mission has been practically in continuous session since its appointment. Meetings are held on every Tuesday and Thursday for the transaction of the administrative business of the Department. In addition the Commission has held sessions for the trial of compensation cases, the making of awards and lump sum settlements on practically every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The Commissioners have heard hundreds of cases and have taken thousands of pages of testimony. While the nature of the work of the Department is such as to make it necessary for the Commission to sit much of the time in New York City, still it has held numerous sessions in Albany, and has never failed to meet in the Capitol when the interests of the Department or the business coming before it have seemed to make it desirable to meet there. ORGANIZATION OF THE DEPARTMENT The Department of Labor is organized in the following bureaus and subdivisions: OUTLINE OF ORGANIZATION GENERAL ADMINISTRATION: The Commissioners The Secretary Assistant Secretaries Division of Accounts Supplies Hearing Stenographers Telephone Operators Mailing Division Legal Bureau Counsel Assistants to Counsel BUREAU OF INSPECTION: First Deputy Commissioner Factory Inspection Division Division of Industrial Hygiene BUREAU OF COMPENSATION: Second Deputy Commissioner Albany office Deputy Commissioner BUREAU OF INDUSTRIES AND IMMIGRATION: Chief Investigator New York office Buffalo office BUREAU OF EMPLOYMENT: Director New York office Albany office Syracuse office Rochester office Buffalo office BUREAU OF FIRE HAZARDS, BOILERS AND EXPLOSIVES: Chief Engineer BUREAU OF PRINTING: Supervisor of Printing and Publications The foregoing shows in brief the outline of the organization of the Department. It is impossible, however, to show the degree of interdependence of the various units of organization or to adequately present the relative importance or volume of business of the several bureaus and divisions. It is the hope, however, that a glance at the outline will suggest in a small way the problem confronting the Commission at the time of its appointment. CONSOLIDATION OF OFFICES In consolidating the Department, the Commission found itself with various offices, in different cities, in which were housed bureaus that now were under one central administrative control. Thus, in the City of New York, even after the closing up of the lower Broadway and the Bronx offices, there still remained four separate offices, located as follows: At No. 1 Madison avenue were located the general administrative offices of the Commission, Bureau of Workmen's Compensation, including the Division of Claims and the State Insurance Fund, together with the large public hearing room for the hearing of compensation claims. At No. 381 Fourth avenue were located the Bureau of Inspection, including the office of the First Deputy Commissioner, the Chief Factory Inspector for the First District, and five Supervising Factory Inspectors; Division of Mercantile Inspection, Division of Homework Inspection, Division of Industrial Hygiene and the subdivision of Engineering; also the Bureau of Employment, Bureau of Industrial Code, Bureau of Mediation and Arbitration. and Bureau of Statistics and Information. At No. 95 Madison avenue was located the Bureau of Industries and Immigration. At No. 171 Madison avenue was located a branch office of the Bureau of Workmen's Compensation for the investigation of local claims. The latter office might properly have been located with the main office of the Commission at No. 1 Madison avenue, but the quarters were already so crowded that consolidation at that point was impossible. Appreciating the difficulties of the administration and supervision of offices so widely separated, as well as the confusion to the public and the great expense of New York City rentals, the Commission early undertook to effect a physical consolidation of these various bureaus, and before the close of the fiscal year, placed before the Trustees of Public Buildings a complete plan for the renting of suitable and adequate quarters in the Victoria Building, No. 230 Fifth avenue, corner Twenty-seventh street, in which might be brought together all of the various bureaus and activities of the Commission in the City of New York. These plans were approved and at the time of this writing the entire Department in New York City is housed under one roof. In the City of Albany, the Department of Labor, prior to consolidation, had moved into new quarters in the westerly wing of the Capitol. The Bureau of Workmen's Compensation, however, continued to occupy the quarters rented for it by the former Workmen's Compensation Commission in the Arkay Building on State street. By a rearrangement of the offices assigned to the Department in the Capitol, and crowding together somewhat, it was found possible to provide suitable quarters for the Bureau of Compensation in the Capitol Building with the other bureaus of the Department. Greater efficiency is, therefore, now possible in the control of the work with the saving of a very considerable amount of rent. Similarly, physical consolidations were effected in the offices of the Department in Buffalo and Rochester, resulting in each case in a saving of expense and increase in efficiency. INDUSTRIAL COUNCIL New York State has placed itself in the very forefront of progressive industrial states through the enactment of the provision for an Industrial Council to act as the advisor of the Industrial Commission. Section 40-a of the Labor Law as amended in 1915 provides in part as follows: To advise the Commission, there shall be an Industrial Council, composed of ten members, appointed by the Governor. Five members of the Council shall be persons known to represent the interests of employees and five shall be persons known to represent the interests of employers. That section further provides that the Council shall select as its chairman a person not a member of the Council and provides that the Secretary of the Commission shall act as Secretary of the Council. The duty is imposed upon this Council of advising the Industrial Commission with respect to all matters submitted to it by the Commission, particularly with regard to matters of general policy, and to co-operate with the Civil Service Commission in the preparation of lists of eligibles for positions in the Department of Labor requiring special training and fitness. The law provides also that no rule or regulation of the Commission, nor any amendment, modification or repeal thereof, may be enacted until the same shall have been submitted to the Industrial Council for their consideration and advice. On August 30, 1915, the Governor appointed the following persons as members of the Industrial Council: Representing the interests of employers: Edward J. Barcalo, Buffalo, president Barcalo Manufactur- Carleton A. Chase, Syracuse, Syracuse Chilled Plow Co.; Richard C. Stofer, Norwich, Norwich Pharmacal Co.; Representing the interests of employees: James P. Holland, New York, president State Federation John C. Clark, Buffalo, vice-president State Federation of |
