The times., 1898-11-16
METHOD OF PROCEDURE.
First Committee Report to the In
dustrial Comnission.

First Committee Report TO the IN
dustrial ComnaissiOn.
The committee on procedure. appointed
by the Industrial Commission to formu-
late plans for the guidance of the Com
mission and to offer recommendations as
to the most advisable way of going about
the collection and compilation of data
for submission to Congress in the inter-
est of future legislation, has completed
It's work, and made public the following
report yesterday.
THE purpose of this commission, as
may be inferred from the wording of the
law creating It, is to ascertain the nature
of the existing legislation of the several
States and of the United States bearing
upon Industrial conditions: the actual
operation of that legislation in its rela-
tion TO the workingman, to the manufac-
turer and business man, and to the con-
sumer; the character and effects of SINH
lar legislation in foreign countries, and
how far 1t Is applicable or desirable In
the United States. with view to deter
mining how far il is possible TO frame
uniform industrial laws, the adoption of
which can be recommended TO Congress
and to the legislature of the several
States.
THE main work of the commission
may, therefore, be said to be to study
and compare existing laws bearing upon
industrial conditions. here and elsewhere,
10 ascertain by competent testimony
wherein they are deficient, defective, in
operative, or oppressive. and to recon-
mend such remedial statutes as will tend
not only to make the conditions of indus
aS he ha
States, but to remove such existing:
sources or causes of discomfort. inequal-
ity and injustice as can be reached and
regulated through legislation.
The committee believes the above
statement to embody practically the whole
program of procedure that it is either
desirable or necessary to formulate in
advance of the preparation of the syl-
labus of inquiry, and until the commits
sion Is brought more closely in touch
with the actual conditions which sur
round business and industry in the United
States today.
Such work is vast enough and impor-
tant enough to require the best energies
of all the members of this commission for
the period of two years.
"To facilitate the progress of the work
We recommend the division of the COM
mission into four subcommissions of five
members each, to be severally charged
with the investigation of present con-
ditions and the formulation of remedial
suggestions in the following branches of
| industry:
81. On agriculture ana agricultural
labor
80 On the conditions of labor and capt.
tai employed in manufacturing and gen.
eral business.
80 On the conditions OF labor and cap
ital employed in mining.
II. On transportation
I'm addition, we recommend fifth sub
commission to be known as the subcom-
mission on statistics. in the membership
of which there shall be one representa-
tive of each of the above subcommis-
sions, and which shall be charged with
the collaboration for the use of the COM
mission of all the statistical material
now available, and of such original sta
tistical material as may from time to
time be found necessary. Upon this sub
commission will also naturally fall the
supervision of the preparation and publi-
cation of results
Another question which has received
the attention of the committee has to do
with the gathering of materials and in
formation upon which to base its findings.
AN immense amount of this material
is ready at our hands, in the reports of
committees of Congress, the reports OF
the National Bureau of Labor Statistics,
the bureaus of labor statistics in thirty
two States of the Union, in the reports
of factory inspectors in many States in
the reports of the several royal commits
sions on labor in England, and on the
Continent of Europe and in Australia,
and in numerous other documents. public
and private, and in the volurstnous litera-
ture, economic and controversial, of the
| labor question.
SO far as possible 1t is desirable to
avoid any duplication Of this information
and material.
| IF the commission should undertake to
cover all the ground already covered in
these reports it would find itself con-
fronted with an interminable task, the
cost of which, if undertaken as thorough
ly as IL has already been done, would
amount to much more than S,059,000.
The committee suggests that all the
hearings of the commission shall be pub
lie, and that the press be invited to pub
lish such portions OF the testimony as it
may desire. In this manner all necessary
publicity will be secured
|