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interesting since they didn't begin to arrive here in floods until the late forties.

The establishment of the Department of Labor was very important. Of course the American Federation of Labor and always been for it and a good many other people had been for it. Secretary Wilson was installed as Secretary or Labor after Wilson had become President, though I'm not sure what date it was. The first week in March is the birthday of the United States Department of Labor and we used to celebrate it on that date. That was the day that the President signed the bill. He signed it on about the 3rd of March and was out on the next day.

Wilson was appointed shortly after that. I came down to William B. Wilson's installation, representing the Consumers' League or some other organization. Some other people also came down from New York. At any rate, there was a Federal Department of Labor and that was wonderful. There never had been one. That was just fine. We were all interested in it.

It later became clear, and I understood it perfectly afterwards, that the department was almost nothing. There was no content for the Labor Department. They couldn't think of anything to give the Labor Department to do - literally. They had a Labor Department, but nothing to do there. The