The petitions and memorials referred to the committee address a wide range of labor, education, and reform issues. The labor-related petitions focus on improving on-the-job working conditions, such as obtaining an 8-hour workday (41A-H6.1, 42A-H7, 50A-J7.5, 51A-J8.1, 52A-J8.1, 53A-J8, 61A-J22, 62A-J22, 62A-J23*), restricting or eliminating child labor (54A-J9, 57A-J12, 59A-J19, 60A-J32, 61A-J22, 63A-J15, 64A-J19), and investigating or prohibiting sweatshops (52A-J8.3, 52A-J8.5, 54-J9); improving union members' competitive position by opposing use of convict labor in manufacturing and public works projects (50A-J7.5, 52A-J8.5, 53A-J8, 54A-J9, 55A-J8.1, 57A-J12, 59A-J21, 63A-J19), favoring amendment of the alien contract labor law (51A-J8, 52A-J8.5), and favoring immigration restriction (53A-J8); creating a Federal Government office, department, or commission to deal with labor problems (42A-H7, 52A-J8.5, 53A-J8, 53A-J8.1, 58A-J15); and establishing a bureau to collect economic statistics for objective evidence of the condition of the laboring classes (46A-H6, 48A-H6.1, 52A-J8). Petitions supporting studies of social conditions, such as Senator John Kean's proposed Freedmen's Inquiry Commission (57A-J11) and Senator Jonathan Dolliver's proposed laboratory to study "criminal, pauper, and defective classes" (60A-J35) were also referred to the committee.
Many other petitions concerned particular incidents related to and including strikes and most tended to be sympathetic to workers. Jacob Coxey and his "army" of jobless men (53A-J8, 53A-J8.1) and the imprisoned Mary "Mother" Jones (63A-J16) are two significant figures who are subjects of petitions. Strikers in the famous Pullman, IL, confrontation of 1894 also petitioned the Senate, stating in highly emotional terms their lack of confidence in the Congress and calling for direct election of Senators (53A-J8.1). Petitions concerning labor conflicts in Idaho (52A-J8.5), Colorado (58A-J15), Washington (64A-J23), and West Virginia (63A-J19, 67A-J19) are also present. During World War I, however, the committee received many petitions favoring prohibition of sympathy strikes, strikes by railroad workers and coal miners, and enforcement of laws against labor agitators (66A-J12). From the late 1920's to the mid-1930's, petitioners urged unemployment insurance and relief legislation (70A-J8, 71A-J21, 72A-J20, 73A-J15).
For this period, petitions and memorials requesting aid to various forms of public education by the Federal Government were common, although rarely effective. Some of the earliest of these urged financial support for education of the blind and support for the American Printing House for the Blind (41A-H6.1, 44A-H6). During Reconstruction and into the 1880's, petitioners seeking aid for Wilberforce University in Ohio (41A-H6, 54A-J9.2) and other black educational institutions, especially in the South, proposed that Congress use the unclaimed colored Civil War soldiers' bounty fund to finance the development of these schools (44A-H6, 45A-H6, 46A-H6, 48A-H6.1, 49A-H7.2). In the early 20th century, Congress was asked to reimburse the Freedmens' Savings and Trust Company to aid industrial education of blacks in the South (60A-J36, 61A-J22, 62A-J26). Petitions favoring prohibition of aid to sectarian schools also placed emphasis on financial support for public education (50A-J7.3, 51A-J8.6, 52A-J8.4).
Petitions also advocated development of specialized programs to standardize the national alphabet and spelling (41A-H6, 52A-J8.5, 53A-J8.1, 54A-J9.1), to eradicate illiteracy (Kenyon Americanization bill) (66A-J12, 67A-J19), and to promote vocational education (66A-J10), physical education (66A-J10), and maternity and infancy protection (67A-J18). Petitions supporting incorporation of the National Education Association (59A-J24) and creation of a Federal department of education (60A-J36, 66A-J17, 67A-J18, 68A-J18, 70A-J7, 71A-J22, 72A-J21) were also referred to the committee.
Reformers from temperance organizations, churches, and civic groups were prolific petitioners of the Congress. Moral issues with labor and education implications that concerned these groups included prohibition and temperance education (numerous Congresses), the study and control of social vice (50A-J7.5, 51A-J8.3, 52A-J8.5, 54A-J9.1), Sunday rest legislation (50A-J7.4, 51A-J8.5), and Federal censorship of motion pictures (63A-J18, 64A-J21).
The subjects of the petitions and resolutions of State legislatures and other bodies referred to the committee from 1935 to 1946 include the Wagner labor disputes bill, which was enacted as the National Labor Relations Act (74A-J9); various housing bills (74A-J9, 75A-J8, 76A-J9); New Deal public works programs (75A-J7, 75A-J10); the migrant problem in California (76A-J7); the Smith antistrike bill (77A-J6); the Wagner-Murray-Dingell national health insurance bill (79A-J7); and the fair employment practice bill (79A-J7).
Of all issues before the committee prior to 1963, repeal of the Taft-Hartley Act generated the largest response in the form of petitions referred to the committee.
*The alphanumeric designations cited in this description are file numbers used to identify specific files. The number and letter to the left of the hyphen indicates the Congress and the type of legislative activity (ex, "A" indicates legislative proceedings). The letter and number to the right of the hyphen indicate the series and file segment within the records of that Congress.
