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CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. (BUBEAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.) 



the evidence and facts which are necessary to 

 bring any one to that conclusion. 



" I do not desire to take up the time of the 

 Senate in a discussion of this measure. The 

 Senator from Kentucky asked me in regard to 

 the twenty-first section as to what was meant 

 by that. We mean precisely this: that the 

 President of the United States shall have the 

 power, as the head of this nation, to issue a 

 proclamation, whenever he thinks the public 

 interest requires it, excluding from importation 

 into the United States any article of commerce 

 from a foreign state which has discriminated 

 against any product of the United States. We 

 believe that although the time may not have 

 come just now for the exercise of such a 

 power, the power ought to be lodged some- 

 where, to be exercised as occasion may require, 

 so that where willful discriminations are made 

 against the products of the United States with- 

 out reason, without cause, as we believe they 

 have been and are being made to-day, the only 

 way to deal with that subject is to place it in 

 the power of the Executive of this nation to 

 adopt similar measures in respect to those na- 

 tions which discriminate against our products. 

 That is all there is of that." 



Against the consideration of the amendment 

 Mr. Beck, of Kentucky, said : 



" The reason why I asked that question of 

 the Senator from California was to have an 

 opportunity to say to him that this matter is 

 entirely too important and too comprehensive, 

 without discussing the merits of it, to be tacked 

 on as an amendment to a bill of this sort. The 

 twenty-first section, of course, brings up all the 

 questions of our foreign relations with France, 

 Germany, England, and all the other nations 

 of Europe. The Committee on Foreign Rela- 

 tions published a volume, which I have read 

 with a great deal of care and with much inter- 

 est. It has also published another volume for 

 the use of that committee, a copy of which was 

 furnished to me by the kindness of the chair- 

 man perhaps all Senators have not seen it 

 giving all the tariff laws of the nations of Eu- 

 rope and of all the world, I believe. When 

 this question comes to be discussed it is going, 

 of course, to involve a very careful considera- 

 tion, and it was for that reason I suggested to 

 him to explain the amendment so that the Sen- 

 ate might see that this was too great a ques- 

 tion altogether to attach to a bill that, as I un- 

 derstand it, is simply giving power to the 

 officers of the United States to manage our in- 

 ternal affairs so as to prevent the spread of 

 contagious diseases of animals." 



Bureau of Labor Statistics. April 19, 1884, the 

 Committee on Labor, of the House, reported 

 with amendments a bill to establish and main- 

 tain a Bureau of Labor Statistics. It provided 

 for the creation of "a department of labor sta- 

 tistics at the seat of government," with a com- 

 missioner to be appointed by the President, by 

 and with the advice and consent of the Senate. 

 It gave minute directions as to the subjects into 



which the commissioner should -push his inves- 

 tigations, authorized him to issue circulars of 

 inquiry, fixed his salary and term of office, 

 provided for the appointment of a chief clerk, 

 and set a limit to the expenditures of the de- 

 partment. In a brief speech, Mr. Foran, of 

 Ohio, made a statement of the necessity for 

 the passage of such a measure. He said : 



"Mr. Chairman, I doubt if there has ever 

 been before the American Congress a question 

 of greater importance, or one that more direct- 

 ly concerns the welfare of humanity, than that 

 which is being now considered by this House. 

 It will be impossible, in the few brief moments 

 I am permitted to speak, to do more than call 

 your attention to the general scope and pur- 

 pose of the measure now under discussion. It 

 is a generally accepted axiom that bad laws 

 and evil legislation originate in and spring 

 from that cupidity and selfishness that has 

 ever been a predominant characteristic in hu- 

 man nature. This proposition is only partially 

 true. A very considerable portion of the im- 

 perfect and vicious legislation of which the 

 people justly complain, may be traced to a 

 lack of reliable data and accurate knowledge, 

 upon the part of the average law-maker, of a 

 true conception or comprehensive understand- 

 ing of the science of society, or that science 

 which M. Corate more compactly and suc- 

 cinctly designates sociology a science which 

 concerns itself with all the various phenomena 

 incident to man in society, and resulting from 

 the multiform actions and peculiar and chang- 

 ing conditions of collective masses of the hu- 

 man species existing in social life. 



" The great error and mistake of the average 

 statesman is the assumption that society should 

 be conformed to statute law that every enact- 

 ment of our legislative bodies, whether based 

 upon correct principles or not, should be in 

 effect an iron mold into which society should 

 be violently forced and driven and be com- 

 pelled to adapt itself to the conditions of the 

 law. Following this false and erroneous the- 

 ory of legislation, our law-makers frequently 

 enact laws in blind ignorance of the complex 

 or even elementary principles of social science. 

 Laws are enacted simply to meet necessities 

 and exigencies as they arise, without reference 

 to the causes which occasioned them. Like 

 the empirical physician, the law-maker too fre- 

 quently attempts to cure a diseased body-poli- 

 tic by the enactment of laws based upon syinp- 

 tomatical manifestations. The true theory of 

 legislation, however, as I understand it, is 

 based upon the idea that laws should be en- 

 acted in accordance with and suited to the 

 phenomenal conditions of the social state of 

 the people to be governed by them ; that in- 

 stead of endeavoring to control and manage 

 events after their occurrence, the province of 

 wise statesmanship is to prevent future evils 

 by legislation based on a thorough compre- 

 hension of existing social conditions that is, 

 to determine by statistical and speculative in- 



