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McDonald, Grace (audio interview #2 of 2)
INTERVIEW DESCRIPTION - This second interview with Grace Burnham McDonald was conducted in her home only a few days after the first interview. Despite her coldness and the lack of rapport in the first interview, she agreed to a second session. However, as in the first, she was bound and determined to present a highly "sanitized" history of the Workers Health Bureau, perhaps because she was still involved in research and writing on health and safety issues. The interview was conducted as part of the labor history work of the Feminist History Research Project. A separate lengthy series of interviews conducted by Ros Baxandall with Charlotte Stern includes discussion of the Workers Health Bureau.
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- 2021-02-11
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- *** File: refgmcdonald3.mp3 Audio Segments and Topics: (0:00-5:01)... The occupational health and safety policies developed by the Joint Board of Sanitary Control and negotiated between labor and industry became the model for the Workers Health Bureau. Following her work with the Joint Board of Sanitary Control in the ladies garment industry, McDonald and Harriet Silverman approached the painters of New York about their occupational hazards. The Joint Council of the Brotherhood of Painters, Decorators and Paper Hangers established a labor committee and hired the Workers Health Bureau to research the conditions in the industry. Their first task was to set up a medical department and examine the painters. The bureau's advisory committee included occupational disease experts, (??) Haggard, Alice Hamilton, C.E.A. Winslow, (??) Henderson, and Emery Hayhurst. (5:01-10:30)... The funds to establish the Workers Health Bureau came from the Joint Council of the Brotherhood of Painters, Decorators and Paper Hangers and their international and national affiliates throughout the country. Each member of the union was assessed .25/month or $3/year. The funds were used to compensate the director of the bureau and to pay rental costs for an x-ray machine. The laboratory samples were processed by the New York City Health Department at no charge; all of the members of the bureau's advisory committee were unpaid volunteers. During their study of the painting industry, they examined 500 painters. The results were analyzed by Alice Hamilton and Emery Hayhurst. Hamilton disclosed her findings at a mass meeting of more than 4000 painters, during which she suggested a five-day work week to cut down painters exposure to hazardous chemicals. As a result of their efforts, the bureau was successful in negotiating a joint agreement for a decreased work week. The bureau's subsequent study on hat makers in Danbury, Ohio was funded by C.E.A. Winslow. (10:30-14:35)... Charlotte Stern joined the Workers Health Bureau after she quit her job with a Jewish welfare agency in Boston. McDonald was in charge of the research and statistical material of the bureau. Silverman was the educational secretary and a very effective speaker. One of Stern's responsibilities involved making contacts outside New York. Although Stern and Silverman were paid employees, McDonald worked for the bureau on a voluntary basis. She was paid during the period she was employed by the Joint Board of Sanitary Control. The only other paid employee in the bureau was a secretary who ran their mimeograph machine. (14:35-18:25)... The Brotherhood of Painters, Decorators and Paper Hangers developed an internal body to handle health and safety issues as more painters joined the union and the Workers Health Bureau's functions became well established. As they expanded into other industries, research requests came to them from different unions. Once the bureau's consultants conducted their studies and published their findings, it was up to the union to reach an agreement with the employers in that industry. The request to study the building trades was comprehensive and equally funded by the National Institute of Architects, the New York State Industrial Department and Metropolitan Life Insurance. (18:25-20:56)... The most successful joint agreements that followed the Workers Health Bureau's research were in the painting industry, the building trades, and in Rhode Island with naval machinists. In general, joint agreements were difficult to reach because employers were often unwilling to comply with the recommended health and safety standards. (20:56-22:24)... In conducting a study of the hat makers in Danbury, Ohio, the Workers Health Bureau compiled material on mercury poisoning through its consultants, who had previously conducted studies when C.E.A. Winslow was lobbying for an occupational disease law in Connecticut. The Danbury hatters case was a workers compensation case involving 100 workers. (22:24-24:59)... In order for the Workers Health Bureau to conduct a study of textile workers in New York, they set up a medical facility equipped with an x-ray machine and conducted physical examinations of textile workers, similar to what they had done with the painters. In cases outside New York, the bureau's consultants in those areas conducted the research and supplied the bureau with the information. The consultants researched, analyzed, and wrote their own findings. The bureau's only responsibility was to provide this information to the union requesting the study. At that juncture, it was the union's responsibility to lobby state legislators to adopt health and safety laws in their industry. (24:59-26:16)... The health department set up for painters in New York closed once the study of the industry was completed. As a result of this study, and others like it, unions established their own health and safety committees. The Workers Health Bureau's contributions and the machinery set up by unions was summarized and discussed at two National Industrial Health conferences that took place in the 1920s. (26:16-27:40)... During the 1925 strike involving mine workers, Harriet Silverman was responsible for the studies in that industry. McDonald does not believe that Silverman's role in providing strike support was important, stating, "Whatever the union asked us to do in the way of data was given to them and what they used it for was their business. We didn't in any way take over the functions of the unions." (27:40-35:25)... It was not until the National Industrial Health Conference of the late 1920s that the AFL began distancing itself from the Workers Health Bureau for various reasons. The Depression was directly related to this change because "labor was more concerned with whether they had jobs than whether they had occupational diseases." During that period of economic hardship and unemployment, labor shifted its concentration to national legislation for social security and old-age pensions. The AFL also was concerned that the Workers Health Bureau would usurp their power or "interfere with their jurisdiction... and [there was] apprehension that they could not control our policies." Regardless of these issues, McDonald does not believe the bureau would have continued for much longer because they already established health and safety standards in the major industries. (35:25-39:59)... The dissolution of the Workers Health Bureau occurred when they lost endorsement from the AFL and its affiliates in the late 1920s. At that time, the AFL did not establish internal departments of health and safety. These units were not created until the American Cancer Society established the Labor Advisory Committee and the Occupational Safety and Health Act was signed in 1970. During the forty-year gap, health and safety matters were litigated by attorneys in workmen compensation cases. As states signed workmen compensation laws, occupational diseases were included. The economic and legislative changes that began in the late 1920s froze the bureau's functions. McDonald does not want to infer that there was a schism between the AFL and the bureau, but that the end of their relationship was simply an outcome of the economic environment of the Depression and the AFL's concentration on bread and butter issues. (39:59-43:20)... While McDonald was with the Workers Health Bureau, she believed that health and safety issues should be as important as the economic goals of the AFL. It was not until the formation of the AFL-CIO and the passage of the Occupational Safety and Health Act in 1970 that health and safety committees were created in the union. She believes this act was triggered by the rise of cancer in the labor force. End of tape. *** File: refgmcdonald4.mp3 (0:00-10:33)... McDonald notes that during its operation, the Workers Health Bureau "made a constructive contribution to the value of occupational health and safety information to organized labor." The bureau contributed to the development of departments of occupational health and disease in universities by working with renowned experts in the field. The dissolution of these departments and the bureau occurred almost simultaneously as a result of the economic, social, and political climate of the Depression. Even though unions eventually developed internal mechanisms to deal with health and safety issues, McDonald feels that the average worker is still afraid to complain about their working conditions for fear of losing their job. She hopes that more and more unions will include occupational health and safety provisions in their contracts to further protect workers. (10:33-14:55)... McDonald discusses the status of the historical material on the Workers Health Bureau and how it may impact current industry studies on occupational health and disease cases. In order to reduce claims and develop preventative measures in the workplace, life insurance companies have contributed resources to research studies. She believes this is acceptable "as long as they don't interfere with what can be done between the occupational disease scientists and the labor unions in setting up machinery for contracts." (14:55-16:26)... McDonald feels that it is important to eliminate any information that would not "unite and build constructive results" in further developing occupational health and safety standards throughout the US. (16:26-21:17)... McDonald was hesitant to discuss her personal life. After graduating from Yale in 1908, she pursued her interest in artistic studies at the Art Institute in Chicago and the School of Applied Design in New York. She married in 1910 and moved to Louisville, Kentucky, at which point her academic interests veered from art into the field of economics and sociology because the university in Kentucky did not have an art department. Her (first) husband, was a sociologist educated in Switzerland and at Columbia University. During his career, he worked with Louis Brandeis and the First People's Lobby and also participated in the single tax movement in Ohio. When they moved back to New York in 1918, she took a course in industrial conditions at Columbia University. During their marriage, McDonald had a daughter. Her husband died in 1923. (21:17-22:57)... Following its dissolution, the Workers Health Bureau turned its office over to the Labor Research Association, which, in turn, transferred much of the bureau's research materials to another organization to free up space in their office. That organization ended up discarding all of those documents. McDonald and Charlotte Stern retained some of the bureau's materials and, along with what was kept by the Labor Research Association, this is the only documentation of the bureau's history. A duplicate set of this material is now stored at the University of Oregon. (22:57-26:15)... McDonald remained in New York after the Workers Health Bureau was dissolved. She remarried a railroad dispatcher and they moved to Chicago in 1933. At that time, they became active in the railroad unity movement. Her efforts concentrated on editing the organization's paper. When the movement dissolved, McDonald and her husband moved to California so that he could edit a series of papers for the Central Labor Council, an endeavor she assisted. In addition to this work, her husband worked as a railroad dispatcher. In 1941, they established the Reporter. End of tape.
- SUBJECT BIO - Grace Burnham McDonald was one of the founders of the Workers Health Bureau in early 1920s. The bureau, which lasted until 1929, worked with the labor movement to research occupational hazards and develop recommendations for standards to be negotiated between labor and management. Born in New Haven, McDonald was greatly inspired and influenced by her father. Max Mailhouse, who was a neurologist. Initially, however, she started to study art. After her marriage in 1910, she moved to Louisville with her husband, where he taught sociology. Since there was no art department there, she switched her focus to economic and social issues. After the family moved to New York in 1918, she attended Columbia and the New School for Social Research, following which she was hired in 1920, by the Education Department of the Joint Board of Sanitary Control (a body established following the Triangle Shirtwaist fire). Her work there became the model for the Workers Health Bureau, which she founded with Harriet Silverman. They were later joined by Charlotte Todes Stern (whose oral history can be found here). The bureau was dissolved in 1929 when funding from the union dried up in the throes of the Depression. When her husband died in 1923, she inherited a fortune, which she used to advance social causes. Following her second marriage, McDonald moved to Chicago and then to California, where she continued to work on occupational health and safety issue and farm labor issues. According to her obituary, she was appointed to the state Board of Agriculture and helped to form the California Farm Research and Legislative Committee. McDonald was referred to the Feminist History Research Project by ROHO (the Regional Oral History Office of the Bancroft Library). TOPICS - Joint Board of Sanitary Control; structure and function of Workers Health Bureau; Harriet Silverman; studies of painting industry; Brotherhood of Painters, Decorators and Paper Hangers; the advisory committee of Workers Health Bureau; Alice Hamilton; Emery Hayhurst; C;E;A; Winslow; Charlotte Stern; study of health and safety standards in the building trades; studies in the hat making industry of Ohio and the textile trades of New York; National Industrial Health Conference; and impact of Depression and unemployment on the relationship between the AFL and the Workers Health Bureau; dissolution of Workers Health Bureau; Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970; workmen's compensation cases; and development of health and safety committees in labor unions;contributions of Workers Health Bureau to the field of occupational health and safety; relationship between organized labor and the Workers Health Bureau; dissolution of Workers Health Bureau; development of occupational health and safety committees in labor unions; status of the historical materials of the Workers Health Bureau; insurance companies and workmen's compensation cases; college education; first husband's career and social reform activities; second husband's career; Railroad Unity movement; publication of the Reporter, a railroad newsletter;
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