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sound and proper state labor legislation, including workmen's compensation, and including a great many other things which could be done more appropriately at the state level. I wanted the other states to do the things we had done in New York. That idea of stimulation and promotion by the Department of Labor of labor legislation among the states was a brand new idea. No one had ever thought of that as a part of the function of the Department of Labor.

I said to the President, “The preamble of the Labor Department reads ‘to protect the welfare of the wage earners of the United States and to promote their opportunity for favorable employment.' That's a very broad directive. If the wage earners of Georgia are getting eleven cents an hour for cutting granite, have no requirement for guarding machinery to prevent them from getting their hands cut off and their backs broken, and have no limitation upon their hours and no provision for sanitary facilities, it is then a part of the duty of the Department of Labor to find some way to protect the welfare of the people of that area and to promote their opportunities for favorable employment. I think it's legitimate. I put it in terms of promotion, because I know that of this moment, as of this year, 1933, we can't require by law that the people of the State of Georgia should have proper sanitary facilities in all their factories.”