Evening star., 1945-10-21

aUe on Sucn large scale Lndt tney
cannot leave the problem of labor
needs, labor supply or labor relations
to the individual contractors any more
than they can leave the problem of
materials to them. These agencies, at
least, must know how much labor their
programs are going to require, which
parts of their programs to favor in
case of shortage of labor, which parts
need remedial action in case of labor
difficulties.
On principle, these agencies try to
operate under the rules and regulations
laid down by the regular labor agencies.
But the difference between intentions
and actual practice is often wide At
any rate labor is not too happy with
the result The work is often put into
the hands of personnel men brought
in from private industry, who, if not
hostile, are unsympathetic, or else lack
experience. On more than one occa-
sion labor has tried to block appropria-
tions to agencies doing this kind Of
work.
The War Shipping Administration,
however, did an indispensable job in
this field during the war, whatever its
faults. To keep an evergrowing number
OF ships moving more and more men
were needed. To get them and keep
them the administration organized a
recruiting and manning service as a
part of its own organization, training
service, service for keeping the peace
between the men and the operators, and
service for keeping the men in health.
! This meant building and maintaining
pools of labor at important shipping
points, operating training centers and
ships, adjusting disputes, and supporting
recuperation centers for sea-ridden and
shipwrecked sailors. All of these activ-
function of the administration that it
could not have turned them over to a
central agency, however desirable that
might have been in the interest of
administration.
Accident Prevention Case in Point.
In some problems labor has a para.
mount interest, as in industrial acci-
dents, but the work of prevention can
only be done in the medium in which
they occur, and that may not be of
special interest to labor. Instead Of
being done by labor agency, the pre-
ventive work is done by a nonlabor
agency A case in point is the Bureau
OF Mines. The Labor Department is
interested in mine accidents as a part
of its overall interest in industrial
accidents. But the nearest the depart
ment ever comes to accidents is when
they show up as statistics. The depart
ment might be given, if it already does
not have, the final word on how mine
accidents should be reported, but the
actual prevention can only be done by
the bureau.
The Labor Department has been in
terested in the problem of industrial
diseases for long time, sometimes in
vestigating the circumstances of their
origin through its own experts hired for
the pupose, but for the most part carry
ing on an education campaign for
eradicating them, no matter how un-
covered The Public Health Service has
also been interested in the same problem,
because it cannot very well deal with
community health apart from plant
health During the past 10 years it
has been developing program of IN
dustrial hygiene in cooperation with
the States through grants-in-aid of
general health programs, Through it's
laboratories and technical staff, includ-
ing physicists, chemists, as well as
medical men. it is in a far better
position to do an effective job in the
field than in the Labor Department.
Foreign Policy Involves Labor.
America has recently dropped its policy
OF isolation to take its place as a men,
Der of the community of nations. Labor
inevitably had to broaden its horizon,
partly through its own organizations
and partly through official means. Who
should be responsible for the official
means, the Labor Department or the
State Department? Labor problems, as
any other problems. must, in the foreign
field, be carried on from a domestic
point Of view, even if there is steady
interplay between the two. Who knows
the domestic point of view better than
the Labor Department? The State De-
partment. however, is the expert on
foreign relations, and labor problems
have way of affecting the entire area.
Should the Labor Department limit
itself to questions of labor policy and
the State Department to carrying them
out? Can the two be held strictly apart
where labor policy affects still other
policy?
The problem is obviously not as simple
as it was originally thought to be. Some
functions will have to be carried through
more than one agency, however desir-
able it might be, for administrative
reasons, to have one. That will be true
OF foreign labor relations no matter how
the Labor Department and the State
Department divide the field. Other
functions which ordinarily belong in the
Labor Department, but which are so
peculiarly related to other agencies that
they can best be performed by those
other agencies, should be turned over
to them. A case in point is the work
OF War Shipping Administration. In
such cases the Labor Department might
retain broad questions of policy on ways
and means objectives, should the depart
ment ever work out such policy, while
the other agency actually did the work
in the light of its own needs.
As for the rest, everything possible
should be put into the hands of single