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Most of the codes that we were drawing up were really in industries where they didn't have unions, because, as always, the AF of L was dominant and had its biggest membership in the building trades unions. Although we made some building trades codes, and for that we got some very good support from all the building trades who had good people, we didn't make too many building codes. We did get some good people from labor on these code committees.

The labor people never contributed much to the technicalities of the codes, but I knew them well and was in contact with them on many other aspects. The whole rewritten labor law came from the government and the public. So far as I can see the unions have never cared for that kind of thing in this country. I used to have to tease them to come on the committees sometimes because they didn't think it was any of their business. They would say, “Oh, I don't care about that. That's not what a union is for. A union is to keep wages up and the hours down. That's what it's for.” “A union isn't for anything else,” so they never paid the slightest attention to it.

The unions opposed the Workmen's Compensation Law in New York State. They were only in favor of the laws for the reduction of hours of labor because they were for women.