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A large number of states had no labor departments. We formed this conference into committees. I always gave them an executive secretary for the committee, although the membership of the committee was made up of state labor commissioners. We formulated a model bill for the establishment of a labor department in these committees for a state that had no labor department. It's wonderful what you can put into it when you know what have been the important items in a state labor department and what you must have.

For instance, you must have the right of entry into factory or mercantile premises. That's vital. Without that the state labor commissioner can't even make an investigation. You must have the duty to make an annual report and publish it. We also wrote that into the model bill. There had been state labor commissioners who never did that. He put in the duty to make investigations into the conditions of labor and wage earners, and to make annual reports to the Governor and Legislature and publish them. There must be the right of subpoena duces tecum. That's a very important right and we wrote that into the model bill.

All these were put in so that even if there was only one commissioner and two assistants, they could do something. They had these instrumentalities that would let them accomplish something.