Department of Labor

Fourteenth Street and Constitution Avenue NW.
EXecutive 2420, Branch 24
OFFICIALS
Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins
Assistant Secretary of Labor D.W. Tracy
Second Assistant Secretary of Labor (Vacancy)
Administrative Assistant to the Secretary Frances Jurkowitz
Assistant to the Secretary (Vacancy)
Special Assistant to the Secretary Mary LaDame
Director of Information J.V. FitzGerald
Solicitor Douglas Maggs
Director of Personnel Robert C. Smith
Chief Clerk James E. Dodson
Chief Accountant John R. Demorest
Chief, Division of Publications and Supplies Benjamin R. Sherwood
Librarian Laura A. Thompson
Director of Conciliation Howard T. Colving, Acting
Commissioner of Labor Statistics1 Isador Lubin
Chief, Children's Bureau Katharine F. Lenroot
Chief, Women's Bureau Frieda S. Miller
Director, Division of Labor Standards Verne A. Zimmer
Administrator, Wage and Hour and Public Contracts Division L. Metcalfe Walling


Creation and Authority.--The Department of Labor was created as a separate executive department by act of Congress approved March 4, 1913 (37 Stat. 736; 5 U.S.C. 1). A Bureau of Labor was first established by Congress in 1884, under the Interior Department. Soon thereafter the Bureau was made independent as a Department of labor, but without executive rank, and later it again became a bureau in the Department of Commerce and labor, which was created by act of February 14, 1903 (32 Stat. 872; 15 U.S.C. 591).

Purpose.--The tenth executive department to be created, the Department of Labor has jurisdiction over matters pertaining to fostering, promoting, and developing the welfare of American wage earners, improving their working conditions, and advancing their opportunities for profitable employment. It also direct investigation of matters pertaining to child welfare.

Organization--Affairs of the Department of labor are directed by the Secretary of Labor. The chief aides to the Secretary are the Assistant Secretary, Second Assistant Secretary, Solicitor, and several other assistants to the Secretary who perform such duties as are prescribed by the Secretary. The principal bureaus and divisions of the Department are as follows:

Bureau of Labor Statistics
Children's Bureau
Division of Labor Standards United States Conciliation Service
Wage and Hour and Public Contracts Division
Women's Bureau

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ACTIVITIES

Bureau of Labor Statistics

The Bureau of Labor Statistics, established by the act of March 4, 1913, is charged with the duty of acquiring and diffusing among the people of the United States useful information on subjects connected with labor, in the most general and comprehensive sense, and especially upon its relation to capital, the hours of labor, the earnings of laboring men and women, and the means of promoting their material prosperity and social, intellectual, and moral welfare. It makes and publishes the results of special studies on various aspects of the labor field, such as wages in different industries; effects of the war on employment, production, and labor conditions; productivity of labor and industry; and industrial relations. Currently it collects and publishes data on labor turnover, trend of employment, wholesale and retail prices, cost of living, and building construction. This information is issued in special bulletins and in the Monthly Labor Review.

Division of Labor Standards

The Division of Labor Standards, established by departmental order in November 1934, is authorized to develop desirable labor standards in industrial practice, labor law administration and labor legislation, and to make specific recommendations concerning methods and measures designed to improve the working conditions and the economic position of wage earners. It also is authorized to make available to interested organizations and persons the existing resources of the Department of labor and pertinent material obtainable from public or private sources.

United States Conciliation Service

Under the organic act establishing the Department, March 4, 1913, the Secretary is authorized to act as a mediator or to appoint commissioners of conciliation whenever such action is necessary in the interests of industrial peace. This task of dealing with industrial controversies is chiefly carried on by the Conciliation Service, which seeks to bring about peaceful settlements of disputes arising in various sections of the country between employers and employees.

Investigation of Labor-Employer Dispute Causes.--The Conciliation Service investigates the causes of labor-employer disputes as they occur, together with other relevant facts, when such controversies interfere with the welfare of the people of the several States.

Field Offices--United States Conciliation Service
State Address
Alabama 1212 Comer Building, Birmingham 3
California 1755 New Post Office Building, Los Angeles 12
533 Phelan Building, Market and O'Farrell Streets, San Francisco

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Field Offices--United States Conciliation Service--Continued
State Address
Colorado 502 Chamber of Commerce Building, Denver 2
Georgia 10 Forsyth Street Building, Atlanta
Illinois 222 W. Adams Street, Chicago 6
Indiana Room 1301, 108 E. Washington Street, Indianapolis 4
Iowa 401 Equitable Building, Des Moines 9
Louisiana 1115 Richards Building, New Orleans
Massachusetts 204 Washington Street, Boston 8
Michigan 321 Federal Building, Detroit
Minnesota 210 U.S. Courthouse, Minneapolis 1
Missouri 1408 Fidelity Building, Kansas City 6
400 Old Customhouse, Eighth and Olive Streets, St. Louis 1
New York 341 Ninth Avenue, New York 1
Ohio 445-6 Post Office Building, Cincinnati 2
258 Federal Building, Cleveland 14
Oregon 303 Old U.S. Courthouse, 520 SW. Morrison Street, Portland 4
Pennsylvania 1619 Widener Building, Philadelphia 7
Tennessee 214 Federal Building, Chattanooga 2
Texas 201 Rio Grande National Building, 1100 Main Street, Dallas 2
710-12 Federal Office Building, Houston 2
Virginia Room 4, State Capitol Richmond
Washington 420 Seaboard Building, Seattle 1
Wisconsin 632 Federal Building, Milwaukee 2

Wage and Hour and Public Contracts Divisions

These Divisions were consolidated by order of the Secretary of Labor n October 15, 1942. One Administrator heads the two Divisions; he is appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate.

Under the provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act of June 25, 1938 (52 Stat. 1060; 29 U.S.C. 201-19), the Wage and Hour Division was established. Its duties are to see that employers of employees engaged in interstate commerce or in producing goods for interstate commerce, conform to the wage and hour standards of the act and to administer other provisions of the act. It is authorized to enjoin employers who do not meet these standards from further violations of the act and it is also authorized to enjoin the shipment in interstate or foreign commerce of goods produced in violation of the act.

The Public Contracts Division was created to administer the Walsh-Healey ct, of June 30, 1936 (49 Stat. 2036; 41 U.S.C. 35-45), which requires Government supply contracts in excess of $10,000 to contain certain maximum hour, minimum wage, child labor, convict labor, safety, and health stipulations. The Secretary of Labor is charged with the duty of promulgating these standards and supervising their enforcement.

The national office of the Divisions is located at 165 West 46th Street, New York 19, N.Y. A Washington 25, D.C., office is in the Department of Labor Building.

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Regional Offices--Wage and Hour Public Contracts Divisions
Region Officer in Charge Address
No. I. Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont, Rhode Island, Connecticut Leo A. Gleason, Regional Director Old South Building, 294 Washington Street, Boston 8, Mass.
No. II. New York, New Jersey Arthur J. White, Regional Director Parcel Post Building, 341 Ninth Avenue, New York 1, N.Y.
-----Branch John L. Kelly, Supervising Inspector Essex Building, 31 Clinton Street, Newark 2, N.J.
-----Branch Joseph F. Morrison, Supervising Inspector 304 State Tower Building, Syracuse 2, N.Y.
No. III. Pennsylvania, Delaware Frank J.G. Dorsey, Regional Director 1216 Widener Building, Chestnut and Juniper Streets, Philadelphia 7, Pa.
-----Branch Stanton W.B. Wood, Supervising Inspector Clark Building, Liberty Avenue and Seventh Street, Pittsburgh, Pa.
No. IV. Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland W.C. Cole, Regional Director 215 Richmond Trust Building, Richmond 19, Va.
-----Branch Christian C. Shelton, Supervising Inspector 408 Old Town Bank Building, Gay and Fallsway Streets, Baltimore 2, Md.
District of Columbia2    
No. V. Georgia, Florida, South Carolina James G. Johnson, Regional Director Fifth Floor, Carl Witt Building, 249 Peachtree Street NE., Atlanta 3, Ga.
-----Branch John M. Bean, Jr., Supervising Inspector Federal Land Bank Building, Columbia 29, S.C.
North Carolina2    
No. VI. Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana Joseph C. Noah, Regional Director 1007 Comer Building, Birmingham 3, Ala.
-----Branch Wm. L.Crunk, Jr., Supervising Inspector
-----Branch J. Sidney Gonsoulin, Supervising Inspector 916 Richards Building, new Orleans 12, La.
-----Branch Floyd A. Powell, Supervising Inspector 405 Deposit Guaranty Bank Building, Jackson 14, Miss.
No. VII. Tennessee, Kentucky William M. Eaves, Regional Director 509 medical Arts Building, Nashville 3, Tenn.
No. VIII. Ohio, Michigan Grace G. Glascott, Regional Director 4094 Main Post Office, West Third and Prospect Avenue, Cleveland 13, Ohio.
-----Branch (Vacancy), Supervising Inspector 1200 Francis Palms Building, 2111 Woodward Avenue, Detroit 1, Mich.
-----Branch H. Paul Engle, Supervising Inspector 1312 Traction Building, Cincinnati 2, Ohio
No. IX. Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin Thomas D. O'Malley, Regional Director 1200 Merchandise Mart, 222 West North Bank Drive, Chicago 54, Ill.
No. X. North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana Leslie A. Hill, Regional Director 406 Pence Building, 730 Hennepin Avenue, Minneapolis 3, Minn.
Minnesota2    
No. XI. Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, Colorado, Wyoming Walter W. King, Regional Director 911 Walnut Street, Kansas City 6, Mo.
-----Branch Earl V. Powers, Supervising Inspector 316 Old Customhouse, 815 Olive Street, St. Louis 1, Mo.
----Branch Henry M. Roberts, Supervising Inspector 500 Chamber of Commerce Building, 1726 Champa Street, Denver 2, Colo.
No. XII. Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, New Mexico Gus C. Street, Jr., Regional Director Rio Grande National Building, 100 Main Street, Dallas 2, Tex.

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Regional Offices--Wage and Hour Public Contracts Divisions--Continued
Region Officer in Charge Address
No. XIII. California, Arizona, Nevada, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Hawaii and Alaska Wesley O. Ash, Regional Director 501 Humboldt Bank Building, 783 Market Street, San Francisco 3, Calif.
-----Branch John A. Stellern, Supervising Inspector 417 H.W. Hellman Building, Spring and Fourth Streets, Los Angeles 13, Calif.
-----Branch Walter T. Neubert, Supervising Inspector 305 Post Office Building, Seattle 11, Wash.
-----Branch Charles H. Elrey, Supervising Inspector 208 Old U.S. Courthouse, Portland 4, Oreg.
Puerto Rico and Virgin islands Russell Sturgis, Territorial Representative Banco Popular Building, Tetuan and San Justo Streets (P.O. Box 112), San Juan 1, P.R.

War Activities

NATIONAL CoMMITTEE FOR CoNSERVATION OF MANPOWER IN WAR INDUSTRIES

Cyril Ainsworth (American Standards Association)
W.H. Cameron
Herbert Rivers (Building and Constructon Trades Department, American Federation of Labor)
R.E. Donovan (Standard Oil Co. of California)
Mrs. Katherine Ellickson (Congress of Industrial Organizations)
John P. Frey (Metal Trades Department, American Federation of Labor)
Clinton S. Golden (United Steelworkers of America)
William H. Ivey
Lewis E. MacGrayne (Massachusetts Safety Council)
T.O. Meisner (American Can Company)
Charles A. Miller (The Texas Company)
Herbert W. Payne (Textile Workers Union of America)
Eric Peterson (International Association of Machinists)
E.G. Quesnel (The Borden Company)
R.R. Sayers (Bureau of Mines)
Carl L. Smith (Cleveland Safety Council)
L. Metcalfe Walling (U.S. Department of Labor)
Ralph E. Walter (Nebraska Power Company)
W.H. Winans (Union Carbide and Carbon Corporation)
Verne A. Zimmer (U.S. Department of Labor)

The National Committee for the Conservation of Manpower in War Industries was established in June 1940, for the purpose of assisting private plants producing war materials on Government contract in the control of industrial accidents and diseases. Its services consist of (1) direct consultant service with war plant management through the medium of dollar-a-year safety men employed by private industry, who devote part of their time to rendering advisory service to nearby contract plants; (2) the training of key production supervisors and union labor representatives through courses sponsored jointly wit the United States Office of Education under the Engineering, Science, and Management War Training program, and the training of foremen under a program sponsored jointly with the National Safety Council and the Vocational Education Division of the office of Education;

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and (3) the preparation by staff safety technicians and outside consultants of informational and technical material on industrial accident and disease prevention.

Women's Bureau

The Women's Bureau, first established as the Woman-in-Industry Service in 1918, and made permanent by congressional act of June 5, 1920 (41 Stat. 987; 20 U.S.C. 11), is charged with formulating standards and policies for promoting the welfare of wage-earning women, improving their working conditions, increasing their efficiency, and advancing their opportunities for profitable employment. It investigates and compiles reports upon all matters pertaining to the welfare of women in industry, publishing such of this information as the Secretary may direct.

LABOR ADVISORY CoMMITTEE TO THE WOMEN'S BUREAU ON STANDARDS FOR THE EMPLOYMENT OF WOMEN

Representatives of:

This Committee is studying the role of the woman worker in the War Program.

Children's Bureau

The Children's Bureau was created by act of Congress, April 9, 1912 (37 Stat. 79; 29 U.S.C. 18-18c); in 1913 it was placed in the Department of Labor (37 Stat 736; 5 U.S.C. 1). It exercises administrative functions under title V of the Social Security Act (49 Stat. 629, as amended by 53 Stat. 1380; 42 U.S.C. 701-31) and under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (52 Stat. 1060; 29 US.C. 201-19).

The purposes of the Bureau are to promote the health, educational opportunity, and welfare of children throughout the country through studies and reports; consultation service; administration of grants-in-aid to the States for maternal and child-health, crippled-children's, and child-welfare services; and administration of the child-labor provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Activities

Basic Functions Under the Organic Act.--In carrying out its responsibility for promoting the interests of the child as a whole, the Bureau makes studies, gives advisory service, and issues publications, both technical and popular, on child growth and development, nutrition, infant and maternal mortality, mental and physical handicaps of

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children, social services for children, juvenile delinquency, services for children of employed mothers, conditions under which children work, problems of vocational guidance and placement, hazardous occupations, and legislation affecting children.


Maternal and Child-Welfare Services.-- Under the Social Security Act grants are made by the Secretary of Labor to State health agencies for maternal and child-health services (title V, part 1, annual appropriation $5,820,000); to State crippled-children agencies for services to crippled children (title V, part 2, annual appropriation $3,870,000); and to State welfare agencies for child-welfare services (title V, part 3, annual appropriation $1,510,000) on the basis of State plans providing for extension and improvement of services and approved by the Chief of the Children's Bureau. Advisory services of pediatricians, orthopedic surgeons, nutritionists, specialists in foster care, group work, and juvenile delinquency, and of regional medical, public-health-nursing, medical-social, and child-welfare consultants on the Bureau staff are available to the States. Child-Labor Administration.--The child-labor provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 exclude children under 16 from employment in establishments producing goods for shipment in interstate commerce, except that children of 14 and 15 may work in occupations other than manufacturing and mining under certain conditions. Hazardous-occupations orders setting a minimum age of 18 years for employment in particularly hazardous occupations are issued by the Chief of the Bureau after investigation and public hearing. Through the Bureau's cooperative program with State and local agencies administering State child-labor laws, employment and age certificates issued under State laws are accepted as proof of age under the act. Under an agreement between the Children's Bureau and the Wage and Hour and Public Contracts Divisions, wage-and-hour inspectors make investigations for child labor in all establishments inspected under the wage-and-hour provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act and also make special child-labor inspections as recommended by the Children's Bureau. Plans for child-labor inspections are made jointly by representatives of the two agencies, and the Children's Bureau staff gives consultation and assistance in the child-labor aspects of the inspection program.

Inter-American Cooperation.--Under the broad program of the Federal Government for closer cooperation among the American republics, the Children's Bureau is cooperating actively with other American countries in activities relating to the promotion of maternal and child health and child welfare.

War Activities

The National Commission on Children in Wartime, appointed by the Chief of the Children's Bureau in 1942 and reappointed in 1944 to review all aspects of the needs of children in wartime, includes in its membership the chairmen of the Children's Bureau advisory committees, leaders of national organizations and agencies concerned with children and youth, and representative State and local officials. The Commission has stated the safeguards needed and the objectives that should be south for children and youth in a Children's Charter in

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Wartime, in programs for State and community action, and in Goals for Children and Youth in the Transition From War to Peace. The Commission calls conferences to discuss ways and means of developing concerted action in behalf of children and youth. A Committee on Plans for Children and Youth is working with the Bureau's advisory committees on specific proposals to attain these goals. In cooperation with the Office of Civilian Defense the Commission has encouraged the organization of representative State and local committees on children in wartime, usually associated with defense councils, to review situations in their respective areas as they affect children and youth and to initiate action needed.

Emergency maternity and Infant Care.--Children's Bureau appropriations for 1945 include $42,800,000 to be used for grants to State health agencies to provide emergency maternity and infant care for wives and infants of enlisted men in the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh pay grades of the armed forces and of aviation cadets. The care provided consists of prenatal, delivery, and postnatal care for the mother, including hospitalization, and medical, hospital, and nursing care as needed for the infant during the first year of life.

Employment Safeguards for Youth.--The Children's Bureau, in cooperation with the War Manpower Commission and other Federal agencies, has developed policies for the protection of young workers in wartime, children employed in emergency agriculture, and students engaged in part-time employment. The Bureau has issued advisory standards to guide employers in selecting relatively safe types of work for boys and girls 16 and 17 years of age in shipbuilding, aircraft, lead-using, paper and pulp, textile, and railroad industries and is planning to issue advisory standards for certain other industries.

Juvenile Delinquency.--The Bureau seeks solution for the problems of delinquency in wartime by working with State welfare agencies to extend child-welfare services for children in danger of becoming delinquent; by formulating with other Federal agencies community programs for prevention and control of delinquency; by conducting studies of training schools of the problems of children in war centers, and of preventive and remedial measures adopted by communities; and by collecting current juvenile-court statistics. It works with advisory committees to promote better community understanding of the juvenile delinquent and to coordinate work for juveniles of all community agencies, including the police, the juvenile courts, the schools, social-service agencies, and agencies providing leisure-time programs.

Approved.

Frances Perkins
Secretary of Labor

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Table of Contents


Footnotes

1. A.F. Hinrichs, acting.

2. In the District of Columbia, North Carolina, and Minnesota, the Fair Labor Standards Act and the Walsh-Healey Public Contracts Act are administered by district or State authorities under a cooperative agreement with the Wage and Hour and Public Contracts Divisions and the Children's Bureau. The officers in charge are, respectively: Elizabeth Champe, Executive Secretary, District of Columbia Minimum Wage Board, 4050 New Municipal Center Building, Washington 1, D.C.; Forrest H. Shuford, Commissioner, North Carolina Department of labor, Salisbury and Edenton Streets, Raleigh, N.C.; and J.D. Williams, Commissioner, State Department of Labor and Industry, St. Paul, Minn.


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