The Department of Labor Is Born

In March of 1913, as one of his very last acts as president, William Howard Taft signed a bill creating the Department of Labor. This addition to the federal bureaucracy was the result of decades of efforts by organized labor to achieve better working conditions and greater political representation. The establishment of the Department of Labor was also the product of the broader Progressive Movement that dominated the early part of the twentieth century.

According to the legislation authorizing the Department of Labor, the Department's mission was to "to foster, promote and develop the welfare of working people, to improve their working conditions, and to enhance their opportunities for profitable employment." The new department consolidated four previously existing bureaucratic agencies: the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Bureau of Immigration, the Bureau of Naturalization, and the Children's Bureau, the latter having been established the previous year to address concerns about child labor. The initial budget of the Labor Department was $2.3 million, with a staff of approximately 2000 employees.

Consistent with the mission to serve the interests of organized labor, President Woodrow Wilson appointed the secretary-treasurer of the United Mine Workers, William B. Wilson (no relation), as the first secretary of labor. Under Wilson's leadership, the Labor Department took an active role in attempting to mediate the rising number of labor disputes and strikes around the country. This function became even more important when the United States entered World War I in April 1917, and labor unrest threatened to disrupt the war effort.

Although its mission remains essentially the same as was initially formulated in 1913, the size and the scope of the Labor Department have shifted in response to broader political sentiments about the proper role of government in American society. As the next Timeline entry illustrates, the launch of the New Deal in the 1930s resulted in a dramatic increase in the power of the federal bureaucracy. As the government struggled to combat the economic problems of the Great Depression, the Labor Department, led by Francis Perkins, the first woman cabinet secretary, played a vital role in helping put unemployed Americans back to work.