 
 let me ask how can this social value be determined 
 except by negotiating? Let us take a pair of shoes 
 for an illustration. We will grant that labor is en- 
 titled to its full social value and for argument's sake 
 is entitled to the whole pair of shoes. But granting 
 such, to whom shall we give the pair of shoes? Cer- 
 tainly not to the men and women in the shoe factory. 
 The tanners of the leather must be considered; the 
 raisers of the hide should not be forgotten; the 
 farmers who feed the cattle are worthy of their hire. 
 Then, can we ignore the trainmen who transport the 
 cattle and the hides and the shoes themselves? It is 
 well enough to say that labor should have the full 
 social value of its product; but when one attempts 
 to apply this, he finds himself up against great prac- 
 tical difficulties. 
 
 "If we knew that each man contributed the same 
 proportion of labor to the pair of shoes; if we could 
 correctly measure and balance manual labor and brain 
 labor; if we could fairly consider the part which 
 capital plays, and certainly it plays some part, then 
 we might be able to adopt the socialistic program. 
 A little thought, however, shows us clearly that all 
 these things are impossible to determine. And a 
 thousand years from today they will still be undeter- 
 mined. Hence the pathway is simple; we all must 
 seek to increase production, for only by making more 
 shoes shall we all get more shoes; then we shall sit 
 peacefully around a table and negotiate as to how the 
 product of those shoes shall be divided." 
 
 In talking with men who were in Congress with 
 Mr. "Wilson, it has been a pleasure to note hew they
 
 180 W. B. WILSON 
 
 all respected him. Republicans and Democrats alike 
 all have a good word to say for his honesty, industry, 
 good judgment, and fairness. Even ultra-conserva- 
 tives like "Uncle Joe" Cannon, who fought him con- 
 tinually on all measures, had the greatest respect for 
 him personally. 
 
 During Mr. Wilson's first and second terms Mr. 
 Cannon was speaker of the House. Naturally, under 
 a conservative Republican like Mr. Cannon, Mr. Wil- 
 son did not receive very good committee appoint- 
 ments. The two committees on which he served were 
 the Patents Committee and the Census Committee. 
 Still, those committees had considerable important 
 work at that time. The Patents Committee revamped 
 the Copyright Law, and the Census Committee had 
 charge of the great 1910 Census. 
 
 During Mr. Wilson's third term Hon. Champ Clark 
 was Speaker of the House, the Democrats having come 
 into control. Mr. Wilson was immediately made 
 Chairman of the Labor Committee, and was also put 
 on the Committee on Mines and Mining and the Com- 
 mittee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries. On all 
 of these he performed most conscientious service, 
 rarely missing a meeting. 
 
 It was especially fortunate for Mr. Wilson that the 
 Democrats came into power when they did, for he 
 waged the campaign of 1910 on Cannonism. He 
 showed the people, not only of his district, but of the 
 country, the danger of Cannon's arbitrary control of 
 Congress in the interests of a small group. Mr. Wil- 
 son would say in his speeches: 
 
 "Although this country is a republic, it is so only 
 in name, unless the people rise and take control.
 
 RUNNING FOR CONGRESS 131 
 
 There can be less democracy in a republic in which 
 the people leave the control to a small group than in 
 a monarchy in which the people are alive to the issues 
 of the day. There is nothing in names or systems. 
 Our future depends on each of us keeping ourselves 
 interested in government and the people who repre- 
 sent us. Unless this flame of patriotism continues to 
 burn in the hearts of all of our people, the nation 
 may become a republic only in name." 
 
 William B. Wilson thought he was through with 
 politics in 1912, but a strong movement developed in 
 1914 and again in 1918 to make him Governor of 
 Pennsylvania. It was only the active interference 
 of President Wilson that prevented W. B. Wilson 
 from being nominated in the former year. When 
 the delegation came to Washington urging the Presi- 
 dent to release him from the office of Secretary of 
 Labor, President Wilson replied: 
 
 "Gentlemen, you can much more easily find a suit- 
 able candidate for the Governorship of Pennsylvania 
 than I can find a suitable candidate for the office of 
 Secretary of Labor." 
 
 It is generally known that Secretary Wilson was 
 not a very good campaigner for himself, as he never 
 asked men to vote for him. Owing to his extremely 
 diffident and modest nature, it was impossible for 
 him to do this. From my experience in Washing- 
 ton, however, I think he was perhaps a most successful 
 campaigner. Certainly this was indicated by his 
 three successive victories in a Republican stronghold. 
 But people in his own district insist on telling stories 
 of how in his own campaigns he often devoted virtu- 
 ally all of his efforts to helping others.
 
 132 W. B. WILSON 
 
 This was most interestingly illustrated at a meeting 
 at the Proctor-Ellison Company 's tannery at Elkland, 
 Pennsylvania, during the campaign of 1912. Several 
 of the foremen and officials, being very fond of Mr. 
 Wilson, urged him to come out and meet the men 
 at the close of the working day. With Mr. Wilson 
 was Hon. Robert W. Hilton, who was running for 
 State Senator from the Twenty-fifth Senatorial Dis- 
 trict. Mr. Wilson and Mr. Hilton shook hands with 
 all the men as they filed by and were presented by the 
 foreman. As each one was introduced to Mr. Wil- 
 son, he would immediately turn and introduce him 
 to Mr. Hilton, telling him of Mr. Hilton's good 
 qualities and urging him to vote for Mr. Hilton as 
 State Senator. As Mr. Hilton was elected and Mr. 
 Wilson defeated, many would say that this was very 
 poor campaigning on Mr. Wilson's part; but others 
 believe that his success in the preceding campaigns 
 was due to this spirit of unselfishness. 
 
 Certainly it was this in Mr. Wilson's makeup that 
 caused James Kerr, a big coal operator in central 
 Pennsylvania, during Mr. Wilson's first campaign, to 
 get out of his sick bed to pay tribute at a public 
 meeting to W. B. Wilson's great fairness. At that 
 time Mr. Kerr said : 
 
 "I have such confidence in Mr. Wilson that I am 
 willing to open my books to him and leave absolutely 
 to his judgment what wages should be paid to my 
 men." 
 
 Although many of the so-called shrewd politicians 
 blame his defeat to this spirit of fairness, yet these 
 very qualities caused President Wilson to select him 
 as the first Secretary of Labor. The President made
 
 RUNNING FOE CONGRESS 133 
 
 no mistake, for when Mr. Wilson was chosen to the 
 post the new secretary made this statement : 
 
 "Many wage earners have a natural prejudice 
 against the employer class ; and many employers have 
 such a prejudice against wage workers, especially 
 when organized. But the Department of Labor 
 should have no prejudice against either class; fur- 
 thermore, we should do all we can to remove this 
 prejudice from both sides. 
 
 "Although the specific work of the Department of 
 Labor is to improve the condition of the wage worker, 
 as it is the duty of the Department of Agriculture 
 to help the interests of the agriculturist, and of the 
 Department of Commerce to help the commercial in- 
 terests, yet we must never get labor anything that 
 is out of line with justice. The prosperity of labor is 
 fundamentally based upon the prosperity of the na- 
 tion as a whole. In order that any group may per- 
 manently progress, all groups must have justice. Our 
 work is to help the wage workers; but we must help 
 them along sound lines and in a way that will not 
 bring about a detrimental reaction,"
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 Six YEARS IN CONGRESS 
 
 W. B. WILSON took his seat in the House of Repre- 
 sentatives December 7, 1908, at the opening of the 
 Sixtieth Congress, the first Democratic Representative 
 from the Fifteenth District in Pennsylvania since the 
 Civil War. He had promised his friends the labor- 
 ing men that he would do all he could for them, and 
 from the first he had it in his mind to promote the 
 foundation of a Department of Labor, which would 
 protect the interests of Labor as the Department of 
 Agriculture looks after the interests of the farmer, 
 and other departments help other occupations. 
 
 In looking over the records of Congressional doings, 
 it is interesting to note how many times W. B. Wilson 
 introduced "A bill to increase the pension of" some 
 one. It seems he found that many people who de- 
 served pensions or an increase had been altogether 
 neglected by his predecessor, so he made it his busi- 
 ness to see that they received justice, and were treated 
 as others had been in receiving relief or additional 
 pensions. He was approachable, and no one asked 
 him a favor which he did not grant, if, after consid- 
 eration, he found that it was a just demand. 
 
 As a miner, he had of course known of the great 
 many dangers that beset the life of one who goes down 
 to get out the fuel of the world. Naturally, then, when 
 he came to a position where it was possible to have 
 action taken for the protection of these underground 
 
 134
 
 SIX YEARS IN CONGRESS 135 
 
 workers, he thought of them. In this first term in 
 Congress he introduced a bill to appoint a com- 
 mittee to investigate mining disasters. In the discus- 
 sion of this bill he brought out the fact that in no 
 country in the world is mining carried on under as 
 favorable conditions as in the United States. There 
 is no country where the per diem production is 
 greater, no country where the workmen are of as 
 high a grade of intelligence, and yet no country 
 where mortality in the mines is as great as with us. 
 
 Out of the appointment of this committee to in- 
 vestigate the causes of mining disasters grew the 
 founding of the Bureau of Mines and Mining. It 
 was argued by some that, since such a committee had 
 been appointed, there was no need to go farther and 
 add to the departments and bureaus of the Govern- 
 ment. The Geological Survey could attend to the 
 development and discovery of new minerals as it had 
 been doing. The committee reporting on this bill 
 for a Bureau of Mines wanted a Department of Mines, 
 and were obliged to be satisfied with the Bureau, as 
 a part of the Department of the Interior. 
 
 In the discussion Mr. Wilson took a prominent part. 
 He said that in the seventeen years from 1890 to 1906, 
 the number of men killed in the coal mines of the 
 United States was 22,840; 701 were killed in 1890 
 and 2,061 in 1906. In Belgium in 1906 less than a 
 third as many lives were lost; yet Belgium has the 
 deepest mines in existence, with the most dangerous 
 gases, known everywhere as the most hazardous for 
 workmen. In other countries, where greater dangers 
 exist, there was far less loss of life than in the United 
 States. Belgium, France, Germany, and Great Brit-
 
 136 W. B. WILSON 
 
 ain have bureaus which investigate into the conditions 
 existing in the mines, experiment as to the causes 
 which create the conditions, and endeavor to protect 
 the lives of the miners. 
 
 In each of the United States where mining is car- 
 ried on there are laws requiring a system of mine 
 inspection, adequate systems of ventilation, and a cer- 
 tain minimum of air supplied for each man engaged 
 in a particular mine; but in spite of this terrible 
 accidents occur, and often it is impossible to trace 
 the causes. In Pennsylvania and some other States 
 the law requires that men in charge of mines should 
 pass examinations showing that they are qualified to 
 oversee such work; but often, in investigating the 
 cause of an accident, the courts hold that the em- 
 ployer, having employed a man certified by the State 
 to be competent, is relieved from responsibility for 
 any result of accident. 
 
 A Congressman asked Mr. Wilson, in the course of 
 debate, if he did not think the dangers to miners 
 might be lessened if employers were held strictly 
 responsible for all risks incident to the service in 
 mines. Mr. Wilson agreed that it would do much 
 toward reducing the mortality in mines, but, with his 
 customary tolerance and sense of justice, he added: 
 "I take it that no gentleman will assert that the coal 
 operators or other employers deliberately create con- 
 ditions in the mines by which the lives and health of 
 their employees are endangered. If they do, it is 
 through lack of knowledge as to what creates the 
 dangerous conditions. ' ' 
 
 The bill states the object of the Bureau of Mines 
 to be "to foster, promote, and develop the mining
 
 SIX YEAKS IN CONGRESS 137 
 
 industries of the United States, to make diligent in- 
 vestigation of the methods of mining, the safety of 
 miners, the possible improvement of conditions under 
 .which mining operations are carried on, the treatment 
 of ores, the use of explosives and electricity, the pre- 
 vention of accidents, the value of mineral products 
 and markets for the same, and of other matters perti- 
 nent to said industries." 
 
 This was to benefit all kinds of mining, and one 
 of the arguments in its favor was that it would have 
 to do with the developing and producing of the rarer 
 minerals, such as radium, platinum, vanardium, etc. 
 It would also study plans to utilize the great quanti- 
 ties of inferior ore, discarded and wasted in the 
 dumps of mines. So far from benefiting only great 
 corporations, as some of its opposers claimed, such a 
 Bureau would be of great help to the many small 
 mining companies and miners in many sections. The 
 Federal Government could make more complete in- 
 vestigation than the several States, having greater 
 facilities for the work. 
 
 Many mining unions and congresses approved the 
 founding of the new Bureau, and in many States 
 messages were sent to Congress urging the passage 
 of the bill. The mining industry is second only to 
 agriculture in producing the wealth of the nation, 
 and should have a body whose duty it should be to 
 attend to its interests. The Department of Agricul- 
 ture protects the grain, cotton, cattle, fruit, and other 
 producers; the Department of Commerce and Labor 
 had a Bureau of Manufactures, so that the founding 
 of a Bureau of Mines would not be establishing a
 
 138 W. B. WILSON 
 
 precedent for the protection of any one line of 
 industry. 
 
 Mr. Wilson stated that miners are an intelligent and 
 courageous class of men, showing great bravery in go- 
 ing to the rescue of their fellow men in time of ac- 
 cident. He said : 
 
 "Tell me in martial measures of the charge of the 
 Light Brigade; point with patriotic pride to the 
 farmers who fought with the soldiers at Concord and 
 Bunker Hill ; repeat to me the great story of the con- 
 flict between the Blue and the Gray, when the ' flower 
 of American youth yielded up their last full measure 
 of devotion' in defense of their respective flags, 
 and my blood will thrill with patriotic enthusiasm and 
 tingle through my veins in sympathetic response. 
 Yet with all my admiration for the heroes of the battle 
 field and their wonderful achievements in support of 
 the rights of men, it does not equal my love, it cannot 
 measure my devotion to those sturdy sons of toil who, 
 uninfluenced by the enthusiasm of numbers, without 
 hope of present reward or future glory, deliberately 
 enter the dark and dangerous covers of the mines to 
 carry relief to their suffering fellow men or perish in 
 the attempt. It is for the benefit of men of this char- 
 acter that I appeal to you to establish and equip a 
 Bureau of Mines and Mining. ' ' 
 
 When the bill finally came to a vote it passed with 
 a large majority. Later in Mr. Wilson's Congres- 
 sional life, when bills came up regarding appropria- 
 tions for this Bureau and adding to its power, he spoke 
 strongly in favor of providing ample funds for the 
 work and increasing its usefulness. He said : 
 
 "The prime purpose of this Bureau is to promote
 
 SIX YEARS IN CONGRESS 139 
 
 the health and safety of those engaged in mining; but 
 there is no reason why, in addition to that purpose, 
 we should not now also empower the Bureau with the 
 related subject of taking care of the waste that oc- 
 curs in mining. 
 
 "You may take a crop from a piece of land and 
 next year grow another crop on it ; you may even take 
 a crop of timber from land and in the course of a few 
 years take another crop of timber from the same 
 land. But when you have once taken a crop of coal 
 out of the land there is no method known to man by 
 which you can produce another crop. There is an 
 enormous amount of waste in mines. What is lost is 
 not only lost to the mine owner, but also to the entire 
 community. There are places where the percentage 
 of ore is comparatively low, so that it would not pay 
 for working. The Bureau might find a way to mine 
 it more economically, thus making a larger amount of 
 coal available for use." 
 
 In February, 1912, Mr. Wilson introduced into the 
 House a bill "to regulate the officering and manning 
 of vessels, to abolish the involuntary servitude im- 
 posed upon the seamen of the merchant marine of 
 foreign countries while in ports of the United States, 
 to prevent unskilled manning of American vessels, to 
 encourage the training of boys in the American mer- 
 chant marine, for the further protection of life at 
 sea and to amend laws relative to seamen and other 
 purposes. ' ' 
 
 The loss of the Titanic had called sharply to the at- 
 tention of the public the necessity for the use of life 
 boats and familiarity of seamen with their use. This 
 bill provided that a sufficient number of able seamen
 
 140 W. B. WILSON 
 
 who knew how to manage life boats should be on every 
 ship. Besides this, the bill aimed to give protection 
 and fair dealing to seamen and sailors in the matter 
 of contracts. Mr. Wilson held that, when any per- 
 son made a contract to perform labor, and after hav- 
 ing made the contract desired to cease from the labor, 
 if he were compelled to continue it, that would con- 
 stitute involuntary servitude. "If you can by law 
 compel a man to work for one second after he desires 
 to cease working, then you can compel him to make 
 a contract to work for his entire lifetime, by virtue of 
 his necessities. And that would give not a brief period 
 but a lifetime of involuntary servitude," said Mr. 
 Wilson, adding in a final appeal : 
 
 ' ' Give us this bill and the ' free ship bill, ' and you 
 will have taken a great stride toward an American 
 Merchant Marine. The seaman will be free, his con- 
 dition will improve, and the American man and boy 
 will seek a seafaring life in sufficient numbers to man 
 all our vessels in peace or war. The commercial ad- 
 vantages which the foreign ship owner has had will be 
 removed, American capital will find profitable invest- 
 ment at sea, and the American seaman, with his self- 
 respect restored, will stand out as a model of seaman- 
 ship to all the world. ' ' 
 
 The appeal appealed. The bill, known as the Wil- 
 son Seamen's Bill, passed the House. 
 
 It is not strange that the little boy who toiled in the 
 mines of Arnot, wasting his childhood in the damp 
 dark caverns of the earth, should, when grown to man- 
 hood and honored with power and responsibility, turn 
 his attention to the great and growing evil of child 
 labor. Mr. Wilson naturally gave much thought and
 
 SIX YEARS IN CONGRESS 141 
 
 attention to the Children's Bureau bill before Con- 
 gress and strongly supported it in debate. The pur- 
 pose of the bill was "to investigate and report upon 
 all matters pertaining to the welfare of children and 
 child life among all classes of people, and especially to 
 investigate the question of infant mortality, birth 
 rate, orphanage, juvenile courts, desertion, dangerous 
 occupations, accidents and diseases of children, em- 
 ployment and legislation affecting children in the sev- 
 eral States and Territories." Mr. Wilson summed it 
 up as a bill "to promote the welfare of children and 
 to devise means whereby the necessities of the parents 
 cannot be used to retard the development of the chil- 
 dren, who are the citizens of tomorrow." The bill 
 passed. The Children's Bureau came into existence 
 and was placed under the charge of the Department 
 of Commerce and Labor. 
 
 For many years past there had been a great demand 
 for the creation of a Department of Labor through 
 which the great labor interests of the country might 
 be represented in the President's Cabinet. In fact, 
 the Democratic Party had in 1908 and 1912 pledged 
 itself to the enactment of a law establishing such a 
 Department. Mr. Wilson felt very strongly the need 
 of such a Department, for the Bureau of Labor, con- 
 nected with the Department of Commerce and Labor, 
 had limited powers and appropriations. In his cam- 
 paigns he had promised labor to do all he could to 
 further their interests, and to him, the best way to ac- 
 complish this would be to put through legislation 
 establishing a Department of Labor. In his appeal 
 for the bill he said : 
 
 "There are in the neighborhood of 30,000,000 work-
 
 142 W. B. WILSON 
 
 men employed in the United States, and notwithstand- 
 ing that fact and the fact that the great bulk of our 
 people are wage workers or farmers, there has been 
 no representative of labor in the Cabinet up to now. 
 . . . One feature of the bill is the section which 
 gives to the Secretary of Labor the power to act as 
 mediator or to appoint commissions of conciliation 
 in trade disputes. Those who have had experience in 
 trade disputes know that in their early stages, when 
 the tension is not great, when both sides are in a re- 
 ceptive frame of mind, some one who has the con- 
 fidence of both parties, acting as mediator, would be 
 in a position to bring the contending parties together, 
 and thereby avoid industrial disputes to a great ex- 
 tent not entirely avoid them, but reduce them to a 
 minimum. 
 
 "When a trade dispute is inaugurated is the time 
 for a mediator to act. When it goes on until the 
 workmen have reached the point where they consider 
 the employer a bloodthirsty oppressor of labor, and 
 the employer has reached the point where he con- 
 siders the workmen anarchists and lawbreakers, there 
 is little chance for conciliation. Both sides must go on 
 until one or the other is exhausted. ' ' 
 
 Mr. Wilson did not believe in compulsory arbitra- 
 tion. This was not included in his bill, for he be- 
 lieved that then workmen might be obliged to work 
 under conditions they thought unfair, and a condition 
 of that kind is slavery. Or, the employer might be 
 obliged to employ men and continue operations at a 
 loss until his entire property had been swept away. 
 Both conditions are wrong. 
 
 The Department of Commerce and Labor was
 
 SIX YEARS IN CONGRESS 143 
 
 created in 1903, and labor was disappointed not to 
 have a representative in the Cabinet at that time. It 
 was then thought, however, and brought out in debate, 
 that the work might grow so that later it would be 
 found necessary to have a separate Department of 
 Labor. 
 
 The function of the new department as set forth in 
 the bill is "to foster, promote, and develop the welfare 
 of the wage earners of the United States, to improve 
 the working conditions, and to advance their oppor- 
 tunities for profitable employment. ' ' Even though not 
 asked to mediate in labor disputes, it is the duty of 
 the Secretary of Labor to go to the contending par- 
 ties and endeavor to bring them together. Having 
 used all his advice and influence in that direction, his 
 power ends. He has no authority to compel either side 
 to accept any decision or to enter into arbitration for 
 a settlement of the dispute. 
 
 The second session of the Sixty-second Congress 
 was a long one, extending from December 4, 1911, to 
 August 25, 1912. A few days before that Congress 
 adjourned Mr. Wilson made a long speech in which 
 he enumerated the bills that had been passed by Con- 
 gress in the session about to close, and made an appeal 
 for working men to vote for the Democratic candidate 
 for President in the election to follow in the fall. He 
 alluded to the excise bill, taxing incomes so that the 
 wealth of the country bears a greater share in the 
 burdens of the Government than heretofore ; the pub- 
 licity bill, which enables every one to know before 
 election takes place who are the contributors to the 
 campaign expenses of their representatives ; the parcel 
 post clause in the Post Office apropriation bill, pro-
 
 144 W. B. WILSON 
 
 viding for the selection of committees to investigate 
 and report on definite plans of parcel post and postal 
 express. 
 
 Among the bills recognized as labor measures passed 
 by the House in that Congress were the various eight- 
 hour bills applying to work done for the Government 
 as well as work done by the Government, to dredge 
 workers, to civilians engaged in the manufacture of 
 ordnance and powder for the Government, to certain 
 navy workers, to postal clerks and carriers. There 
 was also the anti-injunction bill, to protect working 
 men during the period of trade disputes and to give 
 them the same protection in the courts that other men 
 enjoy. For more than thirty years there had been a 
 tendency on the part of equity courts to declare by 
 injunction certain acts to be criminal during labor 
 disputes that are not criminal at other times, and then 
 to try men for committing these crimes without the 
 protection of trial by jury. The passage of this bill 
 ' ' put the stamp of disapproval on such usurpation on 
 the part of courts." 
 
 The Industrial Commission bill was to investigate 
 the entire subject of industrial relations between em- 
 ployer and employee, with a view to ascertaining the 
 best method of dealing with industrial disputes, so as 
 to protect the rights of all persons directly or in- 
 directly interested. Out of the condition of unrest 
 prevalent in the country at that time and for sev- 
 eral years previous had grown many strikes and 
 threatened strikes. 
 
 "Strikes between labor and capital," said Mr. Wil- 
 son in defense of this bill, "are like wars between na- 
 tions. They bring suffering, hardships, and priva-
 
 SIX YEARS IN CONGRESS 145 
 
 tions of every kind and character to those who are en- 
 gaged in the disputes and to the community at large. 
 Men do not engage in strikes purely for the amuse- 
 ment it brings them. Men do not engage in strikes 
 for what they consider frivolous reasons. They know 
 what is ahead of them, and are not prone to engage in 
 industrial contests unless they believe they have very 
 real and important grievances to correct which can- 
 not be corrected by other methods. The purpose of 
 this measure is to provide a commission composed of 
 equal numbers of wage workers and employers, with 
 a balance of disinterested parties, to conduct an in- 
 vestigation into the conditions which have created the 
 spirit of unrest and report their findings to Congress 
 from time to time, so that Congress may legislate on 
 the subject if necessary. The province of this com- 
 mittee will be merely to investigate and report. It 
 will not interfere with the work of the proposed De- 
 partment of Labor." 
 
 There were also bills passed to protect the prod- 
 ucts of free labor from the competition of convict 
 labor products, to make shorter the hours of masters 
 and mates of vessels, and other minor bills for the 
 benefit of labor. 
 
 President Taft signed the bill creating the Depart- 
 ment of Labor during the very last part of his admin- 
 istration. In the session of Congress March 3, 1913, 
 there was an interesting prophetic scene in the House. 
 Mr. Mann of Illinois, speaking on the Wilson Sea- 
 men's bill, said : 
 
 "Mr. Speaker, one gentleman who has been most 
 prominent in connection with this bill, both in the 
 committee and on the floor, is a member of this House,
 
 146 W. B. WILSON 
 
 who has been also prominent in other legislation 
 which has been enacted by Congress for years, and I 
 hope that we are saluting the next Secretary of 
 Labor." 
 
 Another member promptly said: "I yield five 
 minutes to the next Secretary of Labor." 
 
 Whereupon the Speaker announced: "The Secre- 
 tary of Labor is recognized for five minutes." 
 
 W. B. Wilson was appointed the Secretary of Labor, 
 and by many it is said his was the "big job" of the 
 Cabinet. The new department took over from the old 
 Department of Commerce and Labor the Bureau of 
 Labor Statistics, the Bureau of Immigration and 
 Naturalization, and the Children's Bureau. "It has 
 power to act as mediator and arbiter in labor disputes 
 whenever it is deemed necessary for the establish- 
 ment of industrial peace. It can put an end to the 
 slavery existing in many of the industries today, in 
 mines and in lumber camps, and in the steel plants, 
 where every alternate Sunday men work twenty-four 
 hours from sun-up to sun-up. It can see that the law 
 restricting child labor is rigidly enforced. Today 
 over 1,700,000 children under fifteen work ten and 
 twelve hours a day and sometimes all night in fields 
 and factories and mines and workshops. It can de- 
 cide whether government by injunction can be en- 
 forced always in the interest of capital and never in 
 the interest of labor. ' ' Verily this is a " big job. ' '
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 CREATING THE DEPARTMENT OF LABOR 
 
 SUGGESTIONS and proposals for the Department of 
 Labor appear to have been urged continuously since 
 the Civil War. They were so numerous and persistent 
 over the long period intervening between the earliest 
 of them and its creation as to indicate a steadily 
 strengthening popular demand for some such act of 
 Congress as that under which this Department 
 operates. 
 
 In 1865 a department of the Federal Government 
 with reference to the welfare of wage earners, and 
 with a Secretary in the President's Cabinet to speak 
 for them, was advocated by prominent labor leaders. 
 Their suggestions appear to have been officially 
 adopted in 1865 by labor organizations of that period. 
 
 Probably the only earlier proposal in any wise of 
 similar character was that of a bill introduced in 
 Congress in 1864 by the Hon. Gottlieb Orth, then a 
 Representative from Indiana, for the creation of a 
 "Department of Industry." Numerous formal 
 measures bearing on the subject were proposed in 
 Congress from that time forward during the following 
 forty years or more.* 
 
 * More than a hundred bills and resolutions anticipating 
 the present Department of Labor and introduced between 1864 
 and 1902 are summarized in pages 13-21 of the public docu- 
 ment entitled " Organization and the Laws of the Department 
 of Commerce and Labor," published by the Government Print- 
 ing Office in 1904 and now out of print. 
 
 147
 
 148 W. B. WILSON 
 
 In 1867 Congressional action was secured, but only 
 on a resolution instructing the Committee on Rules 
 to inquire into the expediency of the creation of a 
 standing labor committee. 
 
 Some of the measures introduced in Congress, both 
 before and afterward, were more intimately related 
 to the commercial and business side of industrial af- 
 fairs than to the wage-earning side. Others, how- 
 ever, distinctly anticipated the present Department of 
 Labor and its principal functions. 
 
 Among the latter was a bill, passed by the House 
 of Representatives in 1871, for the appointment of a 
 commission on the subject of wages and hours of labor 
 and the division of profits between labor and capital 
 in the United States. There were also bills for estab- 
 lishing a "Bureau of Labor," a "Labor Bureau in 
 connection with the Department of Agriculture," a 
 "Bureau of Labor, with a Commissioner of Labor," 
 a "Bureau of Labor Statistics," a "Bureau of Labor 
 Statistics in the Interior Department," and a "De- 
 partment of Industry." None of the bills was en- 
 acted. But several others of similar tenor and pur- 
 pose, introduced at the first session of the Forty-eighth 
 Congress (1883-84), were followed in 1884 by prelimi- 
 nary legislation in the direction of the present De- 
 partment of Labor. 
 
 Among those bills was one in the Senate for a 
 "Bureau of Labor Statistics," introduced by Senator 
 Blair. In the House there was one for a "Bureau of 
 Statistics of Labor and Industries," by Representa- 
 tive O'Neill; one for a "Department of Labor Statis- 
 tics," by Representative McKinley (afterward Pres- 
 ident) ; one for a "Department of Industry," by
 
 CREATING DEPARTMENT OF LABOR 149 
 
 Representative Foran; and one for a "Bureau of 
 Labor Statistics," by Representative Lamb. Out of 
 these an act was framed. As a result, therefore, of 
 twenty years of agitation for a department of the 
 Federal Government representative of the interests of 
 wage earners, this act, approved June 27, 1884, 
 created a bureau in the Department of the Interior 
 by the name of the "Bureau of Labor." 
 
 That original Bureau of Labor was transformed 
 in 1888 into an independent department by the name 
 of the "Department of Labor," with a Commissioner 
 of Labor as chief, but he was not of sufficient rank to 
 be called into the Cabinet by the President. This 
 Bureau of Labor, as it was again called, was placed 
 in 1903 under the jurisdiction of the Department of 
 Commerce and Labor. 
 
 Meanwhile, the original agitation for a Department 
 of Labor with a Secretary of Labor in the President's 
 Cabinet continued. In 1885 Representative "Weaver 
 introduced a bill for an executive Department of 
 Labor with a Secretary of Labor. General "Weaver's 
 bill was referred to the Committee on Labor and got 
 no farther; but during the next eighteen years sev- 
 eral bills having the same or a similar purpose were 
 introduced. At the end of that time substantial leg- 
 islative progress was made. 
 
 In form these bills were of considerable variety, 
 although their purpose appears to have been much the 
 same. Some were in title quite like some of those in- 
 troduced during the period preceding the creation of 
 the original Bureau of Labor. Among them were 
 bills to establish, respectively, a "Department of 
 Agriculture and Labor," a "Department of Industry
 
 150 W. B. WILSON 
 
 and Bureau of Labor," a "Department of Labor," a 
 "Department of Agriculture and Industry," and a 
 "Department of Industries." None was enacted. 
 
 During this second period, however, several bills 
 of a somewhat different character and purpose were 
 introduced which ultimately played an important 
 part in the creation of the present Department of 
 Labor. Whatever the title any of them may have 
 borne, the object of all was a "Department of Com- 
 merce." These proposals for an executive depart- 
 ment in the interest of commercial business being 
 finally blended with those for an executive department 
 in the interest of the welfare of wage earners, the 
 Department of Commerce and Labor was created by 
 act of Congress approved February 14, 1903. 
 
 For ten years thereafter the welfare of wage earn- 
 ers of the United States was consequently intrusted to 
 an executive department designed to represent the in- 
 terests of employers also. This amalgamated repre- 
 sentation of interests that are at times in serious con- 
 flict proved unsatisfactory. An executive depart- 
 ment, the same in principle as that which had for 
 nearly half a century been urged in the interest of 
 wage earners, was demanded with greater popular 
 emphasis than before. After ten years, the Depart- 
 ment of Commerce and Labor being transformed into 
 the Department of Commerce, the present Depart- 
 ment of Labor was created by the act of Congress on 
 March 4, 1913, entitled "An act to create a Depart- 
 ment of Labor." As Mr. Wilson was Chairman of the 
 House Committee on Labor during the fight, he was 
 very instrumental in bringing it about. 
 
 All functions relating more especially to the busi-
 
 CREATING DEPARTMENT OF LABOR 151 
 
 ness side of industrial problems were by that act as- 
 signed to the Department of Commerce, while the De- 
 partment of Labor was more especially charged with 
 those that relate to the welfare of wage earners. 
 
 Formal organization of the Department of Labor 
 began with the date of its creation, March 4, 1913, 
 under the following organic act approved that day : 
 
 "Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Repre- 
 sentatives of the United States of America in Con- 
 gress assembled, That there is hereby created an ex- 
 ecutive department in the Government to be called 
 the Department of Labor, with a Secretary of Labor, 
 who shall be the head thereof to be appointed by the 
 President, by and with the advice and consent of the 
 Senate ; and who shall receive a salary of $12,000 per 
 annum, and whose tenure of office shall be like that of 
 the heads of other executive departments ; and section 
 one hundred and fifty-eight of the Revised Statutes 
 is hereby amended to include such department, and 
 the provisions of title four of the Revised Statutes, 
 including all amendments thereto, are hereby made 
 applicable to said department; and the Department 
 of Commerce and Labor shall hereafter be called the 
 Department of Commerce, and the Secretary thereof 
 shall be called the Secretary of Commerce, and the act 
 creating the said Department of Commerce and Labor 
 is hereby amended accordingly. The purpose of the 
 Department of Labor shall be to foster, promote, and 
 develop the welfare of the wage earners of the 
 United States, to improve their working conditions, 
 and to advance their opportunities for profitable em- 
 ployment. The said Secretary shall cause a seal of 
 office to be made for the said department of such de-
 
 152 W. B. WILSON 
 
 vice as the President shall approve and judicial no- 
 tice shall be taken of the said seal. 
 
 ' ' Sec. 2. That there shall be in said department an 
 Assistant Secretary of Labor, to be appointed by the 
 President, who shall receive a salary of $5,000 a year. 
 He shall perform such duties as shall be prescribed by 
 the Secretary or required by law. There shall also be 
 one chief clerk and a disbursing clerk, and such other 
 clerical assistants, inspectors, and special agents as 
 may from time to time be provided for by Congress. 
 The Auditor for the State and Other Departments 
 shall receive and examine all accounts of salaries and 
 incidental expenses of the office of the Secretary of 
 Labor and of all bureaus and offices under his direc- 
 tion, and all accounts relating to all other business 
 within the jurisdiction of the Department of Labor, 
 and certify the balances arising thereon to the Di- 
 vision of Bookkeeping and Warrants and send forth- 
 with a copy of each certificate to the Secretary of 
 Labor. 
 
 "Sec. 3. That the following named offices, bureaus, 
 divisions, and branches of the public service now and 
 heretofore under the jurisdiction of the Department 
 of Commerce and Labor, and all that pertains to the 
 same, known as the Commissioner General of Im- 
 migration, the Commissioners of Immigration, the 
 Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization, the Di- 
 vision of Information, the Division of Naturaliza- 
 tion, and the Immigration Service at large, the 
 Bureau of Labor, the Children's Bureau, and the 
 Commissioner of Labor, be, and the same hereby 
 are, transferred from the Department of Commerce 
 and Labor to the Department of Labor, and the
 
 CREATING DEPARTMENT OF LABOR 153 
 
 same shall hereafter remain under the jurisdiction 
 and supervision of the last-named department. The 
 Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization is hereby 
 divided into two bureaus, to be known hereafter as the 
 Bureau of Immigration and the Bureau of Natural- 
 ization, and the titles Chief Division of Naturaliza- 
 tion and Assistant Chief shall be Commissioner of 
 Naturalization and Deputy Commissioner of Natu- 
 ralization. The Commissioner of Naturalization or, in 
 his absence, the Deputy Commissioner of Naturaliza- 
 tion shall be the administrative officer in charge of 
 the Bureau of Naturalization and of the administra- 
 tion of the naturalization laws under the immediate 
 direction of the Secretary of Labor, to whom he shall 
 report directly upon all naturalization matters an- 
 nually and as otherwise required, and the appoint- 
 ments of these two officers shall be made in the same 
 manner as appointments to competitive classified civil 
 service positions. The Bureau of Labor shall here- 
 after be known as the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and 
 the Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor shall here- 
 after be known as the Commissioner of Labor Statis- 
 tics; and all the powers and duties heretofore pos- 
 sessed by the Commissioner of Labor shall be retained 
 and exercised by the Commissioner of Labor Statis- 
 tics; and the administration of the act of May thir- 
 tieth, nineteen hundred and eight, granting to certain 
 employees of the United States the right to receive 
 from it compensation for injuries sustained in the 
 course of their employment. 
 
 ' ' Sec. 4. That the Bureau of Labor Statistics, under 
 the direction of the Secretary of Labor, shall collect, 
 collate, and report at least once a year, or oftener if
 
 154 W. B. WILSON 
 
 necessary, full and complete statistics of the condi- 
 tions of labor and the products and distribution of the 
 products of the same, and to this end said Secretary 
 shall have power to employ any or either of the 
 bureaus provided for his department and to rearrange 
 such statistical work and to distribute or consolidate 
 the same as may be deemed desirable in the public in- 
 terests; and said Secretary shall also have authority 
 to call upon other departments of the Government for 
 statistical data and results obtained by them; and 
 said Secretary of Labor may collate, arrange, and 
 publish such statistical information so obtained in 
 such manner as to him may seem wise. 
 
 ' ' Sec. 5. That the official records and papers now on 
 file and pertaining exclusively to the business of any 
 bureau, office, department, or branch of the public 
 service in this act transferred to the Department of 
 Labor, together with the furniture now in use in such 
 bureau, office, department, or branch of the public 
 service, shall be, and hereby are, transferred to the 
 Department of Labor. 
 
 ' ' Sec. 6. That the Secretary of Labor shall have 
 charge in the building or premises occupied by or ap- 
 propriated to the Department of Labor, of the library, 
 furniture, fixtures, records, and other property per- 
 taining to it or hereafter acquired for use in its busi- 
 ness ; he shall be allowed to expend for periodicals and 
 the purpose of the library and for rental of ap- 
 propriate quarters for the accommodation of the De- 
 partment of Labor within the District of Columbia, 
 and for all other incidental expenses, such sums as 
 Congress may provide from time to time; Provided, 
 however, That where any office, bureau, or branch of
 
 CREATING DEPARTMENT OF LABOR 155 
 
 the public service transferred to the Department of 
 Labor by this act is occupying rented buildings or 
 premises, it may still continue to do so until other 
 suitable quarters are provided for its use; And pro- 
 vided further, That all offices, clerks, and employees 
 not employed in any of the bureaus, offices, depart- 
 ments, or branches of the public service in this act 
 transferred to the Department of Labor are each and 
 all hereby transferred to said department at their 
 present grades and salaries, except where otherwise 
 provided in this act ; And provided further, That all 
 laws prescribing the work and defining the duties of 
 the several bureaus, offices, departments, or branches 
 of the public service by this act transferred to and 
 made a part of the Department of Labor shall, so far 
 as the same are not in conflict with the provisions of 
 this act, remain in full force and effect, to be executed 
 under the direction of the Secretary of Labor. 
 
 "Sec. 7. That there shall be a Solicitor of the De- 
 partment of Justice for the Department of Labor, 
 whose salary shall be $5,000 per annum. 
 
 "Sec. 8. That the Secretary of Labor shall have 
 power to act as mediator and to appoint commissioners 
 of conciliation in labor disputes whenever in his judg- 
 ment the interests of industrial peace may require it 
 to be done; and all duties performed and all power 
 and authority now possessed or exercised by the head 
 of any executive department in and over any bureau, 
 office, officer, board, branch, or division of the public 
 service by this act transferred to the Department of 
 Labor, or any business arising therefrom or pertain- 
 ing thereto, or in relation to the duties performed by 
 and authority conferred by law upon such bureau,
 
 156 W. B. WILSON 
 
 officer, office, board, branch, or division of the public 
 service, whether of an appellate or revisory character 
 or otherwise, shall hereafter be vested in and exercised 
 by the head of the said Department of Labor. 
 
 ' ' Sec. 9. That the Secretary of Labor shall annu- 
 ally, at the close of each fiscal year, make a report in 
 writing to Congress, giving an account of all moneys 
 received and disbursed by him and his department and 
 describing the work done by the department. He shall 
 also, from time to time, make such special investiga- 
 tions and reports as he may be required to do by the 
 President, or by Congress, or which he himself may 
 deem necessary. 
 
 "Sec. 10. That the Secretary of Labor shall in- 
 vestigate and report to Congress a plan of co-ordina- 
 tion of the activities, duties, and powers of the office 
 of the Secretary of Labor with the activities, duties, 
 and powers of the present bureaus, commissions, and 
 departments, so far as they relate to labor and its con- 
 ditions, in order to harmonize and unify such activ- 
 ities, duties, and powers, with a view to further legis- 
 lation to further define the duties and powers of such 
 Department of Labor. 
 
 "Sec. 11. That this act shall take effect March 
 fourth, nineteen hundred and thirteen, and all acts or 
 parts of acts inconsistent with this act are hereby re- 
 pealed. ' '
 
 CHAPTEB XVI 
 THE ORIGINAL BUREAUS 
 
 CREATED by act of Congress approved June 27, 
 1884, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (at first called 
 the "Bureau of Labor," then the "Department of 
 Labor," again the "Bureau of Labor," and finally 
 the "Bureau of Labor Statistics") was the nucleus 
 for the Congressional legislation which culminated 
 nearly thirty years later in the creation of the present 
 Department of Labor. 
 
 When first organized, January, 1885, the Bureau 
 of Labor was under the direction of Carroll D. 
 Wright as Commissioner of Labor. By the act of its 
 creation the commissioner was required to "collect 
 information on the subject of labor, its relation to 
 capital, the hours of labor and the earnings of labor- 
 ing men and women, and the means of promoting their 
 material, intellectual, and moral prosperity." Its 
 policy was formally declared (February 4, 1885) 
 soon after its original organization, in a letter ad- 
 dressed by the Commissioner of Labor to the Secre- 
 tary of the Interior, as follows: 
 
 "It should be remembered that a Bureau of Labor 
 cannot solve industrial or social problems, nor can it 
 bring direct returns in a material way to the citizens 
 of the country; but its work must be classed among 
 educational efforts, and by judicious investigations 
 and the fearless publication thereof it may and should 
 enable the people to comprehend more clearly and 
 
 157
 
 158 W. B. WILSON 
 
 more fully many of the problems which now vex 
 them." 
 
 During the four years after its organization in the 
 Department of the Interior, this Bureau issued four 
 annual reports covering the information collated as 
 required by its organic act. The act of Congress 
 which at the end of that period made the Bureau in- 
 dependent of any of the executive departments, un- 
 der the name of the Department of Labor, but without 
 representation in the Cabinet, provided: 
 
 "That there shall be at the seat of government a 
 Department of Labor, the general design and duties 
 of which shall be to acquire and diffuse among the 
 people of the United States useful information on sub- 
 jects connected with labor, in the most general and 
 comprehensive sense of that word, and especially upon 
 its relation to capital, the hours of labor, the material, 
 social, intellectual, and moral prosperity." 
 
 Under that act, approved June 13, 1888, the De- 
 partment of Labor, as this Bureau was then named, 
 issued 14 annual reports and 9 special reports, and be- 
 tween July 1, 1903, and July 1, 1912, as a Bureau of 
 the Department of Commerce and Labor, it issued 7 
 annual and 3 special reports. A number of miscel- 
 laneous reports, many of which were made in com- 
 pliance with the special direction of Congress, were 
 also issued by the Bureau. 
 
 In November, 1895, the Department began the pub- 
 lication of a bulletin under an act approved March 2 
 of the same year. This bulletin was published bi- 
 monthly up to the close of the fiscal year ending June 
 30, 1912. Its general departments of information 
 were as follows: (1) Results of original investiga-
 
 THE ORIGINAL BUREAUS 159 
 
 tions; (2) digests of State labor reports; (3) digest 
 of foreign labor and statistical documents; and (4) 
 current decisions of courts interpreting labor laws or 
 passing upon any subject involving the relations of 
 employer and employee, and the reproduction at the 
 end of each year of new laws affecting the interests of 
 wage workers, whether enacted by Congress or by 
 State Legislatures. 
 
 The publication of the series of annual and special 
 reports and of bimonthly bulletins having been dis- 
 continued at the close of the fiscal year ending June 
 30, 1912, bulletins have since then been published at 
 irregular intervals. Each number is devoted to one of 
 a series of general subjects. Thus far these have been 
 as follows: "Wholesale Prices," "Retail Prices and 
 Cost of Living," ""Wages and Hours of Labor," 
 "Women in Industry," "Workmen's Insurance and 
 Compensation" (including laws relating thereto), 
 "Industrial Accidents and Hygiene," "Conciliation 
 and Arbitration" (including strikes and lockouts), 
 "Labor Laws of the United States" (including deci- 
 sions of courts relating to labor), "Foreign Labor 
 Laws," and "Miscellaneous" series. 
 
 As previously explained, the former Department of 
 Labor became, July 1, 1903, a bureau of the Depart- 
 ment of Commerce and Labor, its name being altered 
 to "Bureau of Labor." Inasmuch, however, as no 
 provision was made for any change in its general de- 
 sign and function, its work was continued along prac- 
 tically the same lines as formerly. The act approved 
 March 4, 1913, establishing the present executive De- 
 partment of Labor, which transferred the Bureau of 
 Labor from the Department of Commerce and Labor
 
 ICO W. B. WILSON 
 
 to this new department, naming it the "Bureau of 
 Labor Statistics," provides that all powers and 
 duties theretofore possessed by the Commissioner of 
 Labor shall be retained and exercised by the Commis- 
 sioner of Labor Statistics, and this is the way the 
 matter stands today. The office of Commissioner was 
 held by Dr. Royal Meeker, one of the nation's most 
 accurate and far-sighted statisticians. 
 
 The second of the four bureaus transferred from the 
 former Department of Commerce and Labor to the 
 Department of Labor, by the act creating the latter, 
 was the Bureau of Immigration. Its function is to 
 execute our laws relating to the immigration and de- 
 portation of aliens and Chinese, and it is administered 
 by the Commissioner General of Immigration under 
 the direction and with the approval of the Secretary 
 of Labor. 
 
 Prior to the organization of this Bureau, the various 
 acts of Congress regulating immigration were admin- 
 istered by State officials under the direction and con- 
 trol of the Secretary of the Treasury, the expense be- 
 ing defrayed from a permanent appropriation pro- 
 vided for by Congress in 1882 and known as the ' ' Im- 
 migrant Fund." It was not until 1891 that the or- 
 ganization of this service as a Federal service ex- 
 clusively was established. By an act of Congress of 
 March 3 of that year the Federal office of Superin- 
 tendent of Immigration was authorized and the duties 
 theretofore performed by State officials under the im- 
 migration acts of Congress were transferred to inspec- 
 tion officers under his control. He and they, however, 
 were placed under the direction of the Secretary of the 
 Treasury, as the State officials who preceded them had
 
 THE ORIGINAL BUREAUS 161 
 
 been. The title of Superintendent of Immigration was 
 changed in 1895 to its present form of Commissioner 
 General of Immigration. Upon the establishment in 
 1903 of the Department of Commerce and Labor, the 
 Commissioner General and his official force, then 
 known as the Bureau of Immigration, were trans- 
 ferred to that department. 
 
 By act of Congress, approved June 29, 1906, the 
 Bureau of Immigration was given charge of the ad- 
 ministrative execution of the naturalization laws, a 
 Division of Naturalization within the bureau was or- 
 ganized and the title of the bureau was changed ac- 
 cordingly to "Bureau of Immigration and Naturali- 
 zation." But a separate bureau having been made of 
 the Division of Naturalization by the organic act of 
 this department, the Bureau of Immigration and 
 Naturalization was by the same act restored to its 
 original functions, reinvested with its original title 
 of Bureau of Immigration, and, though remaining in 
 charge of the Commissioner General, placed under the 
 general jurisdiction of the Secretary of Labor. 
 
 The Bureau of Immigration, like the Bureau of 
 Labor Statistics, did not come under the jurisdiction 
 of the Department of Labor until March 4, 1913. The 
 Commissioner General during Mr. Wilson's regime 
 was Anthony Caminetti. 
 
 Until early in August immigration was not far from 
 normal by the standards of the fiscal year ended June 
 30, 1913, and June 30, 1914. Signs of extraordinary 
 decline in transatlantic arrivals were then observed. 
 Notwithstanding this and the subsequent decline, 
 however, the Department was embarrassed by alter- 
 natives which the circumstances presented in the case
 
 162 W. B. WILSON 
 
 of nonadmissibles. To deport was to subject them to 
 the dangers of destruction or capture by belligerents 
 on the high seas; to admit them outright would have 
 been indefensible; and detention without limit would 
 have involved unusual expense and much individual 
 hardship. In this emergency the Department sus- 
 pended all Atlantic deportations until assured of 
 safety of transport. Meanwhile, in order to mitigate 
 their hardships, aliens indefinitely awaiting deporta- 
 tion were released temporarily under bond. In the 
 course of two months safety of transport had become 
 general enough to warrant deportation by most of the 
 Atlantic lines, and in this respect the regular practice 
 was resumed. 
 
 For a satisfactory administration of the immigra- 
 tion laws, the character and condition of immigrant 
 stations at ports of entry are of prime importance. 
 So far, therefore, as the Department of Labor is per- 
 mitted by law and equipped for the purpose, it aims 
 to make these stations as much like temporary homes 
 as possible. While regulation and exclusion, and 
 therefore detention, are necessary in respect to immi- 
 gration, it should be understood by all who partici- 
 pate in administering these laws that they are not in- 
 tended to be penalizing. It is with no unfriendliness 
 to aliens that immigrants are detained and some of 
 them excluded, but solely for the protection of our 
 own people and our own institutions. Indifference, 
 then, to the physical or mental comfort of these wards 
 of ours from other lands should not be tolerated. Ac- 
 cordingly, every reasonable effort is made by the De- 
 partment, within the limits of the appropriations, to
 
 THE ORIGINAL BUREAUS 163 
 
 minimize the necessary hardships of their detention 
 and to abolish all that are not necessary. 
 
 By Section 40 of the Immigration Statutes, enacted 
 while the Bureau of Immigration was still under the 
 jurisdiction of the Department of Commerce and 
 Labor, there had been created in that bureau a Divi- 
 sion of Information. Its purpose was to promote a 
 beneficial distribution of immigrants and to furnish 
 appropriate information to immigrants and other 
 persons. Having been transferred along with its 
 supervising bureau to the jurisdiction of the Depart- 
 ment of Labor upon the creation of the latter, this 
 division came under the influence of the broad statu- 
 tory purpose of the Department. Its powers were 
 consequently so far expanded by implication as to 
 open the way for greatly improving its efficiency and 
 that of the Department in connection with the dis- 
 tribution of labor. 
 
 From its creation in 1907 until December 31, 1917, 
 this Division of Information engaged in the distribu- 
 tion of aliens and others in a restricted way under its 
 limited powers. During that period it built up a dis- 
 tribution branch in New York City which has served 
 not only its own purposes, but the purposes also of a 
 model for the other distribution branches which the 
 Department later established. This extension of Fed- 
 eral distribution work began with the latter part of 
 the fiscal year 1914. 
 
 The State Labor Commissioner for Oklahoma tele- 
 graphed Secretary Wilson on May 25th of that year 
 as to the possibility of supplying harvest help to his 
 State. ' ' We will need, ' ' he telegraphed, ' ' from 12,000 
 to 15,000 men at from $2 to $2.50 per day, with
 
 164 W. B. WILSON 
 
 board, to help harvest our wheat and thresh same; 
 and 85 per cent, of the men so employed will be given 
 employment in this State by the farmers in handling 
 the various forage crops, which promise a big yield at 
 this time, thereby guaranteeing from four to six 
 months' steady work. The State will maintain free 
 employment offices at Oklahoma City, Enid, Wood- 
 ward, Frederick, and other points in the State to help 
 distribute the men, and any publication you can give 
 this matter through your department will be greatly 
 appreciated by the citizens of this State." 
 
 Responding immediately to that telegram the Secre- 
 tary caused it to be embodied in a bulletin for dis- 
 play in Post Offices and publication in newspapers 
 which notified persons desiring harvesting employ- 
 ment to apply to the State employment offices named 
 in the telegram. This publicity immediately brought 
 similar appeals from Kansas, Missouri, and South 
 Dakota. Thereupon the Department issued a further 
 bulletin for display in Post Offices and publication in 
 newspapers. It was the second bulletin in general 
 substance (that with reference to Oklahoma having 
 preceded it), but the first in the systematic plans of 
 the Department to promote the welfare of wage earn- 
 ers of the United States in this way. From that the 
 work grew to the great organization created by John 
 B. Densmore, Director General during the war, with 
 several hundred offices, over two thousand employees, 
 and the most complete publicity service. 
 
 Anticipating the embarrassment, loss, and suffering 
 to which unemployed wage earners have long been 
 exposed by irresponsibly advertised opportunities, 
 Secretary Wilson was careful to phrase the bulletins
 
 THE ORIGINAL BUREAUS 165 
 
 so as to put applicants on their guard with reference 
 to wages, to the probable period of employment, to 
 the character and circumstances of the work offered, 
 and to the responsibility of the persons promulgating 
 the call. 
 
 Another initial experiment, almost coincident in 
 point of time, had to do with displaced factory work- 
 ers. Having directed the facilities of the Division of 
 Information to the relief of wage-earning victims of 
 the disastrous fire of June 25, 1914, at Salem, Massa- 
 chusetts, Secretary Wilson demonstrated his ability 
 to assist wage earners thrown out of employment and 
 made homeless by public calamities, and to do so with- 
 out displacing or otherwise injuriously affecting other 
 wage earners. 
 
 Favorably impressed with the results of both those 
 experiments, which had terminated near the close of 
 the second fiscal year, the Department began, through 
 the Division of Information and with the aid of its 
 supervisory bureau, the Bureau of Immigration, to 
 organize public employment exchanges upon the na- 
 tional scale which it has ever since been developing. 
 
 The first step in that direction was to establish 
 eighteen employment zones, with a public employ- 
 ment branch station in each zone under the charge 
 of an immigrant inspector. In addition to these 
 branches, sub-branches to the number of twenty-two 
 were established in prominent points in each zone, and 
 since then additional sub-branches, have been estab- 
 lished at immigration stations. 
 
 Evidence that private employment agencies engage 
 in practices calculated to injure and defraud workers 
 directed to employment across State lines was ob-
 
 166 W. B. WILSON 
 
 tained during the year. On the strength of this, the 
 Division of Information recommended that a law be 
 enacted requiring all private employment agents to 
 obtain a license from and to make reports to the De- 
 partment of Labor, and that for any act of injustice 
 to workmen the penalty shall be imprisonment rather 
 than a fine. 
 
 In a previous report the Secretary called attention 
 to the desirability of enabling the Interstate Com- 
 merce Commission to regulate interstate commerce in 
 explosives on water as it is now authorized to regu- 
 late such commerce on land. The reference was to 
 a dangerous situation at Ellis Island. The immigra- 
 tion station at Ellis Island was endangered by the 
 commercial handling of high explosives near by. For 
 nearly three years this had caused the Secretary much 
 concern for the safety of the station and its occu- 
 pants. 
 
 His feeling was first aroused by a destructive ex- 
 plosion in the winter of 1911 in connection with a 
 transshipment of explosives at a railroad wharf. The 
 explosion occurred at a point considerably farther 
 from Ellis Island then the point at which shipments of 
 explosives are now habitually made. It damaged the 
 immigration station to the extent of more than 
 $25,000, and would probably have caused great loss 
 of life but for the fortunate fact that on the day of 
 the explosion there had been no arrival of immigrants 
 at the station. In consequence of this destructive ex- 
 plosion and of the fact that explosives are commonly 
 transshipped within about half that distance from 
 the station, efforts were made to lessen the dangers 
 of those transshipments to persons and property on
 
 THE ORIGINAL BUREAUS 167 
 
 Ellis Island. The persistent efforts of immigrant of- 
 ficials on Ellis Island to protect the station and its oc- 
 cupants from the dangers they anticipated appeared 
 to have been baffled. 
 
 Apparently this problem presented a double aspect. 
 The menace to the Ellis Island Station was (1) from 
 vessels loaded with explosives and sailing the waters 
 of the harbor in that neighborhood or anchoring 
 there, and (2) from shipments at nearby docks. As 
 to the first aspect, vessels laden with explosives were 
 reported as moving among passenger vessels in the 
 harbor in reckless disregard of life and property and 
 subject to little, if any, legal control. It seems that 
 although local authority ends with the piers on both 
 sides the authority of Jersey City on the New Jer- 
 sey side, the authority of New York City on the New 
 York side the Federal Government has done little, 
 if anything, in the interest of safety on the waters be- 
 tween, except to require displays of a red flag and the 
 use of particular anchorage grounds. Ellis Island 
 was endangered by the anchorage habitually in its 
 immediate vicinity of vessels carrying explosives. 
 Some vessels so loaded are said to anchor clandestinely 
 in that vicinity even now. The danger, however, is 
 no longer as a rule related to those at anchor law- 
 fully, unless it be in respect to the quantity of ex- 
 plosives they are allowed to carry. 
 
 As to the second phase of the problem, transship- 
 ments of explosives from cars to vessels at docks are 
 made, as it would seem, perilously near to Ellis Island. 
 Were a catastrophe to occur, responsible Federal of- 
 ficials could not explain their own inaction by refer- 
 ring to the vigilance, as it has been suggested that
 
 168 W. B. WILSON 
 
 they may do, of local authorities. Such excuses, 
 though usually accepted before disasters, are seldom 
 admitted afterward. This consideration was evi- 
 dently taken into account by Commissioner Williams. 
 For, upon finding all other remedial doors closed, he 
 advised that legislation covering the whole subject 
 be urgently sought of Congress. Owing to the fact 
 that he was once an immigrant at the Island, Secre- 
 tary Wilson took great interest in it as in other im- 
 migration, naturalization, and labor matters, where 
 human welfare was involved. Under his direction 
 marked improvements in administration were under- 
 taken at Ellis Island. Special efforts as praiseworthy 
 and effective as they were unusual were made there to 
 minimize all necessary and to abolish all unnecessary 
 hardships of detention. 
 
 The third of the transformed bureaus was the 
 Bureau of Naturalization. When the title of the 
 original Bureau of Immigration was altered to Bureau 
 of Immigration and Naturalization, authority to ad- 
 minister the laws for the naturalization of aliens was 
 vested in it. These laws, however, were placed under 
 the special charge of a division of the bureau to 
 which that function was particularly assigned. Upon 
 the creation of the Department of Labor, the organic 
 act, restoring the Bureau of Immigration and Natu- 
 ralization to its original name and purpose, raised the 
 Division of Naturalization to the rank of a bureau, 
 placing it in charge of a Commissioner of Naturaliza- 
 tion, Richard K. Campbell, and under the jurisdic- 
 tion of the Secretary of Labor. 
 
 Prior to the act of Congress cited above, that of 
 June 29, 1906, there was no concentrated supervision
 
 THE ORIGINAL BUREAUS 169 
 
 of naturalization proceedings nor any centralized 
 record of naturalization. Frauds were consequently 
 prevalent, and evidence of admissions, rejections, and 
 nonapplication was often difficult to secure. Some of 
 the inconveniences of that chaotic condition come to 
 the surface occasionally now upon request for proof 
 or disproof of naturalization proceedings prior to 
 September 27, 1906. As to all proceedings after the 
 act of 1906 went into operation, the records of the 
 Bureau of Naturalization are complete. Whether any 
 alien has since that time made a declaration of inten- 
 tion or not, or been naturalized or not, and no matter 
 in which of the 2,527 courts over the whole United 
 States that have been or are now doing naturalizing 
 work, the fact can be conclusively and easily proved 
 by reference to these records. And over the pro- 
 ceedings themselves the Bureau of Naturalization 
 maintains continuous scrutiny. It investigates the 
 circumstances of each application and submits to the 
 courts on their respective naturalization days such 
 evidence as it is able to discover relative to the merits 
 of cases then to be decided. 
 
 For this purpose the country is districted with 
 reference to the volume of naturalization business and 
 its distribution. There are in all eleven naturaliza- 
 tion districts. The largest by volume of business, 
 though next to the smallest territorially, has its head- 
 quarters at New York City. It comprises most of the 
 State of New York east of Auburn and includes Jer- 
 sey City, New Jersey. The largest district territori- 
 ally, though among the smaller in volume of business, 
 has its headquarters at Washington, and comprises 
 eastern Maryland, the District of Columbia, Virginia,
 
 170 W. B. WILSON 
 
 North and South Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky, Ten- 
 nessee, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas. 
 Headquarters of the rest of the eleven districts, re- 
 spectively, are at Boston, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, 
 Chicago, St. Louis, St. Paul, Denver, Seattle, and San 
 Francisco. 
 
 Of course the Secretary of Labor cannot permit 
 the Bureau of Naturalization to solicit or to urge 
 aliens domiciled in this country to take the initial 
 steps for naturalization. Individuals and unofficial 
 organizations might properly do so. But the Depart- 
 ment of Labor is an executive branch of the Federal 
 Government, which endeavors to maintain friendly re- 
 lations with all the nations of the world ; and for this 
 Department to permit one of its branches to solicit 
 aliens to renounce allegiance to their own Govern- 
 ments might be reasonably regarded by those Govern- 
 ments as unfriendly on the part of our Government. 
 For this reason the Department of Labor has not at- 
 tempted to induce aliens to become Americanized un- 
 til the aliens themselves have of their own volition re- 
 nounced their former allegiance. 
 
 But when an alien applies in regular form for 
 American citizenship, the relations between himself 
 and the Department of Labor, and between his orig- 
 inal Government and the Government of the United 
 States, are thereupon altered. That he remains an 
 alien for at .least two years afterward is true. It is 
 true also that he may be considered as still subject in 
 some degree to his original Government, and that his 
 original Government may be entitled in some degree 
 to international courtesy regarding him. For his first 
 application for American citizenship his preliminary
 
 THE ORIGINAL BUREAUS 171 
 
 declaration of intention to become an American cit- 
 izen does not absolutely do away with his original 
 allegiance. What he does in making application is 
 voluntarily to declare on oath, two years at least prior 
 to his admission to American citizenship and after he 
 is eighteen years of age, that it is his intention in 
 good faith to renounce his foreign allegiance, to re- 
 gide permanently in the United States, and to be- 
 come a citizen thereof if allowed by our courts to do 
 go. Having made this declaration without pressure 
 from our Government, he comes legitimately within 
 the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Naturalization. For 
 such declared citizens Secretary Wilson always has 
 a warm spot in his heart, urging all such declarants 
 for American citizenship to Americanize themselves 
 to the fullest extent possible. 
 
 Secretary Wilson is of the opinion that he is 
 bound to advise and to urge the declarant for citizen- 
 ship to Americanize, to observe and foster the de- 
 velopment of his qualifications with reference to the 
 naturalization laws, and to bring him into sympa- 
 thetic relations with such educational opportunities 
 as are within his reach, from the time of his lawfully 
 made declaration of intention until the declaration 
 becomes absolute or the declarant is finally admitted 
 or rejected by the courts. 
 
 The first notable mass meeting to welcome the 
 newly naturalized, which was held in the Auditorium 
 at Chicago on Washington's Birthday of 1914, was 
 participated in by the Secretary. He aided a similar 
 meeting in Cleveland, Ohio, on the Fourth of July, 
 1914. In the year 1915 he participated in a meeting 
 of a like nature at Philadelphia, and had the Presi-
 
 172 W. B. WILSON 
 
 dent of the United States deliver an address in per- 
 son. The Secretary then held an Americanization 
 Conference at Philadelphia, and later one at Wash- 
 ington, with reference to the importance and possi- 
 bilities of public-school facilities for preparing declar- 
 ants for their final applications for citizenship.* 
 
 This appeal by Secretary Wilson to aliens seeking 
 American citizenship is probably the first ever made 
 by the Federal Government with the direct purpose 
 of carrying officially to the candidates a realizing sense 
 ef the educational opportunities that are open to 
 them. It is also the first official effort to promote 
 preparation for citizenship by aliens who announce 
 their intention of applying for naturalization. 
 
 In so far as applicants for citizenship availed them- 
 selves of these opportunities the Secretary believed 
 that they acquired a keener appreciation of further 
 ones better work, better wages, better standards, bet- 
 ter family life, better community life, and a better 
 understanding not merely of our Constitution and 
 our laws, but of our history, institutions, and ideals. 
 
 To understand Americanization Secretary Wilson 
 insisted that we must turn back to the Declaration 
 of Independence, which breathed the breath of na- 
 tional life into our colonial federation. "All men 
 are created equal and endowed with certain unalien- 
 able rights, among which are life, liberty, and the 
 
 *This convention was held July 10 to 15, 1916. It was 
 composed of public school officials, teachers, and representa- 
 tives of organizations interested in domiciled foreigners. Offi- 
 cials of this Department and of other executive Departments, 
 representatives of the legislative and judicial branches of the 
 Government, and professional and business men attended the 
 convention and took part in its deliberations. The principal 
 speaker was the President of the United States.
 
 THE ORIGINAL BUREAUS 173 
 
 pursuit of happiness." Not equality of height, or 
 weight, or strength, or mind, or culture, or even of 
 morality, but equality of rights under the law; and 
 not equality of rights for some or for many, but for 
 all. That sentiment, the lifeblood of American insti- 
 tutions, was profoundly stirred again by Lincoln in his 
 address at Gettysburg: "Our fathers brought forth 
 on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty 
 and dedicated to the proposition that all men are 
 created equal. ' ' But to sense the ideal of our national 
 life is not enough. If we could understand Ameri- 
 canization, we must face the truth that even the in- 
 stitutions of this country are not yet altogether vital- 
 ized by its ideal. To make progress in that respect 
 is our task and the task of Americans yet to come. 
 Working toward American ideals is all our prede- 
 cessors have done, all they could do, the best of them, 
 and it is all that we can hope to do. This we must 
 do, though/ if we would regard ourselves, no matter 
 where we were born, as having been Americanized. 
 
 What the future may bring forth is uncertain ; but 
 it is hoped that out of Secretary Wilson 's efforts may 
 grow a system which will largely relieve the courts 
 of their heaviest burdens in the naturalization of 
 aliens while securing better standards of Americaniza- 
 tion among naturalized citizens than has been possible 
 heretofore. 
 
 The Secretary also dreamed that the time might 
 come when a public school certificate of American- 
 ization would be accepted by the courts as evidence 
 of the requisite intellectual qualifications for citizen- 
 ship. In that event and by a slight extension of the 
 practice this certificate properly might cover all the
 
 174 W. B. WILSON 
 
 other qualifications; for who could better judge of 
 the moral character and American spirit of an appli- 
 cant than the public school teachers under whose 
 tutelage he had been for two years preparing for 
 citizenship ? 
 
 Let it not be supposed, however, that Secretary 
 Wilson was under any impression that alien appli- 
 cants for citizenship alone needed Americanization. 
 He was very far from thinking that facilities for im- 
 provement in the qualifications for citizenship should 
 be thrust upon alien seekers for citizenship without 
 being brought as freely and as emphatically to the 
 attention also of the citizen born. It only so happens 
 that the governmental machinery then available to 
 the Department of Labor for promoting Americaniza- 
 tion was limited to aliens who have declared their 
 intention of becoming citizens. Moreover, the other 
 work is under charge of the Department of the In- 
 terior. 
 
 The fourth of the older bureaus was the Children's 
 Bureau. This was established by act of Congress, 
 approved April 9, 1912. Its functions are prescribed 
 by the second section of that act as follows : 
 
 "That the said bureau shall be under the direction 
 of a chief, to be appointed by the President, by and 
 with the advice and consent of the Senate, and who 
 shall receive an annual compensation of five thousand 
 dollars. The said bureau shall investigate and re- 
 port to said Department upon all matters pertaining 
 to the welfare of children and child life among all 
 classes of our people, and shall especially investigate 
 the questions of infant mortality, the birth rate, or- 
 phanage, juvenile courts, desertion, dangerous occu-
 
 THE ORIGINAL BUREAUS 175 
 
 pations, accidents and diseases of children, employ- 
 ment, legislation affecting children in the several 
 States and Territories. But no official, or agent, or 
 representative of said Bureau shall, over the objec- 
 tion of the head of the family, enter any house used 
 exclusively as a family residence. The chief of said 
 Bureau may from, time to time publish the results of 
 these investigations in such manner and to such extent 
 as may be prescribed by the Secretary of Labor? 
 
 The first chief of this Bureau was Miss Julia C. 
 Lathrop, a most able and worthy woman. 
 
 Established as a result of the belief that the Fed- 
 eral Government should assist in the protection and 
 betterment of children, by investigations and by 
 popularization of useful information, the Children's 
 Bureau was directed to investigate and report "upon 
 all matters pertaining to the welfare of children 
 and child life." As children under sixteen years of 
 age constitute about one-third of the total population, 
 and as the welfare of that one-third is intimately 
 bound up with the welfare of the other two-thirds, 
 it is obvious that its work has been unlimited. 
 
 The Bureau began by publishing bulletins, the 
 first upon the need of more complete birth registra- 
 tion as a foundation for all statistics of childhood; 
 the second upon the baby-saving campaigns which are 
 being conducted by cities all over the United States ; 
 the third upon prenatal care; and the fourth upon 
 the number of children in the United States, with 
 their sex, age, race, nativity, parentage, and geo- 
 graphic distribution. Several other bulletins, includ- 
 ing one containing the results of the first field inves-
 
 176 W. B. WILSON 
 
 tigation of infant mortality and one on child-labor 
 legislation, followed. 
 
 Infant mortality recommended itself as the subject 
 of the first field investigation, not only because it is 
 a subject which is challenging the attention of the 
 entire civilized world, but because it was practicable 
 to approach it by studying one community of manage- 
 able size at a time, with the staff and appropriation 
 at command. For various reasons Johnstown, Penn- 
 sylvania, was chosen as the community to be studied. 
 Records of all the babies there within a year were 
 copied, a schedule was prepared with a view to se- 
 curing, not merely a history of the baby's life, but a 
 picture of the social, civic, and industrial conditions 
 of its family, and women field investigators were sent 
 out to the home, where they obtained histories of the 
 first year of life for 1,551 babies born in Johnstown 
 during that year. 
 
 A review of child-labor legislation, containing a 
 summary and the text of all the laws regulating the 
 employment of children in the fifty-two political divi- 
 sions of the United States, was practically compiled, 
 including a study of the methods of issuing work cer- 
 tificates to children in use in the different States. 
 The employment certificate is a method both of open- 
 ing the doors of industry to the child and of pro- 
 tecting his life, health, and morals during his earliest 
 years at work. The degree to which various systems 
 actually give such protection is therefore one of the 
 most significant questions connected with the child- 
 labor problem. 
 
 It is obvious that the Children's Bureau has as yet 
 made but a small beginning toward meeting the press-
 
 THE ORIGINAL BUREAUS 177 
 
 ing needs felt by Secretary Wilson, who urged its 
 establishment. Much of its work during the early 
 years was necessarily exploratory in character and 
 much time was necessarily devoted to securing a staff 
 and equipment and to organizing and laying plans for 
 future work. It is believed, however, that the work 
 of these years, as well as the vital importance and 
 wide scope of the field assigned to the Children's 
 Bureau, justifies a request for a considerable enlarge- 
 ment of its staff and for a considerable increase in its 
 appropriation. 
 
 It was decided to call the second year of this 
 country's participation in the war Children's Year, 
 and to set forth a simple national program of child 
 welfare, because the European experience plainly 
 warned us that civilians must promptly understand 
 that they have new responsibilities for a nation's chil- 
 dren when its young men have gone to war. When 
 President^Wilson was informed of the purpose of the 
 Children's Year, he wrote the following letter: 
 
 The White House, 
 
 Washington, March 29, 1918. 
 My dear Mr. Secretary: 
 
 Next to the duty of doing everything possible for the 
 soldiers at the front, there would be, it seems to me, no more 
 patriotic duty than that of protecting the children, who con- 
 stitute one-third of our population. 
 
 The success of the efforts made in England in behalf of 
 the children is evidenced by the fact that the infant death 
 rate in England for the second year of the war was the lowest 
 in her history. Attention is now being given to education and 
 labor conditions for children by the legislatures of both 
 France and England, showing that the conviction among the 
 Allies is that the protection of childhood is essential to win* 
 ning the war.
 
 178 W. B. WILSON 
 
 I am glad that the same processes are being set afoot in 
 this country, and I heartily approve the plan of the Children's 
 Bureau and the Council of National Defense for making the 
 second year of the war one of united activity on behalf of 
 children, and in that sense a children's year. 
 
 I trust that the year will not only see the goal reached of 
 saving 100,000 lives of infants and young children, but that 
 the work may so successfully develop as to set up certain 
 irreducible minimum standards for the health, education, and 
 work of the American child. 
 
 Cordially and sincerely yours, 
 
 (Signed) WOODBOW WILSON. 
 
 Hon. William B. Wilson, 
 Secretary of Labor. 
 
 Considerable financial embarrassment attended the 
 initial work of organizing the Department of Labor 
 by the new Secretary. The equipment and appro- 
 priations of the Department of Labor came over with 
 them; but as their use was limited to the bureaus, 
 respectively, they were not available for general de- 
 partmental functions. For those functions the Con- 
 gress that created the Department provided no equip- 
 ment at all, nor did it make any financial provision. 
 Until two months after its creation the Department 
 was wholly dependent upon the generosity of the 
 Department of Commerce for departmental quarters 
 and furniture, and for clerical, messenger, and ele- 
 vator service. Even the salaries of departmental offi- 
 cers were not provided for. That embarrassing situa- 
 tion was remedied as to salaries by act of May 1, 1913. 
 But this act made no provision for subordinate clerks 
 or for meeting other working expenses in the Office 
 of the Secretary. In those respects, therefore, and in 
 some others, the Department continued for some time
 
 THE ORIGINAL BUREAUS 179 
 
 in a state of dependence upon the Department of 
 Commerce. 
 
 One of the first difficulties confronting Secretary 
 Wilson was the problem of departmental quarters. 
 The organic act permitted "any office, bureau, or 
 branch of the public service transferred to the De- 
 partment of Labor" and at that time "occupying 
 rented buildings or premises," to "still continue to" 
 occupy them "until other suitable quarters" were 
 "provided for its use"; but no space at all was 
 allowed for the office of the Secretary and its divi- 
 sions. Partly to meet this difficulty, two rooms of 
 the Bureau of Immigration in the Willard Building 
 were set aside. But this building, then occupied by 
 both the Department of Commerce and the Depart- 
 ment of Labor, as it had been before by the Depart- 
 ment of Commerce and Labor, was already over- 
 crowded. The Commissioner General of Immigration, 
 therefore, moved into extremely narrow quarters in 
 order to make room for the Secretary. It was in such 
 crowded conditions that the Department began its 
 work. 
 
 This congestion continued until the removal, about 
 the middle of October, of the Department of Com- 
 merce from the Willard Building to its new building 
 at Nineteenth Street and Pennsylvania Avenue N. W. 
 Even then the embarrassment did not end. Con- 
 gress having assumed that the four bureaus of the 
 Department of Labor could be afforded space in that 
 building, which had been erected for the accommoda- 
 tion of the former Department of Commerce and 
 Labor and all its constituent parts, only $5,000 for 
 rent of offices for the Office of the Secretary during
 
 180 W. B. WILSON 
 
 the remainder of the fiscal year ending June 30, 1914, 
 was appropriated by the act of October 22, 1913. 
 This was not enough for the emergency. 
 
 Occupancy of the new building by both Depart- 
 ments would have interfered with plans of the De- 
 partment of Commerce, which contemplated occupy- 
 ing the entire premises to the exclusion of the De- 
 partment of Labor and all its bureaus. Further 
 embarrassment also arose. The leases which the De- 
 partment of Commerce, as sole successor to the De- 
 partment of Commerce and Labor, had acquired for 
 the building in which its executive offices and their 
 branches and those of this Department were quar- 
 tered, ran only until October 14, 1913. There was 
 danger, therefore, that the Department of Labor, 
 with but $5,000 available for rent for the remainder 
 of the fiscal year from October 15, 1913, to June 30, 
 1914 the amount appropriated by the act of Con- 
 gress last cited would be wholly without office accom- 
 modations. 
 
 This difficulty was finally overcome by Secretary 
 Wilson through a contract with the owners of the 
 Willard Building supplemented by a concession from 
 the Department of Commerce. The former Depart- 
 ment of Commerce and Labor having paid an annual 
 rental of $11,830 for the Willard Building, the owners 
 of that building agreed to accept from this Depart- 
 ment for the remainder of the fiscal year (from the 
 end of the lease to June 30, 1914), the total amount 
 at the disposal of the Department for rent, namely, 
 $5,000. Acceptance of that offer, however, would have 
 accomplished little but for a concession by the De- 
 partment of Commerce, which provided temporary
 
 THE ORIGINAL BUREAUS 181 
 
 quarters for one of the bureaus of the Department 
 of Labor the Bureau of Labor Statistics. 
 
 That the Department of Labor was created in the 
 interest of the wage earners of the United States is 
 expressly declared in the first section of the organic 
 act, which defines its purposes to be "to foster, pro- 
 mote, and develop the welfare of the wage earners of 
 the United States, to improve their working condi- 
 tions, and to advance their opportunities for profitable 
 employment." This does not imply special privi- 
 leges, but the inference is irresistible that Congress 
 did intend to conserve their just interests by means 
 of an executive department especially devoted to their 
 welfare. 
 
 Nor is there any implication that the wage earners 
 in whose behalf this Department was created consist 
 of such only as are associated together in labor unions. 
 It was created in the interest of the welfare of all 
 the wage earners of the United States, whether organ- 
 ized or unorganized. 
 
 Inasmuch, however, as it is ordinarily only through 
 organization that the many in any class or of any 
 interest can become articulate with reference to their 
 common needs and aspirations, the Department of 
 Labor is usually under a necessity of turning to the 
 labor organizations for definite and trustworthy ad- 
 vice on the sentiments of the wage-earning classes 
 regarding their common welfare. Freely as confer- 
 ences with unorganized wage earners are welcomed, 
 official intercourse with individuals as such has prac- 
 tical limits which organization alone can remove. 
 Manifestly, then, the Department of Labor must in- 
 vite the confidence and encourage the co-operation
 
 182 W. B. WILSON 
 
 of responsible labor organizations and their accredited 
 officers and committees if it is to subserve its pre- 
 scribed purpose through an intelligent and effective 
 administration of its authorized functions. 
 
 While the Department of Labor sustains friendly 
 relations with labor organizations, as in the interest 
 of all wage earners and of the general welfare it 
 ought to do, nevertheless this attitude must not be 
 exclusive. Similar relations with unorganized wage 
 earners, and also with employers and their organiza- 
 tions to the extent to which they themselves permit, 
 are likewise a duty of the Department. 
 
 The great guiding purpose, however the purpose 
 that should govern the Department at every turn and 
 be understood and acquiesced in by everybody is the 
 purpose prescribed in terms by the organic act, 
 namely, promotion of the welfare of the wage earners 
 of the United States. 
 
 In the execution of that purpose the element of 
 fairness to every interest is of equal importance. 
 Secretary Wilson made fairness between wage earner 
 and wage earner, between employer and employer, 
 and between each and the public as a whole the su- 
 preme motive and purpose of the Department. The 
 act of its creation is construed by it not only as a 
 law for promoting the welfare of the wage earners 
 of the United States by improving their working con- 
 ditions and advancing their opportunities for profit- 
 able employment, but as a command for doing so in 
 harmony with the welfare of all legitimate interests 
 by methods tending to foster industrial peace. 
 
 There has been no deviation from these principles. 
 In no respect has the justice of the Department's
 
 THE ORIGINAL BUREAUS 183 
 
 position been zo amply shown as in the case of its 
 policies with regard to the right of wage earners to 
 organize and with regard to the corollary right of 
 collective bargaining. In the past the right of wage 
 earners to organize has been conceded by some em- 
 ployers, but vigorously denied by others. In the case 
 of many very large employers of labor the organiza- 
 tion of trade-unions on the part of wage earners was 
 a cause of dismissal. It was feared by employers who 
 opposed labor organization that, if such organizations 
 were permitted in their establishments, unreasonable 
 and excessive demands upon the employer would fol- 
 low. On the other hand, the experience of the De- 
 partment indicates that in the past the most disastrous 
 and long-continued strikes had occurred in trades and 
 in plants where there was virtually no organization. 
 
 The fixed policy of the Department has always been 
 to acknowledge the right of both employers and wage 
 earners to organize and to use its influence against 
 abuse of organization on either side. Upon this the- 
 ory the Conciliation Service of the Department has 
 always operated. Where both sides to a controversy 
 have attained such form of organization that they 
 can send responsible delegates to confer with each 
 other, there has always been not only a possibility but 
 almost a certainty of agreement. On the other hand, 
 when wage earners are unorganized and there is no 
 one to whom authority to speak can be delegated, it is 
 evident that they can neither bargain nor be bar- 
 gained with. Almost insuperable obstacles arise in 
 such cases. The absence of organization means the 
 absence of a medium through which the workers en 
 masse can discuss their problems with their employers.
 
 184 W. B. WILSON 
 
 The denial of this organization is the denial of the 
 only means of peaceable settlement they can have. 
 Whether or not so intended, the result of refusal on 
 the part of the employing interest to recognize the 
 right of labor to organize is to force the development 
 of labor organizations of a revolutionary or even of 
 a lawless type. 
 
 The war demonstrated that American patriotism 
 is not restricted to any section of the country, or to 
 any class or group of individuals, or to any stratum 
 of society. The great need for sacrifice for the com- 
 mon good engendered by the war impelled both em- 
 ployers and wage earners to lay aside old prejudices, 
 old suspicions, and old hatreds. Both laborer and 
 employer did this in a supreme measure,
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 CONCILIATION WORK 
 
 THE Department of Labor as an executive depart- 
 ment devoted to the just interests of wage earners 
 was established as one of the results of general in- 
 dustrial progress. Owing to well-known develop- 
 ments in production, the relation of employer and 
 wage earner is no longer personal or individual. 
 Theirs is now usually a relationship between groups 
 of employers on one side (such as corporation stock- 
 holders) and groups of their respective workmen on 
 the other. Employers act collectively through their 
 own chosen agents corporation managers, factory 
 or mine superintendents or foremen, labor brokers, 
 or the like who, in hiring laborers, represent col- 
 lective financial interests. It is obvious that this 
 method of employment, generally necessary for suc- 
 cess in modern industry, may give to employers great 
 contractual advantages over wage earners. Unless 
 wage earners also act collectively through their own 
 agents, they are often at a practical disadvantage. 
 
 Employers who act collectively through their agents 
 in hiring wage earners are often averse to dealing 
 with the agents of wage earners who collectively offer 
 their services. They desire to contract with wage 
 earners individually. It is upon this point that labor 
 disputes frequently spring up and become acute. 
 
 In most instances in which employers accord to 
 workmen practical recognition of the right of col- 
 
 185
 
 186 W. B. WILSON 
 
 lective bargaining which they themselves exercise, fair 
 relations are maintained. Even under such condi- 
 tions, it is true, unhappy disputes arise. Whether the 
 bargaining be collective or individual, a conflict of 
 interests may tempt either party to make exactions 
 which the other cannot concede. If employers yielded 
 to every demand of wage earners, their business would 
 be wrecked; if wage earners always accepted the 
 terms that employers offer, they would suffer great 
 injustice. 
 
 In any circumstances, differences must be expected 
 to arise. In such cases the Department of Labor, 
 through public agents experienced in controversies of 
 like character, might possibly find a common ground 
 for agreement which the disputants, in their eagerness 
 for advantage or in the heat of their controversy, had 
 overlooked. Difficulties of adjustment would, of 
 course, be greatly increased if either party refused 
 to deal or bargain with the other. But the Depart- 
 ment of Labor, from growing experience and accumu- 
 lated knowledge and skill, might learn how, even in 
 these more difficult cases, to appeal with pacifying 
 and prosperity-promoting effect, to the good citizen- 
 ship and the wise self-interest of both parties. And, 
 though no common ground for compromise were dis- 
 covered, the Department of Labor might still be able 
 to stimulate such conciliatory spirit as might exist on 
 both sides, sufficiently to bring them, each none the 
 less convinced of the righteousness of his own cause, 
 to a manly agreement to submit their unreconciled 
 differences to arbitration. 
 
 In any of these three ways the welfare of wage 
 earners could be fostered while the prosperity of
 
 CONCILIATION WORK 187 
 
 employers and the peace and good order of society 
 at large were conserved. Amicable settlements be- 
 tween the parties themselves without mediation are 
 manifestly first in the order of preference. Media- 
 tion comes next. Arbitration third. But any one ,of 
 the three is preferable to strikes or lockouts. 
 
 In his experience in adjusting labor disputes Secre- 
 tary Wilson has demonstrated that they can be set- 
 tled to the profit of all interests whenever both sides 
 are fairly disposed, though they may have been widely 
 separated in their negotiations at the start. These 
 demonstrations have been made under greater em- 
 barrassment than the Department need be hampered 
 with in the future. Properly equipped, it should be 
 able to make mediation progressively popular with 
 both the employing and the wage-earning interest 
 of the country. 
 
 The possibilities of public service by such a De- 
 partment are not limited, however, to settling labor 
 disputes. Besides this work and the administration of 
 the immigration and naturalization laws and of statis- 
 tical investigations of labor problems and the prob- 
 lems of child life, much may be done in the way of 
 modifying industrial conditions that provoke distress- 
 ing controversies. With the sympathetic co-operation 
 of Congress, the Department of Labor can effectively 
 serve industrial interests, not only without injury to 
 any, but with benefit to all. 
 
 Secretary Wilson was empowered to mediate in 
 labor disputes, and in his discretion to appoint com- 
 missioners of conciliation, his authority coming from 
 Section 8 of the organic act of the Department, the 
 precise terms of which in this respect are as follows :
 
 188 W. B. WILSON 
 
 "That the Secretary of Labor shall have power to 
 act as mediator and to appoint commissioners of con- 
 ciliation in labor disputes whenever in his judgment 
 the interests of industrial peace may require it to be 
 done." 
 
 Of all the functions of the Department of Labor 
 which it is yet possible to administer, this one may be 
 reasonably regarded as the most important. Sug- 
 gesting with reference to labor disputes a development 
 of diplomatic duties in the Department of Labor anal- 
 ogous to those in the Department of State with refer- 
 ence to international disputes, it points to a Federal 
 administrative system for promoting and fostering 
 industrial peace; not a peace of the Warsaw order, 
 but one of mutual benefit and good will. 
 
 Primarily the Department of Labor must conserve 
 in industrial disputes the interests of the wage earn- 
 ers of the United States. Not only do wage earners 
 constitute in number more than a third of our total 
 population, but in financial respects also their ag- 
 gregate interests are vast. It is doubtful if any voca- 
 tional interests represented in our governmental sys- 
 tem exceed in volume or public importance those of 
 the wage earners of the United States. 
 
 But though the Department of Labor represents 
 primarily the wage earning interests in labor dis- 
 putes, its ideal is to make its representation similar 
 in character to that of the Department of State, which, 
 while representing the interests of this country in 
 disputes between it and other countries, does so with 
 fairness toward all countries. Accordingly, the policy 
 of the Department of Labor, though it executes its 
 mediation and conciliation functions as the govern-
 
 CONCILIATION WORK 189 
 
 mental representative of wage-earning interests, is to 
 do so without partisanship or prejudice and with 
 fairness to every interest concerned. 
 
 The powers thus conferred upon the Secretary of 
 Labor must for the most part be administered through 
 the commissioners of conciliation whom he is author- 
 ized to appoint. But no appropriation for that pur- 
 pose was made by Congress until October 22, 1913, 
 when a deficiency bill for the fiscal year 1913 ap- 
 propriated the sum of $5,000. This appropriation, 
 however, was limited in its disbursement to the ex- 
 penses of the commissioners. Nothing for their com- 
 pensation was appropriated until April 6, 1914. The 
 urgent deficiency bill of that date appropriated the 
 further sum of $20,000 for the fiscal year 1914, au- 
 thorizing the disbursement of this amount for compen- 
 sation as well as for expenses. The total appropria- 
 tion, therefore, for the mediation and conciliation 
 service of the Department from its organization to the 
 close of its second fiscal year was only $25,000, of 
 which $5,000 was available for commissioners' ex- 
 penses alone and $20,000 for their compensation or 
 expenses as might be needed. 
 
 Until the second of these appropriations thirteen 
 months after the creation of the Department and 
 within three of the close of its second fiscal year 
 only employees of the Government detailed from their 
 regular duties could be utilized for conciliation pur- 
 poses, which was a serious handicap. A subsequent 
 appropriation of $50,000 was available only for the 
 fiscal year 1915, for the purpose of enabling the Sec- 
 retary to appoint commissioners of conciliation and
 
 190 W. B. WILSON 
 
 an executive clerk, and to meet their traveling ex- 
 penses. 
 
 Pursuant to this authority an executive clerk was 
 appointed, who, under the direction of the Secretary 
 of Labor, systematized and superintended the media- 
 tion and conciliation work of the Office of the Sec- 
 retary as completely as the appropriation for this 
 phase of that service and the necessary limitations of 
 a clerical function permitted. 
 
 The experience of Secretary Wilson in mediation 
 work is most confirmatory of his suggestions with 
 reference to collective bargaining that I have above 
 outlined. In connection herewith he once said to me : 
 
 "Large employers are usually incorporated com- 
 panies, with many stockholders of diversified indus- 
 trial connections and with boards of directors having 
 intercorporate affiliations. Often they are fortified 
 with public franchises or other special privileges, and 
 their superintendents and foremen with whom alone 
 wage earners have personal relations are naturally 
 sensitive to the industrial powers back of them. An 
 individual wage worker is weak indeed, as a bargainer 
 with such employers. He must take what they offer 
 or go without employment; and going long without 
 employment means to the wage worker what hopeless 
 bankruptcy means to the business man, except that it 
 is immeasurably worse. 
 
 "We have but to visualize familiar facts in order 
 to see what individual bargaining by wage workers 
 for employment really is ; we may thus see it as wage 
 workers not only see it, but as they often harshly feel 
 it. Consider the picture. A solitary wage worker 
 faces a foreman whom he asks for work to do. Back
 
 CONCILIATION WORK 191 
 
 of him a shadowy mass of individual bargainers eager 
 for the job. Fronting him the foreman upon whose 
 word his livelihood depends. Over the foreman a 
 superintendent whom the foreman must satisfy. Ris- 
 ing above both, rank upon rank, managers, directors, 
 stockholders, all to be satisfied by superintendents 
 and foremen, and each rank subservient to the rank 
 above it. The interests of all but the solitary bar- 
 gainer for a job are knitted together into a collective 
 self-interest which instinctively dictates for wages the 
 least that the labor market will allow a market tense 
 with competition for work, but slack in competition 
 for workers. Even this is not all. For that collective 
 interest is permeated with similar ones through inter- 
 locked directorates and interlaced stockholding, vital- 
 ized it may be with gentlemen's agreements and by 
 business coercion or fear of it. At the outer edge of 
 all a lone wage worker bargains for work; bargains 
 in a glutted labor market ; bargains individually ! 
 
 "Before those gigantic collectivities of employing 
 interests a wage worker bargaining individually for 
 work is as impotent and negligible as a mediaeval 
 peasant kneeling before the council of a king. Only 
 if employment opportunities were unlimited could 
 wage earners bargain individually with employment 
 interests so unified. But, in reality, employment op- 
 portunities are limited very narrowly limited. The 
 fact may be abnormal, but fact it is, that although the 
 need for labor products is constantly in excess of their 
 supply, yet opportunities for producing them are 
 somehow so few that work is seldom plentiful. Never, 
 one may fairly say, is opportunity for work so far
 
 192 W. B. WILSON 
 
 in excess of persons needing work as to give them 
 more than a slight and very temporary advantage in 
 bargaining, or even to place them for long on an even 
 footing. While this unbalanced condition lasts the 
 interests of wholesale social life demand that wage 
 earners be freely conceded the right in bargaining 
 for employment, to do so collectively. ' ' 
 
 Those considerations gave rise logically to consid- 
 erations relative to the organization of wage-earning 
 labor. The interests of the wage earners of the 
 United States, regardless of whether they are organ- 
 ized or not, are represented by the Department of 
 Labor. It makes no distinction between the two. Yet 
 its experience tends to demonstrate the importance of 
 labor organization, not alone to wage earners, but 
 also to the public interests as a whole. 
 
 For collective bargaining purposes alone organiza- 
 tion is indispensable. Without it the economic inde- 
 pendence of wage earners would be impossible under 
 existing industrial conditions, because workers can- 
 not bargain collectively unless they are so organized 
 as to enable them to bargain through representatives 
 over whom employers can have no coercive control. 
 
 Through their organizations the standards of citi- 
 zenship have been raised among wage workers. 
 Through them the purchasing power of wage workers 
 has been increased, making more profitable customers 
 at the stores for the products of every vocation. 
 Through them this purchasing power may be still 
 further increased with injury to no legitimate in- 
 terest, but to the benefit of all. While striving for 
 foreign markets we should not overlook the market
 
 CONCILIATION WORK 193 
 
 we have at home in the wage-working group, which 
 constitutes more than half our population. Low 
 wages lessen the purchasing power of that market; 
 high prices increase it. This is no circle of reasoning 
 of which it may be said that what the wage worker 
 gets in higher wages he loses in higher prices. High 
 wages tend to raise the level of pay for all industry, 
 not at its own expense, but at the expense of the un- 
 earned profits of special privileges. The true sign of 
 general prosperity is high wages. 
 
 Industrial peace, also, is conserved through estab- 
 lished and fairly recognized labor organization. That 
 this is so the mediation work of the Department goes 
 to prove. In the cases in which labor organizations 
 have been recognized by employers, mediation upon 
 just terms has been much more easily affected than in 
 the cases in which employers, though acting collec- 
 tively themselves, have refused to accord rights of col- 
 lective action to the wage workers from whom their 
 employees are drawn. 
 
 The more cordially the principle of labor organiza- 
 tion and the policy of collective bargaining between 
 employers and wage workers are sustained by public 
 opinion, even in opposition to the hostile attitude of 
 what is happily a diminishing number of employers, 
 the more effective for the general good will the medi- 
 ation work of this Department become. 
 
 In spite of the difficulties that are always unavoid- 
 able at the start in administering new Federal func- 
 tions of any sort, and notwithstanding the additions 
 to these difficulties in the present case from delayed 
 and insufficient appropriations, remarkable success
 
 194 W. B. WILSON 
 
 attended the mediation and conciliation work from 
 the beginning. By June 30, 1914, the close of the 
 second fiscal year, being only sixteen months after the 
 creation of the Department, the work had already 
 made considerable progress.
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 PREPARING FOR WAR 
 
 IMMEDIATELY after the severance of diplomatic re- 
 lations between our Government and that of Germany, 
 February 3, 1917, Secretary Wilson proceeded to 
 adapt all its appropriate facilities to war service. 
 When on April 6, 1917, the issue of war was formally 
 joined between the two countries, its organization 
 had been so far adapted to this work as to enable it 
 to assist other branches of the Government, and con- 
 tractors under them, with growing efficiency and ef- 
 fect. Some of the functions so utilized were dis- 
 tributed among the bureaus for execution by them 
 under the Secretary's direction and supervision. 
 Others were lodged in the Office of the Secretary. 
 
 Among the bureau activities in connection with war 
 work were those of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 
 which gathered facts regarding war experiences 
 abroad. The Bureau of Immigration, besides adapt- 
 ing its regular functions to unusual administrative 
 activities caused by war conditions, assisted in the 
 internment of enemy aliens unlawfully in the country, 
 but not technically prisoners of war; and through 
 that bureau's Division of Information the Secretary 
 extended the United States Employment Service of 
 the Department to deal with war necessities on the in- 
 dustrial side. The Children's Bureau undertook to 
 conserve during the war those standards of life and 
 labor, affecting children and mothers, which had been 
 
 195
 
 196 W. B. WILSON 
 
 established before the war, and to promote after-war 
 protection for both. The Bureau of Naturalization, 
 in addition to extra work imposed by an unprec- 
 edented number of applications for naturalization 
 induced by war conditions, gave attention to securing 
 naturalization rights to unnaturalized declarants who 
 entered the military service of the country. 
 
 Through the office of the Secretary the industrial 
 relations of workingmen to the war were administered 
 by means of the United States Employment Service 
 under the general powers of the Department to con- 
 serve the interests of wage earners, and by means of 
 the Division of Conciliation under the specific power 
 of the Secretary to act as mediator in labor disputes. 
 
 Mediation of labor disputes calling for Govern- 
 ment mediation increased suddenly and enormously 
 with the beginning of the war. A majority of the 
 employers and employees involved in industrial con- 
 troversies evinced a keen desire to secure the good 
 offices of the Department of Labor through its con- 
 ciliators, and to take advantage of the machinery 
 created under that section of the organic law of the 
 Department, the purpose of which in this field of its 
 activities had been the fostering of industrial peace 
 on a basis of industrial justice. During the four 
 years' existence of the Division of Conciliation, a 
 method was developed for assisting in the quick 
 adjustment of such disputes. It had been demon- 
 strated that the intervention of an impartial third 
 party in the person of a conciliator by the Depart- 
 ment invariably expedited the settlement of a dispute 
 which had culminated in a strike or lockout. In a 
 large number of instances the conciliators were able
 
 PREPARING FOR WAR 197 
 
 not only to bring about agreement in cases of existing 
 difference often arising from misunderstanding but 
 to avert the threatened strike altogether. 
 
 Requests for conciliators came to the Secretary 
 from governmental agencies as well as from unofficial 
 employers and employees. These applications in- 
 creased fourfold in an amazingly brief period follow- 
 ing the declaration of war. The encouraging ele- 
 ment developed in almost all these controversies was 
 the sincere desire evidenced on all sides not to pro- 
 ceed to such extremes as would result in an embar- 
 rassment to the Government. The Department's rep- 
 resentatives fostered this spirit to the utmost, and 
 thus were able to render vital services at a critical 
 time. 
 
 The excellent work of the conciliators in this re- 
 spect stimulated requests for the good offices of the 
 Secretary in constantly increasing numbers. It was 
 not unusual to receive separate appeals from the em- 
 ployers and employees at the same plant or industry, 
 nor was it at all uncommon for the Department to re- 
 ceive a joint request to assign a representative to 
 settle the dispute. Many of these difficulties, a con- 
 siderable number of which developed into strikes 
 while others were "impending," caused the deepest 
 concern to the Government and to the country at 
 large. The efforts of the Department always directed 
 toward the adjustment of disputes without stoppage 
 of work thus increased in necessity, value, and im- 
 portance. The experience gained by Secretary Wil- 
 son in all kinds of trade disputes during the preceding 
 four years proved of inestimable usefulness at this 
 juncture.
 
 198 W. B. WILSON 
 
 In the hundreds of cases handled by the Secretary 
 visible success did not always crown the efforts at ad- 
 justment. But even in such cases the value of the 
 Department was made clear to all concerned, largely 
 by the removal of misapprehensions hitherto held in 
 certain quarters regarding the influence and the 
 neutrality of the Department in labor matters. It 
 was the policy of Secretary Wilson not to endeavor 
 to impose his viewpoint upon either the worker or the 
 management in any dispute that might arise, but 
 rather to find some basis mutually acceptable even 
 though it might not be mutually satisfactory. In 
 other words, the work of mediation is not a judicial 
 work; it is not a judicial function; it is not to hear 
 both sides and then determine the rights and wrongs 
 of the situation, or to pass judgment and then enforce 
 its decision. The work is diplomatic rather than 
 judicial, and it is in that spirit the problems of con- 
 ciliation in labor controversies are approached. No 
 man in the nation understood this underlying prin- 
 ciple as well as did Secretary Wilson. 
 
 In line with this purpose the Secretary often was 
 able to remove the barriers which prevented employ- 
 ers and employees meeting on common ground. Thus 
 the way was paved for more friendly relations and a 
 broader grasp of their respective rights. The fact 
 is brought home that there is another side, and even 
 in the absence of immediate success the seed is sown 
 which bears fruit in some modification of working 
 conditions with a greater consideration for the human 
 rights of employees or a better understanding of 
 problems which harass employers. Labor has dis- 
 covered that it has a standing in the Government ma-
 
 PREPARING FOR WAR 199 
 
 chinery of its country whenever its demands are 
 based on its industrial and constitutional rights. Em- 
 ployers, on the other hand, have found in the De- 
 partment a defender against unreasonable exaction. 
 
 It would be impossible to estimate in money value 
 what the services of Secretary Wilson saved to the 
 country during the war. The tremendous aggregate 
 of the contracts for foodstuffs, clothing, material, and 
 general equipment of the Army and Navy in connec- 
 tion with further contracts for the construction of 
 buildings for the military and naval branches and for 
 additional buildings for other Federal departments, 
 together with the problems presented by the transpor- 
 tation of coal, ore, lumber, and many forms of raw 
 material, required the employment of a vast army of 
 skilled and unskilled labor. The necessities of the 
 Government were imperative that all supplies should 
 be provided speedily and that the construction work 
 incident to the public needs at this period should be 
 expedited. 
 
 With Government activities in the construction of 
 ships and with the unprecedented demand upon pro- 
 ductive agencies for the materials needed in the work, 
 it became of vital importance that the Secretary of 
 Labor exert special efforts to adjust all controversies 
 that might hinder or retard the Government. In a 
 majority of the cases presented for mediation a fine 
 spirit of co-operation was evinced by both employers 
 and employees. Notwithstanding the limited force of 
 conciliators available, the experience gained in their 
 previous handling of negotiations as representatives 
 of the Department proved of immense utility to the 
 plans of the General Government,
 
 200 W. B. WILSON 
 
 The extraordinary demand for "man power," on 
 the industrial as distinguished from the military side 
 of war preparation, was responded to by Secretary 
 Wilson through the United States Employment Ser- 
 vice as soon as the demand arose. This Service was 
 the successor of the old Division of Information of 
 the Immigration Service separated in January, 1918. 
 Much of this demand was found to have been in- 
 fluenced more by eagerness for labor at low or inade- 
 quate wages relatively to the sharp rise in living ex- 
 penses than by general labor shortage. But in some 
 places, especially in the neighborhoods of munition 
 establishments which had been serving European war 
 demands at enormous profits, there was a genuine 
 scarcity of labor for less profitable forms of produc- 
 tion. On the whole, the problem at first probably 
 was less a problem of labor scarcity than of imperfect 
 distribution. 
 
 Shortly after the declaration that a state of war ex- 
 isted between the United States and Germany a call 
 came to this Department from the United States 
 Shipping Board to locate and report on the number 
 of ship carpenters, calkers, and other skilled ship 
 workers in the United States available for immediate 
 duty. Telegraphic instructions were sent at once to 
 the offices of the United States Employment Service 
 to list all experienced ship workers in their respective 
 zones, and to that end to ask the co-operation of all 
 newspapers and labor organizations in making known 
 the fact that such information was desired. Within 
 ten days a list of approximately 19,000 skilled me- 
 chanics ready to respond to the call of the Govern- 
 ment or firms engaged in shipbuilding under contract
 
 PREPARING FOR WAR 201 
 
 with the Government was filed in the Division of In- 
 formation. The trades-unions in which shipbuilding 
 mechanics held membership at once prepared registers 
 of available workmen and they continued to keep such 
 registers available, notwithstanding the fact that for 
 several months such workmen were not called for. 
 Many construction difficulties interfered and some 
 shipyards had to be set up entire. 
 
 When the President called upon tillers of the soil 
 to extend their planted areas, favorable responses 
 came plentifully from every State. They were ac- 
 companied, however, by insistent appeals for farm 
 help. To obtain this help many expedients were sug- 
 gested. Volunteers offered advice and assistance, 
 formulated plans, and projected organizations. Some 
 of the many schemes seemed well adapted to the 
 emergency; others, doubtless as well intended, were 
 less encouraging. Of those proposed most were de- 
 ferred as premature or abandoned as inappropriate or 
 ineffective. Out of the confusion many extravagant 
 notions got currency. There were fears, for instance, 
 that the supply of adult farm workers would be de- 
 pleted beyond remedy by the war, and suggestions for 
 employing boys were apparently on the way of pop- 
 ular approval. Short school terms were suggested, 
 even no school at all, in order that children might be 
 released from study to work on farms and in facto- 
 ries. This hysteria seemed for a time to threaten com- 
 plete abandonment of the orderly processes of educa- 
 tion, of efforts at vocational guidance, and of regula- 
 tion of child labor with reference to working age, 
 dangerous employments, and hours of work. It was 
 in those circumstances that Secretary Wilson at the
 
 202 .W. B. WILSON 
 
 advice of William E. Hall and Nathan G. Smyth 
 organized the United States Boys' Working Reserve. 
 By fixing the minimum age limit for membership in 
 the Reserve at sixteen years the Secretary discour- 
 aged inconsiderate agitations for relaxing the estab- 
 lished standards of child life. Only such boys as were 
 over school age were put to work by the Reserve or 
 even accepted for membership. 
 
 Through this organization, making use of the ex- 
 perience of our war allies with reference to schooling 
 requirements and child labor, the Department re- 
 cruited a large body of boys of sufficient age and 
 strength to be put with safety at systematic work. By 
 having this body in readiness for seasonable and other 
 emergent employment a tendency to demand mobili- 
 zation of young children for industrial service in con- 
 nection with the war was checked. 
 
 In the summer of 1916 information concerning the 
 destitute and dependent circumstances of certain 
 refugees arriving in this country from Mexico was 
 brought to the attention of Secretary Wilson. Notice 
 was thereupon given to all officers of the Immigration 
 and Employment Services throughout the United 
 States to communicate with the inspectors in charge 
 at Galveston, Texas, and Los Angeles, California, with 
 respect to unfilled opportunities for employment in 
 their respective zones, especially those in which the 
 employer expressed a willingness to advance trans- 
 portation. This action was taken with a view of allevi- 
 ating the conditions of the refugees by directing them 
 to places of profitable employment. The records show 
 that the employment officers of the Department in 
 widely separated parts of tjie country entered heartily
 
 PREPARING FOR WAR 203 
 
 into the work of securing opportunities for employ- 
 ment for these unfortunate persons, many employers 
 agreeing to advance transportation. On October 25, 
 1916, when a final report on the subject was received 
 from the Department's representative at Galveston, 
 Texas, all save three of the refugees who had ex- 
 pressed a desire to secure employment were engaged 
 permanently in gainful occupations. On account of 
 age or physical disability the three remaining un- 
 employed were unable to accept the work offered 
 them. 
 
 The activities of the United States Employment 
 Service on February 1, 1917, embraced a much 
 broader scope and presented a more animated ap- 
 pearance than had been the case for the same month 
 in previous years. At this period the normal work 
 of the service had been greatly stimulated by de- 
 mands for skilled mechanics in munition factories as 
 well as for navy yards and arsenals. 
 
 At this time, too, the members of the National 
 Guard who had been on duty on the Mexican border 
 were being returned to their homes and mustered out 
 of the Federal Service. For the purpose of securing 
 employment for such members of the guard as had no 
 position awaiting them, instructions were issued to 
 all field officers of the United States Employment 
 Service to take the matter up with the military au- 
 thorities and other public officials within their re- 
 spective zones with the view of rendering all assist- 
 ance in the power of the Employment Service to ac- 
 complish that result. Instructions were given in con- 
 nection with the foregoing also to render all possible 
 aid in securing employment for wage earners in the
 
 204 W. B. WILSON 
 
 families of the guardsmen who were still on duty on 
 the Mexican border. With the idea of co-operating 
 with the War Department in securing information as 
 to the date when guardsmen would be returned to 
 their respective homes, a representative of the De- 
 partment was designated to give personal attention 
 to this matter and to take charge of the important 
 task of securing employment for all. 
 
 It was the privilege of the Bureau of Immigration, 
 working under the direction of Secretary Wilson, to 
 take the first step in actually carrying out the will of 
 the country in joining in the battle for democracy 
 against autocracy. When it became evident that Con- 
 gress would declare a state of war to exist, the Bureau 
 was directed by the Secretary to arrange for assum- 
 ing custody of the officers and crews of all the Ger- 
 man ships lying in the harbors of the mainland of 
 the United States, Honolulu, and Porto Rico, and to 
 lay plans for the co-operation of other interested de- 
 partments which would insure the taking of this first 
 step promptly when the time came and without hitch 
 or friction. After consultation with the several in- 
 terested departments, instructions were issued to the 
 officers in charge at the various ports where vessels 
 of Germany were anchored which resulted in having 
 all the men on duty and the boarding boats in readi- 
 ness to proceed at a moment 's notice. Certain officers 
 of the Bureau remained on duty with the Secretary 
 and his staff of assistants during the night of April 
 4, awaiting word from the Capitol as to the con- 
 templated action of Congress. 
 
 At 3 :14 A. M., April 5, the message came that Con- 
 gress had declared a state of war to exist. At 3:15
 
 PREPARING FOR WAR 205 
 
 o'clock the prearranged message reading "Proceed 
 instantly, Wilson," was cabled ,and telegraphed to the 
 appropriate ports ; and the next instant the Secretary 
 of the Treasury was informed over an open telephone 
 wire that such message had gone, whereupon a similar 
 message from him to the collectors of customs, direct- 
 ing them to take charge of the vessels from which the 
 immigration officers would remove the German officers 
 and crews, was likewise dispatched. The removal 
 of the men from the ships immediately ensued, and 
 this was accomplished promptly and without any ac- 
 cident or untoward incident, instructions previously 
 issued having contemplated that all should be treated 
 with every kindness and courtesy. This merely in- 
 augurated the enormous task that fell to the Bureau 's 
 lot, for of course arrangements had to be perfected 
 and carried out for the internment of all the alien 
 enemies taken from the ships. These officers and crews 
 were not regarded as in any sense prisoners of 
 war, but simply as aliens who had not been admitted 
 to the United States under the immigration law, and 
 who, in addition, had suddenly become enemies of this 
 country and for whose care and safety proper pro- 
 vision had to be made. As rapidly as possible they 
 were assembled in the available places best suited to 
 their internment. 
 
 This preliminary work with respect to alien enemies 
 was followed by the consideration, investigation, and 
 disposal of numerous applications for permission to 
 enter and applications for parole, submitted to the De- 
 partment of Justice through this Department under 
 arrangements made in accordance with the Presi- 
 dent's proclamation of April 6, 1917; the examina-
 
 206 >V. B. WILSON 
 
 tion and taking into custody of Germans arriving as 
 passengers and as seamen on American and neutral 
 ships; and the apprehension and taking into custody 
 of others found to be at large in the United States 
 whose continued freedom here was deemed to be 
 against the interests of the United States while the 
 war was in progress. It further became the Bureau's 
 duty, owing to the congestion at the immigration sta- 
 tions at certain ports, where these alien enemies were 
 originally interned, to select a site and construct 
 thereon appropriate buildings to constitute a satisfac- 
 tory internment camp for alien enemies.
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 DURING THE WAR 
 
 HAD THE Department of Labor not existed at the 
 beginning of the war, Congress would have been 
 obliged to create such a department. 
 
 The history of all the belligerent powers proved that 
 war was no longer a military undertaking alone. Al- 
 though sound military strategy remained an essential 
 factor in determining military victories, the history of 
 the European war demonstrated that the most val- 
 orous troops were helpless without adequate supplies 
 of war materials. Battles were fought not only be- 
 tween armed men, but between factories, workshops, 
 and mines of the contending nations. Since industry 
 is but the application of man power to raw materials, 
 the efficiency of industry was wholly dependent upon 
 the efficiency of labor. The greater essential, there- 
 fore, for our Government was the adoption of a cen- 
 tral labor administration and a consistent labor policy. 
 Consequently upon the outbreak of hostilities an al- 
 most unprecedented responsibility rested upon Sec- 
 retary Wilson. 
 
 The war was the immediate cause of an enormous 
 increase in the number of labor disputes calling for 
 Government mediation. Old wage standards, ren- 
 dered obsolete by a sharp rise in the cost of living, the 
 prevalence of profiteering, the faulty distribution of 
 labor, and many other causes all contributed to a 
 probable increase in the actual number of such dis- 
 
 207
 
 208 W. B. WILSON 
 
 putes. The chief reason, however, for the increase in 
 the work of the Department in this respect was not 
 an increase in the number of controversies. It lay 
 rather in the fact that when those disputes arose one 
 side or the other hastened to call upon Secretary Wil- 
 son to prevent any cessation of work. 
 
 During the summer of 1917 certain industrial dis- 
 turbances had accumulated throughout the West and 
 Northwest, and had taken on such a form as seriously 
 to lessen the output of several much needed materials, 
 notably copper and oil. In addition, they were of such 
 a character as to threaten the construction of air- 
 craft and ships. Since these disturbances were ap- 
 parently due to general rather than purely local 
 causes, it was thought desirable to make an inquiry 
 into the causes of labor unrest. A Mediation Commis- 
 sion was accordingly appointed by the President early 
 in the fall for the purpose of conducting such an in- 
 vestigation and of making the specific adjustments re- 
 quired. Secretary Wilson was Chairman of the Com- 
 mission, and the members of the Commission were 
 chosen in part from the Department of Labor. 
 
 Secretary Wilson and his Commission spent sev- 
 eral months in constant travel and investigation, vis- 
 iting the copper districts of Arizona, the oil fields of 
 California, the Pacific Northwest timber districts, and 
 other sections where industry had been disturbed by 
 labor unrest. Starting out in the early fall, the Com- 
 mission finished its labors in December at Chicago, 
 where there was a threatened strike in the meat- 
 packing establishments. In that time hundreds of 
 witnesses were heard and an extraordinary opportu-
 
 DURING THE WAR 209 
 
 nity was afforded to study at first hand labor problems 
 in part created and in part modified by the war. 
 
 After the Secretary's return many employers and 
 employees, involved in controversies, evinced a keen 
 desire to secure his good offices and those of his con- 
 ciliators. 
 
 The anxiety of the Government, particularly at this 
 time, for a full production from mine, mill, and fac- 
 tory, in order that the war progress of the United 
 States and of our European allies might be unham- 
 pered, caused Secretary Wilson to strain every effort 
 to secure satisfactory adjustments in all cases with 
 the special purpose of preventing wherever possible 
 any stoppage of work and consequent loss in output 
 and wages. Vastly increased production was thus 
 facilitated. 
 
 It was often the case that employers refused to deal 
 with committees representing their own employees; 
 but even in these instances they never refused to meet 
 and discuss the merits of the dispute with Secretary 
 Wilson. The opportunity thus afforded each side to 
 learn the real position taken by the other soon bore 
 fruit. This knowledge, or glance over their respec- 
 tive fences, usually enabled the Secretary, by tact- 
 fully emphasizing the mutuality of interest and such 
 equity as existed in the respective claims, to reconcile 
 the differences. 
 
 The success which attended such work was most 
 gratifying. In many instances strikes which would 
 have involved thousands of workers engaged in great 
 operations were quietly averted through the efforts of 
 Secretary Wilson. All this was accomplished without 
 publicity and the consequent excitement which in-
 
 210 W. B. WILSON 
 
 variably attends industrial disturbances when her- 
 alded in the press. Great plants thus secured unin- 
 terrupted production for long periods some of the 
 agreements running for a year and others for the 
 period of the war. 
 
 There, however, was much for the Department of 
 Labor to do besides conciliation work; there was much 
 for it to do besides that which the four old bureaus 
 could accomplish, namely, the Bureau of Labor 
 Statistics, Bureau of Naturalization, Bureau of Im- 
 migration, and the Children's Bureau, together with 
 the newly born Employment Service. Secretary Wil- 
 son, therefore, determined to call to his assistance, as 
 advisers and administrators, a well balanced corps of 
 men and women of high standing, representing cap- 
 ital, labor, and the public. Such a course was not 
 only desirable but necessary in order that any policies 
 determined upon should command the approval and 
 support of employers, employees, and the public. 
 
 Secretary Wilson's first step in this process was the 
 appointment of an Advisory Council of seven mem- 
 bers chosen to represent various interests, with a 
 representative of the general public, Hon. John Lind, 
 as chairman. The other members of the council were 
 as follows : Mr. Wadill Catchings and Mr. A. A. Lan- 
 don, representing employers ; Mr. John Casey and Mr. 
 John B. Lennon, representing wage earners; Miss 
 Agnes Nestor, representing women; and Dr. L. C. 
 Marshall as economist of the council. This council 
 convened in January and proceeded to formulate 
 plans. Many recommendations were made, nearly all 
 of which were adopted.
 
 DURING THE WAR 211 
 
 The general plan involved not only an extension of 
 the existing organizations within the Department of 
 Labor so as to make them suitable for war emergency 
 purposes, but also provided for additional means by 
 which they could be brought into proper administra- 
 tive relations with bureaus in other departments. It 
 was found necessary, in carrying this plan into effect, 
 to depart frequently from the specific recommenda- 
 tions, but they were adhered to in principal through- 
 out. The general nature of the recommendations is 
 indicated in the following memorandum submitted to 
 the Secretary by the Advisory Council. This memo- 
 randum, after reciting the essentials of the war labor 
 administration as laid down by the President, read as 
 follows : 
 
 "The Secretary of Labor selected an Advisory 
 Council to aid him in formulating the national labor 
 program and in organizing an adequate administra- 
 tion of this program. The progress of the work may 
 at this time be summarized as follows: 
 
 "(1) A call has been issued for a conference 
 between representatives of employers and of workers 
 in order that agreements may be reached on funda- 
 mental principles and policies which would govern 
 their relations. 
 
 "(2) An appropriation bill is ready for presenta- 
 tion to Congress to provide funds for the following 
 services within the Department of Labor: 
 
 (a) An Adjustment Service to deal with in- 
 dustrial disputes. 
 
 (b) A Conditions of Labor Service to administer 
 conditions of labor within business plants, such as 
 safety, sanitation, etc.
 
 212 W. B. WILSON 
 
 (c) An Information and Education Service to 
 promote sound sentiment and to provide appropri- 
 ate local machinery and policies in individual 
 plants. 
 
 (d) A "Woman in Industry Service to correlate 
 the activities of various agencies dealing with this 
 matter. 
 
 (e) A Training and Dilution Service. 
 
 (f) A Housing and Transportation of Workers 
 Service. 
 
 (g) A Personnel Service (which may possibly 
 be fused with the Information and Education Ser- 
 vice.) 
 
 ' ' In addition to these services, there will be utilized 
 the United States Employment Service and other 
 bureaus already established in the Department for 
 which funds are now available. 
 
 "A plan has been approved by the Secretary of 
 Labor whereby these various services have been or- 
 ganized into a coherent whole, and their relationships 
 to existing agencies in other Departments have been 
 indicated." 
 
 Chief among the plans suggested was a method for 
 formulating a set of principles which should guide 
 the war labor administration. It was vitally neces- 
 sary that such principles should be accepted by both 
 capital and labor. Hence it was desirable that they 
 be formulated, in so far as possible, by employers and 
 wage earners jointly. Upon the advice of the council, 
 therefore, Secretary Wilson called upon the Na- 
 tional Industrial Conference Board and the Ameri- 
 can Federation of Labor, as the representatives of 
 employers and wage earners, respectively, to send five
 
 DURING THE WAR 213 
 
 persons each to a war labor conference. Since it was 
 recognized that it might be a matter of extreme dif- 
 ficulty to choose a chairman acceptable to both groups, 
 each group was invited to choose a chairman who 
 should preside upon alternate days. The personnel 
 of this board was as follows 1 : Joint Chairmen Hon. 
 William Howard Taft and Hon. Frank P. Walsh; 
 Representing Employers C. E. Michael, Loyall A. 
 Osborne, W. H. Van Dervoort, B. L. Worden, L. F. 
 Loree ; Representing Wage Earners Frank J. Hayes, 
 William J. Hutcheson, William H. Johnson, Victor A. 
 Olander, T. A. Rickert. 
 
 In spite of the fact that the members of this con- 
 ference board represented divergent viewpoints, a 
 unanimous report was presented on March 29 laying 
 down a set of principles. There was also recom- 
 mended the creation of a National War Labor Board 
 to adjust labor disputes in fields of production neces- 
 sary to the effective conduct of the war. Since the 
 conference board had in the course of its deliberations 
 discussed in detail the probable interpretation of 
 many of the principles adopted, that board was 
 deemed best fitted to administer the rules and func- 
 tions set forth. Secretary Wilson, therefore, ap- 
 pointed the same persons as members of the National 
 War Labor Board, and this action was formally ap- 
 proved by Presidential proclamation on April 8, 1918. 
 
 During 1917 and 1918 perplexing questions had 
 
 1 Subsequently Mr. Loree resigned and Mr. Fred C. Hood 
 was chosen to succeed him. Later Mr. Thomas J. Savage 
 was chosen to replace Mr. Johnston, who was absent on a 
 mission to Europe. On October 9 Mr. Savage died, and Mr. 
 Johnston, who in the meantime had returned to this country, 
 resumed his place on the Board.
 
 214 W. B. WILSON 
 
 arisen and investigations had been made with regard 
 to Negroes. With the greater industrial efficiency 
 demanded by the war it became apparent that a more 
 harmonious adjustment of the labor relations between 
 Whites and Negroes was imperative, especially in 
 view of the fact that the latter race makes up over 
 one-tenth of our total population and includes about 
 one-sixth of the working population. It had long been 
 the policy of Secretary Wilson to avail himself of the 
 best expert knowledge obtainable in the administra- 
 tion of such problems. Hence the requests, made not 
 only by Negroes but by many white persons as well, 
 that the Negroes be represented upon the Secretary's 
 staff by a person of their own race, met with a favor- 
 able hearing. In January the Advisory Council was 
 requested to confer with vaiinn persons who had been 
 active in such matters and to report a plan. 
 
 As a result of such conferences the Advisory Coun- 
 cil recommended that a, Negro adviser to the Secre- 
 tary of Labor be appointed. After consultation with 
 many persons of both races, Secretary Wilson asked 
 Dr. George E. Haynes to advise him in such matters, 
 and tendered him an appointment as Director of 
 Negro Economics. Dr. Haynes, who was at that time 
 professor of economics and .sociology in Fisk Univer- 
 sity, Nashville, Tennessee, entered upon his duties 
 May 1. His function is to advise the Secretary on 
 matters affecting Negro wage earners, and to outline 
 and direct plans toward greater production in agri- 
 culture and other industries. This step was taken, not 
 only because the advice of an expert was necessary, 
 but because it was felt that a race which made up such 
 a large proportion of our industrial army, and had
 
 DURING THE WAR 215 
 
 contributed so generously to our military and naval 
 forces, was certainly entitled to a seat at the Secre- 
 tary's council table when matters affecting its inter- 
 ests were considered. 
 
 Among problems of this sort submitted to the Ad- 
 visory Council was that of co-ordinating the services 
 and bureaus in the Department of Labor with similar 
 services and bureaus in other departments. In the 
 fixing of wages and working conditions, for instance, 
 adjustment boards and agencies existed in practically 
 every production branch of the Government. The 
 work of these agencies was frequently in conflict, and 
 it was highly desirable that their policies be unified 
 and that the boards themselves work in harmonious 
 relations with each other. There also were incom- 
 patibilities with regard to the supervision of working 
 conditions, housing, and many other functions of the 
 Department of Labor. As a means of bringing these 
 agencies into mutual relationships, the Advisory 
 Council recommended the creation by the Secretary 
 of Labor of a War Labor Policies Board, to be com- 
 posed of the chiefs of the various bureaus and ser- 
 vices of the Department, together with representatives 
 of the other production departments of the Govern- 
 ment. 
 
 In accordance with this recommendation, the War 
 Labor Policies Board was created on May 13, 1918, 
 with Mr. Felix Frankfurter, Assistant to the Secre- 
 tary of Labor, as chairman. Its first meeting was held 
 on May 29, 1918. The departments, boards, and ad- 
 ministrations represented were the Department of 
 Labor, the War Department, the Navy Department, 
 the Department of Agriculture, the United States
 
 216 W. B. WILSON 
 
 Shipping Board, the Emergency Fleet Corporation, 
 the Fuel Administration, the Railroad Administra- 
 tration, the War Industries Board. In addition to 
 members representing these branches of the admin- 
 istration, the Policies Board had advisers representing 
 labor, and others who were qualified in business man- 
 agement and technical fields. 
 
 The need for the War Labor Policies Board arose 
 from the fact that the Federal Government had be- 
 come the greatest employer in the country. And al- 
 though the Government represented one people and 
 might therefore be expected to have a single broad 
 policy toward labor, the first twelve months of the war 
 brought out many adverse policies from that single 
 Government. The inevitable result was that the na- 
 tion, operating through different agencies, was saying 
 and doing irreconcilable things. Not all of the war 
 policies announced by the several branches of the 
 Administration could be right, because many of them 
 were mutually contradictory. 
 
 The function of the Board was to reconcile such dif- 
 ferences in so far as they referred to administration of 
 labor matters, and to recommend to the Secretary uni- 
 fied labor policies to harmonize the industrial activities 
 of separate branches of the Government. It was well 
 adapted to this end, since although it was created 
 by Secretary Wilson and operated under his direc- 
 tion it included responsible representatives of other 
 branches of the Government. Among the various 
 matters which this board considered may be men- 
 tioned the elimination of labor turnover, the adop- 
 tion of uniform standards, industrial exemptions, 
 wage stabilization, and the employment of women.
 
 DURING THE WAR 217 
 
 The Advisory Council had included among its 
 recommendations a plan for the general supervision 
 of such labor problems as involve women. It was im- 
 possible, because of the lack of funds, to carry out 
 this plan at the time it was proposed. Application 
 had been made to Congress for the needed appropria- 
 tion, but some delay resulted, and it was not until the 
 end of the fiscal year that the needed sum became 
 available. 
 
 The Woman in Industry Service was organized by 
 Secretary Wilson early in July, with Miss Mary Van 
 Kleeck as its director and Miss Mary Anderson as 
 assistant director. Miss Van Kleeck had previously 
 served the Ordnance Department in a similar capac- 
 ity. The effects of the first draft had become more 
 evident and the importance of the employment of 
 women grew daily more significant. The announce- 
 ment of the plans to extend the draft to include all 
 men between the age of 18 and 45 brought a still 
 keener realization of the fact that production for the 
 war would depend in increasing measure upon the 
 effective employment of a growing force of women 
 workers. 
 
 The council also recommended an Investigation and 
 Inspection Service. The functions of this service are 
 outlined in Secretary Wilson's letter specifying the 
 essentials of a war labor administration. I will quote 
 from that part of the letter referring to the Investi- 
 gation and Inspection Service : 
 
 "A force of investigators will also be needed for 
 the various other services here contemplated. In 
 view of the fact that the services of an inspector, ex- 
 aminer, and investigator may often be combined in one
 
 218 W. B. WILSON 
 
 man, especially at the beginning of the work, and also 
 that the handling of a field force which travels from 
 place to place is a large task in itself, I believe that 
 the greatest economy and efficiency can be obtained by 
 combining these field forces under the Secretary in 
 one inspector in charge and in a special service, to be 
 called 'Investigation and Inspection Service.' 
 
 "It will be my purpose to require all new services 
 in the Department to use this Investigation and In- 
 spection Service so far as possible in all their field 
 work. For this purpose the inspector in charge of the 
 service will provide, on consultation with other 
 branches of the Department, methods of inspection, 
 investigation, and examination, including blank forms 
 for reports on the various necessary subjects, and 
 will transmit such reports when made to the various 
 branches to which they belong. 
 
 "'There are certain limits, however, to the work 
 which such inspectors, investigators, and examiners 
 do. They cannot, for instance, act as mediators or as 
 experts on training. In these cases the field forces 
 are estimated in the services to which they are 
 attached. ' ' 
 
 Within a week from the date of the granting of the 
 appropriation, the service was established under Mr. 
 Ethelbert Stewart as director and Miss Gertrude 
 Barnum as assistant director. On August 15, 1918, 
 Secretary Wilson sent a letter to all services of the 
 Department, announcing that the Investigation and 
 Inspection Service was equipped with a sufficient 
 force to handle the business of investigation and in- 
 spection for the various services of the Department. 
 
 The Advisory Council recommended, among other
 
 DURING THE WAR 219 
 
 things, the necessity for the creation of an agency 
 which would furnish (a) "a satisfactory method and 
 administration for training of workers; (b) an agency 
 for dilution of skilled labor as and when needed." 
 Hence Secretary Wilson formed the Training and 
 Dilution Service on July 16, 1918, and appointed 
 Mr. Charles T. Clayton director. For the purposes 
 of administration it was divided into a Planning, an 
 Administrative, a Training, and a Dilution Division. 
 
 The Information and Education Service was organ- 
 ized July 1, 1918. The Secretary had already ap- 
 pointed as chief of this service Mr. Roger W. Babson 
 of Wellesley Hills, Massachusetts. 
 
 The legal authority for this service is found in the 
 general powers conferred by the statute upon the 
 original Department of Labor, now the Bureau of 
 Labor Statistics, 1 and in the additional authority con- 
 ferred upon that bureau and upon the Department 
 by the organic act of March 4, 1913.2 
 
 1 " There shall be at the seat of Government a Department 
 of Labor, the general design and duties of which shall be to 
 acquire and diffuse among the people of the United States 
 useful information on subjects connected with labor, in the 
 most general and comprehensive sense of that word, and espe- 
 cially upon its relation to capital, the hours of labor, the 
 earnings of laboring men and women, and the means of pro- 
 moting their material, social, intellectual, and moral pros- 
 perity." 
 
 2 The act of March 4, 1913, Vol. 37, P. 737, provides in 
 Section 4 as follows: "The Bureau of Labor Statistics, under 
 the direction of the Secretary of Labor, shall collect, collate, 
 and report at least once each year, or oftener if necessary, 
 full and complete statistics of the conditions of labor and the 
 products and distribution of the products of the same, and 
 to this end said Secretary shall have power to employ any or 
 either of the bureaus provided for his Department and to 
 rearrange such statistical work and to distribute or consoli- 
 date the same aa may be deemed desirable in the public in-
 
 220 W. B. WILSON 
 
 The original purpose of the Bureau of Labor, 
 and the interpretation of its functions by the first 
 Commissioner of Labor, was that the office was to be 
 primarily devoted to informative and educational 
 work. 
 
 The Information and Education Service handled 
 the publication of information and such educational 
 matters as were especially needed in the war emer- 
 gency. The more immediate purpose of this service 
 was to promote sound sentiment in industrial plants, 
 to combat unsound industrial philosophies, and to 
 acquaint the public with the national war labor pro- 
 gram of the Government. The following divisions 
 were created: 
 
 (1) Educational Division, under F. T. Miller and 
 Clara Sears Taylor. 
 
 (2) Division of Information, under George W. 
 Coleman. 
 
 (3) Division of Industrial Plants, under F. T. 
 Hawley. 
 
 (4) Division of Economics, under Dr. Davis R. 
 Dewey. 
 
 (5) Posters Division, under J. R. Colburn. 
 
 terests. . . . And said Secretary of Labor may collate, 
 arrange, and publish such statistical information so obtained 
 in such manner as to him may seem wise." 
 
 Section 8 provides that: "All duties performed and all 
 power and authority now possessed or exercised by the head 
 of any executive department in and over any bureau, office, 
 officer, branch, or division of the public service by this act 
 transferred to the Department of Labor, or any business 
 arising therefrom or pertaining thereto, or in relation to the 
 duties performed by and authority conferred by law upon such 
 bureau, office, officer, board, branch, or division of the public 
 service, whether of an appellate or revisory character or other- 
 wise, shall hereafter be vested in and exercised by the head 
 of the said Department of Labor."
 
 DURING THE WAR 221 
 
 In addition to these an Inquiry Office was also es- 
 tablished as an aid for the improved and effective 
 information of those visiting the Department and 
 wishing to familiarize themselves with its workings. 
 This office was under Miss Alice L. Kercher. 
 
 One of the first war problems which came to the 
 attention of Secretary Wilson was the problem of 
 housing excess numbers of war workers who had been 
 gathering in industrial centers. As soon as prepara- 
 tion for hostilities began on a large scale, industrial 
 plants were doubled, trebled, and quadrupled in size, 
 and man power to operate these expanded industries 
 was quickly supplied. This expansion occurred so 
 rapidly that in hundreds of manufacturing centers 
 the number of workers soon outran the housing fa- 
 cilities available for their accommodations. 
 
 At first such congestion gave rise to problems of 
 welfare only, but so rapidly did many of our indus- 
 trial centers increase that living accommodations were 
 inadequate even without regard to sanitary condi- 
 tions. Under such circumstances Secretary Wilson 
 assumed the administration of industrial housing and 
 transportation. His task was rendered the more diffi- 
 cult because this phase of our industrial preparation 
 had apparently been overlooked by those charged 
 with the merely physical factors of production. 
 
 Congress granted appropriations totaling $100,- 
 000,000 for this work, all of which was placed in the 
 hands of Secretary Wilson. In anticipation of the 
 granting of this sum, Mr. Otto M. Eidlitz was re- 
 quested to undertake the formation and organization 
 of a Bureau of Industrial Housing and Transporta- 
 tion in the Department. Mr. Eidlitz had previously
 
 222 W. B. WILSON 
 
 served the Advisory Commission to the Council of 
 National Defense in certain preliminary investigations 
 by the Industrial Housing Section of a sub-committee 
 of that body. He had also acted as an adviser to 
 the Emergency Fleet Corporation, and was quite fa- 
 miliar with the problems involved, not only as they 
 applied to munitions centers, but to shipyards as well. 
 
 The original memorandum of the Advisory Council 
 recommended the creation, together with other ser- 
 vices, of a Conditions of Labor Service. This recom- 
 mendation was in general compliance with that para- 
 graph of the President's memorandum which directed 
 the Secretary of Labor to set up ' ' machinery for safe- 
 guarding conditions of labor in the production of war 
 essentials." This branch of the Department has been 
 known since that time by the name "Working Condi- 
 tions Service, instead of the Conditions of Labor Ser- 
 vice, as originally proposed. 
 
 English experience had demonstrated to Secretary 
 Wilson that a service of this kind was essential in 
 order to secure the largest possible output of muni- 
 tions of war. Where no supervisory power over con- 
 ditions of labor was exercised, health precautions were 
 disregarded and the hours of labor extended, with a 
 consequent reduction in health and efficiency. In the 
 United States, it is true, the laws of the States pro- 
 vide certain standards for working conditions, par- 
 ticularly with reference to light, air, and safety ap- 
 pliances. These laws, however, are not uniform 
 among the several States, and certainly were not 
 adapted to the industries which sprang up during the 
 war. 
 
 Prior to the establishment of the Working Condi-
 
 DURING THE WAR 223 
 
 tions Service, the various production departments of 
 the Government each had some form of organization 
 to supervise work upon contracts placed by the re- 
 spective departments. These bureaus, however, had 
 no single point of contact and no machinery by which 
 uniformity in the respective standards set up by 
 them could be effected. Hence the necessity for cen- 
 tralizing all existing machinery having to do with 
 working conditions in the Department of Labor. 
 
 The "Working Conditions Service was established 
 early in August, 1918, by the appointment of Mr. 
 Grant Hamilton as its director. For administrative 
 purposes there are three divisions, a Division of In- 
 dustrial Hygiene and Medicine, a Division of Labor 
 Administration, and a Division of Safety Engineer- 
 ing. 
 
 The Division of Industrial Hygiene and Medicine 
 worked in co-operation with the United States Public 
 Health Service in the Treasury Department. As a 
 result of an agreement reached between the two ser- 
 vices, personnel was detailed from the Public Health 
 Service to the "Working Conditions Service. Dr. A. 
 J. Lanza, of the former service, was detailed to act 
 as Chief of the Division of Industrial Hygiene and 
 Medicine. Dr. C. D. Selby, of Toledo, Ohio, was Chief 
 of the Section of Industrial Medicine. The function 
 of this section was to organize medical preventive 
 methods and to endeavor to keep employees in proper 
 health condition to do their best work. It was its 
 endeavor, also, to reduce occupational disease, and to 
 discover health hazards in order to reduce labor turn- 
 over. It directed the formation of sanitary and 
 health codes for industries.
 
 224 W. B. WILSON 
 
 The Division of Labor Administration dealt with 
 the attitude and policies of management toward em- 
 ployees and the personnel relations between employers 
 and employed. It studied the general problems of 
 labor administration, including scientific manage- 
 ment, fatigue studies, auditing, etc. It sought to 
 avoid regimentation and endeavored to make the de- 
 velopment of individual initiative its primary objec- 
 tive. 
 
 The Division of Safety Engineering formulated 
 standards for mechanical safety in much the same 
 manner as the Division of Industrial Hygiene and 
 Medicine dealt with sanitation and industrial hygiene. 
 In the formation of codes it co-operated with the 
 Bureau of Standards. 
 
 Prior to the extension of the departmental organi- 
 zation, through the expansion of the United States 
 Employment Service and the subsequent organization 
 of the War Labor Administration, departmental busi- 
 ness required no very elaborate machinery for its 
 administration. The exigencies of the war, however, 
 expanded the existing bureaus and services from four 
 to fourteen. The presence of such a large number 
 of administrative agencies naturally raised questions 
 within the Department as to the relations of the 
 bureaus with one another and to departmental poli- 
 cies. For the purpose of maintaining coherency in 
 departmental policy, as well as to promote friendly 
 intra-departmental relations, a departmental cabinet 
 was instituted by Secretary Wilson. 
 
 The members of the cabinet were the Assistant 
 Secretary, the Solicitor as Acting Secretary, the Chief 
 Clerk, the Director of Negro Economics, and the ad-
 
 DUBING THE WAR 225 
 
 ministrative heads of the statutory bureaus and the 
 war emergency services. The total membership was 
 fourteen. The Secretary presided, and in his absence 
 the Assistant Secretary, the Solicitor, or the Chair- 
 man of the War Labor Policies Board, in the order 
 named. The Chief Clerk of the Department acted as 
 secretary of the cabinet. Meetings were held every 
 Tuesday morning. 
 
 All during the war Secretary Wilson looked for- 
 ward to the day when our victorious soldiers would 
 return to their peaceful and customary pursuits and 
 join once more in the upbuilding through industry 
 of the nation which they had defended by force of 
 arms. Nor was he unmindful of the fact that the over- 
 whelming mass of our armies was drawn from the 
 ranks of wage earners, and that when their military 
 task was done these men would return to the ranks 
 of wage earners. It would have been an ungrateful 
 nation, indeed, which did not deem it its first duty 
 to assure to its returned soldiers honorable and profit- 
 able employment. It has been the unfortunate ex- 
 perience of the armies of other nations that gratitude 
 has been too frequently confined to words, and men 
 who have risked their lives have too often been re- 
 leased from military life to find an industrial con- 
 dition where there were more men than opportunities 
 for work. In consequence, such men have frequently 
 submitted to the humiliation of accepting alms. Sec- 
 retary Wilson, therefore, believed that the problem 
 of providing profitable employment for our returned 
 soldiers was a paramount duty. It was in further- 
 ance of this idea that the Secretary created and ex- 
 tended the United States Employment Service. The
 
 226 W. B. WILSON 
 
 duties of this service, in brief, were to bring together 
 the manless job and the jobless man. It was, there- 
 fore, contemplated to use its full resources in mini- 
 mizing such unemployment as should occur. Even 
 in the most prosperous periods, however, there is a 
 disparity between the actual number of wage earners 
 and the number that our industries can absorb. Un- 
 der the most favorable circumstances this unemployed 
 surplus is such as to give rise to grave social and in- 
 dustrial problems. So long as this basic condition 
 persists, it is apparent that the mere bringing together 
 of men and jobs is not sufficient. In order to pro- 
 vide for this surplus, Secretary Wilson saw that we 
 must do more than seek for employment among op- 
 portunities already existing. We must correct the 
 disparity itself. Consequently, he faced the further 
 duty of creating new opportunities for employment. 
 Personal experience, as well as the undoubted neces- 
 sity for a continuous augmentation of the world's 
 food supply for many years to come, indicated to 
 him that a more extensive as well as more intensive 
 use of our natural resources must be made. The soil 
 must remain the chief working opportunity for large 
 numbers of the nation's wage earners. It is, there- 
 fore, desirable and imperative that a comprehensive 
 policy with regard to the public domain be established. 
 The same problem was before us more than a half- 
 century before. Access to the public domain was 
 provided by the homestead law of 1862 and further 
 privileges extended specifically to soldiers in 1872. 
 The results of this policy were beneficial in that they 
 provided work for unemployed persons, but such 
 benefits were also accompanied by grave evils. Too
 
 DURING THE WAR 227 
 
 frequently the efforts of the settler, who was not 
 inured to the hardships of the frontier or familiar 
 with agriculture, resulted in failure. Isolated from 
 his fellows and remote from the advantages of the 
 city, the pioneer achieved only after a long struggle 
 such form or organization as rural life now possesses. 
 Other nations have profited by our bitter experience 
 in this respect, and have in consequence abandoned 
 homesteading or the method by which the early set- 
 tler is merely provided with a land title and left like 
 Robinson Crusoe to work out his own salvation. For 
 the uncertainties of homesteading there should be sub- 
 stituted an orderly, properly planned scheme of colo- 
 nization, in which the Federal Government shall es- 
 tablish and equip not only individual farms, but also 
 link them together into organized communities. Rural 
 planning should be brought into play in order to make 
 life in the rural districts attractive and in order to 
 stem the movement from the farm to the cities. 
 
 Settlers should likewise be protected from the evils 
 of land speculation. The liberal grants of former 
 years to soldiers were of almost no value to the sup- 
 posed beneficiaries, because of the speedy transfer to 
 persons who were primarily interested in the resale 
 of such lands at higher prices. Speculation and in- 
 flation are evils which it has been found impossible 
 to correct in the experience of our associated bellig- 
 erents. The Secretary therefore favored the adoption 
 of some form of tenure which would lay less stress 
 upon title and more upon actual use of occupants. 
 The absolute tenure does not seem to be well adapted 
 to public colonization, since it is useless to the work- 
 ing settler and attractive to the speculator. There
 
 228 W. B. WILSON 
 
 are several other forms of tenure, including the per- 
 petual leasehold, better adapted for our purposes. 
 
 Secretary Wilson, therefore, recommended the early 
 enactment of such legislation as would be necessary 
 to permit the preparation of the public domain for 
 this purpose. Such legislation should, he believed, 
 provide for the purchase of such privately owned 
 areas as it may be found desirable to add to the public 
 areas. Moreover, it should not be limited to agricul- 
 ture. In this connection he wrote: 
 
 "Great areas are, by reason of natural adaptation, 
 necessarily destined for forest uses. The wasteful 
 methods in vogue in the past in the lumber industry 
 have resulted in the practical destruction of our fine 
 forest areas. The policy has been to treat trees as 
 deposits of wood above the surface and of the same 
 nature as mines, which are deposits of mineral below 
 the surface. These deposits have been destroyed one 
 after the other without regard for the needs of the 
 future. At the same time, the industry has been a 
 movable one, operated in the main by men the nature 
 of whose work denies them home or marriage or even 
 votes. No one who has the interest of America at 
 heart can look forward with tolerance to the growth 
 or continuance of a body of migratory workers, who 
 in the nature of the case must have lower social and 
 moral standards than their fellows and a hatred for 
 the law which they have never known except in the 
 repressive aspect. Happily, the possession of the Na- 
 tional Forests gives us an opportunity to apply the 
 principles of colonization to timber lands also. The 
 substitution of scientific silviculture for timber min- 
 ing will give us an opportunity to establish perma-
 
 DURING THE WAR 229 
 
 nent forest communities where local self-government, 
 marriage, and education are possible. 
 
 "In presenting these recommendations at this time, 
 I regard it as unnecessary to point out further possi- 
 bilities, of which the foregoing will serve as an ex- 
 ample. In setting forth the necessity for land settle- 
 ment I am not unmindful of the vast numbers who 
 must again find places in our complex industrial or- 
 ganization. It is too early at present to forecast 
 accurately the industrial organization or needs of our 
 nation after the w?,r. All the properly adapted facil- 
 ities of the Department of Labor are at present en- 
 gaged in the study of those problems of reconstruc- 
 tion peculiar to manufacturing and secondary indus- 
 try ; and from time to time I shall have recommenda- 
 tions and conclusions to present based upon such 
 studies. No such doubt, however, exists with regard 
 to primary industry, and I urge early legislation in 
 accordance with the principles laid down in the fore- 
 going paragraphs. 
 
 "Legislation upon this important subject should 
 include three minimum provisions: (1) Possibilities 
 of commercialized speculation in titles must be 
 guarded against. (2) Colonists must be given access 
 not only to land but to farms, not the bare soil but 
 fully equipped agricultural plants Teady to operate. 
 (3) The farms themselves must be welded together 
 into genuine communities by provision for roads, 
 schools, and markets, under the general supervision 
 of the Federal Government. 
 
 "The primary principle involved is not the use of 
 men for the development of land, but the development 
 of land for the use of men. With regard to machin-
 
 230 W. B. WILSON 
 
 ery for putting these provisions into effect, I recom- 
 mend the organization of a board consisting of the 
 Secretaries of the Departments of Agriculture, In- 
 terior, and Labor for the further organization and su- 
 pervision of the general plan. Regardless of the ma- 
 chinery by which it is put into operation, whatever 
 legislation is granted should recognize the cardinal 
 principle that the natural resources of the nation are 
 for the common good of all and should be accessible 
 on such terms as to discourage speculation and ex- 
 ploitation and to reward diligence and thrift." 
 
 In connection with the above the Secretary recom- 
 mended the immediate stimulation of public and pri- 
 vate building, and especially the construction of pub- 
 lic works of every useful nature. Among those to 
 whom he gave the responsibility of presenting these 
 plans to the nation should be mentioned Mr. Franklin 
 T. Miller, Mr. Frederic C. Howe, and Mr. Hugh Reid.
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 COLLECTIVE BARGAINING 
 
 OWING to the very large acquaintance which Secre- 
 tary Wilson had among union labor leaders, the pres- 
 sure upon him was naturally very great to favor 
 organized labor. This was intensified by the fact that 
 organized labor has always been very helpful in se- 
 curing the necessary appropriations from Congress 
 for the proper development of the Department of La- 
 bor. Although Congress passed the organic act cre- 
 ating the Department of Labor, it has been very 
 niggardly in appropriations. This is why the De- 
 partment of Labor has been so handicapped in its 
 efforts to perform conscientiously the work given it 
 to do. 
 
 The Secretary always believed that the welfare of 
 the community, including all interests, is better ad- 
 vanced when labor is organized than when it is not. 
 The war experience showed clearly this fact. In the 
 industries where labor was organized there was very 
 little trouble between 1914 and 1919. The labor 
 troubles during the war almost wholly existed among 
 the unorganized workers. Notwithstanding this fact, 
 however, Secretary Wilson always leaned over back- 
 ward in favor of the employers who had open shops. 
 Said he to me one day: 
 
 "Mr. Babson, my great ambition is to have people 
 say of me these two things, first, that I have kept my 
 word, and second, that I have been fair. I am a poor 
 
 231
 
 232 W. B. WILSON 
 
 man, and I shall die a poor man. I have had a very 
 hard life, and am suffering today from the fatigue 
 of it. I care not for riches, or power, or credit. But 
 I do want people to say, when they meet about my 
 bier, that I have always kept my word and that I have 
 tried to be fair." 
 
 With this spirit he has always met the employers 
 who were opposed to unions. He believed in their 
 sincerity. He knew that the employer who was op- 
 posed to a union was as a rule just as conscientious 
 and honest as the labor leader who believed in a union. 
 Secretary Wilson knows that nothing can be accom- 
 plished in this world through force, but that men 
 must be converted to an idea through their reason 
 or through their heart. 
 
 The Secretary always opposed hasty action. "It's 
 the oak that grows slowly which becomes the great 
 tree, and which lives a long time. The cottonwood 
 trees, the birches, and the rest which grow quickly, 
 can't stand much wind, and they always die quickly. 
 Therefore, although we must constantly keep our eye 
 on the desired goal and swing neither to the right nor 
 to the left, yet we must be willing to move slowly." 
 
 It was with this attitude that Secretary Wilson 
 always faced a problem of "Collective Bargaining," 
 in favor of which the Department of Labor clearly 
 went on record during the great European war. 
 During the Secretary's long experience in settling 
 labor controversies, he found that two things promi- 
 nently stand out. These are as follows : 
 
 (1) Labor refuses to assent to compulsory arbitra- 
 tion, believing that the only difference between a free
 
 COLLECTIVE BARGAINING 233 
 
 man and a slave is that the free man is free to quit 
 work if he desires. 
 
 (2) Capital refuses to grant the closed shop, be- 
 lieving that it is undemocratic, and that a labor au- 
 tocracy may become as bad as a military autocracy. 
 
 When the great war broke out labor and capital 
 were divided into two hostile camps in accordance 
 with the above declarations. Secretary Wilson 
 brought these two interests together through the for- 
 mation of the War Labor Board in a way which no 
 one else could possibly do. He refused to discuss 
 either compulsory arbitration or the closed shop, but 
 appealed to both to recognize "Collective Bargain- 
 ing." On the keystone of "Collective Bargaining" 
 he erected a structure which kept American produc- 
 tion up to the highest point during the war, and 
 which has since served as the basis of the progress of 
 our time. 
 
 Another master stroke was his co-operation with 
 ex-President William Howard Taft. The joint chair- 
 men of the War Labor Board were William Howard 
 ,Taft and Frank P. Walsh. Naturally, Mr. Taft was 
 selected senior chairman. Imagine the condition! 
 A Democratic President and a Democratic adminis- 
 trator, but with a Republican ex-President yes, 
 President Wilson's opponent Senior Chairman of the 
 War Labor Board. Furthermore, ex-President Taft 
 went into that Board as a conservative with his sym- 
 pathies with the employers' group. This was a most 
 difficult situation for Secretary Wilson, a man who 
 not only represented the President and whose affilia- 
 tions had always been with the Democrats, but whose 
 friends were almost wholly among workers, There
 
 234 W. B. WILSON 
 
 isn't one man out of a hundred thousand, yea, per- 
 haps out of a million, who could meet this situation 
 with the kindly spirit, the meekness, the helpfulness 
 shown by Secretary Wilson. He gave no orders. He 
 refused to exercise his power as Labor Administrator 
 of the nation. He simply laid the facts before ex-Presi- 
 dent Taft, and appealed to his heart. The result was 
 that when the armistice was signed ex-President Taft, 
 a Republican and a conservative, issued the following 
 statement concerning "Collective Bargaining": 
 
 "Organization of labor has become a recognized 
 institution in all the civilized countries of the world. 
 It has come to stay; it is full of usefulness and is 
 necessary to the laborer. It shows serious defects at 
 times and in some unions. These are an apparent 
 willingness to accept benefits enforced through a fear 
 of lawlessness, a disposition to use duress to compel 
 laborers to join unions, and efforts to limit output 
 and to create a dead level of wages, and thus wipe 
 out the necessary and useful difference in compensa- 
 tion of those who are industrious and skillful and of 
 those who are lazy and do not strive to increase the 
 product of the employer whom they serve. These 
 are evils that as the unions grow in wise and intelli- 
 gent leadership we may well hope are being minimized. 
 
 "Much can be done by employers in anticipating 
 just demands of employees. Workers have had too 
 many instances of holding back of employers until they 
 are forced to do justice. Too many employers seek to 
 justify failure to raise wages by pointing to their 
 welfare work for their employees. This is of a pa- 
 ternal character and impresses the workers with the 
 idea that they are being looked after as wards and not
 
 COLLECTIVE BARGAINING 235 
 
 treated as men capable of exercising independent dis- 
 cretion as to their welfare. They are apt to give the 
 employees the idea that it is a generous concession 
 they are making out of the goodness of their hearts, 
 and that they are not merely yielding a right for a 
 quid pro quo for what they receive. 
 
 "The most difficult persons to deal with are the 
 extremists on both sides. On the side of labor there 
 seems to be such suspicion by one leader of another 
 that few are willing to make a just concession, not 
 because they don't recognize its justice, but because 
 if they admit it they are charged with betraying the 
 cause of labor. Thus they furnish to their rivals in 
 leadership among workingmen the opportunity to un- 
 dermine their standing with their fellows. This often 
 puts the labor side in an indefensible position and 
 offers to its enemies a basis for criticism that might 
 easily be avoided. 
 
 ' ' On the other hand, there is among employers the 
 bourbon, the man who never learns anything and 
 never forgets anything; the man who says: 'It is 
 my legal right to manage my business as I choose, to 
 pay such wages as I choose, to agree to such terms of 
 employment as I choose, to exclude from my employ- 
 ment union men, because I don't approve of the 
 tenets of the union, and to maintain a family ar- 
 rangement of my own. I do fairly by my men; I 
 pay them what I think is right, and they will not 
 complain unless some outside union agent interferes. 
 I run a close non-union shop, and I am happy and 
 propose to continue happy.' 
 
 "This man is far behind the progress of our social 
 Civilization. He lacks breadth of vision extending
 
 236 W. B. WILSON 
 
 beyond the confiner of his shop. He looks to fear of 
 courts, and injunctions, and police, and militia, as the 
 ordinary and usual instruments for continuing his 
 business peacefully and maintaining his rights. He 
 is like the man who regards the threat of a divorce 
 court as a proper and usual means of continuing 
 domestic happiness. He does not recognize that we 
 have advanced beyond the state in which employers 
 and employees are mere laws unto themselves. 
 
 "He does not see that the whole public is inter- 
 ested in industrial peace. He does not see that the 
 employers have certain duties social in their nature 
 that are not defined and are not enforcible in law, 
 but exist just as family duties of care and affection 
 exist. He has not followed the growth of things. 
 
 "As long as the system that he insists upon con- 
 tinued, individual laborers were at the mercy of their 
 employers. Whatever they got was a concession. 
 They could not maintain themselves in a contest with 
 their employer, dependent as they were on their daily 
 wage, and independent as he was with accumulated 
 capital. That very unjust situation led to the or- 
 ganization of labor that the employee by massing con- 
 tributions may maintain himself during an industrial 
 struggle without wages. 
 
 "This has come to collective bargaining, which is 
 bargaining by the group system. A group of laborers, 
 knowing their rights and knowing how to maintain 
 them, put themselves on a level with their employers, 
 and the result reached is far nearer a just one than 
 by any before attained. That it may often be unjust 
 goes without saying, but so are all human attempts to 
 reach the right line. Of course those individual la-
 
 COLLECTIVE BARGAINING 237 
 
 borers who do not see the advantage to them of the 
 group system have a right i,j stay out and must be 
 protected in so doing. But, whether we will or not, 
 the group system is here to stay, and every statesman 
 and every man interested in public affairs must recog- 
 nize that it has to be dealt with as a condition, to be 
 favored in such a way as to minimize its abuse and 
 to increase its utility. 
 
 "The workingmen of the country, since the war be- 
 gan and the importance of their group action has been 
 emphasized by the requirements of the war, have been 
 given a sense of power in their united action which 
 we must recognize and deal with. Of course they 
 may abuse this power; and if so, they may find that 
 they are not the entire community ; but if under level 
 headed leadership they do not push it to an excess, 
 they will be able to do much for their members and in- 
 deed for the community at large. 
 
 "The junkers and the hunkers on both sides must 
 stand aside and will be set aside if common sense pre- 
 vails. The danger from bolshevism is far greater than 
 from reaction to the bourbon type of employment. 
 The intelligent, conservative leaders of the labor 
 movement should be encouraged. Their difficulties in 
 dealing with their extreme constituents should be rec- 
 ognized." 
 
 Even before Mr. Wilson was elected to Congress, he 
 was often sought by employers as well as by wage 
 earners for conciliation purposes. In some of these 
 cases thousands of men and millions of dollars were 
 involved, while other cases were looked upon as in- 
 significant. Mr. Wilson handled them all with simple
 
 238 W. B. WILSON 
 
 justice as his guide, allowing neither friendship nor 
 sympathy to lead him astray. 
 
 I remember one instance where one of the mines 
 was having a great deal of trouble with boys breaking 
 windows in vacant houses belonging to the company. 
 One boy had been arrested, and the boy's parents ap- 
 pealed to Mr. Wilson to represent them. He accepted, 
 out of the kindness of his heart, and appealed to the 
 company to release the boy. 
 
 The attorney for the company suggested that he and 
 Mr. Wilson go out to the boy's house and interview 
 him. This they did, and the boy did not make a very 
 good impression on either of them. On the way home 
 the attorney asked Mr. Wilson what he thought about 
 the case. Mr. Wilson replied : 
 
 "I don't think anything about it. The boy broke 
 the window." 
 
 W. B. Wilson always stood for the protection of 
 property and the sanctity of contracts. He believed 
 that equality of opportunity and the protection of 
 property must go hand in hand, and that in the long 
 run one cannot exist without the other. He believed 
 in organized labor, and always recommended to em- 
 ployers that they should encourage the organization 
 of their men, and should deal with such organizations ; 
 but he also insisted that the men should keep their 
 word. I remember numerous instances, when there 
 had been a slight temptation on the part of some of the 
 workers to go back on their agreement as in the 
 Seattle Water Front case, for instance that the 
 Secretary would send this message : 
 
 "The average workingman has little else to lose
 
 COLLECTIVE BARGAINING 239 
 
 than his honor and integrity. When that is gone he 
 is in a sorry plight indeed." 
 
 I have never known an instance where employers 
 have been better off by not taking the Secretary's 
 advice. Let me state one of the many cases which came 
 to my personal attention. Some manufacturers came to 
 Secretary Wilson and Mr. Hugh L. Kerwin, Director 
 of the Conciliation Service, and stated that their men 
 were uneasy and demanded an increase. The manu- 
 facturers said that they were willing to give the men 
 an increase of ten per cent, and would post a notice to 
 that effect, but would not meet committees of their 
 men. Mr. Kerwin, however, told them that the in- 
 crease was not the most important matter, but rather 
 that the men wanted to be recognized and consulted. 
 This the manufacturers positively refused to do, say- 
 ing that their self-respect would not permit them to 
 discuss their business affairs with their employees. 
 Of course, it was the self-respect of the employees 
 which made them desire recognition. Finally, a strike 
 came on and twenty-five hundred men went out. The 
 case went to the War Labor Board, which awarded 
 the men double what they were formerly willing to 
 settle for in the conference with the manufacturers.
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 WILSON POLICIES 
 
 "SENTIMENT rules the world." On January 22, 
 1919, Secretary Wilson called together the chiefs of 
 the different bureaus and services into his office. For 
 some time a committee, consisting of the Assistant 
 Secretary, Hon. Louis F. Post, Chairman ; Mr. Walter 
 Parker, Vice Chairman; Mr. Grant Hamilton; Miss 
 Mary Van Kleeck, and myself, had been studying 
 plans for the reorganization of the Department of 
 Labor. The actual report had been written by Mr. 
 Parker, and, at the suggestion of the Assistant Secre- 
 tary, we purchased for him, as a token of apprecia- 
 tion, a set of books. The presentation was made by 
 Secretary Wilson on the morning just referred to. 
 
 The Secretary began by saying that money is the 
 controlling factor with a great many men, but that 
 men who have accumulated great wealth are quickly 
 forgotten, and almost no one has won lasting ap- 
 preciation through the accumulation of money. He 
 then explained how a second group of men are actu- 
 ated by a desire for power or fame. These men, the 
 Secretary believed, have an advantage over the first 
 group, as certainly they are longer remembered. His- 
 tory shows, however, that such men usually get into 
 trouble sooner or later by attempting to serve too 
 many masters. The Secretary continued: 
 
 "My many years' experience in Washington has con- 
 vinced me that the only men who secure and perma- 
 
 240
 
 WILSON POLICIES 241 
 
 nently retain the love of their countrymen are those 
 who put service before everything else. The men who 
 seek money are always doomed sooner or later; the 
 men who seek power or fame are continually taking 
 chances and running risks of disaster ; but those who 
 are actuated by a simple desire to serve are the ones 
 who ultimately win. The paths of such men may be 
 long and tedious. It may be necessary for them to go 
 through sloughs of despond and to climb treacherous 
 heights ; but by keeping the one star in mind they ul- 
 timately win, and become an honor to their families, 
 to their communities, and to their nation. ' ' 
 
 The Secretary went on in his interesting and remi- 
 niscent manner, explaining the reason for this fact, 
 namely, that the world is really ruled by sentiment 
 rather than by money, or any other factor. It is not 
 so much because the more money a man has the 
 greater target he is; nor because notoriety naturally 
 develops jealousy; but rather because of the control- 
 ling motives of life are love, sympathy, understanding, 
 hope. Some quote the old saying: "The higher up in 
 the tree the monkey is, the more stones will be thrown 
 at him." The Secretary believed that jealousy is a 
 factor, but not a great factor. Yet even jealousy is a 
 form of sentiment. What the Secretary meant is that 
 it is the intangible and unseen things rather than the 
 tangible and material things which rule the world. 
 
 There are the good sentiments, such as love, sym- 
 pathy, hope, understanding, but there are also the bad 
 sentiments, such as jealousy and hate. Almost every 
 great movement can be traced to these sentiments. 
 Almost everything we do is done from some such mo- 
 tive. Now, the men who are actuated by service ap-
 
 242 W. B. WILSON 
 
 peal directly to the emotions of the masses ; while the 
 men who are actuated by the desire for wealth, 
 power, or fame appeal to those good motives only in- 
 directly; they most directly appeal to the bad senti- 
 ments of a nation. 
 
 The Secretary's great success in the settlement of 
 industrial disputes has been due to his recognition and 
 understanding that sentiment rules the world. At 
 conferences which I have attended, where the different 
 representatives perhaps would not speak to one an- 
 other, the Secretary's words have brought them to- 
 gether in common agreement. The experts represent- 
 ing both employers and wage workers had come 
 armed with tables of figures and volumes of facts. 
 They would lay these papers before the Secretary. 
 He would thank them, but never look at the papers. 
 Moreover, after he began to talk, the lawyers of 
 neither side would refer more than once or twice to 
 the evidence or the figures. The Secretary knew that 
 men are not reached through their heads but through 
 their hearts, that very few people can be convinced by 
 testimony or statistics. He realized that both the em- 
 ployers and the wage workers are actuated, not by 
 facts, but by sentiment. Hence, he would appeal to 
 them all as men, as fathers, as trustees of a community 
 or industry. He would appeal to the sympathy, pa- 
 triotism, the hope of both sides. He always assumed 
 that both employers and wage workers were honest 
 from their own point of view. He believed in every 
 man and saw only the best in every man. He real- 
 ized that fundamentally wage workers are not fighting 
 for more wages or shorter hours so much as for rec- 
 ognition, and that this applies not simply to the rec-
 
 WILSON POLICIES 243 
 
 ognition of the Union but to the recognition of the in- 
 dividual. 
 
 If only this could be realized by every employer, 
 how much happier and more prosperous this world 
 would bo ! So many employers say to me : " We have 
 recognized the unions ; but the men are still slacking. 
 They are not interested in their work, but only watch 
 the clock. There is no desire on their part to pro- 
 duce and they have no joy in production." 
 
 This is true in some localities, but the real reason 
 is that the employers' recognition stopped with simply 
 the formal recognition of the union. The recognition 
 of the union must be followed by a recognition of the 
 individual. Each man must be made to feel that he is 
 important and that the success of the establishment 
 depends on him. And yet the average employer pre- 
 sents just the opposite point of view to his men. He 
 tries to make each man feel that the business could 
 very well get on without him; perhaps from the un- 
 conscious feeling that if he praises the man, the man 
 will demand higher wages. When you impress an in- 
 dividual with the idea that he is unimportant, when 
 you permit him to feel that he is not of much value to 
 you, he isn't of much value to you, and every day he 
 becomes of less value. Ambition to produce can be 
 aroused in the individual only by impressing upon 
 him that he is important and valuable and is entitled 
 to recognition. Yes, sentiment rules the world. Hu- 
 man nature in a factory is not different from human 
 nature in politics or human nature in the home. 
 When men are happy they are efficient; when men 
 are unhappy they are inefficient. 
 
 The Secretary understands that great fundamental
 
 244 W. B. WILSON 
 
 truth that the ruling desire on the part of every per- 
 son is a desire for appreciation. We love most thoae 
 who most appreciate us. The great military, political, 
 and industrial leaders of the world are men who mo*t 
 appreciate their soldiers, their constituents, and their 
 workers. After a labor leader talked with Secretary 
 Wilson, he left the room with the feeling that the Sec- 
 retary appreciated him and his work. When an em- 
 ployer left the Secretary, he went away with the feel- 
 ing that the Secretary appreciated him and his work. 
 Moreover, the Secretary honestly appreciated the 
 work of both because he could see only the good 
 points of both. The result of this was that the Sec- 
 retary had the confidence of both and both conse- 
 quently followed him and adopted his decisions. 
 
 Our industrial troubles will become less only as both 
 the leaders among employers and wage workers get 
 the Secretary's vision that sentiment rules the world. 
 Both sides must realize that money and hours are but 
 incidents in the fight. We never can gain the love and 
 confidence of children by doing things for them, by 
 increasing their allowances, by giving them pennies 
 and parties. We win their confidence only as we get 
 them to do things for us. We love most those for 
 whom we do most, rather than those who do most for 
 us. The real thing which is being fought over by em- 
 ployers and wage workers is self-respect. The em- 
 ployer feels that he cannot give up for fear of losing 
 his self-respect and prestige ; while the wage workers 
 feel that they cannot give up for fear of losing their 
 self-respect. Statistics show that pride is the one 
 greatest cause of labor troubles. In some cases it is 
 the controlling factor with the employers, in other
 
 WILSON POLICIES 245 
 
 j 
 
 cases it is the controlling factor with the wage work- 
 ers; but in most cases it is the controlling factor on 
 both sides. 
 
 A corporation is willing to spend thousands of 
 dollars for information relative to material, is willing 
 to hire experts on questions of law, it will pay huge 
 salaries to men to work in material fields ; and yet it 
 is giving virtually no attention to the great con- 
 trolling motives, that is, the sentiments. Not only is 
 the labor cost, which is wholly controlled by sentiment, 
 the most important thing in the expense account in 
 every business, but sentiment likewise controls the 
 purchase of the goods after they are manufactured. 
 There are a few men who see these points. Secretary 
 Wilson is one of these men. 
 
 "When employers," said he, "will give as much 
 thought to studying the sentiments which control life 
 as they give to studying materials, machinery, law, 
 and other factors, then we shall be on the road to in- 
 dustrial peace." 
 
 Mr. Wilson has given much thought to the question 
 of government ownership. Most of his associates, both 
 among political leaders and labor leaders, are great 
 believers in government ownership. Resolutions in 
 favor of government ownership honeycomb most labor 
 conventions and labor platforms. Notwithstanding 
 great pressure, however, the Secretary always insisted 
 that government ownership is an experiment. He 
 says: 
 
 "Nobody knows whether government ownership 
 will succeed or not. Nobody knows how much of it will 
 succeed or how little. There is no reason why gov- 
 ernment ownership should not be like everything else
 
 246 W. B. WILSON 
 
 in the world, subject to abuse as well as use. One 
 thing we do know, namely, that it requires a great 
 deal of overhead expense and management. It seems 
 to require more overhead expense for the Govern- 
 ment to carry on operations than for private enter- 
 prise. Briefly, I feel that if it is necessary for the 
 well-being of the people that the Government should 
 own and operate any line of business, then it must be 
 done; but only under such conditions and only after 
 much thought." 
 
 One day the head of one of the bureaus of the De- 
 partment of Labor came to Secretary Wilson and 
 said: 
 
 "There is a concern near here which has most 
 wretched working conditions and is employing girls 
 from a nearby orphan asylum in a way which de- 
 serves your immediate attention. I have talked to them 
 and urged them to complain to the authorities, but 
 they seem content with their lot." 
 
 The Secretary sat quietly thinking for some time. 
 It was one of the times when he thinks through his 
 entire sentence to the last word, including the final 
 period, before opening his mouth. The clock on the 
 bookcase could be distinctly heard ticking. Finally 
 the Secretary said : 
 
 "My friend, I know those conditions exist. My 
 heart aches as I think of those women in that base- 
 ment, but if they will not complain there is nothing 
 that we can do. We cannot save people. They only 
 can save themselves. Anything that we could do for 
 them at the present time would be mere wasted effort. 
 People cannot be helped until they reach a stage where 
 they want help. The Bible function of repentance is
 
 WILSON POLICIES 247 
 
 fundamentally and psychologically sound. Only as 
 there is a desire within the heart of men and women 
 for better conditions, only as there is regret and re- 
 morse in their hearts for the life they are leading, 
 can outside help be of avail. Even then the real 
 help is not from without but from within. Not only 
 has the Department of Labor enough to do to render 
 help where it is requested; but this is the only kind 
 of aid that can be effectively rendered under any con- 
 ditions." 
 
 Labor 's most powerful weapon is the general strike. 
 The radical labor leaders have always talked in favor 
 of a general strike and have often earnestly urged it. 
 A general strike means that everybody stops work 
 the idea being that no train should run, no street cars 
 and electric lights be furnished, and that even grocers, 
 bakers, and milkmen should refuse to do their daily 
 work. In the minds of many leaders labor should 
 make only just demands, it should insist on these just 
 demands, and enforce them by a general strike. 
 
 Mr. Wilson always used his influence against gen- 
 eral strikes. The fact that few have occurred in the 
 United States is largely due to his influence. Those 
 that have taken place have been confined wholly to 
 single industries. In discussing this with me one day, 
 Mr. Wilson said: 
 
 , * ' I learned my lesson at the time of the general strike 
 among the coal miners. It was agreed that we should 
 all go out together and then should all come back to- 
 gether. We were able to go out together, as we had 
 only ourselves to consult. When, however, we voted 
 to go back together we found that the corporation 
 also had something to say about the going back. The
 
 248 .W. B. WILSON 
 
 strike had disrupted business and caused some con- 
 cerns to fail. The scarcity of coal had caused some 
 manufacturers to use electricity for power, others to 
 employ natural gas, and others to combine their re- 
 sources and pool their manufacturing capacity. Strik- 
 ing is something like plowing a field; it can be done 
 in a few hours, but it takes months to get a stand of 
 grass again. Yes, there are many objections to the 
 general strike, but the primary one is that conditions 
 are different when the men are ready to go back from 
 what they were when the strike commenced. These 
 changed conditions make it impossible for the men to 
 go back in the same way or in the same numbers as 
 they left. Many must necessarily be hurt. ' ' 
 
 Mr. Wilson also understands as few men do the in- 
 efficiency and hard feeling which follow a strike, even 
 after the men return to work. He has been very sym- 
 pathetic with the employers' point of view, knowing 
 as he does that everything ultimately depends upon 
 production. He has often said that a general strike 
 can never be conclusively won oy either side. The 
 winner is, in a way, the loser, because the loser is un- 
 happy and dissatisfied. Hence, Mr. Wilson was al- 
 ways a great believer in conciliation. Labor disputes 
 are best settled voluntarily without a striEe, or with 
 one so short as not to develop hard feeling. In the 
 latter case no rancor is left in the mind of either 
 party, and both continue work whole-heartedly, en- 
 deavoring to increase production to match the increase 
 in wages or reduction of hours. When, however, a 
 strike has occurred, and bad feeling is developed, it 
 makes little difference which side wins ; there is never 
 the same efficiency in the plant as there was before.
 
 WILSON POLICIES 249 
 
 One of the greatest strains upon Secretary Wilson 
 came at the time of the threatened general railroad 
 strike in 1916. The country will never know how 
 close it came to a great catastrophe at that time. The 
 nation owes an immense debt of gratitude to Pres- 
 ident Wilson and Secretary Wilson for their efforts 
 in bringing the men and Congress together. Men who 
 were there will never forget Secretary Wilson's get- 
 ting the great leaders of the brotherhoods together 
 and saying to them: 
 
 "Gentlemen, I know that you can call and force a 
 general strike. You can stop every train, both pas- 
 senger and freight, and stagnate the entire business 
 of the United States. But let me ask you to consider 
 carefully whether this will gain your ends. Experi- 
 ence has shown me that little is accomplished through 
 force. You have no grievance whatever against the 
 public. Your grievance is against t'ie stockholders 
 and directors of the railroads. Don't you run a great 
 risk in harming a thousand people, or even ten thou- 
 sand people, for the sake of punishing one stock- 
 holder ? Certainly, there will be thousands hurt by a 
 general strike to one stockholder whom you punish 
 by such a strike. 
 
 ' ' I sympathize with you in your desire to keep your 
 case before the people ; but you must treat the people 
 fairly in order to have the case treated on its merits. 
 If you stop the trains, it will be only a few days be- 
 fore New York City will be on the point of starva- 
 tion, while New England will be without coal. Under 
 euch conditions, do you think the people of these sec- 
 tions would consider your case on its merits? No, 
 they certainly would not. Instead of your having the
 
 250 W. B. WILSON 
 
 sympathy of the people as you have today, you might 
 be mobbed and lynched by them. 
 
 "There is another thing which you should remem- 
 ber. If the masses were at the point of starvation, 
 they would not be content to wreak vengeance upon 
 you. Law and order would be pushed aside. The 
 fact of your striking would not eliminate the food. 
 There would still be food, and the masses would take 
 the shortest cut to get this food. This would result 
 in havoc, destruction, and the disruption of industry 
 from which we all would suffer for years. I beg 
 of you to consider this most carefully." 
 
 As the result of this talk to these men, and a corre- 
 sponding talk by the President to the railroad officials, 
 a compromise was reached whereby Congress passed 
 the Adamson Bill, for which the Administration in- 
 curred much blame. Let me say, however, that this 
 bill was purely a compromise, and it is only by such 
 compromises that we have progressed or will progress. 
 Compromise is the safety valve of democracy. Con- 
 ciliation is the safety valve of industrial unrest. Only 
 as both are encouraged will our ship of state safely 
 outride the storms ahead. 
 
 " Are you a Socialist?" the Secretary was asked. 
 
 "I am now and for all time an evolutionist," was 
 his reply. "I believe in a natural evolution, which 
 will bring about the condition of affairs for which we 
 are all fighting. The breach between labor and capital 
 may never be healed, but we can at least bring about 
 a better understanding of both the employee and the 
 management concerning the obstacles which make that 
 breach possible."
 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 WHAT OF THE FUTURE? 
 
 ' ' WHAT is the chief purpose of your life as you see 
 it?" This question was one day put to William B. 
 Wilson. 
 
 "Establishing industrial peace," answered the 
 Secretary instantly. 
 
 Establishing industrial peace has been the life 
 work of the Secretary. Labor leaders and he has 
 been a labor leader most of his life in many quarters 
 are supposed to thrive on turmoil and strikes. But 
 this big, ruddy, earnest miner has always been an ad- 
 vocate of arbitration, adjustment, and peace. More- 
 over, this attitude has been impressed upon the entire 
 Department of Labor. Any opinions of employers to 
 the contrary are incorrect. 
 
 "Industrial peace," he said in explanation of his 
 answer, ' ' is both an economic and a sociological neces- 
 sity. It is not an idle dream, 'but a practical possibil- 
 ity. The chief requirement in achieving it is ability 
 on the part of those dealing with issues as they arise 
 to put themselves in the other fellow's place; to view 
 the question from all sides fairly and justly. 
 
 "To a degree there is partnership between labor 
 and capital. Their interests are parallel in the mat- 
 ter of securing a maximum production with a mini- 
 mum effort. Only beyond that point do their inter- 
 ests diverge. Then comes the question of a division 
 
 251
 
 252 W. B. WILSON 
 
 of the profits, with each side humanly wanting more 
 than the other side is at first willing to concede. 
 
 "At the point of divergence the practical, sensible 
 .thing is for capital and labor to sit down quietly as 
 business men and argue the thing out. Mutual con- 
 cessions must be made. It is much easier to secure 
 mutual concessions after discussion when each side 
 has come to understand the point of view of the other 
 side." 
 
 Here Secretary Wilson illustrated his point by de- 
 scribing the annual conference held in the bituminous 
 coal mining business. In his long years of work as an 
 officer of the United Mine Workers of America, he 
 stood for this principle of conference and agreement, 
 and now sees it applied to the bituminous coal min- 
 ing operations in the country. 
 
 The plan is simple. It consists merely of assem- 
 bling together the representatives of the operators 
 and the representatives of the miners, usually at In- 
 dianapolis. Some four hundred representatives of 
 operators are present and some ten or twelve hundred 
 representatives of the miners. Their questions of dif- 
 ference are threshed out. The operators explain the 
 difficulties they have encountered, many of which 
 have not been understood or appreciated by the miners 
 heretofore. The miners, likewise, make clear their 
 troubles and necessities. The air is clarified by dis- 
 cussion and mutual understanding. Then agree- 
 ments are made as to wage scale, conditions of labor 
 and the like, with provisions in the agreements to 
 permit them to be changed to conform with purely 
 local conditions. Contracts are entered into for a
 
 WHAT OF THE FUTURE? 253 
 
 year or a term of years. Both sides profit by the re- 
 sulting stability to the industry. 
 
 "But, in these conferences, are you not apt to lose 
 sight of the interests of the consuming public ? ' ' some 
 one asked. 
 
 "No," the Secretary replied. "In the first place, 
 the interest of the consumer, in the larger sense, is 
 always the interest of the producing forces, for the 
 producing forces, taken broadly, are the consuming 
 public. This form of arbitration is ,!*, fair and the 
 just way of settling disputes. I am not an advocate 
 of compulsory arbitration, except possibly in con- 
 nection with railroads and public utilities. In the law 
 creating the Department of Labor no provision was 
 made for compulsory arbitration, and I am inclined 
 to believe Congress was wise. If you compel capital 
 to accept the result of an arbitration, capital might 
 be required to operate at a loss until entirely ex- 
 hausted. If you compel labor to accept it, there would 
 be created a condition of slavery. Voluntary arbitra- 
 tion contains no such objections, and in the end is most 
 effective. The Department of Labor believes that, 
 unless a contract is satisfactory to both parties, it 
 would be better not to enter into it. Furthermore, 
 the Department of Labor has no sympathy with the 
 old theory advanced in Europe by a school of trade 
 unionists that labor can gain advantage by curtailing 
 production; that is, by setting a low maximum for 
 each worker and not permitting one to go beyond 
 that." 
 
 In discussing this once with me, the Secretary said : 
 
 "Certainly I am not in sympathy with any such 
 notion. You will find very few intelligent labor men
 
 254 W. B. WILSON 
 
 who are. The theory of which you speak has no gen- 
 eral following in this country. Employer and em- 
 ployee, in the very nature of things, should be mu- 
 tually interested in getting out the greatest measure 
 of product with the least effort. That is simply com- 
 mon sense. All trade unionists object to men being 
 driven or induced to work beyond their normal capac- 
 ity, but when greater production can be secured by 
 the same expenditure of labor, there is just that much 
 more available for labor when it comes to negotiating 
 wages and conditions of employment. The policy to 
 which the Department of Labor should always adhere 
 is to do all it can to bring labor and capital together 
 in conferences, so that they may settle their own dif- 
 ferences." 
 
 No one can talk with Mr. Wilson without being im- 
 pressed by the exceptional personality of the man. In 
 physical appearance he conveys an idea of quiet 
 strength. He is a big man, big in mind and body. 
 Mentally and physically he is ever alert and active, 
 impressing one as a trained thinker, and absolutely 
 honest. In face and figure Mr. Wilson appeals to the 
 literary imagination as a splendid model for Long- 
 fellow's "Village Blacksmith." Perhaps it is the 
 touch of somberness in his countenance that makes 
 one feel the depth and sincerity of the man. Deep 
 thoughtfulness is written in his eyes, together with a 
 mixture of tenderness and humor that is irresistible. 
 There is a certain indescribable look to the man that 
 tells plainly of his honest love for humanity, combined 
 with his knowledge that the problem is very complex 
 and is not easy of solution.
 
 WHAT OF THE FUTURE? 255 
 
 When receiving callers the Secretary listens in- 
 tently but does very little talking. He allows his vis- 
 itors to do all the talking first. Then simply and 
 concisely he says what he has to say. In his way of 
 thinking much and talking very little, he reminds one 
 somewhat of Mr. Rockefeller. He thinks through his 
 sentence including the period before opening his 
 mouth. 
 
 All his life Secretary Wilson has been a worker. 
 His recreation has been largely in working for others, 
 endeavoring to better labor conditions in the country. 
 Simple of life and tastes, the acquisition of place and 
 power has not changed his natural manner and hab- 
 its. He still lives simply and sensibly, and the at- 
 mosphere of his small farm at Blossburg, Pennsyl- 
 vania, is fully as attractive to him as the more gay 
 and stately atmosphere of official Washington. 
 
 Readers may wonder why I have so intermingled 
 the life of Secretary Wilson and the work of the De- 
 partment of Labor. Some who have read this manu- 
 script complain that it is incoherent and should con- 
 fine itself more to one of the two subjects presented. 
 From a literary point of view this doubtless is true, 
 but not from a practical standpoint. 
 
 My object is to give manufacturers, merchants, and 
 other employers a correct view of the Department of 
 Labor and its work. This Department is liable to be- 
 come the most important executive arm of the Fed- 
 eral Government. It is very vital that it should be un- 
 derstood. The policies of the Department of Labor 
 can never be understood except by knowing the man 
 who constructed these policies. Moreover, this will 
 apply to students of labor conditions long years after
 
 256 W. B. WILSON 
 
 Mr. Wilson has passed away. No employer or wage 
 earner will ever be equipped to understand and suc- 
 cessfully to deal with the Department of Labor with- 
 out a knowledge of William B. Wilson, its first Sec- 
 retary. 
 
 One thing more in closing. In February, 1917, Sec- 
 retary Wilson submitted to President Wilson a draft 
 of a bill for the adjustment of labor disputes in the 
 transportation system of the country. I believe that 
 if the principle therein involved can be enacted into 
 law, it will prevent most strikes and lockouts by re- 
 moving the motive, make progress possible without 
 the use of compulsion, and at the same time conserve 
 the property rights and liberties of all persons con- 
 cerned. 
 
 The Secretary always opposed compulsory arbi- 
 tration because he did not believe that any man or 
 set of men should be compelled to work for the profit 
 or convenience of any other man or set of men, but 
 he also recognized that the wage workers should be 
 reasonable in their demands and should not abuse 
 their power. 
 
 All progress heretofore made by the wage workers 
 through their collective activities has been brought 
 about by destroying or threatening to destroy the 
 equities of a business. To illustrate : the shorter work 
 day has not been obtained by reducing hours of labor 
 from ten to eight per day in every part of the same 
 industry or occupation at the same time. The ob- 
 ject has been attained by grasping the opportunity 
 existing in some locality to compel some particular 
 employer or employers to concede a shorter work-day, 
 and then utilizing the accomplishment as a leverage to
 
 WHAT OF THE FUTURE? 257 
 
 force similar concessions from other employers. As 
 the competitive equality and power of the employer 
 granting the shorter work-day has been restricted, it 
 has been easier for the wage workers to force other 
 employers into line. 
 
 In all systems of labor arbitration the tendency is 
 toward equalization with the highest existing stand- 
 ards for the workers as the ultimate aim. With a con- 
 tinuing system of arbitration, the lowest standards 
 would in time be brought to a level with the highest 
 standards. After reaching that point progress 
 would be extremely slow, because the economic pres- 
 sure would have to be sufficient to lift the entire load 
 at once instead of lifting it one piece at a time, as is 
 the present practice. 
 
 In any system of continuous arbitration, however, 
 the final protection of the wage workers against un- 
 fair decisions would be the standard of living, which 
 is flexible and which may be raised or lowered and the 
 workmen still live. The employer, however, would 
 have as his final protection the clean-cut, inflexible line 
 between profit and loss, which he would be able to show 
 definitely from his cost accounts. This would result 
 in a system of continuous arbitration giving a greater 
 measure of protection to the employers than to the 
 employees. 
 
 Although compulsory arbitration involves a serious 
 question of human liberty, which no majority should 
 have the right to invade, yet wise labor leaders real- 
 ize that, if people should be cut off from their food 
 supply and confronted with starvation, they would 
 not stop to consider whose rights are invaded or whose 
 liberty is destroyed. These people would find some
 
 258 W. B. WILSON 
 
 means of securing food. They would take the most 
 direct road, whether that happened to be the right 
 way or the wrong way. For that reason, it seems the 
 part of wisdom to work out carefully the problem 
 when no crisis exists, with a view to conserving both 
 the freedom of the workers and the food supply of the 
 people. 
 
 Secretary "Wilson proposed to create a system by 
 which nothing could be gained by striking. He would 
 remove for a certain period all temptation to strike. 
 The worker would be left free to work or not work, 
 individually or collectively, and the employer would 
 be free to dismiss his workmen individually or col- 
 lectively, but the motive for strikes and lockouts would 
 be destroyed. With a measure of this character on 
 the statute books, strikes and lockouts should never 
 occur at any one time over an area sufficiently large 
 to impair seriously the industries of the country. 
 The end would be reached not by crushing the work- 
 ers, but by giving them a different method of adjust- 
 ing grievances: 
 
 Let us take the transportation industry as an illus- 
 tration. It is presumed that, if Congress has the 
 power to create a Commission to regulate rates, so 
 long as they are not confiscatory, it would have the 
 same power to create a Commission to regulate any of 
 the component parts of rates, such as wages. The 
 further thought follows that the cost of any of the 
 component parts of rates cannot be confiscatory. 
 Thus such a Wage Commission could not establish a 
 confiscatory wage. 
 
 When the Interstate Commerce Commission fixes a 
 rate that is no confiscatory, the law gives it all the
 
 WHAT OF THE FUTURE? 259 
 
 force and effect of a contract between the shipper and 
 the transportation company without there having 
 been an actual meeting of minds between them. This 
 principle the Secretary utilized in preparing his plan. 
 In brief, it would provide a fixed wage for a certain 
 period, with the employer liable to civil suit in case 
 he should deviate from it one way or the other. 
 
 The proposed Wage Commission would be composed 
 of an equal number of representatives of employers, 
 employees, and the Government. This Wage Com- 
 mission should not be given full judicial powers nor 
 would the Commissioners be appointed for life. It 
 is deemed essential that the opportunity should exi n t 
 for change at stated periods if changing economic 
 thought, the development of bias on the part of any 
 of the Commissioners, or any other reason should 
 make a change desirable. 
 
 When the Interstate Commerce Commission fixes 
 a rate which is not confiscatory, and which is based 
 on substantial evidence taken at hearings, the rate 
 fixed is made to apply, not to any particular shipper, 
 but to any and all shippers. When the rate is fixed 
 it cannot be raised to one shipper and lowered to an- 
 other. The same principle is introduced into this 
 Wilson plan in its application to wages. Although 
 means would be provided by which errors of law, ap- 
 parent on the face of the record, could be determined 
 by the courts, yet all employers in a given locality 
 and given industry would be treated alike. 
 
 It is believed that "by making it impossible for the 
 wage rate to be raised or lowered within the period 
 for which the award would be made, the principal 
 cause of strikes and lockouts would be eliminated.
 
 260 [W. B. WILSON 
 
 Although the wage earners would then be left free 
 .to strike and the transportation companies would be 
 free to use the lockout, nothing could be gained by 
 either side. Consequently neither strike nor lockout 
 tuould occur. If the employer knew that he could be 
 sued by his wage workers in case he paid them less 
 than the fixed wage, and the wage workers knew that 
 he would be sued by the District Attorney if he paid 
 more than the fixed wage, all incentive to striking 
 would be removed. The only requisite to insure the 
 success of such a plan would be to have enough intel- 
 ligent Wage Commissioners and to have them change 
 the rate of wage often enough to protect both the in- 
 dustry and the wage workers. The chief purpose of 
 such a board would be to have the rate of ivage as 
 nearly as possible that which would be the natural 
 wage if left to tlie law of supply and demand, and to 
 have it apply to all employers (in a given community 
 and industry) alike, making them liable to suit for 
 deviating from it in either direction. 
 
 The Wage Commission could be given thirty days 
 in which to file its decisions with the courts and ten 
 days thereafter could be allowed for filing exemp- 
 tions; but as the order of the Wage Commissioners 
 would go into effect on the date fixed by the Commis- 
 sion (unless the courts reversed the action of the Com- 
 mission on errors of law apparent on the face ofthe 
 record), the length of time allowed for filing the order 
 and taking exceptions thereto would not be of grave 
 importance. 
 
 The employer always controls the fund from which 
 wages are paid. Hence, under such a plan there would 
 ^be no way by which the employee could compel him
 
 WHAT OF THE FUTURE? 261 
 
 ;jto pay more than such a Wage Commission might 
 award. He might, however, pay less; but the em- 
 ployee would then be able to sue and recover. If he 
 must enter the suit at his own expense, the employee 
 would be placed at a decided disadvantage in the en- 
 forcement of the award. It is, therefore, deemed 
 equitable to require the United States Attorneys to 
 prosecute the suit in his behalf. By the same law, 
 however, the United States Attorneys would be di- 
 rected to institute and prosecute proceedings to pre- 
 vent employers from paying more than the award, 
 so that a strike to force higher wages than the award 
 would be valueless. 
 
 The awards would be made for a definite period, but 
 sufficiently short to make it useless for either employer 
 or employee to tie up operations pending the expira- 
 tion of the award. An opportunity should be given 
 for a periodical radical readjusting on a basis of 
 changed conditions or advance in economic thought. 
 Provision should also be made for readjustment 
 within the period in the event of an emergency. The 
 need of the hour is increased production. This can 
 be secured only by making the wage worker happy 
 and interested in producing all possible. This means 
 that he must always feel right toward the employer 
 and the system of wage adjustment in force. 
 
 In the minds of many of the ablest captains of in- 
 dustry and leaders of labor, this is the most hopeful 
 solution of wage controversies yet suggested. Al- 
 though the Secretary outlined it as applicable to 
 transportation and public utilities, why could it not 
 be applied to general industry as well ? I believe that 
 it could be and will be.
 
 262 
 
 [W. B. WILSON 
 
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 WHAT OF THE FUTURE! 263 
 
 As a step in this direction, Secretary Wilson sub- 
 mitted the following memoranda to the Industrial 
 Conference in October, 1919 : 
 
 ' ' There shall be created a Board of equal numbers 
 of employers and employees in each of the principal 
 industries and a Board to deal with miscellaneous 
 industries not having separate Boards. The repre- 
 sentatives of labor on such Boards shall be selected in 
 such manner as the workmen in the industry may 
 determine. The representatives of the employers 
 shall be selected in such manner as the employers in 
 the industry may determine. 
 
 "Whenever any dispute arises in any plant or 
 series of plants that cannot be adjusted locally the 
 question or questions in dispute shall be referred to 
 the Board created for that industry for adjustment. 
 The Board shall also take jurisdiction whenever in 
 the judgment of one-half of its members a strike or 
 lockout is imminent. Decisions of the Board on 
 questions of wages, hours of labor, or working condi- 
 tions must be arrived at by unanimous vote. If the 
 Board shall fail to come to a unanimous determina- 
 tion of any such question, the question in dispute 
 shall be referred to a General Board appointed by the 
 President of the United States in the following 
 manner : 
 
 "One-third of the number to be appointed in agree- 
 ment with the organization or organizations of 
 employers most representative of employers; one- 
 third of the number to be appointed in agreement 
 with the organization or organizations of labor most 
 representative of labor ; one-third of the number to be 
 appointed by the President direct.
 
 264 W. B. WILSON 
 
 "Any question in dispute submitted to the General 
 Board for adjudication shall be decided by the unani- 
 mous vote of the Board. If the General Board fails 
 to arrive at a decision by unanimous vote the question 
 or questions at issue shall be submitted to an umpire 
 for determination. The umpire shall be selected by 
 one of the two following processes : First, by unani- 
 mous selection of the General Board. Failing of such 
 selection, then the umpire shall be drawn by lot from 
 a standing list of twenty persons named by the Presi- 
 dent of the United States as competent umpires in 
 labor disputes. 
 
 "In all disputes that may be pending locally, or 
 before the Industrial Board, or before the General 
 Board, or before the umpire the employers and 
 employees shall each have the right to select counsel 
 of their own choice to represent them in presenting 
 the matter in controversy. 
 
 "Whenever an agreement is reached locally, or by 
 the unanimous vote of the Industrial Board, or by the 
 unanimous vote of the General Board, or by the deci- 
 sion of the umpire the conclusion arrived at shall 
 have all the force and effect of a trade agreement 
 which employers and employees shall be morally 
 bound to accept and abide by. 
 
 " It is understood that this plan would not interfere 
 with any system of joint wage conferences now in 
 existence unless or until the failure to agree in such 
 a conference made a strike or lockout imminent. ' ' 
 
 Men who wish to anticipate the future should most 
 carefully study and digest the plan above outlined. 
 It is not Utopian and is not the ultimate ; but it should 
 serve for some time to come. Certainly we cannot
 
 WHAT OF THE FUTURE? 265 
 
 long continue following the present uneconomic 
 methods of readjustment. 
 
 As I look back over Secretary Wilson's life and then 
 forward into the years ahead, it seems as if he served 
 as Secretary of Labor at the most critical period in the 
 nation's history. Not only was the country involved 
 in the greatest war of history, but the labor problem 
 was and is still passing from a stage where it was but 
 an incident to a place of prime importance. 
 
 During Secretary Wilson's life the struggle was 
 for union recognition and the right to organize. Al- 
 though this was once most bitterly fought by em- 
 ployers, it is today accepted as right and natural. It 
 is now generally agreed by all thinking people that 
 both labor and capital have a right to combine and 
 deal collectively with one another. Nevertheless, the 
 struggle between "him who hath" and "him who 
 hath not" will still rage. It has always existed since 
 the days of Cain and Abel, and will continue in the 
 thousands of years to come. The labor problem may 
 never be solved as long as wood floats and stone sinks, 
 although it will show itself in different ways at dif- 
 ferent times. 
 
 . The writer feels that the next phase of the struggle 
 will be over the question of government ownership. 
 As labor secures recognition of its right to combine, it 
 then seeks a hand in the management. Being unable 
 to supply the capital, it naturally turns to govern- 
 ment ownership. In seeking government ownership, 
 labor feels that it can control the management 
 through the unions and secure its capital through the 
 Government. The time is not ripe for a discussion of 
 this question, and it has no part in the purpose of this
 
 266 W. B. WILSON 
 
 volume. The subject, however, should not be dropped, 
 nor this chapter ended, without quoting a statement 
 of Secretary Wilson's on government ownership. It 
 is as follows: 
 
 "The Government should engage only in such ac- 
 tivities and pass such laws as are necessary to give 
 the individual the fullest opportunity for self-de- 
 termination. To the extent that government owner- 
 ship can give man more freedom of expression, to that 
 extent government ownership should be encouraged; 
 but when government ownership tends to repress in- 
 dividual initiative and development, it loses its ef- 
 fectiveness," 
 
 GEORGE H. DAVIS 
 SPECIALIST IN BOOK MANUFACTCBB 
 
 200 Firm AVE., NEW YORK
 
 POSTERS 
 
 PERSONALLY PREPARED 
 
 by 
 SECRETARY WILSON
 
 THE BOYS 
 IN THE TRENCHES 
 
 ARE NOT
 
 of Peace and Good Will will be real 
 
 only if we among ourselves 
 
 practice 
 
 Good Will 
 
 GOOD-WILLED MEN 
 
 whether employers or employees 
 are the bulwark of the Nation 
 
 Let us prove our 
 PATRIOTISM
 
 War Fever 
 
 is not necessary to keep 
 any real American a real patriot 
 
 In the heart of the Patriot 
 
 the NATION'S good 
 
 always comes first
 
 BY PULLING TOGETHER 
 
 Labor 
 
 and 
 
 Capital 
 
 MADE POSSIBLE THE WINNING 
 OF THE WAR
 
 THE SAME QUALITIES 
 fif 
 
 Self-Control 
 Cooperation 
 Industry 
 Patience 
 
 WHICH WON THE WAR 
 
 ARE NEEDED 
 After the War Is Won
 
 INDEX 
 
 A. 
 
 American Merchant Marine, 
 140. 
 
 Anderson, Miss Mary, 217. 
 
 Anthracite Strike Commis- 
 sion, 116, 117, 119, 120. 
 
 Anti-injunction bill, 144. 
 
 Arbitration, compulsory, 142. 
 
 Arnot, Pennsylvania, 13, 16, 
 17, 18, 26, 32, 52, 60. 
 
 B. 
 
 Coleman, George W., 220. 
 
 Collective Bargaining, 53, 191, 
 192, 231. 
 
 Combination of farm and fac- 
 tory work, 62. 
 
 Compulsory Arbitration, 232. 
 
 Conciliation, 97, 102, 103. 
 
 Conciliation Service, 133. 
 
 Co-operative Societies, 11. 
 
 Corning, New York, 16, 17. 
 
 Court injunction and hunger, 
 51. 
 
 Babson Composite Plot, 74, Cumberland (Md.) Jail, 51, 
 
 75, 88. 
 
 Babson, Roger W., 219. 
 Back-to-the-Soil Movement, 
 
 64-66. 
 
 Baer, George F., 114. 
 Barnum, Gertrude, 218. 
 Bauchop, meaning of, 18. 
 Blair, Senator Henry W., 148. 
 Blantyre, Scotland, 6. 
 
 93. 
 Cycles, Business, 73. 
 
 D. 
 
 Deemer, Elias, 122. 
 Densmore, John B., 164. 
 Department of Commerce and 
 
 Labor, 142, 143. 
 Dewey, Dr. Davis R., 220. 
 
 Blossburg, Pennsylvania, 64 7 Department of Labor: 
 
 255. 
 Boards of Directors, labor 
 
 representation on, 58. 
 British Trade Conference, 127. 
 Brownlee, Robert, 57. 
 Bureau of Mines, 1357139. 
 
 C. 
 
 Cadzow Castle. 11. 
 Caminetti, Anthony, 161. 
 Campbell, Richard K., 168. 
 Cannon, Joseph G., 130. 
 Casey, John, 210. 
 Catchings, Wadill, 210. 
 Child Labor Laws, 44. 
 Children and Mines, 10, 28, 
 
 44. 
 
 Children's Bureau, 141, 174. 
 Clark, Champ, 130. 
 Clark, E. E., 117. 
 Clayton, Charles T., 219. 
 Closed Shop, 233. 
 Colburn, J. R., 220. 
 
 273 
 
 Advisory Council, 210, 
 218. 
 
 Adjustment Service, 211. 
 
 Advocates, Bill for, 141. 
 
 Commissioners of Concil- 
 iation, 189, 196, 197. 
 
 Conditions of Labor Ser- 
 vice, 211. 
 
 Created in 1913, 150. 
 
 Division of Industrial Hy- 
 giene and Medicine, 
 223. 
 
 Early inception, 134, 147- 
 149, 157. 
 
 Early Reports of Bureau 
 of Labor, 158, 159. 
 
 Employment Service, 203. 
 
 Harvest hands, 164. 
 
 Housing and Transporta- 
 tion of Workers' Ser- 
 vice, 212. 
 
 Information and Educa- 
 tion Service, 212, 219.
 
 274 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Industrial Hygiene and 
 Medicine, 223. 
 
 Labor, demand for, 200. 
 
 Labor troubles in North- 
 west, 208. 
 
 Personnel Service, 212. 
 
 Policy of Department, 
 183. 
 
 Promise to form, 141. 
 
 Provisions and scope, 
 151. 
 
 Purpose, 133. 
 
 Scope of Act, 142. 
 
 Secretary as mediator, 
 188. 
 
 Taft, President, signs bill 
 creating, 145. 
 
 Training and Dilution 
 Service, 212, 219. 
 
 War, preparing for, 195. 
 
 Woman in Industry Ser- 
 vice, 212, 217. 
 
 Working Conditions Ser- 
 vice, 223. 
 
 E. 
 
 Eidlitz, Otto M., 221. 
 
 Eight-hour bills, 144. 
 
 Ellis Island and explosives, 
 166. 
 
 Employment Service, 225. 
 
 Employment Zones, 165. 
 
 Eviction of the Wilson fam- 
 ily in Scotland, 1, 10, 11. 
 
 Explosions and flooding in 
 mines, 40. 
 
 F. 
 
 Fatality in coal mines, 135. 
 Fernegair, 11, 12. 
 Fifteenth Congressional Dis- 
 trict of Pennsylvania, 122. 
 Fingerless Jock, 6. 
 Foran, Martin A., 149. 
 Frankfurter, Felix, 215. 
 
 G. 
 Gray, Judge George, 117. 
 
 Hall, William E., 202. 
 Hamilton, Grant, 223, 240. 
 Hanna Senator, 108. 
 Haughhead, Scotland, 1, 10, 
 
 15. 
 
 Hawley, F. T., 220. 
 Hayes, Frank J., 213. 
 Haynes. Dr. Geo. E., 214. 
 Hilton, Robert W., 132. 
 Houses or stores, corporation 
 
 owned, 8, 9, 13, 45, 46. 
 Housing war workers, 221. 
 Howe, Frederic C., 230. 
 Howland, Reuben, 26. 
 Husband, W. W., 19, 21. 
 Hutcheson Wm. J., 213. 
 
 I. 
 
 Immigration, 14, 19-25, 86. 
 Immigration, Bureau of, 161. 
 Industrial Commission Bill, 
 
 144. 
 Industrial Department of the 
 
 National Civic Federation, 
 
 108. 
 Infant mortality, 176. 
 
 J. 
 
 Jealousy in mine manage- 
 ment, 57, 58. 
 Johnson, Wm. H., 213. 
 
 K. 
 
 Kercher, Miss Alice L., 221. 
 Kerr, James, 132. 
 Kerwin, Hugh, 33. 
 Kerwin, Hugh L., 36, 125, 239. 
 Kiess, Edgar R., 127. 
 
 L. 
 
 Labor and capital, 9. 
 Lamb, John E., 149. 
 Land Colonization, 228. 
 Landon, A. A.. 210. 
 Lanza, Dr. A. J., 223. 
 Lathrop, Miss Julia C., 175. 
 Legal rights, 54, 55.
 
 INDEX 
 
 275 
 
 Lennon, John B., 210. 
 
 Lincoln, President, 173. 
 
 Lind, John, 210. 
 
 Loree, L. F., 213. 
 
 Love of native land and land 
 
 of adoption, 3, 4. 
 Lyons, John, 57. 
 
 M. 
 
 McKinley, William, 148. 
 Machines for cutting coal, 39. 
 Mann, James R., 145. 
 Marshall, Dr. L. C., 210. 
 Meeker, Dr. Royal, 160. 
 "Memories," 36. 
 Michael. C. E...213. 
 Miller, Franklin T., 220, 230. 
 Miner's life, 10, 13. 
 Mining disasters, 135. 
 Mitchell, John, 43, 107, 108, 
 110, 113, 114, 118. 
 
 N. 
 
 National Industrial Confer- 
 ence Board, 213. 
 
 National War Labor Board, 
 213. 
 
 Naturalization, Bureau of, 
 168. 
 
 Naturalization, forcible, 24. 
 
 Nearing, W. S., 124. 
 
 Negro Adviser to Secretary, 
 214. 
 
 Nester, Miss Agnes, 210. 
 
 O. 
 
 Olander, Victor A., 213. 
 O'Neill, Representative, 148. 
 Organized Labor, 234. 
 Orth, Gottlieb, 147. 
 Osborne, Loyall A., 213. 
 
 P. 
 
 Panics, 80-85. 
 Parker, E. W., 117. 
 Parker, Walter, 240. 
 Peaslee, Clarence L., 126. 
 Piece work in mines, 111. 
 
 Post, Louis F., 240. 
 Psychology in posters, 37. 
 
 R. 
 
 Reid, Hugh, 230. 
 Rights, legal, 53, 54. 
 Rickert, T. A., 213. 
 Roosevelt, Theodore, 113, 116, 
 118. 
 
 S. 
 
 Salem Fire, 165. 
 Scotch Sunday, 5. 
 Seamen's Bill, 139. 
 Seasonal vacations for city 
 
 workers, 66-69, 100. 
 Selby, Dr. C. D., 223. 
 "Sentiment rules the world," 
 
 240. 
 
 Sherwood, Walter, 121. 
 Ships, taking over German, 
 
 204. 
 
 Smythe, Nathan G., 202. 
 Socialists, 128. 
 Soldiers, preparing for return, 
 
 225. 
 
 Spalding, Bishop John L., 117. 
 Stewart, Ethelbert, 218. 
 Strike in Tioga County, 53. 
 Strike of 1900, 104, 105. 
 Strike of 1902, 104, 109, 111. 
 Strikes, 1, 8, 9, 86. 
 
 T. 
 Taft. William Howard, 145, 
 
 213, 233. 
 Taylor, Clara Sears,. 220. 
 
 U. 
 
 United States Employment 
 Service, 97. 
 
 V. 
 
 Van Dervoort, W. H., 213. 
 Van Kleeck, Miss Mary, 217, 
 
 240. 
 Ventilation in mines, 41.
 
 276 
 
 INDEX 
 
 W. 
 
 Walsh, Frank P., 213, 233. 
 War, declaration of, 204. 
 War Policies Board, 215. 
 Watkins, Thomas, 117. 
 Weaver, General James B., 
 
 149. 
 
 White House Conference, 114. 
 Wilson, William B. : 
 
 Against curtailing pro- 
 duction, 253. 
 Ambition, 231. 
 Anti-injunction Bill, 144. 
 Appointment, Secretary 
 
 of Labor, 146. 
 Birth, 3. 
 Blacklisted, 49, 56, 92, 
 
 94. 
 Books read as a boy, 34, 
 
 35. 
 Bribe offered by mine 
 
 owners, 55, 56. 
 Buried under mine rock, 
 
 29. 
 Compulsory Arbitration. 
 
 256. 
 
 Conciliation, 254. 
 Congress, in, 130. 
 Congress, running for, 
 
 121, 125-127. 
 Early contrast between 
 
 poverty and wealth. 6. 
 Elected International Sec- 
 retary-Treasurer of the 
 
 United Mine Workers, 
 
 55, 102. 
 Elected President of his 
 
 Union, 52. 
 Enjoined for contempt, 
 
 92. 
 
 Evolutionist, 250. 
 Farming, 52, 61-64. 
 Father, his, 7. 8, 10, 18, 
 
 28, 30, 35. 49, 67. 
 Fifteenth Congressional 
 
 District. 122. 
 Fireman on railroad, 95. 
 First money, 27. 
 
 General Strike, on, 247. 
 Government Ownership, 
 
 on, 266. 
 Helping the oppressed, 
 
 246. 
 Industrial Commission 
 
 Bill, 144. 
 
 Industrial peace, on, 251. 
 Jailed by mine owners, 
 
 51. 
 Joins Mine Workers' 
 
 Union, 32. 
 Joint Conferences, helps 
 
 to establish, 52. 
 Librarian of Library So- 
 ciety, 34. 
 Mother, his, 1, 3, 7, 15, 
 
 16. 
 Opposed to compulsory 
 
 arbitration, 142. 
 Organizes Boys' Debating 
 
 Society, 36. 
 Plan to avoid strikes, 
 
 259. 
 
 Poems, 26. 49, 59. 
 Policies, 240. 
 Posters, 267. 
 Rescuing William Hogan. 
 
 47. 
 Schooling, 6-8, 18, 26, 27 
 
 31. 
 Story of his neighbors, 
 
 121. 
 
 Takes his seat, 134. 
 Union, half member of, 
 
 49. 
 Union. Secretary of 
 
 Local, 49. 
 
 Urged for Governor, 131. 
 Vote of 1906, 125. 
 Wage Commission, 259. 
 Wilson Day in Arnot, 56. 
 Wilson, Brigader General 
 
 John M., 117. 
 Wilson, President, 177. 
 Wilson Seamen's Bill, 139, 
 
 140. 
 
 Worden, B. L.. 213. 
 Wright, Carroll D., 117, 157.
 
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