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unionism, or organized labor. Because it was a complicated set of words to say, for some reason people started saying, “The labor people will do this. The labor unions will do that.” It gradually began to be just “labor.” People said, “We must have somebody from the labor group, somebody from the working people.” Where would you turn to get a working person? You can't pick anybody who is really typical of working people unless you take it from one of the organizations where they have sufficiently organized themselves so that they can tell you who's a good man and that he knows his trade.

So the word “labor” became confused in newspaper thinking, at least, at some time - not very early - with a function. They used the word “labor” to mean organized labor instead of meaning work.

If you read the charter of the United States Department of Labor, if you read the charter creating the Department of Labor in the State of New York, or the State of Massachusetts, or the State of Illinois, they all read just about the same. “The purpose of the department,” reads the charter of the United States Department of Labor, “is to protect the health and welfare of the working people of the United States, and to promote their opportunities for favorable employment.” That is the charter of the U.S. Department of Labor.