Letter of Greeting on the Twenty-fifth Anniversary of the Department of Labor.

My dear Madam Secretary:Will you please extend my warm greetings to the many friends of labor who are joining tonight and tomorrow in the celebration of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the establishment of the United States Department of Labor.

The quarter of a century that has passed since it came into being has been marked by significant changes in our conceptions of the rights of wage earners. Today there is general recognition that there should be a floor to wages and a ceiling to hours, that there should be adequate annual income, that working conditions should be safe and healthy and that child labor should be eliminated from industry.

There is ample and concrete evidence over these years, and particularly since 1933, of honest effort to promote the welfare of our wage earners, through the adoption of a progressive, humane and far sighted program. Included in it are the Social Security Act intended to safeguard workers against the major hazards of life and the National Labor Relations Act which defines the right of workers to organize and bargain collectively.

Out of this program upon which we are now embarked will come far reaching benefits, not only to wage earners but to all our people in the years to come. In helping to carry it out the Department of Labor will continue its great service in the interest of the men and women who work for a living and thus discharge its duty. The wage earners of the United States may well be proud of what the Department of Labor has done for them in its quarter century of existence and what it is destined to do for them in the future.

Very truly yours,

Hon. Frances Perkins,

Secretary of Labor,

Washington, D.C.