PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 7, No. 11, SERIAL No. 183 COPYRIGHT, 1919, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC. [Illustration: IMMIGRATION STATION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF LABOR. HONOLULU--JAPANESE IMMIGRANTS AWAITING EXAMINATION] _THE STORY OF UNCLE SAM_ _The Department of Labor_ FOUR In his annual report for the year 1918, the Secretary of Labor declared that “had the Department of Labor not existed at the beginning of the war, Congress would have been obliged to create such a department.” During that year, mainly under the stress of war conditions, the number of bureaus in this department increased from four to thirteen, and immense efforts were put forth by it to promote the smooth running of industrial machinery at home, so that the military forces might successfully prosecute their great task abroad. In normal times the chief purpose of the Department is, as stated in the Act creating it, “to foster, promote and develop the welfare of the wage-earners of the United States, to improve their working conditions, and to advance their opportunities for profitable employment.” To this end the Department collects, digests and publishes statistics and information concerning labor at home and abroad; supervises the admission of immigrants into the country and their naturalization; and aids in the adjustment of disputes between workmen and their employers. One of the most interesting branches of this Department is known as the Children’s Bureau. The law provides that this Bureau “shall investigate and report upon all matters pertaining to the welfare of children and child life among all classes of our people, and shall especially investigate the questions of infant mortality, the birth rate, orphanage, juvenile courts, desertion, dangerous occupations, accidents and diseases of children, employment, and legislation affecting children in the several states and territories.” The Children’s Bureau has been especially identified with efforts to secure effective laws restricting child labor, and it furnished the machinery for administering the United States Child-Labor Law which went into operation September 1, 1917, only to be set aside the following June, when it was pronounced unconstitutional by the United States Supreme Court. The Court unanimously agreed, however, that child labor is an evil, and Federal legislation on this important subject not inconsistent with the Constitution will doubtless be eventually enacted.