Evening star., 1914-12-14
LABOR Department
PLEADS FOR A HOME
Employees So Tired of Moving
They Forego Asking In
Creases of Pay.

Creases of Pay.
| Though poor and suffering from lack
of the necessities of sustenance, with
an insufficient number of employees to
keep up with the times, and in danger
of being dispossessed of its humble
home June 80 next, according to the
annual report of Secretary William B.
Wilson of the Department of Labor.
made public today. there is one matter
which shines out above all discussions
of labor disputes and jobless immi-
grants contained in the report, and
may serve to bring the pities of Con-
gress to a point where it will pro-
vide for this baby department" of the
government. This is the loyalty of the
employees to their chief and to the ad-
ministration as presented by the Sec
retary, for he says that all of the bu-
reaus join "in withholding requests for
salary increases"
{ Pleas for additional employees and a
building suitable to a government de-
partment are made in the report.
Speaking of the Mills building, part
of which the Department of Labor
now occupies, Secretary Wilson says:
This building would afford ample
accommodation were the necessities of
the department unaltered. But the
coming into department quarters of the
bureau of labor statistics Uhe' first time
in its history that it has been under
the same roof with its supervising de-
partment) and a large expansion of
the work and office force of the
children's bureau highly desirable
changes, both of them-have put con-
siderable pressure upon the depart
ment's space in the Mills building as
now partitioned. Judicious changes
may economize space while also pro-
noting unity of departmental admin
istration, but the disquieting fact re-
ance of a reasonably permanent tenure.
Rent of Building.
"The Mills building has been occupied
for some years by branch of the Navy
Department, the rental for it's last year
Of occupancy having been 100000. This
was the rental at which the building
was held by it's owner after the Navy
Department left it and until July. 1914.
The Department of Labor then secured
lease for all of it except the south
east corner Of the ground floor for
|
gress had appropriated for rent for the
Department of Labor for the fiscal
year 1915. But this lease is for one
year only. 1t is not believed that quar-
ters can be secured for the department
for the ensuing year at these figures.
I'm all probability, the most economi-
cal, certainly the most generally sat
isfactory, method of solving the prob
lem of the department quarters would
be the construction of a commodious
government building on one of the
many sites already owned by the gov
ernment. Until this is done. however,
it Is important. with reference both to
economy and efficiency, that frequent
removals be avoided. Though not yet
1.-TWO years old, the Department of Labor
has been put to the necessity Of making
expensive and disturbing removals
twice. A five-year lease of $4,000 square
feet subject to convenient partitioning
would promote efficiency and make for
economy in the department and its bu-
reaus. But such provision should be
preliminary to and not in substitution
for government building"
Mine Strikes Discussed.
Secretary Wilson expresses the con-
viction that had the owners of the
! mine properties in the Calumet cop
per region and the Colorado coal fields
dealt with the strike situations in their
inception. had they been on the
ground and personally in charge, there
is reason to believe that no strike
would have occurred"
Principally. Secretary Wilson's report
| is devoted to a review of the labor dis
putes the department has successfully
| mediated during the last year, and it
defines at some length the principles
| upon which the department acts in
such cases.
Need Of Legislation.
| Secretary Wilson then discusses the
| distribution of wage-eavners, saying:
THE welfare of the wage-earners OF
| the United States cannot be served by
| mediation of labor disputes alone. AT
| frmative measures for modifying if not
wholly obviating the industrial malad-
| justments that generate these disputes
must be undertaken as well. For this
purpose legislation is necessary. Pend
| ing such legislation, however. the de
partment is utilizing it's present pow
! ers as fully as circumstances permit
| by availing itself of the services of the
| division of information in the bureau
of immigration.
| by Systematically bringing some
| 'jobless men and some 'manleSS jobs
| together on national scale, the neces'
| sary first steps will have been taken tt
| complete removal of what is perhap:
| the most potent cause of labor dis
| putes involuntary unemployment
| Even in the taking of those first step'
| the modifying effect will be progress
sively realized from the beginning"