1893 - State Library Information Center

SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT AND FUNCTIONS OF BUREAUS. 69in the aggressive labor movement just subsequent to the CivilWar. The demand for their institution was first formulated byWilliam II. Sylvis, at the session of the National Labor Congressheld in Chicago in 1868, at which time a formal declaration ofprinciples or platform was adopted. He remarked that " wemay formulate declarations, but they amount to no more than thedeclarations of other bodies of men, nothing more than ouropinions. Facts are what we want; we want to base our demandson well-defined data, and until these,are obtainable noundisputable demands can be made. That labor is the most importantof all material interests, that upon it all other interestshinged, and that, if there is any virtue in giving to any interest aseparate and distinct department of government to protect andnourish it—and there certainly is—labor is the interest of allothers entitled to that consideration." The demand for theestablishment of a bureau was unanimously made a part of theplatform. That was the beginning, since which thirty-two Statesbesides the National government, and six of the principal governmentsof Europe, have instituted bureaus of labor statistics.And while they have not received all the financial assistance fromlegislators their importance justifies, they have very materiallyinfluenced the discussion of social problems, proving the wisdomof Sir Thomas Brassey's saying, in 1885, that " good statistics oflabor were the basis of all social reform."The objects of a labor bureau are purely scientific; its purposeis to make a sociological investigation with a view notmerely to make au exposition of the present state of society, butto aid society in its upward progress.The work of a labor bureau is essentially sociological; thereforeit differs from that of all other departments of government.Its purpose is not the mere acquisition of knowledge, for sociologyhas for its object the good of the people. It is the businessof a labor bureau to study society and explain the laws that underlyand govern social movements. It assumes that socialmovements are subject to general laws, and therefore, whenunderstood, a solution of all questions afiecting the general welfareis possible by scientific processes.