Table 4. Appropriations for Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1921-33 1Includes salaries, miscellaneous, library, and deficiency and supplemental appropriations. Includes deficiency appropriations of $119,000. 3Includes supplemental appropriation of $140,000. 4Not available separately; total given as "salaries and expenses." SOURCES: Legislative, Executive, and Judicial Appropriations. The Budget of the And the Monthly Labor Review was in jeopardy in 1921, when Congress, seeking to rein in government publications, put a requirement in an appropriations bill for specific congressional authorization for such journals. Approval for the Review was held up, and the need for economy was not the only reason given. Representative Stevenson of South Carolina, from the Joint Committee on Printing, declared that a Department of Labor pursuing its "legitimate functions” and publishing materials “legitimately to be used by the institutions of this country" would have no difficulties. However, "a magazine that reviews books and prints commendations of soviet literature and all that sort of thing . . . we do not propose that it shall be further published at the expense of the voters of the United States." Nevertheless, Congress passed the necessary authorization in May 1922.64 The disposition of Congress changed somewhat later in the decade. The Bureau's appropriation was increased by about 20 percent in 1925, with slight additional increases until 1929, when, with a weakening economy and growing unemployment, Congress granted a substantial deficiency appropriation for work on employment and unemployment statistics. Deficiency and supplemental appropriations were given for this work during the next years, but they often came too late in the fiscal year to be allocated, so that the Bureau of the Budget would delete the amount from new requests.65 International activities The reporting of economic conditions abroad never flagged under Stewart. Bureau publications frequently presented statistics and reports on legislation and industrial developments in foreign countries. However, U.S. rejection of membership in the League of Nations in 1920 greatly limited BLS participation in international agencies. The Bureau moved to drop the annual allocation of $1,000 from its budget for the International Association for Labor Legislation. Stewart noted that the association had merged with the International Labor Organization, one of the constituent agencies of the League of Nations, to which the United States did not belong. Even so, the Bureau maintained “a friendly cooperation" with the ILO, especially while former Commissioner Meeker was there.66 Stewart did attend the meetings of the International Institute of Statistics in Rome in 1925 as a member of the U.S. delegation. He attended only one other international meeting, a session of the ILO Conference of Labor Statisticians in 1931. Stewart was there primarily because of the Bureau's work on the international study of wages and the cost of living for the Ford Motor Company. Stewart explained his reluctance to join in such functions: "If we send delegations to one of their conferences or conventions, I do not believe that we can escape the implication that we are as a country refusing to enter the League of Nations by the front door but are in fact crawling in through the back door."67 Retirement On July 1, 1932, Commissioner Stewart, then 74 years old, was retired involuntarily under the Economy Act of 1932, which required automatic separation of retirement-age Federal employees after July 1932 unless specifically exempted by the President. Stewart's term ran until December 1933, but Secretary Doak's refusal to recommend an exemption resulted in his termination. Observers generally attributed his retirement to factors other than age. The following incident, reported in Time, was also cited in other newspapers as the main reason: "Last spring, Secretary of Labor Doak told newsmen that he had been supplied departmental data which showed that employment was increasing throughout the land. Fooled before by such cheery statements from politically minded Secretaries, the reporters went to Commissioner Stewart to check up. The white crowned, white whiskered old man telephoned Secretary Doak that the statistics given him warranted no such declaration. Thereupon Secretary Doak recalled the newsmen, told them to disregard his earlier statement, and then, in front of them gave Statistician Stewart a tongue-lashing for daring to contradict his chief. It was Secretary Doak who refused to certify Mr. Stewart's indispensability to the President, thereby depriving him of his job."68 Stewart himself wrote that he had been considering retirement but "it was the cheap, boorish method employed that hurt me.” The San Francisco News was more caustic: "In the city named for George Washington, it seems they fire people for telling the truth. Stewart has been in continuous government service for 45 years. He is recognized as one of the ablest men in his line in America, and his honest work on employment is particularly needed now. But, unfortunately for him and the country, he is too candid."69 For a year, from July 1, 1932 until July 6, 1933, Charles E. Baldwin served as the Acting Commissioner, and he tried to follow Stewart's policies. Ethelbert Stewart died in 1936. Chapter VI. Isador Lubin: sador Lubin was sworn in as Commissioner of Labor Statistics in July 1933, in the midst of the worst depression in the Nation's history. The Bureau expanded greatly during his tenure, first to meet the needs of the New Deal agencies set up to deal with the emergency and then to provide the information needed for guiding the economy during the war years. Through the force of his personality and the breadth of his knowledge and experience, Lubin provided the impetus for the Bureau's development into a modern, professionally staffed organization equipped to deal with the many tasks assigned. The fifth Commissioner Isador Lubin was born in 1896 in Worcester, Massachusetts, the son of Lithuanian immigrants. Helping out in his father's retail clothing business, Lubin learned of the uncertainties confronting factory workers in the early years of the century. He attended Clark College in Worcester and, with the goal of an academic career, accepted a fellowship at the University of Missouri. There he established a close relationship with Thorstein Veblen. With U.S. entry into the war in 1917, Lubin, along with many other young academicians, was drawn into government service. For several months, he and Veblen were employed in the Food Administration, preparing studies dealing with food production and farm labor problems. In one study, they interviewed local leaders of the Industrial Workers of the World-widely viewed as radicals threatening the war effort—and reported that some of the grievances of the group were legitimate and that the agricultural workers involved were not receiving fair treatment.1 Lubin then joined the War Industries Board's Price Section at the invitation of its head, Wesley C. Mitchell. For a year, he was involved in studies analyzing wartime fluctuations in the prices of rubber and petroleum and their products, and the general effect of wartime government price floors and ceilings. After his service in Washington, Lubin received an appointment as an instructor in economics at the University of Michigan and later was put in charge of the labor economics courses. He returned to Washington in 1922 to teach and conduct studies at the new Institute of Economics, which became The Brookings Institution in 1928. Among the studies he led were broad-gauged analyses of the American and British coal industries, dealing with the economic, social, and psychological influences on mine operators and unions, including the competitive effects of nonunion operations, national efforts at selfsufficiency in coal production, and alternative sources of energy.2 In the late 1920's, Brookings was a prime source of advice and research on the growing problem of unemployment. Lubin became a leading participant in studies of technological unemployment and of the British experience in dealing with unemployment. In 1928, he was assigned by Brookings to assist the Senate Committee on Education and Labor, which was considering legislation to deal with unemployment. He became economic counsel to the committee and, working closely with Senator James Couzens, the committee chairman, organized and directed the hearings, laying out the subject matter and selecting representatives of government, business, unions, and the economics profession to testify. Brookings then assigned Lubin, at the request of Senator Robert Wagner, to assist in hearings on three bills in the spring of 1930. One called for expanded monthly reports on employment by the Bureau of Labor Statistics; another, for advance planning of public works to be |