It was not until the following year that the legislation recommended by the President was enacted.

By the Act of June 13, 1888, the Department of Labor was established, and by the Act of October 1, 1888, in addition to provision for voluntary arbitration between railroad corporations and their employees, the President was authorized to appoint a commission to investigate labor conflicts, with power to act as a board of conciliation.

During the ten years in which the act remained on the statute books, it was actually put to use only in 1894, when a commission was appointed to investigate the Pullman strike at Chicago, but this body took no action towards settling the dispute.
Thus far, then, the efforts of the Government to deal with the labor problem had not been entirely successful.

It is true that the labor conflicts arose over differences which only indirectly involved constitutional questions.

The aims of both the Knights of Labor and of the American Federation were primarily economic and both organizations were opposed to agitation of a distinctively political character.