The Labor enquirer., 1886-08-14
LABOR BUREAUS.
Some Extracts From Mr.. Wrizht,s Re-
port, and What They
Teach. i..--

Vi 1uC
One of the practical and beneficial re-
suits of the labor agitation in the United
States has been the establishment, in
fifteen states of the Union and by the
general government. of bureaus of labor
statistics. Prior to 1859 the details of
cost of production and distribution,
rates Of wages and general statistics per-
tanning to economic and industrial mat
tiers could not be readily obtained; but
since the bureau of statistics of labor
was established in Massachusetts in
1859, the Importance of this branch of
legislative inquiry has grown more and
more apparent. In 1888 four states, viz.
New York, California, Michigan and
Wisconsin, passed bills providing for
bureaus of labor statistics, and in the
following year three other states and the
general government of the United States
did the same.
The national bureau of labor was es-
tablished by act of congress, June 81,
1884, and in the following molth of
January Carroll D. Wright was ap-
pointed commissioner. He entered upon
his duties soon after receiving the ap-
pTintment, and in March of the present
year issued his first general report. 1t
is called THE First Annual Report of
the Commissioner of Labor" and is a
work of nearly 500 pages. 1t tr eats ex-
haustively of the industrial dep ressions
which have occurred in this country and
in Europe since 1887, giving an account
of their history, the alleged causes of de-
preston and suggested remedies; bristles
with formidable looking tables showing
the variation in rates of wages, in the
co of production, and has very inter-
esting chapters upon Earnings and Ex-
penses of Wage Receivers in Europe"
and Synopsis of Labor Legislation in
the United States"
In his introduction Mr. Wright alludes
to industrial stagnations of more than
fifty years ago as resulting from various
natural causes, such as floods, famines,
earthquakes, or great political catastro-
phes, or long and expensive wars. The
present work classifes the crises and
depressions of the past fifty years, or
since the time when machinery has be-
gun to play such an important part in
economic conditions.
One curious result of study of the
opening chapter of this book, on Mod
ern Industrial Depressions," Is the uni,
formltY of dates of such periods of stag
nation in the different countries of
Europe and in the United States. Thus,
the first p riod of depression treated of
in Great Britain-l837 to lS43-is found
to have existed at the same time in Bel
GUM, France, Germany and the United
States, and this Is true also of the subse-
quent periods commencing respectively
IN the years 1877, 1855. 1857, 1856, 1873
and the present depres sion which began
in 1882.
Thus it will be seen that all over the
civilized world at once the greed and
ignor InCe of man produces ike results:
failures and business disasters, indus
trial panics, labor troubles, poverty, hun
ger and general wretchedness. So de-
pendent is one country u pom another,
and so sensitive the Industrial pulse of
the world. that one nation cannot enter
per cd of industrial crisis without i'm
mediateIY etfectlng the others.
All kinds of reasons were elected by
different committees as the causes Of
these depressions, popularity of the
examinations being the way In which
the trade, profession, or calling of the
witnesses influenced the o2inions gwen.
The bankers attributed the depressions
to financial causes, the clergymen to re
ligious and moral influences, the en-
ployers of labor to labor agitation and
the demands of the workmen, laborers
to the long hours, exactions of employers,
and 80 on.
Here is one of the reasons given for
the rapid increase in the number of the
unemployed in the year 1888 aad the
crippled consuming power of the people.
Commenting upon the influence of spec
ulatiye railroad building as factor in
industrial depressions, Mr.. Wright goes
On to say:
'It has been estimated by an eminent
authority, and the estimate has not been
doubted, that, assuming the railroads
built in 1882 to have cost, with the
equipments, an average of 1000 per
mile, more than 766, 600 workmen must
have been employed in connection with
railroad building in that year while in
the building of the greatly reduced mile
age of 1888, with reduction in wages,
say of IL per cent, and of l6S per cent in
the cost per mile, only 25O,OO0 persons
were employed; a great army of $4,000
men employed in all the rami6cations
of railroad building thus being dis
charged from railroad work in one year."
Further on he says:
ANY disturbance in the monetary
affairs of our country by which the pur-
chasing power of money is decreased
cripples the consuming power OF the
people; and when the people, through
apprehension or through real results,