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U. S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS
ROYAL MEEKER, Commissioner

MONTHLY REVIEW
OF THE

U. S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS

VOLUME VI—APRIL, ISIS -NUMBER 4


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WASHINGTON
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
1918


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CONTENTS.
Special articles:
page.
A modern industrial suburb, by Leifur Magnusson....... ................................... 1-25
Effect of the air hammer on the hands of stonecutters, by Alice Ham- 25-33
ilton, M. D .............................................................................................................. 33-40
Freight handlers on passenger-freight steamers on the Great Lakes, by
Emil Frankel.......................................................................................................... 41-52
Cost of living in the District of Columbia—seventh article, wage-earning
women: how they spend their m on ey............................................................ 53-63
Labor and the War:
Mobilizing and distributing farm labor in Ohio, by W. M. Leiserson___
Social reconstruction program of the British Labor Party............................... 63-83
Reconstruction program of German trade-unions............................................... 83-89
Governmental control of labor in Germany....................................................... 89-103
W7ar labor conference board................................................................................. 103-105
Industrial and agricultural labor and the next Army draft........................ 105-107
Labor standards in the manufacture of Army clothing...................................
108
Changes in working conditions agreed to by railroad shopmen.................. 108,109
Condition of railroad employment defined by Director General of Rail­
roads..................................................................................................................... 109,110
Provision for the disabled, and vocational education:
Vocational education conference at Philadelphia, by Mrs. M. A. Gadsby. 111-117
Training disabled soldiers in Canadian industries......................................... 118-121
Training of widows of deceased soldiers in Great Britain............................ 121-123
Training and employment of disabled soldiers in Germany........................ 123-131
Vocational guidance on psychological principles......................................... 131-135
Prices and cost of living:
Retail prices of food in the United States....................................................... 137-145
Price changes, wholesale and retail, in the United States........................... 146-149
Comparison of retail prices in the United States and foreign countries... 150,151
Cost of living in the New York shipbuilding district.................................... 151,152
Cost of living and wages in Germany................................................................ 152-162
Wages and hours of labor:
Rates of wages paid to workers placed by employment offices in the United
States, February, 1918..................
163-181
Adjustment of wages and hours of labor in the Delaware River and Balti­
more shipyards................................................................................................... 182-188
Recent wage studies and the demands of the locomotive firemen............. 188-192
Regulation of war wages by cost of living in Great Britain....................... 192,193
Wrar bonus for Government employees in Austria.......................................... 193,194
W7ar bonuses in France..........................................................................
194-202
Minimum wage:
Minimum wages in mercantile establishments in Kansas............................
203
Women in industry:
Effect of the war upon the employment of women in England, by Mary
Conyngton........................................................................................................... 204-217
Protective clothing for women and girl workers in Great Britain.......... 217-219
Employment of women in foundries in Germany.......................................... 219-222


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in

IV

C O N TEN TS.

Agreements between employers and employees:
Page.
Trade agreements in the women’s clothing industries of Boston, by Boris
Emmet, Ph. D .................................................................................................... 223-234
Joint councils of employers and employees adopted by pottery industry in
Great Britain....................................................................................................... 234-236
Employment and unemployment:
Work of public employment offices in the United States and of provincial
employment offices in Canada........................................................................ 237-242
Work of the employment exchanges in the United Kingdom in 1917___ 243-249
Employment in selected industries in February, 1918................................. 249-252
Volume of employment in the United Kingdom (Great Britain and Ireland)
in January, 1918................................................................................................. 253-257
Employment system of the Lake Carriers’ Association................................. 257-259
Workmen’s compensation and social insurance:
Adequacy of workmen’s compensation laws, by Carl Hookstadt............... 260-271 .
Making of rates for workmen’s compensation insurance............................... 271-274
Report of New Jersey commission on old-age insurance and pensions.. 274-276
Labor laws:
Compulsory'work law of New Jersey....................................................................
277
Housing and welfare work:
Housing for war needs by the Department of Labor..................................... 278, 279
Housing and the land problem........................................................................... 279, 280
Conditions in Ohio labor camps......................................................................... 280-283
Rural planning and development in Canada.................................................. 283-286
Housing shortage in Germany............................................................................ 286, 287
Industrial accidents and diseases:
Trend of accident rates in the iron and steel industry to the end of 1917.. 288, 289
Industrial accidents in Massachusetts............................................................. 289-291
Effects of dust inhalation upon workers in the manufacture of silica bricks 292-295
Eye hazards in industrial occupations.............................................................. 295-298
Arbitration and conciliation:
Conciliation work of the Department of Labor, February 15 to March 15,
1918....................................................................................................................... 299-301
Strikes and lockouts:
Street car labor dispute at Minneapolis and St. Paul.................................... 302-304
Settlement of labor disputes in the French merchant marine.................... 304, 305
Immigration:
Immigration in December, 1917......................................................................... 306, 307
Publications relating to labor:
Official—United States......................................................................................... 308,309
Official—foreign countries..............................
309-312
Unofficial.................................................................................................................313-319


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MONTHLY

R E V IE W

OF THE

U. S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS
vol.

v i —n o . 4

WASHINGTON

Ap r i l , i 9i 8

A MODERN INDUSTRIAL SUBURB.
BY LEIFUR MAGNUSSON.

Morgan Park, a new suburb of the city of Duluth, Minn., is an iron
a. (1 steel town owned and operated by a subsidiary company of the
United States Steel Corporation. While it was established in con­
i': ection with an iron and steel manufacturing center, its problems
are those of a residence section for any industry compelled to locate
outside the limits of a large city in order to secure an adequate
amount of space and a continuous supply of labor. During the
period extending from the time when plans for the establishment of
the steel plant at that point were first drawn up, to the time when
active operations began, temporary housing for the construction
forces was necessary. The development thus presents one method
at least of housing a temporary labor force, and may therefore be
instructive to all industries of a temporary nature. The methods
employed are of interest to shipyards whose work may be temporary
and to companies engaged in the erection of power plants, construc­
tion of drainage areas, and irrigation and Hood works, whose work
terminates within a period of 5 to 15 years.
Morgan Park is an example of a modem industrial suburb in­
tended to serve as a nucleus of a permanent industry. It has been
developed in an orderly and systematic manner, town-planning
principles have been observed in its layout, educational and recrea­
tional facilities have been provided, and houses of a permanent and
substantial character erected.
Architecturally it is of interest in that one type of material (con­
crete in two forms, block and stucco) has been used in the construc­
tion of the houses, yet variety has been secured and the usual
monotony of company towns avoided. There is more than the
average range in the number of rooms and character of dwellings
provided in the different designs in order that both high and low paid
labor may be accommodated. In this one community may be studied


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M O N T H L Y REV IEW OF T H E B U R E A U OF LABOR STA T ISTIC S.

the temporary labor camp, the multiple and row house for the lower
paid class of labor, the boarding house for the single men and women,
the five and six room detached house for the better-paid workmen
and the administrative force, and the eight and nine room house
for the managers. In short, the houses are designed to reach all
types of workmen and salaried employees.
History and purpose.—The first work for the erection of the steel
plant which became the center of the community was begun in 1907.
No work was begun on the town site till August, 1913. The land at
that time was overgrown with brush, but by August, 1915, the first
group of houses was complete.
All this early development—the town planning, street work,
house construction—was carried on as a part of the general con­
struction work of the Minnesota Steel Co., but in 1915 a separate
company—the Morgan Park Co.—was organized to take over the
housing work, its maintenance, general operation, and extension.
The industrial suburb in question was established to house a cer­
tain nucleus of the future labor force of the Minnesota Steel Co. It
also exists to house certain employees of other subsidiary companies
of the United States Steel Corporation operating in that neighbor­
hood, namely, the Universal Portland Cement Co. and the Duluth,
Missabe & Northern Railroad Co. The steel plant employs over
3,000 men at present, but only about 400 families are housed in the
company town. Employees of other subsidiaries bring the number
housed in the suburb to about 440 families at present, in addition
to which about 180 unmarried employees are accommodated in the
company boarding houses and about 130 are living as roomers and
boarders in private families, making a total of about 750 employees
out of about 3,500 employed by the steel plant, the cement plant,
and the housing company.
Among the principal results secured by the company in developing
the suburb as a company town has been the keeping down of private
rents in speculatively developed suburbs surrounding it. The hous­
ing company is convinced that it has prevented excessive exploita­
tion of the steel company’s employees which, if it had been allowed,
would have seriously hampered the company in securing an adequate
and sufficient supply of labor. Buying land merely for its plant,
erecting that plant, and leaving the housing of its working force to
exploitation of private landholders, would have proved a shortsighted
industrial policy.
Land values.—Naturally there have been large increases in the
value of the land bought by the steel corporation and of that in the
vicinity held by private interests, due to an increased demand for


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locations near the steel and Portland cement plants. The steel cor­
poration, moreover, has put vast sums into improvements which have
added to the value of the property.
The land was originally raw land, having only an agricultural value.
In 1906 the assessed value of 1,250 acres within the area purchased
by the steel corporation was $29,500, or $23.60 per acre, according to
the records of the office of the tax assessor of the city of Duluth,
Minn. As land is assessed by the city at 40 per cent of its “ full
and true” value, the value per acre at that time was probably
about $59. Of the approximate 190 acres in the town site of Morgan
Park, th« 141 acres which had been improved by the end of 1918
have been assessed at $720 per acre, and the additional 48 acres
improved in 1917 have been assessed at $1,000 per acre. This would
make the average assessed value of the actual 189 acres for which the
figures apply about $791 per acre, or a “ full and true” value of $1,975
per acre at the present time.
Location and accessibility.—Morgan Park is within the city limits
of Duluth, which in 1916 had a population of about 92,000,* and
is connected with the city by a street car line and a railroad line.
The fare by street car is 5 cents from the center of Duluth, a distance
of 10 miles and about an hour’s ride.
The village is located on a low plateau overlooking Spirit Lake,
an arm of the St. Louis River. The plateau is cut by a few small
ravines. The town site occupies an area of about 190 acres, out of
a total of 1,600 acres purchased by the United States Steel Corpora­
tion for the plant of the Minnesota Steel Co.
Arrangement of town site.2—Town planning, particularly street
layout, has been much simplified by the level character of the ground.
Few curved streets have been made for their own sake, but principally
as a result ©f the natural profile of the lake shore and the ravines.
A broad avenue running north and south, 80 feet wide from lot line
to lot line, and with a central parking, traverses the center of the
village (Fig. 1). The street car line passes through the central park
strip.
Two radial avenues, 70 feet wide, extend from the community
center adjoining the school, near the center of the town. All second­
ary streets are 50 feet wide, lot line to lot line, and alleys are 16
1U. S. Department of Commerce. Bureau of the Census. Financial statistics of cities having a popu­
lation of over 30,000, 1916. Washington, 1917, p. 15.
2 The careful town planning observed in the laying out of this industrial suburb is in striking contrast
to the planning of the city of which it is a part, for while Duluth is laid out on the side of a series of Mils
and bluffs overlooking St. Louis Bay and Lake Superior, nevertheless the streets have been run straight
with the surveyor’s line at right angles to a main street which has been laid in disregard of the lake and
harbor line. Grades of 12 per cent and over are not uncommon. Only the accident of a few original countryroads up between the hills has preserved a few lines of communication following easy grades. The whole
problem of replanning a growing and congested city is now under discussion.


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M O N T H L Y R EV IEW OE T H E B U R E A U OE LABOR STA T ISTIC S.

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feet. All alleys have open ends, except in the low-rental block,
and may be inspected from the streets. All streets and alleys are
paved with concrete and have been properly pitched to secure easy
drainage.
In planning the town site the positions of trees were noted and
an effort made to retain as many as possible. Parking was estab­
lished along all principal and secondary streets. The tree planting
has been thought out as a whole, certain harmonious types of trees
being grouped in different streets, with evergreens, shrubs, and bush
roses at other points, and vines planted for each house.
Districting.— As no land or houses have been sold, the title to the
whole town site remaining in the company, present and future
difficulties in securing an advantageous districting of the town site
to observe the proper amenities have been simplified. There have
been set aside special blocks in the town site for business purposes;
community playgrounds and parks have been provided adjacent
thereto, and an entire block of 10 acres has been donated to the city
of Duluth for a school site. Residences of the single, semidetached,
and terrace, or row types of the better class, have been restricted to
the eastern half of the community nearest the lake shore, while in
the western half of the town are located the first units of houses in
small house blocks, for the lower-paid and unskilled labor. No race
segregation is attempted.
The building restrictions imposed provide a setback of 20 feet for
all houses and prohibit the erection of any outbuildings on the lots.
The north side of each building is placed close to the lot line on
account of the shade cast by the houses which would prevent the
growing of flowers and shrubbery.
Public utilities and facilities.—The water system is dual: one for
drinking and washing purposes, from a tank fed with spring water,
and the other fed from tho lake, the water of which is used only for
sanitary fixtures, lawn sprinkling, and fire purposes. A dual system
of storm and sanitary sewers has boon installed, and the local public
utility company furnishes electric current with which all houses are
provided. Mains and house connections for fuel gas have been pro­
vided throughout in anticipation of the extension to Morgan Park of
the city gas mains which will probably take place in 1918. All streets
and alleys have been paved with concrete at the expense of the com­
pany. The Morgan Park Co., moreover, provides the necessary fire
protection and attends to the daily collection of garbage and rub­
bish, street cleaning, snow removal, fuel distribution, and policing.
As stated, sewage is carried in a separate system and discharged
into the lake, in like manner as in all other parts of the city, though
the system has been so laid out that a sewage-treating plant can be


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MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

installed at any time. Storm water is drained to the ravines and
lake through a separate system.
All gas, water, and sewer lines are laid in the alleys. On account
of the severe climate, water and sewer lines are laid seven feet deep.
A fire hydrant is located at the curb in the center of each block,
the longest block being 750 feet. Fire hydrants are also located at
street and alley intersections.
All wiring is underground, and hence no poles are used save those
necessary to carry the street lights and trolley wires. The electric
lines for street lighting are laid in the grass strip between the curb
and sidewalk. The electric and telephone conduits which serve the
houses have been laid longitudinally through the lines of houses.
There is a large community garage, for the use of which a low
monthly charge per car is made. This garage accommodates 42 cars,
is steam heated, fireproof, and fully equipped with supply and repair
shop. Other smaller community garages of 10 stalls each are pro­
vided for the more distant residence sections. The community has
a provision store operated by the Morgan Park Co., and a number
of independent stores and offices in the same building.
Educational, recreational, and health facilities.—The city of Duluth
has erected a schoolhouse and an extensive playground on land
donated by the Morgan Park Co. The Gary or Wirt system of edu­
cation is applied in this school, which is equipped with auditorium,
gymnasium, library, workshops, and laboratories.
Land has also been set aside by the Morgan Park Co. for two
churches, one representing the Catholic faith, the other the Prot­
estant. The Catholic Church is in course of erection and the Prot­
estants in the community have agreed to form a single church body,
and are organized as the United Protestant Church of Morgan Park.
An area of approximately 8 acres has been set aside for a clubhouse
and recreation grounds. The clubhouse and its recreation grounds,
completely equipped, are provided by the Morgan Park Co. and leased
free of rent by the company to the Morgan Park Club, an incorpo­
rated organization composed of the employees. The constitution
and by-laws for the conduct of the clubhouse were drawn up by the
employees and approved by the company prior to leasing the property
to the club.
The clubhouse has outside dimensions of 156J feet by 220 feet; and
is in the form of four distinct wings and a central portion; it is one
story and basement high. It is built of cement stucco, the curtain
walls and roof being supported by heavy concrete buttresses; it
conforms to the general architecture of the community. The club­
house and its equipment cost approximately $127,000; the construc-


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1734?

F IG . 2 .— M A IN A V E N U E .

Note central parking w ith street car track; also variety in view secured by alternating different
types of houses, differing porches and roof lines.

F IG . 3 — F IV E -R O O M O N E - F A M IL Y H O U S E FO R S T A F F E M P L O Y E E S A N D S K IL L E D
LABORERS.

Lot 50 feet front; cost, exclusive of lot, $3,367; rent, $20 per month.
improvements.


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Furnace heated; all modern

F IG . 4 .— G E N E R A L V IE W O F T H E T E R R A C E OR R O W H O USES O F T H E U N S K IL L E D
LABO R ER S.

Known as Block 33 in the town site.

F IG . 5 .— V IE W O F L O W -R E N T A L RO W OR T E R R A C E H O U S ES , W IT H N E IG H B O R H O O D
C L U B B U IL D IN G IN T H E F O R E G R O U N D .


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F IG . 6 .— F R O N T V IE W O F L O W -R E N T A L RO W H O U S E A C C O M M O D A T IN G
F A M IL IE S .

E IG H T

Dwellings in central gable have 6 rooms each; others, 4 rooms each.

F IG . 7 .— R E A R V IE W O F L O W -R E N T A L R O W OR T E R R A C E H O U S E .

Note coal bins (half-ton capacity) provided for each dwelling; also raised roof dormers where
bathrooms are placed. (See plans in Fig. 17.)


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F IG . 8 .— IN T E R IO R V IE W O F K IT C H E N A N D E Q U IP M E N T O F L O W -R E N T A L

HOUSES.

Note combination sink and laundry tubs.

F IG . 9 .— IN T E R IO R V IE W O F T H E B U N K H O U S E .


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S T EEL FRAM E BU NKS,

MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OE LABOR STATISTICS.

7

tion and equipment of the recreation grounds cost $26,000. The
clubhouse is equipped with a gymnasium and swimming pool, an
auditorium with stage, smaller lecture rooms and class rooms, a men’s
club section comprising a reading and reception room, a women’s
club section comprising reception and reading rooms and kitchen,
and a juniors’ club section for boys and girls. As may be inferred
from this description, it is adapted equally well for Y. M. C. A.
activities and for general club purposes.
In connection with the low-rental houses a separate club building
or neighborhood house, costing about $18,500, with headquarters for
the social service director, has been provided. At the present time
the school building is being used as a community center where, in
the evening, motion pictures are exhibited, basket ball played, and
gymnasium classes, educational classes, dances, and social gatherings
are held.
Opportunities for outdoor sport are afforded on the school and
clubhouse grounds already mentioned. Also, a baseball and football
ground, tennis courts, and a skating rink are provided elsewhere in
the park. There are also possibilities for boating, bathing, and camp­
ing at the Morgan Park Boat Club. The summer camp equipment
cost about $6,000.
A modern hospital with the latest equipment has been provided at
an expense of about $70,000. The hospital is equipped to accommo­
date 32 patients. One of its principal features is the provision of
two large screened-in porches used as solariums. It is so placed as
to command attractive views of the St. Louis River and is surrounded
by extensive grounds.
Two public comfort stations and waiting rooms costing about
$5,500 have been provided adjacent to the car line, and waiting
stations are included in the designs for buildings about to be con­
structed at street comers of the main thoroughfare.
Park benches and public drinking fountains have been located at
several of the street intersections.
LABOB. CAMP.

For carrying on the earlier construction work of the steel plant
and of developing the town site, temporary bunk houses, including
mess quarters, were constructed by the contractors. These were
rough structures with tar paper exteriors. During the season of
1917 a modern sanitary camp was constructed by the Morgan Park
Co., to house additional extra labor in the plant and for construction
work on the town site, the older camps being dismantled as being in­
sanitary and inadequate. The layout of the camp buildings is shown
in Fig. 10.
All the new camp buildings are of frame construction, set on piers
sunk to solid ground, the lower parts being screened for 18 inches

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M O N T H L Y REV IEW OE T H E B U R E A U OE LABOR STATISTICS.

below ground by wire mesh to keep out rats and other burrowing
animals. Inside walls are 8 feet 2 inches high. The exterior is of
tar paper on the studs, covered with 4-inch drop siding and painted.
The interior wall is of tar paper on studs ceiled with 4-inch material,
and varnished. The floors are double with tar paper between, and
the roof of composition paper. Modern plumbing is installed. The
camp is heated by stoves and is lighted by electricity. Figs. 11 and
12 show the details of the arrangement of the camp and Fig. 9 shows
a view of the interior of the bunk house.
Included as a part of this construction camp is an employment
office for the contractors, in which is located the medical examination
room used in examination of men who seek employment. There is
also a separate boarding camp suitably arranged for women. No
women, however, have so far been employed at the camp. Among
the special features of the camp should be noted the club building
equipped with a small store, reading matter, and music, and the sepa­
rate bath and wash houses, one in connection with the foreman’s
bunk house and the other for the labor force. There is also a laun­
dry house where the men may wash their working clothes.
The kitchen is equipped with a separate bakeshop with a capacity
of 220 loaves. All the bread, pastry, and cake used in the camps is
made here. There is also a root cellar below the kitchen floor and a
large ice box and meat-cutting room well screened.
All washing fixtures are of the “ flowing stream” type, to avoid the
danger of transmission of disease by common use of washbowls. Sani­
tary drinking fountains are provided throughout. Shower baths are
provided in the central washhouse and a supply of hot water main­
tained. All window's and doors are screened.
The whole camp accommodates about 400 employees and provides
quarters for 10 women. It cost approximately $31,500, including the
sewers, water lines, roads, and lights.
The camp is operated by a lessee—a company which manages sev­
eral railroad and logging camps in the vicinity. This lessee provides
all the bedding, kitchen and dining-room utensils, and pays the
cost of all renewals of every kind except construction repairs. The
Morgan Park Co. supplies the lessee, free of charge, with a reasonable
amount of ice and fuel and maintains the walks and roads and the
recreation facilities. The lessee is not charged with any rental.
In return for the concession the lessee agrees that until further
notice the rates charged for room and board shall not exceed $6.25
per week; that he shall maintain the buildings, grounds, and equip­
ment in good condition; and that the sanitary and fire inspectors
shall have authority to require the lessee to conform to the standards
required by the company. The lessee is required to execute and fde


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M O N T H L Y B E V IE W OP T H E B U R E A U OP LABOR STATISTICS,

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F IG . 10.— L A Y O U T O F C A M P B U IL D IN G S .

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F IG . I ! . — FLO O R P L A N S O F T H E B U N K H O U S E . S H O V /IN G A R R A N G E M E N T O F B U N K S A N D
BENCHES.


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p-i
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F IQ . 12.— FLO O R P L A N O F T H E B O A R D IN G CA M P .

MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

11

with the company a naoility bond to cover tiie value of company
equipment and to account to the company at the termination of the
lease for all such property, and to make periodical inventories to the
company of the articles supplied by the company.
The lessee is responsible for collection of his own bills, and agrees
not to retain in his employ any camp employee, who is troublesome,
diseased, or objectionable, and to eject any boarder of like character.
He may not engage employees other than those specified by the Mor­
gan Park Co., nor house colored persons. Gambling and the use of
intoxicants on the premises are prohibited.
h o u ses

o r th e

c o m m u n it y

.

All permanent houses and buildings in the community are of con­
crete material and practically fireproof, except as regards the roofs
of the earlier-built houses, which are of cedar shingles. The exterior
walls of the better houses are constructed of T-shaped machinemolded concrete blocks and of hand-molded concrete bricks in the
later houses. The floors are of hardwood, laid over reinforced con­
crete. The inside walls are plastered and tinted. In the low-rental
houses the walls are of stucco on metal lath, and the interior plastered
and covered with a special washable fabric which prevents cracking
of the plaster; the floors are of cement.
The houses of the better-paid skilled workmen and of the office
staff and officials are characterized by variety in architecture and
arrangement, by spacious lots with lawns, and by the provision of
all modem sanitary equipment. There are altogether 36 types of
buildings. There are provided 437 dwellings altogether, of which
number 125, or 28.6 per cent, are single detached dwellings, and
312, or 71.4 per cent, are either detached flats, double flats, or rows,
as is shown in the table following. All of the better-class houses
have bathrooms, hot and cold water connections, and laundry tubs,
and are heated by hot-air furnaces. The houses are furnished with
electric-light fixtures, gas connections for cooking, kitchens with
sanitary plumbing, and some have fireplaces. With the exception
of fireplaces, and furnaces in most instances, some of the low-rental
houses are similarly equipped.
DISTRIBUTION OF HOUSES ACCORDING TO T Y PE AND NUM BER OF ROOMS.
Number of dwellings having—
Type of house.

Single, detached.......................................
Fiat”, detached.........................................
Flat, double, detached..........................
Row or terrace.........................................
T otal...........................................
Per cent........................................


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4
5
a
7
8
9
rooms. rooms. rooms. rooms. rooms. rooms.
54

40
20
140

39
70
20
2

14

206

131

68

6

17

47.1

30.0

15.5

1.4

4.0

[739]

6

17

9

9
2io~

Total.

Per
cent.

125
110
40
162

28.6
25.2
9.1
37.1

437

100.0

100.0

12

MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.
Better-type Houses.

The houses of the skilled workmen, office staff and superintendents
are modern improved houses not differing essentially from what such
employees would ordinarily provide for themselves as within their
means.

F ir s t S

to r y

P lan

S econd

S tory P^A ti

F IG . 13.— FLO O R P L A N S O F B E T T E R CLASS O N E - F A M IL Y H O U S E S H O W N IN F IG . 3.

Cost and rentals.—All 4-room houses in the eastern section of the
town site rent at the rate of $3.75 per room per month, or $15 for
the house. All other houses in the original development of the
eastern section rent at the rate of $4 per room per month. The newer
houses constructed in 1916 and 1917 rent at a slightly higher rate as
shown in the tabulation on the next page.


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MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

13

COST AND RENTA LS OF B E T T E R CLASS OF HOUSES.
Number
of
Cost per Rooms
Cost per Rent per
per
dwellings dwelling.1 dwelling.
room.
month.
erected.

Type of house.

H ouses constructed in 1914 a n d 1915.

Single, detached.................................................... ..............

Row, 4 dwellings to the row .............................................
Row, 6 dwellings to the row.............................................

30
39
10
40
70
20
20
60
60

S3,353
3,702
5,592
2,741
2,850
2,544
2,544
2,144
2,008

5
6
8
4
5
4
5
4
4

$671
617
699
685
570
2565
2565
536
502

$20
24
32
15
20
15
20
15
15

Total............................................................................

349

2,753

4.7

5S8

18

Single, detached...................................................................

7
2
4
3
4
4
4
2
7
9

5,750
5,750
6,450
6,050
6,050
6,750
7,750
8,550
8,390
8,417

5
5
6
6
6
6
7
7
8
9

1,150
1,150
1,075
1,008
1,008
1,125
1,107
1,221
1,049
935

28
35
35
32
35
40
40
45
•50
60

T otal...........................................................................

46

7,163

6.8

1,049

40

Flat, detached......................................................................
Flat, double, detached.......................................................

H ouses constructed in 1916 a n d 1917.3

1 Not including cost of land and outside improvements.
1 Average for 4-room and 5-room flats.
* The houses built in 1916 and 1917 have fireproof roofs of cement tile, terra-cotta tile, asbestos, and metal
shingles; concrete coal bins and vegetable cellars; inclosed rear porches, sun porches, and several other im­
provements involving considerable additional expense, and were constructed at a time when labor and
materials were very high.

Construction and accommodations.—The walls of the 349 original
houses are constructed of T-shaped concrete bricks, machine molded.
The walls rest on concrete footings 5 | or 6 feet below the grade line.
Below the grade line the wall is laid of two rows of blocks, staggered
and reversed. Above the grade level only one row of blocks is used,
and on the inside legs of the blocks one thickness of plaster board is
nailed on a furring strip and covered with fiber plaster. There is thus
made in the wall an air space.
The cellar floors are of concrete, as are also all the other floors.
The upper floors are of reinforced concrete laid between the 2 by 6
inch joists. The concrete is poured from above between these
joists, and surfaced so as to expose the joists and permit of nailing
to it the wood flooring above and the ceiling boards below.
Experience has shown that machine-molded concrete blocks, if
made too dry, are liable to be .too porous and may cause dampness
if exposed to violent and long-continued driving rains such as are
characteristic of this locality. In this type of construction, and if
excessive porosity occurs, the vertical air spaces within the walls
may permit moisture to trickle down inside the wTall till it reaches
the concrete floor where it is arrested and caused to travel horizontally
below the wood floor covering till it reaches an outlet in the concrete
4G648°—18-----2

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[741]

14

M O N T H L Y R E V IE W OF T H E B U R E A U OF LABOR ST A T IST IC S.

floor and thus affects the ceilings of the rooms below. In the houses
built in 1917 a hand-molded cement block of solid form 4J by 3 by
24 inches has been used instead of the machine-molded block. This
type of block is used as a veneer on wood studding with plaster board
and waterproof paper between and is superior in appearance, cost,
and in insulating and waterproof qualities to the blocks used earlier.
In the row houses and flats, where three or more families are
accommodated, inspection shows that noises from the adjoining
apartments penetrate slightly through the party walls and floors.
I t is possible to hear voices, though not to distinguish words uttered
in the adjoining apartment. I t should be noted in this connection
that the absence of street noises and wagon traffic render this com-

F IG . 1 4 - F IR S T - F L O O R P L A N O F B O A R D IN G H O U S E FO R S T A F F E M P L O Y E E S .

Note separate entrances, one for caretaker’s family, the other for the boarders, leading to a lobby.

munity unusually quiet and that noises not noticeable in cities are
very noticeable in quiet residence sections. Nevertheless the manager
of the housing company considers that the very fact of this quietness
in such communities renders it desirable that experiments be car­
ried on to make more soundproof the floors and walls of multiple
houses of both the flat and terrace type, particularly for the reason
that men working on night shifts and sleeping in the daytime are
likely to be disturbed.
Boarding house for office staff.—Four boarding houses for the
clerical force and technical men have been erected. They accom­
modate 74 men. The smallest room in any of these houses is 8 by 10
feet. Special furniture has been constructed for the rooms so as to
secure the greatest economy of space. Plans of the first floor of the

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[742]

MONTHLY REVIEW OP THE BUREAU OP LABOR STATISTICS.

15

largest one are shown in Fig. 14. The clubhouse dining room is also
operated as a public, dining room with k la carte and table d’hote
service, to avoid duplication of eating and hotel facilities in the park.
H ouses of Low Rental.

For families of the lower-paid or unskilled laborers, multiple houses
of the row type are provided, and for single men, boarding houses
have been constructed. It should be noted that the row houses are
not the ordinary continuous rows, extending unbroken for a whole
block, as found in larger cities. They axe short rows or groups,
accommodating from four to ten families; each building is therefore
a symmetrical architectural unit, and gives none of the monotony of
the ordinary row of houses.
These houses, occupied largely by unskilled laborers, are located
in a separate block (block 33) in the western hah of the town site.
Some features of the planning of the block (Fig. 15) are of interest
as showing the thought given by the manager of the company to
the housing of the lower-paid unskilled laborer.
(1) The alleys are located immediately in the rear of each line
of houses, instead of in the center of the block. This reduces the
amount of pavement necessary and is of special advantage in winter
because of the shorter lengths of walk to be kept free from snow.
It also permits the rear gardens to be individually fenced in and to
be kept apart from the house lot proper when not in use.
(2) The buildings are arranged on the north end of the block in
such manner as to screen from the street the view of the alleys and
rear gardens. On the south end a screen of evergreens or latticework
fences is to be provided.
(3) The boarding houses are kept entirely separate from the
dwelling houses by a transverse alley and fence.
(4) The neighborhood house is located on the south end of the
block, away from the boarding house, and convenient to the play­
ground and park immediately adjoining on the south.
(5) A separate garden plot is provided for each family.
(6) The part immediately adjoining the dwellings at the rear, and
extending to the alley, is gravelled and not grassed, as it is believed
that it will not be kept up and hence may prove unsightly. Further­
more, since gutters on the houses are eliminated—to avoid trouble with
ice in them in the severe climate—it has been necessary to prepare
the ground to withstand wear from water drip.
The block provides for 42 families, one-half of which it is estimated
may accommodate an additional boarder, though this practice is
not encouraged; and 116 employees are estimated for the boarding
houses. This makes a total of 179 employees to be housed in the


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[ 743]

C5


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MONTHLY REVIEW OE THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS,

[744]
Note garden plots in center of block, double alleys, and obscuring of alley ends by placement of boarding houses and welfare building. The first figure, or figures, of the block num­
ber indicates the number of dwellings in the row: for exam ple, 10456 is read as a 10-dwelling row containing 4, 5, and 6 room dwellings. B . H .=Boarding house.

MONTHLY REVIEW OP THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

17

block. The minimum population of the block will be about 280,
the maximum probably 350.
Construction and accommodations.—The frames of the houses are
of wood and the roofs of frame overlaid with roofing boards, water­
proof paper, ventilating strips, and wood shingles. The floors are of
reinforced concrete colored with pigment. The exteriors are of
cement plaster, or stucco, on galvanized-wire lath, backed up with
waterproof paper and plaster boards laid on the studs. The inside
walls are plastered and covered with a special strong and durable
washable fabric. The first floors are raised above the ground enough
to secure an air space to insure dryness and to avoid frost trouble.
Sound transmission through party walls and floors has been
considerably reduced as the result of experience with the earlier
houses. The manager of the housing company states that still
further improvements are possible and have been worked out for
use in subsequent construction.
Certain special features of these houses should be noted. The
bedrooms are large and have but one door in each, thus making
provision for good housing standards should any of the families
keep boarders.
The kitchen is large, so that it may be used also as a dining room.
The living room in some cases is separated from the kitchen by a
partition and door; in others the two practically form one large
room occupying the entire first floor. This latter is a feature strongly
recommended by the manager of the company. The majority of
the houses are stove heated, as the manager feels that the type of
labor to be housed may prefer stoves to the more elaborate or com­
plicated furnace heating; also that the provision of both arrange­
ments in otherwise similar types of houses in the same block is a
valuable experiment.
The placing of coal bins on the rear porches of those houses which
have no basements makes it possible to store a fuel supply on the
premises without overcrowding the kitchen or necessitating coal sheds
on the rear of the lots. These boxes contain approximately a half ton
of coal. This feature is of particular importance because only eight of
the houses in this low rental section have basements. A latticework
on the porches at the rear is contemplated to avoid the usual objection­
able appearance of such porches, resulting from their general use as
storage places for ice boxes, washing machines, dish pans, and
other kitchen appliances.
The houses are constructed with particular regard to winter condi­
tions. Storm doors are provided, but these are so constructed that
the upper panel can be removed in the summer and fly screens sub­
stituted. Metallic weather stripping is provided for all doors and


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[745]

18

MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

F IG . 16.— F LO O R P L A N S A N D F R O N T E L E V A T IO N O F 6 F A M IL Y R O W OR T E R R A C E H O U S E .

Lot, 120feet front; 4 rooms for each family; basement; hot air furnace heat; all modern improvements.
Cost per dwelling, exclusive of land, $2,008; rent, $15 per month.


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MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

19

windows and all windows have double glass in each “ light7' to avoid
the use of storm windows and the necessity for providing storage
space for them.
The housing company lays great stress upon the importance of
so designing the kitchens that the walls may be used to the greatest
extent possible for storage of food, utensils, and china, and thus
conserve floor space for other purposes. This is considered especially
necessary where the houses are compactly arranged to save building
cost and permit of low rentals and where basements are dispensed with.
Costs and rentals.—There are 42 dwellings provided in the form of
row houses, that is, buildings containing four or more dwellings
side by side. Each dwelling is provided with a three-piece bathroom,
kitchen sink, and laundry tub—combination laundry tub and sink in
the kitchens of those houses without basements—and a hot-water
tank connected with the stove (Fig 8). All houses are electrically
lighted.
The cost of erecting these houses for the low-paid unskilled laborer
averages about $400 per room, not including the bathroom as,a sepa­
rate room. The 42 dwellings were built under a single contract in
191-6 and 1917.
Of the 42 dwellings, 26 contain 4 rooms per dwelling, and of the 26,
12 are heated by stove, and rent for $10 a month; 12 are heated by
furnace placed on the first floor, as shown on the plans (Fig. 17),
and rent for $11 a month, while kwo having a basement and furnace
rent for $12 a month. Fourteen of the 42 contain 6 rooms each.
Eight of these 14, heated by stoves, rent for $15 a month; four,
having furnace heat, rent for $16.50; and two, each of which has a
basement and is heated by a furnace, rent for $18.75 per month.
The two remaining dwellings, in the form of a double house, provide
five rooms for each family unit, are heated by furnace, and rent for
$13.75 per month per family.
Boarding houses for unskilled labor.—Three boarding houses for the
single men have been erected in the low-rental block described above.
Two of these are identical in plan, except that one is the reverse of the
other. Each of the last named accommodates 16 boarders in 8 double
rooms and 9 in single rooms, together with 7 rooms for the family or
administrative staff engaged to operate the house. The larger board­
ing house accommodates 44 boarders in 22 double rooms, and 22 in
single rooms. Sixteen rooms are provided for the caretaker of the
house and for administrative purposes. Single rooms are 8 feet 3
inches by 10 feet 8 inches, and double rooms generally 11 feet 3
inches by 10 feet 8 inches.
The construction of the boarding houses is the same as of the lowrental houses, i. e., cement stucco on wire lath, backed by waterproof
paper and plaster board. All floors are of concrete, some of the floors

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[ 747]

20

M O N T H L Y R EV IEW OF T H E B U R E A U OF LABOR STA T ISTIC S.

■Or

-BCez/f/rq
/7 J JJjJ ft
ft^ j

T T ~
Finish

f/t

LV
Ceiling h'neJF
1

fo 0

-0 □
t=) C3

/x*nadA 'f/oof line.
^ — * G r a c/e

F i^ sr F looj^ F l ^ n :
F IG . 17.— P L A N S A N D E L E V A T IO N O F L O W -R E N T A L R O W H O U S E .

Note placing of furnace on first floor, house being without basement.
third floor.


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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

[7481

Note also bathroom located on

MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

21

being covered with a top flooring of maple; roofs are similar in con­
struction to those of the dwelling houses; the interior finish is of
painted pine; and walls are wood-fiber plaster on plaster board.
Modern plumbing is installed throughout, and the houses are heated
by hot-air furnaces, and lighted by electricity.
In the smaller boarding house the dining room, kitchen, living
room, wash and toilet room, furnace room and a storage room are in
the basement. There are also a toilet room and a living room for
the management on the first floor, but none on the second floor.
In the larger boarding house the basement contains the furnace
room, laundry, and storage room.
All boarding-house wash rooms have shower baths, washbowls with
‘‘flowing-stream ” faucets, liquid-soap dispensers, sanitary drinking
fountains, and toilets.
Each wing on each floor has independent toilet and washing
facilities. Each wing, furthermore, is entirely isolated from the
other by the central dining room on the first floor and the recreation
room on the second floor; both of the latter are reached by an outside
entrance, so arranged that every person entering the dining room or
recreation room must pass the custodian’s office. The kitchen and
the servants’ quarters are arranged in such a way as to secure com­
plete isolation from the remainder of the building except through
the dining room. The custodian has an office, a bedroom, and a
toilet in connection. The dining room will seat all of the boarders
at one time. The recreation room, on the second floor, above the
dining room, is of the same size as the latter.
Neighborhood house for low-rental employees.—-The welfare building,
or neighborhood house as it is called, is designed to be the center
for neighborhood recreation. The building is of the same con­
struction and appearanc^ as others in the block. It contains a
small store where special foreign goods and foods are sold, a barber
shop, and a neighborhood nurse office. There is a lounging room for
the men and a meeting room for the women completely separated
and having ready access to the nurse’s office. The second floor is
principally one large recreation room, which may be used for enter­
tainments, lectures, dances, etc., with equal facility, and a kitchen
attached thereto for conducting cooking classes for the women and
children of the section and for use in connection with entertain­
ments. The ‘basement is devoted principally to classrooms or read­
ing rooms, in order to give the maximum degree of quietude.
Up to the present time the store and barber shop have not been
used as such, principally because the population in that section is yet
too small. These rooms are being used as adjuncts to the recrea­
tional features now being carried on.


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[749]

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MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

The entire building was designed to permit of the greatest “ elas­
ticity ” in its use; that is, any one or more of the rooms can be used
for several purposes, thus allowing the use of the building to change
from time to time as the personnel or requirements of the adjacent
residents demands.
As an example of this arrangement: As one of the two churches is
still in course of construction and the other building (the Union
Church) is being planned, all religious services and Sunday-school
instruction are now carried on in the neighborhood house without
interference with one another or with the secular functions. Red
Cross work is conducted here on weekdays, as are meetings of the com­
munity club (the local civic league) and dances in the auditorium, a
children’s playroom in the “ barber shop, ” a boy’s club in the “ store,”
and Sunday school in the men’s and women’s reading rooms, while
cooking classes are held in the kitchen adjoining the auditorium.
All wash rooms are equipped with shower baths and sanitary fea­
tures similar to those described in the men’s boarding houses.
POLICY AN D MANAGEMENT.

The houses of the community are rented only to employees of sub­
sidiary companies of the United States Steel Corporation in the
neighborhood and persons doing professional and mercantile business
in the Park. No houses are sold. As noted, all types of employees
are reached, although only to a limited extent. The Minnesota
Steel Co., for whose employees the community was primarily estab­
lished, employs, in round numbers, about 3,000 persons; the Univer­
sal Portland Cement Co. some 450, and the Morgan Park Co. about
50; as yet, only about 750 employees altogether are accommodated
in the company town, including the boarding houses.
The tenants for company houses are selected generally in the order
of their application. Other considerations may, however, have
weight in the matter, such as the character of the applicant’s services,
his general desirability as a tenant, and the likelihood of his becoming
a permanent employee.
An information card is kept of each tenant, which shows the make­
up of his family and information concerning his past rental record.
Rent is collected once a month. The subsidiary companies whose
employees are housed generally collect it by a deduction from the
pay of the employees, upon their written request, and turn it over
to the housing company. Employees requesting it, certain of the
administrative staff, and nonemployees pay rents at the office of the
company as in common house-renting practice.
A rental lease is signed for such terms as may be agreed upon. It
does not, as is common in many company leases, contain a provision


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[750]

MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUEEAU OF LABOE ST A T IS T IC S .

28

F IG . IS .

O R G A N IZ A T IO N C H A R T O F T H E M O R G A N P A R K CO.

fco the effect that the lease is for the term of employment only, but
ioes provide that notice to vacate in 30 days may be given.
The management of the Morgan Park Co. is in the hands of s
resident manager and an office staff of about six nersons. There is

also a maintenance force to attend to the work of landscape garden­
ing, fuel distribution, street cleaning, water service, fire department,
watchmen or police force, repair, garbage removal, sanitation, and
general labor force. The organization chart (Fig. 18) shows the
various activities carried on by the Morgan Park Co. The chart does

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24

MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

not aim to show so much the lines of authority as lines of communica­
tion in carrying on the varied community work. The chief clerk, it
may be stated, is the office manager next in authority to the company
manager.
The residents of the suburb are kept interested in their community
by being informed, through circular letters, pamphlets, and a weekly
bulletin, as to different phases of management—how to garden, how
to take care of their furnaces, how to manage their water supply—
keeping their lawns trimmed and premises neat, community rec­
reation and entertainments, together with announcements of all
social, religious, and educational events. Articles are contributed
to the weekly bulletin by physicians, school-teachers, neighborhood
nurse, agricultural experts, physical and recreation directors of the
clubs, and officials of the local athletic and social organizations.
MAINTENAIT CE.

As housing is the sole business and interest of the company con­
trolling the community, problems of house and community mainte­
nance receive careful consideration. Reference has already been
made to the daily collection of garbage and rubbish, provision
of neatly paved alleys, lawns, and parked streets. Tenants keep
their own lawns mowed, and by a system of prizes are encouraged
to keep gardens. It has been found, however, that the present
lack of rear-yard fences has militated against the greatest possible
amount of gardening. Plans are now under consideration for the
provision of neat fences in order to secure more gardening on the rear
lots. Unfenced gardens encourage children and dogs to run over
them. Even in the multiple houses of the low-rental section special
allotments for gardens have been set aside betweeen the double
alleys described above. Garden space may also be had on unoccu­
pied land, distant from the houses. There is a garden adviser whose
services are available for the community.
CONCLUSION.

Many of the building projects in Morgan Park, as well as certain
features of its social life, have been approached in an experimental
manner. The factors in modern town-planning science as applied
to industrial towns, can be accurately ascertained, the manager
believes, only in that manner. Town planning in the sense here
used applies to the whole social structure rather than to the narrower
field of building construction and town site surveying only.
One of the considerations worthy of note is the attempt to avoid
unnecessary duplication in buildings provided for educational and
religious purposes, boarding facilities for single men and women,
public service and social and recreational organizations. Duplica
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MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.
4

25

tion in small store facilities has been avoided. Another is the en­
deavor to stimulate and direct gardening, playground activities, and
indoor and outdoor amusements for children and adults, public
entertainments, domestic science, night school work, and hygienics.
And a third is the attempt to assist the residents of an industrial
town under company management in developing a civic league or
community club to take an interest in matters concerning the rela­
tions of one resident with another and their joint relation to the com­
pany, so that company control may be exercised to the minimum and
self-government developed to the maximum degree believed to be
consistent with the proper administration of the property.
The management has avoided the issuing of printed regulations or
prohibitions, preferring the plan of suggestion and example in
obtaining cooperation with its work. It is realized that the companylias gained by securing more efficient and contented employees, while
the employees have gained through the improved environment
created, among other gains being probably better houses for a rela­
tively less rental.
These advantages, however, can only be maintained permanently
so long as the steel corporation retains title to the land or transfers
title to the community for cost plus a reasonable profit. If the steel
corporation or the community allows speculators or investors to
capitalize community benefits into land values and to charge rents
based on the principle of charging what the “ traffic will bear,” the
housing and social conditions in Morgan Park will become like those
in all other communities where unrestricted private ownership of land
flourishes, as exemplified in neighboring individually owned and
operated suburbs where improvements have not kept pace with
housing development, where many relatively low grade houses have
been put up, where, in a word, all the conditions of a boom town exist.

EFFECT OF TH E

A IR H A M M E R

ON

TH E

HANDS O F STO N ECU TTER S.

BY ALICE HAMILTON, M. D.

During the spring of 1917 the Bureau of Labor Statistics began the
study of a curious condition in the hands of stonecutters which seemed
to follow the use of the air hammer in cutting and carving stone. The
information came from the limestone workers of Indiana, but inquiry
showed that the same affection was to be found among workers in
other branches of the stone trade. The bureau then authorized a
visit to the limestone belt of Indiana, the granite cutting centers in
Quincy, Mass., and Barre, Vt., the marble shops of Long Island City,
and the sandstone mills of northern Ohio.


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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

[7 5 3 ]

26

M O N THLY

R E V IE W

OF

TH E

BUREAU

O F L A B O R S T A T IS T IC S .

Since the condition in the men's hands, which was the object of
this inquiry, comes on under the influence of cold, I made my visits
during January, February, and March of 1918, on days when the
temperature was between 14° F. and 34° F. I discovered a very
clearly defined localized anemia of certain fingers, which is undoubtedly
associated with the use of the air hammer and which, while it lasts,
makes the fingers numb and clumsy, causing the workman more or
less discomfort and sometimes hampering his work.
The pneumatic hammer consists of a handle containing the
hammer, which is driven by compressed air, and is said to deliver
from 3,000 to 3,500 strokes a minute. The amount of air delivered
through a hammer can be controlled by a valve in the pipe conveying
the air, and the air escapes through an exhaust opening in the handle
itself. This handle is held in the right hand in various ways, some­
times with the palm of the hand down and all the fingers grasping the
handle equally, or it may be held between the thumb, middle, and
index fingers, very much as a pen is held. Hammers are of various
sizes; there is the small half-inch hammer, the medium five-eighths
or three-fourths inch, and the large 1-inch hammer. The tool (the
chisel) is held by the left hand against the hammer and with the cutting
edge pressed against the stone. Italian workmen usually slip the tool
between the little and ring fingers, so that it rests against the side of
the little finger, where a large callus develops. Other workmen
grasp the tool with all four fingers. In either case the little and ring
fingers, being nearest the cutting end of the tool, are pressed most
closely against it in order to guide it.
The conditions under which stone is cut differ somewhat for the
four kinds of stone. In the limestone region of Indiana and in
the sandstone region of Ohio there are large mills, heated somewhat
in winter so that the temperature is perhaps 10° or rarely 20® higher
indoors than outside. This would mean that when the thermometer
stands at 15° F. the working atmosphere will be at about freezing
point, or perhaps as high as 38° F. In Quincy and in Barre granite
is cut in sheds, which in the former town are wide open, while in Barre
they are inclosed and sometimes slightly warmed. They are, how­
ever, colder than the western mills, and in very cold weather work has
to be suspended. The marble shops in Long Island City are inclosed
and usually better heated than any of the other stonecutting shops I
visited. I did not see a place in any mill, shop, or shed where a man
could warm his hands conveniently.
The air hammer is used in cutting all four kinds of stone but not to
the same extent in all. Limestone cutters use it almost all the time.
When one enters a mill in the limestone region the stonecutters, with a
very few exceptions, are all seen to be using the air hammer. It is rare


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to see more than two or three men wielding the mallet, unless they are
apprentices who are required to use it. In cutting limestone the
air hammer can be used both for shaping the block of stone, a process
known as “ roughing out,” and for cleaning up or m a k i n g a smooth
surface. Many men say that the roughing out should really be done
with the mallet, but in practice the air hammer is used. Limestone
cutters use all sizes of tools; the carvers use the smaller ones chiefly or
entirely. Marble cutters come next in their use of the air hammer.
They work more with the mallet than do the limestone men, but the
greater part of their work is with the pneumatic tool, and usually
the smaller sizes.
Granite cutters can not use this machine for shaping the block.
That must be done by hand, because the stone is so hard. For
dressing the surface they use tfwo machines, a large heavy surfacer
with a big handle which is grasped in both hands and held upright,
the tool pressing on the surface of the stone; and a smaller “ bullset” or “ four-point,” which also has a fairly large handle and a short
tool, and which is also held perpendicularly in both hands and pressed
against the surface of the stone. The tool in both these machines
is held in place by the hammer and stone, never grasped or guided
by the left hand. For lettering and carving, however, the granite
worker uses the same sort of air hammer as is found in marble' and
limestone mills, and there are granite workers who use this tool all day
long, but these are the exception. As a rule the men I questioned
in the granite sheds use it only four, five, or six hours a day.
In sandstone the air hammer seems to be of little use. A mill I
visited near Amherst, Ohio, had five air hammers for 30 men, and
that number was quite sufficient. Sandstone does not require much
tooling. It is used chiefly for paving stone, curbstones, grindstones,
and exterior building stone. Much of the tooling required is done by
hand, for the nature of the stone makes work with the air hammer
difficult or impossible. I questioned 15 sandstone cutters and was
told by 6 that they had never used the air hammer at all. Two
had formerly used it in marblework, but not in sandstone, and
7 used it now and then for sandstone, but hardly more than half
an hour during the day.
A description of one or two of the more marked cases of anemia in
the fingers will show just what this condition is. The first one is
a limestone cutter whom I saw early in the morning when the tempera­
ture was about 14° F. He had been out of doors for over half an hour,
and in order to be able to show me his hands in a typical condition he
had refrained from rubbing them violently and swinging his arms
about, as he would ordinarily do to restore the circulation. The
discomfort, however, had grown so intense in his fingers that he could


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not bear it any longer and almost at once after I arrived he began
rubbing and kneading and shaking his hands, The four fingers of his
left hand were a dead greenish white and were shrunken, quite like
the hand of a corpse. The whiteness involved all the little finger
to the knuckle, but in the other fingers it stopped midway between
knuckle and second joint. As he rubbed his hand the contrast
between fingers and hand increased and at one stage it was very
striking, the crimson and slightly swollen hand meeting the white,
shrunken fingers abruptly, without any intermediate zone. On the
palmar side the condition was not so distinct, for the skin was too
thick and calloused to allow the color to show well.
The right hand was much less affected, the little finger escaped
altogether, the three others were white, but not dead white, as far
as the second joints, and there was a ting of white around the second
phalanx of the thumb. After vigorous massage and beating of his
arms back and forth over his chest, the blood gradually filled the
fingers and the appearance then was fairly normal, showing only a
moderately purplish red color, and no swelling.
This man is 39 years old and has cut stone for 22 years. While
using the ordinary tools of his trade he had no trouble of this kind.
Nine years ago he began to work with the air hammer and during the
second winter after that he noticed that the ring finger of the left
hand had begun to “ go white.” Gradually the little finger became
involved, then the others, and, to a less extent, the fingers of the
right hand. The trouble has progressed through the years and is
still increasing. There is a good deal of pain in the fingers, especially
on a cold morning. As long as the dead-white condition lasts there
is no real pain, but discomfort enough to make him stop work and
get the blood back into his fingers, for the stroke of the hammer on
the tool he holds in the left hand is peculiarly intolerable when the
fingers are white. As the blood comes back there is some sharp
pain but it does not last. At no time, however, does the left hand
feel quite natural, he is always conscious of it, indeed his whole left
side, including the foot, feels differently from the right. If he holds
his hands up for a few minutes they grow numb and this is
annoying when he tries to read a newspaper and must continually
put it down to coax the blood back into his hands. He has lost
sensitiveness in the fingers, so that he can not put his left hand in
his pocket and distinguish a coin by the touch; he must look at it
to see if it is a dime or a nickle. He is clumsy in the morning when
buttoning his clothes and lacing his boots. If he works all day with
the hammer he has a restless, disturbed night.
The second man is a marble cutter who has followed his trade for
20 years and has had trouble with his fingers from the fifth year on


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He uses the small tool almost entirely. The four fingers of the left
hand were white, the little finger over the whole extent, the next two
over the two distal joints, the index over the first joint. On the right
hand the tips of all four fingers were white and there were irregular
streaks of white along the index and middle fingers. This man com­
plained of the pain in his fingers both when they were white and when
the blood first began to come back, but his chief complaint was of
nervousness from the vibration of the hammer; he said it upset him,
made him “ as nervous as a kitten,” spoiled his sleep, made him
irritable. Though he is troubled chiefly in winter, he can not put
his hands in cold water in summer without making his fingers “ go
white.” In winter, if he is working indoors he is not really hampered
by the numbness in his fingers, but he can not do any fine work out
of doors if the weather is at all cold for the numbness makes his
fingers clumsy.
The third is a granite cutter who has used the air hammer for 18
years and who began to feel the effects in his fingers after two years.
Now his left hand shows all of the little, ring, and middle fingers
involved and all but one-third of the index finger. On the right hand
most of the index and middle fingers and the tips of the ring and little
fingers are blanched, but not so strikingly so as the fingers of the left
hand. He is “ bothered” a good deal by the numbness in winter and
it comes on whenever he handles a cold tool, after which he finds it
hard to do any fine work till he has managed to get the circulation
started again.
There is no need to multiply these descriptions. With a few varia­
tions the men from whom full histories could be obtained told much
the same tale. These stonecutters are exceptionally good material
for such a study, for they are intelligent men, usually of good edu­
cation and able to note and describe their symptoms clearly. There
is among some of them a tendency to dwell perhaps too much on the
nervous disorders which they believe are caused by the tiring vibra­
tions of the hammer, and which give them a good deal of worry. Of
nearly all of the men, however, this is not true. Many of them have
no complaint at all, except of the actual condition in the hands, but
others suffer from more or less distressing symptoms which they
think are caused by the vibrating hammer. The most common
symptom is covered by that vague term “ nervousness.” They say
that they feel jumpy and irritable, upset by a slamming door, unable
to settle down after a full day’s work with the tool. Their sleep is
disturbed and restless, and they have buzzing or ringing in the ears.
The numbness in the hands is inconvenient, for they can not hold a
newspaper or a book for any length of time without being forced to
put it down, and rub and knead their hands. Sometimes they have
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to sleep with the left arm hanging down from the bed, or the numb­
ness will waken them, and then they must get up and swing the arms
about or bathe the hands in hot water. Some of them are not
troubled at all in summer, others get numb fingers on chilly days,
or if they put their hands in cold water. A few men complain of
trouble with the left foot, which is colder than the right.
The blanching of the fingers is very much the same in all these
cases, usually involving in right-handed men the little, ring, and
middle fingers of the left hand, seldom the index and never the
thumb, while on the right hand it is usually the tips of all the fingers
and perhaps the larger part of the index and part of the thumb, but
the whiteness on the right hand is less uniform and less striking than
on the left, and this hand may escape entirely. There is sometimes
a patch of white in the palm of the left hand. In left-handed men
the condition in the hands is reversed. Many men told me that the
white area on their hands sometimes extended as far as the wrists
on the ulnar side, but I never saw it reach even quite to the knuckles.
There are several reasons why the left hand is more affected than
the right. In the first place a greater effort must be made by the
left hand in grasping the tool, holding one end against the hammer,
and guiding and pressing the other end along the surface of the stone.
The fingers often clasp the tool so tightly that the blood is driven
from them, and this, together with the vibration of the tool from the
blows of the hammer and the influence of the cold, seems to set up a
condition in the blood vessels which leads to spasmodic contractions
and the resulting blanched and shrunken condition. The right hand
can hold the larger hammer more loosely and can shift it in different
ways during work, and the vibrations are not felt so severely as in
the left hand.
Some men continue to be liable to attacks of white fingers even
after they have given up stonecutting for several years. I found 8
men of whom this is true, 4 of them formerly granite cutters, 2
workers in marble, and 2 in limestone. They have not cut stone for
periods ranging from 4 to 12 years, but they still have numb, white
fingers at times in cold weather. One of the granite workers came
into the office of the union while I was there, and I was struck at once
by the dead white, shrunken condition of his left hand. He told me
that he was no longer cutting granite, had not worked in the shed for
four years, yet the attacks still occur.
It is very important to know whether this condition of the hands
affects the men’s skill or strength, whether it lessens their earning
capacity in case they wish to take up other work than stonecutting.
Few of the men whom I saw complained of loss of sensation in the
fingers great enough to hamper them, except when the fingers were


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actually numb. The majority noticed no change at all during the
intervals between attacks of numbness. But, of course, an occupa­
tion which had to be carried on in the cold might be impossible, just
because the numbness would inevitably come on. For instance, one
man had tried to work in an automobile repair shop, and found that
on a cold day he could not pick up or hold small screws or small
machine parts with his left hand. Another had taken up work which
involved handling a crowbar sometimes, and when he did this in
winter his left hand would grow numb and so clumsy that he could
not use it with skill. The only men who complained of clumsiness
in their own work from numb fingers were marble workers who
require a high degree of skill and who find that cold weather often
makes it impossible for them to do their best work, especially if they
are out of doors.
There were altogether 123 workmen in the three branches of soft
stone, marble, and granite work whom I examined, and I found only
17 who had not had the so-called “ dead fingers.” If we omit those
who sought me out in order to show me their hands and who might
be looked upon as picked cases, there remain 102 whom I saw in the
mills and who were not selected at all, but taken as they came. Only
16 of these were quite free from the trouble.
The condition is so common in the limestone, marble, and granite
industries that any inquiry about it meets with instant response.
One does not have to stop to explain and describe. In Quincy and in
Barre many of the granite workers are Italians who speak little Eng­
lish, but as soon as they understood my question they would hold up
in answer one, two, three, or four fingers of the left hand, but often
would shake the head when I then pointed to the right hand, It had
been suggested to the Bureau that the agitation about this condition
among the Indiana limestone men had been influenced by the fact
that at the time there was a controversy between the employers and
the union concerning the use of this air hammer; but there was no
controversy in the granite or marble shops, and yet the testimony
given by the men in these two fields was much the same as that given
by the limestone men. Marble cutters and limestone cutters are
obliged to use the air hammer more continuously than are the granite
cutters, and from these two classes of men I heard more complaint
of discomfort and pain from the use of the tool than I heard from
the granite cutters, who as a rule do not use it for more than half
their working horns.
Among sandstone cutters spastic anemia of the fingers is not found.
I visited a mill in which 15 men were at work at the time and the only
ones who had ever had dead fingers were 3 former marble cutters.
They had used the air hammer in marblework and their fingers had


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shown the effect, but in working with sandstone they had used it so
little that the trouble was passing away. The other 12 either used it
not at all or very little. This is the rule in sandstone work, and the
result is that dead fingers are not found among the men in this branch
of the stone trade.
The men who show no effects from the air hammer usually attribute
their immunity to a more skillful use of the tool. They tell one that
they hold the chisel lightly and never cramp their fingers round it,
or they wind thick cotton or wool round the left hand to protect it
from the cold. However, I have seen blanched fingers in many men
who wore thick gloves on their left hands. One marble worker told
me that the condition of the machine made a great deal of difference.
He always had trouble with his hands if he worked in a shop where
they used old hammers and did not keep them in order, for these grow
loose and the tool slips unless it is held tightly and the vibration is
worse. With a new small tool he has no trouble at all. Certainly
some men can use the air hammer for long periods and show no effect
from it. I saw a limestone carver who had worked with it 23 years,
a granite cutter who had done so for 18 years all day long, and 2
marble cutters who had used it quite steadily for 15 years, and none
of them had any numbness of the fingers.
There can be no reasonable doubt that this spastic anemia of the
stonecutters’ fingers is caused by the use of the air hammer. The
more continuously it is used, the greater the number of men affected
and the more pronounced the condition. The greatest complaint is
heard from the limestone cutters and marble workers who use the air
hammer for the greater part of their working time. Granite cutters
have numb fingers also, but do not seem to experience the discom­
fort that men in the other two branches do, and most granite workers
do not use the hammer much more than half their time. Sandstone
cutters use it little or not at all and this is the one stone trade in which
numb fingers are almost unknown. Not one man was found in any
of the stone trades who had this condition of the hands and had not
used the air hammer.
SUMMARY.

Among men who use the air hammer for cutting stone there appears
very commonly a disturbance in the circulation of the hands, which
consists in spasmodic contraction of the blood vessels of certain fin­
gers, making them blanched, shrunken, and numb.
These attacks come on under the influence of cold, and are most
marked, not while the man is at work with the hammer, but usually
early in the morning or after work. The fingers affected are in righthanded men the little, ring, middle, and more rarely, the index of
the left hand, and the tips of the fingers of the right hand, with some-


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times the whole of the index finger and sometimes the thumb. In
left-handed men this condition in the two hands is reversed.
The fingers affected are numb and clumsy, while the vascular spasm
persists. As it passes over there may be decided discomfort and even
pain, but the hands soon become normal in appearance and as a
usual thing the men do not complain of discomfort between the
attacks. There are no serious secondary effects following these
attacks.
The condition is undoubtedly caused by the use of the air hammer;
it is most marked in those branches of stonework where the air ham­
mer is most continuously used and it is absent only in the one branch
where the air hammer is used little or not at all. Stonecutters who
do not use the air hammer do not have this condition of the fingers.
Apparently once the spastic anemia has been set up it is very slow
in disappearing. Men who have given up the use of the air hammer
for many years still may have their fingers turn white and numb in
cold weather.
According to the opinion of the majority of stonecutters, the con­
dition does not impair the skill in the fingers for ordinary interior
stonecutting and carving, but may make it impossible for a man to
do outside cutting in cold weather or to take up a skilled trade which
exposes the hands to cold.
The trouble seems to be caused by three factors—long continued
muscular contraction of the fingers in holding the tool, the vibrations
of the tool, and cold. It is increased by too continuous use of the
air hammer, by grasping the tool too tightly, by using a worn, loose
air hammer, and by cold in the working place. If these features can
be eliminated the trouble can probably be decidedly lessened.

F R E IG H T

HAND LERS

ON

P A S S E N G E R -F R E IG H T
G R EAT LAKES.

STEAM ER S

ON

TH E

BY EMIL FRANKEL.

The freight handlers, sometimes called deck hands, represent a
type of labor peculiar to the passenger-freight carrying vessels of the
Great Lakes. While the work of the freight handlers ordinarily is
that of longshoremen or stevedores, they also sail on the vessel, and
thus become a part of the crew. The trips which these passengerfreight steamers make are usually short ones. They touch ports on
their voyage at which men are not readily available to do the loading
or unloading of cargo. Some places are touched at night and stops
arc made only long enough to discharge freight and take on cargo.
It becomes necessary therefore to carry men aboard the vessel who
may be called and set to work at any time of the day or night.

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There are about seven passenger-freight lines plying from the ports
of Chicago, Detroit, and Cleveland, which in the operating of their
boats requires the services of freight handlers. The number of freight
handlers carried aboard ship ranges from 5 to 30, depending upon
the size and the run of the vessel, and the bulk of the cargoes, and i3
further subject to industrial and seasonal changes.
Freight handlers are generally hired by the first mate and usually
work under the direction of one of the mates. Their work is prin­
cipally that of loading or unloading the cargo. They are given heavy
hand trucks for wheeling the freight from the pier into the freight
deck where they stow it away. While they have nothing to do with
the navigation of the vessel, some of the freight handlers have to
help make the ship fast and take care of the lines. The handling of
the freight requires much bodily strength, but little skill. The
work being of low grade, the compensation therefor is correspond­
ingly low, and for that reason attractive only to certain types of
workers. A description of their types and racial and national com­
position would be interesting, but an attempt clearly to define them
would, because of the great variety and complexity of types, be
very difficult.
As the freight handlers are largely recruited from the workers of
large cities, it is but natural that they should reflect the particular
racial composition and the general industrial status of the cities
from which they come. Among these men may be found the “ down
and outs” who drift to the water front in search of any kind of a job;
men, perhaps, who did not succeed in their trades or callings, or have
broken down through drinking and are little fitted for regular work.
There will be found the recently arrived immigrant who finds thi3
kind of work a suitable makeshift, and the unemployed from the
trades and industries to whom the work offers temporary means of
obtaining food and shelter.
When there is an abundance of labor there is little difficulty in
securing a sufficient number of men to fill the complement. There 13
usually a large number on hand to take the places of those who leave
and to fill the gaps in the complement when the boat is ready to sail.
During times when there is a scarcity of labor some companies have
found it necessary to engage a man—perhaps a man who has himself
been a freight handler and is thoroughly acquainted with them—for
the special purpose of going into the lodging-house districts to “ round
up ” men.
As explained previously, the work of a freight handler is generally
considered to be a low type of labor, and the rates of wages have been
at a correspondingly low level. For quite a number of years there
have been little changes in the wage rates paid to this class of labor,


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and it is only in the last two years, due largely to increased industrial
activities and scarcity of men, that there have been some increases
in the rates of wages paid. Most companies put a premium on the
steady worker and have offered double rate of pay and sometimes
more, to the man who works continuously for a certain period,
usually for more than a week.
In 1914 and 1915, freight handlers were paid at the rate of 50
cents per day and board, and of $1 to those who worked steadily for
seven days or more. In 1916 and 1917, years of favorable employ­
ment situation, the daily wage rate was 75 cents, which was later
increased to $1.25; $1.75 per day was paid during the same period
to those who sailed on the same vessels continuously for a week or
more. During 1917 some of the companies experienced difficulty
in obtaining a sufficient number of men to work for the daily rate
quoted above, and they changed the method, paying freight handlers
25 cents per hour for actual hours worked.
As freight handlers are not a part of the regular navigation crew,
they do not, when the boat is out of port, have to stand watches,
required by law of employees in the deck and engine departments.
As stated previously, however, freight handlers may be required to
work at any time of the day or night. Their hours of labor, generally
speaking, are very irregular, and the length of the periods of con­
tinuous employment shows great variance. This may be ascribed to
the industrial and seasonal fluctuations to which the movement of
freight is subject, to the character of the freight to be carried, to the
regularity or irregularity with which freight is delivered at the piers,
to the length of the stays in port, and to weather conditions.
Because of these great variations in the working hours, it would be
interesting to show existing conditions on all boats employing freight
handlers and for the entire season. This, however, would be entirely
beyond the scope of the present article. The following table, show­
ing the actual hours worked by freight handlers on a boat running
from Chicago to near-by points on the western shore of Lake Michigan,
during a normally busy period of the summer season, may serve as
a typical example.
SEVEN DAYS E N DIN G JULY 13
1917, ON ONE BOAT SELECTED AS TYPICAL.

h o u r s o f l a b o r o f f r e ig h t h a n d l e r s f o r t h e

Duration of periods of work on each specified day.
Day.
From—
July
July
July
July
July
July
July

To—

From—

To—

From—

To—

6.30 a. &00 a.
8.30 a. 12.00 m. 1.15 p. 1.45 p.
7 ...........
8 ............ 10.15 a. 12.00 m. 3.15 p. 4.15 p.
4.45 p. 5.30 p.
9 ............ 9.00 a. 9.30 a. 11.15 a. 12.00 m. 1.00 p . 3.00 p.
10.......... 1.15 a. 2.45 a.
5.00 a. 6.00 a.
7.00 a. 10.15 a.
11.......... 5.15 a. 6.15 a.
7.30 a, 12.00 m. 1.15 p, 3.45 p.
12.......... 3.45 a. 6.00 a.
7.00 a. 9.00 a. 1Q.30 a. 11.45 a.
7.30 a. 12.00 m. 1.00 p. 4.00 p.
13.......... 5.15 a. 6U5 a.


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From—
3.00 p.

To—

From—

To—

3.15 p.

3.45 p.

4.00 p.

4.00 p. 4.30 p.
11.00 a. 12.00 m.
4.45 p. 5.15 p.
2.15 p. 2.45 p.
4.30 p. 5.00 p.

5.30 p.
1.15 p.
5.45 p.
3.30 p.
5.30 p.

7.15 p,
2.15 p.
7.00 p.
4.00 p.
7.30 p.

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HOURS OF LABOR OF FR E IG H T H A N D L E R S FOR TH E SE V E N DAYS ENDIN G JULY 13,
1917, ON ONE BOAT SELECTED AS TYPICAL—Concluded.
Duration ol periods of work on each specified day.
Day.
From—

To—

From—

To—

From—

To—

From—

Time
within
Total
which
time
work
worked. was
com­
To—
pleted.
11.

July 7
July 8
July 9
July 10.........
.Tnlv 11
July 12.........
July 13

5.30 p.

f .00 p.

2.45 p.

3.15 p.

4.00 p.

5.30 p.

4.30 p.

5.30 p.

6.00 p.

7.00 p.

6.00 p.

7.15 p.

10.15 p. 11.45 p.

10.15 p. 11.30 p.

6
3
5
12
9
10
11

m.

30
30
30
15
45
00
00

II.

11
7
10
22
13
20
14

m.

30
15
15
15
45
00
15

58 30

Thus, on July 7, work for freight handlers on this boat began at
6.30 a. m. and lasted until 8 a. m. After a recess of half an hour
work was continuous until 12 o’clock noon. After a pause of 1 hour
and 15 minutes, the handling of freight was taken up again and,
with three interruptions, one lasting 30 minutes, one 1hour and 15 min­
utes, and the third 1 hour and 30 minutes, continued until 6 p. m.
The actual time worked during this day was 6^ hours, though the
span during which these hours were completed was 11^ hours. The
next day, there being little freight to be moved, work did not
begin until 10.15 a. m., and though the freight handling did not
stop until 5.30 p. m. the actual working time amounted to only
3£ hours. July 9 was a comparatively easy day, the day’s work
ending at 7.15 p. m. The next day, however, the men were called
to handle the freight soon after midnight, working until 2.45 a. m.
After a rest of 2 hours and 15 minutes they set to work again at 5
a. m., and with seven interruptions of. work lasting from half an
hour to 3 hours, they finally quit work at 11.30 p. m. The actual
working time for this day was 12 hours and 15 minutes, though it
took 22 hours and 15 minutes within which to complete this time.
The next morning, July 11, work began at 5.15 a. m. and lasted until
7 p. m., during which time the actual working period was 9 hours and
45 minutes, and the time within which this was completed was 13
hours and 45 minutes. On July 12 the men began work at 3.45 a. m.
and worked, with seven pauses of varying length, until 11.45 p. m.,
requiring 14 hours and 15 minutes of outside time in which to com­
plete the 11 hours of actual time worked. The hours of work on
July 13 were similar to those of July 11.
During the pauses in the work the freight handlers are free to
lounge around the freight deck or go to their quarters. Some of
these pauses are needed for meals, others for necessary sleep, though
sleeping hours during the night are extremely irregular and in some


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cases hardly long enough to offer sufficient rest, as the preceding
table shows.
The following table gives a summary of the actual hours of work
and the time required within which to complete these hours, and
covers 110 working days of freight handlers on two passengerfreight boats, one plying from Chicago to points on the eastern
shore, the others to points on the western shore of Lake Michigan:
W ORKING DAYS OF FR EIGHT H A N D LE R S CLASSIFIED ACCORDING TO HOURS
W OR KED AND HOURS W ITHIN WHICH W ORK WAS COMPLETED.
Number of working days for which the interval in which these hours were
completed was—
Actual hours worked.

22
12
14
18
20
16
2
4
8
10
6
and and and and and and and and and and and
under under under under under under under under under under under Total.
22
24
12
14
18
20
16
4
8
6
10

? and render 3
. ______
3 and under 4
____ . . . .
4 and nnrjp.r fi
_____ . . .
Sand iffidp.r fi
_____. . . .
Cand under 7
____ . . . .
7 am<1 under ft
_______ _
ft ani1 under ft
.................
Qand under 1ft __________
1ft and under 11.....................
11 and under 12
.............
12 and under 13...... ..............
13 and under 1 4 ...................
14 and under 1fi
.............
Ifi and under lfi.r. .............

2

Total.............................

2

2

2
2
1

1
2
4
6

1
2
2
2
1

1
3
1
3
2
4
1

1
3
7
3

1
2
6
3
2

1
1
1

2
4
3
3
1

2
4
3
1
2
1

1
1
3
4

14

9

2

1
1

1
5

13

7

14

14

15

3

14

4
7
10
10
7
11
19
19
9
8

110

During 40 working days, representing a little over 36 per cent of
the total number, the actual time worked by freight handlers was
less than eight hours; during 30 days—27.3 per cent—the actual
working hours were between 8 and 10; during 28 days, a little over 25
per cent of the total days, the actual time worked was between 10
and 12 hours; and during 12 days, representing nearly 11 per cent
of the total number of days, the actual hours of work ranged from 12
to 16.
Though the number of actual working hours shown in this table
may not be in excess of the hours of work in other industries, the
time within which these hours were completed—that is, the interval
between the time of beginning of the first period of work and the
time of ending of the last period, in some cases is excessively long.
During 27 days, 24.5 per cent of the total, the time necessary within
which to complete the actual hours of work was less than 10 hours;
during 43 days, 39.1 per cent of the total, the time within which
work was completed ranged from 10 to 16 hours; and during 40
days, 36.4 per cent of the total, the actual hours of work required
16 to 24 hours in which to complete them. Long and irregular
hours are, however, not the only characteristic feature of this kind

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of employment; the conditions under which freight handlers live
aboard the vessel must also be considered. Sleeping accommoda­
tions provided for freight handlers in many cases are poor and it i3
frequently asserted that the food served to them is of inferior quality.
They are usually quartered in one large room in the forward hold of
the boat, which is fitted out with bunks, the room frequently holding
from 20 to 30 men. Mattresses and blankets only are supplied.
The method of serving food to the freight handlers varies and in
some cases is very primitive. Some of the boats have so-called
mess rooms furnished with wooden benches and bare wooden counters.
In the case of a number of boats having no such mess rooms the food
is brought out to the freight deck in large pans and the men scram­
ble to fill their tin pans and cups, sitting around on the deck to eat.
It is frequently maintained, and not always by the owners of the
vessels, that inasmuch as many of these men belong to a rather low
type of workers, whatever living accommodations may be afforded
them are quite sufficient for their needs, and that they would not
appreciate and care to take advantage of improved conditions, even
if they should be offered them.
It may be true that among these freight handlers are found the
shiftless and the chronic casual workers, who in their decision to stay
on a boat for any length of time may be little influenced by the kind
of living conditions, but it seems to be a fact that wherever there has
been an improvement in the living conditions, the men have been
more likely to sail for longer continuous periods. This is shown in
the following figures, in which the numbers of freight handlers work­
ing certain continuous periods on three different package-freight
boats during the year 1917 are compared. Two of these boats ply
between Chicago, Racine, and Milwaukee, the other plies between
Chicago and points on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan.
NUM BER OF DAYS W ORKED BY FREIGHT H A N DLERS ON TH R EE PASSENGERFREIG H T STEAMERS DURING THE YEAR 1917.

Freight handlers working specified number of days on—
Number of days worked.

Boat No. 1.

Boat No. 2.

Boat No. 3.

Number. Per cent. Number. Per cent. Number. Per cent.
1 dav...............................................................................
I day...............................................................................
11 days............................................................................
2 days.............................................................................
2J days...........................................................................
3 days.............................................................................
34 to 64 days, inclusive..............................................
7 days.............................................................................
7J to 14 days, inclusive..............................................
14i days and over........................................................

286
459
454
536
85
122
150
241
139
6

11.6
18.6
18.4
21.6
3.4
4.9
6.1
9.9
5.3
.2

22
33
91
82
60
66
108
344
286
83

1.9
2.8
7.7
7.0
5.1
5.6
9.2
29.3
24.3
7.1

37
53
69
119
75
80
181
209
322
77

3.0
4.7
5.6
9.7
6.1
6.5
14.8
17.0
26.3
6.3

Total....................................................................

2,472

100.0

1,175

100.0

1,227

100.0


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39

It will be noticed that the greatest shifting is on boat No. 1. This
is a wooden passenger-freight vessel of the older type, in which living
accommodations for freight handlers are very poor. The average
length of employment for freight handlers on this boat is a little
more than two and one-half days. The shifting of freight handlers
is less marked on boat No. 2, a steel vessel of modern construction,
and on boat No. 3, an older vessel of steel* construction, on both of
which it is asserted that the living conditions are much better. The
average length of employment on the latter two boats is about seven
days.
On boat No. 1, 78.5 per cent of the freight handlers stayed for
periods of three days or less, while on boats No. 2 and No. 3 the cor­
responding percentages were 30.1 and 35.6, respectively. Fewer
freight handlers worked for periods between three and one-half to
six and one-half days, which can easily be explained by the fact
that when they have worked that long they are likely to stay a little
longer and earn the higher wage rate which is offered to those who
have worked continuously for seven days or more. Of the men
working for periods of seven days or over the percentage is 15.4 for
boat No. 1; more than three times that percentage, or 49.6, for boat
No. 3, both making the same runs; and boat No. 2 has nearly four
times the percentage, 60.7, of boat No. 1.
It should be noted that the number of men given in the preceding
table does not represent the number of different individuals who
sailed on a particular boat during 1917, but may include individuals
who shipped more than once on the same vessel. Whenever a
freight handler quits the service of the vessel he is paid off. The
time, therefore, from when he started to work until he quit and was
paid off is here considered as continuous service. It does not, of
course, preclude the same man coming back the next day and ship­
ping again, in which event a new service record would be started.
Not only do the many shiftings of this class of workers here indi­
cated take place between the boats of the same company, but also,
because of the proximity of the docks of other companies, there is a
considerable shifting as between the different companies. Indeed,
it has been frequently asserted that the freight handler works only
long enough to earn sufficient money to go on a ‘‘spree,” and that
he comes back to work again when all his money lias been spent.
While this may be true in many cases, it can not be said to apply to
the whole body of men, which often seems to be implied.
An analysis of the causes of the shifting of the freight handlers
would make an interesting chapter in the discussion of these workers,
but the multiplicity of motives which may animate them in their
desire for change makes it clearly impossible to consider them in


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detail in an article of this length. Among the more tangible factors,
however, that affect the length of time freight handlers stay on any
one boat may be mentioned the general conditions of work, such as
long hours, the runs of the boat, the carrying of heavy or light freight,
sleeping accommodations, the quantity and quality of the food, and
the state of the labor market ashore.
The total employment afforded to freight handlers in any one year
is dependent upon features of the shipping trade peculiar to the
Great Lakes. Among the most important of these are industrial
and seasonal changes. More men are carried during the period when
the freight movement is heavy, or during the summer months when
perishable commodities, which must be transported quickly to their
destination, are shipped. Few boats run during the winter time, and
these carry a smaller number of freight handlers.
Though opportunities for promotion are offered to freight handlers,
it seems that they do not often take advantage of them. They sel­
dom rise to positions in the deck department; more often they take
the places of coal passers, or ship in various capacities in the steward’s
department.
In the struggle of the organized seamen during the last few years
for improvements in their calling, the conditions under which freight
handlers are working and living have also been the subject for fre­
quent discussions. But though the efforts of the seamen culminated
in the passing of the Seamen’s Act, the freight handlers, by virtue
of the nature of their work, have been held not to be seamen and
therefore not to come within the purview of this law. The union
occasionally has attempted to organize these workers, but has met
with little success. The reason for this is ascribed to the unusually
great shifting among this class of workers, and the “unorganizable”
type which they represent. The men themselves have made no con­
certed attempt toward improvement of their working conditions,
and as long as there is an abundant supply of this type of labor it is
unlikely that many changes will be made by the vessel owners.
Not only the employers of the freight handlers, but employees in
other departments of the vessel, seem to regard the conditions under
which freight handlers work as normal and quite suited to the nature
of the men. It has been asserted repeatedly that no matter what
changes were brought about, whether affecting their working or liv­
ing conditions, it would make little difference in the steadiness of
employment of these men. It has been shown, however, that they
are amenable in some measure to better living conditions, and it is
altogether probable that if these conditions were improved the men
would cease to be classed among the industrial outcasts.


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C O S T O F L IV IN G

IN

TH E

D IS T R IC T

41

O F C O L U M B IA .

SEVENTH ARTICLE— WAGE-EARNING WOMEN: HOW THEY SPEND THEIR MONEY.

As brought out in preceding articles of this series, the study of
working women in the District of Columbia shows that 274 of the
600 women interviewed, or 46 per cent, received under $400 a year—
approximately $8 per week; and 381, or 64 per cent, received under
$500 per year, or approximately $10 per week. Thirty-one per cent
lived away from home, 45 per cent were in receipt of outside assist­
ance, 72 per cent were 21 years of age and over, and 22 per cent had
dependents.
Below are given brief biographies of a few of the women workers
covered by the investigation. This selection is not intended to show
either the worst or the best conditions, but simply to bring out, in a
general way, how working women in Washington adjust their lives
to their incomes. These sketches are reproduced in substantially
the same rough form in which they were originally outlined by the
women themselves. In reading them it is to be remembered that
the interviews took place during the early part of the year 1917 and
that such items as “ last year,” “ summer vacation,” etc., have refer­
ence to the year 1916.
L A U N D R Y EMPLOYEES.

Mary A. is 24 years old and has worked nine years altogether, four
years of this time in a laundry. She is a backer on the mangle, and
is paid $5.50 a week. She lives with her parents and takes her pay
envelop home to her mother, who gives her what she needs to spend
each week. This includes 25 cents a day for lunch, 50 cents a week
for car fare, 10 cents a week for insurance, and 5 cents every other
week for church. She had $40 worth of clothes in 1916, including $2
worth of gifts.
6 waists, at $1............................................................................................. $6.00
1 hat.............................................................................................................. 4. 00
6 pairs of shoes, at $3................................................................................ 18. 00
3 aprons, at 25 cents (gifts).............................................................................75
1 pair of gloves (gift).................................................................................. 1. 25
12 pairs of stockings, at15 cents.............................................. ............... 1. 80
2 corsets.......................................................... ............................................. 2.00
Underwear and petticoats........................................................................ 4. 00
Miscellaneous.............................................................................................. 2. 20
Total.................................................................................................. 40.00

The number of pairs of shoes purchased is due to the cheap equal­
ity of shoes sold at this price and to the wet floors customary in this
laundry.
Her mother does her washing and mending and Mary helps with
the housework. She had no vacation last year, and only goes to the

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movies occasionally, when a friend who makes more money than she
does takes her.
Mrs. Clara B., who is 25 years old, has a little girl 8 years old,
She is employed in a laundry and during 1916 received $5 per week
until May, $5.50 from May to October, and in October was raised to
$6 a week. She also had $67 alimony last year from her husband.
Her mother, who lives on the other side of town, keeps her little girl
without charge. Last year she bought her child $15 worth of clothes
and paid 10 cents a week on her insurance. She lives with a private
family nearer her work, where she pays $4 a week for board (includ­
ing lunches) and lodging. She gets her board at this low figure
because her friend is “ good to her” and lets her have it for that
amount. She helps her friend with the dishes every day and does
cleaning Saturdays and Sundays. Her friend takes her to the movies
occasionally. Her only expenses last year, in addition to board
and lodging and expenditures for her little girl, were $66 for clothes,
$7.80 for life insurance, $36 for car fare, $5 for gifts, and $2 for mis­
cellaneous expenses.
Josephine C. has worked 13 years, four years of this time as a mangle
hand in a laundry at $5 a week. She is 35 years old and has no
family. Until June, in 1916, she paid $2 a week for her room, but
that outlay left her so little for food that she found another room, for
$1.50 a week.
This room was heated by an oil stove instead of hot water, as was
the first, and she was allowed to use the kitchen to cook her food.
Even with the closest economy her food cost nearly $3 a week.
Her clothing during 1916 cost her $6.50, for which the following
articles were obtained:
2 dresses....................................................................................................... $3. 50
1 corset.................................................................................................................47
Miscellaneous..................... ...................... ................................................ 2. 53
6. 50
5 pairs of stockings (gifts)......................................................................... 5.00
2 aprons (gifts).................................................................... .............................. 50
Total value of clothes.................................................................... 12.00

Her doctor bill of $2.60 was paid by her sister. She spent 50 cents
in car fare during her vacation of two weeks, which she took without
pay.
Daisy D. started to work when she was 9 years old; she is now
34. She has been a shaker in a laundry for five years and gets $5 a
week. She is one of a large family, so she gives most of her earnings
to her mother. Her insurance is 10 cents a week, church costs 5
cents a week, and last year she bought $4 worth of clothes. She
spends an hour a day doing dishes and cleaning for her mother, and

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43

she does her own mending and washing and takes care of her own
room. A friend takes her to the movies once in a while, and last year
paid a doctor hill of $2 for her.
Mrs. Mabel E. is 18 years old. Her husband belongs to the National
Guard, and has never been heard from since he went to the border two
years ago. She has a little girl 2 years old, and the two are living with
Mabel’s parents. She was out of work for 12 weeks in 1916, but is
now a mangle hand at So a week. Her earnings were spent as follows:
Money given to mother................................. .........................................$88.00
Clothing (2 pairs of shoes worth $4 were given her)............................ 45.00
Life insurance........................................................................................... 10. 40
Car fare....................................................................................................... 20. 00
Amusements (girl friend takes her).
To little girl................................................................
26.90
Church........................................................................................................
2.60
Miscellaneous expenses................................................. ........................
5.10
Total expenses.............................................................................. 1 9 8 . oo
Still due on clothes.................................................................................. 10. 00
Total earnings............................................................................... 188. 00

Her clothes included—1 suit (she is still paying for this suit at the rate of $1 a week)........$25. 00
2 shirt waists, at 50 cents............................................................................... 1.00
1 ta t.................................................................................................................... 1.98
2 pairs of shoes (gifts)....................................
8. 00
3 . 00
12 pairs of stockings, at 25 cents..........................
Underwear................................................................................................
3 00
Miscellaneous.............................................................................................. 3 .02
Total for clothes................................................................................... 45.00

Julia F. is the bookkeeper in a laundry and has been working
for three years. She gets $10 a week and two weeks’ vacation with
pay. She lives at home with her parents and gives her mother $5 a
week. When she is buying clothes, her mother lends her money,
and she pays it back, $2 a week at a time. She helps at home
with the housework and shares her room with two younger children.
Her expenses for 1916 were as follows:
Board and lodging paid mother (about $5 a week)........................ $254. 80
50 cents a week to supplement lunch taken from hom e...............
13. 00
Fruit, candy, and sodas............................................ ......................... .
13.00
Clothing....................................................................................................■ 1 1 0 .OO
Life insurance, 10 cents a week............................................ ............
5 . 20
Car fare, 50 cents a week......................................................................
25. 00
Other car fare for going to night school.............................................
9. 00
Books and newspaper (including books for night school).............
7. 50
Amusements, about 75 cents a month...............................................
9. 00
Vacation........................................................................... ......................
15.00
Sickness and medicine..........................................................................
3 . 00


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D e n tis t................................................
R elig io u s pu rp oses ($1 a m on th for ch u rch , 10 c e n ts a w e ek for
S u n d a y s c h o o l) ...............................................................................................
G ifts................................................................................................... ......................
O ther e x p e n se s....................................................................................................

Total expenses.............................................................................
No surplus or deficit.

$ 3 .0 0
17. 20
34. 00
10. 30

529. 00

Her clothes included—•
1 suit.................................... - - ...................................................................$25. 00
3 shirt waists (1at $2.50 and 2 at $1; gifts, $6.50)............................ 11. 00
1 dress skirt..............................................................................................
7.50
1 coat........................................................................................................... 25. 00
3 hats (1 at $4.50, 1 at $2.98, and 1 at $3).......................................... 10.48
3 pairs of shoes (1 at $6, 1 at $2.50, and 1 at $5)............................... 13. 50
2 pairs of gloves (1 pair a gift)...............................................................
2.50
11 pairs of stockings.................................................................................
5. 00
2 corsets, at $ 1 ........................................................................................
2. 00
Underwear (mother crochets tops and she makes up garments),
material..................................................................................................
3.98
Miscellaneous............................................................................................
4. 04
T o ta l for c lo th e s ................................................................ ......................110. 00

Julia, 20 years old, is a normal, healthy looking girl, and her ex­
penditures as listed are about what a normal, healthy girl would
spend. She has the ambition to make herself more efficient and by
careful economy is able to buy hooks for night-school work. She
spends a moderate amount for amusements, has a two weeks’ vaca­
tion, and is able to have her teeth attended to. While she had no
surplus at the end of the year, she carried a 10-cents-a-week life in­
surance policy, and with her night-school work on shorthand and type­
writing she is making herself more efficient and capable of earning
a better salary in the future.
STORE EMPLOYEES.

Mabel G. lived in an orphanage until she was 11 years old. She
had to get a special permit to go to work and has been working in
stores ever since—for 10 years. She was a stock girl at $6 a week
until April of 1916, when she got ptomaine poisoning in the employees’
lunch room and had to go to a hospital for 13 weeks. The store paid
her hospital bill, but did not pay her wages during that time, so she
spent the rest of the year paying up her expenses. When she
came out of the hospital she secured a position as sales girl in another
store at $6 a week. Until February, 1917, she lived with a married
sister and paid her $2.50 a week for board and lodging. In Febru­
ary, because of the death of the sister’s husband, the two women
broke up housekeeping and took two unfurnished rooms for $7.50 a
month, sharing expenses equally. Their food averages $4 to $5 a


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45

week. They do all their own cooking, laundering, and mendmg, and
make their own underwear. Mabel says they spend almost all of
Sunday getting ready for the next week. In addition to board her
expenses in 1916 were as follows:
S ic k b e n e fit in su ran ce, at 5 c en ts a w eek (in th e first store it was
8 cen ts a w e e k ) ...............................................................................................
$4. 98
C lo th in g ..................................................................................................................
48. 00
Car fare (sh e w alks to w o rk )...............................................................................
3.90
Gas s t o v e .....................................................................................
S ick n ess and m e d ic in e .........................................................................................
1.50
D e n tist (sh e p aid th is b ill at th e rate of $1 a w e e k ).........................
18. 00
C h u rch ....................................................................................................................
.6 0
G ifts..............................................................................................................................
3.00
O ther e x p e n se s........................................................................................................
3.45

Total (except board and lodging)...........................................

85. 41

There was no surplus.

Her expenditures for clothes were—
1 dress (material $3.50, dressmaker $6.25)......................................
$9. 75
3 shirt waists (1 at $1.98, 2 at $1).........................................................
3.98
1 coat............................................................................................................
8.90
2 hats (1 at $2, and 1 at $3.98)................................................................
5.98
3 pairs of shoes (1 at $5, 1 at $2.35,1 at $2.50)......................................
9.85
1 apron....................................................................................................
.55
1 pair of gloves.....................................................................................
.9 8
5 pairs of stockings................................................................................
1. 45
1 corset......................................................................................................
1. 00
3. 00
Underwear (material $2)......................................................................
Miscellaneous..............................................................................................
2.56
T otal for c lo th e s ....................................................................................

48. 00

In 1916 she worked at night for five weeks as cashier for a movingpicture house, but according to her account one of the store girls
“ peached ” on her and a policeman informed her the next day she
could have only one position at a time. She has a little brother
living at the orphanage and as soon as she finishes paying the board
money she owes for the time she was sick, she expects to start saving
money to get him out. Mabel is the sort of a girl who, if given a chance
and enough wages so that she could have a small surplus above
the necessary living expenses, would have the ambition and health
to study and equip herself for more efficient service. At present
she feels fortunate if she is able to meet her pressing obligations
and she uses up so much energy making this effort that it is not
possible for her to do more.
Ruth H. is a ribbon clerk. She graduated from the eighth grade
19 years ago and has been working ever since as a sales girl. She is
paid $11 a week. She lives at home with her parents and pays $5
a week for board and lodging, but as she is a member of a large
4 6 6 4 8 ° — 18------ 4


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O F L A B O R S T A T IS T IC S .

family, she helps with the housework one hour and a half in the
morning and an hour at night, and spends most of Sunday doing
additional cleaning and housework. Her expenditures for clothes
in 1916 were as follows:
2 shirt waists...........................................................................................
3 dress skirts............................................................................................
1 hat..........................................................................................................
1 pair of shoes..........................................................................................
2 pairs of gloves......................................................................................
6 pairs of stockings.................................................................................
1 corset.....................................................................................................
Miscellaneous..........................................................................................
Total for clothes.........................................................................

$2. 00
5. 00
2. 00
4. 00
1. 09
3. 00
1. 39
3. 00
21. 48

In 1916 she took a vacation of a week and two days without pay.
This cost her $10 in addition to the loss of her wages. She paid
10 cents a week on her life insurance and 10 cents a week for sick
benefit and this is as near as she came to saving anything during
that year. While her rate of pay might be a living wage for a younger
woman, it is not large enough to enable her to lay by any amount
for her old age.
Minnie I. is an attractive looking girl 19 years of age. She has
been a sales girl for a year at $6 a week. Her cousin, with whom
she fives, works at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and Minnie
hopes to get an appointment there soon as a result of the civil-service
examination taken by her. The two girls have a three-room flat,
heated by a latrobe stove, Minnie paying for the food and her cousin
paying for heat, rent, and fight. The raw food costs the two close
to $4 a week and they do all their own cooking and housework.
Minnie puts up her lunch at home. Her cousin takes her to the movies
when she goes. Pier expenditures last year were as follows:
Board and lodging (50 weeks)............................................................. $200. 00
Clothing...................................................................................................
67.15
(She does her own laundry.)
Life insurance.........................................................................................
5. 20
Car fare....................................................................................................
30. 00
Vacation without pay (2 weeks).........................................................
6. 00
Oculist......................................................................................................
9. 00
Church, at 10 cents a month...............................................................
1. 20
Gifts..........................................................................................................
2. 00
Other expenses.......................................................................................
2. 45
Total expenditures.....................................................................
Deficit.......................................................................................................

323. 00
13. 00

Total earnings (plus gift of a $10 coat)..................................

310. 00

Ida J. is 36 years old and has been working for seven years. She
receives $8 a week selling suits and in the busy season earns an aver-


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47

age of about $2 per week additional as commission. She lives in a fur­
nished room for which she pays $2.50 a week, and her meals average
as follows: Breakfasts, 10 cents; lunches, 10 to 15 cents; dinners 25
cents. These are 1916 prices. She was sick for four weeks in 1916,
and had to stay out of work for six weeks more to recuperate. Her
expenses for the year were:
Furnished room........................................................................................ $115. 00
Meals......................................................................................................... 161. 00
Clothing...................................................................................................
55. 00
Laundry...................................................................................................
23. 00
Life insurance.........................................................................................
13. 00
Books, papers, etc ..................................................................................
1. 00
Amusements............................................................................................
.40
Vacation...................................................................................................
2. 30
Sickness and m edicine.........................................................................
32. 50
Church................................................................................................ .
7.80
Gifts (sister)............................................................................................
22. 00
Miscellaneous (including visit to sister every third Sunday)......
30. 00
Total expenses............................................................................
Deficit (owed to sister)..........................................................................

463. 00
43. 00

Total earnings.............................................................................

420. 00

Her recreation consists of visits to her sister once a month.
This woman is a nervous invalid. It is not known how healthy
she was when younger, but her years of insufficient food, lack of
recreation and suitable doctor and dentist care, have had their effect
and it won’t be many years before she is unable to work at all. She
attempted last year to secure free medical attention at one of the
dispensaries, but since it was open only from 12 to 1 o’clock, and this
was her lunch hour, she did not have enough time to wait her turn
in the crowded room.
Eva K. is a little girl, 17 years old, who has been working a year.
She was first a bundle wrapper at $3 a week. In September, 1916, she
was raised to $3.50 and sold underwear, and in December she received
$4 as a sales girl in the basement. Until October she lived with her
family and paid from $1.50 to $2 a week for board. In addition she
did from three to four hours’ work a day at home, helping to care
for her small brothers and sisters, washing dishes, sweeping, and
cooking. This overtaxed her strength, so her aunt took her in and
since then things have been easier for her. Her total expenditures
for 1916, in addition to board and lodging, were $84. This in­
cluded $20 spent for clothes as follows:
3 shirt waists (2 at 59 cents and 1 at 98 cents).................................. $2.16
2 dress skirts (1 at 59 cents and 1 at $1)............................................... 1. 59
1 hat..................................................................................................................... 98
3 pairs of shoes (1 at $1.50, 1 at $1.98, and 1 at $2.35)...................... 5. 83


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MONTHLY REVIEW OF T H E B U R E A U OF LABOR STATISTICS.
1 pair of g lo v e s ........................................................................................................ $0. 50
8 pairs of sto c k in g s................................................................................................
1. 00
2 c o r s e ts ..................................................................................................................... 1 . 1 4
U n d erw ea r................................................................................................................. 2. 90
M iscella n eo u s........................................................................................................... 3. 90
T otal for c lo th in g ...................................................................................... 20. 00

Mary L. is a saleswoman who earns $12 a week. She is 32 years
old and has been working for 12 years. She lives with her parents.
She had additional income in 1916 of $27.75, including $22 worth of
clothes. Her expenditures for the year were as follows:
Board, lo d g in g , and lau n d ry p aid to p a ren ts......................................... $231. 00
L u n ch es and m eals o u t ...................................................................................
39. 20
F ru it, c a n d y , sodas, e t c ..................................................................................
13. 00
C lo th in g .................................................................................................................
194. 55
(L aun dry d o n e w ith th at of th e fa m ily .)
L ife in su ra n ce.....................................................................................................
5. 20
Car fare...................................................................................................................
29. 70
A m u sem en ts (a friend p rovid es m ost of th e m )......................................
2. 60
2 w e ek s’ va ca tio n , 1 w ith p ay, at sm all sum m er resort.....................
20. 00
C h a rity ...................................................................................................................
1 .5 0
C h u rch ....................................................................................................................
.5 0
G ifts, Christm as and o th er.............................................................................
25. 00
O ther e x p e n d itu r e s...........................................................................................
17. 50
T otal e x p e n d itu r e s..............................................................................
S a v e d .......................................................................................................................

579. 75
50. 00

T otal ea rn in gs........................................................................................

629. 75

Mary’s expenditures for clothes are large. On the other hand, she
had almost no expenditures for amusements.
TELEPHONE EMPLOYEES.

Eva M. is an “ information” operator. She is 33 years old and
has been working for 10 years. Her annual earnings for 1916 were
$603.69. She lives with her sister and pays for the laundry, food,
and gas, while her sister pays for the rent and insurance. She spent
$97 for clothes in 1916, and her other expenses included items for
car fare, books, papers, and magazines, vacation, doctor, church, and
gifts. She came out even at the end of the year. In addition to
doing cooking, marketing, and cleaning—spending about two hours
on week days and six hours on Sunday—she does some of her own
laundering and altering of clothes.
The stories of the other telephone girls are similar to the one above.
Most of those interviewed lived at home and paid board and lodg­
ing to their families ranging from $120 to $442. Their expenditures
for clothes ranged from $45 to $193, many of them buying clothes
on credit.


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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

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M O N T H L Y REV IEW OF T H E B U R E A U OF LABOR STA T ISTIC S.

49

EMPLOYEES OF THE B U R E A U OF ENGRAVING AN D PRINTING.
CTQ

Annie N. is an operative at $2.24 a day. She has been workin
10 years and is 31 years old. She has an unfurnished room with
private family for which she pays $15 a month, and her heat and light
cost $1 a month. Her expenses for the year 1916 were as follows:
Room, unfurnished................................................................................ $180.00
Heat and light........................................................................................
12. 00
Lunches and meals................................................................................ 234. 00
Clothing.................................................................................................... 148. 00
Laundry...................................................................................................
39.00
Labor organization.................................................................................
4. 80
Car fare to and from work............................................
23. 50
Other car fare..........................................................................................
14. 50
Furniture.................................................................................................
25. 00
Books, papers, and magazines.............................................................
2. 60
Amusements............................................................................................
10. 40
(She stayed home during vacation.)
Dentist.....................................................................................................
25. 00
Church......................................................................................................
2. 60
Gifts..........................................................................................................
25. 00
Other expenses.......................................................................................
4. 60
T o ta l e x p e n d i t u r e s ..............................................................................
O w ed for c lo th e s ...................................... ..........................................................

751. 00
30. 00

T otal ea rn in g s........................................................................................

721.00

In common with many wage-earning women in the District, Annie
buys her clothes on credit. Annie’s budget for clothes in 1916 is as
follows.
1 s u it ........................................................................................................................... $25. 00
1 d ress........................................................................................................................ 15.00
8 sh irt w a ists........................................................................................................... 16. 00
1 dress sk ir t.............................................................................................................
5. 00
1 coat r em o d eled ..................................................................................................
30. 00
3 h a ts ..........................................................................................
17.00
3 pairs of sh o es.......................................................................................................
18. 00
4 aprons.....................................................................................................................
1. 00
2 pairs of g lo v e s .....................................................................................................
3. 00
5 pairs of sto c k in g s...............................................................................................
2. 45
1 pair of c o rsets.....................................................................................................
2. 00
U n derw ear a n d p e ttic o a ts................................................................................ 10. 00
M iscella n eo u s.........................................................................................................
3. 55
T o ta l for c lo th e s ....................................................................................... 148. 00

Helen O. lives at home with her parents and pays them $25 a
month for board, lodging, and laundry. She is a high-school graduate,
has worked 11 years, and is 29 years old. She earns $2.24 a day as
an operative. Her expenses for the year 1916 tell the character of
the girl better than anything else could.


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M O NTHLY

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BUREAU OF LABOR S T A T I S T I C S .

B oard, lo d g in g , and la u n d r y ........................................................................ $287. 50
L u n c h e s..................................................................................................................
24. 00
C lo th in g ..................................................................................................................
79. 25
L ife and b en efit in su ra n ce .............................................................................
32. 40
Labor o rg a n iza tio n s...........................................................................................
4 .8 0
Car fare to and from w o rk ..............................................................................
2 3 .5 0
O ther car fa re.......................................................................................................
11. 50
S h orth and and ty p e w r itin g course b y m a il...........................................
8 8 .0 0
B ook s, papers, an d m agazin es (in c lu d in g books for c o u rse)..........
4.10
A m u sem en ts (w e n t to th eater 4 t im e s ) ....................................................
4 .0 0
V a c a tio n ..................................................................................................................
30. 00
D e n t is t ....................................................................................................................
2 -0 0
C harity (d on ation s cu stom ary in th e bu reau for d ea th s, sick n ess,
e tc ., am ong fello w e m p lo y e e s)................................................................
10.0 0
C h u rch .....................................................................................................................
25. 00
G ifts..........................................................................................................................
3 0 .0 0
O ther e x p e n se s, in c lu d in g a trip to N ew York at th e d ea th of
an u n c le ...........................................................................
69 .7 8
T o ta l e x p e n d itu r e s...............................................................................
N o su rp lu s or d eficit.

725. 83

Jeannette P., 28 years old, lives at home with her parents, but it
has fallen to her lot to support her grandmother, who lives with them.
The family is large, and she is the only member unencumbered and
without other financial obligations. She has been working 8£ years
and earns $2.24 a day as an examiner. In addition to $502 paid for
board and lodging for herself and grandmother she does all the
marketing and some of the cooking for the family and she gave $60
to her grandmother last year for clothes and other expenses. She
was unable to go away for her vacation and spent very little on
herself for amusements or clothes. She saved $25 in the Christmas
fund.
Mary Q. is an ambitious young woman, 28 years old. Her
family is large and poor, and in 1918 she gave $552 out of her total
earnings of $724.29 toward the general expenses. She is eager to
study and took a general academic course in 1916 for four months,
which cost her $19.60, including books. In order to do this she cut
her expenses down to the barest necessities. She stayed home for her
vacation and got along with $70 worth of clothes for the year. Few
girls were found entirely foot-loose and free and Mary’s situation is
one of the many encountered during the investigation. Often the
girls at home seemed to be carrying the heaviest load, for in addition
to financial assistance given, they shared the misfortunes of sickness
and unemployment of the group in which they lived and were re­
quired to put in many hours a day doing household work and answer­
ing the thousand and one calls upon their time and strength which
members of a family feel free to make.


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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

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51

Mrs. Minnie R. is an example of an entirely different domestic
situation from that of Mary Q. She is a widow with twin girls
whom she keeps in a school near Washington. During 1916 she
spent $160.60 for their board, lodging, and clothes. She is 40
years old, has been working seven years, and makes $2.24 a day as
a trimmer. In 1916 she used the 30 days' vacation allowed by
the Government, to have her tonsils removed. Her expenses for
the year were as follows:
Unfurnished room, $6 a month............................................. ............... $72.00
Lunches and meals out, about 75 cents a day.................................. 243. 20
Clothing..................................................................................................... 129.00
Laundry..................................................................................................... 24.00
Life and benefit insurance.....................................................................
2.60
Labor organizations.................................................................................
4.80
Car fare to and from work...................................................................... 23. 50
Other car fare............................................................................................ 13. 00
Amusements.............................................................................................. 15.00
Sickness and medicine........................................................................... 15.00
Dentist........................................................................................................ 20. 00
Oculist........................................................................................................
8. 00
For the children...................................................................................... 160. 60
Charity, donations...............
2. 40
Church........................................................................................................
2. 60
Gifts............................................................................................................. 10.00
Other expenses......................................................................................... 10. 48
Total expenses.............................................................................. 756.18
Owed for clothes......................................................... ............................. 30. 00
Total earnings............................................................................... 726.18

Rose S. is 33 years old, has been working thirteen and one-half
years, and is paid $2.24 a day as a worker in the trimming room.
Until June, 1916, she lived with a cousin and gave her $22.50 a
month. The first of June she took a small apartment and rented one
room to a girl friend. She has the girl’s washing done with her own
and furnishes her with ice and gas. Each buys her own food and
prepares it. Rose makes practically all her own clothes, including
her underwear, trims her own hats, and does her mending, in addition
to cleaning her apartment and cooking her meals. At the time she
was interviewed she was working overtime in the bureau and found
it very difficult to accomplish all these things. She kept an accurate
account of her expenditures for 1916, and the following are her
expenses as given from her account book:
Rent for unfurnished apartment, 7 months..................................... $143. 50
Fuel and light, 7 months.....................................................................
10. 50
Board and lodging paid to cousin, 5 months, including laundry. 112. 50
Food bought, 7 months.........................................................................
90. 90
Lunches....................................................................................................
9. 90


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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

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MONTHLY REVIEW OE THE BUREAU OE LABOR STATISTICS.
Clothing...........................................................................
Laundry for 7 months...........................................................................
Life and benefit insurance...................................................................
Labor organizations...............................................................................
Other organizations................................................................................
Car fare to and from work....................................................................
Other car fare..........................................................................................
Books, papers, and magazines.............................................................
Amusements (friend furnishes these).
Vacation...................................................................................................
Sickness and medicine.........................................................................
Dentist......................................................................................................
To sister’s children................................................................................
Charity, collections in the bureau......................................................
Religion....................................................................................................
Gifts..........................................................................................................
Other expenses.......................................................................................

$87.00
31. 00
3. 00
4. 80
2. 00
23. 50
5.20
2. 00

Total expenses............................................................................
Due on doctor b ill..................................................................................

739. 42
23. 00

Total income (including $7.25 worth of gifts).....................

716. 42

20.00
42. 00
20. 00
33. 00
12. 00
2. 60
20.00
64. 02

It is interesting to note the items spent for clothes by this girl, who
exercised the closest economy, by buying carefully and making her
own garments. The amounts spent are as follows:
Material for 2 dresses (1 at $4 and 1 at $6)......................................... $10. 00
Material for 8 shirt waists.......................................................................
7. 00
Material for 2 dress skirts.......................................................................
1. 60
1 sweater....................................................................................................
5. 00
3 hats (1 at 10 cents, 1 at 98 cents, and 1 at $7)...............................
8. 08
5 pairs of shoes (1 at $8, 2 at $3.50, and 1 at $5)............................... 20. 00
8 aprons, at 25 cents................................................................................
2. 00
4 pairs of gloves........................................................................................
4. 25
15 pairs of stockings ($5 worth of gifts)............................................... 12. 28
2 corsets.....................................................................................................
7. 00
Underwear (including gift of material of $2.25)...............................
5. 25
Miscellaneous............................................................................................
4. 54
Total for clothes............................................................................


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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

[7 8 0 ]

87.00

LABOR AND THE WAR,
M O B IL IZ IN G

A N D D IS T R IB U T IN G

FAR M

L A B O R IN

O H IO .

BY W. M. LEISERSON, TOLEDO UNIVERSITY, TOLEDO, OHIO.

The Ohio branch of the Council of National Defense is applying a
new idea to the problem of meeting the shortage of farm labor. The
idea is that plain business sense, business methods, a business organ­
ization, and hard facts as to supply and demand are as necessary in
getting labor to the farms as they are essential to any business that
supplies the farmer with machinery, tools, or anything else that he
needs. The impression has seemed to be that the farmer can “ pick
u p ” all the labor he needs without any business organization to sup­
ply him, while distributing agents, warehouses, wholesalers, retailers,
and mail-order houses are necessary to supply him with nails, plows,
overalls, and all the other things. The farmer has for years been
suffering from lack of labor, mainly because the business of supplying
labor for the farms has never been organized in a systematic way.
The present shortage of farm labor is not new. It is but the ordinary
condition, accentuated by the military draft and the fact that high
wages in munition factories have drawn largely on the rural popula­
tions. And now, as in years past, when farm labor can not be “ picked
up,” it is not to be expected that widespread publicity and indis­
criminate calls for thousands of hands will somehow bring the labor­
ers to the farms.
Several years of experience in conducting the Ohio free employ­
ment bureaus convinced Mr. Fred C. Croxton, chairman of the labor
committee of the Ohio Council of Defense, and Mr. C. H. Mayhugh,
State director of employment, that labor can not be supplied in this
way. When the United States entered the War, therefore, they set
about establishing a complete system of labor exchanges for the State
of Ohio, as described in the M o n t h l y R e v i e w for June, 1917.
At the outbreak of the War, in April, 1917, the Industrial Commis­
sion of Ohio was conducting seven State-city labor exchanges. The
management of these was transferred to the Ohio branch of the Coun­
cil of National Defense, and 15 additional bureaus have been estab­
lished by the council in cooperation with local communities that pay
part of the expense. Each office serves a district consisting of
several counties and the whole system is controlled and directed by a
central clearing house located at the statehouse in Columbus.


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O F L A B O R S T A T IS T IC S .

Instead of making appeals for farm hands in the newspapers, a
business organization was established. Only by establishing labor
exchanges for farmers and workers, conducted by efficient employ­
ment agents, can anything practical and permanent be accomplished
toward supplying the farmers’ needs for labor. By May 1, 1917, the
whole system of employment exchanges was in fair working order,
and the first season more than 7,000 farm hands were sent to farmers
in Ohio. The employment bureaus received reports that 5,000 of
these 7,000 were at work on the farms to which they were sent,
although the actual number working was probably greater than that.
The directors of Ohio’s employment system were gratified with
this record, but realized that no effective organization for supplying
farm labor could be built in a few months and that temporary cam­
paigns launched when the need for labor was greatest could not
insure a steady flow of labor to meet the changing needs of the farms
of the State. During the year, therefore, they devoted themselves
to increasing the efficiency of the 22 employment bureaus, developing
better business methods, training their employees to be better
employment agents, bringing the agents into closer contact with the
central office, and devising the best methods of transferring labor
from one part of the State to another through the central office.
The results of this work may be seen in the increased business
done by the Ohio employment bureaus in supplying labor for all indus­
tries of the State. In the 10 months ending February 28 they
registered 463,400 workers, men and women. In other words, they
were able to mobilize a supply of labor for the State amounting to
over 30,000 workers1 per month. For this labor they had avail­
able, on the average, 30,000 jobs every month, and each month they
actually placed in positions close to 23,000 wage earners. The exact
total of placements for the 10 months was 229,221.
During the 10 months, also, the superintendents and employees of
the 22 employment bureaus familiarized themselves with the labor
needs of their districts as well as with the available labor supply.
Before the present spring demand for farm labor was actually felt
the directors of Ohio’s employment system not only had a centralized
business organization for marketing labor efficiently, but knew just
what was needed to get the demand for farm labor accurately regis­
tered and had developed the best methods of meeting that demand.
In February the machinery of the Ohio Employment Service
was started working for the farmers of Ohio. First came an order
from the central office that no “drive” for farm labor should be
made until the actual and bona fide demand for farm workers had
i The figures for the 10-month period contain a good many duplications caused by the same individual
applying for employment on more than one day during the month. It is safe to say that the number of
different individuals who applied for work averaged between 30,000 and 35,000.


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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

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OP T H E

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OP LABOR

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been accurately ascertained. In July and August the farmers
of Ohio need very many extra hands: in March they need but few.
One of the first principles of efficient employment management is
not to advertise for help long in advance of actual needs. It dis­
organizes the labor market.
The superintendent of each of the 22 employment offices was
instructed, therefore, to canvass his district to ascertain the demand
for farm labor for the first month of the season only. Following are
parts of the instructions sent to each local office from the central
office:
During the remainder of the month of February and up to March 6 every superin­
tendent will either personally, or through an assistant especially qualified to handle
farm labor, make a tour of his entire district to ascertain the demand for farm workers
up to and including April 6. Take no orders for help needed after April 6.
The method of canvassing farm labor demands in the district will be to arrange
meetings in schoolhouses, village halls, churches, or any other convenient meeting
places where the superintendent or his assistant can make addresses, telling what the
bureaus can do for the farmers, how the offices work, what is expected of the farmers,
etc. The special blanks (Form 28) for farm help should be passed around among the
farmers present and at the end of the meeting the speakers should collect the orders
and make sure that they are properly filled out.
In this work of arranging and addressing farm meetings, the granges, equity socie­
ties, and other agricultural organizations should be utilized, and the assistance of
county agricultural agents, county and township food commissioners should be
enlisted. But whenever anyone except the superintendent or an employee of the
employment offices solicits orders for farm help, the superintendent must see to it
that he understands thoroughly the use of our blanks and the methods of the offices
in filling orders.

Only responsible persons shall take orders for farm help. This is
emphasized because the employment bureaus regard their calls for
help as in the nature of contracts. The farmer must state definitely
the kind of work he has, the number of men wanted, the probable
duration of the employment, the wages paid, and any other material
facts relating to the wage bargain. He is held responsible for hiring
the farm hand if one that meets the conditions of his order is referred
to him by the employment office. No business man would think of
shipping his goods except with an understanding of this kind, and
no statements of demand for farm labor are worth the paper they are
written on unless they are based on such orders as the Ohio employ­
ment bureaus insist on.
The instructions to superintendents regarding the handling of farm
labor require further that some machinery shall be established in
every rural community for connecting its farm-labor demands
promptly and efficiently with the employment office of the district
and through that with the organized labor market of the whole
State.


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The method of establishing local representatives of the employment bureaus in
rural communities will be to get the town clerk, secretary or president of the grange,
bank cashier, or any other interested citizen to act as agent for the employment
office in his community. The work of the offices and filling of blank forms should
be carefully explained to the agent and a supply of the new form No. 28 should be
left with him. At the public meetings as well as in the country newspapers, pub­
licity should be given to the fact that the employment bureau has this local agent
and that orders may be left with him, and he will see that they receive proper
attention.
It should be remembered that the local agents are not to conduct employment
offices. They are to send in orders to the employment bureau, and farm hands are to
be sent to this agent when it is not possible to refer them directly to the farmers. Also
when it is impossible to get farmers on telephone during the day, local agents can be
called to take care of men whom the employment office is prepared to send to work.
* * * The agent is to see that the man reaches the farmer who ordered him, and
that a proper report is returned to the employment bureau.

Following these instructions, each of the superintendents of the
22 employment bureaus toured his district for about two weeks,
addressing farmers’ meetings, taking orders for farm help, and
arranging for local representatives. At the end of that time 476
local agents had been appointed and instructed how to receive orders
for farm help, transmit them to the employment bureau, and see to it
that the farmer received the help he ordered. In addition to this
employment organization the Agricultural arid Food Division of the
Ohio Council of Defense was directed to assist in dealing with the
farm-labor problem. Under this division there are paid county
agricultural agents in 37 counties. These are scientifically trained
men whose business it is to advise farmers on technical matters, like
selection of seed, preparation of soil, drainage, and elimination of
pests. Associated with them is an unpaid food commissioner in each
county and under him are township food commissioners, one for each
township. All of these are connected closely with the employment
organization through a chief farm agent who is located at the central
office and works directly with the State director of employment. The
assistant professor of rural economics at the Ohio State Agricultural
College has been detailed to give all his time to this important work.
Through these various agencies the employment system is made to
reach into every rural community of the State. The employment
service conducts a continuous canvass of the actual farm-labor needs
of the State as represented by direct orders from farmers, and at the
same time is trying to meet those needs every day by supplying men
from the employment offices.
Every month the demand for farm workers and the number supplied
are balanced, and a special report of the unfilled orders is sent to the
central office by each district superintendent. Following is a copy
of the blank form for these reports:


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REPORT OF FARM CANVASS.
S u m m a r y o f u n f i l l e d a c tiv e f a r m

o r d e rs to A p r i l 6 .

[Do not report dead orders.]

1. Number of married men called for at each classified wage:
$18-$20

$20-$25

$25-$30

$30-$35

$35-$40

$40 and
up.

2. Number of single men called for at each classified wage:
$18-$20

$20-$25

$25-$30

$30-$35

$35-$40

$40 and
up.

3. Number of older boys called for at each classified wage:
Under
$15

$15—
$18

$18-$20

$20-$25

$25-$30

$30 and
up.

4. Number of female workers called f o r ....................................
6. Number of day workers called for at each classified wage:
Under $1
w . board.

$1—$2
$2 and up
$3 and up
$2-$3
w. board. w. board. no board. no board.

Piece­
work.

AGENCIES ESTABLISHED.
Name of agent.

Address and phone.

Arrangements.

The first monthly report showed that on March 6, 1918, the
employment offices had unfilled orders on their books for 660
experienced farm hands. This small number may surprise people
who hear stories of tens of thousands needed in each State. Of
course 660 does not represent the total demand for farm labor in
Ohio, but it represents a very substantial portion of the men needed
during March. It is the demand that remained unsupplied after
the offices had sent more than 500 men to the farms in February.
Only an accurate statement of this kind, balancing supply and
demand each month, can be of any practical value in dealing with
the farm-labor shortage in a practical way. The ordinary estimates
that gain wide publicity group the whole season’s needs together

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and leave out of account the men who are going to work on farms
from day to day. As the season goes on the demand for farm labor
will increase from month to month. But the supply of this labor
also increases with the greater demand. During the first half of
March incomplete returns from Ohio’s employment offices showed
412 men placed on farms out of 690 referred to farmers, as compared
with 291 placed and 575 referred for the whole month of February.
When the heaviest demands come in harvest time there may be
plenty of labor available. It can not be said four months in
advance that this harvest labor is lacking. We can speak accurately
of supply and demand only from month to month.
These monthly reports, together with the superintendents’ can­
vasses, the farmers’ meetings, and local agencies, are all in prepara­
tion for a businesslike advertising campaign. “ The central office,”
says a circular from the State director of employment, “ will conduct
a campaign of publicity, which must be supplemented by local
publicity in each district, to be handled by the superintendent. All
publicity will be designed to accomplish one end, namely, to get
farmers to register their actual needs for help at their local em­
ployment office and to supply these needs through the employment
offices.”
Here may be noted two highly important features of Ohio’s method
of handling the farm-labor problem. In the first place, no campaign
of publicity was undertaken until a careful canvass had been made
of the actual demand for farm help based on orders from the farmers
themselves. In the second place, instead of publishing statements
in the newspapers about hundreds of men needed in certain counties
and inducing farm hands to go to those places on this vague informa­
tion, to find perhaps that too many had already applied or that terms
of employment were not satisfactory, the Ohio plan is to make each
man apply at the nearest office and assure him of a job at wages that
he will accept before he is asked to go to a distant place.
The usual unintelligent methods of dealing with the problem are
well illustrated by a canvass conducted by an Ohio newspaper early
in February. “ Shortage of labor perils Ohio crops” ran the head­
line. “ Canvass of 250 communities * * * shows State and
Nation face crisis.” The story went on to say:
Questionnaires, which have been answered by county agents, agricultural associa­
tions, farm employment agencies, and other authoritative spokesmen, have covered
every phase of the problem and have met with a frank and comprehensive response
by men and organizations capable of correctly sizing up the situation.
A digest of these answers shows that Ohio needs at least 30,000 additional farm
hands to maintain last year’s standard of production.
Reports from every county in the State indicate farmers are willing to pay higher
wages and offer greater privileges to farm hands than ever before. Farmers in all
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The next day this was supplemented by the following statement:
The original estimate placing at 30,000 the number of farm workers needed this
summer to maintain last year’s agricultural, dairy, fruit, and truck farm production
is altogether too low. The actual requirements are nearer 50,000 men.
Chambers of commerce, civic associations, educational authorities, Y. M. C. A .’s,
Boy Scouts, and women’s clubs are urged to join hands to enlist both permanent and
temporary help and to establish farm-labor bureaus, which w ill act as clearing houses
capable of meeting any demand which farmers may make on them.

It is just this sort of loose statement regarding labor demand and
supply, and the well-meaning but inexperienced efforts of civic
associations suggested by the newspaper, that Ohio’s employment
system is designed to overcome. When calls for 30,000 and 50,000
farm hands are scattered through the country without a centralized
organization to control the supply of labor that responds to the
advertising, the result often is to oversupply certain counties while
causing a greater scarcity in other districts, and the waste and con­
fusion in our labor markets are thereby increased.
Contrast this with the methods of the Ohio system of employment
bureaus. The central office directs its State-wide publicity to the
definite purpose of filling the demand for farm help registered at the
employment offices. It instructs each district superintendent to
insert in his local newspapers this advertisement:
T H IN K IT OVER
Figure I t Ou t

What wages w ill you have to
make in the city to have $20 or
$25 clear a t the end of the month?
You can do it in the country.
TAKE A JOB ON THE FARM
Apply at
State -City E mployment B ureau
128 Huron St., Toledo.

The applicant is directed to the employment bureau where he can
be told definitely about the kind of work available, the wages and
other conditions concerning which he wants information, and where
he can be examined as to his fitness for farm work. Thus men are
assured of positions before they go to the country, none are induced
to leave their city positions on mere rumors of high wages on the
farms, and the available supply of farm labor is controlled and
directed so as to prevent the oversupplying of some counties while
others are short of labor.
Mere patriotic appeals will not induce men to accept lower wages
in the country and leave better-paying jobs in the city, especially
when they know that the profit goes to the farmer and not to the
Government. But for most of the unskilled workers in the city farm
labor can be shown to have distinct material advantages. The Ohio


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Employment Service, therefore, advertises these advantages in
circulars like the following, sent to all the newspapers of the State:
FARM JOB VERSUS CITY JOB.
FOR A MARRIED MAN.

A farm job at $30 per month equals a city job at $105.
A farm job at $35 per month equals a city job at $110.
A farm job at $40 per month equals a city job at $115.
A farm job at $45 per month equals a city job at $120.
Not considering the possibility of raising some stock or produce on ehareB, which is
usual.
FOR A SINGLE MAN.

A farm job at $25 per month equals a city job at $80.
A farm job at $30 per month equals a city job at $85.
A farm job at $35 per month equals a city job at $90.
A farm job at $40 per month equals a city job at $95.
Not considering possible share in profits or privileges such as use of horses.
These figures are based on the following comparison of monthly cost of living on the
farm and in the city.
M ARRIED MAN ON FARM AND IN CITY.
Farm job.

City job.

Total cash income................................................................................................
>40
House rent......................................................................... ............... ................. Furnished.
Groceries.............................................................................................................. Exchange of
produce.
M ilk.....................................................................................................................
Furnished.
F u el........................................................................................................................
$3
L igh t......................................................................................................................
1
Insurance and taxes.........................................................................................
3
Clothes and incidentals including car fare, lunches amusements,
13
church, etc.
Total expenses............. ................. .............................................
— 20
Balance saving.......................................................................................

$20

$100

33

4
5
2
3
28
-----S5

20

5

Total cash income............................................................................................
135
Board and room and laundry.....................................................................
Furnished.
Insurance.......................................................................................................
$3
Clothes.....................................................................................................
6
Car fare, lunches, amusements, church, lodge, athletics, charities, e tc ..
5
Total expense...........................................................................................
— 14

S90
$37
3
a
20
----- 69

SINGLE MAN ON FARM AND IN CITY.

Balance saving..................................................................................

21

21

When the men attracted to the employment offices by the methods
and the publicity just described are given detailed information
regarding specific farm jobs, it is surprising to see how many can be
found to fill the places on farms. Many farmers offer comparatively
high wages—$40, $45, and more per month—with board, lodging,
laundry, and other privileges. Places like these are filled with little
difficulty. Other positions at from $30 to $40 per month are attrac-


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five to many low-paid, irregularly employed workers in the cities.
The greatest difficulty is in filling the places that pay $30, $25, and
less per month. Twenty-five and thirty dollars per month were the
wages commonly paid before the War, and much of the scarcity of
farm labor is due to the fact that wages offered by farmers have not
kept pace with the rise in wages generally. Another part of the
publicity work of the employment system is, therefore, to distribute
accurate information regarding prevailing market rates of wages.
Farmers are told both through the newspapers and directly through
the employment offices that the prevailing wages are $35 to $45 per
month and that they will have less trouble getting the help they need
if they pay the market rates.
The most difficult of all the problems of meeting the demand for
farm labor lies in the fact that the source of the supply of labor is far
removed from the places of employment. It is difficult enough to try
to transfer labor in an orderly way from one city to another, but to
send men from the city to the country raises almost insurmountable
obstacles. The central office of the Ohio Employment Service has
devised means for handling both of these problems.
The superintendent of each employment bureau sends to the
central office a list of the positions that he can not fill from his own
applicants and a list of the applicants for whom he can not find
positions in his own district. The applicants and the positions are
both carefully described in detail. This is done both for farm hands
and all other classes of workers. The central office lists these on a
special form and gives each item a serial number indicating the
branch office to facilitate reference to the positions or applicants in
telegrams or over long-distance telephones, which are constantly used
in transferring labor. Following are sample copies of these lists:
POSITIONS REPORTED TO CENTRAL OFFICE.
D ate.........................................................
Description.

Serial No.
J 320 CH

One farm hand; married man with small family; colored preferred; SI,50 per
day of 10 hours; the prevailing rate will be paid during harvest, corn cutting,
fVPCl corn husking..............................................................................................................

J 321 CH

One experienced farm hand; single; $1.25 per day with room, board, and laun­
dry; this is on a large, up-to-date farm and they want a man for general farm
^vork* a good plane, for a good m a n . . ...........................................................................................

J 322 CH

One experienced farm hand; single; general farm work; $35 per month with

J 323 CH

One experienced farm hand; single; 17 to 20 years old preferred; must be
accustomed to the care and handling of horses; $1 per day with board, room,

J 324 CH

Three farm hands; married; $1.50 per day with the usual considerations, such
as house, garden, milk, and meat allowances; general farming............................

4 6 6 4 8 ° — 1 8 ------5


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A P P L IC A N T S A V A IL A B L E F O R T R A N S F E R .
D a te ........................... „..........................
Serial No.

Description.

A 161 AT

Commercial salesman. Married. 43 years of ago. Minimum salary demanded,
$106 and expenses. Has had a varied experience in his line and has been
manager of a general merchandise store......................................................'.............

A 162 E

Farmer. Widowed. 41 years of age. Lifetime experience, sober and industri­
ous. Willing to rent a farm of 100 to 300 acres on the halves. Prefers to 1ocate
in Marion or Seneca Counties........................................................................................

Supt.

Farmer, with 3 sons able to work; all 4 can milk. This family would like to
secure work in a large dairy or dairy and fruit farm; have had considerable
experience in such work. W ill work by the year or rent a farm on the shares,
or will pay cash rent if stock and tools are furnished. Have lived in the city
two years but are anxious to get onto a farm again. No stipulation in regard
to minimum wage............................................................................................................
A 164 AT

Licensed fireman. Married. 28 years of age, white. Minimum wage de­
manded, $100 per month. Can give good references..............................................

A 165 CN

Accountant—General office man. Married. 56 years of age. Minimum wage
demanded, $30 per w eek................................................................................................

These lists are sent daily to each of the 22 employment offices and
a revised list is made once a week. The last column provides a place
for the superintendent to keep his records. More than 18,000 wage
earners have been transferred from one part of the State to another
by means of this method in the eight months that it has been in use.
Sometimes the applicant pays his own fare. Often the employer
pays the fare outright. More often the fare is advanced by the
employer and later deducted from the wages. This is most common
in the cases of farm hands. But all of these methods require tact
and skill in handling and both employer and worker must have a
great amount of confidence in the efficiency and integrity of the
employment system before it can succeed in sending large numbers
of workers to distant places of employment.
To the newspapers and many well-meaning but uninformed
enthusiasts mobilization of labor for farm production requires merely
an office for correspondence and registration to bring farmers and
farm hands together, or else it means recruiting an “ agricultural
army” that presumably will march through the country doing a
little planting here, harvesting there, or “ fixing up the farms.” To
the experienced employment agent supplying farm hands is a serious
business that requires skill and infinite pains and care. It means a
long and tedious process of trying to fit men of unknown ability and
reputation into a line of work that requires every variety of skill, and
at the same time the man must be such as to fit properly into the
farmer’s family. The farm hand must not only know how to do his
work; he must also become a member of the farmer’s household, eat
at his table, and sleep in his house.


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For work of this kind, careful and efficient organization is needed—
an organization that covers every county and every rural district.
Such an organization can not be built in a day or by the efforts of
volunteers and civic associations. Realizing this the Ohio Branch
of the Council of National Defense called to its assistance at the
very beginning all the men it could find in Ohio who had experience,
skill, and knowledge of employment problems and the employment
business. These men were set to work organizing and supervising
the work of the employment offices, training the employees of the
offices to become expert employment agents, developing efficiency
in office management, in the details of properly fudging and recording
men’s qualifications—creating, in short, a complete labor market
organization for the State, unified and controlled through the central
office and State director of employment in Columbus. The very
first year, this policy of building for permanence showed remarkable
results in the placement of farm hands, in the systematic mobilization
of almost 20,000 men for building the cantonment at Chillicothe,
and in the business of supplying labor for Ohio industries generally.
As the War goes on the organization shows itself better and better
able to deal with the labor-market problems that develop. And
when the War is over and millions of workers have to be returned
to normal activities from the Army and from war industries, the
Ohio Employment Service will be ready to handle in its State this
most difficult of all the problems.

SOCIAL RECONSTRUCTION PROGRAM OF THE BRITISH LABOR PARTY.

The following draft report on the general policy of the British
Labor Party on “ Reconstruction” has been prepared by a subcom­
mittee of the executive for the consideration of the party; and is
submitted by the executive to the annual conference at Nottingham,
not for adoption, but with a view to its being specifically referred
to the constituent organizations for discussion and eventual sub­
mission to the party conference to be arranged for June next, or a
special conference should a general election render it necessary.
[Jan. 1, 1918J
LABOR AND TEE NEW SOCIAL ORDER—A DRAFT REPORT
ON RECONSTRUCTION.
It behooves the Labor Party, in formulating its own program
for reconstruction after the war, and in criticizing the various prep­
arations and plans that are being made by the present Government,
to look at the problem as a whole. We have to make clear what


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it is that we wish to construct. It is important to emphasize the
fact that, whatever may he the case with regard to other political
parties, our detailed practical proposals proceed from definitely
held principles.
TH E EN D O F A CIVILIZATION .

We need to beware of patchwork. The view of the Labor Party
is that what has to be reconstructed after the war is not this or that
Government department, or this or that piece of social machinery;
but, so far as Britain is concerned, society itself. The individual
worker, or for that matter the individual statesman, immersed in
daily routine—like the individual soldier in a battle—easily fails to
understand the magnitude and far-reaching importance of what is
taking place around him. How does it fit together as a whole?
How does it look from a distance ? Count Okuma, one of the oldest,
most experienced, and ablest of the statesmen of Japan, watching
the present conflict from the other side of the globe, declares it to
be nothing less than the death of European civilization. Just as
in the past the civilization of Babylon, Egypt, Greece, Carthage,
and the great Roman empire have been successively destroyed, so,
in the judgment of this detached observer, the civilization of all
Europe is even now receiving its death blow. We of the Labor
Party can so far agree in this estimate as to recognize, in the present
world catastrophe, if not the death, in Europe, of civilization itself,
at any rate the culmination and collapse of a distinctive industrial
civilization, which the workers will not seek to reconstruct. At such
times of crisis it is easier to slip into ruin than to progress into higher
forms of organization. That is the problem as it presents itself to
the Labor Party to-day.
WThat this war is consuming is not merely the security, the homes,
the livelihood, and the lives of millions of innocent families, and an
enormous proportion" of all the accumulated wealth of the world,
but also the very basis of the peculiar social order in which it has
arisen. The individualist system of capitalist production, based on
the private ownership and competitive administration of land and
capital, with its reckless “ profiteering’’ and wage slavery; with its
glorification of the unhampered struggle for the means of life and
its hypocritical pretense of the “ survival of the fittest” ; with the
monstrous inequality of circumstances which it produces and the
degradation and brutalization, both moral and spiritual, resulting
therefrom, may, we hope, indeed have received a death blow. With
it must go the political system and ideas in which it naturally found
expression. We of the Labor Party, whether in opposition or in
due time called upon to form an administration, will certainly lend
no hand to its revival. On the contrary, we shall do our utmost

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to see that it is buried with the millions whom it has done to death.
If we in Britain are to escape from the decay of civilization itself,
which the Japanese statesman foresees, wTe must insure that what
is presently to he built up is a new social order, based not on fighting,
but on fraternity—not on the competitive struggle for the means
of bare life, but on a deliberately planned cooperation in production
and distribution for the benefit of all who participate by hand or
by brain—not on the utmost possible inequality of riches, but on
a systematic approach toward a healthy equality of material cir­
cumstances for every person born into the world—not on an enforced
dominion over subject nations, subject races, subject colonies, sub­
ject classes, or a subject sex, but, in industry as well as in Govern­
ment, on that equal freedom, that general consciousness of consent,
and that widest possible participation in power, both economic and
political, which is characteristic of democracy. We do not, of course,
pretend that it is possible, even after the drastic clearing away that
is now going on, to build society anew in a year or two of feverish
“ reconstruction.” What the Labor Party intends to satisfy itself
about is that each brick that it helps to lay shall go to erect the
structure that it intends, and no other.
THE P IL L A R S OF THE HOUSE.

We need not here recapitulate, one by one, the different items in
the Labor Party’s program, which successive party conferences
have adopted. These proposals, some of them in various publica­
tions worked out in practical detail, are often carelessly derided as
impracticable, even by the politicians who steal them piecemeal
from us! The members of the Labor Party, themselves actually
working by hand or by brain, in close contact with the facts, have
perhaps at all times a more accurate appreciation of what is prac­
ticable, in industry as in politics, than those who depend solely on
academic instruction or are biased by great possessions. But to-day
no man dares to say that anything is impracticable. The war,
which has scared the old political parties right out of their dogmas,
has taught every statesman and every Government official, to his
enduring surprise, how very much more can be done along the lines
that we have laid down than he had ever before thought possible.
What we now promulgate as our policy, whether for opposition or
for office, is not merely this or that specific reform, but a deliberately
thought out, systematic, and comprehensive plan for that imme­
diate social rebuilding which any ministry, whether or not it desires
to grapple with the problem, will be driven to undertake. The
four pillars of the house that we propose to erect, resting upon the


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common foundation of the democratic control of society in all it3
activities, may be termed, respectively:
(a) The universal enforcement of the national minimum;
(5) The democratic control of industry;
(c) The revolution in national finance; and
(d) The surplus wealth for the common good.
The various detailed proposals of the Labor Parly, herein briefly
summarized, rest on these four pillars, and can best be appreciated
in connection with them.
TH E U N IVE R SA L E N F O R C E M E N T O F A N A T IO N A L M IN IM U M .

The first principle of the Labor Party—in significant contrast
with those of the capitalist system, whether expressed by the Liberal
or by the Conservative Party—is the securing to every member of
the community, in good times and bad alike (and not only to the
strong and able, the well born or the fortunate), of all the requisites
of healthy life and worthy citizenship. This is in no sense a “ class”
proposal. Such an amount of social protection of the individual,
however poor and lowly, from birth to death, is, as the economist
now knows, as indispensable to fruitful cooperation as it is to suc­
cessful combination; and it affords the only complete safeguard
against that insidious degradation of the standard of life, which is
the worst economic and social calamity to which any community
can be subjected. We are members one of another. No man liveth
to himself alone. If any, even the humblest, is made to suffer, the
whole community and every one of us, whether or not we recognize
the fact, is thereby injured. Generation after generation this has
been the corner-stone of the faith of labor. It will be the guiding
principle of any labor government.
TH E LE G ISLA TIVE R E G U L A T IO N OF E M P L O Y M E N T .

Thus it is that the Labor Party to-day stands for the universal
application of the policy of the national minimum, to which (as
embodied in the successive elaborations of the factory, mines, rail­
ways, shops, merchant shipping, and truck acts, the public health,
housing, and education acts and the minimum wage act—all of them
aiming at the enforcement of at least the prescribed minimum of
leisure, health, education, and subsistence) the spokesmen of labor
have already gained the support of the enlightened statesmen and
economists of the world. All these laws purporting to protect
against extreme degradation of the standard of life need considerable
improvement and extension, whilst their administration leaves much
to be desired. For instance, the workmen’s compensation act fails,
shamefully, not merely to secure proper provision for all the victims
of accident and industrial disease, but what is much more important,

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docs not succeed in preventing their continual increase. The amend­
ment and consolidation of the factories and workshops acts, with
their extension to all employed persons, is long overdue, and it
will be the policy of labor greatly to strengthen the staff of inspectors
especially by the addition of more men and women of actual expe­
rience of the workshop and the mine. The coal mines (minimum
wage) act must certainly be maintained in force, and suitably
amended, so as both to insure greater uniformity of conditions
among the several districts and to make the district minimum in
all cases an effective reality. The same policy will, in the interests
of the agricultural laborers, dictate the perpetuation of the legal
wage clauses of the new corn law just passed for a term of five years,
and the prompt amendment of any defects that may be revealed
in their working. And, in view of the fact that many millions of
wage-earners, notably women and the less skilled workmen in various
occupations, are unable by combination to obtain wages adequate
for decent maintenance in health, the Labor Party intends to see
to it that the trade boards act is suitably amended and made to
apply to all industrial employments in which any considerable
number of those employed obtain less than 30 shillings per week.
This minimum of not less than 30 shillings per week (which will
need revision according to the level of prices) ought to be the very
lowest statutory base line for the least skilled adult workers, men
or women, in any occupation, in all parts of the United Kingdom.
T H E O R G A N IZ A T IO N OF D E M O B IL IZ A T IO N .

But the coming industrial dislocation, which will inevitably follow
the discharge from war service of half of all the working population,
imposes new obligations upon the community. The demobilization
and discharge of the 8,000,000 wage-earners now being paid from
the public funds, either for service with the colors or in munition
work and other war trades, will bring to the whole wage-earning
class grave peril of unemployment, reduction of wages, and a lasting
degradation of the standard of life, which can be prevented only
by deliberate national organization. The Labor Party has re­
peatedly called upon the present Government to formulate its plan,
and to make in advance all arrangements necessary for coping with
so unparalleled a dislocation. The policy to which the Labor Party
commits itself is unhesitating and uncompromising. It is plain that
regard should be had, in stopping Government orders, reducing the
staff of the national factories and demobilizing the army, to the
actual state of employment in particular industries and in different
districts, so as both to release first the kinds of labor most urgently
required for the revival of peace production and to prevent any
congestion of the market. It is no less imperative that suitable

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OE LABOR STA T ISTIC S.

provision against being turned suddenly adrift without resources
should be made, not only for the soldiers, but also for the 3,000,000
operatives in munition work and other war trades, who will be dis­
charged long before most of the army can be disbanded. On this
important point, which is the most urgent of all, the present Gov­
ernment has, we believe, down to the present hour, formulated no
plan, and come to no decision, and neither the Liberal nor the Con­
servative Party has apparently deemed the matter worthy of agita­
tion. Any Government which shcmld allow the discharged soldier
or munition worker to fall into the clutches of charity or the poor
law would have to be instantly driven from office by an outburst
of popular indignation. What every one of them wffio is not wholly
disabled will look for is a situation in accordance with his capacity.
SE C U R IN G E M P L O Y M E N T FOR ALL.

The Labor Party insists—as no other political party has thought fit
to do—that the obligation to find suitable employment in productive
work for all these men and women rests upon the Government for the
time being. The work of resettling the disbanded soldiers and dis­
charged munition workers into new situations is a national obligation,
and the Labor Party emphatically protests against it being regarded
as a matter for private charity. It strongly objects to this public
duty being handed over either to committees of philanthropists or
benevolent societies, or to any of the military or recruiting authorities.
The policy of the Labor Party in this matter is to make the utmost use
of the trade-unions, and, equally for the brainworkers, of the various
professional associations. In view of the fact that, in any trade, the
best organization for placing men in situations is a national tradeunion having local branches throughout the kingdom, every soldier
should be allowed, if he chooses, to have a duplicate of his industrial
discharge notice sent, one month before the date fixed for his discharge,
to the secretary of the trade-union to which he belongs or wishes to
belong. Apart from this use of the trade-union (and a corresponding
use of the professional association) the Government must, of course,
avail itself of some such public machinery as that of the employment
exchanges; but before the existing exchanges (which wrill need to be
greatly extended) can receive the cooperation and support of the
organized labor movement, without Which their operations can never
be fully successful, it is imperative that they should be drastically
reformed, on the lines laid down in the demobilization report of the
“ labor after the war” joint committee; and, in particular, that each
exchange should be placed effectually under the supervision and con­
trol of a joint committee of employers and trade-unionists in equal
numbers.


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The responsibility of the Government, for the time being, in the
grave industrial crisis that demobilization will produce, goes, how­
ever, far beyond the 8,000,000 men and women whom the various
departments will suddenly discharge from their own service. The
effect of this peremptory discharge on all the other workers has also
to be taken into account. To the Labor Party it will seem the
supreme concern of the Government of the day to see to it that there
shall be, as a result of the gigantic “ general post” which it will itself
have deliberately set going, nowhere any degradation of the standard
of life. The Government has pledged itself to restore the trade-union
conditions and “ prewar practices” of the workshop, which the tradeunions patriotically gave up at the direct request of the Government
itself; and this solemn pledge must be fulfilled, of course, in the
spirit as well as in the letter. The Labor Party, moreover, holds it
to be the duty of the Government of the day to take all necessary
steps to prevent the standard rates of wages, in any trade or occupa­
tion whatsoever, from suffering any reduction, relatively to the con­
temporary cost of living. Unfortunately, the present Government,
like the Liberal and Conservative Parties, so far refuses to speak on
this important matter with any clear voice. We claim that it should
be a cardinal point of Government policy to make it plain to every
capitalist employer that any attempt to reduce the customary rates
of wages when peace comes, or to take advantage of the dislocation
of demobilization to worsen the conditions of employment in any
grade whatsoever, will certainly lead to embittered industrial strife,
which will be in the highest degree detrimental to the national in­
terests; and that the Government of the day will not hesitate to take
all necessary steps to avert such a calamity. In the great impending
crisis the Government of the day should not only, as the greatest
employer of both brain workers and manual workers, set a good ex­
ample in this respect, but should also actively seek to influence private
employers by proclaiming in advance that it wTill not itself attempt
to lower the standard rates of conditions in public emplojunent; by
announcing that it will insist on the most rigorous observance of the
fair-wages clause in all public contracts; and by explicitly recom­
mending every local authority to adopt the same policy.
But nothing is more dangerous to the standard of life, or so de­
structive of those minimum conditions of healthy existence, which
must in the interests of the community be assured to every worker,
than any widespread or continued unemployment. It has always
been a fundamental principle of the Labor Party (a point on which,
significantly enough, it lias not been followed by either of the other
political parties) that, in a modern industrial community, it is one


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of the foremost obligations of the Government to find, for every
willing worker, whether by hand or by brain, productive work at
standard rates.
It is accordingly the duty of the Government to adopt a policy of
deliberately and systematically preventing the occurrence of unem­
ployment, instead of (as heretofore) letting unemployment occur,
and then seeking, vainly and expensively, to relieve the unemployed.
It is now known that the Government can, if it chooses, arrange the
public works and the orders of national departments and local author­
ities in such a way as to maintain the aggregate demand for labor
in the whole kingdom (including that of capitalist employers) ap­
proximately at a uniform level from y ar to year; and it is therefore
a primary obligation of the Government to prevent any considerable
or widespread fluctuations in the total numbers employed in times of
good or bad trade. But this is not all. In order to prepare for the
possibility of there being any unemployment, either in the course of
demobilization or in the first years of peace, it is essential that the
Government should make all necessary preparations for putting
instantly in hand, directly or through the local authorities, such
urgently needed public works as (a) the rehousing of the population
alike in rural districts, mining villages, and town slums, to the extent
possibly, of a million new cottages and an outlay of three hundred
millions sterling; (b) the immediate making good of the shortage of
schools, training colleges, technical colleges, etc., and the engagement
of the necessary additional teaching, clerical, and administrative
staffs; (c) new roads; (d) light railways; (e) the unification and
reorganization of the railway and canal system; (f) afforestation;
(g) the reclamation of land; (k) the development and better equip­
ment of our ports and harbors; (i) the opening up of access to land
by cooperative small holdings and in other practicable ways. More­
over, in order to relieve any pressure of an overstocked labor market,
the opportunity should be taken, if unemployment should threaten
to become widespread, (a) immediately to raise the school-leaving
age to 16; (6) greatly to increase the number of scholarships and
bursaries for secondary and higher education; and (c) substantially
to shorten the hours of labor of all young persons, even to a greater
extent than the eight hours per week contemplated in the new edu­
cation bill, in order to enable them to attend technical and other
classes in the daytime. Finally, wherever practicable, the hours of
adult labor should be reduced to not more than 48 per week, without
reduction of the standard rates of wages. There can be no economic
or other justification for keeping any man or woman at work for long
hours, or at overtime, whilst others are unemployed.


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SO CIAL IN SU RA N CE A G A IN ST UN EM PLO YM EN T.

In so far as the Government fails to prevent unemployment—•
whenever it finds it impossible to discover for any willing worker,
man or woman, a suitable situation at the standard rate—the Labor
Party holds that the Government must, in the interest of the com­
munity as a wdiole, provide him or her with adequate maintenance,
either with such arrangements for honorable employment or with
such useful training as may be found practicable, according to age,
health, and previous occupation. In many ways the best form of
provision for those who must be unemployed, because the industrial
organization of the community so far breaks down as to be tempo­
rarily unable to set them to work, is the out-of-work benefit afforded
by a well administered trade-union. This is a special tax on the
trade-unionists themselves which they have voluntarily undertaken
but toward which they have a right to claim a public subvention—a
subvention which was actually granted by Parliament (though only
to the extent of a couple of shillings or so per week) under Part II of
the insurance act. The arbitrary withdrawal by the Government in
1915 of this statutory right of the trade-unions was one of the least
excusable of the war economies; and the Labor Party must insist on
the resumption of this subvention immediately the war ceases, and
on its increase to at least half the amount spent in out-of-work benefit.
The extension of State unemployment insurance to other occupations
may afford a convenient method of providing for such of the unem­
ployed, especially in the case of badly paid women workers and the
less skilled men, whom it is difficult to organize into trade-unions.
But the weekly rate of the State unemployment benefit needs, in
these days of high prices, to be considerably raised; whilst no industry
ought to be compulsorily brought within its scope against the declared
will of the workers concerned, and especially of their trade-unions.
In one way or another remunerative employment or honorable main­
tenance must be found for every willing worker, by hand or by brain,
in bad times as well as in good. It is clear that, in the twentieth
century, there must be no question of driving the unemployed to
anything so obsolete and discredited as either private charity, with
its haphazard and ill-considered doles, or the poor law, with the
futilities and barbarities of its “ stone yard,” or its “ able-bodied testworkhouse.” Only on the basis of a universal application of the
policy of the national minimum, affording complete security against
destitution, in sickness and health, in good times and bad alike, to
'every member of the community, of whatever age or sex, can any
worthy social order be built up.


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THE D E M O C R A T IC CO N TR O L O F IN D U STR IES.

The universal application of the policy of the national minimum
is, of course, only the first of the pillars of the house that the Labor
Party intends to see built. What marks off this party most dis­
tinctly from any of the other political parties is its demand for the
full and genuine adoption of the principle of democracy. The first
condition of democracy is effective personal freedom. This has
suffered so many encroachments during the war that it is necessary
to state with clearness that the complete removal of all the war-time
restrictions on freedom of speech, freedom of publication, freedom
of the press, freedom of travel, and freedom of choice of place of resi­
dence and kind of employment must take place the day after peace
is declared. The Labor Party declares emphatically against any
continuance of the military service acts a moment longer than the
imperative requirements of the war excuse. But individual freedom
is of little use without complete political rights. The Labor Party
sees its repeated demands largely conceded in the present representa­
tion of the people act, but not yet wholly satisfied. The party stands,
as heretofore, for complete adult suffrage, with not more than a
three months’ residential qualification, for effective provision for
absent electors to vote, for absolutely equal rights for both sexes, for
the same freedom to exercise civic rights for the “ common soldier”
as for the officer, for shorter Parliaments, for the complete abolition
of the House of Lords, and for a most strenuous opposition to any
new second chamber, whether elected or not, having in it any element
of heredity or privilege, or of the control of the House of Commons
by any party or class. But unlike the Conservative and Liberal
Parties, the Labor Party insists on democracy in industry as well as
in government. It demands the progressive elimination from the
control of industry of the private capitalist, individual or joint-stock;
and the setting free of all who work, whether by hand or by brain, for
the service of the community, and of the community only. And the
Labor Party refuses absolutely to believe that the British people will
permanently tolerate any reconstruction or perpetuation of the
disorganization, waste, and inefficiency involved in the abandonment
of British industry to a jostling crowd of separate private employers,
with their minds bent not on the service of the community but—by
the very law of their being—only on the utmost possible profiteering.
What the nation needs is undoubtedly a great bound onward in its
aggregate productivity. But this can not be secured merely by
pressing the manual workers to more strenuous toil, or even by en­
couraging the “ captains of industry” to a less wasteful organization
of their several enterprises on a profit-making basis. What the
Labor Party looks to is a genuinely scientific reorganization of the

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nation’s industry, no longer deflected by individual profiteering, on
the basis of the common ownership of the means of production; the
equitable sharing of the proceeds among ail who participate in any
capacity and only among these, and the adoption, in particular
services and occupations, of those systems and methods of administra­
tion and control that may be found in practice best to promote not
profiteering, but the public interest.
IM M E D IA TE

N A T IO N A LIZA TIO N .

The Labor Party stands not merely for the principle of the com­
mon ownership of the nation’s land, to be applied as suitable opportu­
nities occur, but also, specifically, for the immediate nationalization
of railways, mines, and the production of electrical power. We hold
that the very foundation of any successful reorganization of British
industry must necessarily be found in the provision of the utmost
facilities for transport and communication, the production of power
at the cheapest possible rate, and the most economical supply of both
electrical energy and coal to every corner of the Kingdom. Hence
the Labor Party stands unhesitatingly for the national ownership
and administration of the railways and canals, and their union, along
with harbors and roads and the posts and telegraphs—not to say
also the great lines of steamers which could at once be owned, if not
immediately directly managed in detail, by the Government—in a
united national service of communication and transport; to be
worked, unhampered by capitalist, private or purely local interests
(and with a steadily increasing participation of the organized workers
in the management, both central and local), exclusively for the
common good. If any government should be so misguided as to
propose, when peace comes, to hand the railways back to the share­
holders, or should show itself so spendthrift of the nation’s property
as to give these shareholders any enlarged franchise by presenting
them with the economies of unification or the profits of increased
railway rates, or so extravagant as to bestow public funds on the
reequipment of privately owned lines—all of which things are now
being privately intrigued for by the railway interests—the Labor
Party will offer any such project the most strenuous opposition.
The railways and canals, like the roads, must henceforth belong to
the public, and to the public alone.
In the production of electricity, for cheap power, light, and heating,
this country has so far failed, because of hampering private interests,
to take advantage of science. Even in the largest cities we still
“ peddle” our electricity on a contemptibly small scale. What is
called for, immediately after the war, is the erection of a score of
gigantic “super-power stations,” which could generate, at incredibly
cheap rates, enough electricity for the use of every industrial estab
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lishment and every private household in Great Britain, the present
municipal and joint-stock electrical plants being universally linked
up and used for local distribution. This is inevitably the future of
electricity. It is plain that so great and so powerful an enterprise,
affecting every industrial enterprise and eventually every household,
must not be allowed to pass into the hands of private capitalists.
They are already pressing the Government for the concession, and
neither the Liberal nor the Conservative Party has yet made up its
mind to a refusal of such a new endowment of profiteering in what
will presently be the life blood of modern productive industry. The
Labor Party demands that the production of electricity on the neces­
sary gigantic scale shall be made from the start (with suitable
arrangements for municipal cooperation in local distribution) a
national enterprise, to be worked exclusively with the object of sup­
plying the whole Kingdom with the cheapest possible power, light,
and heat.
But with railways and the generation of electricity in the hands
of the public it would be criminal folly to leave to the present 1,500
colliery companies the power of “ holding up” the coal supply.
These are now all working under public control, on terms that vir­
tually afford to their shareholders a statutory guaranty of their
swollen incomes. The Labor Party demands the immediate national­
ization of mines, the extraction of coal and iron being worked as a
public service (with a steadily increasing participation in the manage­
ment, both central and local, of the various grades of persons em­
ployed), and the whole business of the retail distribution of house­
hold coal being undertaken as a local public service by the elected
municipal or county councils. And there is no reason why coal
should fluctuate in price any more than railway fares, or why the
consumer should be made to pay more in winter than in summer,
or in one town than another. What the Labor Party would aim at
is, for household coal of standard quality, a fixed and uniform price
for the whole Kingdom, payable by rich and poor alike, as unalterable
as the penny postage stamp.
But the sphere of immediate nationalization is not restricted to
these great industries. We shall never succeed in putting the
gigantic system of health insurance on a proper footing, or secure a
clear field for the beneficent work of the friendly societies, or gain a
free hand for the necessary development of the urgently called for
ministry of health and the local public health service, until the
nation expropriates the profit-making industrial insurance companies
which now so tyrannously exploit the people with their wasteful
house-to-house industrial life insurance. Only by such an expro­
priation of life assurance companies can we secure the universal


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provision, free from tne burdensome toll of weekly pence, of the
indispensable funeral benefit. Nor is it in any sense a “ class”
measure. Only by the assumption by a state department of the
whole business of life assurance can the millions of policyholders of
all classes be completely protected against the possibly calamitous
results of the depreciation of securities and suspension of bonuses
which the war is causing. Only by this means can the great staff of
insurance agents find their proper place as civil servants, with equi­
table conditions of employment, compensation for any disturbance
and security of tenure, in a nationally organized public service for
the discharge of the steadily increasing functions of the Government
in vital statistics and social insurance.
In quite another sphere the Labor Party sees the key to temperance
reform in taking the entire manufacture and retailing of alcoholic
drink out of the hands of those who find profit in promoting the
utmost possible consumption. This is essentially a case in which
the people, as a whole, must assert its right to full and unfettered
power for dealing with the licensing question in accordance with
local opinion. For this purpose, localities should have conferred
upon them facilities (a) to prohibit the sale of liquor within their
boundaries, (b) to reduce the number of licenses and regulate the
conditions under which they may be held, and (c) if a locality decides
that licenses are to be granted, to determine whether such licenses
shall be under private or any form of public control.
M U N IC IP A LIZA T IO N

Other main industries, especially those now becoming monopolized,
should be nationalized as opportunity offers. Moreover, the Labor
Party holds that the municipalities should not coniine their activities
to the necessarily costly services of education, sanitation, and police;
nor yet rest content with acquiring control of the local water, gas,
electricity, and tramways; but that every facility should be afforded
to them to acquire (easily, quickly, and cheaply) all the land they
require and to extend their enterprises in housing and town plan­
ning, parks, and public libraries, the provision of music and the
organization of recreation; and also to undertake, besides the retail­
ing of coal, other services of common utility, particularly the local
supply of milk, wherever this is not already fully and satisfactorily
organized by a cooperative society.
C O N T R O L OF C A PITA LIST IN D U S T R Y .

Meanwhile, however, we ought not to throw away the valuable
experience now gained by the Government in its assumption of the
importation of wheat, wool, metals, and other commodities, and in
its control of the shipping, woolen, leather, clothing, boot and shoe,


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milling, baking, butchering, and other industries. The Labor Party
holds that, whatever may have been the shortcomings of this gov­
ernment importation and control, it has demonstrably prevented a
lot of “ profiteering.” Nor can it end immediately on the declaration
of peace. The people will be extremely foolish if they ever allow their
indispensable industries to slip back into the unfettered control of
private capitalists, who are, actually at the instance of the Govern­
ment itself, now rapidly combining, trade by trade, into monopolist
trusts, which may presently become as ruthless in their extortion as
the worst American examples. Standing as it does for the demo­
cratic control of industry, the Labor Party would think twice before
it sanctioned any abandonment of the present profitable centraliza­
tion of purchase of raw material; of the present carefully organized
“ rationing,” by joint committees of the trades concerned, of the
several establishments with the materials they require; of the present
elaborate system of “ costing” and public audit of manufacturers’
accounts so as to stop the waste heretofore caused by the mechanical
inefficiency of the more backward firms; of the present salutary
publicity of manufacturing processes and expenses thereby insured;
and, on the information thus obtained (in order never again to revert
to the old-time profiteering) of the present rigid fixing, for standard­
ized products, of maximum prices at the factory, at the warehouse
of the wholesale trader, and in the retail shop. This question of the
retail prices of household commodities is emphatically the most
practical of all political issues to the woman elector. The male
politicians have too long neglected the grievances of the small house­
hold, which is the prey of every profiteering combination; and neither
the Liberal nor the Conservative Party promises in this respect any
amendment. This, too, is in no sense a “ class” measure. It is,
so the Labor Party holds, just as much the function of government
and just as necessary a part of the democratic regulation of industry
l.o safeguard the interests of the community as a whole and those of
all grades and sections of private consumers in the matter of prices
as it is, by the factory and trade boards acts, to protect the rights of
the wage-earning producers in the matter of wages, hours of labor,
and sanitation.
A

R E V O L U TIO N IN N A T IO N A L FINANCE.

In taxation, also, the interests of the professional and housekeeping
classes are at one with those of the manual workers. Too long has
our national finance been regulated, contrary to the teaching of
political economy, according to the wishes of the possessing classes
and the profits of the financiers. The colossal expenditure involved
in the present war (of which, against the protest of the Labor Party,


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only a quarter has been raised by taxation, whilst three-quarters
have been borrowed at onerous rates of interest, to be a burden on
the nation’s future) brings things to a crisis. When peace comes,
capital will be needed for all sorts of social enterprises, and the
resources of Government will necessarily have to be vastly greater
than they were before the war. Meanwhile innumerable new private
fortunes are being heaped up by those who have taken advantage of
the nation’s needs; and the one-tenth of the population which owns
nine-tenths of the riches of the United Kingdom, far from being
made poorer, will find itself, in the aggregate, as a result of the war,
drawing in rent and interest and dividends a larger nominal income
than ever before. Such a position demands a revolution in national
finance. How are we to discharge a public debt that may well
reach the almost incredible figure of 7,000 million pounds sterling
and at the same time raise an annual revenue which, for local as well
as central government, must probably reach 1,000 millions a year?
It is over this problem of taxation that the various political parties
will be found to be most sharply divided.
The Labor Party stands for such a system of taxation as will yield
all the necessary revenue to the Government without encroaching
on the prescribed national minimum standard of life of any family
whatsoever; without hampering production or discouraging any
useful personal effort, and with the nearest possible approximation
to equality of sacrifice. We definitely repudiate all proposals for a
protective tariff, in whatever specious guise they may be cloaked, as
a device for burdening the consumer with unnecessarily enhanced
prices, to the profit of the capitalist employer or landed proprietor,
who avowedly expects his profit or rent to be increased thereby. We
shall strenuously oppose any taxation, of whatever kind, which
would increase the price of food or of any other necessary of life.
We hold that indirect taxation on commodities, whether by customs
or excise, should be strictly limited to luxuries, and concentrated
principally on those of which it is socially desirable that the consump­
tion should be actually discouraged. We are at one with the manu­
facturer, the farmer, and the trader in objecting to taxes interfering
with production or commerce, or hampering transport and communi­
cations. In all these matters—once more in contrast with the other
political parties, and by no means in the interests of the wage
earners alone—the Labor Party demands that the very definite
teachings of economic science should no longer be disregarded.
For the raising of the greater part of the revenue now required the
Labor Party looks to the direct taxation of the incomes above the
necessary cost of family maintenance; and for the requisite effort to pay
off the national debt, to the direct taxation of private fortunes, both
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during life and at death. The income tax and super tax ought at
once to be thoroughly reformed in assessment and collection, in
abatements and allowances and in graduation and differentiation,
so as to levy the required total sum in such a way as to make the real
sacrifice of all the taxpayers as nearly as possible equal. This would
involve assessment by families instead of by individual persons so
that the burden is alleviated in proportion to the number of persons
to be maintained. It would involve the raising of the present
unduly low minimum income assessable to the tax and the lightening
of the present unfair burden on the great mass of professional and
small trading classes by a new scale of graduation, rising from a
penny in the pound on the smallest assessable income up to 16 or
even 19 shillings in the pound on the highest income of the million­
aires. It would involve bringing into assessment the numerous
•windfalls of profit that now escape, and a further differentiation
between essentially different kinds of income. The excess profits
tax might well be retained in an appropriate form; whilst so long as
mining royalties exist the mineral rights duty ought to be increased.
The steadily rising unearned increment of urban and mineral land
ought, by an appropriate direct taxation of land values, to be wholly
brought into the public exchequer. At the same time, for the sendee
and redemption of the national debt, the death duties ought to be
regraduated, much more strictly collected, and greatly increased.
In this matter we need, in fact, completely to reverse our point of
view and to rearrange the whole taxation of inheritance from the
standpoint of asking what is the maximum amount that any rich
man should be permitted at death to divert by his will from the
national exchequer, which should normally be the heir to all private
riches in excess of a quite moderate amount by way of family pro­
vision. But all this will not suffice. It will be imperative at the
earliest possible moment to free the nation from at any rate the
greater part of its new load of interest-bearing debt for loans which
ought to have been levied as taxation; and the Labor Party stands
for a special capital levy to pay off, if not the whole, a very substan­
tial part of the entire national debt—a capital levy chargeable like
the death duties on all property, but (in order to secure approximate
equality of sacrifice) with exemption of the smallest savings, and for
the rest at rates very steeply graduated, so as to take only a small
contribution from the little people and a very much larger percentage
from the millionaires.
Over this issue of how the financial burden of the war is to be
borne and how the necessary revenue is to be raised, the greatest
political battles will be fought. In this matter the Labor Party
claims the support of four-fifths of the whole nation, for the interests


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of the clerk, the teacher, the doctor, the minister of religion, the
average retail shopkeeper and trader, and all the mass of those living
on small incomes are identical with those of the artisan. The land­
lords, the financial magnates, the possessors of great fortunes will
not, as a class, willingly forego the relative immunity that they have
hitherto enjoyed. The present unfair subjection of the cooperative
society to an excess profits tax on the “ profits” wTiich it has never
made—specially dangerous as “ the thin end of the wedge” of penal
taxation of this laudable form of democratic enterprise—will not be
abandoned without a struggle. Every possible effort will be made
to juggle with the taxes so as to place upon the shoulders of the mass
of laboring folk and upon the strugghng households of the profes­
sional men and small traders (as was done after every previous war)—
whether by customs or excise duties, by industrial monopohes, by
unnecessarily high rates of postage and railway fares, or by a thou­
sand and one other ingenious devices—an unfair share of the national
burden. Against, these efforts the Labor Party will take the firmest
stand.
THE SU R PLU S FO R THE C O M M O N GOOD.

In the disposal of the surplus above the standard of life society has
hitherto gone as far wrong as in its neglect to secure the necessary
basis of any genuine industrial efficiency or decent social order. We
have allowed the riches of our mines, the rental value of the lands
superior to the margin of cultivation, the extra profits of the fortunate
capitalists, even the material outcome of scientific discoveries—which
ought by now to have made this Britain of ours immune from class
poverty or from any widespread destitution—to be absorbed by
individual proprietors; and then devoted very largely to the senseless
luxury of an idle rich class. Against this misappropriation of the
wealth of the community, the Labor Party—speaking in the interests
not of the wage-earners alone, but of every grade and section of pro­
ducers by hand or by brain, not to mention also those of the genera­
tions that are to succeed us, and of the permanent welfare of the
community—emphatically protests. One mam pillar of the house
that the Labor Party intends to build is the future appropriation of
the surplus, not to the enlargement of any individual fortune, but to
the common good. It is from this constantly arising surplus (to be
secured, on the one hand, by nationalization and municipalization
and, on the other, by the steeply graduated taxation of private
income and riches) that will have to be found the new capital which
the community day by day needs for the perpetual improvement and
increase of its various enterprises, for which we shall decline to be
dependent on the usury-exacting financiers. It is from the same
source that has to be defrayed the public provision for the sick and


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infirm of all kinds (including that for maternity and infancy) which
is still so scandalously insufficient; for the aged and those prematurely
incapacitated by accident or disease, now in many ways so im­
perfectly cared for; for the education alike of children, of adolescents
and of adults, in which the Labor Party demands a genuine equality
of opportunity, overcoming all differences of material circumstances;
and for the organization of public improvements of all kinds, including
the brightening of the lives of those now condemned to almost ceaseless
toil, and a great development of the means of recreation. From the
same source must come the greatly increased public provision that the
Labor Party will insist on being made for scientific investigation and
original research, in every branch of knowledge, not to say also for the
promotion of music, literature and fine art, which have been under
capitalism so greatly neglected, and upon which, so the Labor Party
holds, any real development of civilization fundamentally depends.
Society, like the individual, does not live by bread alone—does not
exist only for perpetual wealth production. It is in the proposal
for this appropriation of every surplus for the common good—in the
vision of its resolute use for the building up of the community as a
whole instead of for the magnification of individual fortunes—that
the Labor Party, as the party of the producers by hand or by brain,
most distinctively marks itself off from the older political parties, stand­
ing, as these do, essentially for the maintenance, unimpaired, of the
perpetual private mortgage upon the annual product of the nation
that is involved in the individual ownership of land and capital.
THE STREET OF TO-MORROW.

The house which the Labor Party intends to build, the four pillars
of which have now been described, does not stand alone in the world.
Where will it be in the street of to-morrow? If we repudiate, on the
one hand, the imperialism that seeks to dominate other races, or to
impose our own will on other parts of the British Empire, so we dis­
claim equally any conception of a selfish and insular ‘‘noninterventionism,” unregarding of our special obligations to our fellow citizens
overseas; of the corporate duties of one nation to another; of the
moral claims upon us of the nonadult races, and of our own indebted­
ness to the world of which we are part. We look for an everincreasing intercourse, a constantly developing exchange of com­
modities, a steadily growing mutual understanding, and a continually
expanding friendly cooperation among all the peoples of the world.
With regard to that great commonwealth of all races, all colors, all
religions, and all degrees of civilization, that we call the British
Empire, the Labor Party stands for its maintenance and its progressive
development on the lines of local autonomy and ‘‘Home Kule All


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Round” ; the fullest respect for the rights of each people, whatever its
color, to all the democratic self-government of which it is capable,
and to the proceeds of its own toil upon the resources of its own
territorial home; and the closest possible cooperation among all the
various members of what has become essentially not an empire in the
old sense, but a Britannic alliance. We desire to maintain the most
intimate relations with the Labor parties overseas. Like them, we
have no sympathy with the projects of “ imperial federation,” in so
far as these imply the subjection to a common imperial legislature
wielding coercive power (including dangerous facilities for coercive
imperial taxation and for enforced military service), either of the
existing self-governing dominions, whose autonomy would be thereby
invaded; or of the United Kingdom, whose freedom of democratic
self-development would be thereby hampered; or of India and the
colonial dependencies, which would thereby run the risk of being
further exploited for the benefit of a “ white empire.” We do not
intend, by any such “ imperial senate,” either to bring the plutocracy
of Canada and South Africa to the aid of the British aristocracy, or to
enable the landlords and financiers of the mother country to unite in
controlling the growing popular democracies overseas. The absolute
autonomy of each self-governing part of the Empire must be main­
tained intact. What we look for, besides a constant progress in
democratic self-government of every part of the Britannic alliance,
and especially in India, is a continuous participation of the ministers
of the dominions, of India, and eventually of other dependencies
(perhaps by means of their own ministers specially resident in London
for this purpose) in the most confidential deliberations of the cabinet,
so far as foreign policy and imperial affairs are concerned; and the
annual assembly of an imperial council, representing all constituents
of the Britannic alliance and all parties in their local legislatures,
which should discuss all matters of common interest, but only in
order to make recommendations for the simultaneous consideration
of the various autonomous local legislatures of what should in­
creasingly take the constitutional form of an alliance of free nations.
And we carry the idea further. As regards our relations to foreign
countries, we disavow and disclaim any desire or intention to dis­
possess or to impoverish any other state or nation. We seek no
increase of territory. . We disclaim all idea of “ economic war.” We
ourselves object to all protective customs tariffs; but we hold that
each nation must be left free to do what it thinks best for its own
economic development, without thought of injuring others. We
believe that nations are in no way damaged by each other’s economio
prosperity or commercial progress; but, on the contrary, that they
are actually themselves mutually enriched thereby. We would


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therefore put an end to the old entanglements and mystifications of
secret diplomacy and the formation of leagues against leagues. We
stand for the immediate establishment, actually as a part of the
treaty of peace with which the present war will end, of a universal
league or society of nations, a supemational authority, with an
international high court to try all justiciable issues between nations;
an international legislature to enact such common laws as can be
mutually agreed upon, and an international council of mediation to
endeavor to settle without ultimate conflict even those disputes which
are not justiciable. We would have all the nations of the world most
solemnly undertake and promise to make common cause against any
one of them that broke away from this fundamental agreement.
The world has suffered too much from war for the Labor Party to
have any other policy than that of lasting peace.
MORE LIGHT—BUT ALSO MORE WARMTH.

The Labor Party is far from assuming that it possesses a key to
open all locks; or that any policy which it can formulate will solve all
the problems that beset us. But we deem it important to ourselves
as well as to those who may, on the one hand, wish to join the party,
or, on the other, to take up arms against it, to make quite clear and
definite our aim and purpose. The Labor Party wants that aim
and purpose, as set forth in the preceding pages, with all its might.
It calls for more warmth in politics, for much less apathetic acquies­
cence in the miseries that exist, for none of the cynicism that saps the
life of leisure. On the other hand, the Labor Party has no belief in
any of the problems of the world being solved by good will alone.
Good will without knowledge is warmth without fight. Especially
in all the complexities of politics, in the still undeveloped science of
society, the Labor Party stands for increased study, for the scientific
investigation of each succeeding problem, for the deliberate organiza­
tion of research, and for a much more rapid dissemination among the
whole people of all the science that exists. And it is perhaps specially
the Labor party that has the duty of placing this advancement of
science in the forefront of its political program. What the Labor
Party stands for in all fields of fife is, essentially, democratic coopera­
tion; and cooperation involves a common purpose which can be
agreed to; a common plan which can be explained and discussed, and
such a measure of success in the adaptation of means to ends as will
insure a common satisfaction. An autocratic sultan may govern
without science if his whim is law. A plutocratic party may choose
to ignore science, if it is heedless whether its pretended solutions of
social problems that may win political triumphs ultimately succeed
or fail. But no Labor Party can hope to maintain its position unless


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its proposals are, in fact, the outcome of the best political science ol
its time; or to fulfill its purpose unless that science is continually
wresting new fields from human ignorance. Hence, although the
purpose of the Labor Party must, by the law of its being, remain
for all time unchanged, its policy and its program will, we hope,
undergo a perpetual development as knowledge grows and as new
phases of the social problem present themselves in a continually
finer adjustment of our measures to our ends. If law is the mother
of freedom, science, to the Labor Party, must be the parent of law.
RECONSTRUCTION PROGRAM OF GERMAN TRADE-UNIONS.1

The following reconstruction scheme has been drawn up by the
German trade-union organizations and federations of private salaried
employees and was submitted in the form of a petition to the Fed­
eral Council (Bundesrat) and the Reichstag. The demands contained
therein are grouped under seven headings: General economic meas­
ures, food supply, employment offices, discharge of soldiers and per­
sons in the auxiliary service, regulation of working conditions and
protective labor legislation, aid for soldiers and their dependents, and
housing. The original petition contains lengthy reasons for each of
the demands made which, owing to lack of space, can not be repro­
duced here. The demands proper are as follows:
GENERAL ECONOMIC MEASURES.

1. Representatives of the trade-union groups and of the joint committees of the
salaried employees’ federations of the most important branches of industry and trades
shall be appointed to cooperate with the imperial commissioner for industrial recon­
struction (R e i c h s - K o m m i s s a r f ü r Ü b e r g a n g s w i r t s c h a f t ) and the economic committee of
the imperial ministry of the interior. The advisory board of the imperial commis­
sioner shall likewise be supplemented by the appointment of representatives of these
organizations.
2. Until the return of normal economic conditions the whole of the imports and
exports shall be controlled by the commissioner . Particular care shall be taken at the
conclusion of peace that Germany obtains a sufficient number of counterclaims to
cover her own requirements. Further, encouragement must be given to the export of
such products as are not absolutely required for use at home.
3. Import permits shall be made dependent upon the approval of the imperial com­
missioner. Where the right of approving imports and exports has been placed in the
hands of special organizations these shall be placed under the permanent control of
the commissioner. Representatives of the workmen and salaried employees of
industry and trade groups concerned shall participate in this control. In making
purchases these organizations must do away with mutual competition of their pur­
chasing agents and see to it that contracts are concluded under the most favorable
conditions. The profits of these organizations shall not exceed a moderate return
on the invested capital. Concealment of profits must be prevented. Their business
transactions must be subject to public control. Organizations of the kind designated

1

Correspondenzblatt der Generalkommission der Gewerkschaften Deutschland*, voi. 27, No. 42. Berlin,
Oct. 20,1917.


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here are to continue in existence only so long as is necessary for tlie restoration of
normal economic conditions in the country.
4. The export of products of which there is a scarcity in the home market may be
made dependent on the approval of the imperial commissioner.
5. German shipping concerns, whether for sea or inland navigations, must submit
to the orders of the commissioner, whose approval shall be particularly required for
the fixing of rates and routes and for the disposal of cargo space. In the matter of
space preference shall be given to raw materials and foodstuffs which are urgently
required.
6. The extension of the inland waterways shall be taken in hand at once and be
carried out by the Government according to uniform principles. The administration
and operation of these waterways shall likewise be subject to the supervision of an
imperial office.
7. The war companies founded for the supply of the various industries shall dis­
tribute the raw materials and partly manufactured goods according to the capacity
and requirements of the individual establishments. This applies equally to goods
imported from abroad and to those produced at home. The scheme of distribution i 3
to be submitted for approval to the commissioner.
8. For the facilitation of the solution of the economic problems of the period of
transition, for the collecting of data on economic conditions, and for the receiving and
disposal of complaints, requests, and applications the imperial commissioner shall
establish in the various Federal States and in Prussia for each district of each Province
special economic boards ( W i r t s c h a f t s d m t e r ) composed of an equal number of repre­
sentatives of employers, employees, and of the competent State government and
presided over by a chairman appointed by the imperial commissioner.
9. In order to initiate and promote economic activity the Imperial and the Federal
governments, as well as the provincial, district, and communal authorities, should
lose no time in determining on, approving, and carrying out the public purchases and
works that come within their scope. In the first place such purchases and works shall
be accelerated which are of importance for the revival of economic activity, for the
improvement of the food supply, and for the increase of housing accommodations.
10. The commissioner shall exercise control over all economic syndicates which
aim at regulating production, markets, conditions of delivery, prices, and imports and
exports. He may prohibit measures of the syndicates which may hamper the transi­
tion from war to peace conditions.
FOOD SU PPLY .

1. Until normal conditions have been reestablished it will be necessary to retain for
the purposes of the food supply the present war kitchen and mass-feeding arrange­
ments, the Government control of the most important foodstuffs, maximum prices,
requisitioning and rationing, and penalties against profiteering. Prices and distribu­
tion must be arranged in such a manner as to secure to the masses of the population a
cheap and adequate supply of food.
2. In the interest of an advantageous and well regulated food supply it will be
advisable to retain the imperial grain office, the central purchasing association, and
those companies connected with it which play an indispensable part in procuring
foodstuffs.
3. The embargo on food exports must for the present remain in force until the
market is sufficiently well stocked to permit the removal of restraints upon trade.
4. The importation of cattle, foodstuffs, and fodder must be encouraged in the
same manner as during the war.
5. The production of foodstuffs must be actively promoted and facilities must be
granted for the acquisition and employment under cooperative management of macfimery and appliances and for the procuring of fertilizers, seed, and fodder.


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6. All discrimination against cooperative societies and stores must be prohibited;
nor must Government or communal employees be hindered from acquiring member­
ship in them.
EMPLOYMENT OFEICES.

1. The procuring of employment must be regulated uniformly for the whole Empire
by law. It must be effected free of charge and be based on equal representation of
employers and employees in the administration of employment offices.
2. The organization of the employment offices must embrace all occupational groups.
The employment offices for private salaried employees are to be arranged in three
groups : For mercantile, technical, and office employees. A labor office ( A r b e i t s a m t )
shall be established for every large town, with its suburbs, and for each rural district.
To this labor office shall be subordinated the various employment offices within its
district. The individual labor offices within specified territorial districts shall be com­
bined into federations (district labor offices), and an imperial labor office (R e i c h s a r b e i t s a m t ) shall be the central authority in this organization of the employment offices.
3. U ntil legislation is enacted to this effect, all employment offices not conducted
for profit shall be grouped together by districts under central information offices
( Z e n t r a l a u s k u n f t s s t e l l e n ), and an imperial central office (R e i c h s s t e l l e ) with jurisdiction
over all employment offices shall regulate the relations of the central information
offices to each other.
Vacancies shall be reported to a general employment office or to an employment
office for the particular occupation in question. Employment offices operated for
profit shall, like free employment offices, be under obligation to report to the central
information office the number of vacancies and applications for employment filed with
them . The filling of vacancies shall not im ply exemption from the obligation to report
them. The central information offices shall effect the balancing of supply and demand
in the labor market within their district.
The imperial labor office shall effect the balancing of supply and demand between
the individual central information offices and issue regulations for the conduct of
employment offices during the transition period.
4. Special postal, telegraph, and telephone facilities shall be granted to the em­
ployment offices for communication with one another and with the central information
offices. The central information offices shall be authorized to grant free transporta­
tion to their place of employment to soldiers and persons in the auxiliary service on
their discharge.
5. The engagement of alien male and female labor shall be prohibited, except where
a shortage of native labor can be proved to exist. Whether alien labor may be engaged
shall be decided by the central information offices after a hearing of employers’ and
workmen’s economic organizations. These offices shall also determine measures for
the prevention of depression of wages through the introduction of alien labor. The
imperial labor office shall regulate the principles by which the admission of alien labor
shall be governed during the transition period. Alien workmen shall receive the same
wages and be guaranteed the same rights as native workmen.
DISCHARGE OF SOLDIERS AND OF FERSONS IN THE A U X IL IA R Y SERVICE.

1.
The discharge of soldiers from military service is to be so regulated as to secure
the immediate release of business men, technical experts, foremen, skilled workmen,
and administrative officials who are urgently required for the restoration of normal
economic activity and for the resumption of operation of indispensable establish­
ments. In releasing soldiers preference should be given to those trained for an occu­
pation in which there is a particularly strong demand for labor. Discharge in general
should be effected with as little delay as possible. Congestion of the labor market


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should be no reason for detaining the soldiers longer in military service than is neces­
sary for military reasons.
2. The discharged soldier shall be conveyed free of charge to the place of residence
of his family, or to his place of employment, if he can show that he has obtained work.
3. The military authorities shall do all in their power to assist the enlisted men in
obtaining suitable employment, especially by directing them to the proper employ­
ment office, by giving them information, and by assisting them in their correspondence.
4. Reemployment in the establishment in which they were employed before the
outbreak of the war should as far as possible be assured to those soldiers who have to
support a family, provided that they have been employed in the establishment at
least one year before being called in for war service. Whether it is possible in indi­
vidual cases for the owner of the establishment to comply with this obligation shall
be decided by an equipartisan arbitration board. Soldiers and auxiliary service men
who are unable or unwilling to continue their membership in an establishment pension
fund under the same conditions as formerly must be permitted to retain the rights
they have acquired on payment of a moderate fee.
5. Workmen and salaried employees who have been discharged from military service
and can not be assigned to suitable employment shall receive unemployment allow­
ances. U ntil State unemployment insurance shall have been introduced, the outlay
made by the communes on this account is to be refunded to them by the Imperial
Government.
6. For the purpose of recuperating and of attending to their domestic and business
affairs, soldiers on their discharge from the Army shall be regarded as on leave for a
full month, and shall draw pay at their former rate. Likewise shall dependents of
discharged soldiers continue to receive for a full month their former State or communal
family subsidy, irrespective of the fact that the discharged men have obtained em­
ployment, and for a still further period if they are unemployed.
7. Soldiers whose health has been seriously impaired and who are to be discharged
from the army must be granted sufficient leave for recuperating, and, if necessary,
must be enabled to take a rest or a course of treatment in a health resort or a sana­
torium at the expense of the Empire. The same privilege must be accorded to those
interned abroad on their return home.
8. Employers who, as a rule, employ not less than 20 workmen shall be required
to find suitable employment in their establishment for at least one disabled soldier
to every 20 workmen. Exceptions to this rule shall only be allowed by the equi­
partisan arbitration board after a hearing of the wages board concerned.
9. Disabled soldiers who before being called into military service were employed
in Government or communal establishments shall be reinstated irrespective of the
number of workmen or employees engaged there.
10. The wages of disabled soldiers in private as well as in State and communal
establishments must be computed with consideration of the actual work performed by
them; in particular they must receive the same wages for piecework as able-bodied
workers. In no circumstances must pensions be taken into account in computing
earnings.
11. The employment conditions created by the national auxiliary service law shall
be voided soon after the termination of the war in such measure as the restoration of
normal economic activity requires. Workmen or employees who gave up positions to
take up auxiliary service work shall, on being discharged from such work, be entitled
to unemployment allowances until they secure employment.
12. Male and female workers and salaried employees who have to be discharged in
order to make possible the reinstatement of ex-soldiers shall also receive unemploy­
ment allowances unless they are assigned to some other employment.


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REGULATION OF WORKING CONDITIONS AND PROTECTIVE LEGISLATION.

1. In view of the unsettled conditions that may prevail during the transition period,
unemployment allowances are to be granted from Imperial funds, so long as national
unemployment insurance has not been introduced.
2. The state of affairs created by Federal decree, whereby income from earniqgs has
been made exempt from attachment to a larger extent than provided in article 4, para­
graph 4, of the law on attachment of wages, shall be maintained. Article 850, para­
graph 2, of the law on civil procedure shall be made applicable to wages and salaries of
workmen and employees as well as to pensions and survivors’ pensions of persona
employed on the basis of private contract, in so far as these wages or salaries do not
exceed 5,000 marks ($1,190) per annum.
3. Provisions of protective labor legislation which have been temporarily suspended
during the war must be restored to full effectiveness immediately on the conclusion of
peace. The prohibition of night work in bakeries and confectioneries decreed by the
Federal council, as well as the 7 o’clock closing order for shops other than those selling
foodstuffs, shall be retained. Where the hours of labor have been lengthened in
imperial, State, or communal establishments they must be reduced to the prewar time
basis.
4. With the exception of the sickness insurance for homeworkers, which must be
newly regulated, the provision of the workmen’s insurance laws which have been
temporarily suspended during the war must be put in force again immediately on the
conclusion of peace.
5. The Federal decree relating to maternity benefits shall remain in force during the
transition period, and steps are to be taken to incorporate its provisions in the Imperial
Workmen’s Insurance Code.
6. For adjusting wage disputes and labor differences which can not be settled by
the authorities designated in collective agreements, official equipartisan arbitration
boards shall be created in the individual Federal States and Provinces and an equi­
partisan national arbitration board shall be created in the imperial commission for
industrial reconstruction for the adjustment of disputes relating to a national collective
wage agreement.
7. The workmen’s and salaried employees’ committees, and arbitration boards
created through the law on the national auxiliary service, are to be retained during
the period of reconstruction and in normal times in such a manner that boards corre­
sponding to the local arbitration board shall be created in each urban or rural district,
and boards corresponding to those maintained in the district of each army corps shall
be created for the district of each Province or Federal State. The military chairmen
of these boards shall be replaced by officials of the factory inspection service, and the
commissioner for industrial reconstruction shall assume the functions of the war
office { K r i e g s a m t ) . In localities in which an industrial or mining arbitration court
exists this may, with the consent of both parties, also be appealed to as an arbitration
board.
8. The workmen’s and salaried employees’ committees shall examine requests,
wishes, and complaints of the workers of their establishments in regard to wage and
working conditions and in submitting them to the employer shall express their opinion
on the question involved.
The arbitration boards shall decide disputes which can not be settled through dis­
cussion between the workmen’s committee and the employer, by making an award.
The parties to the dispute shall be bound to appear before the arbitration board when
called upon. The arbitration board shall give an award, even if one of the parties
remains away from the arbitration proceedings. The parties to the dispute must
declare within a certain time limit whether they accept the award.


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9. Workmen and salaried employees shall by imperial law be granted recognized
representation in the form of chambers organized on an occupational basis.
10. Agreements made by joint committees of employers and workmen’s or salaried
employees’ organizations with the object of furnishing employment or providing for
disabled soldiers shall be transmitted to the commissioner. Every effort should be
made*to give effect to these agreements.
11. Trade boards so far created for home workers shall be retained and others shall
be established for those trades in which they are yet lacking. They shall be author­
ized to regulate wage and working conditions in a legally binding manner.
12. When orders are given for work to be done at home in behalf of the Empire,
States, or communes, the wages therefor shall, after consultation with the trade organi­
zations of employers and workmen, be determined in such a manner that the share of
the workers and subcontractors is clearly defined and may not be reduced by subse­
quent agreements. The commissioner shall be authorized to give binding force to
these wage agreements for home workers. Where no special wage or arbitration board
exist disputes are to be settled by the arbitration board of the particular urban or rural
district.
AID FOR SOLDIERS AND THEIR D EPEN DEN TS.

1. Public loan banks shall be established for the assistance of soldiers who have
fallen into financial difficulties. These banks shall grant loans at moderate interest
and on easy terms of repayment. The requisite funds shall be provided by the
Imperial Government.
2. The protection of debtors, inaugurated during the war, shall be retained and
extended during the period of reconstruction. A special law shall be enacted which
shall determine how the concessions allowed are to be redeemed.
3. The rent arbitration boards shall be retained. Where disputes arise regarding
accumulated arrears of rent, the boards shall strive to effect a compromise between the
parties, and where these efforts prove unavailing they shall with due consideration of
the income and financial situation of the debtor pronounce their own award, which
shall be legally binding. Whatever facilities it shall be possible to grant in the way
of recourse to the loan banks, payment by installments, postponement of payment,
and remission of part of the debt by th e landlord, or assumption of it by the commune,
State, or Empire, shall be duly considered in t h e award.
HOUSING.

1. The erection of small dwellings shall be promoted through participation by the
State and communes in the capital stock of public welfare building associations,
through the sale of fiscal or communal land at moderate terms, or through the leasing
in the form of hereditary building rights to such associations, through the granting of
mortgage loans at moderate interest and easy refunding terms by insurance institutes
and State and communal savings banks, or through the guaranty by the State of mort­
gage loans made by third parties.
2. The communes shall see to it that the building land at present lying idle, whether
privately or publicly owned, shall be opened up as soon as possible; they should
make the reduction of improvement taxes and other real estate taxes and the pro­
motion of the erection of small dwellings part of their program, and they should also
erect dwellings on their own account.
3. The settlement on the land of disabled soldiers who are familiar with and capable
of agricultural labor shall be promoted through creation of suitable State, communal,
and corporate organizations and through subsidies to welfare associations which
devote themselves to this task. Home colonization, a matter of very urgent neces­
sity, shall be promoted by the fixing of low fares for local and suburban traffic.


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4.
House owners shall be granted concessions in the matter of payments of mort­
gage interest which have fallen into arrears during the War through no fault of their
own. In order to clear off such arrears the mortgage arbitration board shall with
due consideration of the income and financial situation of the debtor endeavor to
induce the creditor to accept payment by installments or to remit part of the debt,
or where necessary it should pronounce its own award.
Security for mortgages on real estate shall be provided up to a certain limit from
State funds.
GOVERNMENTAL CONTROL OF LABOR IN GERMANY.

Various articles in preceding numbers of the M o n t h l y R e v i e w 1
have traced the experience of the British Government in its efforts
to mobilize the labor force of the country for the needs of the war.
In practice these efforts have rarely involved a resort to compulsion
of any sort, the most important attempt at compulsory control being
the leaving-certificate provision of the Munitions of War Act of 1915.
The amended act of 1916 greatly modified the stringency of this
clause, and the whole scheme of leaving certificates was repealed in
October, 1917.
Until very recently the Bureau of Labor Statistics lias had no
accurate information regarding the manner in which the German
Government was exercising control over civil labor. A copy of the
German law upon this subject, however, has now been received, and
a translation thereof is submitted below, together with the adminis­
trative orders accompanjdng it. The law is entitled "Gesetz über den
Vaterländischen Hilfsdienst.” Its purpose is to mobilize civil labor
for war production purposes. To this end it places very great restric­
tions upon the freedom of labor movement and action, and gives the
military authorities a very important control over the whole labor
situation.
TEXT

The

OF T E E NATIONAL A U X IL IA R Y SERVICE LAW , AN D REGULATIONS AND
ORDERS R ELATING TO IT.

N a tio n a l A u x ilia r y

S e r v ic e

L a w o f D ecem ber 5, 1916

(R

. G . B . 1, 1 9 16, N o . 2 7 6 ) }

Article 1. Every male German citizen from the completed seventeenth to the
completed sixtieth year of age who is not in service with the armed forces is subject
to national auxiliary service for the duration of the war.
Art. 2. As active in the national auxiliary service are to be considered all persons
employed by public authorities, in public institutions or establishments, war indus­
tries, agriculture and forestry, in nursing of the sick, economic war organizations of all
kinds, or in other occupations or establishments which are of direct or indirect impor­
tance for the conduct of the war or the supply of the nation, in so far as the number
of these persons does not exceed requirements.
i See, particularly, M onthly R e v ie w , June, 1917, Labor in war time in Great Britain; September, 1917,
Restrictions upon the freedom of labor movement in Great Britain during the war; December, 1917, Abo­
lition of leaving certificates in Great Britain.
* Bulletin des Internationalen Arbeitsamtes, vol. 16, Nos. 8-9. Jena. 1917.


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Persons subject to auxiliary service who before August 1, 1916, were employed in
agriculture or forestry may not be withdrawn from this occupation for the purpose of
assignment to another occupation in the national auxiliary service.
Art. 3. The War Office (K r i e g s a m t ) created in the Prussian War Ministry is charged
with the direction of the national auxiliary service.
Art. 4. The question whether and to what extent the number of persons employed
by a public authority exceeds requirements is to be decided by the competent Imperial
or State central authorities in agreement with the War Office. The question as to
what are to be considered public institutions or establishments, and as to whether
and to what extent the number of persons employed therein exceeds requirements is
to be decided by the War Office after consultation of the competent Imperial or State
central authorities.
In all other instances the question, whether an occupation or establishment is of
importance in the meaning of article 2, as well as whether and to what extent the
number of persons employed in an occupation, organization, or establishment exceeds
requirements shall be decided by boards which shall be created for the district of
each general command or for parts of the district.
Art. 5. Each board (art. 4, par. 2) shall be composed of one officer as chairman,
two higher State officials, one of whom shall be from the factory inspection service,
and two employers’ and two workmen’s representatives. The officer, as well as the
employers’ and workmen’s representatives, is to be appointed by the War Office; in
Bavaria, Saxony, and Württemberg these members are to be appointed by the war
ministry, which, conjointly with the War Office, is in general charged with the
enforcement of the law in these Federal States. The higher State officials are to be
appointed by the central State authorities or by authorities designated by the latter.
If the district of a general command includes territories of several Federal States the
higher officials shall be appointed by the competent authorities of these Federal
States; the officials of that Federal State in which the establishment, the organization,
or the person exercising an occupation are located shall participate in the decisions of
the board.
A r t . 6. Decisions of the board (art. 4, par. 2) may be appealed to a board of appeals
( Z e n t r a l s t e l l e ) which shall be created in the War Office and shall be composed of two
officers of the War Office, one of whom shall act as chairman, two officials appointed
by the imperial chancellor, one official appointed by the central authorities of the
Federal State in which the establishment, organization, or the person exercising an
occupation is located, as well as of one employers’ and one workmen’s representative.
The second sentence of article 5 is applicable to the appointment of these represen­
tatives. If the decision relates to matters of interest to the navy one of the officers
shall be appointed by the Imperial Navy Office. In appeals against decisions of
boards located in Bavaria, Saxony, or Württemberg, one of the officers shall be ap­
pointed by the war ministry of the Federal State interested.
Art. 7. Persons subject to auxiliary service who are not employed within the
meaning of article 2 may at any time be requisitioned for national auxiliary service.
As a rule the requisitioning is at first to be effected through a request for voluntary
registration issued by the War Office or an authority designated by the central State
authorities. If this request is not complied with in a sufficient measure each indi­
vidual person subject to auxiliary service shall be requisitioned by special summons,
in writing, of a board to be formed for each district of a military reserves commission
( E r s a t z k o m m i s s i o n ) and to be composed of an officer as chairman, one higher official,
and two employers’ and two workmen’s representatives. In case of equality of votes
the chairman has the deciding vote. Sentence two of article 5 is applicable for the
appointment of the officer and of the employers’ and workmen’s representatives; the
higher official is to be appointed by the central State authorities or by an authority
designated by the latter.


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Each person who has received such a special summons in writing shall seek employ­
ment in an occupation coming within the meaning of article 2. In so far as such
employment is not obtained by the person in question within two weeks after receipt
of the summons he shall be assigned to an employment by the board.
Appeals against the assignment to an employment shall be decided by the board
created at the general command (art. 4, par. 2). Appeals have no staying effect.
A r t . 8. In assigning a person subject to auxiliary service to an employment, his
age, family conditions, place of residence, health, and former occupation shall be con­
sidered as much as possible; it shall also be investigated whether the prospective
wages of the person assigned to an employment will be sufficient for his own suste­
nance and that of relatives supported by him.
Art. 9. No person shall give employment to a person subject to auxiliary service
who is employed or has been employed within the last two weeks in any of the occupa­
tions designated in article 2 unless the person subject to auxiliary service produces a
certificate from his last employer showing that he left h is employment with the
consent of the employer.
If an employer refuses to issue a leaving certificate requested by a person subject
to auxiliary service, the latter may appeal to a board to be formed for each district of
a military reserves commission and to be composed of a representative of the War
Office as chairman and of three employers’ and three workmen’s representatives. Two
of the employers’ and two of the workmen’s representatives are to be appointed as
permanent representatives, while the remaining representatives shall be appointed
from that occupational group to which the appellant belongs. If after investigation
of the case in question the board finds that the appellant had a valid reason for leaving
his employment the board shall issue a certificate to him, which shall have the same
effect as a certificate issued by the employer.
The possibility of obtaining a suitable improvement of working conditions within
the national auxiliary service shall be considered a particularly valid reason,
Art. 10. The War Office shall issue regulations for the procedure of the boards
designated in article 4, paragraph 2, article 7, paragraph 2, and article 9, paragraph 2.
For the appointment of employers’ and workmen’s representatives to the boards
(arts. 5 and 6, art. 7, par. 2, and art. 9, par. 2) by the War Office the latter shall obtain
from employers’ and workmen’s organizations lists proposing suitable representatives.
If for the performance of the tasks of the boards designated in article 9, paragraph 2,
similar boards (war committees, etc.) are already in existence they may with the
consent of the War Office take the place of these boards.
A r t . 11. Permanent workmen’s committees must be in existence in all establish­
ments operated for the national auxiliary service to which Title VII of the Industrial
Code is applicable and which as a rule employ at least 50 workmen.
In so far as permanent workmen’s committees in accordance with article 134h of
the Industrial Code or with the mining laws do not exist in such establishments they
shall be formed. The members of these shall be elected by the workmen of the estab­
lishment or branch establishment who are of age, from their own midst, through direct
secret ballot according to the principles of proportionate representation. The central
State authorities shall issue detailed regulations relating thereto.
Special committees (salaried employees’ committees) shall be formed according to
the same principles and with the same rights in establishments of the kind designated
in paragraph 1 which employ more than 50 salaried employees subject to salaried
employees’ insurance.
Art. 12. The workmen’s committee is charged with the promotion of good-will
among the working force and between the working force and the employer. It shall
bring to the knowledge of the employer proposals, wishes, and complaints of the work-


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ing force relating to the equipment, the wage and working conditions of the establish­
ment, and its welfare institutions, and shall express its views on these matters.
On demand of at least one-fourth of the membership of a workmen’s committee a
meeting must be called and the question proposed for discussion be made the order
of the day.
Art. 13. If in disputes as to wage or other working conditions arising in an estab­
lishment of the kind designated in article 11 an agreement between the employer and
the workmen’s committee can not be effected each of the two parties may invoke
arbitration by the board designated in article 9, paragraph 2, provided both parties
have not invoked arbitration by an industrial, mining, guild, or mercantile arbitra­
tion court. In such a case articles 66 and 68 to 73 of the law on industrial arbitra­
tion courts are applicable with the reservation that a decision shall also be rendered
if one of the parties does not appear at the arbitration procedure or is not willing to
arbitrate, and that persons who have taken part in the dispute as employers or work­
men or as members of a workmen’s committee may not participate in the rendering
of a decision.
If in an establishment operated for the national auxiliary service to which Title YII
of the Industrial Code is applicable a permanent workmen’s committee created in
pursuance of the Industrial Code, the mining laws, or of article 11, paragraphs 2 or 3 of
this law does not exist the board designated in article 9, paragraph 2, may be invoked
for the arbitration of disputes between the working force and the employer as to wage or
other working conditions; the same is applicable to agricultural establishments. The
provisions of the second sentence of paragraph 1 are correspondingly applicable.
If the employer does not submit to the decision, leaving certificates (art. 9) may be
issued, on their request, to the workmen who took part in the dispute. If, on the
other hand, the workmen do not submit to the decision, reasons based on the award
may notserve as ground for theissuing of leaving certificates.
Art. 14. Persons employed in the national auxiliary service may not be restricted
in the exercise of their legal right of association and of holding meetings.
Art. 15. The competent service authorities shall issue regulations in the meaning
of articles 11 to 13 for the industrial establishments of the military and naval adminis­
tration.
Art. 16. Workmen assigned to agriculture in pursuance of this law shall not be
subject to State regulations on domestic service.
Art. 17. Information as to employment and labor questions and as to wage condi­
tions and operation of establishments requested through public announcement or
direct inquiry by the War Office or the boards must be furnished.
The War Office is authorized to inspect establishments through one of its representor
tives.
Art. 18. The following may be punished with imprisonment up to one year and a
fine up to 10,000 marks [$2,380], or with either of them, or with detention in a jail:
(1) Whoever does not comply with an order assigning him to an occupation in pur­
suance of article 7, paragraph 3, of this law or -without valid reason refuses to perform
the work assigned to him.
(2) Whoever employs a workman in contravention of the provisions of article 9,
paragraph 1.
(3) Whoever does not furnish within the fixed time lim it the information provided
for in article 17 or in giving such information knowingly makes untrue or incomplete
statements.
Art. 19. The Federal Council shall issue the regulations required for the application
of this law. General orders require the approval of a committee of 15 members elected
by the Reichstag from among its own membership.


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The War Office shall keep this committee currently informed on all important
events, furnish it information on request, receive its proposals, and obtain the opinion
of the committee before issuing important orders of a general nature.
The committee is authorized to convene during a recess of the Reichstag.
The Federal Council may provide imprisonment up to one year, or a fine up to 10,000
marks [$2,380], or either of them, or detention in a jail for contraventions of the regu­
lations for the application of this law.
Art. 20. The law shall come into force with the date of its promulgation. The
Federal Council shall determine the date of its abrogation; if it does not make use of
this authorization within one month after the conclusion of peace with the powers of
Europe the law shall cease to be in force.
O rder o f D e cem b er 2 1 , 1 9 1 6 , R e la tin g

to

T r a n s ito r y P r o v is io n s f o r

A r t i c l e s 9 a n d 1 0 o f th e N a t i o n a l A u x i l i a r y S e r v i c e L a w .

th e A p p l i c a t i o n

of

( R . O . B . 1 , p . 1 4 1 0 .)

In pursuance of article 19 of the law on the national auxiliary service, of December 5,
1916, the Federal Council, with the consent of the committee elected by the Reichstag,
has issued the following order:
Article 1. Pending the organization of the boards provided in article 9, paragraph
2, of the law their duties shall be performed with equivalent effect by temporary
boards organized by the general commands according to requirements; the observance
of article 10, paragraph 2, of the law is not required.
Art. 2. If for the performance of the duties of the boards designated in article 9,
paragraph 2, of the law similar boards (war committees, etc.) are already in existence
they may, with the consent of the general commands (in Bavaria with that of the war
ministry), take the place of the temporary boards.
Art. 3. The War Office shall issue regulations for the procedure of the temporary
boards.
Art. 4. This order comes into force with the day of its promulgation and on February
1, 1917, shall cease to be in force.
O r d e r o f D e c e m b e r 2 1 , 1 9 1 6 , R e l a t i n g t o R e g u l a t i o n s f o r t h e A p p l i c a t i o n o f t h e L a w o n th e
N a tio n a l A u x i li a r y S e r v ic e .

In pursuance of article 19 of the law on the national auxiliary service, of December
5, 1916, the Federal Council, with the consent of the committee elected by the Reich­
stag, has issued the following order:
Article 1. The War Office shall organize the central board provided in article 6 of
the law as well as the boards to be created in pursuance of article 4, paragraph 2,
article 7, paragraph 2, and article 9, paragraph 2, of the law and determine the district
of their jurisdiction and their location. In Bavaria, Saxony, and Württemberg the
war ministry conjointly with the War Office shall organize the boards and determine
the district of their jurisdiction and their location.
Art. 2. At least one alternate is to be appointed for the officers and officials in the
central board and in the district boards; for the employers’ and workmen’s repre­
sentatives in the central board and the district boards alternates are to be appointed
according to requirements. The provisions of the law for the appointment of regular
members are also applicable to the appointment of alternates.
Art. 3. Only German citizens who are of age may be appointed as employers’ and
workmen’s representatives in the central board and in the district boards, or as their
alternates.
The following are ineligible for appointment:
(1)
One who, in consequence of a sentence by a criminal court, has lost the right to
hold a public office or is being prosecuted for a crime or misdemeanor which may cause
the loss of this right, provided he is being held for trial.

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(2) One who by judicial order has been restricted in the disposal of his estate.

Art. 4. A person appointed in accordance with article 3 as employers’ or workmen's
representative or as alternate of such a representative may decline acceptance of the
office only—
(1) If he has completed the sixtieth year of age;
(2) If he has more than four minor legitimate children; children adopted by some
other person may not be counted;
(3) If he is prevented from orderly discharge of the office by sickness or infirmities;
(4) If he holds more than one guardianship or trusteeship. Guardianship or trustee­
ship over several sisters or brothers is to be considered as only one guardianship or
trusteeship. Two joint guardianships are to be considered as equivalent to one
guardianship.
Art. 5. Whoever without valid reason declines to accept the office of employers’
or workmen’s representative or of alternate for such a representative may be fined up
to 500 marks [$119] by the chairman of the central board, if he has been appointed to
this board, or otherwise by the chairman of the board to which he has been appointed.
L ik e w ise w h o e v e r d o es n o t p r o m p tly a tt e n d th e m e e tin g s or i n o th e r m a n n e r a v o id s
d isc h arg e of h is d u tie s m a y b e fin ed .

Appeals against such fines are finally decided by the War Office; in Bavaria, Saxony,
and Württemberg by the war ministry.
A r t . 6. Employers’ and workmen’s representatives in the central board and in the
district boards shall hold their office as an honorary office without compensation.
They are to receive a per diem allowance of 15 marks [$3.57] and refund of necessary
traveling expenses. In case of travel by rail they are entitled to refund of secondclass fare, and of first-class fare in case of travel by boat.
A rt . 7. Workmen’s representatives must notify their employer of each convoca­
tion to a meeting of the central board or of a district board. In case of notification
without culpable delay their absence from work does not furnish a valid reason for the
employer to discontinue the service relation without the observance of the time limit
for giving notice.
A r t . 8. Employers and their salaried employees are prohibited from restricting
workmen’s representatives in the acceptance and discharge of the honorary office
(article 6), or from discriminating against them on account of the acceptance or mode
of discharge of the honorary office.
Employers or their salaried employees contravening against this provision may be
punished with a fine up to 300 marks [$71.40] or with detention in jail.
A r t . 9. The chairman and other members of the central board and of the district
boards are obligated to observe official secrecy as to business, operation, and trade
secrets which come to their knowledge in the discharge of their office.
Whoever in contravention of paragraph 1 without authorization divulges a secret
shall be punished with a fine up to 3,000 marks [$714] or with imprisonment up to
three months.
Whoever does so with the intention of injuring the owner of a business or establish­
ment or a person exercising an occupation or of procuring a pecuniary advantage for
himself or some other party, or whoever with like intent utilizes a secret of the kind
designated in paragraph 1 shall be punished with imprisonment up to one year, or
with a fine up to 10,000 marks [$2,380], or with either of them.
P ro s e c u tio n sh a ll ta k e p la c e o n ly on d e m a n d .

A r t . 10. Authorities and institutions of authorities are obligated to comply with

requests made to them by the War Office, the central board, and the district boards in
the application of the national auxiliary service law.
T h e sa m e a p p lie s to re q u e s ts m a d e b y th e w a r m in is trie s of B a v a ria , S a x o n y , a n d
W ü rtte m b e rg in th e a p p lic a tio n of th e law .


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Art. 11. Before rendering a decision in pursuance of article 4, paragraph 2, of the
law the hoard shall consult the communal authorities and, according to the nature of
the case, also the competent official representatives of industry and commerce, of the
handicrafts, of agriculture, or of other occupational classes. Trade associations and
other unofficial economic associations may also be consulted in suitable cases. If the
decision relates to naval interests, a naval officer or official shall on request of the
Imperial Navy Office be consulted.
Art. 12. Fines imposed in pursuance of article 5 shall be collected like communal
taxes. Appeals against fines act as a supersedeas. Legal notice must precede any
action for enforced collection of the fine. The fee for the legal notice shall be deter­
mined by the War Office; in Bavaria, Saxony, and Württemberg by the war ministry,
and be collected in the same manner as the fine.
All fines accrue to the Imperial treasury.
Art. 13. The order becomes effective on the day of its promulgation.
O r d e r o f th e F e d e r a l C o u n c i l o f J a n u a r y SO , 1 9 1 7 , R e l a t i n g to R e g u l a t i o n s f o r th e A p p l i ­
c a ti o n o f th e L a w o n th e N a t i o n a l A u x i l i a r y S e r v i c e . 1

Article 1. If the sendee relation of a person subject to auxiliary service is discon­
tinued by the employer or with his consent, the latter must issue to the former a leaving
certificate.
Art. 2. If a person subject to auxiliary service to whom the issuance of a leaving
certificate has been refused has failed to complain to the board in accordance with
article 9, paragraph 2, of the law, he may nevertheless request written information
from the beard as to whether the establishment of his former employer or the organiza­
tion by which he was employed are operated in the interest of the auxiliary service
in the meaning of article 2 of the law. This information shall be given by the chair­
man of the board unless he has charged some one else with it.
If the information furnished states that the establishment of the former einployer
or the organization in which the person subject to auxiliary service was last employed
is not operated in the meaning of article 2 of the law, the person subject to auxiliary
service may be given other employment.
Such information does not prejudice a decision rendered in pursuance of article 4,
paragraph 2, and article 6 of the law.
A copy of the information given must be transmitted to the former employer and to
the competent local office of the War Office.
Art. 3. Every employer refusing the issuance of a leaving certificate requested by
an employee subject to auxiliary service shall be obligated to continue him in em­
ployment at working conditions not less favorable than before.
Art. 4. A person subject to auxiliary service, who has availed himself of his right
of appeal in pursuance of article 9, paragraph 2, of the law, must continue his service
relation until his appeal has been decided, unless the circumstances of the case are
such that he can not be expected to do so. The chairman of the board shall on
request of the employer or employee decide whether such circumstances exist.
Art. 5. The leaving certificate must show the name or title of the employer or
organization as well as the locality, street, and street number of the working place in
which the person subject to auxiliary service was last employed and the duration of
his last employment.
The leaving certificate must be issued on a separate sheet apart from other working
papers of the person subject to auxiliary service.
On entrance into a new service relation the new employer must take up the leaving
certificate of the person subject to auxiliary service.
i Correspondenzblatt der Generalkomission der Gewerkschaften Deutcshlands .vol. 27, No. 7. Berlin,
Feb. 17,1917.


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The provisions of paragraphs 1 to 3 are also applicable to certificates issued in pur­
suance of article 9, paragraph 2, of the law.
A r t . 6. Certificates issued in pursuance of article 9 of the law and of article 1 of the
present order are exempt from stamp taxes. The same is applicable to written infor­
mation furnished in pursuance of article 2 of the present order.
A r t . 7. The procedure before the central board of the War Office, before the district
boards formed in pursuance of article 4, paragraph 2, article 7, paragraph 2, and
article 9, paragraph 2, and before the chairman of these boards shall be free of fees or
stamp taxes.
A r t . 8. The provisions of the law on civil court procedure shall be applicable to
the obligation of issuing a certificate or of rendering an opinion.
Art. 9. The chairman of the central board or of a district board may impose fines
up to 100 marks [$23.80] on witnesses or experts who without sufficient reason fail to
appear or do not appear in time or without legal excuse refuse to testify.
Likewise he may impose fines upon interested parties who without sufficient reason
fail to appear or who do not appear in time at an oral hearing at which they were
ordered to appear in person.
In appeals against the determination of fines imposed in pursuance of paragraphs
1 and 2 the decision of the central board or of the district board shall be final.
Art. 10. The central board and the district boards are authorized to request the
local courts to examine witnesses and experts under oath.
A r t . 11. A person subject to auxiliary service who after receipt of a special written
order (art. 7, par. 2, sentence 2, of the law) has obtained employment in one of the
occupations designated in article 2 of the law must immediately notify of this fact the
board who issued the order and state the name of his employer and the nature of his
employment. The employer must attest the correctness of these statements by his
signature.
If the person subject to auxiliary service fails to notify the board, the chairman of
the board may impose on him a fine up to 20 marks [$4.76], provided the special order
gave notice of such fine.
The special order shall be accompanied by a printed form suitable for mailing, in
which the notification prescribed in paragraph 1 may be filled in.
A r t . 12. The provisions of article 12 of the order of December 21, 1916, relating to
regulations for the application of the law on the national auxiliary service shall be appli­
cable to the collection and disposal of fines imposed in pursuance of articles 9 and 11.
A r t . 13. Employers and their representatives are prohibited to prevent workmen
and employees subject to the law on insurance of salaried employees from exercising
their right to vote in elections for workmen’s or salaried employees’ committees pro­
vided in article 11, paragraphs 2 and 3 of the law or to restrict them in the acceptance
or exercise of the duties of membership in such a committee or to discriminate against
them on account of the acceptance or mode of exercise of such membership duties.
Employers or their representatives who contravene against this provision may be
punished with a fine up to 300 marks [$71.40] or with detention in a jail.

Art. 14. This order becomes effective on the day of its promulgation.
O r d e r o f th e

W a r O ffic e o f J a n u a r y S O , 1 9 1 7 , r e l a t i n g t o r e g u l a t i o n s f o r t h e p r o c e d u r e o f
th e h o a r d s c r e a te d i n p u r s u a n c e o f th e a u x i l i a r y s e r v ic e l a w . 1

The following regulations are issued in pursuance of article 10 of the law on the
national auxiliary service of December 5, 1916 (R. G. B. 1, p. 1333):
A rticle 1. The competence of the boards shall be determined as follows:
1.
In cases coming within the provisions of article 4, paragraph 2 of the law, that
board (determination board) shall be competent in whose district the occupation is
exercised or the organization or the establishment or branches of the latter are located.
1Correspondenzblatt der Generalkommission der Gewerksehaftea Deutschlands, vol. 27, No. 7. Berlin
Feb. 17,1917.
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2. In cases coming within the provisions of article 7, paragraph 2 of the law, that
board (conscription board) shall be competent in whose district the person subject to
auxiliary service is residing or sojourning.
3. In cases coming within the provisions of article 9, paragraph 2 of the law, that
board (arbitration board) shall be competent in whose district the undertaking is
located in which the person subject to auxiliary service exercises or has exercised the
occupation on which the appeal is based, and, if this occupation is or has been exer­
cised in a locality outside of this district, also that board in whose district the locality
is situated.
With respect to localities outside of the German Empire the chairman of the central
board may determine what board is the competent board.
Art. 2. If the competence of a board can not be established through the provisions
of article 1 the chairman of the central board shall determine what board is the compe­
tent board.
Art. 3. If the chairman of the board appealed to does not consider the board compe­
tent he shall transmit the matter to a board which he considers competent. If the
chairman of this board also considers the board not competent to act in the matter the
chairman of the central board shall designate the competent board.
A r t . 4. If several competent boards are appealed to on the same matter and can
not agree as to a decision the chairman of the central board shall designate the com­
petent board.
Art. 5. Decisions and orders do not become ineffective for the reason that they have
emanated from a board locally not competent.
Art. 6. Before entering upon the performance of their duties members of the dis­
trict boards and of the central board shall by handshake be pledged by the chairman
to nonpartisan and conscientious exercise of their office and to secrecy (art. 9, par. 1,
of the order of Dec. 21, 1916, relating to regulations for the application of the law on the
national auxiliary service).
Art. 7. Chairmen and members of boards may be challenged for prejudice if facts
are known which justify distrust in their impartiality.
Motions in this respect shall, however, be immediately rejected if it is evident that
they are made for purposes of obstruction.
Challenges of members of a board shall be decided by the board after a hearing of
the challenged member who shall not have a vote in the decision. In case of equality
of votes his alternate shall participate in the voting.
Art. 8. The transmittal of orders in pursuance of article 7, paragraphs 2 and 3, of
the law, and of decisions shall be effected through registered letter or signed receipt
shall be taken on delivery.
Art. 9. Orders or decisions designated for noncommissioned officers or privates in
active service of the army or navy shall be transmitted to the chief of their immediate
command.
Art. 10. Transmittal to localities outside of the German Empire is to be effected
through the intervention of the War Office.
Art. 11. Transmittal of orders and decisions to persons belonging to a mobile unit
of the army or to the crew of a war ship in active service may be effected through the
intervention of the proper military authorities.
Art. 12. The chairman shall so prepare the procedure as to make possible a speedy
decision by the district board or central board. He may make investigations of all
kinds, and in particular obtain official information, declarations in writing, and expert
opinions; order the submission of business books and other documents; and have
interested parties, witnesses, and experts examined either by the district board or
central board or by authorities requested to examine them. No oath may be admin­
istered to persons examined.


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With the exception of cases coming under article 34, paragraph 2, the chairman of
the arbitration board must bring appeals before the board within one week after they
have been entered unless an agreement has been reached sooner or the appeal has been
withdrawn.
Art. 13. If on the basis of the evidence on hand the district board or the central
board does not consider a case ready for decision they shall decide which of the meas­
ures designated in article 12 shall be taken.
A r t . 14. Decisions may be rendered by the district boards or the central board
without oral procedure.
Oral procedure shall as a rule be adopted by arbitration boards. Leaving certifi­
cates may be issued only after notification of the employer of the appeal.
If the chairman has not ordered oral procedure the district board or the central
board may, with two-thirds majority, decide that oral procedure shall take place.
Art. 15. If oral procedure has been ordered, a decision may be rendered even if
persons summoned to the procedure have failed to appear.
Art. 16. The proceedings before determination and conscription boards and before
the central board shall be secret.
The proceedings before the arbitration board shall be public unless the board for
important reasons decides that the public shall be excluded. In the interests of the
national defense the War Office may order that in individual districts the proceedings
shall generally be secret.
The chairman may in all cases grant admission to the proceedings to individual
persons.

Art. 17. The district boards and the central board are authorized to examine wit­
nesses and experts without administration of an oath.
If sworn testimony seems required in order to obtain truthful testimony the local
court of lowest instance (A m t s g e r i c h t ) shall be requested to take testimony under oath.
Art. 18. In proceedings before the determination and conscription boards and
before the central board, the district board or the central board shall, according to the
circumstances, decide whether a witness or expert may refuse his testimony or expert
opinion whereby family relations and existing personal interest of the witness or
expert in the decision to be rendered shall particularly be considered. The provision
of article 8 of the order of January 30, 1917, relating to regulations for the application
of the law on the national auxiliary service shall be applicable to the procedure before
arbitration boards.
Art. 19. In the summoning of witnesses and experts the consequences of their
nonappearance (art. 9 of the order of January 30, 1917, relating to regulations 'for the
application of the law on the national auxiliary service) shall be pointed out to them.
The summoning of noncommissioned persons in the active service of the army or
navy shall be effected through the intervention of the military authorities.
Art. 20. The provision of article 7 shall be applicable to the challenge of expert
testimony.
Art. 21. Witnesses and experts shall receive fees in accordance with the law on fees
for witnesses and experts (R. G. B. 1, 1898, p. 689, and 1914, p. 214.)
Art. 22. Interested parties may during any part of the procedure make use of the
services of legal counsel, and in so far as they are not ordered to appear in person may
send a representative provided with a written power of attorney. Legal counsel and
representatives, through decision of the board, may be barred iron the procedure if
they excessively hinder the procedure through obstructive demeanor.
Art. 23. The appearance in person of interested parties may be ordered. Article 19
shall be applicable to their summoning.
Art. 24. The district board or the central board shall determine whether minutes
of the procedure, particularly of the testimony of interested parties, witnesses, and
experts, shall be kept.
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A r t . 25. Decisions of the district board or central board rendered in pursuance of
article 4, paragraph 2, article 6, and article 7, paragraph 4, of the law which are to
be enforced by the chairman must be rendered in writing and contain:
1. The designation of the board;
2. The names of the chairman and of the members participating in the decision; and
3. A brief summary of the case and of the reasons for the decision. The summary
of the case and of the reasons for the decision may be omitted if the complainant or
appellant waive their incorporation in the decision.
Decisions not pronounced in oral procedure shall be transmitted to the appellant
and according to the judgment of the district board or central board, also to other
interested parties. Decisions of fundamental importance shall be communicated to
the War Office.

Art. 26. Appeals in pursuance of article 6 and article 7, paragraph 4, of the law
shall be submitted in writing to that board whose decision is being contested. The
board may, if this seems nec'essary, make further investigations and is authorized to
act on the appeal.
A r t . 27. Determination boards become active on order of the War Office or on writ­
ten request of an interested party. Those persons shall be considered as interested
parties who are directly interested in the determination to be made by the board.
Art. 28. In cases to which sentence 1 S>f article 6 of the law relates the person who
requested a decision, the owner of the establishment, the organization, and also the
chairman of the board, if he considers it necessary in the interest of the public, may
appeal against the decision.
Art. 29. Conscription and arbitration boards shall be bound by the decisions
rendered for their district by the determination boards and by the central board.
Art. 30. If a person subject to auxiliary service, who has not been conscripted by
special order of a conscription board, leaves his employment in contravention of his
existing contractual obligations in order to enter the auxiliary service, his former
employer may invoke the intervention of the chairman of the competent conscription
board for the purpose of maintenance of the service relation.
Art. 31. The person subject to auxiliary service or his former employer may file
an objection against the special written order with that board which issued the order.
Unless the interests of the auxiliary service outweigh all other considerations this
order is to be rescinded if discontinuance of the former service relation would cause
excessive damages. Under similar conditions the time lim it set by article 7, para­
graph 3, of the law may be extended. In such a case the chairman of the board is
authorized to issue a preliminary decision. This preliminary decision may be
appealed to the board which shall be pointed out in the preliminary decision.
Art. 32. The assignment to an occupation may be appealed by the person subject
to auxiliary service as well as by his last employer.
Art. 33. Only the complainant and the employer against whom the complaint is
directed are to be considered as interested parties in the procedure before arbitration
boards.
Art. 34. If an arbitration board does not consider necessary the issuance of a leaving
certificate in pursuance of article 9, paragraph 1, of the law, because the employment
discontinued by the appellant does not come within the provisions of article 2 of the
law, the board shall issue an attest certifying exemption from the obligation of
obtaining a leaving certificate.
This attest may be issued by the chairman of the board immediately after receipt
of the appeal. Appeal to the board against such action shall not be permissible.
Art. 35. In the case of persons released from military service for auxiliary service
the arbitration board shall on the request of military authorities determine the reasons


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for the discontinuance of the service relation, also in such cases which have not been
brought before the board in pursuance of article 9, paragraph 2, of the law.
In such cases the board may propose to assign the person released from military
service to another establishment.
A rt. 36. These regulations shall come into force on the day of their promulgation.
O r d e r o f t h e W a r O ffic e o f J a n u a r y 2 7 , 1 9 1 7 , R e l a t i n g to t h e F o r m a t i o n

a n d E ffe c tiv e n e s s

o f A r b itr a tio n B o a r d s .1

1. The arbitration boards prescribed by article 9, paragraph 2, of the law on the
national auxiliary service have been formed, and beginning with February 1, 1917,
take the place of the temporary boards created by the general commands in pursuance
of the transitory regulations of December 21, 1917, issued by the Federal Council
which, after January 31, 1917, legally cease their functions.
2. The headquarters and composition of the newly formed boards may be ascertained
from a list transmitted to the local branch offices of the War Office, which contains the
names of the chairmen and permanent members of the boards. The appointment of
the chairman and permanent members has been effected directly by the War Office.
3. The War Office herewith charges the chairmen of the arbitration boards as their
representatives with the appointment of the nonpermanent members of these boards.
In this connection it is ordered that in all cases in which a member of one of the
so-called nonmilitant ( w i r t s c h a f t s f r i e d l i c h e ) workmen’s organizations comes before the
arbitration board a representative of the same organization shall as a nonpermanent
member of the board take part in the procedure of the board. It is left to the workman
in question to notify in due time the chairman of the board of his membership in such
an organization and to request the appointment of a representative of this organiza­
tion as member of the board. If unorganized workmen come before the board, unor­
ganized workmen may be appointed to the board as nonpermanent members.
According to the law the nonpermanent member representing the employers as
well as the employees shall be appointed from that occupational group to which the
interested employee subject to auxiliary service belongs. The chairmen of boards
shall for this purpose request the permanent representatives of the employers and
employees in the arbitration boards to make proposals for the appointment of nonper­
manent members from the individual occupational groups. If such proposals are
not made by the permanent members, the occupational organizations of employers
and employees within the district of these members, or, if a special organization
does not exist in their district, the organizations of the nearest large district shall be
requested to make proposals.
Since disputes relating to a large number of different occupations will come before
the arbitration boards, it is desirable that the calendar of hearings before the boards
be arranged by occupational groups. This would avoid the unnecessary and costly
calling in of large numbers of nonpermanent members for every session.
B u ie s

G o v e r n in g

th e

C o o p e r a tio n

o f E m p lo y m e n t

O ffic e s w i t h

th e

N a tio n a l

A u x ilia r y

S e r v i c e , I s s u e d b y t h e W a r O ffic e o n J a n u a r y 2 9 , 1 9 1 7 . 2

GENERAL RULES.

I.
The organization of the employment offices for the auxiliary service shall cover
all male persons 17 to 60 years of age who are not in active service with the armed
forces.
1 Correspondenzblatt der Generalkommission der Gewerkschaften Deutschlands, vol. 27, No. 7.
Feb. 17,1917.
2Correspondenzblatt der Generalkommission der Gewerkschaften Deutschlands, vol. 27, No. 6.
Feb. 10, 1917.


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II. The following three large groups shall be distinguished in the employment
offices for the auxiliary service:
1. Those male persons who wish to engage in an occupation through which a mili­
tary person w ill be released for active military service.
2. Those male persons who wish to engage in an occupation in a war industry.
3. All female persons who, although not subject to the auxiliary service law, wish
to make themselves useful in a like manner as the persons designated under 1 and 2.
III. The procuring of employment shall, as far as possible, be effected in the hitherto
usual manner. Any unnecessary reorganization and the additional expenditures of
money and energy connected therewith shall therefore be avoided. The organiza­
tion of the employment offices shall be governed by simplicity, rigor, and close
cooperation.
IV. In organizing the employment offices it shall from the outset be considered
that although it is intended that the national auxiliary service shall be recruited
through voluntary registration, provision shall also be made for the possibility of
compulsory conscription of labor, so that reorganization shall not be necessary in case
of such an emergency.
V. The organization shall be effected uniformly for all the three groups designated
above.
The basis of such organization is given by the following three facts:
1. That the employment offices (particularly for industrial workers) have been
centralized by the creation of central information bureaus in all corps districts.
2. That the mercantile and technical employees have combined for the purpose of
common employment bureaus and have put their employment bureaus at the dis­
posal of the branches of the War Office, explicitly declaring their affiliation with
the central information bureau.
3. That the female federations have declared themselves ready to adopt a like
procedure.
VI. Accordingly the employment service, through the employment bureaus, em­
braces all persons of both sexes, inclusive of so-called metal workers, who are seeking
employment with a view of releasing a military person for active military service
or of working in an industrial or agricultural establishment operated in the interests
of the national defense.
ORGANIZATION.

I. The local branch of the War Office is charged with the direction of the entire
employment service within the corps district, and the central information bureau is
charged with the direction of the executive work of the employment service.
II. The direct procuring of employment shall be effected through all classes of
existing employment offices.
III. The registration offices for the auxiliary service, together with the affiliated
registration offices for women are to form a new branch of the employment service.
The following distinctions shall be made with respect to these registration offices:
(a) L o c a l i t i e s w i t h s e v e r a l e m p l o y m e n t o f f i c e s .—In such localities the branch office
of the A\7ar Office shall, after a hearing and agreement of all interested employment
offices, designate the most suitable employment office as registration office for the
auxiliary service. If the employment offices can not reach an agreement, the branch
office of the War Office shall, by an order, designate the public employment office
as the registration office of the auxiliary service. Several registration offices will be
required in large cities. It seems desirable that the numerous employment offices
of like character existing in large cities be induced to combine into one trade employ­
ment office for the duration of the effectiveness of the auxiliary service law.


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(b) L o c a l i t i e s w i t h o n l y o n e e m p l o y m e n t o f f i c e . —In such localities this employment
office shall be designated as registration office for the auxiliary service unless the
employment office in question is too unimportant or is unreliable.
(c) L o c a l i t i e s w i t h n o e m p l o y m e n t o ffi c e o r w i t h a n u n r e l i a b l e e m p l o y m e n t o f f i c e . —For
such localities it is recommended that a registration office be established in connec­
tion with the communal or State authorities.
The territorial sphere of activity of the individual registration offices shall lie
determined by the branch offices of the War Office in agreement with the interested
employment services.
IV. The procuring of employment.
1. A p p l i c a t i o n f o r e m p l o y m e n t . — { a ) Each person in quest of employment shall
apply to that employment office which seems most suitable to him.
(6) Whoever has no connection with or preference for any special employment
office shall file his application for employment with a registration office for the
auxiliary service.
These applications shall be made in writing. It is left to the branch offices of the
War Office whether they will issue special forms for this purpose.
(c) Whoever applies for a military situation shall exclusively file his application
with the registration office for the auxiliary service.
In the proclamations to be issued it shall be pointed out to applicants that as a
rule they should file an application only with one office. If, as an exception, they
wish to file simultaneously an application elsewhere, they shall be obligated to state
so in their applications, so that duplication in enumeration and in sending appli­
cants to vacancies may be avoided.
2. V a c a n c i e s . — Notification of vacant situations shall be made in a manner corre­
sponding to that prescribed for the filing of applications for employment, either to
the suitable or competent employment office or to the registration office, or, in case
of military vacancies, to the registration office exclusively.
V. Interchange of applications and vacancies among the employment offices.
(a) The employment offices shall extensively interchange applications and noti­
fications of vacancies.
( b ) Applications and vacancies left over after such interchange shall be transmitted
to the registration office for the auxiliary service.
(c) Applications and vacancies which can not be disposed of by the registration
offices shall be transmitted by the latter to the central information bureaus.
( d ) The central information bureaus shall transmit through the branch office of the
War Office to the War Labor Office such applications and vacancies which they can
not dispose of through their own efforts or through transmission to a suitable employ­
ment office.
VI. Vocational guidance.
A division for vocational guidance shall be established at each registration office
for those persons who wish to engage in a new occupation. Persons living in localities
with only one employment office, in which the creation of a division for vocational
guidance wuuld be difficult on account of lack of suitable experts, or for other reasons,
may obtain vocational guidance in some other near-by established division for voca­
tional guidance. In most instances it will only be possible to give vocational guidance
orally.
VII. The organization of the employment service shall be effected at the earliest pos­
sible date. Wherever employment offices of a different character exist, which have
been operated satisfactorily, care should be taken that their transformation for the
purposes of the auxiliary service be effected gradually without any violent changes.
The essential thing is that the procuring of employment be effected rapidly and with­
out derangement, and not the scheme employed in effecting it. Brief reports as to


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the state of the organization shall be made to the war labor office not later than
February 15.
A p p e n d i x .—This uniform organization shall for the present be limited as follows:
The release of military persons through the employment of persons subject to
auxiliary service must be effected immediately and is already going on. The organi­
zation of the system of employment offices for purposes of the auxiliary service,
however, has not yet been carried out. For this reason an order of the War Office
of January 9, 1917, has decreed that all applications for employment of persons sub­
ject to auxiliary service who come under group 1 shall be made directly to the estab­
lishmentshaving vacancies to fill. This procedure shall be observed until the organi­
zation of the employment offices in the individual corps districts has been fully
perfected. The corresponding branch offices of the War Office shall independently
determine this point of time.
WAR LABOR CONFERENCE BOARD.

In the February, 1 9 1 8 , issue of the M o n t h l y R e v i e w (pp. 7 7 to
there appeared a brief account of the effort being made to secure
uniformity in the Federal labor policy, based upon centralization
under the Secretary of Labor, as labor administrator, of ail agencies
for the provision, distribution, housing, and other care of workmen
in war industries. Mention was made of the appointment, on Jan­
uary 1 6 , of an advisory council with ex-Gov. John Lind, of Minne­
sota, as chairman, to assist the Secretary of Labor in the adminis­
tration of a national labor program. On January 2 8 an outline of a
scheme of organization was submitted by the advisory council to the
Secretary of Labor for approval, and the agencies of administration
and plan of organization as suggested are noted in full in the article
to which reference has been made.
At the time of his approval of this labor administration program
the Secretary of Labor called upon the managing director of the
National Industrial Conference Board, a federation of employers
throughout the country, and the president of the American Federa­
tion of Labor to suggest five representatives, respectively, of em­
ployers and employees, who should constitute a war labor conference
board for the purpose of reaching agreements upon principles and
policies which should govern their relations The appointment of
this board, which was subsequently made, is an effort to bring em­
ployers and employed to a fuller appreciation of their mutual inter­
ests and to stimulate in each a conviction that prejudice and bitter­
ness must give way to harmony of action and cooperation of effort
in the common task of winning the war.
The questions to be considered by this conference board of em­
ployers and union leaders cover practically the entire range of sub­
jects which have been the basis of disputes or controversies between
employers and their workmen, and it is the purpose of the board to
arrive at some kind of a definite understanding or agreement that
81)


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will have the effect greatly to reduce, if not altogether to obviate,
serious misunderstandings which have heretofore engaged the atten­
tion of capital and labor. Among the questions to be considered are:
Basis for wage determination; strikes and lockouts; piecework prices
and price fixing; method of eliminating improper restrictions on out­
put of Avar materials from whatever cause; practice to govern dilu­
tion of labor; discrimination against union and nonunion men; ad­
mission of union agents to plants; method of promptly adjusting
disputes at their source through boards containing equal representa­
tion of employers and employees; right of workmen to organize.
Aside from the five representatives each of employers and em­
ployees, the hoard includes two representatives of the public who act
alternately as chairmen. These are Hon. William Howard Taft, exPresident of the United States, and Frank P. Walsh, ex-chairman of
the United States Commission on Industrial Relations. The other
members of the board are as foEows, the first five representing em­
ployers, and the second five representing employees:
L. F. Loree, New York City, president of the Delaware & Hudson Railroad Co.;
chairman of the board and executive committee of the Kansas City Southern Rail­
road Co.; president of the Hudson Coal Co., Northern Iron <& Coal Co., Schuylkill
Coal & Iron Co., etc.
C. Edwin Michael, Roanoke, Va., president of the Virginia Bridge & Iron Co.
Loyall A. Osborne, New York City, vice president of the Westinghouse Electric
& Manufacturing Co.; chairman of the executive committee of the National Indus­
trial Conference Board.
v
W. H. Van Dervoort, East Moline, 111., president of Root & Van Dervoort Engi­
neering Co.
B. L. Worden, New York, vice president of the Submarine Boat Corporation.
Frank J. Hayes, Indianapolis, Ind., president of the United Mine Workers of
America.
William L. Hutcheson, Indianapolis, Ind., president of the United Brotherhood
of Carpenters and Joiners of America.
William H. Johnston, Washington, D. C., president of the International Associa­
tion of Machinists.
victor A. Olander, Chicago, 111., representative, International Seamen’s Union of
America.
T. A. Rickert, Chicago, 111., president of the United Garment Workers of America.

The appointment of this conference board is one of the develop­
ments of the deliberations of the advisory council of the Department
of Labor. When the first meeting of the conference was called by
the Secretary of Labor, John Lind, chairman of the advisory council,
made the following statement regarding its work:
To-morrow s conference may easily prove one of the most significant developments
in the history of America’s participation in the war. In a sense, it is unprecedented
in American industrial history.
I or the past 10 months employers and employees alike have given evidence of their
whole-souled willingness to devote themselves to the national cause. Yet, in spite
of the most laudable intentions and the earnest effort of individuals on both sides,


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there has seemed at times to he a lack of interrelation between the two great groups
on whose work must depend the success of production—production which constitutes
the very essence of success in a war which is above all else an industrial war. Mis­
understandings and bad teamwork have perhaps inevitably shown themselves at times.
To accommodate the basic differences between the two groups and unite industry
as one behind the war program is the real purpose behind the conference which begins
to-morrow. If the purpose of the meeting is to be achieved—and the Nation can not
afford to have it fail at this critical time—both sides must enter the conference room
in a spirit of sympathy and mutual concession for America’s welfare. Both sides must
stand ready to sacrifice preconceived ideas based on past prejudice and bitterness for
the supreme purpose of the preservation of the Nation.
Just what form the understanding will take or what solutions of the knotty problems
at issue will be reached is for the conference to discover. All that they should remem­
ber is that the Nation’s interest at this time is higher than the interest of any group
and that the Nation is looking on. The problem of man power is the problem which
the nations of the world are facing. It is for the members of this conference to decide
whether this meeting may prove the turning point of the war and perhaps even the
resolution of a crisis in America’s history.

INDUSTRIAL AND AGRICULTURAL LABOR AND THE NEXT ARMY DRAFT.

In view of the fear which has been expressed in some quarters that
industry, and especially agriculture, will be considerably disturbed by
an excessive and indiscriminate withdrawal of men for Army service
in the next draft, the War Department has recently issued a state­
ment bearing upon the matter. After indicating in the first place
that the men will be drawn from civil life only as fast as they can be
assimilated by the Army, and that based on a total of 800,000 to be
called, each State will be apportioned its quota from time to time, so
that comparatively few will be required at any one time, the depart­
ment announces the following policy as affecting industrial and
agricultural labor:1
There are difficulties confronting the Nation in the supply of labor appurtenant to
agriculture. Class 1, from which new levies are to be withdrawn, will contain many
more men than are at present required for the Army. It would be a most unscientific
and fatuous step if the men in class 1 were called indiscriminately without regard to
the labor situation in agriculture. Therefore, the local boards will be directed to fill
their quotas in the order of liability of men in class 1 as determined by the national
drawing, except that where it is shown that a registrant is completely and assiduously
engaged in the planting, cultivation, or reaping of a crop, his call to the colors shall
be deferred to the foot of the quota of his board as long as he continues to be so engaged.
Whenever any registrant whose call to the colors has been deferred by reason of
his engagement in agriculture is shown to have been idle on the farm on which he is
engaged or to have trifled with the deferment that has been accorded him, the boards
will forthwith induct him into military service if his order number has been reached
in the meantime. The effect of this expedient is to grant furloughs from service prior
to actual call to the colors to the men so greatly needed in the production of this year’s
crop.


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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

* Official Bulletin, Mar. 12, 1918.

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This is not, however, the only expedient that is to be adopted to conserve the
supply of labor appurtenant to agriculture and to mobilize all means for increasing the
harvest for the agricultural season of 1918.
There is now pending before Congress a bill authorizing the Secretary of War to
grant furloughs, with or without pay, to men in the Army to enable them to engage in
industrial and agricultural pursuits. The purpose of this bill is to relieve serious
situations in particular instances in which men who are the mainstay of farms have
been inducted into the service either through voluntary enlistment or selection and
whose services during the present emergency in agriculture are needed. These fur­
loughs will be granted after consideration of the circumstances of the individual case
in which they arise and when the military situation is such that they can be granted
without too great disruption and disorganization of the Army or of any particular
organization of the Army.
As to further means to protect agriculture, a new regulation has been promulgated
authorizing agricultural students in their senior year in land-grant colleges to enlist in
the Enlisted Reserve Corps of the Quartermaster’s Department, provided their class
standing is such as to place them in the upper third of their class. By this means it
will be possible to defer the draft call of such young men in order to enable them to
perfect themselves as agriculturists and thereafter to protect them in such services as
it may seem that they should perform in the best interests of the Nation.
The whole industrial and agricultural situation is being subjected to a very com­
prehensive study in order to discover any means that may be taken to protect and
augment the labor supply appurtenant to industry and agriculture without pre­
cluding the prompt and orderly progress of our military plans. It is confidently
believed that great progress can be made along this line and that more effective meas­
ures than any yet devised can be put into operation to attain the desired end.
It must be emphasized that this is a war of mechanics. The need of the several
armed forces for men highly skilled in technical and mechanical pursuits is greater
than in any former war. Yet this need for specially skilled men finds the Nation
under a necessity for increasing its production in almost every line of industry. With­
drawals of men from industry must be made, and these withdrawals must take men
who might otherwise be deferred on account of their special qualifications and skill.
The necessary numbers of such skilled men will be obtained in one of three way 3 .
First, men already in the military service who have such special skill will be taken
from the line regiments and assigned to the staff organizations and departments where
their skill is needed. Second, men classified by the selection boards, even though
they may have been placed in a deferred classification, will be withdrawn with great
care and particularity from the industries of the Nation for special service in staff
corps and departments. Third, young men of draft age with certain educational
qualifications will be inducted into the service and sent to universities, colleges, and
technical and secondary schools to be instructed in technical arts until they have
acquired such proficiency as will justify their assignment to the special units that are
being organized in considerable numbers.
In accordance with this plan the Provost Marshal General has already called upon the
States for some 10,000 skilled artisans and will shortly call upon the States for 10,000
young men, graduates of grammar schools, who will be sent before the 1st of April to
various technical and other schools throughout the United States for a two months’
course of training. Regularly thereafter an increasing stream of selected men will be
sent through educational and other training institutions for this purpose.
To sum up, it may be said that there will be no sudden withdrawal of great numbers
of men from the ranks of industry and agriculture during the coming summer, but that
men will be drawn in relatively small groups throughout the year in such a way as to


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create the least possible interference with industry and agriculture. Men in deferred
classes as well as men in class 1 will be selected in small numbers either on account of
their special technical qualifications or for the purpose of sending them to schools
where they will be given an opportunity to acquire such qualifications.

Ill this connection Secretary Houston, of the Department of Agri­
culture, has issued a statement outlining the part each city may
take in solving the farm-labor problem. The statement is as follows:1
Some time ago I issued a statement concerning the farm-labor problem. It wa3
pointed out that there will be farm-labor difficulties to overcome this year as last and
that in certain sections, especially in the neighborhood of large industrial centers, the
difficulties will be acute. The lines of effort were indicated along which the Depart­
ments of Agriculture a>td Labor, through representatives in various States cooperating
with the agricultural colleges and other agencies, are working to furnish assistance.
Briefly restated, these agencies are doing the following things: (a) Making a survey
of the farm-labor situation in each community with a view to discover possible sur­
pluses of labor in order to be ready to assist in furnishing labor wherever it is needed;
(b) assisting again in shifting labor from community to community and from State to
State as in past years; (c) promoting fuller cooperation among farmers in the same
community; (d) making available, so far as possible, liigh-school boys in rural districts
who have had experience in farming and who are not normally, regularly, or fully
employed in farming operations; (e) making every effort to see that there is no obstacle
in the way of the production of a larger supply of farm machinery and its fuller use as
a supplement to hand labor.
Last year, in spite of all the difficulties, the farmers planted the largest acreages in
the history of the Nation, harvested record crops of most important things except
wheat, and succeeded in gieatly increasing the number of live stock. Since last
year skilled farm labor has been given deferred classification and the Secretary of
War has asked for power to furlough soldiers in the National Army if their training
permits, so that they may return to their farms and assist.
It is believed that the farmers of the Nation can, by effective organization and
cooperation, with such assistance as can be furnished, again overcome labor difficulties
and produce large quantities of foods, foodstuffs, and live stock.
There is an opportunity now for urban people sympathetically and constructively
to study the farm-labor situation and to render assistance. In many towns and cities
there are men who have had farming experience, who are able-bodied, and who
would doubtless be willing to serve the Nation in the field of agriculture at this time.
Especially for the seasonal strains of planting, cultivating, and harvesting it will not
be too much to ask such men to aid the farmers in the necessary undertaking of main­
taining and, if possible, supplementing the food supply in order to feed the armies
and to sustain the civilian population behind them. If soldiers are willing to serve
in the trenches, to dig ditches, build railroads, and risk their lives, many civilians
can well afford to spare a part of their time to serve in the furrows and in the harvest
fields.
If it appears that the farmers of a community or region are not able to secure the
necessary labor by the usual methods, then the leaders in the town or city immediately
dependent upon that region should organize, establish touch with representative
farm leaders, and see if they can not assist in solving the problem. In so doing they
will not only aid the farmers of the Nation but they will vitally contribute to their
own well-being and to that of their community.


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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

i Official Bulletin for March 6, 1918.

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LABOR STANDARDS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF ARMY CLOTHING.

On August 24, 1917, the Secretary of War appointed a board of
control for labor standards in the manufacture of Army clothing,
naming Louis E. Kirstein, of Boston, as chairman, and Mrs. Florence
Kelley, general secretary of the National Consumers’ League, New
York, and Capt. Walter E. Kruesi, Quartermaster Corps, United
States Reserves, as members. The appointment of this board, which
was noted in the M o n t h l y R e v i e w for October, 1917 (pp. 30 to 33),
was the result of a preliminary investigation which indicated that
Army clothing was being manufactured in some cases under con­
ditions which were not in accord with standards which it was believed
should be maintained on all work done for the Government. Since
the appointment of this board a standard form of contract has been
adopted by the Quartermaster’s Department, containing provisions
binding contractors to maintain at least a minimum standard of wages
fixed by the board and in all labor disputes to accept the board’s
decision as final. The tangible results of the board’s activities
include the transfer of the manufacture of Army uniforms from
tenements to shops where sanitary standards can be enforced, and an
order requiring all employers to install modern fire-prevention
appliances.
The primary purpose for which the board was created having been
accomplished, in the opinion of the War Department, it was
announced on January 23, 1918, that “ the work is now so organized
that remaining activities are administrative in character and can
best be done under the direct control and supervision of the Quarter­
master General,” and that for this reason “ the board has, therefore,
this day been dissolved.”
In recognition of the administrative character of the work, con­
sideration of the whole matter of labor standards has been turned
over to the direct supervision of the Quartermaster General, as
suggested, who has designated what is known as the administration
for labor standards in the manufacture of Army clothing, with
Louis E. Kirstein as administrator. The original board of control
devoted its entire attention to conditions surrounding the manu­
facture of Army uniforms; attention has since been directed to labor
standards in the manufacture of Army shirts, and the activities of
the new organization will be extended to include other Army clothing.
CHANGES IN WORKING CONDITIONS AGREED TO BY RAILROAD
SHOPMEN.

To assist the Government in the operation of the railroads and to
meet the present emergency in the repairing of locomotives, the
railroad shop employees, acting through the president of the railway

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MONTHLY EEVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

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employees’ department of the American Federation of Labor, and the
international officers representing the machinists, boiler makers
blacksmiths, carmen, sheet-metal workers, electrical workers, and
apprentices and helpers, have agreed to certain changes in refer­
ence to working conditions, which were announced by the Director
General of Railroads during the latter part of February, as follows:1
1. The hours of labor in shops and roundhouses to be governed by the necessities
<is indicated by the general condition of equipment. At shops and roundhouses now
working one shift which totals less than 70 hours per week, an increase, preferably
<n a 7-day basis, may be made. Where desired, working hours may be so arranged
tnat men will be released at 4 p. m. on one day each week. Existing working agree­
ments to go\ ern the rate, subject to the action of the Railroad Wage Commission.
2. All apprentices who have served three years may be promoted to mechanics
and paid the going rate of wages for that position. Such promoted apprentices to be
given the right of practical experience on work of their respective trades to which they
had not been advanced during the three-year period.
3- Helpers in their respective trades who have had five or more years' experience
may be promoted to classification of mechanics, they to receive mechanics’ rate and
be given an opportunity to learn all branches of the trade.
The duly authorized committeeman of each trade in each shop covered by agree­
ment shall be consulted, and mutual understanding arrived at in promoting helpers,
and the ratio of helpers to be promoted, to the number of mechanics in any one
trade in any one shop, shall not exceed 20 per cent.
The international officers and general chairmen of each trade on each road covered
by agreements shall be furnished a complete record of the men promoted.
4. Mechanics applying for employment will not be denied such employment for
any cause other than inability to perform the work; this preference rule to be in
effect as long as three-year apprentices or promoted helpers are employed at mechanics’
rates.

5. Where a reduction is made in the force of mechanics, promoted helpers in accord­
ance with their seniority shall be set back first; then advanced apprentices; no mechan­
ics to be laid off until all such promoted helpers and apprentices have been set back.
6. The promotions above referred to are to meet an emergency caused by the war
and shall cease at the close of the war.

CONDITION OF RAILROAD EMPLOYMENT DEFINED BY DIRECTOR
GENERAL OF RAILROADS.

Since the Government assumed control of the railroads of the
country on January 1, 1918, some misunderstanding appears to have
arisen among employees of the railroads as to their status and the
security of their positions, although it had been stated in general
order No. 1 that all officers and employees of the transportation
systems should continue their regular work on the terms of employ­
ment in effect prior to January 1. The Director General of Railroads,
1From the Official Bulletin for February 21, 1918, p. 8.

4 6 6 4 8 °— 18------ 8


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in an effort to correct wrong impressions, issued on February 21,
1918, order No. 8, as follows:1
To correct wrong impressions that may exist regarding the employment and condi­
tions of labor in railway service, it is, until further order, directed that:
1. All acts of Congress to promote the safety of employees and travelers upon the
railroads, including acts requiring investigation of accidents on railroads and orders
of the Interstate Commerce Commission made in accordance therewith, must be fully
complied with. These acts and orders refer to hours of service, safety appliances,
and inspection.
Now that the railroads are in the possession and control of the Government, it
would be futile to impose fines for violations of said laws and orders upon the Govern­
ment; therefore it will become the duty of the Director General in the enforcement
of said laws and orders to impose punishments for willful and inexcusable violations
thereof upon the person or persons responsible therefor, such punishment to be
determined by the facts in each case.
2. When the exigencies of the service require it, or when a sufficient number of
employees in any department are not available to render the public prompt trans­
portation service, employees will be required to work a reasonable amount of over­
time. So far as efficient and economic operations will permit, excessive hours of
employment will not be required of employees.
3. The broad question of wages and hours will be passed upon and reported to the
Director General as promptly as possible by the present Railroad Wage Commission.
Pending a disposition of these matters by the Director General, all requests of em­
ployees involving revisions of schedules or general changes in conditions affecting
wages and hours, will be held in abeyance by both the managers and employees.
Wages, when determined upon, will be made retroactive to January 1, 1918, and
adjusted accordingly. Matters of controversy arising under interpretations of existing
wage agreements and other matters not relating to wages and hours will take their
usual course, and in the event of inability to reach a settlement will be referred to
the Director General.
4. In Order No. 1, issued December 29, 1917, the following appeared:
“ All officers, agents, and employees of such transportation systems may continue
in the performance of their present regular duties, reporting to the same officers as
heretofore and on the same terms of employment.”
The impression seems to exist on some railroads that the said order was intended
to prevent any change in the terms of employment during governmental operation.
The purpose of the order was to confirm all terms of employment existing upon that
date, but subject to subsequent modifications deemed advisable for the requirements
of the service. Any contrary impression or construction is erroneous. Officers and
employees will be governed by the construction here given.
5. No discrimination will be made in the employment, retention, or conditions
of employment of employees because of membership or nonmembership in labor
organizations.

1From the Official Bulletin for February 23,1918.


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PROVISION FOR THE DISABLED AND VOCATIONAL
EDUCATION.
BY MRS. M. A. GADSBY.

V O C A T IO N A L E D U C A T IO N C O N F E R E N C E AT P H IL A D E L P H IA .

The war is proving a remarkable impetus toward vocational educa­
tion. Maximum output demands trained workers. The Government
departments, as well as the manufacturers of necessary war products,
are looking to vocational schools and to vocational educators to help
them train men and women to fill the places of those who have gone
to the front and to fill the new places which the extraordinary de­
mands of industry are making necessary. This was the motif which
prevailed throughout the meetings of the convention of the National
Society for the Promotion of Industrial Education held in Philadel­
phia February 21 to 23, 19IS.
It is impossible to give synopses of all of the papers presented at
this conference. It has therefore been considered advisable to oniit
many of the reports dealing with the technique of training and to
confine this article to a review of some of the points brought out in
the reports most closely related to industry.
The program centered around four main topics, (1J Education
for war industries, (2) Administration of the Smith-Hughes Act,
(3) Training and employment of women, and (4) Rehabilitation of
the disabled.
EDUCATION FOB. W AR IN D U ST R IE S.

Mr. E. C. Felton, of the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and
Industry, outlined the work of that department in meeting the
demands for labor in two of Pennsylvania’s most important war
industries, namely, agriculture and shipbuilding. The problem of
agricultural labor supply is a new one. The lure of short hours and
high wages in the factories has resulted in 1,000 vacant farms in one
county in Pennsylvania. The State is relying upon three sources of
agricultural labor supply—(1) a small number of retired farmers, a
register of whom is kept at the employment offices, (2) women, and
(3) young men of high-school age, who are being organized as reserve
workers. Farm camps for training young men are being arranged
under the supervision of trained agricultural workers, To keep
more closely in touch with the situation, the department has arranged


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MONTHLY REVIEW OE THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

for a man familiar with agriculture and with the district to visit per­
sonally the farmers in each of the more important agricultural dis­
tricts and familiarize himself with the needs of the individual farms.
The State has been divided into six zones, with a central employment
office in each, and suboffices in each important center in the zones.
Employers apply to local offices, which, in turn, cooperate with
other offices, both local and central, in satisfying the need for workers.
More than 70 trades are necessary in building steel ships. Thirtyeight per cent of the ships contracted for by the Government are built
in the vicinity of Pennsylvania. To meet the resulting demand for
labor in the shipbuilding trades, the department, in cooperation with
the Public Safety Committee, is studying trades which demand
similar skill and which are less essential at this time, in order that
such labor may be transferred to shipbuilding, and is arranging for
short courses for these workers in the technical schools.
The Industrial Training Department of the Emergency Fleet
Corporation is also training men from kindred trades and vocations
that they may become valuable for shipbuilding in as short a time
as possible. This work, as described by Mr. E. E. MacNary, involves
the establishment of a series of training centers in the vicinity of
the shipyards. The first center has been established at Newport
News, Va., where a six weeks’ course is given. Shipyards from
different parts of the country are sending skilled craftsmen to this
center, paying them wages and their necessary expenses. At the
completion of the course these men return to their yards and conduct
training classes in their own trades for new workers and for the
trade improvement of men already in those trades. This training
course involves three phases of instruction, (1) analysis and arrange­
ment of trade operations or jobs in an instruction order, (2) how to
give effective instruction, and (3) practice in instructing under con­
ditions of actual production or construction. A plan has been
arranged whereby the Emergency Fleet Corporation shares the cost
of instruction with the shipyards and pays a bonus of 50 cents per
day to men under instruction, provided they remain in the training
center for 78 days. Yards sending men to the center have made
most satisfactory reports on the progress their instructors have made
as a result of their training.
The Bethlehem Steel Co. is finding its prewar methods of training
inadequate to meet the present emergency. Mr. Stanley Zweibel,
director of industrial education for that company, gave an account
of the work of the shop school established in Bethlehem. The shop
was canvassed and 60 to 70 of the more promising mechanics were
gathered together to be trained as teachers. These men were taught
to analyze the jobs, one operation at a time. They were then given


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practice work in teaching, with each instructor in charge of four
inexperienced men. By eliminating the inefficient instructors a com­
petent teaching force is being built up.
Miss Mary Gilson, representing Joseph & Feiss Co., emphasized
the necessity for training operators in as many of the main opera­
tions in the shop as possible, so that the employee may thoroughly
understand the processes involved in making the shop product, and
can be shifted from one department to another, if necessary.
Mr. J. P. Munroe, of the Federal Board for Vocational Education,
described the war emergency vocational work of that board in under­
taking schemes for training in the States and schools cooperating
with the board of mechanical and technical workers for the Army,
the Navy, and the Shipping Board. This work is too extensive to
permit of an adecpiate description here. A partial account, however,
may be found in the following bulletins published by the board:
Bulletin No. 2. Training conscripted men for service as radio and buzzer operators
in the United States Army (International Code).
Bulletin No. 4. Mechanical and technical training for conscripted men. (Ah' Di­
vision, U. S. Signal Corps.)
Bulletin No. 7. Emergency war training for motor-truck drivers and chauffeurs.
Bulletin No. 8. Emergency war training for machine-shop occupations, blacksmithing, sheet-metal Working, and pipe fitting.
Bulletin No. 9. Emergency war training for electricians, telephone repairmen, line­
men, and cable splicers.
Bulletin No. 10. Emergency war training for gas-engine, motor car, and motorcycle
repairmen.
Bulletin No. 11. Emergency war training for oxyacetylene welders.
Bulletin No. 12. Emergency war training for airplane mechanics—engine repairmen,
woodworkers, riggers, and sheet-metal workers.
ADM INISTRATION OF THE SM ITH-HUGHES ACT.

An afternoon and evening were devoted to discussion of the prob­
lems of administration under the Smith-Hughes Act; the necessity
for coordinating the new educational machinery created by that act
and the training of teachers to develop it. Mr. J. P. Munroe re­
viewed the provisions of the act, and the difficulties encountered by
the Federal board in interpreting it. The Government contributes
money for training boys and girls over 14, and of less than college
age, for wage-earning employments. It will pay one-half the salary
of teachers, supervisors, and directors in agriculture, in trade, in home
economics, and in industry, and will pay for the training of teachers in
all these subjects. This money is appropriated only upon condition
that the States or local communities in which the money is to be spent
contribute an equal amount for the same purpose. The amount ap­
propriated is to increase each year until 1926. He emphasized the
fact that the training must be for wage earning, according to the law,


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but that the aim is to make it as broad as possible and not merely
utilitarian.
The work ahead of the Federal Board for Vocational Education
and the State boards was outlined by Mr. C. A. Prosser, director of
the Federal board. He emphasized the necessity for State legislation
subsidizing State boards and giving them power to extend the age
limit for compulsory education. He also urged that the States take
advantage of the Federal offer.
Mr. L. S. Hawkins, also of the Federal Board for Vocational Edu­
cation, called attention to the necessity for professional, technical,
and practical experience on the part of teachers, and to the need for
an adecpiate system of practice teaching in preparing them for teach­
ing agricultural subjects. Practice teaching, he said, should be the
teacher’s laboratory.
W O M E N IN IN D U ST R Y .

The field for industrial and trade training for women was dis­
cussed by Mrs. A. L. Burdick of the Federal Vocational Board, who
spoke, as she said, “ without being released for publication." The
occupation for which training is offered women should have four
essential characteristics. (1) It must have teachable content, i. e.,
it must not be “ a job which just anybody can do,” if must take an
appreciable time to learn, and it must have a definite body of knowl­
edge and a progression in its processes. This would exclude the
processes in the candy trade, canning, etc. (2) It should not be
highly seasonal. (3) It should offer prospects for wage advance­
ment. (4) The occupation must be able to absorb a sufficient num­
ber of workers so that training does not overstock the market. As
to occupations for which training should be offered, ‘‘any occupa­
tion in which there is an unquestionable shortage of labor, and in which
an analysis shows that women can replace men satisfactorily, should
be considered a field for war emergency training." A trade curricu­
lum for women should include courses of instruction in the economic
and social problems which affect them as wage earners and which
are fundamental to the welfare and general education of the worker.
This instruction should include such subjects as trade organization,
trade agreements, labor legislation, and the facts relating to wages,
hours of work, and the relations between employer and employees.
Mrs. Burdick formulated an “ Apostle’s Creed" for those interested
in the welfare of women workers. The “ creed” follows:
Notwithstanding the fact that the cause has been handicapped by the popular and
fallacious belief of the short period of women’s service in industry;
By the false standards in the mind of the worker, making her sensitive to the social
aspects of her labor, and limiting her industrial advancement;
By the fact that the occupations for which women train are subject to the hectic
whims of fashion and caprice and much skill is lo3t unnecessarily in swift adjustment,


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w e b e l i e v e t h a t tr a d e a n d in d u s t r ia l e d u c a t io n for g ir ls a n d w o m e n w i l l e n a b le t h e m
t o d o b e t t e r w o r k for b e t t e r p a y a n d u l t i m a t e l y b e c o m e m o r e i n d e p e n d e n t .
W e b e l i e v e t h a t t h is tr a in in g s h o u ld r e s u lt i n im m e d ia t e b e n e f it to t h e w o r k e r
e it h e r th r o u g h s e r v ic e r e n d e r e d , a h ig h e r g r a d e p r o d u c t, in c r e a s e d p r o d u c tio n , p r o g r e ss
i n t h e o c c u p a t io n a n d b e t t e r p a y .
W e b e l i e v e t h a t p la c e m e n t i n in d u s t r y is n e c e s s a r y to a s c h e m e o f tr a in in g for t r a d e
a n d in d u s t r ia l w o r k e r s .
W e h a v e c o r r o b o r a tiv e e v id e n c e t h a t tr a d e or in d u s t r ia l t r a in in g for t h e y o u n g g ir l
w it h lim it e d s c h o o l e x p e c t a n c y lif t s h e r o v e r t h e u n s k ille d p r o c e s s e s t h a t c a t c h a n d
h o ld y o u n g w o r k e r s a n d p r e v e n t s t h e s h if t in g a n d d r if t in g i n u n p r o fita b le e m p lo y ­
m e n t a n d e n a b le s h e r t o e n t e r in d u s t r y a t a h ig h e r i n i t i a l w a g e .
W e b e l i e v e t h a t c o n t in u a t io n s c h o o ls fo r y o u n g w o r k e r s is a n im m e d ia t e n e c e s s it y
to e n a b le g ir ls to m a k e a n i n t e llig e n t a n d p r o f ita b le t r a n s it io n fr o m c h il d e m p lo y in g
in d u s t r ie s in t o a d u lt e m p lo y m e n t .
W e b e l i e v e t h a t v o c a t io n a l tr a in in g fo r a n y i n d iv id u a l or fo r a n y g r o u p c a n n o t b e
a c c o m p lis h e d fo r o n c e a n d for a ll b y tr a in in g in i t i a l to e m p lo y m e n t , b u t t h e w o r k e r
m u s t c o n t in u e a n o p p o r t u n it y fo r tr a in in g w h e r e a d v a n c e m e n t is h a m p e r e d fo r la c k
o f it .
W e b e l i e v e t h a t t h e e x p a n s io n o f o p p o r t u n it y for w o r k for w o m e n is a c c o m p a n ie d
b y a n a r r o w in g o f c o n d it io n w h i c h m a k e s tr a in in g p o s s ib le , h e n c e w o m e n m u s t b e
p r e p a r e d t o e n t e r a b e t t e r c la s s o f in d u s tr ie s .
T o t h is e n d e v e r y e ffo r t s h o u ld b e m a d e (1 ) fo r a n a ly s is o f a ll p o s s ib le ^ o m e n - e m ­
p l o y in g in d u s t r ie s fo r t h e p u r p o s e o f g iv i n g t h e w o r k e r a c h a n c e t o e s c a p e b e a r in g t h e
c o s t o f c a s u a l a n d u n o r g a n iz e d le a r n in g p e r io d , a n d (2 ) t o o p e n u p n e w lin e s o f w o r k
i n w h i c h t h e p e c u l ia r g e n iu s a n d s k ill o f w o m e n m a y fin d a n o u t le t . W e m u s t a d a p t
w o m e n for- b e t t e r tr a d e s a n d a d a p t t h e tr a d e s to w o m e n w o r k e r s , so a s to s e c u r e t h e b e s t
p o s s ib le r e s u lts . T h is is t h e n e e d a n d t h e o p p o r t u n it y fo r v o c a t io n a l t r a in in g , a n d r e ­
m e m b e r t h e p r a y e r o f t h e e n t h u s ia s t: “ L o r d , m a k e t h e in d if f e r e n t d i f f e r e n t .”

Mrs. Hilda Muhlhauser Richards, of the Federal Employment
Service, emphasized the fact that there is no shortage of male labor
and consequently no reason why women should be hurried into indus­
tries in which the work is much better suited to men.
R EH A BILITA TIO N OF DISA BLED SOLDIERS.

One session was devoted to a discussion of the rehabilitation of
disabled soldiers. The only agency which has yet been given author­
ity to attack this problem in America is the War Risk Insurance
Bureau, in the Treasury Department. The provisions of the act of
September 2, 1917 “ to authorize the establishment of a Bureau of
War Risk Insurance/’ and the amending act of October 6, were
outlined by Mr. Richard B. Jones, executive commissioner of the
bureau. These acts provide for allotments and allowances for the
families of men enlisted in the military or naval forces; compensation
for death or disability of every commissioned officer and enlisted
man, and of every female member of the Army and Navy Nurse
Corps, when employed in active service; and insurance against
death or total permanent disability for every officer, enlisted man,
and nurse who desires to comply with the conditions specified in the
act.
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Section 304 of the act as amended, further provides:
T h a t in c a s e s o f d is m e m b e r m e n t , o f in j u r ie s to s ig h t or h e a r in g , a n d o f o t h e r in j u r ie s
c o m m o n ly c a u s in g p e r m a n e n t d i s a b i l i t y , t h e in j u r e d p e r s o n s h a ll f o llo w s u c h c o u r s e
o r c o u r s e s o f r e h a b ilit a t io n , r e e d u c a t io n , a n d v o c a t io n a l t r a in in g a s t h e U n i t e d S t a t e s
m a y p r o v i d e or p r o c u r e to b e p r o v id e d .

So far, this bureau has been forced to devote its attention exclu­
sively to the compensation, allowance, and insurance features of
these acts. Subsequent bills have been drafted for the consideration
of Congress providing for the transfer to other governmental agencies
of responsibility for the training and employment of disabled mem­
bers of the forces, but as yet no definite action has been taken.
Three of the other governmental agencies interested in this work
were represented at the conference. Maj. J. W. Bloom, representing
the United States Army Recruiting Station, discussed the treatment
of disabled soldiers from the medical point of view. Mr. C. H.
Winslow of the Federal Vocational Board discussed the training of the
disabled and outlined the recent studies published by the board on
this aspect of the problem. These studies, issued in February, 1918,
are: Bulletin No. 5, Vocational rehabilitation of disabled soldiers and
sailors; Bulletin No. 6, Training of teachers for occupational therapy
for the rehabilitation of disabled soldiers and sailors. Mrs. M. A.
Gadsby, representing the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics,
pointed out the difficulties involved in employing the disabled. The
Bureau of Labor Statistics has been collecting and publishing, in its
M o n t h l y R e v i e w , data on this subject since America first entered the
war, and through its study of the problem as it has been met in other
countries has become familiar with some of the difficulties which will
be encountered in connection with the work of finding jobs for our
disabled soldiers.
Two points were stressed by the last speaker: (1) It is necessary
that the state of the general labor market be carefully watched, so
that the supply of men reeducated in any particular trade does not
exceed the demand for labor in that trade, and it will be necessary to
work out some system of coordination between schemes of training
and to study conditions which determine the demand for workers ifi
particular trades. (2) The wage problem also presents serious
difficulties. Will the disabled man always be able to earn as much as
his able-bodied competitor in the trade? If the employer is asked
to pay a man more than he can actually earn, will he not be tempted
to protect himself by employing only the able-bodied ? Less scrupu­
lous employers might take advantage of the fact that the man who
receives a pension to supplement his wages may undersell his ablebodied competitor, and pay the pensioner less than the market price
for his labor.


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To facilitate the solution of such problems of readjustment,
England has found it advisable to set up trade advisory committees
and advisory wage hoards, consisting of equal numbers of employers
and workmen, to consider questions as to the kind of training needed,
the period of training necessary, the number of men who can be safely
trained, and all questions affecting rates of wages. So far as
organization for carrying on the work is concerned there are several
examples in the systems of other countries. England utilizes the
system of employment exchanges which had already been developed
to deal with general employment problems. Canada has instituted
special employment machinery to take care of this phase of the work.
It consists of a central employment office, provincial employment
offices, and local committees throughout the districts. The work of
readjusting our military cripples to civil life is calling attention to our
neglect of the victims of industrial accidents and to the necessity for
extending the provisions made for the reconstruction of war cripples
to meet the needs of our industrial army.
Private agencies have already begun the work of training the
disabled. The Red Cross Institute for Crippled and Disabled
Men, as described by Mr. D. C. McMurtrie, director of the institute,
was founded early in the summer of 1917. It is concerned with
vocational education of disabled men and their placement in suitable
occupations. Preliminary to undertaking the work of the institute a
detailed study was made of 361 civilian cripples (amputation cases)
in New York City in order to determine to what extent men who
have incurred such disabilities had been able to return to their former
occupations or to take up new ones. A report of this investigation
was published in a recent bulletin of the institute.1 As the result of
the investigation, the work of the institute is now being organized
and machinery is already being installed for the use of classes for
training handicapped men in the making of artificial limbs, in draft­
ing, casting for monotype work, photography, and acetylene welding.
Other classes will be added later.
The employment bureau operated in New York City by the Hudson
Guild has been taken over by the institute. As in the other work of
the institute only orthopedic cases are considered. Statistics are
kept of the number of placements, the type of disability, the position
secured, and the wages paid. Records of such placements are sug­
gestive of possible situations for future cases.
The proceedings of this conference will be published shortly by
the National Association for the Promotion of Industrial Education.
The offices of this association are located at 140 West Forty-second
Street, New York City.
1 The Economic Consequences of Physical Disability: A Case Study of Civilian Cripples in New York
City, by John Culbert Faries, of the Staff of the Red Cross Institute. New York, Red Cross Institute for
Crippled and Disabled Men. 1918. 11 p. (Publication Ser. 1, No. 2.)


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TRAINING DISABLED SOLDIERS IN CANADIAN INDUSTRIES.

An industrial survey for determining the openings for training
disabled soldiers in industries was begun in Canada in the fall of
1917 by the vocational branch of the Military Hospitals Commission—Mr. Gerald A. Boate, officer in charge of the survey—and carried on
for several months following. The purpose was to make a short
intensive survey of typical industries and business houses to get
their judgment with reference to training and employment and to
determine, by time and motion study, whether or not disabled men
could be there employed, instead of waiting for the men themselves
to encounter difficulties on entering an industry.
The work was started in Montreal and extended to Toronto,
Winnipeg, Ottawa, and Vancouver as centers, whence it was carried
to other cities and towns of the Dominion.
The agents conducting the survey, who were returned officers, first
familiarized themselves, in hospitals and sanatoriums, with the various
disabilities and handicaps of the men. Following this step they
made themselves thoroughly conversant with the equipment, courses
of study, and methods of instructions of the reeducational schools.
The actual surveys were made with the assistance of the employers,
who were interested and glad to cooperate and who gave freely of
the time and information of foremen and other bosses.
The data from the schedules have been carefully studied, card
indexed, and tabulated. The information is of great value in several
ways: 1. It gives the vocational officers of the various provinces or
districts an understanding of different jobs or occupations, so that
from a knowledge of a man’s previous experience, learned by inter­
view, they can select an occupation within his grasp as a disabled
man to which his training or experience is related. 2. It is extremely
valuable to the men themselves, many of whom have had distorted
ideas of the work which they would be able to do and the remuneration
they might expect to receive. 3. It is supplied to the reeducational
schools, affecting their selection of equipment and courses of study
and helping to determine the number of men who may be trained for
a particular occupation without danger of overcrowding As far as
possible the final stages of the courses are given in the industries for
which the men are being trained, thus bridging the awkward gap
between school and actual employment.
The survey brought out the fact that though many occupations
require the services of able-bodied men there are many others in
which cripples and women already are employed. From a study
of a few of the schedules it is evident that a large number of occupa­
tions can be performed by persons having an artificial or deformed
leg, defective hearing, or the sight of but one eye. The statement is

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made that in many machine and other operations several fingers of
the worker may be missing and he will be able to perform the work
required, provided there are enough left to hold tools and to pick
up small objects. Shell shock resulting in nothing worse than
stammering or momentary muteism ordinarily need not debar, but
a case is here recorded of a returned soldier who had to leave a
boiler-making job after six weeks’ employment on account of the
noise.
The possibilities of favoring a disabled worker by allowing him to
sit at his work, though the general rule is to stand, or to have material
on a table though the other workers stoop for it, are given emphasis.
In a considerable number of cases the inquiry as to the general
education required is answered by the statement that the ability
“ to read, write, and keep his time” is all that is necessary.
In addition to the customary information as to firm name, address,
business, officers, date of survey, etc., the questionnaire calls for
data in the case of each occupation in the plants and factories vis­
ited, as to conditions of labor, training needed, physical capacity for
the work of those having specified disabilities, etc.
The following selections, copied verbatim, except where identifica­
tion might result, will serve to show how the questionnaire is made
out and the nature of the information secured.
Ca r U p h o l s t e r in g .

Tlie foreman explained very carefully the nature of this work, also demonstrating
its nature and possibilities. Car upholstering is quite different from furniture or
automobile work. A man who has been trained as a furniture upholsterer could not
work on car seats. A car trained upholsterer would not be of much use to a furniture
man. However, I learned that the season for car upholstering is about seven months
each year. The idle season in car upholstering is the busy season in the furniture
business and most of the workmen in this department find ready employment with
the furniture repair houses, making a much better wage with the furniture men in
the summer than they do with the car company in the winter. The upholsterers in
the car department use leather, carpet, rattan, and plush for finishing up seats and
backs of first class passenger coaches and Pullman cars. After the frame of the seat
is made, the springs are inserted. On the top is a double stuffing, and on top of that a
stuffing of better quality of cotton, hair, or sea grass. The final process is applying a
surface of leather, carpet, rattan, or plush. All of the rattan comes ready woven,
glued to a backing of canvas. This material is bought by the company and is merely
cut to the right sizes to make the tops, which are either tacked or sewn into place.
Upholsterers are in demand by the furniture houses from May to October at about
45 cents per hour. The foreman considered this a good class of work for disabled
men, providing they have full use of their arms and hands. It is light pleasant work,
not requiring excessive muscular strain.
D e t a i l e d a n a l y s i s o f u p h o l s t e r i n g Upholsterers are divided into the following classes:
F i r s t c l a s s — Twenty employed.
Receive 36 cents per hour plus 25 per cent addi­
tional on bonus system. This is all piecework.
H o u r s p e r w e e k . —Fifty.
S e c o n d c l a s s —Ten employed.
Receive 33 cents per hour. These are good men on
plain work.
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T h i r d c l a s s .—F ive employed.
Receive 30 cents per hour plus 25 per ceDt additional
on bonus system—piecework.
H o u r s p e r w e e k . —Fifty.
These men are able to work on curtains and cheap seats,
chairs where there are no spring edges.
N a t u r e o f t h e j o b —f i r s t - c l a s s u p h o l s t e r i n g .—These men must be able to do all classes
of upholstering from a common seat up to a parlor chair. This is all handwork; a very
good class of work done in a quiet room amid pleasant surroundings. Most of the work
is attached by means of tacks, or sewn, using long upholsterers’ needles. Upholsterers
are in good demand.
T r a i n i n g n e e d e d .—Training needed should be given in an upholstering house or car
upholstering department.
T i m e to t r a i n .—Time to train would be four years, under union regulations, to make
a first-class upholsterer. The work could be successfully learned in a much shorter
time, if the workman had the opportunity of an open shop.
W o r k m o s t c l o s e l y r e l a t e d .—The work most closely related would be that of furniture
or automobile upholsterer.
E x p e r i e n c e n e e d e d .—Experience needed to make a first-class upholsterer in this
shop is gained through working in the various classes from third class up to first class.
D i s a b i l i t i e s — L u n g w o u n d s a n d l u n g d i s e a s e s : The air and light are very good indeed.
The work did not seem to be dusty. All articles which would contain dust have been
cleaned by steam or vacuum process before they are passed over to the upholsterers
to be either renovated or new upholstering applied. It is not hard work and requires
but slight physical effort. Only a good, fair, steady gait of work is demanded.
H e a d : Ordinarily speaking the workman should have average intelligence.
Faint­
ness, dizziness, hesitant speech, or stammering will not in any way interfere with the
carrying on of the work. All the work is done on one floor and no climbing is required.
N e c k : Slight flexion of the neck is necessary.
Most of the work is done while the
head is looking down, similar to tailoring. Sometimes it is necessary to bend the
head down, looking up under. This is more of a body movement than neck movement.
E a r s : The workman may be entirely deaf and successfully carry on this work.
However, due to the dangerous surroundings of the shops and yards, the workmen
who are sent there should have sufficient hearing for personal safety.
E y e s : Average sight in one eye is ample for doing this work.
Fine measurements
or delicate fits are not required; merely a sense of proportion of finish which must
be developed. That is, the article upholstered must be neat and tidy and appear
well when done.
S h e l l s h o c k : This seems to be an ideal class of work for a man who has shell shock,
provided he is in condition to work.
H e r n i a , g e n e r a l d e b i l i t y , a l i m e n t a r y c a n a l , k i d n e y s , s k i n : Little physical effort is
required. A man should be able to lift and turn over a chair and do sufficient pulling
to get the upholstered surface taut. This is a sedentary occupation, but it is inter­
esting and should be ideal for a man who has general debility, or minor disabilities
of the alimentary canal or kidneys which are not too far developed so that they would
interfere with his attendance at work.
L e g s : Most of this work is done while sitting; therefore one or two artificial legs should
not interfere with a man successfully making a livelihood at upholstering.
A r m s : The workman must have full use of both arms, hands, and wrists, and free
use of all his fingers.

Core

m a k in g .

N u m b e r e m p l o y e d . —Eight.
H o u r s p e r w e e k . —Fifty.
R a t e o f p a y . —Thirty-nine

tional, on bonus system.


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cents per hour. It is possible to make 25 per cent addi­
Cylinder core makers receive 41 cents per hour.
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N a t u r e o f t h e j o b . —The core maker’s job is making curious shaped biscuits, which
are composed of sand, bran, and beer. This mass is mixed up like dough in a tub.
All the patterns which come from the pattern making department which have curious
shapes or holes, which are to be left in the inside wrhen they are molded in the foun­
dry, must be cored. The pattern maker, when building up his pattern, also makes
the core boxes which go with the pattern. These core boxes go to the core makers.
Usually they are wooden troughs. The troughs are filled with the core material and
the contents of these troughs are emptied into pans which are run into core ovens and
baked. This baking process turns them into a brick-like substance. Cores are
usually made in two pieces. The core maker must even the surfaces which go together
and.bond them together with a paste after they are baked. These cores are then sent
to the foundry department after they are numbered and designated. When the
molder starts on his molding flask to mold up a pattern, he imbeds the pattern in
molding sand, which has to be rammed down very hard, up to the parting surfaces
cn the pattern. All places where metal is not to flow within, the pattern surface
must be filled by laying in a core. The other half of the flask is done the same way.
The two parts of the flask are clamped together, leaving the core in place, before it
is sent to the foundry, where hot metal is poured in. The action of the molten iron,
steel, or brass further bakes the core and turns it into a very brittle substance, which
is removed from the finished casting by simply pounding.
The work of the core makers is not heavy and very little education is required.
T i m e to t r a i n . —A man could be trained for a core maker in about six months.
D i s a b i l i t i e s — L u n g w o u n d s a n d l u n g d i s e a s e s : The lungs must be in good condi­
tion, since the foundry is more or less filled with gases.
E a r s : Hearing in one ear is sufficient.
E y e s : Good use of one eye is sufficient.
H e r n i a : Hernia would not interfere with the carrying on of the work, provided a
properly fitting truss is worn.
L e g s : A man could get along with one injured or artificial leg.
A r m s : It is necessary to have good use of both arms, hands, wrists, and average
use of fingers.
In a great many factories this work is done by women, so that it is not very laborious.

The survey forms an important vocational study and a valuable
contribution to the solving of the problem of the disabled soldier.

T R A IN IN G O F W ID O W S O F D E C E A S E D S O L D IE R S IN

G R E A T B R IT A IN .

In order that the widow may “ add to her income where domestic
needs make remunerative occupation desirable in her own interest
or that of her children,” provision has been made for her training
along lines somewhat similar to those governing the training of sol­
diers disabled in the War. Article 14 of the Royal Warrant and
Order in Council, dated March 29, 1917, which permits of this
arrangement, reads as follows:
14. In addition to any pension and children’s allowances awarded under the fore­
going three articles there may be granted, under such conditions as the Minister of
Pensions may determine: * * *
(3)
To any widow an allowance not exceeding 12 s. 6 d. [$3.04] per week, for a period
not ordinarily exceeding 13 weeks, whilst she is undergoing any course of instruction


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which, in the opinion of the Minister of Pensions, will be advantageous to her. Where
an allowance ig granted under this subsection any fees for training, for which pro­
vision is not otherwise made, may be paid, subject to such conditions as the Min­
ister of Pensions may determine.

Instructions have been issued to local war-pensions committees
prescribing the conditions under which such training may be pro­
vided. The following are some of the provisions outlined in these
instructions. The majority of widows, namely, those receiving
minimum pensions under article 11 of the above-mentioned warrant,
or alternative pensions under article 13, are eligible. Application for
training is made to the Minister of Pensions through the local warpensions committee of the applicants district. The sanction of such
application is dependent upon (1) the domestic circumstances of the
applicant, (2) the suitability for the applicant of the occupation for
which training is proposed, (3) the prospect of permanent and remu­
nerative employment in the occupation chosen.
Maintenance allowance for widows undergoing training, in addition
to the widow’s pension and allowances, is sanctioned only under cer­
tain special circumstances, such as (1) the necessity of undertaking a
remunerative occupation, (2) the necessity of maintaining her home
while she is undergoing training, and (3) the necessity for provision
for care of child or children at cost in excess of allowances ordinarily
payable for such children.
In case the widow has a child or children under 16 years of age
adequate provision must be made for their care, and in case the widow
is obliged to live apart from her children the local committee arranges
that they shall be visited at least once a month in order to ascertain
that they are properly cared for.
At the end of the first month’s training a report is made to the
local committee by the instructor under whom instruction is given
as to progress which has been made, and a similar report is made at
the end of the period of training. Although the normal training
period of three months contemplated by the warrant is sufficient
for the less highly skilled occupations, the period is extended if the
case justifies training in an occupation of a more highly skilled or of
a professional character.
A careful inquiry has been made as to suitable trades for which
training can be provided. Information has been gathered from
Government departments, various firms, schools, and other institu­
tions connected with the industries concerned. This information as
published in schedule form in the War Pensions Gazette for January
and February, 1918, includes data as to the period of instruction
necessary, the facilities offered for training, the demand for workers,
and the wages current in such occupations as box making, clock and
watch repairing, cookery, corset making, dental mechanics, maehin
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ing and blouse making, mantle trade, maternity nursing, midwifery,
general nursing, school teaching, dressmaking, and hand ironing.
Because of the facility with which women can find work under the
present abnormal conditions it is stated that relatively few have
taken advantage of the opportunity offered, but it is reasonable to
suppose that after-war conditions will increase the demand for such
opportunities.
T R A IN IN G A N D E M P L O Y M E N T O F D IS A B L E D S O L D IE R S A N D C IV IL IA N S
IN G E R M A N Y .
SETTLEM ENT OF D ISA BLED SOLDIERS ON THE LA ND.

The German National Committee for the Relief of Disabled Soldiers
has issued the follow­
ing “ guiding principles” for dealing with the problem of settling dis­
abled soldiers on the land after the W ar:1
(.U eich sa u ssch u ss der K riegsbeschadigtenfursorge)

T h e S ettlem ent

of

D is a b l e d S o l d ie r s a s P jlrt o f
I n t e r io r C o l o n iz a t io n .

the

G en e r a l S chem e

of

1. It having been suggested that settlements should be formed consisting solely of
disabled soldiers and their families, the special committee for settlement and hous­
ing at its initial meeting on December 15, 1915, unanimously came to the conclusion
that this plan was to be rejected, as it is one of the principles of the Disabled Soldiers’
Welfare Association that every aggregation of disabled soldiers should be avoided,
and this applies to land settlement, as to other things. Hence, disabled soldiers
should be combined in not too large proportions with able-bodied settlers or attached
individually or in small groups to existing settlements.
2. The settlement of disabled soldiers is to be viewed as a part only—though a
very important part—of the general scheme of interior colonization. It can become
effective only if the problem of interior colonization and urban housing is success­
fully handled on a large scale. It is thus to the interest of the disabled soldiers them­
selves that those doing welfare work in their behalf should devote all their energies
to this latter object.
3. The settlement of disabled soldiers is justifiable in the first instance in their own
home district, though by no means in that district only. Hence, the settlement of
disabled soldiers is not a problem for this or that district, but for the Empire as a whole.
T h e D is a b l e d S o l d ie r s ’ F r e e d o m

of

C h o ic e

and

C la im

to

Settlem ent.

1.
The object of all welfare work on behalf of disabled soldiers is to make them once
again active and contented members of their community, with power to shape their
own careers. Therefore, the disabled soldier who decides to become a settler must
do so of his own free will and not under the spell of undue influence exercised by
others, as in this case he can not have the proper feeling of responsibility or a suffi­
ciently keen interest in his place of settlement. An emphatic note of warning must
be raised against an excess of zeal, which may lead to a misapplied use of the arts of
persuasion on unsuitable and reluctant subjects, and which on occasion may not
even shrink from the making of promises which afterwards can not be fulfilled. The
resulting disappointment is harmful both to the disabled soldiers and to their advisers.
The proper course is to place before them without any exaggeration both the advant Anstellungsnaclirichten.


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tages and the difficulties of settling on the land and the financial means and personal
qualities which are required to make a successful settler, and thus enable them to
investigate whether such a course would be profitable in their case.
2.
The idea that disabled soldiers can in any way claim settlement on the land as
a right must be entirely dismissed. For one thing, the number of claims would in
this way be so multiplied that there would not he enough land to go round, and,
apart from this, the admission of such a right on the part of the soldiers would he
incompatible with the necessity which the authorities will be under of making a
selection among the applicants in the interest of the disabled soldiers themselves.
S ettlem en t

and

C h a r it y — G if t s

of

L a n d , E tc.

1. It is highly important that the work of settlement should not he carried out in a
spirit of charity. It is true that the prospect of receiving gifts may induce the disabled
soldiers to make up their minds more readily. But it will not endow them with any
greater energy to persist in the face of the difficulties that will inevitably arise. If
the settlement of disabled soldiers is to be a success, it must be carried through on
strictly business, and not on eleemosynary, principles. Besides, should the settle­
ment attain any dimensions at all, money gifts to the soldiers would soon come to an
end through the limited amount available; covetousness would be aroused, and the
real or imagined injustices which would inevitably arise in the distribution of money
to settlers would create discontent among them. The disabled soldier has a right to
be cared for and needs no charitable donations.
2. Nor must private third parties be allowed to draw upon the charity of the public
for creating settlements of disabled soldiers. If any association wishes to furnish
money for this object—a highly praiseworthy endeavor in itself—it must be referred
to the State colonization officials, the chief welfare organizations, or the specially
appointed settlement boards (land companies, building societies, etc.), as they are
in the best position to judge where and in what way the sums available can be most
profitably applied.
3. Where a welfare organization is in doubt whether to accept land which is offered
as a gift by the owner—-for instance, a real estate company for settlement purposes—
it should decide in the negative whenever the donor has the ulterior object of profitably
opening up the whole of his property or getting it settled more easily by making a
gift of part of it, as it is by no means desirable that the settlement of disabled soldiers
should be made an instrument for enriching private property owners. If, however,
no such ulterior object exists, there can be no objection to the welfare organization
accepting the offer of land, nor need it be made a condition that the donor should
release the organization from all charges and fees which are entailed by the transfer
of the property.
P e r s o n a l S u it a b il it y

o f t h e D is a b l e d S o l d ie r a n d H is D e p e n d e n t s —
S e t t l e m e n t a n d O c c u p a t io n .

1. The most important point to consider in the settlement of disabled soldiers is
their personal qualifications, understood in the widest possible sense and including
the physical capabilities still retained by the soldier in spite of his disablement, the
qualifications of his wife, the physique and ages of his children, the amount of his
military pensions and any other pensions, the size and situation of the plat required
by him, his ability to furnish cash of his own—all these points (and they do not exhaust
the list) must be duly weighed and considered in each individual case.
2. The greatest caution should be exercised in transplanting to the country towns­
men who have not originated there, especially if their wives have not been brought
up there either.
3. The qualifications of the wife and other members of the family become important
and require to be carefully examined in proportion as the working capacity of the


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disabled soldier has been impaired by his injury, since the holding will be the sole
means of subsistence of the family, and he will have risked money of his own to
acquire it.
4. The more the money-earning capacities of the family are independent of the
small holding, the more important it is to consider whether the opportunities of earning
money on the settlement, as judged by the qualifications of the settler, are adequate
as regards extent, variety, and prospects of permanence.
5. Disabled soldiers who are competent and willing to become settlers should as
far as possible receive training for their new occupation, even if they originate in the
country. For this purpose the following objects should be kept in view:
( а ) Bringing together of the prospective settlers in special hospitals in groups with
slightly injured men, etc., establishment of agricultural schools for invalids, where
possible in connection with the rural agricultural and winter schools.
(б) Instruction in special branches, horticulture, rearing of smaller animals, bee
keeping, etc.
(c) Occasional sojourn on other farms, if possible in the neighborhood of existing
settlements, procuring of housing accommodations (if possible with ground attached)
in settlement colonies.
6. Useful advice tending to the material benefit of the settlers should be given to
them wherever possible by the officials of agricultural or horticultural organizations,
agricultural teachers, etc.
7. Every encouragement should be given to home work (winter spare time work)
as a supplement to agricultural work; a separate department should be set up for this
in the preparatory institutions mentioned above.
8. Where home work is the chief source of income for the disabled soldier caution
must be exercised. This work can be done on a large scale, and without harmful
social or economic consequences, only in noncommercial garden city societies with
cooperative organization (small workshops connected with long-distance power sta­
tions, consumers’ cooperative societies, etc.), and under expert direction and manage­
ment.
P ropaganda

and

C o o p e r a t io n B e t w e e n W e l f a r e S o c ie t ie s
S o c ie t ie s .

and

S ettlem ent

The task of advising and assisting the disabled soldiers in the acquisition of their
new means of livelihood naturally falls entirely on the welfare organizations. In the
interests of the disabled soldiers, however, it would seem advisable that these organ­
izations should seek the cooperation of bodies which have already had experience in
the practical work of settlement in order to share with them the heavy responsibility
involved in their task. To prevent friction, it is important that both bodies should
have their sphere clearly defined. This cooperation will, of course, exhibit local
diversities in the various parts of the country, but the following principles may be
laid down as of general application:
1. To the chief welfare organizations will belong the task of stimulating settlement,
i. e., of introducing disabled soldiers who are able and willing to become settlers to
the offices which are engaged in the actual work of placing settlers, and which are,
therefore, in a position to fulfill the demand for settlements.
2. On this account the chief welfare organizations must keep in close touch with the
noncommercial land companies and building societies.
3. In addition to the noncommercial settlement societies and the municipalities and
municipal officials who deal directly with the work of settlement there are to be con­
sidered among the organizations which promote the settlement of disabled soldiers also
those purely business companies which in the matter of charges they make for settle-

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ment (i. e., profit) submit themselves to the control and approval of the competent
authorities.
4. The chief welfare organizations must not merely make isolated appeals to indi­
viduals, but through the agency of experts on the subject must conduct a systematic
propaganda, and bring home the advantages of settlement to the disabled soldiers and
their dependents. The issue involved is one of great social and economic importance,
viz, to stem the flow of disabled soldiers to the large towns with their small tene­
ments, and keep them on the land where they will be well housed. The cooperating
boards can assist these endeavors by bearing part of the cost, by affording facilities for
propaganda, by designating capable experts, etc.
5. For the proper conducting of propaganda, the following points are important:
(a) To centralize all propaganda work.
(b ) To disseminate suitable literature among corporate bodies and administrative
offices, especially such as come regularly into contact with disabled soldiers.
(c) To hold public meetings under the auspices and management of the corporate
bodies mentioned under (b ).
( d ) To devote particular attention to the urban workers, who in some cases will be
compelled in consequence of their injuries to seek a new means of livelihood.
6. The results of this campaign are to be reported, in each case, to the settlement
societies cooperating with the disabled soldiers’ welfare organization in the district in
which the soldier in question wishes to settle; and the names of such are to be given
to them.
7. The purely technical side of settlement is to be left wholly in the hands of the
settlement societies, etc. The question whether any given individual is fitted to be
a settler, where he is to settle, how large his holding is to be, and what capital he
requires can best be decided by these societies, owing to their experience and their
knowledge of local conditions and the requirements of settlement, though, of course,
the welfare organizations can supply some preliminary details; and in any case, when
it comes to the point, the wishes of the applicant, as stated above, are to be decisive.
8. The settlement of disabled soldiers will benefit the rural districts by bringing
them an accession of trustworthy and energetic citizens. It will also further the
cause of colonization in general, and help the municipalities to solve the question,
which is so serious for them, of keeping people on the land. Hence there is every
motive for inviting the municipalities to cooperate in the work of settling disabled
soldiers.
Welfare organizations and settlement societies must therefore by united effort
endeavor to secure the active support of communes and districts, and to induce them
to bear a part of the labor and the expense, and to help in acquiring the land and
raising the capital.
9. Hence it will be advisable for the large companies to assist in the formation of
local settlement and building societies in suitable places, with the cooperation of the
communes.
10. As a rule the disabled soldier, by concluding a settlement agreement with the
societies, immediately secures a source of livelihood, on which alone he must rely for
the future. N evertheless, he remains subject to the disabled soldiers’ welfare organiza­
tion so long and in so far as his wound or sickness make this necessary and he himself
expresses a desire for continued attention.
F in a n c ia l A r r a n g e m e n t s .

1. In the purchase of a holding the combined grants or the cash possessions of the
disabled soldier must in all cases form the basis of the sum required. This much is
demanded by one of the first principles of settlement, viz, that the man who acquires
a holding must have invested something in it, so that he shall have an interest in its


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development and progress. In other words, neglect of the holding must bring with it
pecuniary loss to the owner and his family, if the initial difficulties are to be overcome
and the settlement to be fairly set going. This rule, of which experience has shown
the necessity, naturally applies to the larger holdings more than the smaller, but should
be observed strictly in dealing with the latter also, save in case of necessity, and if
there is exceptionally good security. The only exception—and that is more apparent
than real—is formed by holdings on more or less uncultivated soil; here the owner
acquires a keen interest in the soil on account of the labor which he and his family
put into it. The settlement of disabled soldiers on waste land is, however, a somewhat
risky proceeding, owing to the great physical strain which is imposed in such cases.
2. For raising additional money recourse is to be had in the first place, in Prussia,
to the State credit to be provided by the royal annuity banks (R e n t e n b a n k e n ) accord­
ing to the law of July 7, 1891. By the law of May 8, 1916, this credit is to be advanced
to the extent of three-quarters of the value of the holdings, and in the case of small
holdings up to as much as nine-tenths of the value.
3. Where applicants belong to the compulsorily insured class, the resources of the
invalidity insurance institutes and salaried employees’ insurance institutes can be
brought into play throughout the Empire. The chief welfare organizations should
particularly seek to establish a connection with the former of these, which command
large resources and have always made the housing of workmen their special care. A
good example of how cooperation can be effected between disabled soldiers’ welfare
organizations, settlement societies, communes, etc., on the one hand, and provincial
insurance institutes on the other, is afforded by the Province of Silesia. Should diffi­
culties arise, it would be well that the Imperial Government should impress upon the
directors of the national insurance institutes the necessity of placing all available
resources at the service of this important work.
4. The Imperial Government might further use its influence to increase the im­
perial housing fund in proportion as these resources are used particularly in the
interests of disabled soldiers, even when these are not employees or workmen in the
Government service.
5. Credit could also be obtained from some provincial banks and public savings
banks, on which the Federal Government might, where necessary, exert a favorable
influence. The obtaining of credit will be greatly facilitated by the assuming of
guaranties on the part of the cooperating communes.
6. Credits will also be obtainable from private sources, especially rural loan banks
(e. g., in Bavaria). Care must be taken, however, that the loan should take the form
of a redeemable mortgage, not foreclosable by the creditor, with a moderate interest
and a corresponding rate of redemption.
7. It will be necessary to create State funds from which to provide subsidies to
free legal aid bureaus and agricultural societies, as also premiums for settling agri­
cultural workers.
8. Settlement organizers, in choosing land for a colony, must always bear in mind
that little or no expenditure is to be incurred for municipal, school, and church
matters, or for subsequent agricultural arrangements.
9. Efforts should be made to induce the public credit institutions to lend money
as freely as possible. Where the disabled soldier possesses some means of his own,
the issue of third mortgages secured on these may in some cases be worth considering.
S e c u r it y

of

T en u re

fo r

D is a b l e d S o l d ie r s
W id o w s .

A lready

S e t t l e d — S o l d ie r s ’

1. In view of the heavy indebtedness under which the small estates in the country
have long labored, and the probable difficulty of obtaining mortgages after the war,
especially second credit on landed property, there is a danger that a large number of


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email proprietors who return home from the War disabled and physically enfeebled
will be compelled to sell their estates.
2. Such sales would not be conducive to a sound system of land tenure; and the
community owes it to the peasant proprietors and agricultural laborers who have been
injured while fighting for it to maintain them in possession of their estates and
holdings.
3. Hence, in settling disabled soldiers on the land it is necessary at the same time
to make provision for maintaining this class of small proprietors in possession of theii
estates.
4. This provision is to be made by substituting for the present mortgages, with their
high interest and right of foreclosure, real estate credit at low interest, not foreclosabie,
and with facilities for redemption.
5. Proposals to change existing tenures into Government leases (R e n t e n g u t e r ) for
the purpose of reducing interest payments can be considered only in cases where it
seems desirable to subdivide an existing estate by establishing on it one or more
settlers’ leaseholds.
6. The regulations for raising mortgages, where the disabled soldier is legally quali­
fied to act for himself, are given in the Prussian law of June 26, 1912, for the area to
which that law applies.
7. In many other cases where it is desirable to raise a mortgage it will be possible
by capitalizing a part of the military pension in accordance with the law on the
capitalization of pensions, using the sum thus obtained to pay a single premium to a
life insurance society and by mortgaging the sum insured to create the necessary
security for obtaining cheap credit from public institutions.
Where other guaranties besides the insurance policy can be furnished for the safe­
guarding of the mortgagee, these naturally will also be permissible.
8. It may be presumed that the competent rural cooperative societies will guarantee
the payment of the interest on reasonable security. This fact will in itself be some
guaranty that the capitalizing of the pensions will serve to maintain only those owners
in possession of their estates who are capable of managing them efficiently in the
future. It would be wrong to exercise any compulsion on the local cooperative
societies that they should guarantee the payment of interest.
9. In cases where the life insurance policy method is not feasible to the landowner
owing to his age, the policy may be made out in favor of his wife or one of his sons
concurrently with the transference to them of the property.
10. The various governments must be asked to exempt from dues and stamp taxes
all transactions connected with the settlement of accounts by a State supported
settlers’ bank.
11. The following bodies may be applied to for furnishing mortgage guaranties to be
secured in the way mentioned above:
( a ) The life insurance companies.
( b ) The other corporate bodies, such as fire insurance companies, provincial banks,
etc.
(c) The imperial insurance office for salaried employees.
( d ) The public savings banks.
(e) As regards the small proprietors belonging to the working class, the State and
provincial invalidity insurance institutes.
12. In the same way the widows of soldiers should be settled on the land, if they and
their families possess the required qualifications. The pension capitalization law
applies to them equally with the disabled soldiers.


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EMPLOYMENT OF SEVERELY INJURED AND BLIND MEN ON MACHINE TOOLS.

In discussing this question the Frankfurter Zeitung1 gives the
following interesting particulars:
Engineer Peris, director of the Sicmens-Schuckert Works in
Berlin, has recently demonstrated that severely injured and blind
men can be employed in the manufacture of small electrical fittings,
with advantage both to the industry and to the worker himself.
As regards the severely injured, it has been made possible, for
instance, for men who have badly injured arms and hands to work
with the help of artificial arms, scar-protecting devices, turner’s
hand-rests, etc., as packers, smiths, and the like. Daily practice
soon enables them to turn out a relatively large amount of work. It
has naturally to be left to the technical staff or to the foreman to
decide upon the kind of work which shall be given to these men, so
that the best results may be obtained. This does not offer any great
difficulty, especially in large modern factories where thousands of
the same kind of articles are produced every day.
Attention is especially drawn to the fact that men who have lost
a hand, a forearm, or even the whole arm, are still able to work with
good results on the punch, stamping, and drilling machines. The
same is true of men who have lost partly or entirely the use of their
legs (ioss of feet, lower segment of the leg, paralysis, etc.).
The problem of the employment of blind men is, of course, more
complicated. Engineer Peris has discovered in the small fittings
manufacturing works many articles which can be made by such men
and for the making of which they may be allowed to work different
kinds of machines.
The best use of blind soldiers in the electrical industry can be made
by employing them in testing the exact dimensions of various articles.
Articles of bulk production are supplied in large quantities to them.
They pick them up one after another, fit them into a contrivance
which has the exact dimensions of the articles to be tested, and accord­
ing to the result of their examination place, say to the right, those
which are of the required size, and to the left, those which are to be
rejected. Other employments which do not require the use of
machines are the packing of cartridge fuses in cardboard boxes, the
examination of the contacts with the aid of a bell, etc.
For a long time past blind men have been fixing the bolts in fuse
fittings with the aid of special machines. These contrivances can
be erected in a very simple manner in any shop. As an example, the
three screws of certain screw-contact pieces are fixed by blind men
with the help of screw drivers projecting through the bench, and
having its driving mechanism fixed under the same. The blind men,
* Frankfurter Zeitung.


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by feeling, put a screw on the top of each screw driver, place the part
into which they have to be screwed over them and switch on the
motor which drives the screw drivers. In the same way, with the
help of a very simple device, working also through the bench, blind
men are able to enlarge small coupling tubes.
The results obtained with blind men working on large machines
are still more noteworthy. It has been proved that such men are
able, after a very short time, to turn to exact dimensions, on a hori­
zontal thread-cutting machine, small parts used in the production of
bulk articles. The principal work to be given to blind men working
drilling machines is to enlarge coupling tubes to a certain depth.
This work is comparatively simple and does not necessitate any com­
plicated special arrangement on the machines. It is, of course,
absolutely necessary to take into account the fact that the work is
to be performed by men who are deprived of their eyesight, and for
this reason to take the necessary precautions so that the men can
work on the machines without danger to themselves. In the work
mentioned above the blind man is enabled to enlarge coupling tubes
to the prescribed depth with the aid of a striker, which is fixed in such
a manner on the machine that any pressing down of the lever further
than is necessary is made impossible. By loosening the jaws which
hold the coupling tube the finished article usually drops into a land
of funnel, and from there into a box. The system can be applied to
horizontal as well as to perpendicular working machines. Drilling
holes is done by putting the piece of metal in which the holes have to
be drilled into special jigs, holding the piece to be drilled with the
left hand and lowering the lever directing the drill with the right
hand, till this action is automatically stopped by a striker.
If the necessary measures against accidents are taken, blind men
are able to work, with the necessary degree of safety, on punching
and stamping machines. In the punching process the pieces to be
worked can only be introduced into the machine through one open­
ing. With the help of stamping machines, for instance, blind men
take a piece of flat iron sheet shaped like a Maltese cross and bend up
the four projections so that the sheet forms a box. The machines
are so arranged that they will perform work only if both hands are
holding the switches. In the case of workmen who have lost either
the right or the left arm this difficulty is overcome by the use of an
artificial arm, or an arrangement is provided which sets the machine
going by the use of one switch instead of two. The mechanically
driven stamping machines used in the manufacture of bulk articles
can also be worked by a movement of the foot. In such case it is
necessary to protect the place where the machine is erected and where
the stamping is done in such a manner that no accident can happen
to the blind man’s fingers, etc.

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The above-mentioned kinds of work can be performed by blind
people in a sitting position, and this position is preferable. It has
been noticed, however, that some prefer to stand, as is the case with
a blind man whose occupation consists in the turning of fuse pieces.
He turns the fuse pieces in the ordinary manner, and then takes a
file, with which he takes off the seam. This file, however, is provided
with an extraordinarily simple device which facilitates its handling.
The motor in this case is switched on with the help of the foot. The
blind man is thus able to use his capacity for work to the fullest
extent.
These and similar kinds of work for severely injured or even blind
men deserve special consideration only because they are profitable
not only to the men but also to the establishment that employs them.
The Siemens-Schuckert Works pay a minimum wage of 35 pfennigs
(8.3 cents) per hour to these men, regardless of their physical condi­
tion. This wage is paid with a view of encouraging apprentices to
overcome the difficulties which they will undoubtedly encounter at
the beginning. The management of the Siemens-Schuckert Works,
as well as that of the Accumulator Works in Oberspree, both agree,
however, upon the fact that the small losses incurred by the works
during the period of apprenticeship of the injured soldiers are very
soon recovered by the capacity for work of these men. The result is
that the blind men employed in the small fittings workshops, for
instance, very soon ask to be allowed to work on contract, which gives
them after a short time a wage of 55 pfennigs (13.1 cents) an hour.
At the same time the works have to incur some extra expenditure.
The customary bringing up of material and taking it away is dis­
pensed with. This, as a matter of fact, is not a drawback. It has
already been urged by Taylor that in large modern factories all piece­
workers should be provided wuth ample quantities of material within
reach of their hands, and that the continual supply of material by
assistants ought to be dispensed with. On the other hand, assistants
are needed for oiling the machines and fitting the tools on them.
V O C A T IO N A L G U ID A N C E O N P SY C H O L O G IC A L P R IN C IP L E S .

The well-known German weekly for social reform, the Soziale
Praxis, publishes in its issue of August 30, 1917, a summary by Dr.
Otto Iipmann of the main points contained in a pamphlet recently
written by him under the title, “ Vocational guidance on a psycho­
logical basis: Its aims, principles, and methods.” 1 A translation of
the article follows:
The study of the psychological suitability of the individual for a
particular vocation and the vocational guidance based on it has been
1 “ Psychologische Berufsberatung: Ziele, Grundlagen und M ethoden/' by Dr. Otto Lipmann. (Flug­
schriften der Zentralstelle für Volkswohlfahrt, No. 12.) Berlin, 1917.


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going on in America for about a decade. Information concerning
them reached Germany in connection with the efforts of Taylor and
his school and stimulated German inquiry in this direction. While,
however, the object of the “ Taylor system” is to carry on working
processes as economically as possible, the human material being
taken for granted, the study of vocational suitability endeavors to
take account as far as it can of the peculiarities both of the intending
worker and of the vocation to be taken up before a choice is actually
made. A great stimulus has been given to this study by the War, and
the problems connected with it are engaging the attention of both
employers and employed in increasing measure.
The problems dealt with by vocational guidance on a psychological
basis crystallize round three interconnected questions: (1) The
psychological characteristics of each vocation, (2) the selection of
vocations for certain individuals, and (3) the selection of individuals
for certain vocations.
Of descriptions of the psychological characteristics of single vocations already existing those of spinners and weavers by Bernays and
of compositors by Hintze deserve first mention; they have been pub­
lished by the Verein für Sozialpolitik under the title “ Selection and
adaptation of workers in the self-contained great industries ” {A u sle se
u n d A n p a s s u n g der A rb e ite r s c h a ft der geschlossenen G ro ssin d u strie ).
In his book “ Psychology and economic life” {P sychologie u n d ’W irt­
sc h a ftsle b e n ) Münsterberg has analyzed the vocational activities of
the compositor, street car motorman, and the telephone operator,
while Piorkowski has analyzed those of the compositor, motorman,
shipping clerk, and the bookseller’s clerk in “ Psychological method­
ology of vocational aptitude” {B eiträge z u r psych o lo g isch en M ethod­
ologie der w irtsc h a ftlic h e n B e r u fs e ig n u n g ) .

In attempting a more comprehensive analysis of as complete a list
of vocations as possible one may proceed by selecting a number of
easily definable psychological characteristics and then inquiring for
what vocations they possess special importance. Thus Piorkowski
distinguished among the “ specialized” vocations those which require
special attention and those which require reactions of special kinds,
among the latter being all traffic occupations (street car and loco­
motive driving, aeroplane piloting, etc.). The specific quality
demanded for the higher «vocations is taken by Piorkowski to be the
faculty of combination. Weigl, in discussing certain psychological
qualities, such as apperceptive vision, liability to inattention, range
of apperception, liability to suggestion, etc., has grouped together the
vocations which appear to be specially dependent for their proper
exercise on the presence or absence of each of these qualities; e. g.,
nonliability to inattention is important for typists, telephone opera­
tors, locomotive engineers, teachers, etc.

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133

It is easy to see, however, that no complete psychological character­
ization of vocations can be reached by this method. Even if we invite
those who are acquainted with the processes in question to character­
ize them from a psychological point of view as accurately as possible—
as Freund of Leipzig suggests—we shall only get results worth having
if we submit to the employers, workmen, foremen, teachers, etc., con­
cerned a sufficiently comprehensive list of exactly formulated ques­
tions which can be answered by a simple “ yes” or “ no.” A pre­
liminary list of 105 such questions has been published by Dr. Lipmann
and used as the basis of analyses of bookbinders’, goldsmiths’, and
silversmiths’ work, and of various forms of teachers’ work. As an
example of the kind of questions asked may be cited the questions
which, according to Munsterberg, require an affirmative answer in the
case of the telephone operator: “ Does the exercise of this vocation
require the ability to hear slight sounds, to recognize them quickly
and distinguish them from others; to understand and interpret in­
distinct utterance correctly; to reproduce accurately after a short
interval what has been once heard; to execute with certainty and
gauge with accuracy movements of the arm of prescribed extent
(aiming); to follow up different impressions by different prescribed
movements correctly as required; to observe simultaneously several
objects of the same sensory group throughout a prolonged period of
time ?”
A selection of suitable vocations for a certain individual is indicated
in cases where an applicant comes to a vocational guidance bureau
without any special wishes of his own and simply puts the question:
“ What work am I to take up ?” If the advising official in answering
this question wishes to take into consideration not merely the conomic
situation and the physical qualities, but also the psychological char­
acteristics of his client, there are three methods of procedure open to
him: (1) He may make the applicant characterize himself by sub­
mitting to him a series of questions; (2) he may avail himself of the
result of characterizations of the applicant by others; (3) he may
himself submit the applicant to an experimental examination. The
first method, which has been advocated by Parsons and others,
appears to be in use in the Vocation Bureau of Boston, but does not
seem to offer much prospect of useful results, especially in the case
of juveniles. The last-named method has been employed by Weigl
in Munich, but it is, of course, bound to be confined to a few character­
istics and must therefore necessarily be supplemented by the second
method. If the latter is properly carried out by competent observers
who have studied the applicant throughly, it would seem to be the
most promising, and as such should take precedence of the method of
experimental examination as the principal method to be relied upon.


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MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

The persons who would appear prima facie to be best qualified to
characterize any applicant are the teachers who have given him in­
struction at school; but, of course, they must be trained in psycho­
logical observation, and they must be directed to pay special attention
to the qualities which are decisive factors in estimating aptitude for
various vocations. Lists of such questions in the form of vocational
psychological schedules have been lately published by Weigl in
Munich, and by Hylla in Oberschoneweide (Berlin). If observational
questionnaires of this description can be generally introduced in schools
and the teachers instructed to fill them in with due care, the giving of
vocational guidance on a psychological basis would be greatly facili­
tated, for it would then be possible for the advising official to recognize
at once which vocational groups are likely to be suitable for the appli­
cant and which he should be warned to avoid. Otherwise the ques­
tion: “ For what work am I suitable ?” will only admit of a satis­
factory answer in the exceptional case of conspicuous ability in one
direction.
It is, of course, obvious that the choice of a vocation is often deter­
mined by other motives, e. g., economic, and interested motives, as
well, and that in such case the applicant will put a much more definite
question, such as “ Can I become a printer?” This will always be
the case when the application is made to the apprenticeship bureau
of a particular employers’ association, or even to some particular
establishment. The task of the respective officials in this case is to
select suitable persons for a particular vocation and conversely to keep
unsuitable persons out of it. Here, again, more exact methods of
determining suitability or nonsuitability may be employed, and these
have already been systematized in certain cases. Thus Duck (Inns­
bruck) has dealt with the examination of electrical engineers, Munsterberg with that of motormen and telephone operators, Piorkowski and
Moede with that of compositors, Stern with that of motormen, and
Lewin, in cooperation with the author of the pamphlet under review,
with that of compositors. In connection with this last-named
examination, undertaken at the instance of^the Berlin Master Printers’
Association, the following facts were determined: (1) The number of
errors and the amount of assistance required in reading an indis­
tinct and incomplete text; (2) the number of errors in spelling long
words; (3) the number of apperceptive acts in copying text; (4)
the rate of speed in reading aloud, spelling, and copying; (5) the
degree of skill acquired in typewriting after short practice—this last
is a. standard for measuring ability in the case of linotype compositors.
The author concludes his article by a sketch of the present state
of the organization of research into the subject of vocational psychol­
ogy in Germany. The first place, he says, is probably due to the

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MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

135

committee for vocational advice appointed by the National Welfare
Center (Z entralstelle fü r V oTksw ohlfahrt ) in Berlin, which has beer!
responsible for the greater part of the essays quoted above. Nexl
come the working associations founded by Stern in Hamburg and
by Weigl in Munich, the work of Diick in Innsbruck, and the inquiries
conducted at the instance of the military authorities by Moede and
Piorkowski in Berlin. Stern also does a great deal of instructional
work, and Weigl conducts elementary courses of psychology foi
advisory officials. These energetic efforts, adds Lipmann, are the
more interesting in view of the fact that the difficulties are particu­
larly great at the present moment; no employer is in a position to
pick and choose his labor according to suitability, but he takes what­
ever he can get. On the other hand, it is our obvious duty to pre­
pare for the changes which will be involved by the transition from
war to peace, and for this reason it is imperative that research should
continue to develop even during the war. For such development,
however, research should be systematically coordinated and cen­
tralized and the active cooperation both of employers and em­
ployed is desirable. Pecuniary assistance Tor such research may
possibly be obtained from employers in the war industries. At any
rate, all money spent on this object will bear fruit a thousandfold to
the national welfare.


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[863]


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PRICES AND COST OF LIVING.
R E T A IL P R IC E S O F F O O D I N T H E U N IT E D S T A T E S .

According to reports received from retail dealers by the Bureau of
Labor Statistics, the price of food as a whole shows an increase of 1
per cent during the month from January 15 to February 15, 1918.
Of the 16 articles for which relative prices are shown, 3 decreased
in price, 5 remained the same, and 8 increased in price. Eggs de­
clined 9 per cent, pork chops 2 per cent, and bacon 1 per cent. Milk,
bread, flour, corn meal, and potatoes are the articles that show no
price change. Sugar shows the greatest increase, being 12 per cent
higher on February 15 than on January 15. Hens increased 10 per
cent, round steak 3 per cent, sirloin steak, chuck roast, and butter 2
per cent each, and ham 1 per cent The increase in the price of lard
was less than 1 per cent.
The following table shows the course of prices in the United States
in January and February, 1918:
AVERAGE M ONEY RETAIL PRICES, AND R ELATIVE RETAIL PRICES OE FOOD ON JAN.
15, 1918, AND FEB. 15, 1918.
[The relative price shows the per cent that the average price on the 15th oi each month was of the average
price for the year 1913.]
Average money price.
Article.

Unit.

Sirloin steak........................................................
Round steak....... ...............................................
Rib roast.............................................................
Chuck roast........................................................
Plate beef............................................................
Pork chops..........................................................
Bacon..."............................................................
H am .....................................................................
Lard.....................................................................
Hens.....................................................................
Salmon, canned.................................................
Eggs.....................................................................
Butter..................................................................
Cheese..................................................................
Milk......................................................................
Bread...................................................................
Flour....................................................................
Corn meal...........................................................
Rice......................................................................
Potatoes...............................................................
Onions............
Beans, navy
Prunes................. _.............................................
Raisins, seeded..................................................
Su gar..................................................................
Coffee. . .
Tea........................................................................
All articles combined.......................................

Pound___
. ..d o ..........
. ..d o ..........
.. .d o ..........
. ..d o ..........
.. .d o ..........
. ..d o ..........
. ..d o ..........
. ..d o ..........
.. .d o ..........
__do...........
Dozen.......
Pound___
.. .d o ..........
Quart........
16-oz. loaf1.
Pound___
.. .d o ..........
.. .d o ..........
.. .d o ..........
. ..d o ..........
__d o ...........
.. .d o ..........
. ..d o ..........
.. .d o ..........
__do...........
. ..d o ...........

Jan. 15,
1918.
$0.327
.306
.258
.221
.172
.343
.486
.436
.329
.329
.292
.674
.567
.345
.134
.083
.066
.070
.117
.032
.050
.185
.164
.150
.095
.304
.623

Feb. 15,
1918.
$0.334
.314
.263
.227
.177
.336
.484
.438
.330
.362
.291
.611
.579
.349
.134
.083
.066
.070
.118
.032
.049
.181
.165
.150
.106
.304
.609

Relative price.
Jan. 15,
1918.

Feb. 15,
1918

129
137
130

131
141
133

163
180
162
208
154

160
179
163
209
170

195
148

177
151

151
166
200
233

151
166
200
233

188

188

173

193

160

161

'16 ounces, weight of dough.

In the year from February 15, 1917 to February 15, 1918, the price
of food as a whole in the United States advanced 21 per cent. The

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138

MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

only article that was lower in price in February, 1918, than in Feb­
ruary, 1917, was potatoes. This article shows a decrease of 35 per
cent. During the year corn meal increased 71 per cent; bacon, 57
per cent; and lard, 51 per cent. Other articles showing an increase of
more than 25 per cent are: Ham, 38 per cent; hens and milk, 35 per
cent each; sugar, 30 per cent; and pork chops, 28 per cent. All the
other articles increased in price from 17 per cent, as in the case of
sirloin steak, rib roast, bread, and flour, to 24 per cent in the case of
butter.
From February, 1913, to February, 1918, food as a whole shows
an increase of 66 per cent. Every article shows an increase in price
of 40 per cent or more. Corn meal increased 138 per cent; lard, 113
per cent; potatoes, 109 per cent; and flour, 100 per cent. Nine
articles—milk, round steak, bread, ham, hens, pork chops, bacon,
sugar, and eggs—show increases ranging from 51 per cent for milk
to 95 per cent for eggs. The least price changes are shown by sirloin
steak, rib roast, and butter. Each of these increased 40 per cent.
The table which follows gives the average and relative retail prices
in February of each year from 1913 to 1918:
AVERAGE MONEY PRICES AND R ELA TIV E R ETA IL PRICES OF FOOD ON FEB. 15 OF
EACH Y E A R , 1913 TO 1918, INCLUSIVE.
[The relative price shows the per cent that the average price on the 15th of each month was of the average.
price for the year 1913.]

Average money price, Feb. 15—
Article.

1913
Sirloin steak___. . .
Round steak..........
Rib roast.................
Chuck roast............
Plate beef................
Pork chops.............
B acon......................
H am .........................
Lard.........................
H ens........................
Salmon, canned.. .
E ggs.........................
B utter......................
Cheese......................
Milk..........................
Bread.......................
Flour........................
Corn meal_______
Rice..........................
Potatoes..................
Onions.....................
Beans, navy...........
Prunes.....................
Raisins, seeded___
Sugar........................
CoSee.......................
Tea........................... .
All articles c o m ­
b in e d ....................

Relative price, Feb. 15—

Unit.
1914

1915

1916

1917

1918

L b .... $0. 240 $0.254 10. 248 $0.257 $0. 287 8.334
L b .... .200 .228 .223
.228
.314
.260
L b .... .189
.199
.197
.201
.225
.263
L b ....
.169 .102 .162 .186
.227
L b ....
.124
.122
.141
.123
.177
L b .... .188
.209
.193
.261
.336
.179
L b .... .255
.264
.207
.273
.484
.307
L b .... .253
.297
.318
.438
.265 .259
L b .... .154
.219
.158
.152 .177
.330
L b .... .208
.222
.208
.222
.267
.362
L b ....
. 198 .200
.291
.216
Doz... .315
.349
.364 .338
.506
.611
L b .... .414
.378 .378 .469
.579
.359
L b ....
.235 .248
.315
.349
Q t---- .089 . Ó9Ì .089
.089 .100
.134
1G oz.i. .050
.055 .003
.062 .071
.083
L b .... .033
.032 .045
.041
.056
.066
L b .... .030
.041
.031
.033
.033
.070
L b ....
.091
.091
.091
. 118
L b .... .ÓÌG . ÓÌ9 .015 .025
.051
.032
L b ....
.034
.044
.122
.049
L b ....
.076 .092 .149
.181
L b ....
.141
.137
.133
L b ....
.125
. 126 .141
.150
L b .... .055
.051
.064
.068
.081
.106
L b ....
.299
.299
.299
.304
L b ....
.546
.546 .546
.609

1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1913
94
93
95

99
102
101

98 101 113
100 102 117
100 102 114

90
95
94
98
97

100
98
99
99
104

99
96
97
97

101
110
112
104

92

125
114
118
138
126

1(50
179
163
209

91
108

106
93

98
98

ioi
99

147
122

177

100
100
100

102
110

98

99
103

100
126
138
110

100
124
125
108

112 151
142 1(58
171 200
130 233

90

108

84

141

290

183

100

94

118

125

148

193

97

101

101

100

133

161

85

131

141
133

170

151

1 Loaf; 16 ounces, weight of dough.

The two tables which follow give average retail prices for 29 articles
in 44 cities.

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MONTHLY REVIEW OE THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

139

For 15 of the larger cities, average prices are shown in the following
table for January, 1918, and for February, 1913, 1914, 1917, and 1918.
No prices are givenn for Atlanta, Ga., as less than 80 per cent of the
grocers and butchers of that city sent in their reports for February,
1918, to the bureau.
AVERAGE RETAIL PRICES OF T H E PRINCIPAL ARTICLES OF FOOD FOR 15 SELECTED
CITIES ON FE B . 15, 1913, 1914, 1917, A N D 1918, AN D JAN. 15, 1918.
[The average prices shown below are computed from reports sent monthly to the bureau by retail dealers.
As some dealers occasionally fail to report, the number of quotations varies from month to month.)
Atlanta,

Unit.

Article.

Feb. 15—
1913

Pound___
.. .d o .........
.. .d o .........
.. .d o .........
__do..........
. . .d o.........
Pork oh ops.
Baoon slioftd.__ .. .do.........

Sirloin steak.........
Round Qt.Aftlr___
R ib roast..............
Chock roast. . . . . .

E g g s , s t r i c t l y fr e sh
P g g g g to r a g p
B u t t e r ___ 7 . .............

M ilk ....................
Bread...................
Flour....................
C o r n meal............
TRipft
P o t a t o e s ...............
O n io n s

Peans

navy

.

P runes
R a is in s .
Sugar
C o ffe e
T 'e a

.......................

1917

G)

(i)

G)

G)
0)

6)

G)

0)

(i)
(!)
(1)

( ')
(i)

(i)
(i)

(1)

G)
G)
G)
G)
G
G)

Baltimore, Md.

Jan.
15,
1918.
G)
G)
G)
G)

( i)

(l )

(9
( i)

e)

(i)
(1)

e)
e)

G)

( i)

D o z e n .........
. d o ____

G)
C)

G)
G)
G)

G)
G)
G)

G)
G)

h\

m
m
0
0)
(1)

.d
.d
.d
.d
.d

o
o
o
o
o

P o u n d ___

. . . do.........
Quart.......
16-oz. loaf2.
Pound__
.. .do.........
__do..........
. . .d o.........
.. .d o . . . .
. .d o .. .*.
__do..........
.. .do.........
__do..........
. . .do.........
. . .do.........

1

M

(1)
(1

M
G)

(l )
G)
( i)

(1)
( 1)

( l)
( i)

(1)
(1)
G)
( i)
e)

(!)

0
m

(1)

0)

(1)

G)

1

G)

(1)
(1)

•

G
G)
G)

G

Feb.
15,
1918.
G)
G)
(D
G)

G)
G)
G)
G)
G)

.............
.............
.............
.............
___

s l i o e d ............. . .
H a r d .......................... . .
..
T yftm h
. .
H en$ ..

H am

1914

Ga.

0
(1)
G)
G)

G)

G)

G

G)

G)

G)

m

G)
G

0

0
0

G)
G)
(i

0)
G)

G)
G)
(D
G)
G)

G)
G)

(1)

G)

G)
( i)

G)

■G)

G)

G)

G)

Boston, Mass.

G)
G)
G)
G)
1
G
G)

Feb. 15—
1913

1914

1917

Jan.
15,
1918.

$0,207 $0.234 $0.274 $0.327
.222 .260 .315
.190
.180
.218 .267
.173
.147
.152
.180
.231
.133
.150
.183
. Ì 73 .188
.252 .348
.230
.268
.213
.450
.300 .290 .350 .491
.210 .332
.135 .145
.180 .180 .270 .327
.198
.228 .280 .351
.173
.262
.271
.352 .497
.741
.230
.320
.423
.377
.493
.591
.325 .355
.088 .087 .092
.130
.049 .066
.048
.075
.050
.032 .032
.066
.024 .025 .034
.061
.098
,115
.053
.036
• ÓÌ7 .018
.125 .051
.186
.147
.127
.166
.130
.153
.050
.047
.075
.094
.235
.277
.550 .653

1 Prices not shown; less than 80 per cent of reports for February, 1918, received by bureau.
* 1G ounces, weight of dough.


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334
.329
.255
.237
.186
.344
.449
.479
.326
.332
.403
.261
.655
.490
.604
.357
.130
.077
.067
.060
.115
.036
.049
.182
.166
.151
.090
.282
.644

$0 .

Buffalo, N. Y.

Birloin steak........ Pound__ $0.345 10.329 $0. 408 $0.426 $0,424 $0,203 $0.215 $0,263 $0,314
.192
.183
.235 .292
.385 .427
.430
Round steak........ .. .do......... .324 .341
.168 .200
.278 .303
.170
.250
.303
Rib roast.............. .. .d o ......... .234 .240
.178
.254
.147
.155
.223
.230
.253
.178
Chuck roast......... . . .d o......... .170
. 148 .175
.118
__do___
Plate beef
.205
.288 .354
.350
.345 .193
.226 .278
Pork chops.......... .. .d o......... .206
.260 .443
.207
.459
.460 .203
.250
.300
Bacon, sliced....... .. .d o......... .246
.250
.343
.451
.358
.465
.460 .240
.314
Ham, sliced......... .. .do........* .283
.142 .200 .319
.335
.139
.334
.156 .223
L ard..................... .. .do......... .153
.164 .240
.291
.175
.334
.3 3 3
Lam b................... .. .d o....... .. .218 .217 .291
.2 0 0
.224 .275
.328
.380
.244
.349
.. .d o......... .228
.297
H ens__
.178
.286
.302
.308
Salmon eanned. _ .d o .........
.206
.310
.356 .550
.718
.748
.603
.791
.453
Eggs.strictly fresh D o z e n ......... .375
.526
.222 .305
.467
.541
.590
.470
Eggs, storage....... . . .d o .......... .252 .358
.412
.457
.339
.454
.544 .560
.570
.367
Butter.................. Pound___ .389
.300
.336
.294
.332
.336
. .do.........
Cheese
.100
.080 .080
.140
.145
.145
.089
.105
Milk...................... Quart....... .089
.073
.046
.076
.050
.083
.078
.053
.068
Bread..................... 16-oz. loaf2. .052
.029
.030
.053
.062
.074
.061
.073
.037
Flour.................... Pound___ .037
.025
.026
.039
.077
.047
.077
.079
.036
Corn m eal.............. ...d o ......... .035
.093
. 122
.119
.120
. do.........
.097
.017
.053
.031
.021
.038 .014
. 053 .037
Potatoes................. .. .do......... .017
.054
.129
Onions
.do.........
.120
.057 .054
. 142 .193
. 152 . 188 . 186
.132
.169
.170
.147
.267
Primes ..
.do.........
.122
.140
.142
.148
.150
R aisins.
.d o.........
.050
.097
.098 .053
.078
.079
.099
.051
Sugar...................... .. .d o......... .054
.285
.300
.341
.346
.346
Coffee ..
.d o __. ..
.475
.555
.631
.600 .617
Tea ....................... .. . d o .............

[867]

Feb.
15,
1918.

$ 0 .3 2 1

.299
.253
.230
.179
.321
.438
.448
.318
.294
.360
.286
.690
.573
.585
.342
.140
.078
.063
.075
.121
.031
.053
.186
.172
.141
.097
.306
.567

140

MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

A V ERAGE R E TA IL PRICES OF T H E PRIN C IPA L ARTICLES OF FOOD FOR 15 SELFC TFD
CITIES ON FE B . 15, 1913, 1914, 1917, A N D 1918, AND JAN. 15, 1 9 1 8 -c L in u e d

Chicago, 111.
Article.

Unit.

Feb. 15—
1917

Sirloin steak.
Round steak.
Rib roast___
Chuck roast.
Plate b e e f.. .
Pork chops..
Bacon, sliced
Ham, sliced.
Lard..............
Lam b............
H ens.............
Salmon, canned
Eggs, strictly fresh
Eggs, storage........
Butter...........
Cheese...........
Milk...............
Bread............
Flour.............
Corn m eal. . .
Rice...............
Potatoes........
Onions..........
Beans, navy.
Prunes..........
Raisins..........
Sugar.............
Coffee............
Tea.................

Jan.
15,
1918.

Cleveiand, Ohio.

Feb.
15,
1918.

1913 , 1914

1917

Jan.
15,
1918.

P o u n d ... $0.209 $0,241 $0.273 $0.302 $0.304 $0.223 $0.249 $0.282
$0.302
...d o ........
186
211
.236
.273
.272
.188
.223
.252
.288
...d o ........
181
193
.228
.254
.251
.180
.200
.223
.244
...d o ........
139
156
.176
.212
.214
.147
.170
.197
.224
...d o ........
118
.137
.164
.166
.123
.142
.168
...d o ........
187
. 250
.316
.301
.183
.214
.285
.331
...d o ........
303
.336
. 498
.499
.243
.276
.319
.470
...d o ........
310
.354
.428
.448
.320
.335
.365
.456
...d o ........
150
.206
.318
.317
.158
.164
.227
.316
...d o ........
197
.252
.306
.306
.187
.187
.286
.301
. ..d o ........
194
.264
.304
.352
.306
.226
.299
.338
...d o ........
.243
.303
.303
1Q7
Dozen___
.503
.651
.593
.318
.362
Ì581
.725
...d o ........
.440
.534
.530
524
Pound. . .
329
.466
.544
.547
.436
.362
.518
.571
...d o ........
.329
.375
.377
313
Quart___
.090
.119
.119
.088
.o s o
.100
.130
16-oz.loaf
.073
.080
.084
.049
.050
.070
.079
P o u n d .. .
.051
.061
.063
.032
.032
.061
.068
.. .do.........
.041
.070
.069
.028
.029
.041
.072
.. .do.........
.094
.120
.121
092
119
012
.. .do.........
017
.050
.028
.014
.029
.ÓÌ9
.055
! o30
.do.
.129
.045
.046
138
.do.
.153
.185
.185
.152
131
.do.
.140
.162
.165
. 140
171
.do.
.150
.150
.151
14A
.139
050
.do.
.074
.084
.087
.055
.052
.081
!096
.do..
.300
.283
.282
.288
.do..
.550
.593
.591
.475
.599
Denver, Colo.

Sirloin steak..........
Round steak.........
Rib roast...............
Chuck roast..........
Plate beef..............
Pork chops............
Bacon, sliced........
Ham, sliced..........
Lard.......................
Lam b.....................
H ens.......................
Salmon, canned. .
Eggs,strictly fresh
Eggs, storage........
Butter....................
Cheese.....................
Milk........................
Bread.....................
Flour......................
Corn m ea l.............
Rico.........................
Potatoes.................
Onions....................
Beans, n avy..........
Prunes...................
Raisins...................
Sugar......................
Coffee.....................
Tea..........................

Feb. 15-

Pound___ $0.225
184
...d o ...........
159
...d o ...........
145
.. .do...........
...d o ...........
...d o ...........
.. .do...........
...d o __
...d o ....
...d o __
...d o __
...d o ___
Dozen..
...d o __
Pound___
...d o ...........
Quart........
16-oz.loaf1
Pound___
...d o __
.do.
.do.
.do.
.do.
.do.
.do.
.do.
.do..
.do..


https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

011

015

.235 $0.292
.213
.276
.191
.225
.104
.203
.105
.148
.236
.333
.317
.518
.333
.467
.221
.342
.218
.289
.225
.305
.194
.276
.438
.612
.400
.509
.388
.543
.325
.358
.083
.115
.075
.086
.046
.054
.032
.059
.092
.115
.052
.022
.106
.047
.138
.177
.138
.166
.131
.147
.079
.089
.288
.300
.488
.575

$0.316
.299
.252
.236
.177
.326
.477
.455
322
.311
.373
.702
593

! 578
.130
.078
.068
.069
.031
048
177
172
14ft
!o94
291
!sk>

Detroit, Mich.
.303 $0.228 $0.256 $0.260 $0.318
.282
.182
.210
.228
.285
.236« .182
.202
.228
.251
.209
.145
.154
.174
.210
.151
. 117
.130
.167
.325
.168
.184
.242
.333
.483
.224
.233
.270
.458
.475
.240
.280
.233
.423
.341
.159
.161
.208
.329
.292
.167
.166
.226
.313
.338
.200
.216
.270
.342
.279
28ft
. 195
.600
.312
.374
.543
.726
.483
.248
.320
.528
.560
.349
.404
.468
.556
.361
.305
.115
.088
.089
.110
.140
.087
.073
.050
.050
.077
.054
.032
.031
.055
.062
.056
.044
.027
.028
.077
.116
.086
.118
.022
.013
.016
.054
.029
.044
.121
0S3
.174
179
.150
.171
lfi8
. 129
138
.153
.128
.090
.051
.050
.079
.087
.300
.275
.298
.575
.450
.544

116 ounces, weight of dough.

[868]

Feb.
15,
1918.

$0.321
.298
.259
.224
.177
.331
.457
.426
.336
.324
.375
274
.668
.550
.568
343
.140
.075
.065
.077
121
!029
182
171
141

^089
304
.573

MONTHLY REVIEW OE THE BUREAU OP LABOR STATISTICS.

141

A V ERAGE R E TA IL PRICES OF TH E PRINCIPAL ARTICLES OF FOOD FOR 15 SELECTED
CITIES ON FE B . 15, 1913, 1914, 1917, AND 1918, A N D JAN. 15, 1918—Continued.
New York, N. Y.

Milwaukee, Wis.
Article.

Feb. 15—

Unit.
1913

1914

1917

Jan.
15,
1918.

Feb.
15,
1918.

Feb. 15—
1913

1914

1917

Jan.
15.
1918.

Feb.
15,
1918.

Pound___ $0.205 10.236 10.254 10.298 JO.302 10.247 50.257 $0.298 $0.344 $0.347
.292
.284
.255
.231
.352
.356
.287
.236
.216
.. .do........... .185
.218
.247
.245
.211
.294
.295
.248
.205
.188
...d o ........... .173
.162
.225
.188
.236
.237
.227
.151
.164
.183
...d o ........... .150
.148
.160
.167
.221
.220
.171
.134
. do
.117
.218
.321
.276
.349
.306
.198
.348
.248
.178
...d o ........... .153
.250
.489
.288
.462
.479
.231
.459
.313
.274
...d o ........... .263
‘ .336
.451 ‘ .452 1.186 ‘ .193 1.239 ‘ .328
.324
.278
...d o ........... .268
.156
.157
.223
.330
.331
.319
.326
.157
.226
.. .do........... .151
.161
.165
.234
.281
.312
.323
.283
.267
.190
.. .do........... .195
.217
.304
.204
.273
.326
.365
.326
.258
.194
.. .do........... .188
.254
.355
.350
.278
.272
.227
do
.437
.380
.591
.808
.697
.630
.635
.493
.347
Dozen....... .290
.353
.450
.260
.536
.580
.445
.491
.539
. ..d o ........... .220
.363
.492
.544
.415
.574
.582
.551
.474
.332
Pound___ .402
.305
.344
.335
. 34:8
.345
do
.313
.090
.149
.090
.150
.110
.110
.109
.080
.070
Quart........ .070
.054
.072
.078
.077
.075
.075
.053
.051
.076
16-oz.loaf2. .050
.032
.071
.032
.057
.070
.062
.065
.030
.055
Pound___ .031
.034
.034
.051
.082
.080
.071
.075
.050
.033
...d o ........... .033
.121
.118
.117
.118
.091
.095
.025
.044
.025
.059
.043
.027
.029
.050
.016
.012
Potatoes................. .. .do...........
.052
.052
.047
.140
.048
.131
Onions
.185
.183
.190
.186
.150
.150
.168
.169
.158
.166
.139
.152
.134
.151
.149
.151
.148
.143
■
r ai qins
.045
.076
.097
.086
.086
.049
.091
.078
.053
Sugar .................... .. . d o ......... .054
.265
.267
.267
.268
.261
.283
Orvffpp
dn
.541
.460
.538
. 5S9
.540
.595

Sirloin steak..........
Round steak.........
Rib roast...............
Chuck roast..........
Plflf.P. iTP.P.f
....
Pork chops............
Bacon, sliced........
Ham, sliced..........
Lard.......................
Lam b.....................
H ens.......................
Palm on cn.nnpd
Eggs,strictly fresh
Eggs, storage........
Butter....................
fihppse
Milk .....................
Bread.....................
Flour......................
Corn m eal.............

Philadelphia, Pa.
Sirloin steak..........
Round steak.........
Rib roast...............
Chuck roast..........
Plato beef
........
Pork chops............
Bacon, sliced........
Ham, sliced..........
Lard.......................
Lam b.....................
H ens.......................
Salmon canned
F gas, strictly fresh
Eggs, s to r a g e .....
Butter....................
(T h e e , s p

Milk ...................
Bread...................
Flour ............................
Corn m eal...........
P 1CP.
Potatoes...............
■Rpans navy
Prunes
Paisins ______
Sugar ...........
Tea

Pittsburgh, Pa.

Pound___ $0.283 10.300 $0.339 $0.387 10.401 $0.248 $0.275 $0.307 SO.360 $0.377
.332
.232
.272
.360
.376
.214
.351
.307
.257
.. .do........... .234
.272
.213
.296
.206
.248
.290
.252
.303
.221
...d o ........... .214
.239
.170
.197
.258
.258
.156
.215
.253
.180
...d o ........... .165
.141
. 128
.175
.192
.192
.183
.143
.119
do
.356
.372
.200
.225
.288
.333
.363
.279
.219
...d o ........... .191
.505
.272
.291
.311
.501
.468
.470
.254
.306
. ..d o ........... .234
.294
.470
.478
.290
.359
.488
.488
.296
.375
...d o ........... .290
.334
.156
.332
.151
.219
.336
.334
.151
.214
.144
__do...........
.345
.347
.208
.298
.314
.324
.215
.194
.268
.186
__do...........
.388
.438
.272
.338
.371
.253
.338
.235
.287
.. .do........... .213
.305
.305
.217
.265
.266
.193
.747
.697
. 375
.548
.292
.741
.690
.560
.380
Dozen ___ .301
.539
.527
.330
.250
.529
.553
.425
.295
...d o ........... .240
.586
.591
.378
.431
.496
.624
.630
.545
.471
.399
P o u n d ...
.352
.355
.316
.374
.362
.d o
.326
.137
.138
.092
.103
.088
.130
.135
.090
.080
.080
Quart___
.082
.086
.048
.070
.048
.071
.062
.071
.043
16-oz.loaf2. .043
.069
.056
.070
.031
.031
.072
.071
.031
.057
.032
Pound__
.085
.088
.029
.045
.027
.071
.073
.040
.028
.028
. . .do.........
.12]
.119
.095
.130
.128
_. do
.097
.037
.033
.058
.019
.016
.039
.062
.039
.024
.021
. . .do.........
.051
.051
.134
. 052
.055
do
.149
. 19(
.197
.160
.187
.186
do
.146
.175
.172
.134
.165
.168
do
.143
.149
.146
.147
.140
.140
.. d o ____
.127
.091
.099
.054
.0S9
.092
.058
.096
.081
.045
__do.........
.049
.302
.299
.281
.278
.272
do
.285
.721
.727
.571
_ do
.576
.596
.544
i Whole.

46648°— 18------ 10

https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

* 16 ounces, weight of dough.

[ 869]

142

MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

A V ERAGE R E TA IL PRICES OF THE PRIN C IPA L ARTICLES OF FOOD FOR 15 SE­
LECTED CITIES ON FE B . 15, 1913, 1914, 1917, AND 1918, AN D JAN. 15, 1918-Ooncluded.
St. Louis, Mo.
Article.

Unit.

Feb. 1 5 1913

1917

Feb.
15,
1918.

1913

1914

1917

Jan.
15,
1918.

Pound___ $ 0.220 $0.240 $0.238
. ..d o ...........
200
.224
.209
...d o ...........
184
.194
.210
...d o ...........
150
. 151
.166
...d o __
.125
.128
, ..d o___
.240
.268
, ..d o...........
.321
.334
...d o ...........
.330
.300
...d o ...........
.162
.219
..d o ...........
.187
.254
..d o ...........
.247
.270
..d o ...........
.211
Dozen.......
.366
.407
..d o ...........
Pound___
.397
.468
...d o ...........
.278
Quart........
.100
.095
16-oz. loaf1
.051
.080
Pound___
.029
.047
...d o ...........
.033
.040
...d o ...........
.087
..d o...........
.038
009
.013
..d o ...........
.097
..d o ...........
.144
..d o ...........
.130
..d o ...........
.131
...do...........
061
.057
.079
..d o ...........
.326
..d o ...........
.500

00

Pounds. . . $0.228 $0.268 $0.275 $0.300 $0,300 $0.203 $0. 210 $0,234 $0.243
. . -do.......... .204
.242
.259
.296
.190
.197
.297
.227
.237
. . .d o .......... .176
.204
.257
.207
.219
.220
.261
.228
.235
.. .d o .......... .142
.157
.175
.215
.146
.213
.155
.162
.173
. . .d o ..........
.135
.173
.172
.171
.150
.156
.166
.. .d o .......... . i n
.186
.250
.303
.293
.230
.250
.361
.280
. . -do.......... .230
.250
.300
.500
.478
.328
.339
.375
.535
. . .d o .......... .267
.275
.316
.457
.300
.320
.458
.400
.489
. . -do.......... .132
.127
.193
.174
.286
.293
.176
.228
.336
.. .d o .......... .178
.262
.173
.306
.302
.172
.183
.243
.282
. . .d o .......... .174
.203
.240
.301
.347
.238
.248
.287
.375
.. .d o ..........
.288
. 191
.257
.285
. 196
Dozen....... .244
.482
.319
.684
.573
.250
.289
.390
.710
.. .d o .......... .200
.525
.495
.336
.488
P o u n d .. . . .404
.352
.481
.581
.407
.580
.433
.602
.. .d o ..........
.307
.352
.267
. 335
.365
Quart........ .080
.088
.095
.130
.130
.100
.100
.100
.121
16-oz loaf1. .049
.050
.0,88
.076
.088
.051
.052
.085
.063
Pound___ .030
.028
.051
.061
.061
.033
.034
.051
.062
. . .d o .......... .021
.026
.035
.059
.034
.062
.034
.044
.071
.. .d o ..........
.H I
. 112
119
.086
.088
.. .d o .......... .015
.018
.050
.030
.031. . 6 1 5
.047
.027
.. .d o ..........
123
033
. 132
.0-16
.044
.. .d o ..........
146
162
. 147
. 179
. 179
.. .d o ..........
124
142
. 138
.167
. 167
.. .d o ..........
135
138
. 149
. 169
.. .d o .......... . 051
.048
.076
.087
.087
.053
.052
075
!Ö86
. . .d o ..........
317
30Q
.237
.274
.274
. . .d o ..........
.543
.650
.652
.517
! 539
Seattle, Wash.

Sirloin steak
Round steak
R ib roast...
Chuck roast
Plate b e e f..
Pork chops.
Bacon, slice«
Ham, sliced
L ard............
L am b..........
H ens...........
Salmon, canned..
Eggs,strictly fresh
Eggs, storage........
B utter...
Cheese...
Milk........
Bread. . .
Flour___
Corn m eal.............
Rice.............
Potatoes___
Onions........ .
Beans, navy,
Prunes.........
Raisins.........
Sugar........... .
Coffee.......... .
Tea................

Feb. 1 5 -

o

Sirloin steak.
Round steak
Rife roast___
Chuck roast.
Plate b e e f...
Pork chops..
Bacon, sliced
Ham, sliced.
Lard........
Lam b___
H ens........
Salmon, canned
Eggs, strictly fresh
Eggs, storage —
B utter..................
Cheese...................
Milk......................
Bread...................
Flour....................
Corn m eal............
Rice............. .........
Potatoes...............
Onions.................
Beans, navy........
Prunes.................
Raisins.................
Sugar....................
Conce...................
Tea........................

1914

Jan.
15,
1918.

San Francisco, Cal.

Feb.
15,
1918.

$0.264
.258
.24$
.191
.182
.351
.538
.494
.334
.293
.418
254
.489
.383
.589
329
.121
.084
.062
.069
119
.023
a u

158
142
128
! o87

301
. 543

Washington, D . C.

.275 $0,300 $0,259 $0.275 $0.300 $0.370
. 256
.285
.218
.234
.282
.351
.228
.251
.200
.213
.248
.288
.195
.214
.150
.170
.204
.254
.182
.183
.162
.124
.195
.388
.388
.193
.210
.286
.381
. 534
.535
.233
.243
.292
.488
.464
.469
.282
.472
.286
.325
.327
.327
.144
.148
.214
.336
.315
.327
.210
.207
.296
.357
.341
.359
.213
.226
.290
.350
.285
.283
.180
.283
.595
.528
.263
.356
.538
.813
.475
.475
.584
.205
.587
.440
.588
.376
.600
.496
.306
.308
.310
.355
.126
.126
.090
.090
.100
.140
.087
.049
.087
.050
.076
.071
.059
.058
.037
.037
.056
.070
.073
.072
.025
.025
.032
.066
.108
.117
.096
.125
.019
.017
.015
.019
.053
.035
.04*
.042
.136
.051
.177
.168
.152
.200
.143
.146
.174
.150
.149
.147
.139
.152
.089
.091
.052
.048
.086
.096
.318
.312
.294
.296
.561
.584
.532
.639

$0. 380
.360
.296
.257
.202
.378
.485
.473
.336
.346
.391
.287
.671
.617
.605
.357
.140
.074
.069
.063
. 127
.036
.050
.196
. 175
. 156
.089
.293
.637

1 16 ounces, weight of dough.
A presentation of current retail prices in 29 smaller cities is given in the following table showing the
average prices for February 15,1918.


https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

[870]

MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

143

AVERAGE R ETA IL PRICES OF TH E PRINCIPAL ARTICLES OF FOOD FOR 29 CITIES ON
FE B . 15, 1918.
[The average prices shown below are computed from reports sent m onthly to the bureau by retail dealers.
As some dealers occasionally fail to report, the number of quotations varies from month to month.]
Average retail prices Feb. 15,1918.
Article.

Unit.

Cin­
Bir­
Charles­ cin­
ming­ Bridge­
ton,
port, Butte,
ham, Conn.
Mont. S.C.
nati,
Ala.
Ohio.
$0. 418 $0.310
.384
.278
.253
.316
.274
.209
.152
.170
.338
.356
.506
.572
.494
.501
.330
.339
.320
.319
.368
.383
.362
.355
.794
.694
.586
.500
.590
.536
.595
.347
.363
.350
.152
.145
.150
.089
.106
.083
.067
.070
.068
.055
.074
.085
.121
.126
.118
.041
.039
.019
.058
.058
.043
.188
.190
.165
.161
.171
.157
.158
.158
.147
.094
.100
.320
.326
.420
.762
.634
.759

Sirloin steak.............
Round stea k ............
Rib roast............. .
Chuck roast..............
Plate beef................
Pork chops...............
Bacon; sliced ...........
Ham, sliced ..............
Lard...........................
Lam b.........................
H ens..........................
Salmon, canned___
E ggs,strictly fresh..

L b .... $0,352
L b .... .316
L b .... .279
L b___ .225
L b .... .170
L b .... .339
L b .... .520
L b .... .440
L b .... .321
L b .... .350
L b .... .300
L b .... .267
D o z ... .522

B utter.......................
Cheese.....................
Milk............................
Bread........................
Flour..........................
Corn m eal.................
R ice............................
Potatoes....................
Onions.......................
Beans, navy.............
Prunes.......................
R aisins......................
Sugar..........................
Coffee............ ...........
T ea .............................

L b ....
L b ....
Q t ....
16 oz.1.
L b ....
L b ....
L b ....
L b ....
L b ....
L b ....
L b ....
L b ....
L b ....
L b ....
L b ....

.100

Co­
lum ­
bus,
Ohio.

Dal­
las,
T ex.

In­
Jack­
Fall dian­
son­
River, apolis,
Mass. fnd. ville,
Fla.

$0.308 $0.282 $0.322 $0,330 $0,425 $0.315
.291
.364
.298
.273
.316
.313
.244
.249
.272
.278
.239
.263
.226
.244
.210
.210
.216
.235
.177
.173
.181
.196
.171
.316
.284
.341
.325
.363
.337
.478
.507
.541
.476
.453
.445
.434
.445
.461
.457
.460
.437
.328
.338
.302
.339
.317
.310
.357
.277
.315
.367
.319
.283
.325
.363
.365
.302
.363
.333
.274
.275
.282
.261
.292
.240
.650
.614
.615
.497
.784
.598
.617
.539
.540
.445
.578
.503
.574
.569
.585
.551
.529
.568
.352
.368
.347
.384
.365
.331
.130
.155
.130
.158
.128
.107
.089
.077
.091
.081
.088
.078
.067
.076
.070
.074
.065
.065
.061
.060
.062
.069
.087
.065
.092
.118
.121
.123
.119
.120
.043
.037
.031
.032
.038
.031
.053
.052
.051
.057
.048
.051
.191
.181
.183
.159
.179
.178
.157
.160
.160
.172
.173
.163
.150
.150
.152
.152
.153
.173
.094
.094
.094
.091
.091
.282
.273
.300
.362
.324
.294
.636
.706
.780
.863
.535
.703

.100

$0.348
.306
.277
.213
.167
.353
.500
.438
.333
.321
.363
.285
.556
.599
.353
.180
.087
.071
.061
.106
.043
.058
.195
.176
.176
.098
.327
.768

Average retail prices Feb. 15, 1918.
Article.

Sirloin stea k ..............
Round stea k .............
Rib roast....................
Chuck roast...............
Plate beef...........
Pork chops................
Bacon, sliced.............
Ham, sliced...............
Lard............................
Lam b..........................
H ens....... ...................
Salmon, canned........
Eggs, strictly fresh..
Eggs, storage........... .
B utter....... ................
Cheese.........................
Milk............................
Bread..........................
Flour...........................
Corn m eal..................
R ice.............................
Potatoes............... .....
Onions........................
Beans, n a v y ..............
Prunes........................
R aisins.......................
Sugar..........................
Coffee..........................
T ea..............................

Unit.

Kansas' Little Los A n­ Louis­ Man­ Mem­ Minne­
City, Rock, geles,
ville, chester, phis, apolis,
Mo.
Ark.
N . H. Tenn. Minn.
Cal.
Ky.

New­
ark,
N . J.

New
Haven,
Conn.

L b .... $0,321 $0.313 $0.290 $0,303 $0.438 $0,302 $0.264 $0.356
L b ....
.296
.279
.254
.288
.398
.293
.255
.377
L b ....
.260
.269
.214
.233
.236
.243
.231
.302
L b ....
.202
.204
.200
.210
.204
.239
.197
.266
L b ....
.167
.197
.158
.149
.183
.210
.183
.195
L b ....
.344
.378
.310
.338
.320
.302
.356
.331
L b ....
.498
.506
.529
.500
.482
.442
.493
.453
L b ....
.488
.456
.519
.450
.416
.429
.436
.343
L b ....
.344
.341
.315
.342
.327
.340
.319
.333
L b ....
.314
.271
.317
.259
.323
.330
.306
.336
L b ....
.378
.378
.318
.367
.293
.329
.373
.315
L b ....
.292
.295
.250
.312
.326
.295
.331
.345
D o z ...
.567
.491
.608
.500
.585
.718
.586
.715
.498
.572
.500
.517
.480
.605
.493
L b ....
.597
.581
.534
.562
.579
.609
.575
.555
L b ....
.338
.337
.318
.360
.379
.335
.369
.360
.128
Q t ....
.150
.140
.140
.150
.110
.145
.123
.081
.077
.089
.087
,077
.076
.076
16 oz.1.
.093
L b ....
.064
.067
.068
.071
.067
.063
.059
.073
.084
L b ....
.064
.080
.063
.080
.059
.069
.056
.117
.119
L b ....
.117
.110
.121
.113
.115
.103
.024
L b ....
.035
.037
.037
.042
.031
.033
.021
L b ....
.058
.054
.037
.047
.051
.051
.052
.039
L b ....
.184
.185
.185
.191
.187
.176
.166
.185
L b ....
.160
.150
.174
.171
.151
.169
.145
.166
L b ....
.142
.144
.149
.141
.153
.144
.150
.145
L b ....
.097
.091
.095
.088
.096
.096
.100
.091
.298
L b ....
.265
.342
.301
.309
.291
.312
.326
.724
.697
.504
.546
L b ...,
.618
.591
.591
.835

$0,418
.382
. 31S
.276


https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

» Loaf; 16 ounces, weight of dough.

[8 7 1 ]

.337
.506
.503
.338
.335
.383
.283
.783
.573
.549
.342
.143
.086
.071
.087
.125
.040
.062
.190
.179
.1.54
.105
.329
.580

144

MONTHLY REVIEW OE THE BUREAU OE LABOR STATISTICS.

A V ERAGE R ETA IL PRICES OF THE PR IN C IPA L ARTICLES OF FOOD FOR 29 CITIES
ON FE B . 15, 1918—Concluded.
Average retail prices Feb. 15,1918.
Article

Unit.

New
Salt
Or­ Omaha, Port­ Provi­ Rich­ Roch­ St.
Lake Scran­ Springfield,
leans, Nebr. land, dence, mond, ester, Paul, City, ton,
Oreg. R. I.
Va. N .Y . Minn.
111.
La.
Utah. Pa.

Sirloin steak............. L b ... $0,291
Round stea k ............ L b ... .253
Rib roast................... L b ... .243
Chuck roast.............. L b ... .192
Plate beef.................. L b ... .166
Pork chops............... L b ... .356
Bacon, sliced............ L b ... .517
Ham, sliced.............. L b '.. .450
Lard........................... L b ... .331
L am b......................... L b ... .301
H en s.......................... L b ... .368
Salmon, canned___ i L b . .. .330
Eggs, strictly fresh.. D oz.. .485
Eggs, storage............
B utter___ ~ ............. L b ... .569
Cheese........................ L b ... . 353
Milk............................ Qt —
.143
Bread......................... 16 oz.i .073
Flour......................... L b ... .075
Corn m ea l................. L b ... .063
R ic e .......................... L b ... .108
Potatoes.................... L b ... .038
Onions....................... L b ... .045
Beans, n avy............. L b ... .174
Prunes....................... L b ... .160
Raisins....................... L b ... .151
Sugar......................... L b ... .090
Coffee......................... L b ... .266
T ea............................. L b ... .634

$0.302 $0,282
.282
.262
.234
.254
.205
.204
.157
.167
.297
.352
.485
.514
.442
.469
.336
.345
.266
.300
.322
.337
.285
.336
.577
.507
.545
.425
.549
.713
.349
.324
.123
.127
.088
.087
.060
.057
.062
.069
.110
.118
.025
.016
.045
.032
.173
.149
.164
.136
.166
.137
.090
.092
.315
.325
.635
.569

$0.514 $0.330 $0.320 $9.289 $0.280 $0.355
.425
.307
.309
.254
.261
.324
.270
.263
.333
.237
.236
.281
.298
.250
.233
.202
.205
.242
. 146
.170
. 198
. 191
.362
.359
.327
.300
.352
.338
.471
.479
.443
.482
.500
.483
.523
.423
.445
.454
.445
.441
.341
.340
.333
.321
.360
.326
.355
.313
.321
.266
.292
.332
.397
.371
.377
.297
.348
.387
.305
.238
.294
.298
.299
.302
.735
.710
.617
.589
.604
.705
.514
.586
.500
.570
.572
.599
.565
.549
.575
.541
.341
.356
.337
.331
.338
.325
.145
.147
.136
.110
.115
.140
.0S4
.089
.073
.088
.087
.085
.068
.072
.067
.062
.054
.071
.075
.061
.078
.065
.074
.119
.127
.120
.128
.129
.121
.036
.040
.027
.024
.017
.032
.050
.061
.045
.038
.045
.061
.185
.202
.182
.188
.182
.180
.177
.149
.188
.165
.154
.174
.147
.149
.151
.147
.146
.147
.097
.100
.097
.096
.097
.097
.339
.281
.303
.319
.354
.316
.738
.586
.538
.543
.647
.596

$0.322
.312
.251
.224
.314
.494
.443
.334
.314
.280
.268
.645
.598
.386
.090
.064
075
.126
.031
.049
.195
.164
.179
.092
.295
.675

1 Loaf 16; ounces, weight of dough.
BR EAD PRICES.

Bread prices, both average and relative, for each month in the
years 1913 to 1917, and for January and February, 1918, may be
followed in the accompanying table.
The relative price simply means that the average price of bread for
the year 1913 was taken as 100 per cent, and the relative for each
month obtained by dividing the average price for the year 1913 into
the average price for each month. In order to obtain the percentage
of increase for any month since 1913, it is necessary only to subtract
100 from the relative number for that month. Bread reached the
highest price in August, 1917, when it was 82 per cent higher than in
1 9 1 3 . In December, 1917, bread had dropped to 66 per cent higher
than it was in 1913.


https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

Ï872]

MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

145

AVERAGE A N D R ELA TIV E R E TA IL PRICES OF A 16-OZ. L O A F » OF B R EA D FOR THE
U N IT E D STATES, B Y Y E A R S AN D MONTHS.
Retail price.
Year and month.
Average.

Relative.

$0.050
.056
.063
.065
. 0S2

100
112
126
130
164

•Tanuarv....................................
................................................................................
February.. .....................
. ....................................................................
March ..
..............................................
April....................
.
.........................................................
May...................................................................................................................................
...................................................................
.Tune............................
July................
August.........
TT
................................................ ...............................
.............................. ......................................
September
October.
...................................................................................
November
. .
.............................................................
December.
........................................................................... - ...........

.050
.050
.050
.050
.050
.050
.050
.050
.050
.050
.050
.050

100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100

January .
.............................................................
February
...... .....................................................................................................................
March .
...........................................................
April
.......................................................................................
May .
...........................................................................................
.Time, ........................................................................................................................................
July .
...............................................................................................
August..........
....................................................................................................................
September
...............................................................................................
October
................................................... - .........
November
........................................................................................................................
December
......................................................................... .............

.055
.055
.055
.055
.055
. 055
.055
.056
.057
.057
.057
.058

110
110
110
110
110
110
110
112
114
114
114
116

.060
.063
.063
.063
.064
.063
.063
.063
.062
.062
.062
.062

120
126
126
126
128
126
126
126
124
124
124
124

.062
.062
.064
.062
.062
.062
.062
.064
.068
.072
.075
.070

124
124
128
124
124
124
124
128
136
144
150
140

.070
.071
.072
.075
.085
.085
.088
.091
.088
.088
.088
.083

140
142
144
150
170
170
176
182
176
176
176
166

. 0S3

166
166

1913
1914
1915
1916
1917

• January..

.....................................................................................................

February ...................................................................................................................................
March.................................................................................................................................
A pril ...................... ............................................................................................................
May
.............................................. .............. ..................................
June .................................................................................................................................
July
.
. . . . . . . ........................................................................................................
AUgU^t
, .... ........... ........................................................... ....................... ..
September
. . ..................................................................................................................
October
.
. ..................................................................................................................
November
................................................................................................................ ..
December
............. ............................................................ .
• January

- _ ........ ........... ..........................................................................................
February.. t...... .....................................................................................................................
March
.... .................................................................................................................

Mnv
Juiie
July
. . . . ....................................................- ............... ................... .
\ u g lis t ....................... . _________ ________ _____________ ___________ _
September .......................................................................................................
October
. - r T ________ __ ^ ______ _______ _______ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
N ovember ........ ............................................................................... ............ ..
December
. r_____ , ____ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
• January

.................. ....................... ........................... ..................... ..

February
........ .............................................................................................................
March
.......... ......................................................... .........................................
April.......................................................-9.......................................
June


https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

.083
116 ounces, weight of dough.

[873]

146

MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

PRICE CHANGES, WHOLESALE AND RETAIL, IN THE UNITED STATES.

A comparison of wholesale and retail price changes for important
food articles in recent months shows that for most commodities the
rise continues to be more pronounced in wholesale than in retail
prices. In collecting data for the comparison it was found that in
some instances slight differences of grade or quality existed between
the articles for which wholesale prices were obtainable and those
for which retail prices could be secured. It was found impracti­
cable, also, in most instances to obtain both kinds of quotations for
the same date. The retail prices shown are uniformly those prevail­
ing on the 15th of the month, while the wholesale prices are for a
variable date, usually several days in advance of the 15th. For
these reasons exact comparison of retail with wholesale prices can
not be made.
In the table which follows the wholesale price is in each case the
mean of the high and the low quotations on the date selected, as
published in leading trade journals, while the retail price is the
average of all prices reported directly to the bureau by retailers for
the article and city in question.
To assist in comparing wholesale with retail price fluctuations, the
differential between the two series of quotations is given. It should
not be assumed, however, that this represents even approximately
the margin of profit received by the retailer since, in addition to pos­
sible differences of grade between the articles shown at wholesale and
retail, various items of handling cost are included.
W HOLESALE A N D R E TA IL PRICES OF FOOD IN SELECTED CITIES.
[The initials W =wholesale; R =retail.]

Article and city.

Unit.

Beef, Chicago:
Steer loin e n d s... .W ..
Sirloin steak.......... . R . .
Price differential.
Beef, Chicago:
Steer rounds, No. 2. W ..
Round steak......... . R . .
Price differential.
Beef, Chicago:
Steer ribs, No. 2 ... .W ..
Rib roast............... . R . .
Price differential.
Beef, New York:
No. 2, loins............. W ..
Sirloin steak.......... . R . .
Price differential.
Beef, New York:
No. 2, rounds......... W ..
Round steak......... - R ..
Price differential..
Beef, New York:
No. 2, ribs...............
Rib roast............... . R . .
Price differential.. —

w..

July.
1913:
A verage
for
year. 1914 1915 1916

1917

Jan.

1918

Feb. Apr. July. Oct.

Jan.

Feb.

L b .. $0.168 $0.175 50.160 SO. 205 «0. 200 SO. 200 $0.200 $0.190 $0.235 $0.200 $0.205
L b .. .232 .260 .258 .281 .265 . 273 .293 .302 .306 .302 .304
.061 .085 .098 .076 .¿)65 .073 .093 .112 .071 .102 .099
L b ..
L b ..

.131
.202
.071

.145
.233
.088

.143
.228
.085

.145
.241
.096

.120
,227
.107

.125
.236
.111

.155
.256
.101

.170
.266
.096

.190
.273
.083

.273
.108

.272
.127

L b ..
L b ..

.157
.195
.038

.165
.212
.047

.145
.213
.068

.175
.229
.054

.160
.223
.063

.170
.228
.058

.210
.241
.031

.200
.246
.046

.230
.247
.017

.200
.254
.054

.200
.251
. 051

L b ..
L b ..

.158
.259
.101

.183
.274
.091

.170
.282
.112

.200
.294
.094

.180
.284
.104

.200
.298
.098

.190
.318
.128

.190
.337
.147

.275
.356
.081

.235
.344
.109

.235
.347
.112

L b ..
L b ..

.121
.249
.128

.135
.270
.135

.135
.271
.136

.145
.289
.144

.130
.275
.145

.140
.292
.152

.170
.315
.145

.175
.337
.162

.190
.360
.170

.180
.352
.172

.166

.151
.218
.067

.165
.225
.060

.160
.227
.067

.180
.243
.063

.160
.238
.078]

.175
.247
.072

.200
.270
.070

.190
.279
.089

.275
.298
.023

.235
.294
.059

.065

L b ..
L b ..
..........


https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

[8741

.190

.230

m o n t h l y ; e e v ie w

of t h e b u r e a u

147

of l a b o e s t a t is t ic s .

W H O L E SA L E AN D R E T A IL PRICES OF FOOD IN SELECTED CITIES—Continued.

Article and city.

Pork, Chicago:
Loins...................... -W ..
Chops..................... . R . .
Prir.fi differential _
Pork, New York:
Loins, western— -W ..
Chops..................... . R . .
Prir.fi differential.
Bacon, Chicago:
Short clear sides.. .W ..
Sliced...................... -R -.
Price differential.
Ham, Chicago:
Sm oked................. .W ..
Smoked, sliced — . R . .
Price differential.
Lard, New York:
Prime contracts.. ■W ..
Pure, tu b .............. . R . .
Price differential.
Lamb, Chicago:
Dressed, round__ .W ..
Leg of, yearling.. . R . .
Price differential.
Poultry, New York:
Dressed fowls........ .W ..
Dressed hens........ . R . .
Price differential.
Butter, Chicago:
Creamery, extra. . .W ..
Creamery, extra.. - K . .
Price differential.
Butter, New York:
Creamery, extra . . .W ..
Creamery, extra. . .R ..
Price differential Butter, San Francisco
Creamery, ex tra .. -W ..
Creamery, extra. . . R . .
Price differential.
Cheese, Chicago:
Whole milk........... -W ..
Full cream........... .R ..
Price differential.
Cheese, New York:
Whole milk. State. W ..
Full crea m ......... .R ..
Price differential.
Cheese, San Francisco
Fancy..................... .W ..
Full cream........... . R . .
Price differential.
Milk, Chicago:
Fresh...................... W
Fresh, bottled__ . . R . .
Price differential.
Milk^ New York:
Fresh...................... .W ..
Fresh, bottled___ . R . .
Price differential.
Milk, San Francisco:
Fresh...................... .W ..
Fresh, bottled__ . . R . .
Price differential.
Eggs, Chicago:
Fresh, firsts........... -W ..
Strictly fresh........ . .R ..
Price differential.
Eggs, New York:
Fresh firsts........... .W ..
Strictly fresh........ . . R . .
Trice differential.
Eggs, San Francisco:
tfresh.................... W
Strictly fresh........ . . R . .
Price differential.


https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

Unit.

July.
1913:
Average
for 1914 1915
year.

1918

1917

1916

Jan.

Feb. A pi. July. Oct.

Jan.

Feb.

L b .. 10.149 80.165 $0.150 80.165 SO.165 $0.210 50.240 $0.250 50.330 $0.270 $0.240
L b .. .190 .204 .201 .217 .227 .250 .285 .292 .358 .316 .301
.011 .039 .051 .052 .062 .040 .045 .042 .028 .046 .061
L h ..
L b ..

.152
.217
.065

.163
.230
.067

.153
.217
.064

.165
.239
.074

.170
.248
.078

.195
.276
.081

.235
.319
.084

.235
.326
.091

.300
.399
.099

.265
.348
.083

.270
.349
.079

I,b ..
L b ..

.127
.294
.167

.139
.318
.179

.113
.315
.202

.159
.328
.169

.158
.316
.158

.174
.336
.162

.218
.395
.177

,247
.439
.192

.318
.475
.157

.301
.498
.197

.284
.499
.215

L b ..
L b..

.166
.266
.100

.175
.338
.163

.163
.328
.165

.190
.349
.159

.188
.333
.145

.208
.354
.146

.243
.382
.139

.243
.414
.171

.283
.439
.156

.298
.428
.130

.298
.448
.150

L b ..
L b ..

.110
.160
.050

.104
.156
.052

.080
.151
.071

.133
.168
.035

.159
.213
.054

.167
.223
.056

.215
.263
.048

.201
.274
.073

.246
.313
.067

.246
.330
.084

.265
.331
.066

L b ..
L b ..

.149
.198
.049

.170
.219
.049

.190
.208
.018

.190
.231
.041

.200
.232
.032

.215
.252
.037

.220
.263
.043

.260
.287
.027

.270
.314
.044

.240
.306
.066

.250
.306
.056

L b ,.
L b ..

.182
.214
.032

.188
.220
.032

.175
.219
.044

.215
.256
.041

.220
.261
.041

.233
.273
.040

.265
.293
.028

.248
.287
.039

.285
.323
.038

.298
.326
.028

.313
.365
.052

L b ..
L b ..

.310
.362
.052

.265
.312
.047

.265
.322
.057

.275
.335
.060

.370
.438
.068

.420
.466
.046

.440
.484
.044

.375
.432
.057

.435
.487
.052

.490
.544
.054

.490
.547
.057

L b ..
L b ..

.323
.382
.059

.280
.328
.048

.270
.336
.066

.285
.346
.061

.395
.460
.065

.450
.492
.042

.450
.513
.063

.395
.453
.058

.443
.515
.072

.510
.574
.064

.515
.582
.067

L b ..
L b ..

.317
.388
.071

.245
.329
.084

.265
.338
.073

.255
.333
.078

.355
.425
.070

.390
.433
.043

.3901
.452.062

.385
.455
.070

.460
.545
.085

.530
.602
.072

.505
.589
.0,84

L b ..
L b ..

.142

.133

.145
.229
.084

.145
.242
.097

.218
.321
.103

.213
.329
.116

.223
.327
.104

.216
.339
.123

.246
.368
.122

.233
.375
.142

.260
.377
.117

L b,.
L b ..

.154

.144

.146
.229
.083

.151
.228
.077

.22C
.301
.081

.240
.305
.065

.245
.335
.090

.238
.328
.090

.255
.340
.085

.230
.344
.114

.259
.345
.086

L b ..
L b ..

.159

.125

.115
.200
.085

.135
.222
.094

. 18C
.242
.062

. 19C
.267
.077

.215
.297
.082

.200
.297
.097

.220
.316
.096

.255
.335
. 08C

.255
.329
.074

Q t ..
Q t..

.038
.080
.042

.036
.080
.044

.037
.080
.048

.036
.081
.045

.045
. 10C
.055

.043
.090
.047

.054
.100
.046

.047
.100
.053

. 074
.129
.055

.070
.119
.040

.067
.119
.052

Q t..
Q t..

.035
.090
.055

.030
.090
.060

.030
.090
.060

.031
. 09C
.052

.05]
• 10C
.049

.050
.100
.050

.049
.109
. 06C

.050
.114
.064

.072
.138
.066

.081
.150
.069

.077
.146
.069

Q t..
Q t..

.039
.100
.061

.039
.100
. 063

.038
.100
.062

.038
.100
.062

.032
. 10(
.062

.038
.100
.062

.038
.100
.062

.043
.100
.057

.059
.121
.062

.066
.121
.055

.066
.121
.055

Doz.
Doz.

.226
.292
.066

. IS ?

.261
.073

.168
.248
.080

.212
.296
.078

.485
.525
.0«

.440
.503
.063

.305
.376
.07]

. 31C
.406
.096

.37(
.469
.099

.565
.651
.086

.500
.593
.093

Doz.
Doz.

.249
.397
.148

.215
.35i
.138

.200
.326
.126

.241
.372
.13]

.505
.667
.162

.448
.59]
.143

.330
.424
.094

.350
.477
.127

.400
.627
.227

.645
.808
. 161

.568
.697
.129

Doz.
Doz.

.268
-37c
.105

. 23(
.331
.108

•22(
.310
.090

. 24(
.333
.093

. 3SC
.48C
■10t

.300
.391
.090

.280
.374
.094

•32(
.392
.072

.435
.60S
.171

.61(
.710
.106

.410
.489
.079

__ „

[8 7 5 ]

148

MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS*

W HOLESALE A N D R E TA IL PRIC ES OF FOOD IN SELECTED CITIES—Concluded.
1 913 :

Article and city.

Meal, corn, Chicago:
Fine........................ .W ..
F ine......................... .R ..
Price differential..
Beans, New York:
Medium, choice... . w . .
Navy, w hite.......... .R ..
Price differential.
Potatoes, Chicago:
.W ..
White i . . . .
W hite...................... A i . .
Price differential.. _
Rice, New Orleans:
H ead...................... W
H ead....................... -R_.
Price differential..........
Sugar, New York:
Granulated........... W ..
Granulated............. .R ..
Price differential..

AverUnit. age
for
year.

July.
1914

1915

L b .. $ 0 .0 1 4 $0 .0 1 6

1918

1917

1916

Jan.

Feb. Apr. July. Oct.

Jan.

Feb.

$ 0 .0 1 9 $0 .0 2 4 $ 0 .0 2 5 $0 .0 3 6 $0 .0 4 5 $ 0 .0 5 2 $ 0.0 5 1 $ 0 .0 5 3

L b ..
___

.0 2 9
.0 1 5

.0 2 8 $ 0 .0 3 1
.0 1 2

.031
.0 1 2

.0 4 2
.0 1 8

.0 4 1
.0 1 6

.0 5 0
.0 1 4

.0 5 8
.0 1 3

.0 7 1
.0 1 9

.0 7 0
.0 1 9

.0 6 9
.0 1 6

L b ..
L b ..

.0 4 0

.0 4 0

.0 5 8
.0 2 3

.0 9 8
.1 1 3
.0 1 5

.1 0 3
.1 4 9
.0 4 1

.1 1 3
.1 5 0
.0 3 7

.1 3 0
.1 6 2
.0 3 2

.1 5 4
.1 8 8
.0 3 4

.1 3 8
.1 8 5
.0 4 7

.1 4 1
.1 8 5
.0 4 4

.1 3 4
.1 8 3
.0 4 9

2 .8 0 0 2 .6 2 5
3 .4 5 5 - 2 .9 7 5
.6 5 5
.3 5 0

1 .1 3 5
1 .6 6 0
.5 2 5

1 .1 8 5
1 .6 8 0

.495

1 .2 4 5
1 .7 4 0
.4 9 5

B u ..
B u ..

.OSI
.6 1 4
.9 0 0
.2 8 6

1 .4 5 0
1 .6 4 0
.1 9 0

.4 0 0
.7 0 0
.3 0 0

.9 7 5
1 .3 5 6
.381

1 .7 5 0
2 .3 7 0
.6 2 0

2 .4 0 0
3 .0 0 0
.6 0 0

L b ..
L b ..

.0 5 0

.0 5 4

.0 4 9
.0 7 5
.0 2 6

.0 4 6
.0 7 4
.0 2 8

.0 4 8
.0 7 4
.0 2 6

.0 4 8
.0 7 4
.0 2 6

.0 4 9
.0 8 8
.0 3 9

.071
.101
.0 3 0

.0 7 7
.1 0 0
.0 2 3

.0 8 8
.1 0 6
.0 1 8

.081
.1 0 8
.0 2 7

L b ..
L b ..

.0 4 3
.0 4 9
.0 0 6

.0 4 2
.0 4 6
.0 0 4

.0 5 9
.0 6 3
.0 0 4

.0 7 5
.0 7 9
.0 0 4

.0 6 6
.0 7 4
.0 0 8

.0 6 6
.0 7 6
.0 1 0

.081
.0 8 7
.0 0 6

.0 7 4
.0 8 4
-.010

.0 8 2
.0 9 7
.0 1 5

.0 7 3
.0 9 7
.0 2 4

.073
.0 9 1
.0 1 8

1 Good to choice.

Wholesale and retail prices, expressed as percentages of the average
money prices for 1913, are contained in the table which follows. A
few articles included in the preceding table are omitted from this one,
owing to the lack of satisfactory data for 1913. It vTill be seen from
the table that since the beginning of 1917 the retail prices of most
of the commodities included in the exhibit have fluctuated at a
lower percentage level, as compared with their 1913 base, than have
the wholesale prices. This is particularly noticeable in the case of
pork, bacon, lard, dressed lamb, butter, milk, eggs, corn meal, and
potatoes. For corn meal, especially, there has been a much smaller
percentage of increase in the retail than in the wholesale price.
Comparing February, 1918, prices with the average for 1913, it
is seen that only 4 articles of the 25 included in the table show a
larger per cent of increase in the retail than in the wholesale price.
These are beef in Chicago (three price series) and granulated sugar
in New York. In several of the months of 1917 the retail prices of
these articles were relatively lower than were the wholesale prices.
WThile the percentage of increase in retail prices was less than that in
wholesale prices for most of the articles, it should be noted that in the
majority of cases the margin between the wholesale and the retail
price in February, 1918, was considerably greater than in 1913. The
following table shows, for example, that the wholesale price of short
clear side bacon increased 124 per cent between 1913 and February,
1918, while the retail price of sliced bacon increased only 70 per cent.
The preceding table shows, however, that the difference was 16.7 cents
per pound in 1913 and 21.5 cents per pound in February, 1918, or 4.8
cents more at the latter date than at the former. It is also seen that
the wholesale price in February, 1918, had increased 15.7 cents over
the 1913 price, while the retail mice had increased 20.5 cents.

https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

[876]

149

MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

R ELA TIV E W HOLESALE AND RETAIL PRICES OP IMPORTANT POOD ARTICLES IN
SELECTED CITIES (AVERAGE FOR 1913=100).
[The initials W =wholesale; R =retail.]

Article and city.

Beef, Chicago:
Steer loin ends (hips)— -W ..
Sirloin steak..........* .......... .R ..
Beef, Chicago:
Steer rounds, No. 2......... W ..
Round steak...................... .R ..
Beef, Chicago:
Steer ribs, No. 2............... W ..
Rib roast'........................... . R . .
Beef, New York:
No. 2 loins, c ity ............... W -.
Sirloin steak ..'.................. .R ..
Beef, New York:
No. 2 rounds, city........... W ..
Round steak'.................... .R ..
Beef, New York:
No. 2 ribs, c ity ................. W ..
Rib roast............................ .R ..
Pork, Chicago:
.W ..
Loins...... .............
.R ..
Chops................... .
Pork, New York:
Loins, western................. .W ..
Chops'.................................. .R ..
Bacon, Chicago:
Short clear sides.............. -W ..
Sliced.................................. .R ..
Hams, Chicago:
Smoked.............................. W ..
Smoked, sliced.................. -R ..
1 ard, New York:
Prime, contract............... .W ..
Pure, tu b ........................... .R ..
Lamb, Chicago:
Dressed, round................. -W -.
Leg of, yearling................. -R ..
Poultry, New York:
Dressed fowls................... . W ..
Dressed hens..................... .R ..
Butter, Chicago:
Creamery, extra............... W
Creamery, extra.............. .R ..
Butter, New York:
Creamery, extra............... W
Creamery, extra............. . R . .
Butter, San Francisco:
Creamery, extra............... .W ..
Creamery, extra.............. .R ..
Milk, Chicago:
Fresh.................................. -W ..
Fresh, bottled, delivered .R ..
Milk, New York:
Fresh................................. -W ..
Fresh, bottled, d eliv ered .R ..
Milk, San Francisco:
Fresh.................................. .W ..
Fresh, bottled.................. . R . .
Eggs, Chicago:
Fresh, firsts...................... .W ..
Strictly fresh..................... . R . .
Eggs, New York:
Fresh, firsts...................... .W ..
Strictly fresh..................... . R . .
Eggs, San Francisco:
Fresh................................. .W ..
Strictly fresh..................... . R . .
Meal, corn, Chicago:
F ine.................................... .W ..
F ine.................................... . R . .
Potatoes, Chicago:
White, good to choice. . . .W ..
W hite................................. . R . .
Sugar, New York:
Granulated....................... W
Granulated........................ . R . .


https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

1913:
July.
Average
for 1914 1915 1916
year.

1917
Jan.

1918

Feb. Apr. July. Oct.

Jan.

Feb.

100
100

104
112

95
111

122
121

119
114

119
118

119
126

113
130

140
132

119
130

122
131

100
100

111
115

109
113

111
119

92
112

95
117

118
127

130
132

145
135

126
135

111
135

100
100

105
109

92
109

111
117

102
114

108
117

134
124

127
126

146
127

127
130

127
129

100
100

116
106

108
109

127
114

114
110

127
115

120
123

120
130

174
137

149
133

149
134

100
100

112
108

112
109

120
116

107
110

116
117

140
127

145
135

157
145

149
141

157
143

100
100

109
103

106
104

119
111

106
109

H|
113

1.32
124

126
128

182
137

156
135

152
135

100
100

111
107

101
106

111
114

111
119

141
132

161
150

168
154

221
188

181
166

161
158

100
100

107
106

101
100

109
110

112
114

128
127

155
147

155
150

197
184

174
160

178
161

100
100

109
108

89
107

125
112

124
107

137
114

172
134

194
149

250
162

237
169

224
170

100
100

105
127

98
123

114
131

113
125

125
133

146
144

146
156

170
105

180
1»1

180
168

100
100

95
98

73
94

121
105

145
133

152
139

195
164

183
171

224
196

224
206

241
207

100
100

114
111

128
105

128
117

134
117

144
127

148
133

174
145

1S1
159

161
155

168
155

100
100

103
103

96
102

118
120

121
122

128
128

146
137

136
134

157
151

164
152

172
171

100
100

85
86

85
89

89
93

119
121

135
129

142
134

121
119

140
135

158
150

158
151

100
100

87
86

84
88

88
91

122
120

139
139

139
134

122
119

137
135

158
150

159
152

100
100

77
85

84
87

80
86

112
110

123
112

123
116

121
117

145
140

167
155

159
152

100
100

95
100

97
100

95
101

118
125

113
113

142
125

124
125

195
161

184
149

176
149

100
100

86
100

86
100

89
100

146
111

143
121

140
121

143
127

206
153

231
167

220
162

100
100

100
100

97
100

97
100

97
100

97
100

97
100

110
100

151
121

169
121

169
121

100
100

83
89

74
85

96
101

215
180

195
172

135
129

137
139

164
161

250
223

221
203

100
100

86
89

80
82

97
94

203
168

ISO
149

133
107

141
120

161
158

259
204

228
176

100
100

86
91

82
83

90
89

142
129

112
105

105
100

119
105

162
163

228
190

153
131

100
100

114
97

107

136
107

171
145

179
141

257
172

321
200

371
245

364
241

379
238

100
100

236
182

65
78

159
151

285
263

391
333

456
384

428
331

185
184

193
187

203
193

100
100

98
94

137
129

174
161

153
151

153
155

188
178

172
171

191
198

170
198

170
186

[8 7 7 ]

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C O M P A R IS O N O F RETA IL P R IC E S IN T H E U N IT E D S T A T E S A N D O T H E R
C O U N T R IE S .

The index numbers of retail prices published by several foreign
countries have been brought together with those of this bureau in
the subjoined table after having been reduced to a common base,
viz, prices for July, 1914, equal 100. For Great Britain, Norway, and
Sweden the index numbers are reproduced as published in the
original sources, while those for Austria and Germany have been
rounded off to the nearest whole number from figures published in
the British Labor Gazette. All of these are shown on the July, 1914,
base in the sources from which the information is taken. The
index numbers here shown for the remaining countries have been
obtained by dividing the index for July, 1914, as published, into the
index for each month specified in the table. As indicated in the
table, some of these index numbers are weighted and some are not,
while the number of articles included differs widely. They should
not, therefore, be considered as closely comparable one with another.
IN D E X N U M BERS OF RETAIL PRICES IN THE U N IT E D STATES AND CERTAIN OTHER
COUNTRIES.

[Prices for July, 1914=100.]
United
States:
Year and month. 15 foodstuffs,
45 cities.
Weighted.

Australia:
46 food­
stuffs,
30 towns.
Weighted.

Austria:
18 food­
stuffs,
Vienna.
Weighted.

France:
Canada:
13 foodstuffs,
29 food­
cities over
stuffs,
10,000 popu­
60 cities.' lation (except
Weighted.
Paris).
Weighted

1914.
July.........................
October...................

100
103

100
99

100
104

100

1915.
January...................
April........................
July.........................
October...................

101
97
93
101

107
113
131
133

121
166
179
217

107
105
105
105

1916.
January..................
April........................
July.........................
October...................

105
107
109
119

129
131
130
125

222

1917.
January...................
February................
March......................
April........................
May.........................
June........................
July.........................
August....................
September.............
October...................
N ovember..............
December...............

125
130
130
142
148
149
143
146
150
154
152
154

125
126
126
127
127
127
126
129
129
129


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272
275
288
312
337
315

108

112

112
114
125
138
141
144
145
159
160
157
157
157
159
163
105

1100

Germany;
19 food­
stuffs,
Berlin.
Weighted.

100

116

1110
U23

131
157
170
193

1133
U37
1141
114.6

220

1S9
213
209

’ 154
1171

i Quarter beginning that month.

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lo 1

IN D E X NUM BER S OF R E TA IL PRICES IN T H E U N IT E D STATES AN D CERTAIN OTHER
COUNTRIES—Concluded.
Italy:
7 food­
stuffs,
43 cities
(variable).
Not
weighted.

Great Britain:
21 food­
Year and month.
stuffs,
600 towns.
Weighted.

Norway:
Netherlands: New Zealand: 24 (21 foods)
59 food­
29 articles,
articles,
40 cities.
stuffs,
20 towns
Not
25 towns.
(variable).
weighted.
Weighted.
Not
weighted.

Sweden:
21 articles,
44 towns.
Weighted.

1914.
July.........................
October...................

100
112

100
104

1 100
2 107

100
102

100
3n o

100
»107

1915.
January..................
April........................
July.........................
October...................

118
124
132J
140

108
113
120
127

114
123
131
128

111
113
112
112

U18
3 125
»129
5 134

s 113
» 121
* 124
3 128

1916.
January...................
April........................
July.........................
October...................

145
149
161
168

133
132
132
132

135
142
150
158

116
118
119
120

143
155
176
182

» 130
» 134
5 112
s 152

1917.
January..................
February................
March.. I.................
April........................
May.........................
June........................
July.........................
August. ..................
September.............
October...................
November..............
December...............

187
189
192
194
198
202
204
202
206
197
206
205

144
154
161
164
167
171
172

165
165
169
170
180
184
188

127
126
120
127
128
,128
127
127
129

1January-July.

188

204
212
227
261
273
278

* August-December.

160
166
170
175
175
175
177
181
187
192
200

3 Quarter beginning that month.

C O S T O F L IV IN G IN T H E N E W Y O R K S H IP B U IL D IN G D IS T R IC T .

The Bureau of Labor Statistics, in cooperation with the Ship­
building Wage Adjustment Board of the Emergency Fleet Corpora­
tion, has just completed a study of the cost of living in shipbuilding
centers in the second district. This district comprises New York
City and adjacent localities, in which reside a considerable number of
families of workers in shipbuilding establishments.
Schedules covering in detail the income and expenditure for the
year 1917 of 608 families were secured through personal visits of the
agents of the Bureau of Labor Statistics to the homes of families of
workers in shipyards and of other families in the localities in which
shipbuilding workers reside.
The figures in the second column of the table show the average
expenditures per family for the year 1917 for each of the principal
items that enter into the cost of living. The third column shows in
the form of percentages the proportion of the total amount expended
for each item. The last three columns show the average per cent of
increase in the retail prices of each item, in 1915, 1916, and 1917
above the prices in 1914. The increase in these retail prices as shown
in this column was obtained by personal visits of the agents of the


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bureau from retail dealers in tliese localities patronized by workers
in shipbuilding establishments.
The item “ miscellaneous” is made up of expenditures for all other
articles, varying in number and amount, not included in the items
specified above, such as tobacco, liquors, cleaning supplies, amuse­
ments, vacation, etc. The increase in cost of many of these articles
could not be traced through the period owing to changes in quality or
size of unit, but it has been assumed that the percentage of increase
has been approximately the same as the average increase of all items
combined.
The average per cent of increase for the total of all items each year
is a weighted average computed by multiplying the proportion of
expenditure for each item by the per cent of increase in the retail
prices of that item as compared with 1914 and dividing the aggregates
of the products thus obtained by 100.
AVERAGE E X P E N D IT U R E S OF 608 FAM ILIES IN THE NEW YO R K SHIPBU ILD IN G
DISTRICT IN 1917 FOR EACH OF THE PRINCIPAL ITEMS OF COST OF LIVING, AND
PE R CENT OF INCREASE IN THE RETAIL PRICE OF EACH IN 1915, 1916, AND 1917 ABOVE
THE PRICES IN 1914.

Expenditures per
family.
Expenditures for—
Average. Per cent.
Clothing:
Males...............................
Females.........................................

1915

1916

1917

$109.76
90.31

8.14
6.70

200.07

H. 84

4.82

22.31

54.21

43.58
607.02
174.14
62.21
261.62

3.23
45.01
12.91
4.61
19.40

8.43
1.34
.10
.06
1.97

27.60
16.26
.05
10.98
14.91

56.47
55.28
2.63
19.92
44.68

1,348.64

100.00

1.97

14.91

44.68

Total.......................................
Furniture and furnishings.....................................
Food................................ .
Housing..............................
Fuel arid light..............................
Miscellaneous.................................
Total...................................

Per cent of increase in retail
prices in 1915,1916, and 1917
above the prices in 1914.

4.78
4.87

20.32
24.73

51.40
57.63

COST OF LIVING AND WAGES IN GERMANY.1
GENERAL RELATION OF WAGES TO COST OF LIVING.

The Neue Zeit, the weekly journal of the German Social-Democratic
Party, in its issue of December 7, 1917, contains a very interesting
article on the relation of wages to the cost of living in Germany dur­
ing the war,2 extracts of which are given below:
“ The longer the war lasts,” says the writer, “ the more are in­
creasing masses of the nation becoming aware of the fact that these
same masses—skilled and unskilled workmen, salaried employees,
Government officials, etc.—have to bear the costs of the war and in
1Translated by Alfred Maylander.
5 Tie Neue Zeit. Warenpreise und Arbeiterlohne, by A. Ellinger. Vol. 36, Pt. I, No. 10.
Dec. 7, 1917.


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153

part are being reduced to extreme poverty while other circles of the
population derive great profit from the war and enormously increase
their income and their wealth. Among these latter are not only the
large contractors of war supplies and industrial magnates who dur­
ing the war have obtained millions over millions from the State and
the masses of the population, but commerce and agriculture have
also greatly profited from the war. The large subscriptions of war
loans by these circles, the unprecedented large deposits in rural sav­
ings banks, the extensive lifting of rural mortgages, etc., furnish the
best proof of this fact.
“ I do not mean to assert/’ continues the writer, “ that the accumu­
lation of immense wealth in the hands of a few is solely due to the
profiteering tendencies of the fortunate owners of this wealth, that
it is solely the fruit of shameless exploitation and fraud. In some
cases this may be true, but in general this development has naturally
resulted from the essential nature of capitalism and the present-day
right of ownership, as well as from the isolation and financial condi­
tion of Germany. This development is based on the facts that one
part of the nation has in its hand the means of production required
for the entirety of the nation, that another part owns the land which
is to provide nourishment for the entirety, and that at present this
land does not produce as much as is needed to sustain life in the
usual manner, and, finally, that consequent to our isolation from the
world’s market we can not supplement this deficit from abroad.
These combined facts put in a much greater measure the nonposses­
sing classes at the mercy of the possessing classes and render them
much more tributary to the latter than was the case in normal times.
“ The possibility for such enormous profits as have been witnessed
during the war was given through the continuous upward trend of
prices since the outbreak of the war. The Government is partly
guilty for this increase of prices in so far as one may speak of guilt in
the development of economic matters. Not only has the Govern­
ment through extensive circulation of paper money contributed to the
depreciation of German currency and thereby lessened its purchasing
power but also at the beginning of the war it paid fabulously high
prices for war materials in order to accelerate the adaptation of in­
dustry to war needs. This, it is true, brought about the transition of
German industry from a peace to a war basis, but at the same time
it had the effect of making that part of industry which is not em­
ployed in the production of war materials want to reap like profits
as the war industry proper. Under the pressure of the consuming
masses of the population the Government has in some measure coun­
teracted this endeavor through the fixing of maximum prices; but
it has done so unwillingly and only proceeded against the worst ex
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cesses in this respect. This procedure is in itself entirely compre­
hensible. The Government needs money for the conduct of the war.
It, however, can not dare to raise the required sums through direct
taxation of the individual citizens. It must raise the money through
bond issues. As such Government loans could never be fully dis­
posed of through sums subscribed by the great mass of the poorer
classes of the population, it can only suit the Government if indus­
try, commerce, and agriculture extract these sums from the great
masses of the population through “ good” prices, and put them at
its disposal in the form of subscriptions of war loans. In this man­
ner the individual citizen hardly notices that ultimately it is he who
finances the war. As a matter of fact, industrial magnates, banks,
landowners, business men, etc., have only apparently subscribed
the greater part of the war loans; in reality it is the great mass of
the population which by hard work and privation has raised the
sums required for these loans and given to the fortunate owners of
the land, of capital, and of the means of production the opportunity
to enrich themselves at its expense.
“ But the consumers themselves are partly responsible for the
high prices. On the outbreak of the war they began hoarding sup­
plies and thus created a scarcity of supplies and a consequent infla­
tion of prices at a time when actual conditions did not warrant it.
Under the capitalistic régime prices will always rise when the de­
mand for goods is greater than the supply. The more scarce and
indispensable the goods in question are the more will the prices rise.
And prices will, of course, rise beyond all bounds if a general scarcity
of supplies sets in and the individual can barely satisfy his hunger.
In such a case the increase of the price of one article will automati­
cally extend to all other articles without regard to the fact whether
the costs of production justify such an increase or not.
“ When, after the outbreak of the war, conditions had come to
such a point the consumers began to clamor for maximum prices.
But only too soon they discovered that maximum prices are by no
means a cure-all. Immediately after maximum prices had been de­
creed a large part of the well-to-do consumers, in conjunction with
producers and dealers, set out to evade them. Thus it came about
that articles for which maximum prices had been fixed disappeared
over night from the market and were obtainable only for those who
did not care how high a price they had to pay. In order to stop this
evasion of the law the rationing of all articles that could be rationed
was demanded so that everybody would get some of the avail­
able supplies. But even in rationed articles a flourishing trade is
sometimes carried on at really exorbitant prices. Flour, butter, and
other foodstuffs sometimes bring in illicit trade five times as much


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155

and more as they would bring if acquired legally by means of ra­
tioned distribution.
“As set forth here various circumstances, among which should
also be mentioned the low quotation abroad of German exchange,
contribute to the continuous increase of prices. This increase of
prices is tantamount to a depreciation of German money. The
workman, who with his wages must buy the necessities of existence,
notices this by the fact that his wages are no longer sufficient to
purchase the necessities of life. As he is not willing to die of star­
vation he finds himself facing the necessity of demanding higher
wages. Such a demand is, however, resisted by the employers and
often most strongly by those employers who have been doing a flour­
ishing business during the war and have actually profited by the
existing high prices. Even if the employers are reasonable enough
to grant wage increases and high-cost-of-living bonuses, these are
without exception not sufficient to counterbalance the increase in
prices and the depreciation of the German money. Employers,
moreover, who have granted wage increases, endeavor, as a rule, to
shift them upon the consumer, and if possible, with a profit for them­
selves. This causes a further increase of prices and new wage demands
become necessary; and this process goes on without end. The work­
man soon notices that in the long run he can not counterbalance the
increase of prices through wage increases granted to him, because
during the war the owner of the means of production always has the
advantage of him. He is the owner of the products without which
the workman can not live; thanks to Germany’s isolation from the
world’s markets he has a monopoly of the sale of these products and
he only sells them at prices giving him the same or rather a better
profit than in prewar times.
“ Thus the course of commodity prices and of wages during the war
has become a real tragedy for the working class in the widest sense,
whether they are wage earners, salaried employees, or officials. In
August, 1917, according to Calwer, the cost of the weekly family
ration was 54.67 marks ($13.01), as compared with 25.12 marks
($5.98) in July, 1914, that is to say, it has risen during the war more
than 117 per cent. It must, moreover, be noted that the commodities
on which Galwer bases his calculation are mostly rationed com­
modities, of which the supply is so inadequate that they do not
furnish sufficient sustenance. If the workingman wants barely to
survive and retain his working capacity he must buy considerable
quantities of nonrationed commodities or else procure rationed
commodities through illegal channels, and in both these cases he pays
far higher prices than Calwer indicates. To this must be added the
fact that the quality of a large number of food articles such as flour,


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bread, potatoes, coffee, etc., has deteriorated. Moreover, the in­
crease in the cost of fuel, clothing, shoes, and household necessities of
all kinds has been far more rapid than the increase of the articles
represented by the Calwer index numbers. Certain goods have
increased in price by 500, 800, and even 1,000 per cent, and without
exaggeration the average increase of the cost of living may be esti­
mated at between 200 and 300 per cent.
"Meantime, according to an investigation of the Imperial Statisti­
cal Office, wages of the great mass of working people have on an
average barely increased by 50 per cent.1 The data published by
this office show that in September, 1916, i. e., during the third year
of the war, the average wages of male workers had increased by 46
per cent and those of female workers by 54.1 per cent. These
figures are confirmed by a comprehensive investigation by the Central
Council of the Hirsch-Duncker trade-unions as to the increase of
wage of male workers in the more important German industries.
This investigation, which compares the wages paid in January, 1917,
with those current before the outbreak of the war, shows that, although
metal workers’ wages had increased by 69 per cent in Greater Berlin,
in the other Provinces of Prussia and in other States of the Empire
wage increases in this trade were much lower, and in some instances
did not exceed 16 per cent. In the chemical industries of the Bitterfeld district time wages had increased by 26 to 35 per cent and piece­
work wages by 34 per cent. The trade-union leader Hartman esti­
mates that in the tobacco industry wage increases during the period
1913-1915 amounted to 4 per cent and in 1916 to between 10 and
20 per cent. According to an investigation of the Federation of
German Textile Workers the average weekly wage of female workers
in the Adorf district was 15.92 marks ($3.79) in July, 1917, while in
the same month weekly wages of between 9 and 10 marks ($2.14 and
$2.38) were still common in Krimmitsch.au.
"These data demonstrate plainly that the so-called 'high’ wages
of workers are a myth. A relatively large number of capitalists,
manufacturers, dealers, and landowners have doubled and trebled
their income and wealth, but very small is the number of workers
whose wages have been so increased that they were not forced to lower
their standard of living, i. e., whose present-day wages have the same
purchasing power as their prewar wages. The great mass of the
working people were only able to obtain insignificant wage increases
which were entirely insufficient to make up for the increased cost of
living. The value of their labor depreciated during the war in the
same ratio in which the income, ground rent, and profits of a large
number of capitalists and landowners increased. If in spite of
these facts the official organs and secretaries of employers’ associations
i See Monthly R ev ie w , December, 1917, pp. 49-50.


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157

raise the cry that wages must he lowered and intimate that other­
wise German industr}7 will go under, it must be characterized as
an impudence, which is to be combated with the strongest means
at the disposal of the workers. As long as the industries are able to
pocket such profits as those which they have reaped during the war
German industry will not perish, but will fatten in a manner danger­
ous to the public weal, while, on the other hand, one only need to take
a look at the German workmen in order to perceive that they suffer
greatly from undemutrition, that they are degenerating, and that
in spite of their so-called 'high’ wages misery looks out of their eyes."
The writer concludes his article with the following words: “ Who­
ever raises the question of a reduction of wages should rather make
it his first care to bring the cost of living, if only approximately, back
to its former level. When this has been accomplished the workmen
will be willing to discuss lower wages. The present 'high’ wages do
not benefit them at all. The workmen are only well off when their
wages, be they high or low, enable them to live in a manner fit for
human beings. To-day they can not do so in spite of their apparently
high wages, and if the prices of foodstuffs remain at their present level
or continue to increase it will become the sacred duty of the workmen
to themselves and to the German nation to see to it that their wages are
still further increased. For the strength of the nation is based upon
the health of the working classes, and thanks to the lessened purchas­
ing power of the wages and the general scarcity of all necessities their
health has been undermined to a serious degree.’’
WAGES AND COST OF LIVING OF METAL W ORKERS.

The Leipziger Volkszeitung 1 complains that the wages of metal
workers in Leipzig have not kept pace with the rise in the cost of
living; that employers have resorted to all kinds of chicanery in
order to frustrate those provisions of the national auxiliary service
law which were enacted for the protection of labor; and that despite
the enormous profits of the metal works, which in several cases have
allowed an increase in dividend from 6 and 8 per cent in 1915 to 20
and even 40 per cent in 1916, the employers have thoroughly organ­
ized themselves and have determined not to raise wages.
In support of the fact that the metal workers do not receive wages
equivalent to the salaries of “ cabinet members’’ (Ministerialgehalter),
as the employers would like to make the public believe, the Volkszeitung quotes some statistical data. In a collective agreement con­
cluded in April, 1917, the following minimum weekly wage rates were
fixed: 35 marks ($8.33) for male juvenile workers 16 to 17 years of
age, 44 marks ($10.47) for unskilled and 55 marks ($13.09) for skilled
adult male workers, and 25 marks ($5.95) for female workers.
1 Leipziger Volkszeitung.

46648°—18----- 11

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Die “ Ministergehälter” der Metallarbeiter.

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MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

According to the wage statistics of the local Leipzig (city) sick fund,
19,744 male and 11,938 female metalworkers were insured in the fund
at the end of September, 1917. If from these figures are deducted
3,798 male juvenile workers under 16 years of age and 821 female
juvenile workers there remain 15,946 male and 11,117 female workers
who should have received at least the above minimum rates of wages.
The wage statistics of the sick fund show, however, that 2,117
adult male and 5,055 adult female workers earned lower wages than
the minimum wages. In other words, over 14 per cent of the male
workers and 45 per cent of the female workers must have been rated
by the employers as not coming up to the minimum of efficiency. In
taking up the problem of the cost of living the Volkszeitung states
that one argument used by the employers in refusing to grant wage
increases is that on the basis of the officially fixed maximum prices
the cost of living in Germany has gone down in comparison with what
it was last spring. In advancing this argument they point to the
index numbers on cost of living by Calwer, the well-known German
statistician. They forget, however, to quote Calwer’s significant
statement that, as the available supply of food is far below the de­
mand, people have perforce to buy at prices above the maximum
prices, and also his conclusion: “ The cost of living has gone up
considerably of late.”
The actual cost of living is shown in the Volkszeitung by means of
cost-of-living data furnished the German Metal Workers’ Union.
The following table gives the expenditure of a family of four persons
in Leipzig in the week September 16 to 22, 1917:
W E E K L Y COST OF LIVING OF A METAL W O R K E R ’S FAMILY OF FOUR PER SO N S IN
LEIPZIG FOB THE THIRD W E E K OF SEPTEM BER , 1917.

Quan­
tity.

Rationed foodstuffs:
Bread......................... ..lb s ..
Meat........................... ..lb s ..
Butter........................ ...lb .
E ggs............................ ..d o z ..
Jam ............................ ... l b ..
Macaroni................... . .. l b ..
Oat foods..................... . .. l b ..
Potatoes..................... ..lb s ..
Margarine................... . .. l b ..
Sugar.......................... ..lb s ..
Milk............................ ..q t s ..
Cheese.......................... . .. l b ..
Soap............................. . .. l b ..
Washing powder___ . .. l b ..

17.6
1.8
.4
i

.8
.3
.8
30.9
.1
1.5
5.5
.3
.1
.6

Total........................
Nonratione foodstuffs:
White cabbage.......... . .lb s..
Red cabbage............... ..lb s ..
Curly............................ ..lb s ..
Carrots......................... . .lb s..
Onions......................... . .. l b ..
Tomatoes..................... ..lb s ..


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Amount
of
expendi­
ture.

$0.61
.83
.31
.38
.17
.04
.04
.67
.06
.10
.50
.21
.05
.07
4.04

4.4
4.4
4.4
4.4
.6
4.4

.24
.28
.28
.24
.04
.57

Amount

Quan­
of
tity.
expenditura.
Nonrationed foodstuffs—Con.
Cooking fruit................. lb s..
Table fruit......................lb s ..
Spices.......................................
Salad.........................................
Salt...................................lb s..
Coffee substitutes.........lb .. .
Total.....................................

6.6
7.7
2.2
.8

$9.60
1.00
.12
.12
.06
.14
3.69

Other expenditures:
Clothing, shoes, e tc ...............
Wood and coal.......................
Gas............................................
Trade-union dues, news­
papers...................................
Insurance...............................
R ent (3 rooms and kitchen).

.30
.32
1.90

Total.....................................

8.09

5.00
.19
.38

Cost of additional food rations
allowed to heavy workers........

.87

Grand total..........................

16.69

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MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

159

The data included in this table refer only to the most essential
necessities; they leave out such incidental expenses as amusements,
car fare, gifts, etc. The following table shows in more summarized
form the cost of living of a family of four persons in eight other large
cities of Germany so as to permit comparison with the cost of living
in Leipzig:
W E EK LY COST OF LIVING OF A METAL W O R K E R ’S FAMILY OF FOUR PERSONS IN
N IN E LARGE GERMAN CITIES FOR THE THIRD W E E K OF SEPTEM BER , 1917.
Expenditures for food.
Miscella­
Addi­
neous
NonRationed rationed
tional
expendi­
food­
rations
tures.
food­
heavy
stuffs.
stuffs. for
workers.

Locality.

Berlin.....................................................................................
Cologne....................................................................................
Düsseldorf..............................................................................
Elberfeld................................................................................
Bremen..................................................................................
Bielefeld.................................................................................
Breslau......... ........................................................................
Essen......................................................................................
Leipzig...................................................................................

$5.27
5.51
4.35
4.26
4.73
4.82
4.90
3.42
4.04

$3.03
2.58
3.16
2.21
2.68
2.23
1.98
1.73
3.69

10.37
.43
.15
.75
.36
.43
.50
.49
.87

*S. 16
7.16
8.51
8.34
7.40
7.00
7.08
8.60
8.09

Total.

$16.83
15.68
16.17
15.53
15.17
14.48
14 48
14.24
16. 69

A comparison of the figures given in the preceding table shows that
the cost of living is highest in Berlin and that Leipzig comes in second
place. Leipzig metal works, however, consider 1.35 marks (32 cents)
a suitable wage for skilled workers and only a small number of piece­
workers earn as much as 2 marks (47-| cents) per hour, while metal
workers in Berlin receive much higher wages. The cost of living i3
lowest in Essen, probably owing to the fact that the Krupp works
furnish housing and food to most of their workmen at cost.
The cost of living figures for September, 1917, shown in the preced­
ing tables indicate a considerable increase over the cost of living
figures for April and July, 1916, published in the Reichs-Arbeitsblatt
and reproduced in the M o n t h l y R e v i e w " of March, 1918. The latter
data already led to the conclusion that the majority of workmen's
and low-salaried employees’ families vrere living beyond their income
from earnings and according to the data furnished by the metal
workers’ federation for September, 1917, conditions governing the
cost of living in Germany seem to have gone from bad to worse.
HIGHER BASIC WAGES OR HIGH-COST-OF-LIVING BONUSES.

In an article under the above title in the Neue Z eit1 Emil Dittmer
discusses the question whether higher basic wages or high-cost-ofliving bonuses are preferable from the worker’s point of view.
1 Die Neue Zeit. Wochenschrift der deutschen Sozialdemokratie. “ Höhere Grundlöhne oder Teuer­
ungszulagen” by Emil Dittmer. Vol. 36, part 1, No. 4. Stuttgart, Oct. 26, 1917,


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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

[8 S 7 ]

160

MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABUR STATISTICS.

By way of introduction the writer points out the rapid increase
during the second quarter of 1917 of the membership of trade-unions.
During this quarter, to quote only a few examples, the organization
of the metal workers gained 33,000 members, that of the factory
workers 8,000, of the building trades 7,000, of the woodworkers 4,000,
of the miners 13,000, of the textile workers 6,000, etc. If the many
difficulties which during the war are hampering the development of
trade-unions are taken into consideration these figures speak elo­
quently for the attractive power of the trade-unions. For the third
quarter of 1917 the three great trade-union movements of Germany
(the free, Christian, and Hirsch-Duncker trade-unions) report also a
similar increase of membership. The exultation of the German
Employers’ Journal (Deutsche Arbeitgeberzeitung) and of other
papers friendly to employers’ interests over the downfall of tradeunionism was therefore entirely premature.
With this increase of their membership the trade-unions enter into
a new phase. Hitherto their activities were nearly exclusively
centered upon preventing a lowering of the worker’s standard of
living. “ From now on,” says the writer, “ they must with all means
at their disposal try to retain the advantages which they have gained
and even improve them, for the employers are already busily engaged
in influencing public opinion in favor of a reduction of the war wages.”
The Berliner Bôrsenzeitung (Berlin Stock Exchange Journal) said
lately:
“ The nearer Germany gets to peace and to restoration of its
international trade relations, the more must we work for a gradual
reduction of the present abnormal wages, if we intend to be able to
compete successfully with foreign production. The present high
wages and the large share they form of the costs of production make
it appear doubtful whether we will be able to produce as cheaply as
will be necessary to reconquer the world’s markets.
The Deutsche Arbeitgeberzeitung, of course, readily made this argu­
ment its own and added to it: “ The working classes should com­
prehend that under the present circumstances it is to their own
interest that they be contented.” To which the writer replies that
German organized labor, as represented by the free, Christian, and
Hirsch-Duncker trade-unions, will never comprehend why wages
should be reduced first before a reduction of the prices of commod­
ities has taken place, and that this latter prerequisite will not be
given for many months after the termination of the War.
The writer then proceeds to call attention to the tendency during
the War of granting temporary high-cost-of-living bonuses and bonuses
graduated in proportion to the size of the family. This tendency is
considered harmful, as it aims to keep basic wages as low as

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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

[SSS]

MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

161

possible. The initiative for this tendency was given by the
State and the municipalities. High-cost-of-living bonuses, as a rule,
are being granted with the mental reservation of rescinding them
after the War, while the allowance of bonuses to the married and those
having children is based on an entirely false idea of what constitutes
a wise attitude to the problem of population. It is significant that
even a high public official, viz, Dr. Luppe, the mayor of Frankfort
on the Main, has severely criticized the present system of remunera­
tion of medium and low-salaried Government employees and work­
men in Prussia.1 The new Prussian appropriation law of April 1,
1917, provides for a monthly high-cost-of-living bonus of 12 marks
($2.86) for the first child, 13 marks ($3.09) for the second child, 14
marks ($3.33) for the third child, and so on. An employee or work­
man with eight children, for instance, would receive a total bonus of
139 marks ($33.08) for his children. This discrimination in favor of
families with numerous children is a true product of the War. Aside
from the fact that this policy does by no means promote an increase
of the population, no State Government can for any length of time
bear the costs of such a policy. At present the salaries of Govern­
ment and municipal officials in Germany and also the wages of work­
men are based on a system of low initial salaries with increasing pre­
miums for length of service in connection with promotion into higher
salary or wage classes. Dr. Luppe demonstrates that this system
neither promotes early marriages nor does it tend to increase the
number of children of wageworkers who marry while still young,
while on account of the low initial salaries and wages paid on the
basis of this system the Government loses the services of really
efficient young men who can obtain much more remunerative em­
ployment in private establishments. A system of remuneration
which is not based on efficiency—an efficient young single workman
may under this system receive 4 marks per day, while an inefficient
married workman with numerous children may receive 8 marks per
day—moreover, creates serious discontent. Dr. Luppe, therefore,
recommends that the State and municipal governments shall adopt
high initial salaries and reduce the number of the higher salary and
wage classes.
A large number of private employers of late have also met wage
demands by granting high-cost-of-living bonuses or bonuses based on
the size of the families of their employees and workmen. As a rule,
the individual wageworker does not mind in what form he receives a
wage increase, be it called a war bonus, a high-cost-of-living bonus^
or a family allowance. All he cares for is that he receives more money
for his services. He does not consider that these bonuses are granted
! Frankfurter Zeitung.


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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

Frankfort on the Main, Aug. 12,1917.

[SS9]

162

MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

under the present pressure of a great scarcity of male and female
labor, that they are not binding, and that they may be revoked at
any time at the pleasure of the employer. For this reason the writer
points out that the trade-unions should make it their particular task
to see that all collective agreements concluded in the future shall
provide higher initial or basic wages and longer duration of the
agreement.
He predicts that unless this policy is adopted by the trade-unions
the German workmen will face an unprecedented era of labor disputes
after the conclusion of the War because the employers of all industrial
branches are even now solidly organized with the object of prevent­
ing further wage increases during the War and of reducing wages on
its termination.


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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

[8 9 0 ]

WAGES AND HOURS OF LABOE.
RATES OF WAGES PAID TO WORKERS PLACED BY EMPLOYMENT
OFFICES IN THE UNITED STATES, FEBRUARY, 1918.

In the following table are shown the prevailing rates of wages paid
to workers in 33 selected occupations placed in employment by public
employment offices on the last day of February, 1918, or the day
nearest the last day in February on which workers were placed.
Reports from 127 employment offices in 39 States and the District
of Columbia were tabulated as follows: Thirty-nine Federal employ­
ment offices, 3 Federal-municipal employment offices, 11 FederalState employment offices, 1 Federal-State-county employment office,
1 Federal-State-county-municipal emploj^ment office, 1 Federal-Statemunicipal employment office, 46 State employment offices, 1 Statecounty-municipal employment office, 18 State-municipal employment
offices, 5 municipal employment offices, and 1 municipal-private
employment office.


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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

[891]

103

164

MONTHLY REVIEW OE THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.
R A TES OF W AGES PA ID TO W ORKERS PLACED IN EMPLOYMENT
[Fed. = Federal; Sta.-= State; Co.=County; Mun.=Municipal; P ri.~

State, city, and kind of
office.

Alabama:
Mobile, (F ed .).................
Arkansas:
Little Rock (F ed .)........
California:
Eureka (F ed .)................
I,os Angeles (Sta.-Mun.)
Sacramento (F ed.).
San Diego (F ed .)...........
San Francisco (F ed .). . .
Santa Barbara (F ed .)...
Colorado:
Colorado Springs (Sta.).
Denver No. 1 (Sta.).......
Denver No. 2 (Sta.)__
Pueblo (S ta .)..................
Connecticut:
Bridgeport (Fed.-Sta.).
ITart,ford ( Sta i . . . . . .
New Haven (S ta.)........
Norwich (Sta.t...............
Waterbury (S ta .)..........
Delaware:
Wilmington(Fed.-Mun )
District of Columbia:
Washington (F ed .).......
Florida:
Ja eksonvi 11e ( Fe d .) __
Key West (Fed.) ' ___
Miami (F ed .)__
Georgia:
Atlanta (F ed .-S ta .)...
Savannah (F ed.)............
Idaho:
Moscow (F ed .)...............
Illinois:
Chicago (Fed.) .............
Chicago (Sta.).................
East St. Louis (S ta .)...
Peoria (S ta .)...................
Rockford (S ta .)..............
Rock Isla n d -M o lin e
(S ta .)............................
Springfield (S ta.)...........
Indiana:
Evansville (S ta.)...........
Fort Waynè (S ta .)........
Indianapolis (F ed .)___
Indianapolis (S ta .)........
South Bend (S ta .)........
Terre Haute (S ta .)__
Iowa:
Des Moines (Fed.-Sta.)
Kansas:
Topeka (S ta.).................
Kentucky:
Louisville (S ta .).........
Louisville (Mun.-PriJ_.
Maryland:
Baltimore (F ed .)...........
Massachusetts:
Boston (S ta .).................
Springfield (S ta .)..........
Worcester (S ta .)............
Michigan:
B attle Creek (S ta.)........
Bay City (S ta .)__
Detroit (S ta .)........... .
Flint (S ta .).....................
Grand Rapids (Sta.)
Jackson (Sta.).................
Kalamazoo (Sta.)..........
1 arising (S ta.)................
Muskegon (Sta.)
Saginaw (Sta.).'............
1 And board.


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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

Blacksmiths. Boiler makers.

Bricklayers.

Carpenters.

Cleaners and
scrubbers,
female.

14 .50 d.

$4. 50 d.

$4.00 d.

$4.95 d.

.SO h.

.52 h.

.60 h.

$5.00 d.

.50 h.

6.00 d.

4.50 d.
4.50 d.

. 30 h.

4.50 d.

4. 00- 5.00 d.
8 6. 50 d.
4.50 d.

.30 h.
i 30.00 m.

4.00 d.

.75 h.

.30 h.
.25 h.

3.75 d.

.60 h.
.52)h.

5.80 d.

5.80 d.

.25 h.
.25
.25
.25
2.00
i 30.00

.55 h.

h.
h.
h.
d.
m.

.62) h.
.62)h.

.20 h.

.42-. 50 h.
.50 h.
1.00 d.
1.00 d.

50.00 m.
4.00 d.

.50 h.
4.00 d.

.60 h.
5.00 d.

.50 h.
4.00 d.

.50 h.
.40 h.
.48 h.
75.00 m.

.50 h.
.42)h.
.50 h.

6.00 d.
.50 h.
. 87)h.

.45 h.

.75 h.

.70 h.
.50 h.
.70 h.
.60 h.
.62) h.

2.10
.15
2.10
.25

.65 h.
.50 h.

.52-. 75 h.
.60 h.

.75 h.
.65 h.

. 62) h.
.55 h.

.25 h.
1.50 d.

. 45 h.

.52 h.

. 70h.

. 50h.
.50 h.
3.50-5.50 d-

.20 h.
6.00 w.
1.50 d.
2.00 d.

.55 h.

. 50 h.

.52 h.

,75b.

.37-.66h.

.46-.59 h.

. 75h.

.45 h.
. 50 h.
. 50 h.

.47-.60 h.
• 47-.60h.

. 50 h.
. 55h.

.65 h.
. 50 h.

. 70-.75 h.
. 65 h.

.45 h.

.45 h.

.75 h.

. 48 h.

d.
h.
d.
h.

. 40 h.

. 60 h.

.20b .

. 50h.
.62) h.

42.00 m.

4.00 d.
3.60 d.
.56 h. 22.00-25.00 w.
.54 h.

.20-.25 h.
10.00 w.
.22) h.

. 45 h.

• 60h.

.25 h.

.45-.65 h.
. 55 h.
. 60 h.
.55h.
. 55 h.
. 60h.

.25 h.
.25 h.
. 20 h.
.25h.
. 30 h.
1.25 d.
2. ÒÒd.

* And found.

[892]

1Ship carpenters.

MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

165

B Y EM PLOYMENT OFFICES IN TH E U N IT E D STATES, F E B R U A R Y , 1918.
Private; h.=hour; d.=day; w .=w eek; m. = month; y.=year.]

Cooks, male.

Cooks, female.

Drivers,
teamsters, etc.

Dock laborers.

Farm hands.

Hod carriers.

1 $30.00 m.

$2.00 d.

3.00 d.

1 30.00 m.

.30 h.

40.00 m.

2,75 d.

2.85 d.
1.75 d.

1 60.00-80.00 m. 1 30.00-40. OOm.
2 60.00 m.
40.00 m.

2.75 d.
> 2.00 d.

12.00 d.
$30. OOm.

114.00 w.
2.25 d.
18.00 w.

70.00 m.
50. OOm.
35.00 m.

40.00 m.
40.00 m.
45.00 m.
8.00 w.

3.00 d.
3.00 d.
3.50 d.
80.00 m.

21.00 w.

30.00-35. OOm.

15.00 w.

10.00 \v.

18.00 w.
15.00 w.
15.00 w.

$2.00 d.

3.50 d.

2 40.00 m.
2 60.00 m.
1 45.00 m.
40.00 m.
40.00 m.
<50.00 m.
<35.00 m.

.30 h.

21.00 w.

.50 h.

35.00 m.
45.00 m.
45.00 m.
35.00 m.
25.00 m.
35.00 m.

7.00 w.

40.00 m.

15.00 w.

25.00 m.

1.50- 1.75 d.

60.00 m.

2*5 00 50.00 m.
1.50 d.

20.00 m
.75 d.

1.50 d.

2.50 d.

25.00 m.
1.50 d.

1.75 d.

50.00 m.
<14.00 w-50.00 m.
10.00 w.
12.00-15.00 w.

9.00-15.00 w.
<60.00 m.
6.00 w.
i on h
10.00-12.00 w!
10.00 w.
7.00 w.

18.00-25.00 w.
12.00 W.

d.
w.
d.
w.
h.

.30- .35 h.

3.00 d.
2 00 <1

6.00 d.

3.00- 4.00
16.00
3.00
15 00
.35- .40

3.00 d.

40.00-50.00 m.
30.00-50.00 m.
35.00 m.

.45 h.
.45 h.
.50 h.

45.00-65.00 m.

.45- .50 h.

45.00-60.00 m.
35.00-50. 00 m.

. 42J h.

8. ÓÓ-2Ó.ÒÓ w.

6.00-10.00 w.

2.00 d.
18.00 w.
.25 h.
.25 h.
16.00 w.
18.00 w.

30.00 m.
30.00-35.00 m.
6 35.00 m.
30.00-40.00 m.
30.00 m.
30.00-35.00 m.

00 00 oo no m

95 00-40 00 m

. 25 h.

30.00-50.00 m.

2.00 d.

t 35.00 m.

10.00 w.

i 8.00 w.

.45 h.

50.00 m.

1.00 d.

5.00 rv.

. 25 h.
3.00 d.

i 2.50 d.
15.00 w.

10.00-15.00 w.

3.00 d.
15.00-17.00 w.
.30 h.

14.00 w.

8.00 w.

18.00 \v.
. 35 h.

60. 00-80.00 m.

10.00-12.00 w.
12.00 w.
TO OOw
50.00-75! 00 m.

3.50 d.
.30 h.

1 75.00 m.

2. 70 d.
2 OO(1
. 35 h.

.31 k.

1 100.00 m.

12.00-14.00 w.
25.00 w.

25.00-40.00 m.
28.00-35.00 m.
35.00 m.
35. 00 m.
35. 00 m.
30.00-50.00 m.
30.00-40.00 m.
1 50.00 m.
20.00 m.

6.00 w.
<And room and board.


https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

1. 50 d.
« 40.00 m.
30.00-35.00 m.
< 35.00 m.

6 And house, garden, etc.

[893]

3. 44 d.

.40 h.
.35 ii.
.33 h.

166

MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.
R A TES OF W AGES PA ID TO W O R K ER S PLACED IN EM PLOYM ENT B Y

State, city, and kind of
office.

House serv­
ants.

Inside wiremen.

Laborers.

Laundry
operatives,
male.

Laundry
operatives,
female.

Alabama:
Mobile (F ed .).................
55.00 w.
$3.50 d.
12.75 d.
Arkansas:
Little Rock (F ed .)........
5.00 w.
.75 h.
.30 h.
California:
Eureka (F ed .)................
3.20 d.
Los Angeles (Sta.-Mun.)
30. 00 m.
4.50 d. 2. 50- 3.00 d.
$16.00 w.
10.00 w.
Sacramento (F ed .)........
San Diego (F ed .)........... 35.00-40. 00 ra.
2.75 d.
8.00 9 00 w
San Francisco (F ed .). . .
35.00 m.
.45 h.
3.00 d.
10.00 w.
Santa Barbara (F ed .)...
3.25 d.
Colorado:
Colorado Springs (Sta.).
30.0) m.
.35 h.
Denver No. 1 (Sta.)........
40.00 m.
2.50 d.
Denver No. 2 (S ta.)___
.35 h.
9. 50 w.
Pueblo (S ta.)........ '........
5.00 w.
.35 h.
Connecticut:
Bridgeport (Fed.-Sta.).
30.00 m.
.30- .35 h.
.30 h.
.25 h.
Hartford (Sta.)...............
6.00 w.
h
15 on w
.40 h
New Havèn (S ta.).........
8.00 w.
3.25 d.
15.00 w!
15.00 w.
Norwich (Sta.)...............
30.00 m.
18.00 w.
3.25 d.
Waterbury (S ta.)..........
22.50 m.
Delaware:
Wil mington (Fed.-Mun.) 5.00- 6.00 w.
.30- .40 h.
District of Columbia:
Washington (Fed.)........ 20.00-25.00 in.
.35 h.
Florida:
Jacksonville (F ed.).......
2.00- 2. 20 d.
Key West (F ed.)...........
Miami (F ed .)..................
Georgia:
Atlanta (Fed.-Sta.)___
4.00 w.
2.00 d.
Savannah (F ed.)............
1.00 d.
3.00 d.
2.00 d.
1.00 d.
0.75 d.
Idaho:
Moscow (F ed .)...............
5.00 w.
3.60 d.
Illinois:
Chicago (F ed .)............... 7.00-10.00 w.
Q OO w
.27- .35 h.
Chicago (Sta.)................. 6.00-10. 00 w. 3.50- 5.00 d.
.25- .50 h.
2 10 2 00 rl
East St. Louis (S ta .)...
5.00 w.
.75 h.
3.00 d.
20.00 w.
9.00 w.
Peoria (S ta.)...................
5.00 w.
.30 h.
9 10 r\
Rockford (S ta.)..............
6.00 w.
. 65- . 75 h.
.45- .50 h. 12.00-14.00 w.
8.00 w.
Rock I si and-M oline
(Sta.)............................
7.00 w.
.62Jh.
3.50 d.
17.25 w.
9.00 w.
Snringfìeld (S ta .).......... 30.00-40.00 m.
.23- .50 h.
2.00 d.
1.00 d.
Indiana:
Evansville (Sta.)...........
4.00 w.
2.00 d.
Fort Wayne (S ta .)........
. 30 h.
Indianapolis (F e d .)___
i 6.00 w.
.30 h.
6.00 w.
Indianapolis (S ta .)........
12.00 m.
2.75 d.
South Bend (S ta .)........
5.00 W.
.30 h.
Terre Haute (S ta .)........
.25-,30 h.
18.00 w.
Iowa:
Des Moines (Fed.-Sta.).
.32J h.
Kansas:
Topeka (Sta.)___
5.00-8.00 w.
0.60 h.
• 25h.
15.00 w.
4.00-6.00 w.
Kentucky:
Louisville (S ta .)............
.22-.30h.
Louisville (Mun.-Pri.)..
2 6.00 w.
2.00 d.
1.00 d.
Maryland:
Baltimore CFed.)...........
5.00 w.
.46-.59 h.
.25-.32 h.
Massachusetts:
Bpston (S ta .)............
3.00-10.00 w.
. 40 h.
3.00 d.
15.00 w. 7.00-10.00 w.
Springfield (S ta .).......... 5.00- 6.00 w.
. 50-.55 h.
.30-.35 h.
W orcester (S ta .)............ 5.00- 7.00 w.
,45h.
3.00 d.
Michigan:
Battle Creek (S ta .)....... 5.00- 6.00 w.
. 30 h.
18.00 w. 8.00-12.00 w.
Bay City (S ta .).............. 3.00- 4.50 w.
• 25-.30h.
Detroit (S ta .).................
8.00 w.
.3 5 -,7 1 h.
.35-.40 h.
18.00 w.
15.00 w.
Flint (S ta .).....................
5.00 w.
. 45 h.
.30h.
3.00 d.
1.50 d.
Grand Rapids (S ta .)... 3.00- 5.00 w.
. 30 h.
Jackson (Sta.)................. 5.00- 8.00 w. 50.00-55.00m.
.30- .35 h. 18.00-25.00 w. 9.00-12.00 w.
Kalamazoo (S ta.)..........
k no w
3.00- 4.00 d.
Lansing ( S t a .) .............
2 8 .00 m.
. 70 h.
. 40 h.
20.00 w.
14.00 w.
Muskegon (S ta.)............
.30 h.
Saginaw (S ta.)...............
2.75 d.


https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

1 And room and board.

[894]

MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

167

EMPLOYM ENT OFFICES IN TH E U N IT E D STATES, F E B R U A R Y , 1918—Continued.

Holders.

Machinists.

Plasterers.

Painters.

Plumbers.

Saleswomen.

$5.00 d.

$4.50 d.

$3.00 d.

$5.50 d.

.52 h.

.65 h.

.65 h.

$6.00 d.

.75 h.

$8.00 yr.

5.00 d.
5.80 d.

. 50 h.

3.50 d.

5.00 d.

5.00 d.

10.00 w.

5.80 d.

5 .SO d.

5.50 d.

12.00 w.

.60 h.
8.00 w.

.50 h.
.50 h.

.62 h.
.45 h.
.55 h.
.59ih.

.60 h.

. 62J h.

.621h.

.60 h.
. 52Jh.

.55 h.
. 62 h h.

5.84 d.

5.84 d.

. 45- . 65
.55
.51
.40
.35- .45

h.
h.
h.
h.
h.

4.00 d.
.58 h.
5.00 d.
.35- .40 h.

4.00- 6.00 d.
.45 h.

4.00- 8.00 d.
.45 h.

. 45- . 50 h.
. 60 h.
3.00- 5.00 d.
. 55 h.
.50 h.

4.10 d.

. 45 h.

. 55 h.

.60 h.
15.00 w.

.45 h.
4.00 d.

.60 h.
4.00 d.

5.00 d.

.70 h.
70.00 m.
.60 h.

6.00 d.

6.00 d.

. 874 h.

.87ih .

. 50- . 55 h.

. 621 h.

.75 h.

8.00 w.

.55 h.
.50 h.

.75 h.
.65 h.

5. 45 d.
8.00-10.00 w.

10.00 w.
10.00 w.

10.00 w.

8.008.00-

12.00 '.V.
12.00 W.
8.00 w.

. 65 h.
5.00 d.

. 35-$0.50 h.
4.00 d.

.7 5 h .

.50 h.

.62111.

7.00 w.
6.00 w.

. 45 h.
. 40 h.
. 46-. 59 ll.

. 60 h.

4.00 d.
. 55 h.

. 70 h.
. 55 h.

.60-. 70 h.
,65li.

4.50 d.

.40- . 45 h.

.50- . GOh.

.60 h.

12.00 w„
10.00 w.
8.00 w,
6.00-12.00 w.

. 55 h.

. 60 h.

.70 h.

. 75 h.

15.00 w.

. 35-. 60 h.
.60h.
. 40 h.
.45 h.

. 45 h.

.47-.60 h .
6.00-7.00 w.

3.72 d.


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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

7.00-8.50 w.

20.00 w.

. 37 h.

. 45 h.
.60 h.
. 50 h.

20.00 w.

. 44 h.
. 50 h.

.48 h.
. 55-. 60 h.
. 40-. 60 h.

3 And board.

[895]

168

MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.
R A TES OF WAGES PAID TO W ORKERS TLACED IN EMPLOYMENT BY

State, city, and kind of
office.

Seamstresses.

Alabama:
Mobile (F ed .).................
Arkansas:
Little Rock (F ed .)........
California:
Eureka (F ed .)................
Los Angeles (Sta.-Mun.)
$2.00 d.
Sacramento (F ed .)........
San Diego (F ed .)...........
San Francisco (F ed .). . .
2.00 d.
Santa Barbara (F e d .)..
Colorado:
Colorado Springs (Sta.).
1.00 d.
Denver No. 1 (Sta.).......
Denver No. 2 (Sta.).......
Pueblo (S ta .)..................
1.00 d.
Connecticut:
Bridgeport (Fed.-Sta.).
Hartford (Sta.)...............
New Haven (S ta.)........
Norwich (Sta.)...............
Waterbury (S ta.)..........
Delaware:
Wilmington(Fed.-Mun.)
District of Columbia:
2.00 d.
Washington (F ed.).......
Florida:
Jacksonville (Fed.).......
Key West (Fed.)...........
Miama (F ed .).................
Georgia:
15.00 w.
Atlanta (Fed.-Sta.)___
Savannah (F ed.)............
1.75 d.
Idaho:
Moscow (F ed .)...............
Illinois:
Chicago (F ed .)............... 7.00- 9.00 w.
Chicago (Sta.) ....................
.20 h.
East St. Louis (S ta .)...
2.00 d.
Peoria (S ta.) ......................
2.00 d.
Rockford (Sta.) ................
Rock I si and-M oline
2.00 d.
(S ta.) ..................................
2.00 d.
Springfield (S ta.) .............
Indiana:
Evansville (S ta.) .............
Fort Waynè (S ta .).......
Indianapolis (F ed .)----2.00 d.
Indianapolis (S ta .) .........
South Bend (S ta .) ..........
Terre Haute (S ta .) .........
Iowa:
Des Moines (Fed.-Sta.).
Kansas:
Topeka (S ta.) ....................
10.00 w.
Kentucky:
Louisville (S ta .) ..............
Louisville (M un.-Pri.).. ...........................
Maryland:
Baltimore (F ed.) .............
1.25 d.
Massachusetts:'
Boston (S ta .) ..................... 1.50-2.50 d.
Springfield (S ta .) ............
Worcester (S ta .) ..............
Michigan:
Battle Creek (S ta.)........
B ay City (S ta .)..............
Detroit (S ta .).................
Flint (S ia .).....................
.25 h.
Grand' Rapids (S ta .).. .
Jackson (Sta.)................. 8.00-15. 00 w.
Kalamazoo (S ta .)..........
Lansing (S ta.)................
. 25 h.
Muskegon (Sta.)............
Saginaw (Sta.)...............
1And found.


https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

* And board..

Sewing
machine
operators,
male.

Sewing
machine
operators,
female.

Stenographers, Stenographers,
male.
female.

$90.00 m.

$70.00 m.

100.00 m.

85.00 m.

75.00 m.

75.00 m.

93.50 m.

75.00 m.
40.00 m.
8.00 w.

15.00 w.

1,100.00 y .

1,100.00 y.

75.00 m.

20.00 w.
60.00 m.

10.00 w.
$2.00 d.

$1.75 d.

9.00-25.00 w.
30.00 w.

.20 h.

18.00 w. 12.00-18. 00 w.
50.00-100.00 m. 8.00-20.00 w.
90.00 m.
75.00 m.
35.00-

100.00 m.

1.50 d. 80.0060.00-

10.00 w.
16.00 W.

6.00 w.
60 00-100 00 m.

70.00 m.

60.00 m.
5.00-

1.00 d.
10.00 w. 60.00-

45.00 m .

100.00 m. 75.00 m.
100.00
m.
40.0060.00 m.

10.00 w.
10.00 w.

125.00 m. 15.00 w.

12.0018.008.00w.
20.00 W.
20.00 w.
12.00-14.00 w.
8.00 w.
65.00 m. 10.00-12.00 w.
.35 h.

2.50 d.
.20 h.

80.00 m.

60.00 m .

8.00-15.00 w.

8.00-20.00 w.

8.00-20.00 w.

100.00 m.

75.00 m.

8 $27.50 per month with room and board.

[896]

MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

169

EMPLOYMENT OFFICES IN TH E U N IT E D STATES, FE B R U A R Y , 1918—Continued.
Telephone
operators
(switchboard),
female.

Structuraliron workers.

Casual workers,
male.

W aitresses.

Waiters.

$1.75 d.

$4.00 d.
65.00 m.

$8.00 w.

5.80 d.

30.00 m.
11.00 w.

$7.00 w.

$8.00 w.

8.00 w.

.30 h.

$1.00 d.

9.00-12.00 w.
i 42.00 m.

9.00 w.
10.00 w.

.30 h.
2.50 d.
2.25 d.

.25- .30 h.

40.00 m.

25.00 m.
35.00 m.
10.00 w.
10.00 w.

.35
2.50
.35
.35

h.
d.
h.
h.

.25
2.00
2.50
.25

h.
d.
d.
h.

12.00 w.
30.00 m.

10.00 w.

.25- .30
.40
3.25
3.25
2.50

h.
h.
d.
d.
d.

.25
.25
.25
2.00
2.50

h.
h.
h.
d.
d.

60.00 m.

.60 h.
5.00 d.

12.00 w.

7.00 w.
7.00 w.

. 41£h.

.25 h.

50. 00 m.

40.00 m.

* 20.00 m.

.35 h.

1.25 d.

2.00 d.

1.75 d.

1.50 d.

1.50 d.

1.00 d.

2.50 d.

1.50 d.

.28- .35 h.
.30- .50 h.
.30 h.

2.10- 2.35 d.
.25- .30 h.
.15 h.

5.54 d.
.70 h.
.70 h.
.70 h.

8.00-14.00 w.
8.00-12.00 w.
10.00 w.

. 62} h.

18.00 w.
24.00 m.

* 8.00-12.00
18.00
10.00
12.00

w.
w.
w.
w.

» 9.00-10.00
*8.00-10.00
8.00
8.00
1.50

22.50 m.

w.
w.
w.
w.
d.

.35 h.

.20- .25 h.

12.00 w.
12.00 w.

9.00 w.
6.00 w.

3.00- 3.58 d.

.25 h.

l.OOd.
6.00 w.
8.00 w.
6.00 w.

0.25- . 30 h.
.25 h.

15.00 w.

3.00-5.00 w.

. 30 h.

. 45 h.

10.00 w.

.25-

.25-

12.00-15.00 w.

•2.00 d.

* 7.00 w.
* 5.00 w.
• 30.00 m.

8.00 w.

8.00 w.

. 65-, 70 h.
60.00 m.

12.00-15.00 w.
9.00 w.

• 9.00
9.00
6.00
9.00

8.00-10.00 w.
15.00 W.

w.
w.
w.
w.

2 20.00 m.

7.ÓÒ w.
7.00 w.
7.00- 8.00 w.
8.00 W.
215.00 m.

.27 h.
.30 h.
.30 h.
.30-

.40 h.
.35 h.
. 32£ h.
. 30 h.
.30- .35 h.
4.00 d.

1And board at restaurants; $20 per month and room and board at hotels.

• And carfare.
• And room and board.


https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

[897]

.20h .
1.10 d.
6.00 w.

32. 50 m.

. 47-. 60 h.
.47-. 60 h.

1. 50 d.
1.60 d.
. 30 h.

. 35 h.

2.00 d.

5.00 w.
8.00 w.

6. GO- 7.00 d.

Casual workers,
female.

. 20 h.
• . 20 h.
.25 h.

. 25 h.
.25 h.
.20 h.
.25 h.
2.25 d.

170

MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS,
RATES OE WAGES PA ID TO W ORKERS PLACED IN EMPLOYMENT BY

State, city, and kind of
office.

Blacksmiths. Boilermakers.

Minnesota:
Minneapolis (Fed.)........ $3. 00-4.00 d.
Missouri:
Kansas City (Fed.-Sta.)
.40 h.
St. Joseph (S ta .)...........
4.00 d.
St. Loins (F ed .-S ta .)...
Montana:
Butte (Sta.)....................
Helena (Fed.).................
4.00 d.
Nebraska:
Lincoln (Fed.-Sta.)___
Omaha (Fed.-Sta.-Co.Mun.)............................
Nevada:
Reno (F ed .)...................
New Jersey:
Newark
(Fed.-Sta.Mun.)............................ 18. 00-25.00 w.
New Mexico:
Doming (Fed.)...............
New York:
Buffalo (F ed .).................
Ohio:
Akron (Sta.-Mun.)........
. 50 h.
Athens (S ta .).................
Canton (Sta.-Mun.)___
.40h.
Chiiiicotne (Sta.-Mun.).
.so il.
Cincinnati (Sta.-Mun.) .
. 424 h.
. 50 h.
Cleveland (Fed).............
Cleveland (Sta.-Mun.)..
. 45-. 65 h.
Columbus (Sta.-Mun.)..
Dayton (Sta.-Mun.)___
. 40 h.
Hamilton (Sta.-Mun.)..
. 45 h.
Lima (S ta.).....................
Mansfield (Sta.).............
. 40 h.
Marietta (Sta.)...............
Marion (Sta.-Mun.)___
.35- 40 h.
Portsmouth (Sta.)........
. 51J h.
S a n d u s k y (Sta.-Co.Mun.)...........................
4.00 d.
Springfield (Sta.-Mun.).
. 45 ll.
Steubenville(Sta.-Mun.)
. 40 h.
Tiffin (Sta.-Mun.).........
3.75 d.
Toledo (Sta.-Mun.).......
.50h.
Washington C.H. (Sta.Mun.)............................
Y oungstown(Sta.-Mun.)
. 45 h.
Zanesville (Sta.-M un.).
.40 h.
Oklahoma:
Oklahoma City (S ta .)..
Oregon:
Portland (Fed.).............
5.25 d.
Portland (M un.)...........
5. m d.
Pennsylvania:
Erie (Fed.-Sta.) *..........
. 45 h.
Harrisburg (Sta.)3........
.35- .45 h.
Johnstown (Fed.-Sta.)3
. 42 ll.
Philadelphia (F ed .)___
.40- . 50 h.
Philadelphia (Sta.)3___
.66 h.
Pittsburgh (F ed.).........
.60 h.
Pittsburgh (Fed.-Sta.Co.)0............................
. 55-. 65 h.
Scranton (Fed.-Sta.)3..
3.75 d.
York (Fed.-Sta.)3 ........
Rhode Island:
Providence (F ed .)........
. 47-, 60 h.
Providence (S ta.)..........
. 47- 60 h.
South Carolina:
Charleston (F ed .)..........
Tennessee:
Memphis (F ed.).............
1And room and board.


https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

Bricklayers.

Carpenters.

Cleaners and
scrubbers,
female.

SO- 35 h.

$0. 40-. 60 h.

$0.75 h.

S0.55h.

. 50-. 60 h.

7.00 d.
• 80 k.

. 50-. 65 h.
.50-, 62J h.

4. 40 d.

S.OOd.

6.00 d.

. 30 h.

• £jO 11.
\ fin
•>-f V
»
3.00 d.

25 h.

3. 75 d.

.25 h.
. 75 h.

. 50 h.
. 50 h.
. 50 h.
. 50 h.
. 624 h.
. 45-, 55 h.
.50h.

. 75 h.
. 75 h.
. 80 h.
. 80 h.
. 60-. 75 h.
. 80 h.

,47Jh.
80.00 m.

. £0 h
. 70 h.

. 65 h.
.fin h
. 60 h.
. 60 h.
. 624 h.
. 70 h.
.45- 60 h.
nn fill h
1 60 h.'

95 h
25 h
1 50 d

^ fiOd

2 00 d.
1. OU(1.
1. fin d .
1 25 d

. 50 h.
45 50 h
; so ill
. 45 ll.

1.50 d.
i nn h
90 h
1.50 d.

. 70 h.
. 75 h.

. 65 h.

. 50 h.

170 111

. 55 h.

1 c;n
] 50 d
2.00 d.
1. UUQ.

. 68 ll.
.43h.

. 80 h.
.70 h.

. 63 h.
. 52 J h.

5.25 d.
5.77i d.

7.00 d.
7.00 d.

.37-, 45 h.

.75 h.

. 40-, 50 h .
. 5Qh.

.35- . 45 h.
.36- .44 h.
. 66 h.
. 55 h.
. 55-. 65 h.

. 47-, 60 h.

.75 h.
.65- . 75 h.
.7 0 h .
.70 h.
.75 h.
. 60-. 75 h.
. 80 h.

.60 k.

20 ll

5.60 d.
5.60-6.60 d.

30 h
.30 h.

. 62J h.
1.50 d.
1 1. 50 d.
. 55 h.
.60 ll. 7.00-10.00 w.
6.00 w.
. 60 h.
.25 ll.
.50-,75 h.

.15- . 25 ll.

. 45 h.

[ 898]

.22- 25 h.
1.50 d.

. 44-, 60 h
3.50 d.

3And board.

1 75 d
2 10 d.
1.50 d.

! January report.

MONTHLY REVIEW OE THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS,

171

EM PLOYM ENT OFFICES IN T H E U N IT E D STATES, F E B R U A R Y , 1918—Continued.

Cooks, mala.

Cooks, female.

Drivers,
teamsters, etc.

Dock laborers.

$60.00-75.00 m.

$7.00-15. 00 w.

$15. 00-18.00 w.

$2. 50-3.00 d.

6. 00- 10. 00 w.
14.0018.00 w.
S. 00-15.00 w.
12. 0018.00 w.
i 75.00 m. i 25.00-35. 00 m.

14.00-16.00 w.
2. 50- 3.00 d.

21.00 w.
20. 50 w.

17.50 w.
21.00 \v\

3. 75 d.

Farm hands.

Hod carriers.

$20.00-50.00 m.

$0.50 h.

30.0060. 00 m.
40.0060.00 m.
1 30.00 m.

. 45 h.
. 50 h.

50.00 m.
45.00 ra.

6.00 I .

i 45. 00-50.00 m.
40.00 m.

18.00 w.

9.00 w.

75.00 in.

1.50 d.
30.00-40.00 m.

15.00-18.00 w.

20.00 w.

15.00 w.

3.00 d.

15.00 w.
20.00 w.
. 40 h.
25.00-30.00 w.
140.00- 60.00 m.

8.00 w.
8.00 w.
8.00 w.
18.00-20.00 w.
i 40.00-50.00 m.
50.00 m.

75.00 m.
12.00-15.00 w.

5.00 w.
12.00 w .
6. 00- 10.00 w.

60.00-70.00 m.

25.00-35.00 in.

15.00-20.00 w.

5.00-7.00 w.
12.00 w.

15.00 w.
515.00 w.

210.00 w.

15.00-22.00 w.
00.00 m.

30.00-50.00 m.

75.0080.00-

.30h.
18.00 w.
. 30 h.
18.50 w.
18.00 w. ...............’. 35 h .”
18.00-22.00 w.
. 40-. 45 h.
2.50 d.
3.00 d.
55.00 m.
16.00-18.00 w.
. 27?. h

. 35 h.
. 40 h.
.35 h.

1.25 d.
40.00 m.
25.00-40.00 m.

. 49 h.
• 40h.

15.00 w.

8.00 w.

2. 25 d.

..............................

ISO.
15.0020.00
w. 00-45.00 m.
8.00 w.
20.00 w.

16.00- 20.00 w.
15.00 w.

7.00-12.00 w.

12.00-17.00 w.

. 40 1».

30.00 m.
.60-1.00 h.
6.00 d.

80.00 m.2. 75-3.50 d.
80.00 m.2.75-3.50 d.

.40 h.
10.00 w.
6.0015.00 w. 15.00 w.
15.0018.00 w.
70.00 m.
' 65.00 m.
i 75.00 m.
60.00 m.
90.00 m.
8.0015.0055.00w.
17.00 w.
7. 50 w.
75.00 m.
3. 50 d.
15.00 w.
20.00 w.

.45 h.
. 384 h.
. 35 h.
-32¿ h.

40.00- 60.00 m.
40.0060.00 m.
80.00 m.
25.00-35.00 m.
i 1.50 d.
35.00-60.00 m.
35.00 m.
640.00 m.
i 30.00-45.00 m.
25.00 m.

.25 h.


https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

. 35 h.

. 40 h.
. 45 h.

3.50 d.
2. 75 d.

20.00 w.
4And carfare and dinner.

.43 h.
. 45 h.
. 50 h.

45.00 m.
30.00-40.00 m.
40.00 m.
40.00 m.
i 35.00 in.

70.00 m.

8.00-16.00 w.

. 50 h.
. 50 h.

3.00 d.
. 30 h.
18.00 w.
2. 75 d.
17.00 w.

00.00 m.
20.00 w.

100.00 40.00m.
125.00 50.00m.

35.00 m.
2.00 d.
30.00-40.00 m.
1. 00- 1.50 d.
i 30.00 m.
30.0050.00 m.
30.00- 60.00 m.
i 30.00-35.00 m.
25.00 35.00 m.
35.00 m.
30.00-40.00 m.
30.0035.00 m.
25.0045.00 m.
30.00-40.00 m.
45.00 m.

2 35.00 m.
20.00-30.00 m.

32.50 m.
‘ And board and room and washing.

[8993

4.50 d.
4.50 d.
. 35 h.
. 45 h.
.40-. 50 h.

172

MONTHLY REVIEW OP THE BUREAU OE LABOR STATISTICS.
R A TE S OF W AGES RAID TO W OR K ER S PLACED IN EMPLOYMENT BY

Stato, city, and kind of
office.

House serv­
ants.

Minnesota:
Minneapolis (Fed.)........ $5.00- 9.00 w.
Mississippi:
Gulfport (F ed .).............
Missouri:
Kansas City (Fed.-Sta.) 5. OO- 7.00 w.
St. Joseph (S ta.)............ 4.00- 8.00 w.
St. Louis (F ed .-S ta.)... il8.00-25.00m.
Montana:
Butte (Sta.).................... 30.00-35. 00 m.
Helena (Fed.)................. 35.00-40. 00 m.
Nebraska:
Lincoln (Fed.-Sta.)___
Omaha (Fed -Sta.-Co.Mun.)............................
7.00 W.
Nevada:
Reno (F ed .)....................
30.00 m.
New Jersey:
Newark
(Fed.-Sta.Mun.)............................
New Mexico:
Deming (Fed.)...............
New York:
Buffalo (F ed .)................
Ohio:
Akron (Sta.-Mun.)........
7.00 w.
Athen (S ta .)...................
Canton (Sta.-Mun)........
6.00 w.
Chillicothe (Sta.-Mun.).
Cincinnati (Sta.-Mun.).
1 30.00 m.
Cleveland (F ed .)........... 7.00-10. 00 w.
Cleveland (Sta.-Mun.).. 5.00-10.00 w.
Columbus (Sta.-M un.).
6.00 w.
Dayton (Sta.-Mun.)___
5.00 w.
Hamilton (Sta.-Mun.)..
4.50 w.
Lima (S ta .).....................
Mansfield (Sta.).............
5.50 w.
Marietta (S ta.)............... 3.50-5.00 w.
Marion (Sta.-Mun.)___
5.00 w.
Portsmouth (S ta.)........
5.00 w.
S a n d u s k y (Sta.-Co.M un.)............................
Springfield (Sta.-Mun.).
5. 00 w.
Steubenville(Sta.-Mun.)
7. 00 w.
Tiffin (Sta.-Mun.).........
1.00 d.
Toledo (Sta.-Mun.).......
1 5.00 w.
Washington C.H. (Sta.Mun.)............................
Y oungstown(Sta.-Mun.)
7.00 w.
Zanesville (Sta.-M un.). 4. 50-6.00 w.
Oklahoma:
Oklahoma City (S ta .)..
5.00 w.
OregonPortland (Fed.)............. 30.00-40.00 m.
Portland (M un.)........... 25.00-40.00 m.
Pennsylvania:
Erie (Fed.-Sta.) * _____
Harrisburg (Sta.) * ........ 5.00-10.00 w.
Johnstown (Fed.-Sta.)*.
5.00 w.
Philadelphia (F ed .)___ 6. 00- 10.00 w.
Philadelphia (S ta .)* . . .
7.00 w.
Pittsburgh (Fed.)..........
7.00 w.
Pittsburgh (Fed.-Sta.i
Co.)*.............................. 120.00-30.00 m.
Scranton (Fed.-Sta.) * ..
6.00 w.
York (Fed.-Sta.) * ........
Rhode Island:
Providence (F ed .).........
Providence (S ta .).......... 4.00-8.00 w.
South Carolina:
Charleston (F ed .)..........
Tennessee:
Memphis (F ed .)............


https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

Inside wiremen.

Laborers.

Laundry
operatives,
male.

$2.50 d. $15.00-18.00 w.

$0.62* h.

Laundry
operatives,
female.

$7. 00 w.

. 25 h.
. 60h.

.30- . 45 h.
.25- .40 h.
. 35 h.

15.00 w.
15.00-18.00 w.

5.00- 9.00 w.
7.00-12 00 w
1.60 d.

4. 25 d.
3.50 d.

24.6Òw.

18. 00 w.

5.25 d.

.30h.
. 30 h.

9.00 w.

3.10 d.
.29*- .37* h.

.25- . 40 il.
0. 55 h.
. 40 h.
. fiOli.
. 621 h.
. 78i h.
.4 5 -.5 0 h.
. 55 h.
. 42§h
. 39 h.
. 40 h.

. 35 b.
. 35 h.
. 32* h.
. 35 h.
. 27 h.
.35-.45h.
. 35-. 50 h.
. 30 h.
. 30-. 35 h.
. 30 h.
.30h.
. 40 h.
.25h.
.30-. 351).
. 27* h.

18.00 w.

9.00 w.

18. 00 w.
14 00 w
16.00 w.

8.00 w.

95 h
14.00 w.
1.00 d.

. 25h
. 35h.
2 .50d.

.68 h.
3.25 d.

90 h
8. 00 w.
l.OOd.
6.00 w.

. 30h.
,30h. Ì5. ÓÓ-18.00 w.
,30h.
2.75 d.
. 30 h.
15. 00 w.

. 62* h.
125.00 m.
. 62* h.

10.00 w.
9.00-10. 00 w.

6. 00-7. 00 w.
1 25 d
8.00 w.

80.00 m.
17.50 w.

9.00 w.
10.25 w.

. 35 h. 15.00-21.00 w.
3.57* d. 15.00-21.00 w.

8.64-12.00 w.
8.64-15.00 w.

.30 h.
4.50 d.
4.50-5.77* d.
.25-. 35 h.
.45 h.
.50 h.
.45 h.
.4 0 .4 5 h.

.40 h.
.301).
.30-, 35 h.
.32- 40 h.
.35 h.
.35 h.
. 33-, 35 h.
.30 h.
2.25-2.50 d.
. 30-. 40 h.
.25-. 37 h.
1.75 d.
.27* h.

• And room and board.

[000]

12.00-15.00 w.
18.00 w.
15.00 w.

6.00 w.
6.00 w.
6. 00- 12.00 w.
6.50 w.
10.00 w.

MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS,

173

EM PLOYMENT OFFICES IN THE U N IT E D STATES, FE B R U A R Y , 1918—Continued.

Machinists.

Holders.

13.00- 4.00 d.

S3.00- 4.00 d.

. 60 h.
.50- . 80 h.
4. GOd.

5.20 d.

4.40 d.

6.00 d .

Plasterers.

Painters.

.40-

Plumbers.

SO. 55 h.

SO. 75 h.

SO. 52 h.

. 65 h.
. 50 h.

7.00 d .
. 75 h.

6.00 d.
. 80 h.

e.ood.

8.00 d.

8.00 d.

Saleswomen.

$8.00 w.

6.00-10.00 w.
7.00 w.

9.00 w.

. 55 h.

.75 h.

4.00 d.

.45- . 00 h.

.75 h.

. 65 h.

,

.5011.
. 50 h.
. 43 h.
. 5Q-. 70 h.
. 40". 60 h.
. 50-. 60 h.
. 60-. 65 h.
. 473 h.

. 65h.

. 50 h.

. 55 h.

5.00 d.

10.00 w.

. 50 h.

.60h.

.60 h.

. 60 h.

. 55 h.
. 60 h.
. 40-. 60 h.

. 75h.
. 75 h.
. 40-. 60 h.

. 653 h.
.81} h.
. 80 h.

8.00 w.
8.00 W.
7.00 w.
10.00-15.00 w.
7.00-9.00 w.
12.00 w.

. 40h.
.25h.

. 50h.

. 62Vh.

. 70 h.

.50h.
.70 h.

. 44.1, h.
5.50 d.
. 60 h.
. 45 h.
4.00 d.
4.25 d.
• 45h.

. 45 h.
.35-. 50 h.
. 50i h.

.45h.

2.75-3.50 d.
. 45 h.

. 30 h.
.35-.45 h.
. 57 h.
. 50 h.
. 50 h.

.4511.

.45-. 50 h.

• 50h.

4.00 d.
. 40 h.

.40h.
. 50 h.

. 70 h.

25.00 w.
. 65 h.
. 45 h.
. 623 h.

. 60 h.
. 45 h.

5.50 d.
. 45 h.

. 60 h.
. 50h.

.¿8 h.
.623 h.

. 65 h.
. 53 h.

...................6.'ÓÒ’w.
8.50 w.
6.00 w.

7.00-12.00
6.00
20.00
6.00

w.
w.
w.
w.

6.00 w.
10.00 w.
12.00 W.

8.648.64-

15.00 w.
15.00 w.

4.50 d.
4.50-6.50 d.

7.00 d.
7.00 d.

6.50 d.
6.50 d.

. 47 h.
.35-.45 h.

.50 h.

.60 h.

. 37«-.50 h.

8.00 w.

. 72i h.
. 62 h. ............... . 723 li.
. 60 h.
.60 h.

.60 h.
.55 h.
. 45 h.

.70 h.

4.00 d.
.56 h.
.75 b.

12.00 w.

5.00-5.50 d.

.55-. 60 h.
. 70 h.

5.25 d.
5.773 d.
. 40-.65 h.
.45-.55 h.

. 50-.65 h.
.42 h.

5.25 d.
5. 77i d .

.55 h.

.60-.70h.
. 70 h.
4.00 d.

. 47-. 60 h.
.32-,60 h.

. 75 h.

. 523 h
«January report.

4CG48°—18-----12


https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

[ 001 ]

..........I

.65h.

8.00 w.

12.00-17.00 w.
8.00 w.

174

MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.
RATES OF WAGES PA ID TO W ORKERS PLACED IN EMPLOYMENT B Y

State, city, and kind of
office.

Seamstresses.

Sewing
machine
operators,
male.

Minnesota:
Minneapolis (Fed.)....... $8.00-40.00 w.
i.00-35.00 w.
Mississippi:
Gulfport (F ed .).............
Missouri:
Kansas City (Fed.-Sta.)
St. Joseph (S ta .)........... 1.50- 2.00 d.
16. 00 w.
St. Louis (F ed .-S ta.)... 1.25- 2.00 d.
Montana:
Butte (Sta.)....................
Helena (Fed.).................
Nebraska:
Lincoln (Fed.-Sta.)___
Omaha (Fed.-Sta.-Co.Mun.)............................
2.50 d.
Nevada:
Reno (F ed .)....................
New Jersey:
Newark
(Fed.-Sta.Mun.)............................
2.00 d.
New Mexico:
Doming (Fed.)...............
New York:
Buffalo (F ed .)................
Ohio:
Akron (Sta.-Mun.)........
2.00 d.
Athens (S ta.).................
. Canton (Sta.-M un.).__
8.00 w.
ChilJicothe (Sta.-Mun.).
10.00 w.
Cincinnati (Sta.-Mun.).
7.50 w.
18.00 w.
Cleveland (Fed.)
2. 50 d.
Cleveland (Sta.-Mun.).. 2. 00-2. 50 d. 20.00-25. 00 w.
Columbus (Sta.-Mun.).
2.00 d.
Dayton (Sta.-M un.)...
Hamilton (Sta.-Mun.)1.
Lima (S ta.)...................
1.50-4.50 d.
Mansneìd (Sta.)...........
6.00 w.
Marietta (Sta.).............
Marion (Sta.-Mun.)__
Portsmouth (S ta.)___
S a n d u s k y (Sta.-Co.Mun.)
Springfield (Sta.-Mun.)
Steubenville (Sta.-Mun.)
Tiffin (Sta.-Mun.)..........
1.50 d.
Toledo (Sta.-Mun.).......
. 25 h.
Washington C .H. (Sta.M un.).,............. !.........
10.00 w.
2.50 d.
Y oungstown(Sta.-Mun.)
Zanesville (Sta.-Mun.).
10.00 w.
Oklahoma:
Oklahoma City (S ta.)..
Oregon:
Portland (F ed.).............
2.00 d.
Portland (M un.)...........
Pennsylvania:
Erie (Sta.-Fed.) 8 ..........
Harrisburg (Sta.)8 .......
8.00 w.
Johnstown (Sta.-Fed.)8 1.502.00 d.
Philadelphia (F ed .)___ 1.503.00 d.
Philadelphia (S ta.)8 ..
Pittsburgh (Fed.)........
2.00 d.
Pittsburgh (Fed.-Sta.C o.)8 ..........................
Scranton (Fed.-Sta.)8.
York (Fed.-Sta.)8........,
Rhode Island:
Providence (F ed .)___
providence (S ta.).........
South Carolina:
Charleston (F ed .)........
Tennessee:
Memphis (F ed .)..........
J And room and board.


https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

Sewing
machine
operators,
female.

Stenographers, Stenographers,
male.
female.

$12.00 w. $18.00-21.00 w $40.00-75.00 m.

12.00 w.

2.00d.

65.00-100.00 m. 10.0018.00 w.
40.00- 60.00 m.
65.00 m.
80.00 m.

80.00 m.

15.00-25.00 w. 10.00-18.00 w.
125.00 m.

9.00 w.

80.00 m.

w. 12.0018.00 w.
m.
75.00 m,
m.
50.00 m.
100.00
m.
75.0090.00 m,
100.00
m.
60.0085.00 m.
6.00 m.
22.00 w.
60.00 m.

60.00 m.
75.00 m.

6.00 w.

50.00 m.
60.00 in.
40.00 m.

7.00-15.00 w.
". 00-90.00 m. 40. 00-65.00 m.
100.00 m .
18.00 w.
8.00 w.
60. 00 m.
10.00 w.
10.00 w.
8.00 w.

8.648.64-

15.00 w.
100.00 m.
20.00 w.

10.00 w.
75.00 m.
15.00 w.

12.00 w. ¡80.00-125.00
m.
60.0012.00 w. 80.00-125.00
m.
60.00-

100.00 m.
100.00 m.

20.00 w.
12.00 w.
25.00 w. 12.00 w.
75.00 m.
45.00 m.
12.0018.00 w.
80.00 m.
16.00 w.
90.00 m.
65.00 m.

10.00-20.00 w. 18.00-

i."50-3." 00 d."

80.00- 100.00 m. 59.00- 75.00 m.
15.09 w .
10. 00 w.

15. 00-18.00 w.

16.00 w.
8.00-12. 00 w.

125.00 m,

100.00 m,

'■And board.

[9 0 2 ]

75.00 m.

00 W.
25.00
8.00 w.
100.00
12.00 w.
75.00
12. 00-15.00 w. 90.009.00-15.00 w. 75.008.

MONTHLY REVIEW OE THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

175

EMPLOYMENT OFFICES IN TELE U N IT E D STATES, F E B R U A R Y , 1918—Continued.

Structuraliron workers.

Telephone
operators
(switchboard),
female.

$0.45- . 50 h.

$40.00-50.00 m.

$15.00 w.

5.80 d.

35.00-65.00 m.

14.00 w.
12.00 w.
i 35.00 m.

Waiters.

8.00 w.
7.00 d.

35.00 m.

Waitresses.

Casual workers,
male.

$7.00-12.00 w.

$0.30- . 35 h.

5.00- 8.00 w.
8.0010.00 w.
1.10 d.

4.00 d.

14.00 w.
3.00 d.

60.00 m.

8.00 w.

5.00- 6.00 d.

Casual workers,
female.

$0.30- . 35 h.

. 30 h.
2.50 d.
.30 h.

2.10 d.
1. 50 d.
1.00- 1.59d.

3.00 d.

2.00 d.

.30 h.

2.00 d.

60.00 m.
. 30-. 50 h.
. 55 h.

9.00 w.

15.00 w.

8.00 w.

. 60 h.

8.00 w.

. 65 h.
. 80 h.
. 45-. 60 h.

45.00 m.
10.00 w.
8.00-15.00 w.

10.00-14.00 w.
14.00 w.
10.00 w.
10.00-12.00 w.

8.00-10.00 w.
1.00 d.
6.00 w.
7.00-8.00 w.
2 8.00-9.00 w.

. 50 h.
.70h.

. 19 h.
35.00 m.

7.00-10.00 w.
. 75 h.
. 68] h.

.60 h.
. 35-.45 h.
.70 h.
. 4S h.

. 40 h.
. 30 h.
2.00 d.
.30 h.

1.50 d.
~•
l.OOd.
. 25 h.
1. .50 d.
. 25 h.
1.50 d.

14.00 w.

10.00 w.
24.00-37.00 m.

50.00 m.
18.00 w.

8.00 w.
6.00 w.

2.00 d.
.35 h.
3.00 d.

9.00 w.

1.00 d.

.30 h.

.20 h.

w.
15.9013.00-18.00
w.
2 13.00-18.00
w.
14.00
w.

10.00-12.00 w.
2 10.00-13.00 w.

. 35 h.
.35-.45 h.

.30 h.
. 30-. 35 h.

5.00-7.00 w.
2 7.00 W.
30.00-60.00 m.

. 25 h.
.25 h.
.30 h.

15.00 w.

5.00 w.
2 5.00 w.
4.00-10.00 w.
6.00 w.
10.00 w.

2.00 d.
3.00 d.

.171 h.
1.50 d.
1.25-1.50 d.
1.60-2.40 d.
1.50 d.
2.00 d.

12.00-13.00 w.
25.00 m.

6.00-10.00 w.
3.00-8.00 w.

2.50 d.

1.50 d.

2 6.00-9.00 w.

2 4.00-7.00 w.

.20 h.

. 25 h.

9.00 w.
10.00 w.

f if ) l i

............................ 1


https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

1.50 d.
1.00 d.
. 20 h.
1.50d.

5.00 w.
6.00-S. 00 w.

10.00 w.

7.50-9.50 w.
7.00 W.

47

12.00-16.00 w.
7.00 w.

. 25 h.
2.00 d.
. 20 h.
1.60 d.
2.00 d.
2.00 d.
1.60 d.

. 30h.
. 35 h.
. 25 h.
. 25 h.
• 30 b.

1.00 d.
7.00 w.

6.00 9.00d.
6.50 9.00d.

5.005.00-

8.00 w.
2 5.00 w.
9.00 w.
3.50-5.00 w.
6. 00 w.

10.00 w.
5.00 w.

.75h.

. 60 h.
. 45 h.

15.00 w.
214.00 w.
15.00 w.

. 35 h.
. 20 h.
. 40 h.
. 30 h.
.27 h.
2.50 d.
.35 h.
.30 h.

•

12.50 w.
» January report.

[903]

176

MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.
R A TE S OF W AGES PAID TO W OR K ER S PLACED IN EMPLOYMENT B Y

Blacksmiths. Boilermakers.

Texas:
Dallas (Mun.).................
Del Rio (F ed .)...............
El Paso (F ed.)...............
Galveston (Fed.)...........
Houston (F ed .).............
Houston (Mun.)............
Utah:
Salt Lake City (F ed .)..
Virginia:
Norfolk (F ed .)...............
Washington:
B ellingham (F ed.-Mun.)
Seattle (Fed.).................
Seattle (M un.)...............
Spokane (F ed .).............
Spokane (Mun.).............
Tacoma (Fed.-Mun)__
Walla Walla (F e d .)....
Yakima (Fed.)...............
Wisconsin:
La Crosse (Sta.) * ..........
Milwaukee (Sta.-Mun.)
Wyoming: »
Cheyenne (F ed .-S ta.)..

Carpenters.

#7.00 d.

J5.00 d.
4.00 d.

$3. SO d.
$0.45 h.
. 53 h.
4.75-6.00 d.

.......................... 1................
.75 h.
LOO h.
4.50-6.00 d.

6.00 d.

Cleaners and
scrubbers,
female.

. 62-J li.
. 62J h. 25.00-50.00 m.
.60’ h.
1.00 d.
4.50-

4. 72 d.

6.001.25-2.00
d.
d.
.58 h.

5 .77J d.
5.84 d.
5.00-6.00 d.
5.50 d. ........... 5."ÒÒ"d.""
4.50 d.
6.00d.
5.28 d.

.45 h.

6.00 d.
4.00-7.00 d.
7.00 d.
6.00 d.
6.00 d.

.75 h.
• 30h.
5.60 d.
. 25 h.
4.506.00 d. 2.30 h.
5.00 d.
.35 h.
5.50 d.
. 35 h.
5.00 d.
.35 h.
3.51 d.
. 30 h.

.50 h.

.50 h.
.60- .75 h.

>And board.


https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

Bricklayers.

OO
O
O

State, city, and kind of
office.

* And car fare.

t904J

. 25 h.
25.00 m.

MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

177

EM PLOYM ENT OFFICES IN THE U N IT E D STATES, F E B R U A R Y , 1918-Continued.

Cooks, female.

Drivers,
teamsters, etc.

$12.00 w.
25.00 m.

$15.00 w.

45.00-

m.
275.0040.00-100.00
m.
20.00 m.
90.00 m.

2.00-3.00 d.
2.25 d.

40.00-

35.00-75.00 m.
125.00 m.

Cooks, male.

$75.00 m.
25.00 w.

100.00 m.

60.00 m.
3.25 d.
40.00 m.
i 45.00 m.
75.00 m.3.50-3.75 d.
80.00 m.
45.00 m.
65.00 m.
50.00 m.
65.00 m.
4.50 d.
40.00 m.
.37-. 44 h.
s 30.00 m.

35.00-

40.00 m.

3.00 d.

Farm hands.

$0.35-. 45 h.
. 25-.50 h.
. 50 h.

15.0040.00 m.
15.0035.00 m.
30.00 m.
40.00-

.50 h.
. 40 h.
.40-. 65h.
. 70-.80 h.

.40 h.


https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

$3.00 d.

75.00 m. 4.50-5.00 d.

40.0055.00 m.
150.00 m.
45.0075.00 m. 4.00-4.50 d.
60.00 m.
4.50 d.
60.00 m.
65.00 m.
4.50 d.
50.00- 65.00 m.
i 45.00-60.00 m.
25.00 m.
35.00 m.
i 50.00 m.

* And room and board.

Hod carriers.

$30.00 m.
1.25 d.

3.00-4.00 d.

35.0060.00 m.
60.00-150.00 m.
80.00 m.
90.00 m.
100.00 m.
40.00 m.
1 65.00 m.

Dock laborers.

* January report.

.40 h.

178

MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.
R A TES OF WAGES PA ID TO W ORKERS PLACED IN EMPLOYMENT BY

State, city, and kind of
office.

House serv­
ants. ‘

Inside wiremen.

Texas:
$6.00 w.
Dallas (Mun.).................
2.00 d.
Del Rio (F ed .)...............
*R1 Paso (Fed. 7...............
4.00 w.
Galveston (Fed.)...........
$6.00 d.
Houston (Fed.).’........... 3.00-8.00 w.
20.00 m.
Houston (M nn.)______
Utah:
5.60 d.
Salt Lake City (F ed .).. 5.00-10.00 w.
Virginia:
Norfolk (F ed .)...............
Washington:
Bellingham(Fed.-Mun.) 4.00-6.00 w.
i 30.00 m.
Seattle (F ed.).................
Seattle (Mun!)............... 20.00-50.00 m. .60h.-6.00 d.
30.00 m.
6.50 d.
Spokane (F ed .)..............
Spokane (Mun.).............
35.00 m.
5.00 d.
Tacoma (Fed.-M un.)...
6.00 w.
Walla Walla (F e d .)....
Yakima (F ed.)...............
W isconsin:
La Crosse (S ta.)2........... 3.00-5.00 w.
. 35 h.
Milwaukee (Sta.-Mun.)
5.00 w.
Wyoming:
Cheyenne CFed.-StaA..


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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

1And board.

Laborers.

Laundry
operatives,
male.

Laundry
operatives,
female.

12.25 d.
1.00 d.

$13.00 w.
. 22i h.

$12.00 w.
. 15 h.

. 30 h.
. 25 h.

10.00-35.00 w.

7.00-15.00 w .
1.00 d.

2.90-3.50 d. 18.00 -25.00 w.

1.25- 2.50 d.

.30 h.
. 35 h.
3.50 d.
3.50 d. 15.00-21.00 w.
3.50 d.
21.00 w.
3.50 d.
4.00 d.
25.00 w.
. 35 h.
3.00-3.50 d.
. 25 h.
. 30 h.
2.50 d.

12.00 w.

12.00 w.
13.00 w.
15.00 w.

7.00 w.

179

M O N T H L Y R EV IEW OF T H E B U R E A U OF LABOR ST A T IST IC S.
EMPLOYMENT OFFICES IN T H E U N IT E D STATES, F E B R U A R Y , 1918—Continued.

Machinists.

Molders.

Plasterers.

Painters.

$4.80 d.
4.00 d.

$0.60 h.
.45 h.

$7.00 d.

. 55 h.

$0.30-. 50 h.

.60 h.
3.00 d.

5.00-6.00 d.

6.00 d.

5.50-6.00 d.

.59 h.
. 50 h.
5.84 d.
4.50-6.00 d.
5.00 d.
5.80 d.

.45 h.


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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

.59 h.
5 .77J d.
6.00 d.
5.00 d.
6.00 d.
.6 2 ih .

.45 h.

. 87J ti.
7.00 d.

$6.80 d.
7.00 d.
. 8 7 |h .

6.50 d.

Saleswomen.

$20.00 w.
45.00 m.
6.00-15.00 w.
.90-1.75 d.

4.72 d.

4.16 d.
5.50 d.
4.50-6.00 d.
5.50 d.

Plumbers.

5.774 d.
. 50-.75 h.
6.00 d.

4.50 d.

• 37J h.

6.00 d.

6.50 d.
6.00d.

12.00 w.

6.00 d.

18.00 w.

6.00 w.
18.00 w.

* January report.

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180

MONTHLY REV IEW OF T H E B U R E A U OF LABOR STA T ISTIC S.
R A TES OF WAGES PAID TO W ORKERS PLACED IN EMPLOYMENT BY

State, city, and kind of
office.

Seam­
stresses.

Sewing
machine
operators,
male.

Sewing
machine
operators,
female.

Stenographers, Stenographers,
male.
female.

Texas:
Dallas (Mun.).................
82.25 d.
Del Rio (F e d .)..............
$85.00 m.
El Paso (F ed /)...............
Galveston (Fed.)...........
Houston (F ed .)............. 1.00-3.00 d.
$6.00-27.00 w. $40.00-150.00 m. 30.00125.00 m.
Houston (M un.)............
1.25 d.
100.00 m.
70.00 m.
Utah:
Salt Lake City (F ed .).. 1.50-3.00 d. $20.00-25.00 w.
1.00-2.25 d. 45.00-125.00 m. 40.0075.00 m.
Virginia:
Norfolk (F ed .)................
Washington:
Bellingham(Fed.-Mun.)
Seattle (Fed.).................
100.00 m.
90.00 m.
Seattle (M un.)...............
2.00 d.
90.00-110.00 m. 12.00-15.00 w.
Spokane (F e d .).............
13.00 w.
21.00 w.
13.00 w.
85.00 m.
60.00 m.
Spokane (Mun.).............
Tacoma (Fed.-M un.)...
3.00 d.
3.00 d.
3.00 d.
125.00 m.
85.00 m.
Walla Walla (F ed .)___
Yakima (Fed.)...............
VViseonsin:
La Crosse (S ta .)2 .........
Milwaukee (Sta.-Mun.)
3.00 w.
15.00 w.
8.00 w.
80.00 m.
50.00 m.
Wyoming:
Cheyenne (F ed .-S ta.)..
85.00 m.
1 And board.


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* And carfare.

[9 0 S ]

M O N T H L Y REV IEW OF T H E B U R E A U OF LABOR STA T ISTIC S.

181

EM PLOYM ENT OFFICES IN TH E U N IT E D STATES, F E B R U A R Y , 191S—Concluded.

Structuraliron workers.

Telephone
operators
(switchboard),
female.

Waitresses.

Waiters.

Casual workers,
male.

Casual workers,
female.

$45.00 m.
35.00 m.

$15.00 w.
2.00 d.

$12.00 w.
1.50 d.
5.00 w.

$2.25 d.
1.00 d.

$2.00 d.
1.00 d.

350.65 h.

20.00-45.00 m.

30.00-50.00 m.
12.00 w.

25.00-40.00 m.
7.00 w.

2.00-3.00 d.
. 25 h.

1.00-2.00 d.
1.00 d.

6.50 d.

24.00-60.00 m.

15.00 w.

30.00-40.00 m.

. 30-. 40 h.

. 25-. 30 h.

i 8.00-10.00 w.
13.00 w.

17.00-18.00 w.
18.00 w.

15.00 w.

15.00 w.

5 77)- d.

6.00-7.00 d.


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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

12.00 w.

. 30 h.
. 40 h.
.35-.50 h.
.35 h.
. 40 h.
4.00 d.

i 9.00 w.

.35 h.

.25 h.
. 30 h.
« . 30 h.
. 35 h.
.30 h.
2.25 d.
. 25 h.
.30 h.

IS. 00 m.
6.00 w.

. 30 h.
. 30 h.

. 20-.25 h.
.25 h.

9.00-12.00 w.
13.00 w.

14.00 w.

i 14.00 w.
«January report

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182

M O N T H L Y REV IEW OF T H E B U R E A U OF LABOR STA T ISTIC S.

ADJUSTMENT OF WAGES AND HOURS OF LABOR IN THE DELAWARE
RIVER AND BALTIMORE SHIPYARDS.

Following is given in full the decision as to wages, hours, and other
conditions in the Delaware Eiver and Baltimore shipyards, made
by the Shipbuilding Labor Adjustment Board February 14, 1918, as
corrected and extended March 1, 1918. An explanatory note to
the decision states that the corrections and extensions in this revised
and authoritative edition have resulted from conferences with
representatives of the shipyard owners and of the employees con­
cerned, and are intended to clear up ambiguities and misunder­
standings as well as to fix rates for a few occupations not previously
covered.
DECISION AS TO WAGES, HOURS, AND OTHER CONDITIONS IN DELA­
WARE RIVER AND BALTIMORE SHIPYARDS.
F ir s t. D u rin g t h e m o n th of O c to b e r, 1917, w h e n t h e S h ip b u ild in g L a b o r A d ju s tm e n t
B o a rd w as a b s e n t o n t h e P a c ific co ast, d is p u te s arose in d iffe re n t s te e l s h ip y a rd s in
t h e D e law a re R iv e r d is tr ic t. T h e s e w e re te m p o r a r ily a d ju s te d th r o u g h t h e effo rts
of M r. R a y m o n d B . S te v e n s , v ic e c h a ir m a n of t h e U n ite d S ta te s S h ip p in g B o a rd ,
w ith t h e u n d e r s ta n d in g t h a t a n y w age sc a le s u b s e q u e n tly d e te r m in e d b y th e s h i p ­
b u ild in g la b o r a d ju s tm e n t b o a rd s h o u ld b e r e tr o a c tiv e to th e d a te w h e n th e m e n
r e tu r n e d to w o rk , N o v e m b e r 2. A lth o u g h th e r e m a y b e som e q u e s tio n as to w h e th e r
t h is u n d e r s ta n d in g w as i n te n d e d to a p p l y to y a rd s in w 'h ic h d is p u te s h a d n o t y e t
a ris e n , w e h a v e d e c id e d to re so lv e t h is in fa v o r of t h e e m p lo y e e s a n d to m a k e t h e w age
r a te s fix ed r e tr o a c tiv e as re g a rd s th e s h ip b u ild in g c ra fts to w h ic h t h e y a p p l v to
N o v e m b e r 2 for a ll of t h e s te e l s h ip y a r d s of t h e D e law a re R i v e r d is t r ic t a c tu a l l y
e n g a g e d in t h e b u i ld i n g of sh ip s for th e N a v y D e p a r tm e n t or th e E m e r g e n c y F l e e t
C o rp o ra tio n , t h a t is:

Chester Shipbuilding Co., Chester, Pa.
Harlan Plant, Bethlehem Shipbuilding Co., Wilmington, Del.
New Jersey Shipbuilding Co., Gloucester, N. J.
New York Shipbuilding Co., Camden, N. J.
Pennsylvania Shipbuilding Co., Gloucester, N. J.
Pusey & Jones Co., Wilmington, Del.
Sun Shipbuilding Co., Chester, Pa.
Wm. Cramp & Sons Ship & Engine Building Co., Philadelphia, Pa.
We do this because early in our investigation we became convinced by the unani­
mous testimony of both sides that a uniform minimum wage scale and uniform piece
rates for all of the shipyards on the river, from Bristol to the north to Wilmington to
the south, would be desirable and because limiting the retroactive provision to
employees who actually struck would amount to penalizing those who, notwith­
standing their dissatisfaction with conditions, remained loyally at work, and thus
be an incitement to future strikes.
For the yards predominantly in course of construction, that is, of the American
International Shipbuilding Corporation, at Hog Island, Pa., of the Merchant Ship­
building Corporation, at Bristol, Pa., and of the Traylor Shipbuilding Corporation,
at Cornwells Heights, Pa., we make the wage rates fixed for crafts engaged in construc­
tion work, which appeared before us with definite demands, to wit: Carpenters,
plumbers, pipe fitters, electrical workers, sheet-metal workers, painters, blacksmiths,


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M O N T H L Y REV IEW OF T H E B U R E A U OF LABOR STA T ISTIC S.

183

molders, and engineers, retroactive to the date when we held our hearing on conditions
in those yards, that is, January 15, 1918.
For the yards in and near Baltimore, that is, of the Baltimore Dry Dock & Ship­
building Co., of Baltimore, of the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation, Sparrows
Point, Md., of the Maryland Shipbuilding Co., Sollers Point, Md., and of Henry
Smith & Sons Co., Baltimore, we make the wage rates fixed retroactive to February
1 in accordance with an agreement with representatives of the employees in those
yards.
Second. The most serious obstacle to the maintenance of a uniform minimum wage
scale in all of the yards of the district is the variable expense for transportation to and
from their work to which the employees of the yards up and down the river from
Philadelphia are put owing to inadequate local housing facilities. To equalize this
condition we hereby authorize shipyards whose employees are compelled to expend
regularly more than 8 cents for transportation to or from their work, to provide such
employees with commutation or other tickets, at the expense of the company. In
providing free transportation for employees coming from a distance, each shipyard
must adopt such precautions to prevent the privilege from being abused as may be
prescribed by the auditors of the Navy Department and the Emergency Fleet Cor­
poration. We permit the payment of the entire fares of such employees rather than
merely of the excess over 16 cents to enable yards with inadequate local housing
facilities to draw their employees from greater distances.
Third. As regards hours of employment, we have found a good deal of diversity
and confusion in the different yards growing out of the fact that although the eighthour day has not yet been universally introduced, the half holiday on Saturday is an
institution that is firmly established and tenaciously adhered to. Under the Federal
eight-hour law, work in excess of eight hours in any calendar day for any department
of the Government counts as overtime. It is in the light of these limitations imposed
by Federal law and local custom that we prescribe the following rules to govern
hours of employment in the shipyard to which this decision applies:
(1) Eight hours shall constitute a day’s work from Monday until Friday, inclusive,
and four hours on Saturday.
(2) Work in excess of these periods on any week day shall be calculated as overtime
and paid for at the rate of time and one-half.
(3) Work in excess of 60 hours a week for any employee shall not be permitted,
excepting in dry docks, or when ordered by the Navy Department or the Emergency
Fleet Corporation, or to protect life or property from imminent danger.
(4) Work on Sundays and the following holidays shall be paid for at the rate of
double time: New Year’s Day; Washington’s Birthday; Decoration Day; Fourth of
July; Labor Day; Thanksgiving Day; and Christmas Day.
(5) Men employed on night shift shall receive compensation five per cent (5 % )
higher than is paid to those employed on day shift.
Our purpose in limiting the work of employees under ordinary circumstances to 60
hours a week is to discourage the practice of excessive overtime, which we believe
leads to inefficiency and lessened rather than enlarged production, and to encourage
the introduction of the two and three shift systems. The feasibility of working two
or three eight-hour shifts in shipbuilding plants has been conclusively demon­
strated, and we urge the shipyards of the Delaware River district to take immediate
steps looking toward the introduction of additional shifts in their yards.
In addition to the straight day wage and the piece-wage systems we have found in
operation in different yards numerous bonus, premium, and contract systems of wage
payment. The minimum-wage scale and the piece-rate scales which we prescribe
are designed to introduce a greater degree of uniformity in connection with wage
payments. We, therefore, direct that no bonus or premium in addition to the rates of


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[911]

184

M O N T H L Y REV IEW OF T H E B U R E A U OF LABOR STA T ISTIC S.

wages prescribed in this award, shall in future be paid, except with the express per­
mission of this board. This is not intended, however, to prohibit shipyards from
paying piece rates to employees in other occupations than those covered by the
appended piece-rate scales.
Fourth. In certain departments, for example, the departments of riveting and
chipping and calking, wTe have found a preference for the piece-wage system on the
part of not only employers but also of the workers themselves. The piece rates
appended hereto were the result of conferences between representatives of the yard
owners and of the crafts concerned, in which concessions in the interests of harmony
and greater production were made by both sides. It is intended that the list shall be
from time to time extended to include operations and types of vessels, such as torpedoboat destroyers and cylindrical oil tankers, for which fair rates have not yet been
ascertained. In connection with piecework, testimony was presented to prove the
existence of rules or understandings among the workers limiting the amount that any
one worker should produce in a day. The origin of these rules or understandings
appears to have been the experience of the workers of having the piece rate cut so soon
as they showed an ability to increase their earnings beyond what the employer con­
sidered a normal wage.
In the present national emergency it is vitally important that every limitation upon
output be removed. Every shipyard worker must appreciate that he is fighting for
his country when he drives a rivet or calks a seam just as effectively as the soldier in
the trenches when he wields his bayonet or fires a gun. And as the soldier is paid
directly by the Government, so the shipyard worker must realize that he now receives
his compensation from the Government, all shipbuilding now being upon Government
account. To bring it home to pieceworkers that the Government is behind them and
that they must be behind the Government, we direct that the following notices be
printed and posted conspicuously in every department of every shipyard where piece­
work is carried on:
The piece rates prescribed as part of itsaward by the Shipbuilding Labor Adjustment
Board, and printed in the piece-rate book for Delaware River and Baltimore ship­
yards, shall under no circumstances be lowered during the duration of the War. In the
name of the people of the United States we urge employees in shipyards to do their
utmost toward winning the War by removing all limitations upon output and hastening
in every possible way, each according to his capacity, the production of ships.
S h ip b u il d in g L a b o r A d ju s t m e n t B o a r d .

Fifth. The methods for determining the amount of back pay to which employees
in the different yards shall be entitled shall be as follows:
1. In the case of employees on the straight day wage system the new hourly wage
fixed by the board is to be multiplied by the total number of hours which each
employee worked from November 2 until the date when the new wage scale is put into
effect. From the product thus determined the total wage, including premiums and
bonuses of every kind, which the employee received for his work, is to be deducted.
The balance constitutes the back pay to which he is entitled. In determining the
total number of hours of employment hours counted and paid for at time and one-half,
or double time when the original payment was made, are to be counted as time and onehalf or double time in calculating earnings at the new rate of wages, but all other hours
are to be calculated as straight time.
2. In the case of pieceworkers, a representative of the board is to determine in
cooperation with representatives of the pieceworkers of each craft and of each yard by
a study of the actual cards of a dozen pieceworkers of each different craft in each yard,
selected so as to cover the different kinds of piecework performed upon a vessel, the
average increase in the earnings of such pieceworkers resulting from calculating their
earnings at the new piece rates prescribed and comparing them with the earnings they
actually received. The average percentage of increase so determined for each piece-


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M O N T H L Y REV IEW OF T H E B U R E A U OE LABOR STA T ISTIC S.

185

work occupation, multiplied by the total earnings of each pieceworker of each respec­
tive occupation from November 2 until the date when the new rates become effective,
shall determine the back pay which such pieceworker is entitled to receive.
Sixth. The back pay due to both day workers and pieceworkers shall be paid at the
earliest date at which the elaborate calculations necessary to their determination can
be completed, after the rates fixed by this deoision are put into operation.
Seventh. The minimum rate of wages to be paid to different classes of employees by
all of the shipyards of the Delaware River and Baltimore districts shall be those set
forth in the schedule appended hereto (Exhibit A), which is made a substantive part
of this award.
Eighth. For all “ dirty work” in connection with the repair of vessels-performed in
or upon the vessel employees of the different drafts shall receive 10 cents an hour more
than the minimum hourly rates prescribed in schedule “ A ” of this decision.
Employees engaged on repair work in or upon vessels shall receive double time for
all overtime over eight hours from Monday until Friday and over four hours on
Saturdays, as well as on Sundays and the holidays specified in section third.
Ninth. Rates of wages now being paid to individual employees in excess of the
minimum rates fixed are in no wise altered or a ffe c te d by the establishment of these
rates.
Tenth. The piece rates to be paid for riveting to riveting gangs are those set forth
in the schedule appended hereto (Exhibit B). The division of the riveting gang’6
pay in accordance with these rates is to be in the following proportions: To the riveter,
forty-four per cent (44%); to the holder-on, thirty-three per cent (33%); and to the
heater, twenty-three per cent (23%).
Eleventh. The piece rates to be paid for chipping and calking and drilling and
reaming are those set forth in the schedules appended hereto (Exhibits C, D, and E).
Twelfth. The piece rates to be paid to linermen in the William Cramp & Sons
Ship & Engine Building Co., and in other shipyards employing linermen at piecework,
are those set forth in the accompanying schedule (Exhibit F).
Thirteenth. No reduction in any of these piece rates is to be permitted on the part
of any shipyard in the Delaware River district during the duration of the War.
Fourteenth. Believing that in this national emergency past differences between
employers and employees must be forgotten in the common determination to produce
the maximum possible number of ships, the board will not tolerate any discrimination
either on the part of employers or employees between union and nonunion men.
Fifteenth. Rates of wages for occupations not covered by this decision shall be tenta­
tively agreed upon between the individual shipyards and employees concerned. Such
tentative rates shall be reported to the examiner, who shall satisfy himself as to the
fairness of the rates tentatively fixed and report a recommendation for their confirma­
tion or modification by this board. The board shall on the basis of such report and
recommendation determine a uniform minimum rate for each such occupation and
add it to the rates prescribed in this award.
Sixteenth. The rates and other conditions prescribed in this decision, except as
otherwise provided, shall be put into effect on or before Monday, February 25, 1918.
(Signed)
V. E v e r it M a c y , C h a i r m a n .
(Signed)
Louis A. C o o l id g e .
(Signed)
A. J. B e r r e s .
W a s h in g t o n , D. C., M a r c h I, 1 9 1 8 .


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M O N T H L Y REV IEW OF T H E B U R E A U OF LABOR STA T ISTIC S.
E x h ib it A .

M i n i m u m - w a g e s c a le f o r j o u r n e y m e n , s p e c i a l i s t s , h e l p e r s , a n d l a b o r e r s i n s p e c i f i e d c r a f t s
i n D e la w a r e R iv e r a n d B a ltim o r e s h ip y a r d s .

Rate per
hour.

Acetylene department:
$0. 65
Burners, first class.............
.60
Burners, second class.. ..
.50
Grinders...............................
.50
Cliippers..............................
.65
Welders................................
Helpers................................
.46
Anglesmith department:
Anglesmiths, heavy fires.
Anglesmiths, heavy fires, helpers......................................
.55
Anglesmiths, other fires..
.721
Anglesmiths, other fires, help.46
ers......................................
Furnace men on shapes and
plates (ship work).........
-82J
Electric welder..................
.65
Blacksmith shop:
Hammer and machine forgers,
heavy................................
1.35
Heater..................................
.55
Lever men or cranemen. .
.70
Helpers................................
.50
Hammer runner, heavy. .
.55
Blacksmiths, heavy fires.
Blacksmiths, heavy fires, helpers.....................................
. 55
Blacksmiths, other fires..
• 724
Blacksmiths, other fires, helpers......................................
.46
Drop forgers........................
.70
Drop forgers’ helpers.......
.50
Bolt makers........................
.724
Bolt makers’ helpers.......
.46
Laborers...............................
.40
Liner forgers.......................
.55
Liner forgers’ helpers. . . .
.46
Boiler shop:
Boiler makers.....................
.70
Drillers.................................
.60
Holders-on...........................
.50
Rivet heaters......................
.40
Flange turners....................
.75
Helpers................................
.46
Slab furnace m en..............
.75
Planer hands.......................
.55

Bolting and liner department:
Bolters............................................ $0. 50
Liner m en.....................................
.54
Helpers..........................................
• 42|
Cement department:
Cementers......................................
.50
Helpers..........................................
• 424
Chipping and calking department:
Tank testers..................................
.70
Hand chippers and calkers___
.70
Pneumatic chippers and calkers...............................................
.65
Packers..........................................
.50
Cleaning department:
Leader............................................
.55
Laborers.........................................
.40
Coppersmith department:
Coppersmiths................................
.70
Helpers..........................................
.46
Drilling and reaming department:
Drillers...........................................
.60
Reamers.........................................
.50
Electrical department:
Electricians, first class...............
.70
Electricians, second class..........
.65
Wiremen........................................
.55
Joiners............................................
.70
Machinists, first class..................
.724
Helpers..........................................
.46
Erecting department:
Leading m en................................
.85
Marine erectors, first class1.......
■724
Marine erectors, second class...
.624
Specialist or handy man............
.52
Helpers..........................................
.46
Fitting-up department:
Fitters, first class.........................
.724
Fitters, second class....................
.65
Regulators, first class..................
.60
Regulators, second class.............
.524
Helpers..........................................
.46
Foundry department:
Holders and core makers...........
• 724
Cupola tenders.............................
• 724
Helpers..........................................
.46

00
-a

Rate per
hour.

L
"O
*
O

i Understood to include machinists, plumbers, and pipe fitters.


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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

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M O N T H L Y REV IEW OF T H E B U R E A U OF LABOR STA T ISTIC S.
Rato per
hour.

Foundry department—Concld.
Hand and machine chippers.. . $0. 50
Laborers................................................ 40
Furnace department:
Leaders.................................................. 67$
Firemen and helpers..........................55
Strikers..................................................55
Hull engineering department:
Marine erectors, first class1...............72$
Marine erectors, second cla ss...
. 62$
Specialists or handy m en..................52
Joiners..................................................70
Helpers................................................. 46
Joiner department:
Joiners.................................................... 70
Machine m en........................................ 70
Helpers...................................................42$
Lumber department:
Machine m en........................................ 65
H elp ers.................................................42$
Machine shop:
Machinists, first class......................... 72$
Machinists, second class.................... 62$
Specialists or handy m en...................52
Helpers...................................................46
Material labor department:
Engineers, locomotive........................ 65
Operators, locomotive, canti­
lever, gantry, and other
cranes of over 3 tons........................ 70
Operators, stiff-legged derricks.
. 68
Hoisting and portable firemen..
. 50
Locomotive conductors..................... 50
Road crane conductors......................50
Mold loft:
Gang leaders..........................................85
Loftsmen, first class.................. .
. 82$
Loftsmen, second class....................... 72$
Joiners.................................................... 70
Helpers.................................................. 42$
Paint department:
Painters and polishers........................ 60
Helpers.................................................. 42$

187
Rate per

hour.
P a t te r n s h o p :
P a t te r n m a k e r s ................................. $9. 75
L a b o r e r s ....................................................... 46
R ig g in g d e p a r tm e n t:
M a rin e l e a d e r s ...........................................75
M a rin e rig g e rs ............................................ 62$
C ra n e l e a d e r s ..............................................75
C ra n e-g a n g l e a d e r s ...................................67$
C r a n e m e n .....................................................60
E r e c to r le a d e r s ..........................................60
E r e c to r s .........................................................50
R iv e tin g d e p a r tm e n t:
R i v e t t e s te r s ...............................................70
S ta g e b u i l d e r s ............................................57$
H a n d r i v e t e r s .............................................70
P n e u m a tic r i v e t e r s ................................. 65
H o ld e rs -o n ................................................... 50
H e a t e r b o y s ................................................ 38
P a s s e r b o y s ..................................................30
H e l p e r s ......................................................... 46
S h ip c a r p e n te r ’s d e p a r tm e n t:
S h ip c a rp e n te rs , first c la s s ...................70
S h ip c a r p e n te r s , se c o n d c la s s . .
.6 5
F a s t e n e r s ......................................................60
E r e c to r s ........................................................ 50
H e l p e r s ......................................................... 42$
W ood c a lk e r s ............................................. 70
W ood r e a m e r s ............................................ 55
S h ip s h e d d e p a r tm e n t:
P u n c h e r s ...................................................... 55
P la n e r a n d s c a r i e r ....................................55
C o u n te r s in k e r s .......................................... 55
D r i l le r s ..........................................................60
B e n d in g r o lle r s ......................................... 62$
M an g le r o lle r s ............................................ 57$
P re s s m e n , first c la s s ............................... 62$
P re s s m e n , s e c o n d c la s s ......................... 55
O f f s e tte r s ..................................................... 55
S a w y e r s ........................................................ 47 $
H e l p e r s ......................................................... 46
V e n tila tio n d e p a r tm e n t:
L a y e r s - o u t................................................... 70
S h e e t- m e ta l w o rk e rs ............. ..
.7 0
H e l p e r s .........................................................46

R a te s f o r e m p lo y e e s e n g a g e d i n c o n s tr u c tio n w o r k .

Rate per hour.

O perators, lo c o m o tiv e cra n es.....................................................................................................$0. 82$
B la c k s m ith s ............................................................................................................................................... 72$
M old ers......................................................................................................................................................... 72$
P lu m b e rs......................................................................................................................................................72$
P ip e fitter s.................................................................................................................................................. 72$
S h ee t-m eta l w ork ers............................................................................................................................... 70


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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

[9 1 5 ]

188

MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OE LABOR STATISTICS.

C a r p e n te r s ....... ..................................................
E le c t r ic ia n s , fir s t c la s s ...................................................................
E le c t r ic ia n s , s e c o n d c l a s s ............................................................
W ir e m e n ....................................................
E n g i n e e r s ......................................................................
P a in t e r s ...............................................................
C o m m o n la b o r e r s ......................................................................

Rate per hour.

____ $0.70
.................70
..............65
...............55
...............65
..............60
..............35

N ote.—F or E x h i b i t s “ B8’ t o “ G8’ s e e p r in t e d p ie c e - r a t e b o o k .

RECENT WAGE STUDIES AND THE DEMANDS OF THE LOCOMOTIVE
FIREMEN.

The Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen have
recently submitted demands for increased wages to the Director
General of Railroads. These demands were substantially as follows:
(1) Ten per cent increase in wages; (2) a minimum wage of S3.50 a
day; and (3) time and one-half for overtime for all employees except
thoses engaged in passenger service. Hearings have just been held
by a Federal wage commission appointed to consider the question of
wage increases of railroad employees.
The brief submitted by the brotherhood 1 contains valuable wage
and cost-of-living data. It also discusses the effect of the recent
Federal eight-hour law upon wages and hours, and reviews the occu­
pation of locomotive firemen from the viewpoint of wages, hours
hazard, skill, and other conditions of employment. The* data pre­
sented in the brief tends to show (1) that the wage level of firemen
and hostlers in the railroad service is very much lower than that in
a large number of other occupations representing many lines of
industry; and (2) that they have not been able at their prevailing
rates of pay, in face of the unprecedented advances in living costs°
to maintain their former standards of living. The wage statistics’
other than those for firemen, upon which the argument for increased
wages is based, are taken from a recent report on “ Wages and the
War,” compiled by Flugh S. Hanna and W. Jett Lauck.2
The following table shows the money compensation for eight
hours’ work in various occupations and industries for the vears
1911-12, 1914, and 1917.
I n o r d e r t h a t c o m p a r is o n m i g h t r e a d ily b e m a d e b e t w e e n t h e e a r n in g s o f fir e m e n
a n d t h o s e o f o th e r o c c u p a t io n s , a l l e n t r ie s h a v e b e e n p u t o n t h e b a s is o f t h e a m o u n t
e a r n e d i n e ig h t h o u r s o f w o r k . M o s t o f t h e o c c u p a t io n s s h o w n a r e o n a n a c t u a l e ig h t
1Argument and brief submitted on behalf of locomotive firemen and hostlers, by W. S. Carter president
Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen. Cleveland, The Doyle & Waltz Printing C n ’
February, 1918. 285 pp.
°
»
‘ Wagef and the War: A summary of recent wage movements.
Cleveland, The Doyle & W altz Printing Co., 1918.


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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

[916]

By Hugh S. Hanna and W. Jett Lauck

MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

189

h o u r b a s is , b u t i n a fe w i n s t a n c e s , a s i n t h e ir o n a n d s t e e l in d u s t r y , t h e a c t u a l h o u r s
m a y b e m u c h lo n g e r .
E x a m in a t io n o f t h e t a b l e s h o w s t h a t , w i t h e x t r e m e ly fe w e x c e p t io n s , t h e w a g e
l e v e l o f t h e la r g e n u m b e r o f o c c u p a t io n s g i v e n , r e p r e s e n t in g m a n y l i n e s o f i n d u s t r y
is v e r y m u c h h ig h e r t h a n t h a t o f fir e m e n a n d h o s t le r s i n r a ilr o a d s e r v ic e . U n l e s s t h e
r a te s o f p a y o f f ir e m e n a n d h o s t le r s a r e r a is e d t o t h e l e v e l p r e v a il in g i n o th e r l in e s o f
in d u s t r y fo r t h e s a m e w o r k , t h e fir e m e n , i n o r d e r t o m a in t a in a m i n im u m s ta n d a r d
o f e x is t e n c e , w i l l n e c e s s a r ily h a v e t o s e e k e m p lo y m e n t i n o th e r in d u s t r ie s . S u c h a
r e s u lt w o u ld b e h i g h l y u n f o r t u n a t e , a s i t w o u ld fu r th e r c r ip p le t h e r a ilr o a d s , w h i c h
a r e a lr e a d y o p e r a t in g u n d e r m a n y d if f ic u lt ie s .
COMPARATIVE STATEM ENT OF EARNINGS FOR EIGHT HOURS OF LABOR IN VARIOUS
OCCUPATIONS AND IND U STR IES, B Y SPEC IFIE D Y EARS.

19111912

Occupation.

1914

1917

Per cent
incr 3ase
Dccemt er, 1917,
ove r—
1911

Pattern makers (shipyards, San Francisco)...................................
Sheet-metal workers (shipyards, San Francisco)..........................
Bricklayers (average of 39 cities)........................................................
Plasterers (building trades, average, 35 cities)................................
Machinists (shipyards, San Francisco)............................................
Blacksmiths (shipyards, San Francisco).........................................
Riveters and calkers (shipyards, San Francisco)..........................
Structural-iron workers (building trades, average, 32 cities)---Plumbers and gasfitters (building trades, average, 37 cities)---Steam fitters (building trades, average, 33 cities)..........................
Cement workers, finishers (building trades, average, 18 cities)..
First blacksmith, bituminous coal (Hocking Valley district)...
Stonemasons (building trades, Massachusetts)..............................
Loitsmen (shipyards, Delaware R iver)...........................................
Inside wiremen (building trades, average, 35 cities).....................
Tracklayers, cagers, drivers, trip-riders, water haulers, machine
hau ler, timbermen, wiremen and motormen, bituminous
coal (Hocking Valley district).......................................................
Lathers (building trades, Massachusetts).......................................
Pipemen, bituminous coal (Hocking Valley district)...................
Sheet-metal workers (building trades average, 31 cities).............
Shipfitters (navy yard, Philadelphia)..............................................
Tracklayers’ helpers, dumpers and trimmers, bituminous coal
(Hocking Valley district).................................................................
Carpenters (building trades, average, 38 cities)..............................
Shipsmiths (navy vard, Philadelphia).............................................
Coppersmiths (navy yard, Philadelphia)........................................
Machinists (navy yard, Philadelphia).............................................
Pattern makers (navy yard, Philadelphia)....................................
Pipe fitters (navy yard, Philadelphia)............................................
Linotype operators, day, newspapers (average of 27 cities)........
Compositors, day, newspapers (average of 38 cities).....................
Machinists (shipyards, Delaware R iver).........................................
Electrotypers, finishers (average, 25 cities).....................................
Boiler makers (southeastern railroad shops)..................................
Blacksmiths (southeastern railroad shops).....................................
Machinists (southeastern railroad shops).........................................
Longshoremen, daywork (New York City).....................................
Granite cutters (building trades, Massachusetts)..........................
Sheet-metal workers (shipyards, Delaware River)........................
Electricians (shipyards, Delaware R iver).......................................
House painters (building trades, Massachusetts)..........................
Decorators (building trades, Massachusetts)..................................
Paper hangers (building trades, Massachusetts)............................
Firemen (Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, freight
service, 0 -1 —170,000 pounds and less than 200,000 pounds on
Firemen (Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, freight
service, 0 -2 —200,000 and less than 250,000 pounds on drivers).
Core makers (metal trades, Massachusetts)...................................
Greasers and couplers, bituminous coal (Hocking Valley dis­
trict) .....................................................................................................
'May, 1917.
:October, 1917.

46648°—18------13

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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

[917]

1911

$7.15
6.60
'5.83
2 5.79
5.77
5.77
5.77*
5.62
5.59
5.56
25.33
5. 27
25.21
5.16
5.07

43
65
13
13
44
44
60
23
24
19
13
78
14

3.90

$5.00
4.00
5.46
5.42
4.00
4.00
3.60
4.97
4.96
4.86
4.74
3.12
4.74
3.12
4.22

30

43
65
7
7
44
44
60
13
13
14
12
69
10
65
20

2.70
3.94
2.63
3.74
3.44

2.84
4. 20
2.78
4.14
3.52

5.00
■4.95
4.92
4.81
4.80

85
26
87
29
40

76
18
77
16
36

2.49
3.83
3.52
3.54
3. 60
3.76
3.28
4.18
4.12

2.62
4.06
3.52
3.68
3.76
3.76
3.44
4.39
4.33
2.64
3.69
3.29
3.28
3.14

4.75
44.72
4.72
4.72
4.72
4.72
4.72
4.66
4.59
4.40
4.09
4.09
4.04
4.04
4.00
n . 00
4.00
3.96
23.94
3 3.92
33.91

91
23
34
33
31
26
44
11
11

81
16
34
28
26
26
37
6
6
67
11
24
23
29

*5.00
4.00
5.17
5.14
4.00
4.00
3.60
4.58
4.50
4.66
4.72
2.96
4.56

3.49
3.01
3.12
2.99
2. 64
3.23
3.22
3.24
3.13

3.37
2.40
2.40
3.41
3.45
3.38

17
36
29
35
52
24
22
21
25

19
67
65
16
14
16

3.75

3.75

3.75

2.75

3.75
2.76

3.75
23.66

33

33

3.64

146

133

1.48
1.56
'July X, 1917.
August, 1917.

190

MOJSTTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

COMPARATIVE STATEM ENT OF EARNINGS FOR EIGHT HOURS OF LABOR IN VARIOUS
OCCUPATIONS AND IND U STR IES, B Y SPEC IFIE D YEARS—Concluded.

19111912

Occupation.

1914

1917

Per cent
increase
December, 1917.
over—
1911

Firemen (Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, freight
service, D-3—140,000 pounds and less than 170,000 pounds on
drivers).................................................................................................
Blacksmiths (shipyards, Delaware R iver).....................................
Labor (shipyard, San Francisco).......................................................
Hod carriers (plaster tending, average, 30 cities)...........................
B u f f e r s ( m e t a l t r a d e s , M a s s a c h u s e t t s ) .........................................................

Hod carriers (mason tending, average, 30 cities)............................
Firemen (Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, passenger
service, O -l Class—170,000 pounds and less than 200,000
pounds on drivers)............................................................................
Firemen (Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, passenger
service, D-3 Class—140,000 pounds and less than 170,000
pounds on drivers).............................................................................
Bakers, second hands (Massachusetts)...................................
Firemen (Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, passenger
service, H-3 Class—100,000 pounds and less than 140,000
pounds on drivers).................................. , ........................................
Hostlers (Northern Pacific Railway)........................................
Firemen (Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, switching
service):
Engines less than 140,000 pounds on drivers............................
Engines 140,000 pounds on drivers and over........................ "
Trapper hoys, bituminous coal (Hocking Valley district)___!!
Motormen and conductors (street railways, average, 120 cities).!
Hostlers (Boston & Albany)...............................................................
Common labor (iron and steel)............................................ ! . .! ! ! ! !

$3.60
2.40
3.03
2.73
2.73

$3.60
1.76
2.40
3.16
2.54
2.96

$3.60
3.60
3.57
3.55
*3.44
3.30

3.20

3.20

3.20

3.05
2.31

3.05
2.54

2.85
*3.35
<2.50
1.25
2.18
2.15
1.28

1914

49
17
26
21

105
49
12
35
11

3.05
1 2.93

27

15

2.85
*3.35

2.85
2.79

*17

317

2.70
2.75
1.32
2.24
2.40
1.44

2.70
2.75
2.65
2.58
5 2.40
2.32

8
10
112
18
12
80

101
60

i July 1, 1917.
*13.35 for 12 hours or less.
8 Decrease.
«All classes of locomotives. “Wages of locomotive firemen in switching service on the Chicago Burling­
ton & Quincy Railroad for 1911 were fixed as follows: -'First class yards, 25 cents per hour; all other yards
24 cents per hour.’ The day’s work was fixed at 10 hours.”
’
'
’
6 At main line terminals hostlers received $2.50.

The part of the brief dealing with prices and cost of living is based
primarily upon a recent report on Cost of Living and the War, issued
by W. Jett Lauck.1 In this volume the results of the more important
investigations on cost of living, including budgetary and retail prico
studies, have been brought together. In commenting upon the
increased cost of living the brief states that “ locomotive firemen and
hostlers in common with other wage earners have not been able at
their prevailing rates of pay, in face of the unprecedented advances in
living costs, to maintain their former standards of living. They have
found a constantly increasing amount of their income absorbed by the
primary demands of food, fuel, and rent, and have had a decreasing
proportion available for clothing and sundries or the comforts of life.”
The annual wages of locomotive firemen are compared with certain
standard workingmen’s budgets in an attempt to show that such
wages are inadequate to meet the minimum requirements of subsist­
ence and comfort.
'Cost of Living and tho War.


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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

By W. Jett Lauck.

Cleveland, The Doyle & Waltz Printing Co., 1913.

[918]

MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

191

For the purpose of bringing out the real significance of the results of recent studies
and investigations as to the increased cost of living and the minimum income or budget­
ary requirements of the normal family of the wage earner, the totals called for by the
different studies of family budgets which have been made in recent years are sub­
mitted in comparative form below. Where the budgetary inquiry or statement has
not been made in complete form, as in the case of the Washington, Canadian, or the
public health department of New York City statements, the total has been estimated
from the items of food, or food, rent and fuel given. This can be done with an approxi­
mate degree of accuracy for the reason that the ratios of different items to the total
budgets of families of certain incomes has been well established by past investigations.
The statement of the result of recent studies as to the minimum annual budgetary
requirements of the wage earner follows:
Food.
Canadian Department of Labor.........................................................................................
State of Washington, department of labor (Seattle).....................................................
Department of health, New York City, N. Y .............................................
Average of 24 principal American cities............................................................................
Mirjirrmm health diet (Prof. M. E. Jaffa)......................
Bureau of mnnieipal research Philadelphia .
Philadelphia shipyard workers ......................................................... ........................
»Seattle, street railway arbitration board......................................... ..............................
Dr Te^iea P» PeiTottn, University of California.................................................... .....
TTndriiled laborer, New York City, February, 1917 1........................... ......................

$607.00
515.00
673.00
660.00
544.00
590.00
640.00
533.00
540.00
492.00

Total.
$1,518.00
1,287.00
1)682.00
1.650.00
1.360.00
1,200.00
1,431.00
1,506.00
1)476.00
980.00

i Because of advances in prices, this budget has advanced in cost to approximately $1,200 at the present
time (Feb., 1918).

From these exhibits, as well as from other facts relating to budgetary studies, it is
apparent that a budget of family expenditures at the present time to cover the minimum
of subsistence requires an annual wage of at least $1,200, while a budget of expendi­
tures to provide for a minimum standard of comfort calls for a wage which will yield
annual earnings of approximately $1,500. The wage arbitration board in the street
railway dispute in Seattle fixed this minimum in December, 1917, at $1,505.60 for
motormen and conductors in Seattle and Tacoma. The cost of living is not unusually
high in these cities and, as a matter of fact, is lower than in many other localities in the
country. This is not a local minimum of subsistence and comfort, therefore, but one
which should have a general application.
Locomotive firemen and hostlers are requesting a minimum rate of pay of $3.50 a
day. Assuming it were physically possible for a fireman to work every day in the
year, including all Sundays and holidays, even under these impossible conditions his
annual earnings would be only $1,277.50 at the rate requested, which is more than $200'
below the minimum of comfort prescribed by recent budgets and approximately only
the amount called for by the minimum standard of subsistence. As a matter of fact,
because of the arduousness of his work, a locomotive fireman under present conditions
does unusually well if he averages 300 days a year. Under actual railroad operating
practice, therefore, his annual earnings at the rate requested of $3.50 a day might
range between a maximum of $1,100 to $1,200 per annum, which is considerably below
the income indicated by recent inquiries as the bare minimum of subsistence of an
average workingman’s family. When it is considered further that a locomotive fire­
man, unlike other wage earners, must spend a considerable part of his earnings for
meals and lodgings away from home, it is apparent that the request for a $3.50 minimum
is reasonable to say the least, if not inadequate. It is inadequate for the maintenance
of a minimum standard of family comfort, and on this basis, should be at least $4 a day.

The following table shows the cost of specified items of expenditure
in the workingmen's budget in 1900, and the estimated cost of simi
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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

[919]

192

MONTHLY REVIEW OE THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

!ar budgets in 1911, 1914, and 1917. The budget of 1900 is based
upon the average expenditure of 2,567 families as ascertained by the
United States Bureau of Labor Statistics and published in its report
on cost of living (18th Annual Report, 1903). The figures for 1911,
1914, and 1917 are obtained by applying to the principal items of the
1900 budget the percentages of increase in those years as compared
with 1900. According to these estimates the total expenditure per
family increased 43 per cent from 1914 to 1917.
ESTIM ATED W ORKINGM EN’S BUDG ETS IN 1911, 1914, AND 1917, AS COMPARED W ITH 1900.

E s t im a t e d a v e r a g e e x p e n d itu r e s o f a
A verage
w o r k i n g m a n ’s f a m i l y i n —
e x p e n d i­
t u r e o f 2,567
w o r k in g ­
m e n ’s f a m i ­
.1911
1914
1917
l ie s i n 1900.

I te m s o f e x p e n d itu r e .

F o o d .....................................................................................
R e n t ............................................................
M o r t g a g e s ...................................................................
F u e l a n d l i g h t i n g ........................................................................
C l o t h i n g ...........................................................................
T a x e s ............................................................................
I n s u r a n c e ...................................................................
O r g a n i z a t i o n s .......................................................................
R e l i g i o u s p u r p o s e s ....................................................................
C h a r i t y .............................................................................
F u r n i t u r e a n d u t e n s i l s ..............................................
B o o k s , n e w s p a p e r s .........................................................
A m u s e m e n t s , v a c a t i o n ............................................................
L i q u o r s .....................................................................................
T o b a c c o .......................................................................................
S i c k n e s s , d e a t h ........................................................
O th e r p u r p o s e s ..............................................................................
T o t a l ...............................................................................

$ 3 2 7 .0 0
1 0 0 .0 0
1 2 .0 0
' 4 0 .0 0
1 0 8 .0 0
6 .0 0
2 1 .0 0
9 .0 0
8 .0 0
3 .0 0
2 6 .0 0
8 .0 0
1 2 .0 0
1 2 .0 0
1 1 .0 0
2 1 .0 0
4 5 .0 0

$ 4 3 0 .0 0
1 3 3 .0 0
1 2 .0 0
4 0 .0 0
1 2 0 .0 0
6 .0 0
2 1 .0 0
9 .0 0
8 .0 0
3 .0 0
2 6 .0 0
8 .0 0
1 2 .0 0
1 2 .0 0
1 1 .0 0
2 1 .0 0
5 1 .0 0

7 6 9 .0 0

923. 00

$ 4 7 7 .0 0
1 3 2 .0 0
1 2 .0 0
4 6 .0 0
1 2 1 .0 0
6 .0 0
2 1 .0 0
9 .0 0
8 .0 0
3 .0 0
3 0 .0 0
8 .0 0
1 2 .0 0
1 2 .0 0
1 1 .0 0
2 1 .0 0
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REGULATION OF WAR WAGES BY COST OF LIVING IN GREAT BRITAIN.

The following statement of a new basis for regulating war wages
which has been agreed upon by employers and workers in certain
sections of the British textile industry, is taken from the Textile
Mercury:1
The agreement regulating war wages which was recently drawn up and agreed to
by the employers and operatives in the bleaching, dyeing, calico printing, and finish­
ing trades has one or two remarkable features in it. It cancels all previous war grants
and bonuses, and war wages are now being regulated in accordance with the increased
cost of living, perhaps the only instance on record in which advances or decreases
are to be made over and above the wages ratal basis, according to the rise and fall of
the cost of living as estimated by the Board of Trade and published in the Labor
Gazette. The index figure of food and other prices will be compared with that of
July 1, 1914. The scale of war wages will operate only to the index figure of 95 per
cent, in increased cost of living; when that percentage is exceeded the parties will be
brought together to reconsider matters. When the scheme came into operation the
other week, the cost of living was estimated at 75 per cent above the index figure of
July 1, 1914, which meant an increase of 18s. 6d. ($4.50) per week to men of 18 years
of age and over; 11s. 6.75d. ($2.81) to women of 18 years of age and over; to males and
1 Textile Mercury, Manchester, England, Dec. 29,1917, pp, 383, 384.


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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

[920]

MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

193

females from 16 to 18 years of age, 9s. 3d. ($2.25) a week; males and females under 16
years of age, 8s. 1.125d. ($1.97) per week. A list of increases from 1 to 95 per cent
(according to increase of cost of living from 1 to 95 per cent above July, 1914) has been
printed, so that each operative can see at once the effect which changes in cost of
living w ill have on the unique scale of war wages. The new arrangement affects from
50,000 to 60,000 workers in the industries named in Lancashire, Cheshire, and Derby­
shire. * * * It embraces practically all classes of workers in the industry except
mechanics and others engaged in maintenance and repairs of plant and machine
printers whose war earnings are fixed under agreement with the respective unions for
the various sections of labor.
This is the first attempt on a large scale to adopt a scientific method of regulating
earnings according to the cost of living, though it is true that steel smelters and some
sections of the coal trade have their wages regulated by the selling price of the output.
Every three months a joint committee w ill meet and on the basis of last published
figure of the Board of Trade will alter the rate of war grant in proportion to the rise or
fall. The agreement will remain in force for a period of 12 months (or until the declara­
tion of peace, if that event takes place earlier), and is terminable by three months’
notice from either side.
WAR BONUS FOR GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES IN AUSTRIA.1

By an order of the Austrian minister of finance dated December 8,
1917, the payment for the first six months of 1918 of such taxes as in
normal circumstances would he deducted from the salaries of Govern­
ment employees is being taken over by the State. An increase of
salary in form of a war bonus is granted for the same period. The
increase varies with the amount of the salary and the size of the
family of the employee. The recipients of the war bonus are divided
into five classes: (1) Bachelors and widowers without children; (2)
married men without children and widowers with one child: (3)
married men with one or two children, and widowers with two or
three children; (4) married men with three or four children, and
widowers with four or five children; (5) married men with more than
four children, and widowers with more than five children. The follow­
ing table gives the highest and lowest bonuses of statutory Govern­
ment employees in the five classes enumerated above:
War bonus.
Annual salary.
Class 1.
14,000 to 18,000 crowns ($2,842 to $3,654)---1,600 to 2,200 crowns ($324.80 to $446.60)----

$143.72
98.66

Class 2.
$326.42
146.16

Class 3.
$394.63
199. 75

Class 4.
$462.84
253.34

Class 5.
$531.05
306. 94

There are also provided bonuses for the State police force, copyists
and other nonstatutory employees. Another order of the same date
provides similar bonuses for retired State officials, widows and
orphans of State officials, and other persons in receipt of pensions.
Data taken from Wiener Zeitung, Vienna, Dec. 12,1917.


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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

[921]

194

MONTHLY REVIEW OE THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS,

In an article on economic conditions m Austria-Hungary during
1917 as compared with those in 1913 the Neue Freie Presse of January
1, 1918, states that the increase in the salaries of Government officials
amounts to 761,000,000 crowns ($154,483,000) per annum.
WAR BONUSES IN FRANCE.
TRAMWAYS AND INTERURBAN RAILWAYS.

The Journal Officiel de la République Française publishes in full
the decrees issued by the Minister of Public Works and Transports,
which authorize the management of tramways and interurban rail­
ways to increase the tariff for transportation of passengers or mer­
chandise and accessory charges for handling and storage. These
increased rates have been allowed in most, if not all, cases because
of increases granted wage earners, or supplementary allowances
due to the high cost of living.
The lines affected are generally recognized as public utilities, and
therefore under Government supervision.
In requesting an authorization for increase in tariff rates the
following method of procedure is general. The concessionaire sub­
mits to the prefect of the municipality a statement showing the
necessity, and also the amount of supplementary allowances to be
paid employees as an ‘‘indemnity for the high cost of living.” This
statement is accompanied with a request for authority to increase
transportation charges. After an agreement has been reached and
signed by the railroad management and the prefect the proposition
is submitted to the President of the Republic, who, if he approves,
signs the proposal, and the Minister of Public Works issues a decree
making the agreement effective, and ordering it to be entered in
the Bulletin of Laws.
The decree may be retroactive in so far as it relates to supple­
mentary wages, which in some cases are made payable from a date
several months before the proposal was even submitted to the
prefect for consideration. As an example of this the agreement
between the prefect of the Somme and the director of the Economic
Society of Railways was signed on September 15, 1917, and ap­
proved by the President on October 30, 1917, but the supplementa­
tion of wages dated from November 1, 1916.1
The decrees in general cover the period of the War and one year
subsequent to cessation of hostilities. It is stipulated in many
agreements that a separate account must be kept both of additional
receipts and of expenses resulting from these increases and that such
receipts are exempt from any concession tax only in so far as the


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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

1 Journal Officiel, Jan. 2 and 3, 1913.

[922]

MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

195

receipts exceed the expense. In some cases it is specified that
excess net receipts shall be used in road betterment.1 In other
cases the agreement states that deficits due to the new rates may
be charged to that portion of operation receipts due the municipality
as a concession tax.1
Of the various plans adopted in granting these temporary supple­
mental wages the following examples have been selected as showing
the most frequent base upon which they are calculated, their amount,
and the classes of employees benefited by them.
The General Association of Railways of the Somme adopted a dual
system as a basis of such compensation.1 The classes to which
supplementary wages are paid are : (a) Male employees and females,
heads of families, earning not more than 3,600 francs ($694.80);
(b) salaried persons and laborers, legally charged with the mainte­
nance of one or more children under 16 years of age, and earning
not more than 6,000 francs ($1,158) per year.
For the first class (a) an allowance of 15 per cent is made on that
portion of the earnings less than 1,200 francs ($231.60); 10 per
cent on that portion between 1,200 francs and 1,800 francs ($347.40),
it being understood that the minimum to be considered as a base for
this allowance is 1,200 francs per year for men and 600 francs ($115.80)
for women, heads of families.
For the second class (6) an annual allowance is made of 50 francs
($9.65) for the first child; 100 francs ($19.30) each for the second and
third child, and 200 francs ($38.60) for each child under 16 years of
age in addition to the third.
The second class of allowance, for family charge, is supplemental
to the first class, of temporary increases in wages.
In each class those receiving the maximum basic wages or more
(3,600 francs ($694.80) in the first class and 6,000 francs ($1,158)
in the second) are granted an allowance which, when added to their
annual earnings, will make them equal to the amounts received by
the highest paid in each class, respectively, family charges being
equal. Allowances are paid monthly and are not subject to reduction
for retirement funds. An increase of 50 per cent on accessory
charges is permitted to cover the anticipated increase in operating
expenses.
In Saône-et-Loire a system of railroads had granted certain in­
creases of wages dating from January 1, 1917,2 but further increases
became operative in response to a petition dated June 19, 1917, by
which married, widowed, or divorced employees having children
with whose maintenance they are legally charged receive a flat
increase of 360 francs ($69.48) per year, and unmarried employees,
i Journal Officiel, Nov. 7 , 1917 , p. 8 901 .


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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

2 Journal Officiel, N ov. 7 ,

[923]

1917 ,

p . 8902.

196

MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

and married, widowed, or divorced employees not having the main­
tenance of children are granted 240 francs ($46.32). To meet these
extra charges an increase of 50 per cent on accessory transportation
charges is permitted.
The agreement made by the Southern Railway of France and the
Department of Yar,1 including subsidiary lines, presents some novel
features. The rate of increase is that generally accorded—15 per
cent on that portion of earnings not exceeding 1,200 francs ($231.60);
10 per cent on that portion between 1,200 francs and 1,800 francs
($347.40) for all employees not receiving more than 3,600 francs
($694.80); and an allowance to all heads of families of 50 francs
($9.65) for one child, 100 francs ($19.30) each for the second and
third child, and 200 francs ($3S.60) for each child under 16 years of
age, in addition to the third, provided the salary does not exceed
6,000 francs ($1,158) per year.
The minimum annual increase for men is fixed at 180 francs
($34.74) and for women at 90 francs ($17.37).
Increased tariff is permitted, but the Department of Yar agrees
to reimburse the company for any deficit due to these supplementary
wages, and any excess of profits due to the operation of this decree
is payable into the Department’s treasury.
The scale of wages adopted on December 30, 1912, between the
city of Nantes, the Nantes Tramway Co., and its employees, was
modified on October 7, 1917, as follows:2
Wages of motormen and motor women for the six months follow­
ing the apprenticeship period (15 days), 4.25 francs (82 cents) per
day; for the next six months 4.5 francs (86.9 cents) per day; after
which if their work is satisfactory they are permanently employed
under the following monthly scale: For the first two years, 123 francs
($23.74) per month; for the third year, 128 francs ($24.70); for the
fourth year, 133 francs ($25.67), and thereafter an increase of 5
francs (96.5 cents) per month for each biennial period of service up
to and including the twelfth year. The maximum wages of 158
francs ($30.49) are paid beginning with the thirteenth year of per­
manent service.
Ticket collectors, males or females, shall not be required to serve
an apprenticeship exceeding 10 days. For the following six months
they will be paid 4 francs (77.2 cents) per day of actual work.
Monthly wages for the first and second years thereafter will be 118
francs ($22.77), increased by 5 francs (96.5 cents) per month for each
biennial period of service up to and including the fourteenth year
of service. The maximum of 148 francs ($28.56) is reached beginning
with the fifteenth year.
1 Journal Officiel, Dec. 18,1917, p. 103C6.


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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

»Journal OfficieJ, Nov. 12,1917, p. 9010.

[9241

MONTHLY BEVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

197

Head motormen are divided into five classes. Their monthly
wages vary from 153 to 193 francs ($29.53 to $37.25), each grade
receiving 10 francs ($1.93) more than the next lower grade. No
person shall be kept more than 5 years in either of the two lower
grades.
Manual laborers in depots and shops receive a minimum wage of
40 centimes (7.7 cents) per hour, after 3 years of service 42.5 centimes
(8.2 cents), and after 6 years 45 centimes (8.7 cents).
Warehouse inspectors (ouvriers-visiteurs) are paid an hourly wage
of 45 centimes at the beginning of service, and reach 50 centimes
(9.7 cents) after 6 years of service.
Fitters, locksmiths, turners, molders, carpenters, painters, electri­
cians, etc., receive from 55 centimes (10.6 cents) per hour, fornew
employees, to 65 centimes (12.5 cents) by regular increases through
five grades.
Helpers are paid from 45 to 50 centimes (8.7 to 9.7 cents) per hour.
Their number is limited to 12 per cent of the shop force.
Wages of persons engaged in maintenance of way vary from 40
to 50 centimes (7.7 to 9.7 cents) per hour, the maximum being reached
after 12 years of service. Pavers receive 55 centimes (10.6 cents)
per hour.
In addition, each salaried person or wage earner who has been in
the service of the company two months or more is granted an allow­
ance, because of the increased cost of living, of 1 franc (19.3 cents)
per day of actual service for the period of the War and one year
thereafter.
While no list of railways in operation nor of those having granted
supplementary pay is available, it is believed that the number of
such agreements published in the Journal Officiel from October 17,
1917, to February, 1918, indicates that'such increases have been
general.
STATE RAILROADS.

The following item appears in the report of the committee having
charge of the bill to vote additional credits for national expenses
during the fiscal year 1917: 1
In accordance with an agreement made between the Minister of
Public Works and the more important railroad companies, dated
November 10, 1916, which included the State railroad system, supple­
mentary wages, owing to the increased cost of living, were granted to
the employees, beginning with November 1, 1916.
(a) To all employees and laborers earning less than 3,600 francs
($694.80) per year, an increase of 15 per cent on that portion of wages


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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

»Journal Officiel (supplement), Jan. 20,1918, p. 1746.

[9 2 5 ]

198

MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

not exceeding 1,200 francs ($231.60); 10 per cent on that portion
between 1,200 francs and 1,800 francs ($347.40). (b) To those
legally charged with the maintenance of children under 16 years of
age an allowance of 50 francs ($9.65) for the first child, 100 francs
($19.30) each for the second and third child, and 200 francs ($38.60)
for each child under 16 in addition to the third, provided their salary
does not exceed 6,000 francs ($1,158) per year.
.the earnings of those in class (a) or (b) receiving 3,600 francs
($694.80) or 6,000 francs ($1,158), respectively, shall be so increased as
to equal the increased wages of those in the respective classes having
like family charges.
But the persistent increase in the cost of living led to a new
agreement July 2, 1917, by the terms of which no modifications of
allowances granted to heads of families having children with whose
maintenance they are legally charged were made, but the allowances
under (a) were modified as follows: An increase of 30 per cent was
granted on that portion of earnings under 1,200 francs ($231.60),
15 per cent on that portion between 1,200 francs and 1,800 francs
($347.40), and 10 per cent on that portion between 1,800 francs and
3.600 francs ($694.80), inclusive.
No increase shall be less than 420 francs ($81.06) for men or 180
francs ($34.74) for women. Temporary employees were given
increases equal to permanent employees. For those receiving over
3.600 francs ($694.80) an increase was granted equal to that granted
those receiving that amount, decreased by 30 francs ($5.79) for each
100 francs ($19.30) of wages in excess of 3,600 francs. The minimum
wages for an adult female employee was fixed at 5 francs (96.5 cents)
for a normal day’s work.
This latter scale of wages became effective June 1, 1917.1
Ih e total amount of these increases for the year was estimated to
be, in round numbers, 28,018,000 francs ($5,407,474).
CIVIL EMPLOYEES.

In addition to the regular budgets voted on December 30, 1916,
and March 31, 1917, and those authorized by special laws, credits
were \oted to the various departments of the civil government
April 7, 1917, under the title of “ Supplemental pay accorded to civil
employees of the State during the War, because of the increased cost
of living.”
The credits thus voted amounted to 46,058,280 francs ($8,889,248.04), which were distributed as follows: 2
1Journal Officiel, Jan. 20, 1918, p. 1773.
« Guerre de 1914. Documents Officiels.


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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

Vol. 17.

[9 2 6 ]

Feb. 15 to Apr. 15, 1917, p. 223.

MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

199

S U P P L E M E N T A R Y C R E D IT S V O T E D TO T H E V A R IO U S D E P A R T M E N T S OF T H E C IV IL
G O V E R N M E N T , F R A N C E , A P R IL 7 , 1917 .

Department.
TT'nrmf'A
Justice:

_____T, _T_______ _______

Penal service.........................................
Ji'nppiVr] flft'ftirs
............. ............ -

Marine
..........................
Instruction and fine arts:
PnLliV* in^trnotion
Commerce, industry, post and tele­
graphs:
Commerce and industry.....................
Post and telegraphs............................

Amount.

Department.

11 , 3 0 0 ,4 3 4

Labor and social welfare..........................
Colonies........................................................
Agriculture.................................................
Public works:
Public works.......................................
Merchant marine................................
Mint ( M o n n a i e s et M é d a i l l e s ) .....................
Government printing office....................
Legion of Honor__ ...................................
Explosive service......................................
National savings fund..............................
Marine invalidity fund............................

$ 1 1 ,1 9 4

Total..................................................

8 , 8 8 9 ,2 4 8

1 1 6 ,9 5 8
8 5 ,2 6 7
1 5 ,3 6 3
9 / 328
2 , 012 ', 797
3 7 ^789
1 , 2 2 7 ,2 8 7
1 , 8 8 4 ,4 9 1
2 9 ,6 0 6

Amount.

1 2 ,1 2 0
2 3 1 ,4 4 6
3 3 1 ,3 5 8
2 3 ,3 9 2
5 ; 308
1 9 ,1 0 7
444
4 ,5 1 6
1 3 ,8 9 6
347

2 1 ,7 7 0
1 , 4 1 3 ,0 3 0

A decree dated May 3, 1917/ provided that beginning with
January 1, 1917, allowances and increases for family charges (children
under 16 years of age) should be accorded to the employees in the
civil service of the State, in order that they may meet the increased
cost of living.
The classes of employees benefited by these allowances are defined
as follows:
1. Clerks, agents, and assistant agents (experts, clerks in training,
and extra clerks) receiving monthly salaries.
2. Agents, assistant agents, and employees not included in class 1,
but who are regularly employed or belong to an established category
of employees and paid according to a regular fixed scale.
3. All other agents and assistant agents and employees having
served in the same department five consecutive years.
4. Laborers permanently employed in the service of the State, or
who shall have served five consecutive years in the same executive
branch of service.
In no case are they accorded to (1) employees or apprentices under
16 years of age; (2) ad interim employees or persons temporarily
employed because of war-imposed conditions; (3) employees whose
employment in the civil service is supplemental to their profession;
(4) persons who by virtue of any regulation are permitted to engage,
while in the service of the State, in commerce or industry; (5)
persons in the service of any department to whom increased re­
muneration, because of the increased cost of living, has been granted
since the beginning of hostilities.
The annual allowance granted for increased cost of living is fixed
at 120 francs ($23.16) for unmarried persons, and 180 francs ($34.74)
for married persons as well as widowed, divorced or separated em-


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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

i Guerre de 1914 , v o l . 18 , p . 133 .

[9 2 7 ]

200

MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

ployees having one or more children under 16 years of age legally
under their charge and living with them.
A bonus of 100 francs ($19.30) is granted for e'ach child under 16
years of age, or incapacitated for work by reason of infirmities, and
legally under the charge and living with the employee or laborer.
Laborers and others paid by the da}?-, piece, or task are granted
daily increases as follows: Unmarried persons, 45 centimes (8.7
cents); married persons, 65 centimes (12.5 cents), with an additional
allowance of 37 centimes (7.1 cents) per child.
All increases and bonuses are payable monthly, and no absence
not causing loss of pay is to work forfeiture, but the annual or daily
allowances are not payable to persons who receive free lodging and
board.
The annual allowances are payable to unmarried persons receiving
annually not more than 2,000 francs ($386); to married persons
receiving not more than 3,000 francs ($579); to persons having 1 or
2 children to maintain and receiving not more than 3,600 francs
($694.80); and to persons having more than 2 children and receiving
not more than 4,500 francs ($868.50).
Persons paid by the day are not entitled to the allowances men­
tioned if the. daily earnings exceed 6.66 francs ($1.29), 10 francs
($1.93), 12 francs ($2.32), or 15 francs ($2.90), according to whether
they are single, married, have 1 or 2 children, or more than 2 children,
to maintain.
In case the husband and wife are both in the service an increase
is allowed to but one of them, only the salary paid the one who
receives the highest remuneration being considered.
These allowances for increased cost of living are reduced, when it
becomes necessary, to such an extent that the accumulated amount
of the bonuses and the increased remuneration shall not exceed the
maximum salaries mentioned above for the respective classes of
employees.
Clerks whose salaries exceed 3,600 or 4,500 francs ($694.80 or
$868.50) may be granted an allowance for family charges (mainte­
nance of children) to such an extent as to equalize their income with
that of persons receiving smaller salaries having like family charges.
This applies also to persons paid by the day receiving 12 or 15 francs
($2.32 or $2.90).
In determining the earnings, salaries, or wages, pensions granted
by the State, Department, commune, colony, or public works, as
well as all wages or salaries paid by private enterprises to the employee
are considered.
These bonuses are not payable to mobilized persons.


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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

[9 2 8 ]

MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

201

On August 18, 1917, a still further increase was granted, becoming
effective July 1, 1917. The same classes of employees paid fixed
wages or salaries, with like exceptions as to age, temporary service,
supplemental service, or commercial or industrial status, are given a
flat increase in wages or salary per year. These increases are de­
clared to be temporary, and not subject to any deductions for
pensions, and are as follows:
An annual increase of 540 francs ($104.22) for clerks, agents, etc.,
receiving not more than 3,600 francs ($694.80) per year; 360 francs
($69.48) for those receiving over 3,600 francs but not more than
5.000 francs ($965). Employees receiving between 3,600 francs and
3,780 francs ($729.54) receive an increase to bring their salaries to
4,140 francs ($799.02) at least, and those receiving between 5,000
francs ($965) and 5,360 francs ($1,034.48) receive an increase
sufficient to bring their salary to 5,360 francs at least.
In determining the net salary of an employee deduction must be
made for any sum reserved from wages for pension funds.
In addition to these bonuses an allowance for family charges is
granted for children under 16 years of age, as follows: One hundred
francs ($19.30) for each of two children and 200 francs ($38.60) for
each child additional.
Employees receiving over 5,000 francs ($965) and having children
to maintain are allowed a supplementary increase sufficient to equal­
ize their salaries with the amount paid any other employee receiving
5.000 francs or less, having like family charges.
If both husband and wife are employed by the State, one of them
only is entitled to the allowance for maintenance of children, and then
only when the higher paid of the two receives a salary not exceeding
5.000 francs. If other forms of bonuses of similar nature have been
previously granted, the employee may select the most advantageous,
but they are not cumulative.
Assistants or temporary employees not included in the above
classes, but who have been five years in the continuous service of
any Government department are allowed an increase as provided by
the decree of May 3, 1917 (above given), and an allowance for family
charges as provided for clerks, etc., provided their salary does not
exceed 5,000 francs, and that they are not of the excepted classes.
Laborers and employees paid by the day, piece, or task are granted
a bonus equal in value to that granted those receiving annual salaries,
the amount of such increases to be determined by each Government
department, and approved by the Minister of Finance.
By ministerial decree 1 of October 27, 1917, the decree of August
18, 1917, was extended to the colonial penitentiary department.


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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

l Guerre de 1914, vol. 21-22, p. 426.

[929]

202

MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

Officials and laborers paid by the day receive an increase of 1.8 francs
(34.7 cents) per working day, with a maximum monthly increase of
45 francs ($8.69) for those whose wages do not exceed 12 francs
($2.32) per day, and allowances for family charges of 37 centimes
(7.1 cents) per day, with a maximum of 8.33 francs ($1.61) per month,
for each of one or two children under 16 years of age, and 74 centimes
(14.3 cents) per day, with a maximum of 16.66 francs ($3.22) per
month, for each child in addition to the second. Family charges are
payable in full even upon stoppage of wages, or when, due to sickness,
half wages only are paid.
The executive of each Government department may by deeree
grant bonuses to cover increased cost of living, and allowances for
family charges, to employees in the department, including those in
foreign service, if such employees are French subjects.


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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

[930]

MINIMUM WAGE,
MINIMUM WAGES IN MERCANTILE ESTABLISHMENTS IN KANSAS.

Tho industrial welfare commission of Kansas has recently issued
an order, effective March 18, 191S, fixing a minimum wage of $8.50
per week for experienced women workers in mercantile establishments
of that State. The apprenticeship period is fixed at one year, the
minimum weekly wage for the first six months to be $6 and for the
second six months, $7. The minimum for minors is to be $5 per week,
and not more than 20 per cent of the force may be apprentices or
minors.
This wage order supplements an earlier order establishing maximum
hours of labor in mercantile establishments. Other orders, already
issued, have dealt with hours of labor and sanitary conditions in
laundries.1
The text of the new wage order is as follows:
No person shall employ any experienced female worker in any mercantile estab­
lishment in the State of Kansas at a weekly wage rate of less than $8.50.
An experienced female worker is any worker who has served the apprenticeship
period. Any female worker who can show to the satisfaction of the commission that
she has had experience equivalent to such apprenticeship shall receive the minimum
wage without the apprenticeship in this State. The length of the apprenticeship
term for female workers in mercantile establishments shall he one year, and such
apprenticeship term shall be divided into two periods of six months each.
No person shall employ any female worker except as hereinafter provided in any
mercantile establishment for the first period at a weekly wage rate of less than $6,
or for the second period at a weekly wage rate of less than $7.
Minors employed in mercantile establishments in the capacity of bundle wrappers
and cash boys or cash girls shall be paid not less than $5 a week, after six months of
service shall be paid not less than $5.50 a week, and after 12 months not less than $6
per week. Not more than 20 per cent minors and apprentices shall be allowed in any
one establishment.
Said order shall become effective on and after March 18, 1918.
After such order is effective, it shall be unlawful for any employer in the State
of Kansas affected thereby to fail to observe and comply therewith, and any person
who violates said order shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and anyone con­
victed thereof shall be punished by a fine of not less than twenty-five dollars ($25)
nor more than one hundred dollars ($100) for each such misdemeanor.
) See Monthly R e v ie w , October, 1917, and February, 1918, for these eariier orders of the K ansas Indus­
trial Welfare Commission.


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WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.
EFFECT OF THE WAR UPON THE EMPLOYMENT OF WOMEN IN ENGLAN D .
BY MARY CONYNGTON.

In tracing the effect of the war upon the employment of women in
England, three distinct phases are visible: First, the period of wide­
spread unemployment and of organized effort to relieve it; second,
the reabsorption into industry of the unemployed women, often into
some industry in which they had formerly played hut a minor part,
accompanied by their transfer from one industry to another; and
third, an organized effort to increase the supply of women workers,
to induce women who had left industry to return to it, women who
had never worked for wages to take up gainful employment, and
women working in the less essential to transfer to the more essential
trades. These phases are not sharply differentiated; all three might
and to some extent did exist at the same time, though in differ­
ent localities and occupations. Owing partly to the immobility of
labor, especially female labor, and partly to the difficulty of putting
a worker trained to one kind of work into another and totally different
trade, it has happened that women in one industry might be working
on short time, or actually unemployed, while in another there was a
crying need for help. Nevertheless, these three stages were in the
main consecutive.
UNEMPLOYMENT; R ELIEF MEASURES.

The immediate result of the war was widespread unemployment.
In July, 1914, not including women working as employers or on their
own account or as domestic servants, there were in England and
Wales some three million and a quarter women gainfully employed.
Of these, 2,184,000 were in industrial pursuits, the largest single
group, 863,000, being in the textile trades; then came the clothing
trades with 620,000; next in order but far below came the food
trades with 196,000, the metal trades with 170,000, and the paper
and printing trades with 147,000. The wood trades employed 44,000
and the chemical trades 40,000. Of those not industrially employed,
commercial occupations accounted for 496,000, the local govern­
ment service took 198,000, the civil service employed 66,000, agri­
culture 80,000, and the transport service 19,0002 Excluded from
i Tlie Labour Gazette, London, August, 1917, p. 274.

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this enumeration are an uncertain number of women working or in
trade on their own account, and the great body of domestic servants,
who in the census of 1911 were given as numbering 1,734,00c).1 Al­
lowing for the natural increase from 1911 to 1914, it is estimated that
altogether at the outbreak of the War there were approximately
five million women at work in England and Wales.2
Among these the immediate effect of the declaration of war was
even more disastrous than among men. The stoppage of commerce
and industry due to the financial shock, the disorganization of the
coal, iron, and steel industries, the cancellation of contracts with the
warring countries, the interruption of the transport system, and the
impossibility of securing rawTmaterials for manufacture, affected them
as seriously as the men, while the panic economy which caused an
almost complete stagnation of the luxury trades fell with special
severity on women. Thousands of dressmakers, milliners, workers
in flowers and feathers, lace makers, and the like were thrown out of
employment; laundresses found their trade gone, and domestic ser­
vants, ladies’ maids, and charwomen were dismissed. August was a
time of such confusion that no figures of unemployment among
women were obtainable, but in September the published data show a
serious situation:
In London alone between 40,000 and 50,000 women and girls are out of work. In
addition to these, 200,000 women and girls are working short tim e. In laundries * * *
between 3,000 and 4,000 have been discharged, and of the remainder over 20,000 are
earning on an average about half of their usual wages. Hundreds of women have been
dismissed in the printing trades, and the large majority are working short tim e.3

Taking the wdiole country, instead of London alone, the Labor Year
Book states that by September the number of women employed in
the staple industries, excluding agriculture, had decreased by 190,000,4
while many more were working less than full time.
To some extent the situation was met by relief work. In August
a central committee on women’s employment was formed which
opened workrooms and training centers, and also did something in
the way of inducting women into new trades. During the winter of
1914-15 there was much demand for the services of this committee,
and by March 31, 1915, its disbursements amounted to £72,953 5
($355,025.77); during the next six months they sank to £15,967 *
($77,703.41), while during the winter of 1915-16 only £241 7
($1,172.83) was advanced in aid of women’s workrooms. Thereafter
5Census of England and Wales, 1911; Occupations, Part I, p. 76.
2Fabian Tract, No. 178: The War, Women, and Unemployment, by Sidney Webb, p. 4. Fabian
Society, London, 1915.
i Daily Citizen, London, Sept. 10,1914.
<Labour Year Book, 1916, p. 79. 1 Victoria St., London.
<>Report on the Administration of the National Relief Fund up to March 31, 1915. (Cd. 7756.)
6Report on Administration of the National Relief Fund up to September 33, 1915. (Cd. 8169.)
i Report on Administration of the National Relief Fund up to March 31, 1916. (Cd. 8286.)

4G64S0—18------14

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unemployment among employable women became a matter calling
for transportation rather than relief, and the committee’s work was
directed into other channels.
REABSORPTION OF UNEMPLOYED WOMEN INTO INDUSTRY.

The process of reabsorption of unemployed women into the ordi­
nary course of industry began at an early period after the first shock
of war. The demand for clothing for the army was immediate, and
firms competent to handle this work needed every worker they could
get. Unfortunately, however, not all sewing women were qualified
for this work, so although this relieved the situation there was still
much distress among workers in the needle trades. Other kinds of
work showed an improvement, although the process was slow. By
the end of October, 1914, the Board of Trade reported that employ­
ment among women had shown considerable improvement, chiefly
owing to the demand for army goods; the cotton trade had improved
slightly, although much short time still prevailed; the woolen,
worsted, hosiery, and dyeing trades showed improvement, but dress­
makers, servants of various kinds, and ‘'clerks and typists formerly
employed in commercial houses "with a continental trade” were still
finding it difficult to secure employment,1 In spite of this improve­
ment, however, the number of women employed was smaller by
139,000 than in July, 1914, and many of those at work were on short
time. In the following months occurred one of the earliest notices
of the flow of women into the engineering trades. In this line of
work, declares the Labor Gazette—2
E m p l o y m e n t in N o v e m b e r w a s v e r y g o o d , * * * t h e d e m a n d fo r m e n o n w o r k c o n ­
n e c t e d w it h t h e w a r e x c e e d i n g t h e s u p p l y , a n d o v e r t im e b e in g i n o p e r a t io n t o a la r g e
e x te n t . * * * E m p lo y m e n t w a s v e r y g o o d u p o n G o v e r n m e n t w o r k , e s p e c ia lly
a t N e w c a s t le , w h e r e a d d it i o n a l m e n a n d w o m e n fr o m L a n c a s h ir e w e r e e n g a g e d , a n d
n i g h t s h if t s a n d o v e r t im e w e r e in o p e r a t io n .

With the coming of the new year improvement was manifest along
several lines. The clothing trades were busy, and from January,
1915, onward, the Board of Trade labor exchanges reported more
applications from the tailoring trade for female workers than could
be satisfied. Women were entering the metal trades in constantly
increasing numbers and were making their way into other trades
which had not theretofore been open to them. For a time this
process was checked by the opposition of the men workers. The
great demand for women was in the production of munitions and
equipment for the forces. Many of the trades involved were in the
hands of strongly organized unions of highly skilled men, who looked
wnh grave distrust upon the introduction of untrained women and
the inevitable breaking down of trade-union standards which this
1 Board ol Trade Labour Gazette, November, 1914, p. 395.


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implied. The Government held a series of conferences with the tradeunions over the questions, and by April, 1915, a compromise had
been arranged, under which women were thereafter employed with­
out question, not only in munitions factories, but in all controlled
establishments.
By the time this agreement was reached the scarcity of workers
caused by the enlistment of the men was becoming apparent in some
of the nonmunition trades. The Government compromise suggested
the way of meeting the opposition of the men, and agreements w*ere
made between employers and trade-unions in several trades provid­
ing for the admission of women to what had always been considered
men’s work. The agreements usually stipulated that the relaxation
of trade-union rules was for the duration of the war only, that at its
conclusion the men who had gone into the army should have their
old places back, and that none of the women should be retained unless
there should be a scarcity of male help. In the chinaware and earthen­
ware trades such an agreement was signed in May, 1915, and in the
same month the union of slipper makers agreed to a similar relaxa­
tion of rules. The unions of the boot and shoe trade fell into line
in June; in July a general agreement was reached between the em­
ployers’ and the operatives’ associations in the cotton trade of Lan­
cashire, and within the next six months a number of agreements
were signed between the employers and the unions in the cotton trade
throughout England. Brass workers signed similar agreements in
October, and hosiery workers in December, so that by the end of the
year the admission of women to new trades and occupations had made
considerable progress.
Long before the end of the year, too, the Government was making
strong efforts to increase their numbers, both in the munitions'trades
and in several other kinds of work. By the spring of 1915 the impor­
tance of the munitions supply was keenly realized, and at the same
time Kitchener was calling for more and more men. Women could
be used to free men; so a campaign of patriotism was preached, call­
ing on women to come into the factories and make supplies for the
men who had left. In the main, during 1915, these workers seem to
have come from the women already engaged in wage earning, or who
had at some previous time been so engaged. The class of domestic
servants supplied many of them, and complaints about the scarcity
of household workers began to appear before the middle of the year.
As the need for more skillful workers became greater, the Government
started training classes for munitions workers, in which women learned
how to handle the tools at which they would first be put in the facto­
ries. Some of the large munition makers did the same thing. As
the year wore on and some of the factory workers showed signs of


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breaking under the strain of long hours and continuous speeding up,
a new development arose—the training of the week-enders. These
were usually women of some means and some leisure, who did not
wish to enter the munitions trades as a permanent thing, or were
unable to do so, but who could and would give a day or more at the
end of the week in order to replace some regular worker, assuring
her an intermission of 24 hours—for at that time the seven-day week
was common. Training classes were established for these week-end
workers, and by November it was reported that the plan, which had
been begun at Erith, had been extended to the Tyne and Clyde dis­
tricts, and that “ hundreds of educated women are now employed
at the week-ends in this way.”1
On March 22, 1915, the Government appointed a committee “ to
consider the conditions of retail trade which can best secure that the
further enlistment of men or their employment in other national
services may not interfere with the necessary operations of that
trade.” The substitution of women for men was still looked upon
as a dubious experiment, so the committee went about its work
cautiously and not before October did it bring in a report. As a
beginning, it had asked employers whether they would be willing
to reinstate at the end of the war men who had left in order to enlist,
and many of the employers had promised to do so. Therefore, it
was urged, no unfairness to men would result from the employment
of women. This point being settled, the committee reported that
women could be substituted for men largely, even in occupations
like that of driving delivery vans, which at first thought seemed
entirely unsuitable. Men could not be altogether dispensed with,
as in some of the retail trades there was need of handling goods too
heavy for women to manage, but even here, by rearranging the work,
a small nucleus of men would be sufficient, women taking over
everything but the heaviest work. Various difficulties would be
found in adapting the conditions and customs of the work to women,
but the committee thought these could be overcome, and reported
that employers in general seemed willing to make the experiment.
Going outside the strict limits of its commission, the committee
also recommended that women should be employed in the wholesale
trades. This, it found, had been done in a number of large estab­
lishments, and had resulted “ in the freeing of a very remarkable
number of men from the wholesale warehouses for enlistment in the
forces.”
At just about the time this committee was making its report
another was appointed “ to consider the conditions of clerical and
-

-

"

_

I

------------- —

1 Women’s Employment, issued by the W omen’s Employment Publishing Co. (L td.), 5 Princes St.,
Cavendish Square, W. London, Dec. 3,1915, p. 9.


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commercial employment with a view to advising what steps should
be taken, by the employment of women or otherwise, to replace men
withdrawn for service in the military forces.” The need for men
was acute by this time, and the idea of using women in their places
had lost its strangeness, so this committee went to its point very
directly. There were still about 300,000 men engaged in these
occupations in England and Wales, it found. Some of these were not
physically capable of military service, and some on account of their
specialized training and long experience were indispensable if the com­
merce of the country were to be carried on. Altogether, perhaps as
many as 150,000 could be spared for the army. Substitutes must
be secured in the main from among women. To a considerable
extent women were already being drawn on, but for the most part
they were not trained in clerical work, and it was highly desirable
to establish courses of training at once. As in the case of the com­
mittee on retail trade this committee expressly stated that this
employment should be looked upon as only a temporary expedient
and that employers should hold their places for the men who enlisted.
Also, it was suggested that women’s wages should, “ as far as con­
ditions permit and the work deputed to them reasonably justifies,”
be based on the rate of wages paid the men they replaced.
A beginning was also made during 1915 in substituting women for
men in agriculture. As the shortage of farm labor became apparent,
there were numerous propositions to release children from school
that they might take up the work. There was considerable opposi­
tion to this course, and the employment of women was urged as an
alternative. The trouble with this plan was that it did not appeal
either to the farmers or to the women. The farmers were doubtful
about the ability of women to do the work, objected to the difficulty
of accommodating them, and were much disinclined to pay them any
wage which would attract them. The women objected to the low
wages and the unattractive conditions of work, and were far more
inclined to go into other occupations. By March the Board of
Trade, in consultation with the Board of Agriculture, decided upon
active steps to recruit women for service on the land. A central
committee—the War agricultural committee—was formed, and it
was planned to organize under it committees of women in every
county who should work up a sentiment in favor of farm work for
women. By the end of the year the committees were well organized
and carrying on an active propaganda. A large number of women
were enrolled through these efforts—17,000, according to one report1—
but as enrollment only meant that a woman was willing to put in
at agricultural labor such time as she could spare, the amount varying
i Women’s Work on the Land, by G A. Greig, London [1916], p. 27.


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from a few hours a week to full time, it was quite uncertain how
helpful this registration might prove.
By the end of 1915, then, unemployment among women had
greatly decreased, and what remained was either local or confined to
a few classes. The general effort to economize had resulted in much
unemployment for woman housekeepers, governesses, companions,
and the like. Workers in the luxury trades who had not transferred
to other callings also suffered, and so did the professional and semiprofessional classes. Among these, doctors and nurses were in much
demand, but musicians, artists, and those of similar callings found
little to do in their own lines, and were not well adapted for taking
up the trades in which women were wanted.
As to local unemployment, a good deal had been done in the way
of transferring women from places where their work was not needed
to places where it was in demand:
In the West Midlands district alone, where before the war the migration of indus­
trial women was practically unknown, over 4,000 women were during 1915 placed by
the employment exchanges in employment away from their own districts, the greater
number on munitions work, and others as artificial silk workers, rubber workers, choc­
olate makers, farm hands, and as substitutes for men in various kinds of work.1

On the whole, during the year 1915 the nation seemed more in­
clined to use the muscles than the minds of its women. As manual
workers they were welcome, but there was much hesitation about
admitting them to the better paid and more responsible pursuits in
which intelligence and training were needed. One of the women’s
journals thus sums up the situation at the end of the year:
It has been chiefly in voluntary work that the woman of the professional class has
found new outlets. * * * There are women capable of filling a number of higher
posts which have not yet been opened to them. Up to the grade of simpler clerical
work replacement has been going on; above that line, except in the teaching pro­
fession, replacement has hardly begun.2
EFFORTS TO INCREASE SUPPLY OF WOMEN WORKERS: DEVELOPMENTS OF 1918.

During the year 1916 the problem of unemployment among women
practically passed from sight, and what has been called the second
phase, the reabsorption of women into industry by natural demand,
passed into the third, the period of sustained effort to secure all
available workers and to increase the supply by inducing those who
had never before been wage earners to become such. Early in the
year the Government issued an appeal to employers pointing out the
vital importance of keeping up production in spite of the reduction
of man power, and urging them to make every possible effort to
i Board of Trade Labour Gazette, London, March, 1917, p. 93.
* Women’s Employment, London, Dec. 3,1915, p. 7.


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utilize women for this purpose, either in direct substitution for the
men who had been withdrawn or by some subdivision or rearrange­
ment of their work. As one step toward securing this result local
committees to deal with the question of women’s employment were
established in various parts of the country. These committees were
formed of representatives of both employers and workpeople, and
included also members of such organizations as the Women’s Cooper­
ative Guild, the Y. W. C. A., and the like. In general they were
authorized to assist the local labor exchanges in extending the employ­
ment of women in industry, and in this capacity their functions
varied considerably from place to place. As a beginning the em­
ployers of the district were generally canvassed to find out what
were their needs, present and prospective, in the way of women
workers. Armed with this information, the committee set out to
find the workers. In some places a house-to-house canvass was under­
taken to find women willing to take up the work; in others, public
meetings were held, handbills and posters displayed, funds were
raised to enable workers to journey to the places where they were
needed, crèches were started in which married women might leave
their babies while they went to work, and generally every effort was
used to bring in the workers. Employers, too, were labored with.
Active efforts to extend the substitution of women for men in industry have been
taken by the committees at Leeds, Leicester, Nottingham, and other places, and
conferences have been arranged with employers in the leading trades in these towns
to discuss the matter. Successful steps have been taken by the Bristol committee to
persuade a number of unemployed women to undergo a training for work in the boot
trade hitherto performed by m en.1

Another feature of the year 1916 was the increased effort to
interest women in farm work. No one was as yet ready to declare
food raising as important as munition making, yet it was becoming
increasingly evident that food must be had, that the supplies obtain­
able from abroad were smaller than usual, and that the U-boat
warfare, combined with a scarcity of tonnage, made it highly desirable
to raise as much as possible in England. Consequently the women’s
county War agricultural committees, which had been organized in 1915,
became centers of active propaganda. The counties were subdivided
and local committees or registrars or both appointed for each village.
Public meetings were held, house-to-house canvasses made, armlets
and certificates were issued to those who took up the work, and the
strongest possible appeal on grounds of patriotism was made to
women to become farm workers. It was freely admitted that wages
were distressingly low, that work was heavy and hours long, but
i Board of Trade Labour Gazette, London, November, 1916, p. 403.


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then “ the need was a national one.1” On the same grounds, of
patriotism, farmers were urged to employ women, especially for all the
lighter forms of farm work; the idea of light work seems to have
included everything hut plowing.
While the county agricultural committees were proceeding along
these lines, a private organization, the Women’s National Land
Service Corps, was formed “ with the object of speeding up the
recruitment of all classes of women for work on the land, in order to
insure the maintenance of the home-grown food supply.” This
body approached the problem from a different angle. If absolutely
untrained women were placed on farms without any preparation,
they would almost infallibly make a failure, no matter how good
their will; and this failure would still further prejudice the employer
against women workers. Therefore, this organization, while not
neglecting propaganda, devoted much energy to providing a course
of training for intending farm workers, and to sifting out applicants
who were physically unfit, or who showed a lack of adaptability for
the kind of work and discipline farm life requires. Also, after a
woman had received her training, the organization took care that
she should be placed with a suitable employer, saw that her accom­
modations were adequate, even if rough, and kept in touch with her
by correspondence or visits until the first loneliness of her new posi­
tion had worn off and she had fitted into place. The corps was
organized in February, 1916. By the end of September it reports
having placed some 2,000 women, either as permanent workers or as
untrained workers in gangs.2
Throughout the year 1916 the Government maintained and
extended its efforts to secure munition workers. In February the
ministry of munitions issued a report giving an account of the training
provided for educated and intelligent men and women who were
willing to take up munition work, and wh o by means of this training
could “ quickly be trained to certain limited but nevertheless skilled
operations.” Special emphasis was laid on the opportunities this
training offered for women, and on the desire of the ministry to
increase the number of women thus preparing themselves for some­
thing better than the unskilled work on which they had at first been
»“ A representative of the Board of Trade at a meeting at Scarborough said that the wages would be from
12 s. (.12.92) to £ 1 ($4.87). Twelve shillings is not a proper living wage for a woman; and our masters seem to
know this. The Daily News, in explaining the Government scheme, says: ‘It is frankly admitted that
much of the most necessary work is hard and unpleasant and by no means extravagantly paid. That
is why the appeal is made exclusively to the patriotism of the women. There is no question (as in the.
army itself) of any really adequate reward.’ W ell, why not? The farmers are doing very well. The
price of corn is higher than has ever been known before. W hy should women be deprived of ‘any really
adequatereward?’ * * * If there-were‘no question, as in the army itself,’ of any really adequate profits
then there might be something to be said for the Government. As it is, no armlets and no ‘patriotism’
ought to make women work at less than a living wage.”—The Woman Worker, London, March, 1916, p. 4.
a£ee Interim R eport of the Women’s National Land Service Corps, London, pp. 14, 15.


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employed. In October the ministry published an appeal for women
to take training at the centers established by arrangement with the
educational authorities in various parts of the Kingdom. “ It is
especially desired to train persons who are not at present employed
in any form of directly productive work.” Courses were given
leading up to skilled work, and the centers were sufficiently numerous
and well distributed to be easily available to those wishing to use
them.1
In industry generally the process of relaxing trade-union restric­
tions which interfered with the employment of women went on at an
accelerating rate. During the year agreements permitting their
employment in processes formerly closed to them were signed by
unions in the following industries: Gold, silver, and electro plating,
oil seed and cake manufacturing, woolen and worsted, hosiery,
dyeing and finishing in the hosiery trade, textile bleaching, dyeing
and printing, elastic web and braid, lace, wholesale clothing, boots
and shoes, gloves, clay tobacco pipes, printing trades, brushes, cut­
lery, tobacco, and leather. In a number of other directions the
bars were let down and positions theretofore reserved for men thrown
open to women. In May, at a conference on openings for educated
women, opportunities were reported in actuarial work, aircraft work,
wireless telegraphy, as dental mechanics, in optics, journalism, chem­
istry, and work in military hospitals.2 There was an increasing demand
for nurses, and for trained women to act as health visitors, and to aid
in the campaign for the preservation of infant life. Women were
employed on the railways and in the postal service. They were
taken on as cooks in camps and in military hospitals in place of men;
they were accepted as clerks in the army pay corps, between 700
and 800 men being thus released for service elsewhere; they were
employed as mail censors; they found places for the first time on the
staff of Scotland Yard; and the War Office depots for sick horses
were placed entirely in their hands. To a limited extent they were
even beginning to be officially employed as policemen. As volunteer
constables they had been doing good work since the beginning of the
war, but it had taken tivo years to convince the local authorities
that there was merit in the scheme.
By the end of 1916, then, women were found in every branch of
munition work, and in most forms of manual work. They had
entered innumerable occupations theretofore closed to them, for many
of which they were supposed to be unfitted, but in which they were
making good. The number filling clerical and commercial positions
had increased enormously, and so had the numbers engaged in trans* Outline of courses published in W omen’s Employment, London, Oct. 20, 1910, p. 6.
* W omen’s Employment, London, June 2, 1916, p. 12.


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portation and in the less responsible positions in the Government
service. They were even making their way, although slowly, into
the better paid positions, especially in the lines of scientific work,
and in manufacturing processes, like acetylene welding and optical
work, requiring skill and ability.
DEVELOPM ENTS OF 1317.

The year 1917 was characterized by a greater attempt to coordi­
nate the various methods of securing women for industrial and com­
mercial work, by greater efforts to obtain women for semiskilled,
skilled, and professional positions, by their increased employment in
agriculture, and by their definite enlistment for army services of
every kind except the actual fighting and digging.
Early in the year a Women’s Division of National Service was
formed and placed under the direction of a woman. The general
plan was that all women should be* encouraged to look upon them­
selves as volunteers in the national service. As a need for them
arose in any industry or locality, appeals would be issued, stating
wages and conditions of work, subsistence allowance if the work
were at a distance from the worker’s home, and asking details as to
the worker’s qualifications. All willing to serve would fill out cer­
tain forms, and with these data before her the director could assign
those apparently best fitted for the work to the place where they
could apply themselves most effectively for the general good. A
similar scheme had been designed a little earlier for men, and the two
divisions were expected to work in close cooperation. It is difficult
to get details of the work of this division. Its two best known fields
of operation were in connection with the Women’s Army Auxiliary
Corps and the Women’s Land Army.
At the end of February, 1917, the War Department issued a call
for women to enroll for army service at home and in France. Volun­
teers were needed for clerical work, cooking and domestic work,
motor transport service, storehouse work, telephone and postal
service, and miscellaneous services. Wages were to range from 20
shillings ($4.87) a week upward, with deductions for board and
lodging. The recruiting for this corps was placed under the charge
of the Women’s Division of National Service, and the response to its
appeal was prompt. By April 4 women to the number of 35,000 had
registered as volunteers.1 At that time 5,500 were needed abroad,
and these were being sent over as quickly as accommodations could
be prepared for them. Later, as the scheme proved workable, the
demand for volunteers increased rapidly. In the early autumn it
was announced that 10,000 women were needed before the end of
October, and “ It is anticipated that after that they will be needed
1 Questions ia Parliament, quoted by Women’s Trade-Union Review, London, July, 1917, p. 23.


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215

at the rate of about 10,000 a month.” 1 The discipline and general
management of the corps were in the hands of women known as
administrators. None of the women was called an officer, and there
was no saluting, but the administrators had authority similar to
that of commissioned officers. Courts of summary jurisdiction were
instituted to take the place of the courts-martial of the men’s army.
The Women’s Land Army was a less spectacular but a no less
useful development. At the beginning of the year when it was
decided to conscript many of the skilled men heretofore considered
indispensable, it had become plain that agriculture would suffer
severely just at the time when there was special need for an increased
production of foodstuffs.
Early in January the National Land Council appealed for 20,000
women to undertake farm work.2 The response was not satisfac­
tory, and in March the Women’s Division of National Service issued
an appeal for a land army of women. This brought in volunteers,
but as comparatively few were trained in farm work it was necessary
to start centers in which they could receive intensive training in some
branch of agriculture, after which they were either placed on farms
or formed into groups which, camping, so to speak, in the midst of a
farming district, went out daily to work where their services were
most needed. No information is available as to how many were thus
trained. In July it was stated in Parliament that 5,243 women,
national service volunteers,3 had been placed either on farms or in
instruction centers, and it was added that many others “ had gone in
on their own.” A sufficient number seem to have been obtained to
carry on the work in a fairly satisfactory manner.
Along other lines the tendencies shown in 1916 continued and were
strengthened. The conscription of men heretofore considered indis­
pensable opened up new positions to women. Especially was there
need of women in medicine, in nursing, and in pharmacy work.
There was a scarcity of trained nurses, and a committee of the Army
Council, considering ways and means of meeting it, urged an improve­
ment in the wages and treatment accorded nurses by way of making
the service more attractive. In clerical work apparently few posi­
tions were now closed to women. Li manufacturing they were still
in many cases restricted by trade-union opposition, yet practically
there were abundant openings for all who were in any way skilled.
There was no shortage of woman labor, but there was a distinct
shortage of skilled women.
The three years of the war, then, had seen a marked change in the
industrial position of women. During the first there had been much
1 Christian Science Monitor, Boston, Oct. 20,1917.
2Manchester [England] Guardian, Jan. 5,1917.
* Local Government Chronicle, London, July 21, 1917.


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unemployment, in spite of the admission of women into trades new
to them, in which for the most part they did either unskilled or
routine work. During the second there was a growing demand for
their services, and more responsible and better paid positions were
opened to them as the men withdrew. During the third year there
was an earnest effort to secure trained women and to utilize effec­
tively the woman power of the country in posts of every kind, ranging
from the domestic work which they had always done through all
grades of manufacturing and clerical work up to supervisory posi­
tions, professional work, and places of official responsibility.
CHANGES IN DISTRIBUTION OF WOMEN WORKERS, 1914-1917.

The question of how numerously women were drawn into gainful
pursuits by these changing conditions, what work they took up, and
how they are now distributed as compared with their distribution
before the war is of importance, but can be only partially answered
as yet. Their distribution at the latest period for which official data
are available is shown in the following table:
SUMMARY OF POSITION IN REGARD TO EMPLOYMENT OF WOMEN, OCTOBER, 1917.1
Estimated
Increase in
Number of
number of the employ­
women
females em­
ment of
directly re­
ployed, July, females since placing men.
‘ 1914.
July, 1914.

Occupation.

Industries............................................ .................................................
Government establishments.............................................
Gas, water, and electricity (under local authorities)...........
Agriculture in Great Britain (permanent la b o r )...’ . .
Transport (excluding tramways under local authorities)........
Tramways (under local authorities)..................
Finance and banking................................................
Commerce.................................................................
Professions...............................................................
Hotels, public houses, cinemas, theaters, e tc ...............
Civil service, post office..............................'............
Other civil service..................................................
Other services under local authorities........................
Total........................................................................

2,176,000
2,000
600
80,000
17,000
1,200
9.500
496.000
67,500
176.000
CO, 500
4.500
196,200
3

9S7 0(\ft

530.000
214.000
4 000
9,000
76.000
17.000
58.000
335,000
22.000
24,000
46 /inn
CoJ 500
30,000

490.000
202.000
4,000
33.000
78,500
16.000

1,426,000

1,413,000

22’ 000
44,500
24' 000

i From The Labour Gazette, Loudon, February, 1918, p. 48.

This does not tell the whole story, since domestic servants and
women in small dressmaking establishments are excluded, as well as
women in the military, naval, and Red Cross hospitals. Under the
last head there has been an increase in the number of women em­
ployed equal to 43,000 full-time workers. On the other hand, it is
estimated that some 400,000 women formerly in domestic service or
small dressmaking shops have left these for the lines of work shown
in the table. Allowing for both these factors, it is believed that there
has been an increase, since July, 1914, of about 1,070,000 women
employed in occupations outside of their homes.
'The largest proportionate increase in the number of women is shown
in the Government establishments, but the largest actual increases

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are in the combined industries, which have taken in 530,000 women,
and commerce, with an increase of 335,000. The increase in agricul­
ture is affected by the season at which these data were taken; in
July, 1917, it showed an increase of 23,000 over the number employed
three years before. By far the greater part of the increased employ­
ment of women, it will be observed, is due to the replacement of men
by women. About 700,000 women, it is estimated, were engaged at
this time in munitions work and about 650,000 in other industrial
Government work.
A question naturally arises as to how far the women substituted
for men are really filling the places of the men. The reply varies
with the work. In clerical and banking positions apparently women
are fully replacing men, except in the relatively few positions requiring
long training and experience, which they have not yet had time to ac­
quire. In commercial positions the general opinion seems to be that
they are taking the work in a satisfactory manner, although rearrange­
ments and adjustments have been necessary. In industrial occupa­
tions where physical strength is required they are of course at a disad­
vantage; elsewhere their success seems to vary with their experience.
In the munitions trades, where they have had perhaps the best
chance to show what they can do, they have proved highly satisfac­
tory, but in general their work has not been the same as that of the
men whose places they have taken. Operations have been subdi­
vided, and a woman does only one, or at the most, two or three parts
of a process, instead of performing the whole complex operation.
In this subdivided work the women have attained great efficiency,
and they are being advanced to other work requiring skill, accuracy,
and judgment, but they are not yet all-round mechanics. Whether
they can become such, only time can show; but they have at least
proved that they have inherent ability to handle skillfully tools and
machinery.
P R O T E C T IV E C L O T H IN G F O R W O M E N A N D G IR L W O R K E R S IN G R E A T
B R IT A IN .

The entrance of a large number of women and girls into industry
in Great Britain since the outbreak of the War has introduced new
problems affecting factory and workshop equipment and manage­
ment which had not previously concerned employers whose working
forces had been made up of men and boys almost exclusively. One
of the most important questions presented by the new conditions, and
one that necessarily must be given serious consideration if the highest
speed and efficiency are to be obtained in manufacturing material
incident to the war, is the matter of serviceable and suitable clothing
so designed as not only to protect women and girls from the grime and

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dirt of work, but more particularly to furnish a covering that shall
render them less liable to accident from moving machinery or injury
to health, and on the whole minimize the dangers of factory and
workshop operations.
As a guide to employers and workers the British Home Office has
recently issued an illustrated pamphlet of 15 pages 1 describing the
different types of protective clothing recommended, and specifying
in respect to each process in which there is special need for such
clothing, the nature of the risk to be guarded against together with
suggestions as to the particular type of clothing to be worn to protect
against such risk. The recommendations are based upon information
supplied by factory inspectors whose official visits have shown them
that in the great majority of cases the need for protective clothing
arises from one or other of the following causes: (1) Dusty or dirty
processes; (2) working about machinery, climbing ladders, etc.; (3)
use of acids or caustic liquids; (4) wet processes; (5) excessive heat;
(6) exposure to weather. In presenting the recommendations it is
explained that the statement does not include processes in trades
certified as dangerous under the factory act where protective clothing
is already required by regulations, but it includes the chief manu­
facturing processes in which, though not brought under regulations,
protective clothing has been found to be required for safeguarding
workers against accident or injury to health, or for securing comfort
and convenience in their work, or for protecting their ordinary cloth­
ing against damage caused by materials, machinery, etc.
Two general types of dress are described—(1) The overall suit, and
(2) the trouser or knicker suit with tunic—as being suitable wherever
the work is dusty or dirty or where women are employed on or near
machinery not of a specially dangerous character. Where there is
exposure to acids or alkalis, excessive wet, machinery involving
special risk, excessive heat, or where the employment is in the open
air, special types have been designed and are recommended. All
these types of clothing are illustrated in the report, but reproduction
here is impracticable and resort must be had to the following de­
scriptions which are quite adequate and furnish an excellent idea of
the Home Office recommendations.
T y p e A .—Overall dress and cap; also apron in some cases.
No outside pockets;
sleeves to fasten closely at wrists.
T y p e B .—Trouser or knicker suit with close-fitting coat or tuniCj and leggings.
No
outside pockets.
T y p e . C .—Overall dress or trouser suit of woolen material (baize, etc.); cap; leather
apron (with bib); and high-topped waterproof boots, or leather or flannel leggings, or

1 Great Britain. Home Office. Protective clothing for women and girl workers employed in factories
and workshops. Prepared by the Home Office from information supplied by H. M, inspectors of factories.
London, 19X7. 15 pp. Illustrated. Price, 3d. net.


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puttees covering the open tops and lace holes of clogs or boots. Gloves, in some cases,
of rubber. Goggles where there is risk of splashing.
T y p e D .—Overall dress or trouser suit; cap; apron (with bib) of waterproof material
such as rubber, oilskin, mackintosh, pegamoid, or leather; and high-topped waterproof
boots, or leggings or puttees covering the open tops and lace holes of boots, or clogs.
T y p e E .—Boiler suits; cap.
No outside pockets; sleeves to fasten closely at wrists.
T y p e F .—Thin overall dress or trouser suit; cap.
The material may be cotton, drill,
or jean, etc., or linen, of thickness according to need.
T y p e G .—Weatherproof coat or trouser suit and clogs; waterproof cap (“ sou’wester”) .

In Part II, which sets forth the processes, the nature of risks to be
encountered, and the type of clothing recommended, the latter is
designated by letter to correspond with the descriptions noted above,
and in some cases additional suggestions are made as to supplemen­
tary clothing that may be worn as an added protection against the
risk. For example, under metal processes, in molding and core
making, where the risk is from particles of metal or scale, the clothing
recommended is “A, with leather gloves and clogs. Goggles in some
cases.” Other instances, selected at random, indicate the complete­
ness of the tabulation of processes, the risk involved, and the type of
clothing recommended in each case:
MANUFACTURING PROCESSES, N A TU R E OF R ISK , AND TYPE OF CLOTHING RECOM­
M ENDED TO BE W ORN BY WOMEN AND GIRLS IN FACTORIES AND W ORKSHOPS
IN GREAT BRITAIN.
Process.

Nature of risk.

Type of clothing recommended.

Airplane works: Doping........................ Varnish................................. A, with apron.
Brick works.............................................. Exposure to weather.......... G.
Chemical process: Chlorate................... Burns..................................... A or B, fireproofed material, washed
daily.
Engine house........................................... Danger from machinery... E.
Food production: Milk drying............. Heat....................................... F.
Motal process: Acetylene welding....... Burns..................................... Drill overall dress, leather or asbestos
cloth apron, tinted glass goggles, and
gauntlets.
Metal process: Galvanizing................... A cid....................................... C.
Metal process: Grinding and turning Wet and metal particles.. . D. with goggles in some cases.
Sand blasting: Inside chamber............ Dust and grit....................... B or E, with helmet and breathing
tube.
Textile and allied processes: Chrome Wet and chrome ulcer- D, with rubber gloves where hands are
ation.
dyeing.
immersed in chrome solutions.

E M P L O Y M E N T O F W O M E N IN F O U N D R IE S IN G E R M A N Y .

The Technik und Wirtschaft (December issue) quotes an article
from Stahl und Eisen, Düsseldorf (No. 35,1917), on the results obtained
in Germany from the employment of women in war industries and
especially in foundries, which may be summarized as follows :
In introducing women into workshops the choice of a proper
teaching staff is of the greatest importance. The method generally
adopted of handing over newcomers to an old worker, or to a woman,
brings about the desired results very slowly, and only after many
failures. Also, it has often proved a bad practice to have the train­
ing of women undertaken by the foreman of a shop, as sometimes

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one of the pupils is neglected, or the foreman does not possess the
necessary teaching capacity, and instead of explaining matters to
the newly employed women in a clear and simple manner, he renders
his explanations unintelligible by using technical terms.
On the contrarjq very good results have been obtained by the
writer of the article with women as teachers. These were chosen
from among the women who had been in the works since the beginning
of the war, and had attained the rank of forewomen. It can easily
be understood that even women who have only been employed in a
factory for a relatively brief period are able to impart their knowl­
edge and experiences in a clearer and more practical manner to other
women than a foreman who has been brought up in his employment,
and who looks upon many things as a matter of course, which are not
at all comprehensible to beginners. There is no doubt also that,
with the help of a female training staff, women who have never
been employed in workshops are made familiar with factory work
much more easily.
Experiments have been made by a large engine-building concern
in southern Germany in training as forewomen women of the middle
class who had never before worked in factories. This was done
because it was assumed that this type of woman would do her duty
more conscientiously and with more authority than a forewoman
taken from among the working classes. In workshops manufactur­
ing bulk articles, where very little training is required, women of
the middle classes, when employed as forewomen, have proved a
success. The output of the women is only in exceptional cases
equal to that of the men; as a general rule the average is two-thirds
or three-fourths of a man’s production. The use of special clothing
for women, such as vests, trousers, and caps, had a very favorable
influence on the increase in production. By wearing male attire
women are able to undertake work of a kind which they had hitherto
been prevented from doing, and as a result of this it has been possible
to reduce the number of male employees. Another consequence of
this special attire- for women is that they are better able to resist
changes of temperature (which exist in foundries), and are thus less
liable to catch colds. Vests, trousers, and caps also give better
protection against dust, and above all are a safeguard against acci­
dents.
Women can be employed in all sorts of capacities in foundries—
on heavy as well as light work. The only tasks they can not under­
take are working without supervision on larger hand castings and
attending to the furnaces. Hand and machine moldings can be
done by women, and they are specially clever at making core mold­
ings. It has even been noticed that women produce twice as many

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shell castings as men could do in the same time. The manufactur­
ing of larger core moldings can also be undertaken with good results
by women, especially those which are turned out of clay, and of which
a pattern is given, as this is a kind of work requiring very little
physical strength, and the method of reproducing such molds is
always much the same. Women are also able to make large and
complicated sand cores. The manual dexterity which many of them
already possess is invaluable for this kind of work, and they have a
fine sense of touch. The output of unbaked cores made by machinery
is larger in the case of women than in that of men 17 or 18 years
of age.
The employment of women in sections is to be recommended, for
the output is increased by the constant rivalry between such sec­
tions, and at the same time the training is simplified, and it is easier
to decide which women are not fit for the work and to reject them.
Women have been employed for cleaning castings with emery
wheels or sand-blast apparatus, but it has been rather difficult to
find women who were really fitted for this work. Only very few are
able to stand the vibrations when working on emery wheels, or the
noise and dust when working the sand-blast apparatus.
In the pattern shop women are only fit for subordinate work,
such as carrying, cleaning, and painting patterns. In the latter
occupations they work very satisfactorily, especially in the case of
wooden patterns of the larger sizes. Women can also be employed
for driving cranes. The writer gives examples where women have
performed duties requiring a certain technical skill, such as driving
the power-hammer in a forging shop, attending to the electric switch­
board, as engineers and firemen on locomotives, and attending to
the automatic feed of boilers.
Regarding the question of wages it is rather difficult to adopt the
principle used in machinery shops, namely, paying women for piece­
work two-thirds of a man’s wages. Work changes constantly in
foundries, and a casting which is made to-day by a man may be made
to-morrow by a woman. To avoid difficulties which most likely
would arise if one and the same kind of work was paid for on a dif­
ferent scale, it has been thought better to pay women at the same
rate as men. One danger will always remain—that women will
endeavor to get employment in the machine shops, a kind of work
which they undoubtedly prefer, when higher wagefe are not offered
them in foundries.
To keep women in foundries it is absolutely necessary to provide
welfare arrangements, such as rest rooms and facilities for baths.
Whenever possible arrangements must be made to allow women to
attend to their household duties, as well as their work. For instance,
4664S°—18------15

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women who have a large number of children ought to be allowed to
take home from the canteen or factory kitchen the necessary meals
for their families, and to work without rest periods on Saturdays/
so as to cease work earlier and be able to perform their household
duties.
All the above statements with respect to the results obtained by
employing women in foundries are absolutely confirmed by those as
to the employment of women in machine shops given in the monthly
magazine (May, 1917) of the technical board of the German Engin­
eers’ Association of the district of Berlin. From this it appears that
women are not only able to turn out bulk articles with the help of
special machines, but that they are also able to work on ordinary
machines, such as turning lathes, and this for the production even of
parts of the most accurate dimensions. They are able also to work
at the vise. Prof. Schlesinger states, for instance, that women
learn filing after a brief period of practice, and that, where the sub­
division of the operations in bulk manufacture is skillfully carried out,
there is screw vise work which they can perform to-day for which
six months ago the most highly skilled filers or mechanics were
considered necessary. Women have even succeeded in undertaking
work which previously was reserved for specially intelligent men.


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AGREEMENTS BETWEEN EMPLOYERS AND
EMPLOYEES.
TRADE

A G R E E M E N T S IN

THE

W O M E N ’S
B O S T O N .1

C L O T H IN G

IN D U S T R IE S

OF

BY BORIS EMMET, PH. D.

The increase in the strategic power of the women’s garment work­
ers’ labor organizations is attested by the gradual disappearance
from the trade agreements of the preferential union shop and its
replacement by the stricter form of recognition known as the union
shop. The new mode of union recognition is, for all practical pur­
poses, the equivalent of what is known as the closed shop.2
The initial development, some years ago, of collective bargaining in
the garment trades resulted in the appearance of a then rather novel
form of trade-union recognition which became known as the pref­
erential union shop.3 Under its provisions members of the garmentworkers’ union were to be accorded preference in employment and
lay-off. In this respect the preferential union shop differs radically
from the open shop, under which no preference of any sort is accorded,
as well as from the closed shop, which ordinarily specifies that none
but union applicants, furnished upon request by the union, are to be
employed. The peculiar character of the preferential system is
further revealed by its provisions dealing with the employment of
nonunion workers. These provisions permit the employment of non­
union workers, provided their skill is greater than that of union
applicants for similar positions. When hired, nonunion workers are
not to be discriminated against in matters of hours and pay. The
preferential principle, however, makes it imperative that nonunion
workers be hired last and laid off first. This fact constitutes a great
disadvantage to the nonunion worker for the reason that the strong
seasonal character of the garment trades necessitates very frequent
lay-offs and subsequent new hirings.
The preferential union shop was invented and first applied in the
garment trades and is characteristic of the modes of collective baraccounts dealing with the workings of trade agreements in the women’s clothing industries of
York City, Philadelphia, Chicago, Cincinnati, and St. Louis were published, respectively, in the
D e c e m b e r , 1917, and January, February, and March, 1918, issues of the M onthly R ev ie w .
1 T h e union shop is a form of recognition under which only members of the union in good standing are to
be employed as long as the union is in a position to furnish all the needed help. In the absence of union
w o r k e r s nonunion applicants may be hired, provided such applicants are willing to join the union imme­
diately.
i Detailed descriptions of the nature of the preferential union shop are given on p. 215, Bui. 98, and pages
36 and 37, Bui. 145, of this bureau.
1 S im ila r

N ew


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gaining into which it was incorporated. With a very few minor
exceptions, none of the great international unions affiliated with the
American Federation of Labor ever favored this form of union
recognition.
Two reasons may be said to have accounted for the absence of the
closed shop, or, rather the presence of the preferential union system,
in the early collective agreements of the garment trades. Briefly,
these causes were: (a) The racial composition and foreign character
of the workers, and (b) the weakness of the then existing garment
workers’ organization. The second cause, although more important
than the first, was the logical result of the first.
The majority of the garment workers, which, up to 1915, consisted
of newly arrived immigrants with radical and socialistic leanings, has
not, until recently, exhibited any great liking for the closed shop
which, if strictly applied, would have prevented many of their newly
arriving relatives and compatriots from securing employment in the
needle trades. In any endeavor to arrive at the causes of the emer­
gence of the preferential union shop, the fact that the old-time garment workers were strong socialists, but weak trade-unionists, must
not be forgotten. The final formulation of the essentials of the pref­
erential union shop was due, however, in a far greater measure, to the
influence of outside arbitrators who endeavored to adjust the diffi­
culties which arose, by ‘‘splitting the difference” between complete
union recognition as represented by the closed shop and no recogni­
tion at all as practiced under open-shop policies. The fact that an
outside influence determined, to a great extent, the mode of recogni­
tion accorded to the union may be said to have demonstrated a lack
of power on the part of the organized workers.
Until very recently, the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’
Union did not possess the strength and vigor of most of the other
great international labor organizations of the country. The cause
responsible for this lack of “ punching” power of the garment work­
ers’ union was its inability to control the labor supply of the trade
because of the constant inflow of new immigrants, each of whom was
a potential competitor for a needle-trade position. This cause was,
to a very great extent, removed when the great tide of foreign immi­
gration was for a while interrupted, and then materially diminished,
by the War. The relatively greater scarcity of labor which ensued
brought with it a possibility of effective organization of garmenttrade labor. The new situation was imihediately taken advantage
of by the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union, which
abandoned the preferential principle for the stricter mode of recog­
nition provided by the union shop. The new demand was, in the
great majority of instances, granted by the employers. We thus find


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225

the union shop taking the place of the preferential system in many of
the women’s garment-trade centers of the country, notably in some of
the trades of New York City and in all similar trades of Philadelphia,
Chicago, Cincinnati, St. Louis, and Boston.
The recent development of the collective-bargaining schemes in
existence in the women’s garment industries of Boston furnishes an
interesting illustration of this tendency toward stricter union recog­
nition. With a very few unimportant exceptions, all the garmenttrade agreements in operation at the present time in Boston have
abandoned the preferential system for the union shop.
CLOAK AN D SUIT IN D U ST R Y .

A general strike called in the cloak and suit industry of Boston,
in the early part of 1913, resulted in the formation of an association
of employers, the principal purpose of which was to devise ways and
means to meet the demands of their organized employees. While
the strike was in progress, a committee of the newly formed Boston
Ladies’ Garment Manufacturers’ Association was sent to New York
City to investigate and report upon the workings of the so-called
Protocol of Peace—a trade agreement which had been operating in
the cloak and suit industry of New York City since September 2,
1910. The committee was favorably impressed with the results of
the New York agreement and recommended the trying out of a simi­
lar agreement in the Boston industry. In accordance with this
recommendation, a trade agreement, for an indefinite period, was
signed on March 8, 1913, between the Boston Ladies’ Garment Manu­
facturers’ Association and the International Ladies’ Garment Work­
ers’ Union, the latter representing Cloak and Suit Operators’ Union
No. 56, Pressers’ No. 12, and Cutters’ No. 73.
The agreement of March 8 accorded preference in employment
and lay-off to members of the union and abridged materially the tra­
ditional right of the employer to discharge his help. It contained
also provisions for : (1) Abolition of home work, subcontracting, and
“ teamwork” or inside contracting; (2) minimum weekly rates of
wages;1 (3) equal distribution of work; (4) employees’ price com­
mittee for collective piece-rate making; (5) a 50-hour week; (6) pro­
hibition of overtime work on Saturdays; (7) payment to week workers
of time and one-half for overtime work; (8) a board of grievances based
upon the principle of conciliation; (9) a board of arbitration; (10) a
joint board of sanitary control for the formulation and enforcement
of sanitary standards.2
1The wage rates specified are shown in footnote table on page 229.
2 The organization of this board and its powers and functions were to be similar to those of the joint
board of sanitary control of the cloak, suit, and skirt industry of New York City, as described on p. 254,
B ui. 98, of this bureau. The Boston board, however, was never formed.


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MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

An account of the workings of this agreement during the first year
of its existence was published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on
April 10, 1914.1 It was then stated that the agreement worked satis­
factorily, that the adjustment agencies functioned properly, and, fur­
thermore, that the existence of the agreement contributed greatly
to the formation of a better understanding between employer and
employee.
The agreement of March 8, 1913, was revised on August 31, 1915.
The revision resulted in the following modifications of the original
agreement: (1) Greater freedom of employer to discharge for poor
workmanship and misbehavior; (2) provision that all decisions of the
adjustment agencies be carried out in 14 days; (3) greater freedom of
employer in the assignment of work within the shop; (4) two sets of
increases in wage rates, one effective immediately and the other on
August 1, 1916 ;2 (5) provision for an investigation of the trade for
the purpose of establishing minimum hourly rates for pieceworkers;
(6) restriction of overtime to eight hours per week; (7) the payment
to week workers for Labor Day; (8) organization of a board of three
presided over by an impartial chairman, for the purpose of enforcing
the provisions of the agreement and to recommend changes and im­
provements; (9) provision that disputes upon which the board of
grievances, as originally constituted on March 8, 1913, could not
agree, were to be submitted to arbitration; (10) regulation of ap­
prenticeships in the cutting and pressing branches of the trade.3
An analysis of the principal innovations which were brought about
by the revision throws considerable light on the difficulties which
were encountered as the result of the original agreement. In brief,
these difficulties were as follows: (1) The right of the employer to
discharge was so limited that it actually prevented him from ridding
himself of incompetents and objectionables; (2) the inability of the
1Bui. 145, pp. 141-146.
2 The wage rates specified are shown in footnote table on page 229.
8 The agreement permitted employers to hire apprentices for the cutting and pressing departments in the
ratio of one for every five full-fledged cutters or pressers employed. The length of the apprenticeship
periods in each of the trades was to be three years. Apprentices were to receive the following mini­
mum weekly rates of pay:
W a g e r a te s o f a p p r e n ti c e s .

Minimum weekly
rates of—
Period.
Cutting. Pressing.
First six months.............................................
Second six m onths.........................................
Third six months...........................................
Fourth six months.........................................
Fifth six months............................................
Sixth six months............................................


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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

[954]

$8
11
14
17
21
24

$9
12
15
18
20
22

MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

227

parties to force the members to carry out quickly decisions made by
the adjustment agencies; (3) the inability of employer to select the
most skilled employees for jobs requiring expert knowledge, due
to the provision of the agreement for equal distribution of work
among all employees; (4) the absence of a permanent and impartial
body to formulate standards and study their results; (5) frequent
failures on the part of the board of grievances to agree upon the ad­
justment of complaints.
The agreement, as revised and supplemented on August 31, 1915,
worked satisfactorily for a short time. By the end of the year, how­
ever, shop strikes became so frequent that the employers began to
complain that the benefit of strikeless shops—one of the aims of the
agreement—became nonexistent. To prove this contention rep­
resentatives of the manufacturers’ association produced evidence
which showed that during the past year not less than 19 strikes,
lasting each from half a day to as long a period as 10 days, took place.
Incidentally, the employers charged the union with opposition to the
introduction of labor-saving machinery and with interference in the
management of the shops.
In answer to these charges officials of the union stated that they did
not interfere with the management of the shops, but “ merely assumed
the right to instruct workers not to make work on a different system
than that which prevailed formerly,” unless mutually agreed to.
As regards the complaint of opposition to labor-saving machinery the
union suggested that the installing of such machinery “ be restricted so
that the workers may be able to find employment,” to which effect
“ steam-pressing machines should be restricted to one machine to
each 10 pressers, with a further proviso that in dull seasons all
steam machine pressing shall be dispensed with until all hand press­
ers are fully employed.”
No compromises were reached as a result of the joint conferences
at which the mentioned difficulties were discussed. The controversy
dragged on during the remainder of the year 1916 without any
statement from either of the sides as to the irreducible minimum of
conditions which it would consider as acceptable
On January 9, 1917, the president of the International Ladies’
Garment Workers’ Union addressed to the Boston Ladies’ Garment
Manufacturers’ Association a letter containing an enumeration of
standards which would be acceptable to the union. The letter speci­
fied the following: (1) A 48-hour week; (2) double pay for overtime;
(3) restrictioh of overtime to eight hours per week, and permissible
only during the busy seasons; (4) payment to week workers for six
legal holidays; (5) an increase of $1 per week on February 1, 1917, to


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MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

all week workers; (6) organization of a board of price adjusters for
the settlement of piece-rate disputes ; (7) a minimum hourly rate of 75
cents for operators and piece tailors and 50 cents for finishers; (8) a
strict union shop; (9) submission to arbitration of all disputes upon
the adjustment of which the parties are unable to agree ; (10) pending
the adjustment of such disputes within a limit of 24 hours no strikes
or lockouts to take place; (11) the agreement to be in force for one
year.
The enumerated union demands were met on January 16, 1917, by
counterproposals from the employers7 association. Briefly, these
proposals were as follows: (1) Readiness to grant a 48-hour week,
provided all other competitive markets introduced a similar week;
(2) 10 hours of overtime as against the eight hours desired by the
union; (3) time and one-half for overtime work instead of double
time; (4) no pay for legal holidays; (5) no increases in weekly rates;
(6) acceptance of the suggested price-adjustment scheme; (7) grant­
ing of the requested minimum hourly rates for operators or piece
tailors and finishers; (8) rejection of the union shop, and retention
of the preferential union shop.
These counterproposals were not satisfactory to the union. In a
letter dated February 20, 1917, and addressed to the officers of the
Boston Ladies7 Garment Manufacturers7 Association, the president
of the International Ladies7 Garment Workers7 Union declared that
the counterproposals of the employers were unacceptable, and sug­
gested the assembling of another joint conference. This suggestion,
however, came too late, for on February 28, 1917, the Boston Ladies’
Garment Manufacturers’ Association was disbanded.
No relaxation of standards took place during the year 1916
while the above controversies and conferences were in progress.
As a matter of fact, the interests of the workers were in no way
injured by the absence of a formal settlement. The European War
with its curtailment of immigration has greatly strengthened the
position of the union and enabled it actually to introduce standards
of work and pay equivalent to, and in a number of establishments
even better than, those formally specified by their international
officers.
Since February 28, 1917, no written trade agreements have been
in operation in the cloak and suit industry of Boston. The trade,
however, is completely unionized, each of the establishments having
an understanding with the union to maintain the following standards:
(1) Strict union shop; (2) a 49-hour week; (3) eight hours of over­
time per week, permissible only during the busy seasons; (4) time
and one-half for overtime; (5) minimum weekly and hourly rates of


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MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

229

wages;1 (6) the presence in each establishment of a shop chairman
and price committee, the first to represent the employees in their
dealings with the employer, the second to participate in collective
piece-rate making; (7) one legal holiday with pay to week workers; (8)
equal distribution of work; (9) peaceful adjustment of grievances
by the parties themselves, and when unable to agree, by an arbi­
trator.
No provision regulating apprenticeships is in force at the present
time, for the reason, stated by the union, that none of the employers
in the cloak and suit industry of Boston employ at the present time
five full-fledged cutters or pressers.
Interviews with employers reveal the fact that the existing oral
trade agreements work satisfactorily, that the present union leader­
ship is so businesslike and efficient that chances for the revival of
the Garment Manufacturers’ Association are small. Satisfaction
with the present status of collective bargaining is also expressed by
the leaders of the workers, who point with pride to the fact that
since the disbanding of the manufacturers’ association only one
strike of significance has taken place in the trade. As a rule, all
arising grievances are quickly and peacefully adjusted. The union
records show that in the course of the year 1917, 239 disputes were
adjusted peacefully and quickly, without any recourse to the assist­
ance of arbitrators. The adjusted disputes specified the following
grievances: Discharges, 76; miscellaneous, 65; unequal division of
work, 35; sending work to outside shops, 24; payment under scale,
23; piece-rate disagreements, 16.
Oral trade agreements of the character outlined above govern at
the present time the relations of employer and employee in every
1The following table gives the rates of wages in the cloak and suit industry, since Mar. 8, 1913:
M i n i m u m r a te s o f w a g e s i n th e c lo a k a n d s u i t i n d u s t r y o f B o s t o n s in c e 1 9 1 3 .

Minimum rates in effect on—
Occupation.

Mar. 8,
1913.

Week workers, per week:
Cutters, cloaks and suits................................................
Cutters, skirts....................................................................
Cutters, trimmings...........................................................
Pressers, upper, coats.......................................................
Pressers, under, coats......................................................
Pressers, upper, skirts......................................................
Pressers, under, skirts.....................................................
Sample makers, coats......................................................
Sample makers, skirts......................................................
Button sewers....................................................................
Pieceworkers, per hour:
Operators, cloaks...............................................................
Operators, skirts...............................................................
Cloak finishers..................... - ............................................


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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

n None.

[957]

Aug. 31,
1915.

Aug. 1,
1916.

(a )

$25.50
25.00
20.00
25.50
20.50
23.00
19.00
25.00
23.00
(«)

(a )
(a )
(a )

(«)

(.)

(a j
(a )

U)

$24.00
24.00
18.00
24.00
19.00
22.00
17.00
24.00
22.00

$27.00
25.00
21.00
27.00
22.00
24.00
20.00
25.00
23.00
(«)
(e )

Feb. 28,
1917.

$31.00
27.00
27.00
31.00
25.00
27.00
23.00
27.00
25.00
14.00
.90
.75
. 65

230

MONTHLY REVIEW OP THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

known cloak and suit establishment of the city of Boston, 68 in
number, with a total of about 1,500 employees.
DRESS AND WAIST INDUSTRY.

The circumstances under which the first important trade agree­
ment came about in the dress and waist industry of Boston were
strikingly similar to those which preceded the signing of a similar
agreement in the cloak and suit industry, as already described.
A strike was called in the dress and waist industry in the early
part of 1913, for the purpose of compelling union recognition and
collective bargaining. To counteract the activities of their em­
ployees, the dress and waist employers immediately organized them­
selves into the Boston Dress and Waist Manufacturers’ Association.
The principal aim of the new association, as announced in the public
press, was to combat what the employers considered to be unjust
and unreasonable demands. Shortly thereafter, however, through
the efforts of the same public-spirited citizens who aided in the settle­
ment of the cloak and suit strike, a conference of the opposing parties
took place. This conference finally resulted in the signing of an
agreement on March 15, 1913.
The parties to this agreement were the Boston Dress and Waist
Manufacturers’ Association and the International Ladies’ Garment
Workers’ Union, the latter representing its subordinate locals, Nos.
56, 12, 73, and 49. In general, the agreement signed was similar to
the one in the cloak and suit industry of Boston signed one week
before. It contained the following: (1) A provision not to discharge
workers for union activity; (2) prohibition of home work, subcontract­
ing, and “ team work” or inside contracting; (3) minimum weekly
rates of wages for cutters and pressers, and a general minimum
weekly rate for all beginners;1 (4) equal distribution of work; (5) or­
ganization of piece-rate committees of employees for collective rate
making; (6) presence in each establishment of a shop chairman to
represent the employees in their dealings with the firm; (7) a 50-hour
week; (8) limitation of overtime to not more than six hours per week
for cutters and pressers, and to not more than four hours per week
for all other workers; (9) the payment of time and one-half for over­
time work to week workers; (10) preferential union shop; (11) a
joint board of sanitary control with a constitution, powers, and func­
tions identical to those of a similar organization in operation in the
dress and waist industry of New York under the so-called Protocol
of Peace of January 18, 1913;2 (12) boards of arbitration and of
i The wage rates specified are shown in footnote table on page 232.
* The nature and functions of the joint board of sanitary control in operation in the dress and waist
industry of New York City were described in detail on pp. 109-111, Bui. 145, of this bureau. The Boston
board, however, was never organized.


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MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

231

grievances with constitutions and functions analogous to those of
the boards of arbitration and grievances under the Boston cloak and
suit agreement of March 8, 1913; (13) prohibition of strikes and
lockouts.
In spite of the favorable auspices under which it was launched, the
above-outlined agreement never achieved any great degree of success
in the elimination of strikes from the industry. An impotent organiza­
tion on the part of the employers, powerless to force some of its mem­
bers to live up to the agreement, and a very inefficient and unbusi­
nesslike union leadership, unable to control the actions of the rank
and file, may be said to have accounted for the lack of success of the
agreement.
The nature of some of the other shortcomings of this agreement
may be easily judged from the changes made in it, when, as a result
of joint conferences, it was modified on February 9, 1916. The revi­
sion introduced the following changes in conditions: (1) A 50-hour
week during the months of December to May, inclusive, and a 49hour week during the remainder of the year;1 (2) limitation of over­
time to four hours per week for women and eight hours for men;
(3) establishment of minimum weekly wage rates for the majority
of the occupations in the trade;2 (4) appointment of price adjusters
for the settling of piece-rate disputes; (5) establishment of a so-called
joint board of control of three, presided over by an impartial person,
an organization similar to the joint board of sanitary control, re­
ferred to above, but with an extended jurisdiction which was to
include wage matters; (7) substitution of the strict union shop for
the preferential union shop; (8) appointment of an impartial chair­
man to adjust complaints upon the disposition of which the parties
concerned could not agree.
The changes and modifications made on February 9, 1916, resulted
in bringing about law and order in the industry and in developing
better relations between the employers and employees.
One year later, in February, 1917, the union presented new de­
mands to the manufacturers’ association. These demands, like the
counterproposals of the employers, were referred for final adjudi­
cation to the chairman of the board of control of the industry,
acting as arbitrator. The decisions made by this arbitrator were
accepted by both sides and resulted in a further modification of the
original agreement as already revised on February 9, 1916.
The union demands, the counterdemands of the employers which
they evoked, and the final adjustments made by the arbitrator,
are interesting and instructive because they throw light on the char1 A 49-hour week was granted to the employees in June, 1917. Beginning w ith May 1, 1918, the weekly
hours of labor, in accordance with a decision of the arbitrator, will be reduced to 48.
2 The wage rates specified are shown in footnote table on page 232.


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MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

acter of the difficulties which arose. The union demands were
three in number. The first had for its object the granting of per­
mission to union officials to visit the shops to ascertain if the pro­
visions of the agreement relating to union recognition were observed.
This demand was refused by the arbitrator. The second demand
aimed at a further limitation of overtime work. The wishes of the
union in this respect were partially agreed to. The third request,
which demanded certain wage increases, was also partially granted
by the arbitrator.1 The counterdemands of the employers specified:
(1) The granting of permission to discharge help without review—
denied by the arbitrator; (2) the putting of their finishing depart­
ments on a piecework basis—granted on the condition that the piece
rates to be put into effect should, be agreed upon in advance by the
chief clerks of the union and the association; (3) requirement that
pieceworkers register the time of their arrival .and departure—
conceded by the arbitrator; (4) the right to employ cutting apprentices
in the ratio of one to each two or more of full-fledged cutters em­
ployed. The decision of the arbitrator allowed one apprentice cutter
for every three full-fledged mechanics employed.
The most recent changes in the trade agreement governing the
dress and waist industry of Boston came about as a result of new
union demands presented in the early part of 1918. These related
principally to increases in wage rates and were, to a great extent,
granted.2
1 The wage rates specified are shown in footnote table below.
2 The following table shows the rates of wages in operation in the Boston dress and waist industry since

March 15, 1913:
M i n i m u m r a te s o f w a g e s i n th e d r e s s a n d w a i s t i n d u s t r y o f B o s t o n s in c e 1 9 1 3 .

Minimum rates in effect on—
Occupation.

Mar. 15,
1913.

Week workers, per week:
Cutters................................................................................
Pressers...............................................................................
Sample makers, skirts.....................................................
Sample makers, dresses...................................................
Under pressers............. ....................................................
Operators, dresses...................... ......................................
Operators, w aists...................................................- .........
Drapers...............................................................................
Trimming and pinning...................................................
Trimming...........................................................................
Ironing................................................................................
Buttonhole making..........................................................
Finishing ..........................................................................
Examining........................................ ................................
All learners.........................................................................
Pieceworkers, per hour:
Operators...........................................................................


https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

[960]

Feb. 9,
191G.

Mar. 21,
1917.

Feb. 9,
1918.

124.00
20.00
None.
None.
$16.00
None.
None.
None.
None.
None.
None.
None.
None.
None.
$0.00

$25.00
22.00
22.00
12.00
18.00
12.00
12.00
12.00
10.00
9.00
9.00
9.00
7.00
7.00
0.00

$25.00
22.00
22.00
14.00
18.00
13.20
14.00
13.20
11.00
10.00
11.00
10.00
8. 75
8.75
6.00

$28.00
24.50
24.50
16.00
20.50
15.00
16.00
15.00
12.50
11 50
12.50
11.50
10.00
10.00
6.00

None.

.33

.33

.38

MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

233

In addition to the trade agreement with the Dress and Waist
Manufacturers’ Association of Boston, which has a membership of
22 firms who employ about 1,500 workers, the Waist Makers’ Union
of Boston has at the present time 16 establishment trade agreements
with as many firms, employing a total of about 300. The terms of
these agreements are very similar to those of the existing agreement
with the Dress and Waist Manufacturers’ Association.
PETTICOAT INDUSTRY.

In the city of Boston are located about half a score of establish­
ments which specialize in the manufacture of petticoats. This
industry, more than any other of the allied needle trades, utilizes a
high subdivision of labor in its manufacturing processes, a fact which
enables petticoat employers to employ exclusively unskilled help.
None of the petticoat workers were organized prior to 1917. The
absence of collective action on the part of the employees was re­
sponsible, it is said, for the unsatisfactory labor conditions and
low wages then in existence. Recently, however, the local Dress
and Waist Makers’ Union succeeded in organizing a considerable
part of the petticoat trade. As a result, trade agreements were
entered into by the union and three of the largest petticoat firms,
employing a total of about 200 workers. The terms of these agree­
ments are very similar to those of the agreements in operation in
the dress and waist industry of the city, with the exception of wage
rates, which are lower because of the unskilled labor employed
in the petticoat shops. The application of collective bargaining
methods resulted nevertheless in a 15 per cent increase in the earn­
ing capacity of the petticoat workers.
WATERPROOF GARMENT INDUSTRY.

Two distinct groups of employers exist in the waterproof garment
industry of Boston. One of these embraces principally small em­
ployers who still cling to antiquated manufacturing methods, use
little machinery and no subdivision of labor. Such employers
depend wholly upon the services of skilled raincoat makers. This
portion of the industry confines its activity to the making of rain­
c o a ts.
It includes about 30 small firms with a total employed of
about 500. The other group contains large firms employing more
modern production methods—an extensive use of machinery and
elaborate systems of subdivision of labor. Employers of this group
have succeeded almost altogether in doing without the services of
skilled workers.
The extent of unionism in the industry appears to vary with the
manufacturing methods. The more modern and larger shops having,
as a rule, dispensed with the services of skilled raincoat makers,


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MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

employ almost exclusively unskilled female workers. No collective
bargaining of any kind or unionism is to be found in such establish­
ments. The manufacturing methods of the smaller shops make pro­
duction contingent upon the services of skilled raincoat makers, such
as old-line cutters, stitchers, and cementers. These workers are all
organized and all establishments which employ them operate under
trade agreements with the union.
The skilled waterproof garment workers of Boston are organized
as Local No. 7 of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union.
This local has at the present time 27 trade agreements with as many
firms, having a total employed of about 500. All of these agreements
run for one year and provide for the following: (1) A preferential
union shop for establishments manufacturing civilian garments, and
a strict union shop for those manufacturing military garments; (2) a
48-hour week; (3) equal division of work; (4) minimum weekly and
piece wage rates; (5) peaceful adjustment of grievances with a pro­
viso that complaints upon the disposition of which no agreement
can be reached, are to be submitted to arbitration.
JOINT COUNCILS OF EMPLOYERS AND EMPLOYEES ADOPTED BY POTTERY INDUSTRY IN GREAT BRITAIN.

The pottery industry of Great Britain is the first industry to give
effect to the recommendations of the Whitley report1 for the estab­
lishment of joint standing industrial councils, composed of represen­
tatives of employers and employees. The following description of
the first meeting of the pottery council on January 11, 1917, is taken
from the Manchester (England) Guardian of January 12. There is
added to this description a statement of the objects of the council, as
given in The Labor Gazette for February, 1918.
POTTERY TRADE FIRST IN FIELD.

The pottery trade is the first to appoint a joint standing industrial council on the
lines of the report of the Whitley committee to the reconstruction committee, and at
its first meeting, which was held in Stoke to-day, this council had the advantage of
the presence of the Minister of Reconstruction (Dr. Addison) and the Minister of
Labor (Mr. G. H. Roberts).
In appealing for the formation of such councils in every industry, the Government
held out the inducement that they would be regarded as “ the official standing con­
sultative committees to the Government on all future questions affecting the indus­
tries they represent,” and as “ the r.ormal channel through which the opinion and
experience of an industry will be sought.” Mr. Roberts has added the promise that
by their means it will be possible also to allow a larger degree of self-government in
industry than exists at present; and in his address to the council yesterday Dr. Addi­
son showed in detail how very useful they will be in assisting the Government in
vitally important problems of reconstruction after the war, such as the introduction
1 This report is published in Bulletin 237 of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.


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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

[962]

MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

235

of improved methods of manufacture, the rationing of raw materials wherever there
is a shortage, and the giving of priority of consideration to those things which will be
needed first.
WHITLEY SUGGESTIONS ADOPTED.

The W hitley committee refrained from drawing up a cut-and-dried scheme for
general application to all industries, but made a number of suggestions, and, sub­
stantially, these have been incorporated in the objects set out by the new national
council of the pottery industry. They include the bringing of all manufacturers and
operatives into their respective associations, the “ regular ” consideration of earnings and
the establishment and maintenance of equitable conditions throughout the industry,
the maintenance of selling prices that will afford reasonable remuneration to employ­
ers and employed, the settlement of all kinds of disputes, the removal of all dangers
to health from the industry; the study of processes, encouragement of research, and
the full utilization of their results; the utilization, under adequate safeguards, of
inventions and improvements designed by workpeople, education in all branches of
the industry, the publication of reports on problems of the industry, and, generally,
“ the advancement of the pottery industry and of all connected with it by the asso­
ciation in its government of all engaged in the industry.”
Dr. Addison expressed some disappointment yesterday at the slowness of other
trades in forming industrial councils. But it was probable, he said, that the pottery
council would still be in process of formation had not employers and workpeople
begun to move in the matter months before the W hitley committee made its report.
Maj. Frank H. Wedgwood, who presided at the meeting, gave as two reasons for this
the great concentration of the industry in the Stoke district and the fact that in the
pottery trade nearly all the factories are on a small scale, with the result that employ­
ers and workers are brought into closer personal contact with one another. All sec­
tions of the industry in the United Kingdom are included, excepting the coarser
makes of stoneware, such as flooring and roofing tiles. The number of employers is
given as between 400 and 500, and the number of workers as about 50,000.
CONSTITUTION OF THE COUNCIL.

The council consists of 30 representatives of employers and an equal number of
operatives. Under the constitution the employers’ representatives may include
“ salaried managers,” and those of the operatives “ some women.” One-third are to
retire annually, but may be reappointed. The council may appoint an independent
chairman, but yesterday it elected Maj. Wedgwood, managing director of the well
known firm of Josiah Wedgwood, and appointed Mr. S. Clowes, one of the operatives’
organizers, vice chairman. In time district committees and works committees will
probably be appointed, but on all such bodies the representation of manufacturers
and workers is to be equal. On the same principle the secretarial duties are divided
between Mr. Arthur P. Llewellyn, of Tunstall, and Mr. Arthur Hollins, of Hanley.
It is noteworthy that, at a meeting at which there were as many employers present
as operatives, general acclamation was given to such remarks by Dr. Addison as that
every employer should be in an employers’ association and every workman in a trade
union; that labor must be assured of a fair proportion of the reward arising out of the
introduction of improved methods of manufacture; and that there must be no “ unholy
alliance between capital and labor at the expense of the consumer.”
OBJECTS OF THE COUNCIL.'

The advancement of the pottery industry and of all connected with it by the asso­
ciation in its government of all engaged in the industry.
1 The Labour Gazette, London, February, 1918, p. 49.


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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

[963]

236

MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

I t will be open to the council to take any action that falls within the scope of its
general object. Its chief work will, however, fall under the following heads:
( a ) The consideration of means whereby all manufacturers and operatives shall be
brought within their respective associations.
( b ) Regular consideration of wages, piecework prices, and conditions, with a view
to establishing and maintaining equitable conditions throughout the industry.
( c ) To assist the respective associations in the maintenance of such selling prices
as will afford a reasonable remuneration to both employers and employed.
( d ) The consideration and settlement of all disputes between different parties in
the industry which it may not have been possible to settle by the existing machinery,
and the establishment of machinery for dealing with disputes where adequate
machinery does not exist.
( e ) The regularization of production and employment as a means of insuring to the
workpeople the greatest possible security of earnings.
(/) Improvement in conditions with a view to removing all danger to health in
the industry.
( g ) The study of processes, the encouragement of research, and the full utilization
of their results.
( h ) The provision of facilities for the full consideration and utilization of inventions
and improvements designed by workpeople and for the adequate safeguarding of the
rights of the designers of such improvements.
(i) Education in all its branches for the industry.
( j ) The collection of full statistics on wages, making and selling prices, and average
percentages of profits on turnover, and on materials, markets, costs, etc., and the
study and promotion of scientific and practical systems of costing to this end.
All statistics shall, where necessary, be verified by chartered accountants, who
shall make a statutory declaration as to secrecy prior to any investigation, and no
particulars of individual firms or operatives shall be disclosed to any one.
( k ) Inquiries into problems of the industry, and where desirable, the publication
of reports.
( l ) Representation of th e needs and opinions of th e industry to Government
a u th o ritie s, cen tral and local, and to th e c o m m unity g enerally.


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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

[964]

EMPLOYMENT AND UNEMPLOYMENT,
W O R K O F P U B L IC E M P L O Y M E N T O F F IC E S IN T H E U N IT E D S T A T E S A N D
O F P R O V IN C IA L E M P L O Y M E N T O F F IC E S IN CA N A D A .

Data are presented in the following table showing the operations
of the public employment offices for the month of February, 1918,
and in cases where figures are available, for the corresponding month
in 1917. Figures are given from 151 public employment offices in
38 States and the District of Columbia, Federal employment offices
in 26 States and the District of Columbia, Federal-State employment
offices in six States, a Federal-State-county-municipal employment
office in one State, a Federal-municipal employment office in one State,
State employment offices in 16 States, a State-county-municipal em­
ployment office in one State, State-municipal employment offices in
three States, municipal employment offices in six States, and a mu­
nicipal-private employment office in one State. Figures from two
Canadian employment offices are also given.
OPERATIONS OF PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT OFFICES, F E B R U A R Y , 1917 AND 1918.
U N IT E D STATES.

State, City, and kind
of Office.

Applica­
tions from
employers.

Persons applying for
work."
Persons
asked for
by employ­
ers.
New regis­ Renewals.
trations.

Persons
referred to
positions.

Feb., Feb., Feb., Feb., Feb., Feb. Feb., Feb., Feb.,
1917. 1918. 1917. 1918. 1917. 1918. 1917. 1918. 1917.

Feb.,
1918.

Positions
filled.

Feb.,
1917.

Feb.,
1918.

A la b a m a .

Mobile (Federal)...........

«

8

0)

234

2 15 2 181

(>)

(*)

0)

117

67

0)

—

A rkan sas.

87

Little Rock (S ta te ).. . .

21,108

1,776

835

(>)

822

C alifornia.

442
774
529
Fresno (State)................
Los Angeles (Statemunicipal)................... 2,255 3,127 3,590 4,277 1,950 2,659
581 1,012
697 1,516
870
419
Oakland (State).............
214
236
471
302
422
647
Sacramento (State).......
San Francisco (Fed385
455
496
640 2 760 2 752
eral)3............................
San Francisco (State). . 1,106 1,627 2,121 2,994 1,718 22,831

769

0)

649

(0
285
137

m
(J)
(0

3,462
687
392

4,147
1,513
619

2,874
521
347

3,402
1,155
519

O)
636

0)
0)

487
2,045

475
3,290

323
1,259

303
2,159

7,073 10,813

5,324

8,187

Total......................
Colorado.

Colorado Springs(State)
Denver (Federal)..........
Denver No. l (S tate)...
Denver No. 2 (S tate)...
Pueblo (State)...............

383
17
50
36
•189

397
23
283
367
370

383
17
50
74
189

397
180
283
367
370

Total......................
'Not reported.

2Number applying for work.

46648°—18----- 16

https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

2 519
2102
2150
2160
2 261

1

2 439
2 750
21,249
2 290
2 402

0)
0)
(])
(])
(*)

0)
0)

0)
D)
«

519
35
150
160
261

389
230
214
197
347

343
15
82
74
184

389
115
214
197
347

1,125

1,377

698

1 262

3 Figures for 1918 represent women's division only.

[965]

237

238

MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

OPERATIONS OF PUBLIC EMPLOYM ENT OFFICES, FE B R U A R Y , 1917 AN D 1918—Contd.
U N ITED ST A T ES-C ontinued.

State, city, and kind
of office.

Persons applying for
work.
Persons
Applica­
asked for
tions from by
employ­
employers.
New regis­ Renewals.
ers.
trations.

Persons
referred to
positions.

Feb., Feb., Feb., Feb., Feb., Feb., Feb., Feb., Feb.,

1917. 1918. 1917. 1918. 1917. 1918. 1917. 1918.

Feb.,

1917.

1918.

Positions
filled.

Feb.,
1917.

Feb.,
1918.

C onnecticut.

Bridgeport (State).......
Hartford (State)...........
New Haven (State)__
Norwich (State)............
Waterbury (State).......

554
636
711
192
154

540
616
614
210
79

(9
(9
(9
(9
(9

0)

9
(9
<9
(9

Total.........

2 639
2 769
2 722
2 246
2 149

(9
(9
(9
(9
(9

.

(9
(9
(9
(9
(9

(9
(9
(9
(9
(9

____

(9
(9
(9
(9
(9

(9
(9
(9
(9
(9

493
47C
598
18C
123

438
555
542
198
59

(9

(9

1 864

1,792

148

1,290

D e la w a re .

Wilmington (Federal)..

19

1,500 2 154 21,410

3 (9

(9

174

(9

1,346

D is tr ic t of C olum bia.

Washington (Federal)..

285

1,818

21,679

904

2 11 2 620
2 34 2 29
2 213

2,682

(9

2,398

F lorida.

Jacksonville (Federal)..
Miami (Federal)...........
Tampa (Federal)..........

1
1

8

l
2

1
2

499
5
200

1
2

474
1
200

3

704

3

675

4

331
25

4

300
12

4

356

4

312

3

51

3

51

Chicago (Federal).........
522 1,422 2,977 6, 735 22,557 3 7,283 (9
2,392
(9
Chicago (State)............. 3,448 2, 700 11,644 7,652 11,158 5,367 1,018 3,992 11,993
East St. Louis (State)..
466
302
482
625
871 1,025
348
457
788
Peoria (State)...............
592
944
118
660
733
574
149
690
655
Rock
Island-Moline
(State)........................
761
552 2,523
288
876
946
289
224
366
Rockford (State)..........
452
418
193
419
693
951
670
227
512
Springfield (State).......
250
404
311
529
153
261
187
282
475

7,260
8,515
789
833

2,136
9,048
725
650

5,853

1,759
665
498

80
455
262

1,680
615
399

3
1

4

30C

(9
(9
(9

(9
(9

Total...................
Georgia.

Atlanta (Federal-State)
Savannah (Federal)...’.

2

74
7

1,405

6 '250

2 470
2 17 2125

(9
(9

(9

Total...................
Idaho.

Moscow (Federal).........

3

20

3

200

216

263

(9

(9

Illin o is.

Total...................

6,666

769
827

16,988 20,319 13,356 16, 809

I n d ia n a .

Evansville (State).......
Fort Wayne (State)__
Indianapolis (Federal).
Indianapolis (State)__
South Bend (State)__
Terre Haute (State)__

202
331
190
704
125
150

157
402
105
635
126
91

238
547
355
704
713
273

221
117 (9
632
161 (9
607 »620 »770
569
705
603
215
379
200
360 2 283
273

Total...................

19
306

(9

30
30

(9

(9

(9
(9

32
109

68

_.

296
517
351
672
350
283

221
606
524
635
250
336

238
467
278
643
282
263

221
606
442
546
176
336

2,469

2,572

2,171

2,327

Io w a .

Des Moines (FederalState)3........................

70

48

123

111

97

94

95

210

110

231

130

189

19

10

103

90

25

37

5

3

101

176

90

162

K a n sa s.

Topeka (State)..............
i Not reported.

* Number applying for work.


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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

[9 6 6 ]

* State office prior to October, 1917.

MONTHLY REVIEW OE THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

239

O PERATIONS OF PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT OFFICES, F E B R U A R Y , 1917 AND 1918—Contd.
U N ITED ST A TES—Continued.

State, city, and kind
of office.

Persons applying for
work.
Persons
Applica­
asked for
tions from by
employ­
employers.
New regis­ Renewals.
ers.
trations.

Persons
referred to
positions.

Feb., Feb., Feb., Feb., Feb., Feb., Feb., Feb., Feb.,
1917. 1918. 1917. 1918. 1917. 1918. 1917. 1918. 1917.

Positions
filled.

Feb.,
1918.

Feb.,
1917.

Feb.,
1918.

K e n tu c k y .

Louisville (S tate)..........
Louisville (municipalprivate)........................

110

I ll
255

98 1219

110
333

451

1 148
274

430

(2)

(!)
698

357

Total.......... .......

98

110

358

110

370

141

98
198

468

468

251

296

315

829

L o u isia n a

New Orleans (FederalState)............................

61

77

120

683 1320

1326

(2)

(2)

(2)

550

M ain e.

2

4

150

304

629 4,508

1319 1 7,582

(2)

(*)

224
Boston (Federal)...........
5
157 3,864
Boston (State)............... 1,434 1,199 1,673 1,428
627
Springfield (State)........
661
930
459
881
Worcester (State)..........
700
930
745

148 1 4,930
849 1 1,086
202
267
431 1541

(2)

(2)

(2)

(2)
(2)

Portland (Ffidaral)

50

(2)

50

M a ryla n d .

Baltimore (Federal)___

106

174

3,712

174

1,254

5 2,889
*2,541 8 2,405
8 973 8 724
8 1,145 8 1,152

5
1,134
681
619

1,462
1,039
509
514

M assachu setts.

(s)

(2)
(2)

T otal................

4,664

7,170

2,439

3,524

63
79
323
514
380
3,007
512
267
56
117
450

332
108
914
3,221
616
826
351
264
881
126
380

63
76
323
514
380
3,007
506
267
56
100
450

332
104
873
3,193
606
710
341
192
881
126
380

5,768

8,019

5,742

7, 738

(2)
(2)
11
145
(2) 1,167
361
(!)

604
11
1,126
627

639
113
926
361

2,368

2,039

M ichigan.

Battle Creek (State)__
Bay City (S tate)...........
Detroit (Federal)...........
Detroit (State)...............
Flint (S tate)...................
Grand Rapids (S ta te)..
Jackson (S tate)..............
Kalamazoo (State)........
Lansing (S tate).............
Muskegon (S tate)..........
Saginaw (State).............

332 170 1332
96
30
80
137
90 1 128
18
110
33
894 1323 1 1,542
92
77
373
540 3,221 1538 3,044
297 1,817
620
380
230
380
645 ( * )
884
801 i 3,007
291 3,083
309
242
279
328
516
351 1540
266 1300
540
160
268
200
846
881 173
37
187
85
162
52
18
119
345 i 132
619
84
380 1480
94
469

(2)
(*)

(2)
(2)

(2)
(2)
(2)
(2)
(2)
m
(2)

(2)
28
(2)
177
111
146
138
46
127
16
86

Total..........
M in n esota.

Duluth (State)...............
Minneapolis (Federal)..
Minneapolis (State)___
St. Paul (State).............

m (*> (»)
35
29
36
945 (2>
(*)
(*) (2) (2)

m

197
1,301
364

m (2)
128 1457
(*) 1 0 1 6
(2) &

(*)
(2)
(2)
(J)

(2)
(*)
(2)
(2)

11

Total.....................

1,673

M is s iss ip p i.

Gulfport (Federal)........

<*)

3

(2)

190

168

1144

(2)

(2)

(2)

(2>
(2)
(2)

(2)
(2)
(2)

(2)

103

(2)

91

M isso u ri.

Kansas City (FederalState)............................
St. Joseph (State)..........
St. Louis (FederalState)............................

484

835
993

923 2,212
798 1,479

1807 i 2,721
1734 1816

296

246

831 1,553

435 1 1,148

(2)

T otal.....................

- ' ~
1 Number applying for work.


https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

834

1,967
816

674
727

634

1,134

617

1,104

1,468

3,917

2,018

3,703

—

* Not reported.

[967]

1,785
814

8 Number of offers of positions.

240

M O N T H L Y REVIEW OF T H E B U R E A U OF LABOR STA TISTIC S.

O PERATIONS OF PU BLIC EMPLOYMENT OFFICES, F E B R U A R Y , 1917 AND 1918-Contd.
U N ITED ST A T E S-C ontinued.

State, city, and kind
of office.

Persons applying for
work/
Persons
Applica­
asked for
tions from by
employ­
employers.
ers.
New regis­
Renewals.
trations.

Persons
referred to
positions.

Feb., Feb., Feb., Feb., Feb., Feb., Feb., Feb., Feb.,
1917. 1918. 1917. 1918. 1917. 1918. 1917. 1918. 1917.

Feb.,
1918.

Positions
filled.

Feb.,
1917.

Feb.,
1918.

M o n ta n a .

Butte (municipal).........

0)

444 2 520 2 504

330

0

0

0

0

268

0

371

N ebraska.

Lincoln (Federal-State)
Omaha (Federal-Statecounty-municipal). . .

466

2 129

117

135

672

663 1,230 1 786

645

129

0
0

252

Total.....................

114

721

897

579

836

721

1,026

579

950

487
2,123
246

396
7,347
481

431
2,060
195

331
5,733
'268

2 856 8 224

2,686

6,332

645
1.571
1,571

922
1,428
1.428

368
1,131
1,131

544
934
934

( ') "

3’ 039

2, 731
(1)

l ’ 624

3,310
1,397
1,172

2,304
1,443
1,098

2,124
793
766

1,471
784
746

14,043 14,072

9,044

N e w J e rse y .

Jersey City (FederalState)............................
72
41
608
838 8611 2 836
Newark (Federal-State) 1,004 2,971 3,443 8,935 2 2,443 2 9,806
Orange (Federal-State).
472
179
473
805 2 319 2 790

0
0
0

0

(i)
0

Total.....................
—

N ew Y ork.

Albany (State)...............
493
407
Buffalo (Federal)..........
798
949
Buffalo (State)...............
946
815
New York City (Federal)3......................
2,392
New York City (State). (0
2 , 183
New York City (municipal).....................
2,374 1,966
Rochester (State).......... 1,078 1,043
Syracuse (State............
870
777

—

---- _ ----- -

—

501
807
415
681
1,779 1,886 *2,01C 2 1,232
1,795 1,786 1,284
846

326
0
165

5 706 6 707 25 75R 2 7 780
3'031 0
L725
0

m
0

306

0

186

\m/
1,043

2,737 2, 065 2,186 1,330 1.958 1,439
1.582 1.576
972
709
363
419
1,260 1,187
727
637
260
245

Total.....................
Ohio.

Akron (State-municipal)...............................
Athens (State-municipal)................................
Canton (State-munici^
pal)................................
Chiilicothe (State-municipal).........................
Cincinnati (State-mun icip al)........................
Cleveland (Federal). . . .
Cleveland (State-municipal)........................
Columbus (State-municipal)........................
Dayton (State-municipal)...............................
Hamilton (State-municipal)........................
Lima (State-municipal)
Mansfield (State-municipal)........................
Marietta (State-municipal)..............................
Marion (State-municipal)..............................
Portsmouth
(Statemunicipal)...................

0

(5)
50

0

1,860 1,818

735

900 1,682 2,259

1,545

1,563

1,298

1,324

(>)

20

19

38

23

19

0

394

309

183

335

246

0)

296

226

188

262

204

1,376 1,943 1,101 1,279 2,703 3,495
0)
46
94 1,206 2 79 2 491 0
0

1,403
75

1,847
288

976
21

1,471
'122
3,782

0

0

6,216 4,762 2,307 2,520 6,787 7,998

5,434

4,628

4,315

0

0

1,787 2,391

861 2,032 3,222

1,677

2,385

1,419

1,908

<l)

0)

840 2,161

498 1,933 1,011 1,738

729

2,066

616

1,811

(1)
0

261
278

128
341

100
409

205
278

242

0

1,084

580

523

1,004

998

0

147

134

86

163

120

(1)

301

229

235

275

226

494
325
210
485
(*)
1 Not reported.
1 Number applying for work.
8 1917 inclusive of activities in cooperation with State employment office.

379


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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

569

1968]

MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

241

O PERATIONS OF PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT OFFICES, F E B R U A R Y , 1917 AN D 1918—Contd.

UNITED STATES—Continued.

State, city, and kind
of office.

Persons applying for
work.
Persons
Applica­
asked
for
tions from by employ­
employers.
New regis­ Renewals.
ers.
trations.

Persons
referred to
positions.

Feb., Feb., Feb., Feb., Feb., Feb., Feb., Feb., Feb.,
1917. 1918. 1917. 1918. 1917. 1918. 1917. 1918. 1917_

Sandusky (State-municipai).........................
Springfield (State-municipai).........................
Steubenville
(Statemunicipal)
Tiffin (State-municipal)
Toledo (State-municipal)..............................
Washington C. H.
State-municipal)........
Youngstown
(Statemunicipal)...................
Zanesville (State-municipai).........................

0)

(■)

Total.....................

Feb.,
1918.

Positions
filled.

Feb.,
1917.

Feb.,
1918.

(*)

227

169

S6

189

119

(')

301

718

432

293

200

(!)
(')

472
236

249
281

266
176

404
190

300
147

(>)

1,730 2,157

90S 1,324 2,179 4.094

(')

53

26

(>)

1,106 1,444

(')

158

66S

882

787 1,291

170

123

1,619

2,163

1,380

1,782

997

1,334

63
1,115

1,410

36

141

105

13 597 20,660 11 022 17,022

.........

Oklahom a.

Enid (State)...................
Muskogee (State)...........
Oklahoma City (State).
Tulsa (State)..................
Total......................

100
307
280
512

(')
0)
(0
0)

96
282
446
874

1S4 2 123 2 154
392 2 249 2 423
543 2 450 2 580
847 2 808 2 796

<r )

0)
O)
0)

90
242
429
805

109
422
519
684

85
218
368
806

99
27S
458
604

1 566

1 734

1 477

1,439

766
F)

3,112
(’)

728
665

2,787
2,787

1,393

5,574

50

378
265
332
74
70
180
4,796
6,129
497
1,038
24
74
87

(>)
0)
(>)
(»)

_____

Oregon.

Portland (Federal)........
Portland (municipal)..

693 1,484
510 1,160

896 3,305 2 1.075 2 3,971
70
768 2,981
259

O)

(l )

C1)
(>)

Total................

766 3 112

P e n n s y lv a n ia .

Altoona (State)..............
Erie (State)....................
Harrisburg (State)........
Johnstown (State)........
New Castle (State)........
New Kensington(State)
Philadelphia" (Federal))
Philadelphia (State)__
Pittsburgh (Federal)...
Pittsburgh (State)........
Scranton (State)............
AVilliamsport (S ta te)...
York (S ta te )..........I .. .

(>)
(0
(>)
192
(0
39
(')

130
561
35 2 426
229
54
313
356
375 1,804
289
207
238
74
177
39
208
97
29
77
97
64
287
2 279
602 5,555 2 89Ò2 5,393
209
726 6,765
989 1,173 7,658
57 1,439 1,434 2 700 2 862
384
606 2,822
536 1,368
11
3
26
51
95
435
1,002
189
206

33
95
25
(>)
610
0)
214

54

0)

90
138
8
2
(i)
P)
238
(U
83
1
4
1

Total...................

268
78
794
1,132
429
459
9

401
296
359
75
70
180
4,875
6,212
520
1,116
24
93
113

3 214 14,334

223
64
739
953
350
499

2 878 13 944

R hode Island.

Providence (Federal) ..
Providence (S tate).. . . .

134

10
96

145

519
143

84

21,358
407

2114

(l)
' '20

T otal.....................

(>)

335
143

145

312
143

0)

478

145

455

21

122

S o u th Carolina.

Charleston (Federal). . .

2

10

17

19

2

491

2 160

0)

C1)

21

122

3 27 2 2,151

0)

(»)

17

2,044

2 35

Tennessee.

Memphis (Federal).......

1 Not reported.


https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

30 3,093

2 Number applying for work.

[969]

(>)

2,021

242

MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

OPERATIONS OF PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT OFFICES, F E B R U A R Y , 1917 AND 1918—Conoid.

UNITED STATES—Concluded.

State, city, and kind
of office.

Persons applying for
work.
Persons
Applica­
asked
for
tions from by employ­
employers.
ers.
New regis­ Renewals.
trations.

Persons
referred to
positions.

Feb., Feb., Feb,. Feb., Feb., Feb., Feb., Feb., Feb.,
1917. 1918. 1917. 1918. 1917. 1918. 1917. 1918. 1917.

Positions
filled.

Feb.,
1918.

Feb.,
1917.

Feb.,
1918.

Texas.

Dallas (municipal)........
El Paso (Federal).........
Galveston (Federal)___
Houston (Federal)........
Houston (m unicipal)...

198
(3)
5

Gì
(3)

213
28
30

Gì
G)

299
(3)
6
(3)
(3)

317 1 298 2 428
<2 4 46
34
150 416 4 296
4 41
414
G)
450
723
G)

18
(3)
(3)

G)

176

16

G)
G)
G)

243

T ota l.....................

383

G)

13

G)

346
20
55

G)
G)

286

313

13
G)
30
13
G)
G)
563

857

396

421

862

1,213
... .

85
465

157
333

26
213

77
145

550

490

239

222

G)

V irginia.

Norfolk (Federal)..........
Richmond (municipal).

18
241

78
164

277 2,796
389
215

<99
<406

4 332
4 434

(3)
(3)

G)
G)

Total......................
W ashington.

44
438
Aberdeen (Federal)___
7
5
26 4 202
Bellingham (Federal200
municipal)...................
110
123
303
189 4 298
284 (3)
Everett (municipal)___ (s)
(3) (3) (3)
244
604 4 608 4 827
North Y akima (Federal)
243
278
104
Seattle (Federal)...........
383
151 8,103 4 1,328 4 6,550
Seattle (municipal)....... 2,173 4, 211 3,296 7,660 G)
(3)
Spokane (Federal)........
81
67
127
137 4374 4 272
75
25
760
850 1,780 1,272
Spokane (m unicipal)...
Tacoma (Federal-municipal)........................
840 1,380 4 1,054 44,001
299
523
75
410
Walla Walla (Federal).
95
450 <516 4 375

(3)
(3)
<3)
(3)
(3)
<3)
(3)

G)
G)
G)
G)
G)

Gì
(3)

G)

10

47

26

44

26

299

343
125
3,362
110
1,650

175
72
539
5,139
7,782
120
1,247

275
242
308
108
2,957
105
1,640

150
252
511
4,671
7,120
114
1,212

816
95

1,212
169

801
78

1,180
157

G)
38

G>

G)

6,847 16,481

Total.....................

6,558 15,393

W isconsin.

La Crosse (State-municipal)..............................
84
135
136
75 4199 4118
M i l w a u k e e (Statecounty-municipal). . . 1,322 2,429 2,102 1,139 4 1,957 4 2,553
Oshkosh (State-municipal).............................
92 4157 (3)
86 170 136
Superior (State-municipal)..............................
209
501
465
185 4379 4 538

100

98

64

106

1,977

2,462

1,536

1,903

(3)
(3)

G)
C)

(3)

C)

93

105

51

70

(3)

G)

416

541

392

287

2,586

3,206

2,043

2,366

88,091 153,815 75,893

1 3 3 ,2 5 6

Total.....................
W yom ing.

Chevenne (Federal)___

5

3

15

32

G)

4 61

Grand total..........

CANADA.
Quebec.

Montreal (provincial)..
Quebec (provincial)___

209

G)

111
14

423
49

231
59

307
4101

Total......................
1 Including 180 transients.
* Including 368 transients.


https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

<272
4 64

G)
G)

8

354

218
44

311
36

187
40

354

262

347

227

G)

3 Not reported.
4Number applying for work.

[970]

MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

243

WORK OF THE EMPLOYMENT EXCHANGES IN THE UNITED KINGDOM
IN 1917.

The most important development of the employment exchanges
during the year 1917 has been the establishment of local advisory
committees. In general, there is one committee for each exchange,
but in large towns in which there is more than one exchange, and in
other special cases, several exchanges are grouped under one com­
mittee. Of the proposed 250 committees for the United Kingdom,
some 230 have now been constituted, and 150 have held their first
meetings. Each committee consists of an equal number of repre­
sentatives of employers and employed, nominated, as a rule, by
associations in the various localities, together with a small number
of additional members (not exceeding one-third of the total member­
ship) nominated by the Ministry of Labor as representing other
interests.
The functions of the committees include the consideration of any
matters arising in connection with the working of the exchanges,
and are not confined to matters referred to them by the department.
It is hoped by this means to bring the employment exchanges into
the closest touch with employers and workpeople in the Various
localities, and to secure for them the fullest assistance from local
knowledge and experience. An important part of their work will
be in connection with the provision of substitutes for the men
needed for the army and of employment for men discharged from
His Majesty’s forces, and the special problems arising in connection
with the employment of women. Subcommittees may be appointed
to deal with these and other subjects. Ultimately these committees
will form an essential part of the national machinery for the resettle­
ment of labor on demobilization.
GENERAL SUMMARY.

The activities of the employment exchanges were maintained at a
high level during 1917, and the results of their work, whether meas­
ured by registrations, vacancies notified or vacancies filled, fall little
short of the figures for 1916, the highest previously recorded. The
number of registrations during the year amounted to 3,575,380,
relating to 2,837,650 separate individuals, while the number of
vacancies notified was 1,999,442, of which 1,555,223 were filled by
1,375,198 separate individuals. As in the previous year the principal
feature of the work of the exchanges was the supply of labor to
munition industries and other war work, rather more than half of the
workers being women and girls.
The number of registrations, of individuals registered and placed,
and of vacancies notified and filled on the general register during


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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

[971]

244

M O N T H L Y R E V IE W O F T H E B U R E A U O F LABOR S T A T IS T IC S .

1917 are compared with those of the previous three years in the fol­
lowing table:1
Department and year.

Number
of regis­
trations.

Number of Number of Number of Number of
individuals vacancies vacancies individuals
found
registered.
filled.
notified.
work.

Men:
1 9 1 4 ...........................................................................
1 9 1 5 ...........................................................................
1 9 1 6 ...........................................................................
1 9 1 7 ...........................................................................

2 , 3 1 6 ,0 4 2
1 , 5 1 2 .3 3 5
1 , 2 2 9 .1 7 1
1 , 1 6 7 ,8 6 4

1 , 3 8 1 ,6 9 4
1 . 0 7 2 .2 1 3
9 5 4 ,1 7 2
9 3 8 ,7 2 5

9 0 9 ,3 8 3
1 . 0 0 4 .9 7 0
9 0 9 ,7 2 1
9 0 6 ,6 2 7

7 0 6 .4 5 8
7 1 6 ,8 1 6
6 3 6 ,0 9 5
6 2 3 .8 3 0

5 0 7 ,5 3 8
5 7 7 ,2 0 6
5 3 9 ,5 6 4
5 3 9 ,3 9 6

1 9 1 4 ...........................................................................
1 9 1 5 ...........................................................................
1 9 1 6 ...........................................................................
1917 ...........................................................................

7 0 7 .0 7 1
1 , 2 3 2 ,8 9 1
1 , 9 2 1 ,8 2 6
1 , 8 7 3 ,7 0 6

4 7 6 ,9 2 6
9 2 0 ,6 3 8
1 , 5 0 1 .2 6 0
1 , 4 8 7 ,7 2 8

3 1 2 ,3 4 4
4 9 3 ,5 1 5
8 4 6 ,1 9 6
8 1 4 ,7 3 5

2 3 2 ,9 3 5
3 8 5 ,1 0 1
6 9 5 .6 3 1
7 0 6 ,0 3 4

1 6 0 .1 4 5
3 0 6 ,1 9 2
6 1 5 ,9 2 0
. 6 3 6 .2 6 9

2 1 1 ,8 9 8
1 9 4 ,8 6 4
2 4 1 ,3 1 4
2 6 5 ,6 6 8

1 5 7 ,0 9 3
1 5 0 .5 5 9
1 8 4 ,4 4 3
2 0 4 ,2 8 3

1 5 7 ,2 7 8
1 6 1 .4 5 9
1 4 8 ,0 9 1
1 4 6 ,1 0 3

1 0 3 ,2 8 0
1 0 6 ,7 1 6
1 1 6 ,9 0 0
1 2 0 ,5 2 5

8 5 ,0 6 8
9 0 ,2 3 7
1 0 0 ,0 5 3
1 0 5 ,5 4 7

2 0 7 ,4 4 1
2 4 6 ,0 4 7
2 6 6 ,3 7 8
2 6 8 ,1 4 2

1 4 8 .3 1 0
1 8 3 ,3 9 3
2 0 3 ,9 0 9
2 0 6 ,9 1 4

1 0 0 .0 1 9
1 3 7 .7 0 2
1 4 5 ,0 1 0
1 3 1 ,9 2 7

7 4 ,2 3 6
9 9 ,5 0 4
1 0 8 ,6 0 9
1 0 4 ,8 3 4

6 1 ,3 2 0
8 4 ,7 0 1
9 5 ,8 6 9
9 3 ,9 8 6

3 , 4 4 2 ,4 5 2
3 , 1 8 6 .1 3 7
3 , 6 5 8 ,6 8 9
3 , 5 7 5 ,3 8 0

2 , 1 6 4 ,0 2 3
2 , 3 2 6 ,8 0 3
2 , 8 4 3 ,7 8 4
2 , 8 3 7 ,6 5 0

1 . 4 7 9 .0 2 4
1 , 7 9 7 .6 4 6
2 , 0 4 9 ,0 1 8
1 , 9 9 9 ,4 4 2

1 , 1 1 6 ,9 0 9
1 , 3 0 8 ,1 3 7
1 , 5 5 7 ,2 3 5
1 , 5 5 5 ,2 2 3

8 1 4 ,0 7 1
1 , 0 5 8 ,3 3 6
1 , 3 5 1 ,4 0 6
1 , 3 7 5 ,1 9 8

Women:

Bovs:
1 9 1 4 ...........................................................................
1 9 1 5 ...........................................................................
1 9 1 6 ...........................................................................
1 9 1 7 ...........................................................................

Girls:
1 9 1 4 ...........................................................................
1 9 1 5 ...........................................................................
1 9 1 6 ...........................................................................
1 9 1 7 ............................................................................

Total:
1 9 1 4 ...........................................................................
1 9 1 5 ...........................................................................
1 9 1 6 ...........................................................................
1 9 1 7 ...........................................................................

The total number of registrations (3,575,380) in 1917, including
reregistrations of the same individual, and the number of individuals
registered (2,837,650), although slightly below those recorded in 1916,
was above the average of the period 1914-1916. The influence of the
war is shown in the proportion of registrations of men and women, for
whereas 64 per cent of the individuals registered in 1914 were men and
22 per cent were women, in 1917 the proportions were 33 per cent
men and 52 per cent women. The proportion of boys and girls to the
total number of individuals registered showed practically no change
as between 1914 and 1917. In addition to those on the general
register, there were on the casual register 14,536 individual reg­
istrations in 1917 which are not included in the figures above.
The number of vacancies notified to the exchanges in 1917
(1,999,442) was slightly lower than in the previous year, but the
number of vacancies filled (1,555,223) was almost equal to the corre­
sponding figure for 1916, and was considerably above the average
of the three years 1914-1916. The average daily number of vacancies
filled during 1917 was 5,082, but there was considerable fluctuation
in the rate during the year. The highest point was reached during the
four weeks ending March 9, when the average daily rate was 5,971.
From that period there was a gradual decline, which reached its
lowest level in August, when the rate had fallen to 4,152; from then
there was an upward movement until November, after which the
1 From The Labour Gazette of the British Ministry of Labor, February, 1918, pp. 53-55.


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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

[972]

M O N T H L Y R E V IE W O F T H E B U R E A U O F LABOR S T A T IS T IC S .

245

seasonal decline was shown. Of the vacancies filled during 1917,
40 per cent were filled by men, 45 per cent by women, 8 per cent
by boys, and 7 per cent by girls. The corresponding percentages
in 1914 were 63, 21, 9, and 7, respectively. The figures given above
do not include 106,221 jobs of a more or less casual nature found for
dock laborers, while in addition there were 17,296 jobs filled through
the clearing-house system for dock laborers at Liverpool.
The number of individuals for whom work was found (1,375,198)
was the highest yet recorded. It is satisfactory to note that there has
been a steady diminution in this period in the average number of
times an individual was found work, the average in 1917 being only
1.13, compared with 1.37 in 1914. Of the individuals found work
in 1917 the percentages were 39 for men, 47 for women, 8 for boys, and
7 for girls. In 1914 the corresponding percentages were 62, 20, 10,
and 8, respectively.
The number of exchanges open at the beginning of the year was
378; at the end of the year it had increased to 388.
REGISTRATIONS.

Men.—The number of registrations in the case of men shows a
slight decline as compared with 1916. This was accounted for
by decreases of 62,990 in building and works of construction, and
24,254 among general laborers counterbalanced to a considerable
extent by increases in most other trade groups.
Women.—The small decrease in the registrations among women is
accounted for chiefly by decreases of 65,510 in domestic trades and
92,654 in ammunition and explosives, partly counterbalanced by an
increase of 99,988 in engineering.
The following table shows by groups of industries the number of
registrations of men and women, respectively, in 1917, insured trades
being distinguished from uninsured trades:
Number of registrations.
Men.

Women.

Groups of trades.
Registratons-

Insured trades:
Building........................
Works of construction.
Sawmilling. .
Shipbuilding.
Engineering.._______
Ammunition, explosives, chemicals, etc
Other insured trades...
Uninsured trades:
Conveyance of men, etc
Commercial and clerical
Domestic..........................
Government, defense, professional, etc.
General laborers.............
Other uninsured trades
Total.............................


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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

[973]

Indi­
viduals
regis­
tered.

Registra­
tions.

Indi­
viduals
regis­
tered.

201,557
76,809
12,332
43,573
264,333
52,609
46,073

147,724
63,211
10,095
31,200
219,853
45,620
40,116

6,216
624
15,370
5,244
196,905
548,069
55,720

4,622
474
11,386
3,805
147,881
452,823
43,093

133,472
49,030
22,370
19,360
147,470
98,876

93,421
42,967
18,104
17,326
120,443
88,645

49,859
119,951
317,688
57,734
142,552
357,774

40,009
103,362
221,028
48,409
113,252
297,584

1,167,864

938,725

1,873,706

1,487,728

246

M O N T H L Y R E V IE W OP T H E B U R E A U O P LABOR S T A T IS T IC S .
VACANCIES FILLED .

Men.—The number of vacancies filled declined from 636,095 in
1916 to 623,830 in 1917, mostly accounted for by a decrease of 18,551
among general laborers.
The following table shows the number of skilled and unskilled
vacancies filled by men in the insured trades only in 1917:
Skilled.

Insured trades.

Unskilled.

Building.
...........................................
Works of construction............................
Sawmilling and cabinet making..........
Shipbuilding.............................................
Engineering..............................................
Construction of vehicles........................
Manufacture of metals............................
Manufacture of electrical apparatus. . .
Miscellaneous metal trades...................
Precious metals, etc................................
Bricks and cem ent..................................
Chpmicals; etc..........................................
Rubber arid waterproof goods...............
Ammunition and explosives.................
Leather......................................................

63,954
278
3.979
12,944
96,706
2,137
9,695
607
1.979
500
646
2,949
1,091
7,407
2,082

42,259
72,659
2,547
14,540
79,634
1,823
5,415
75
367
10
317
9,051
409
22,365
197

T otal.......... ......................................

206,954

251,663

It will be seen that the proportion of skilled men was highest in
the metal and engineering trades and in the building trades and
lowest in works of construction, chemicals, ammunitions and explo­
sives.
Women.—The number of vacancies filled by women increased from
695,631 in 1916 to 706,034 in 1917. As in 1916 the largest number of
vacancies filled were in engineering, ammunition, explosives, and
chemicals, and domestic service.
The following table shows the number of vacancies filled by men
and women, respectively, in 1917 for both insured and uninsured
trades:
Number of vacancies
filled.
Groups of trades.
Men.
Insured trades:
Building

, T ................... ........... ..........................................
.......................... ...........................................................
................................................................................
................................................................................... - ...........
.................................................. ................... .................
Ammunition explosives ehemieals, e tc ...................................................................
Of nor insured trades
..................................... ......................................................

W orks of ponstruotion
Rawmillinf
Shipbuilding
Engineering

Uninsured trades:

( g y a n pp of mPR p.te

T ________________________________ _________

Commercial and clerical
................................................
Domestic
............. ...................... .............. ............ ............................
Government defense professional, ete ..... ..................................................
General laborers
- ........... ......... .................. .
0 th ey uninsured trades ........... ........................................................ .
Total

...................- .......................................................................


https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

,

[974]

Women.

106,213
72,937
5,711
27,484
176,340
41,772
28,165

4,500
653
12,788
2,232
173,991
175,749
32,485

58,071
11,837
7,928
6,881
41,728
38,763

14,527
32,853
130,130
12,231
9,252
104,643

623,830

706,034

24?

M O N T H L Y R E V IE W O F T H E B U R E A U OF LABOR S T A T IS T IC S .

The number of cases in which men and women were placed more
than once in 1917 was 154,199, or 11.6 per cent of the vacancies filled,
as compared with 13.2 per cent in 1916.
Boys and girls.—-There was an increase of 3,625 in the number of
vacancies filled by boys and a decrease of 3,775 in the vacancies filled
by girls in 1917, as compared with 1916.
Of the vacancies filled by boys 24,800, or 20.6 per cent, were first
situations since leaving school. In the case of girls 28,835, or 27.5
per cent, were so filled.
The following table shows the number of vacancies filled by boys
and girls, respectively, in 1917, insured and uninsured trades being
distmguished:
Number of vacancies filled.
Boys.

Groups of trades.

Vacancies
filled.

Girls.

Individ­
uals
placed.

Insured trades:
B uilding.............................................................................
Works of construction......................................................
Sawmilling..........................................................................
Shipbuilding......................................................................
Engineering........................................................................
Ammunition, explosives, chemicals, e tc .....................
Other insured trades........................................................
Uninsured trades:
Conveyance of men, e tc ..................................................
Commercial and clerical..................................................
Domestic...........................................................................
Government, defense, professional, e tc .......................
General laborers................................................................
Other uninsured trades...................................................

2,312
279
2,364
1,774
22,231
5,205
4,937

2,022
267
1,998
1,696
19,408
4,475
4,483

23,598
8,532
3,656
1,897
6,238
37,502

19,668 ,
7,976
3,077
1,752
5,226
33,499

T otal................................................................................

120,525

105,547

Vacancies
filled.

Individ­
uals
placed.

197
29
1,720
98
7,139
6,952
7,080

169
29
1,597
84
6,528
6,422
6,332

10,917
13,067
13,667
3,413
4,611
35,944

9,651
12,248
11,606
3,230
3,867
32,223

104,834

93,986

The proportion of vacancies filled to vacancies notified by employers
was 78 per cent (men 69, women 87, boys 83, girls 79) as compared
with 76 per cent (men 70, women 82, boys 79, and girls 75) in 1916.
SPECIAL SCHEMES.

In the following paragraphs some brief particulars are given fo
some of the special schemes for obtaining and placing labor which
are being worked by the employment exchanges.
Substitution and reinforcement.—-For the purpose of securing and
maintaining an adequate supply of labor for work of national impor­
tance or for releasing fit men for the Army the following schemes are
in existence: (a) War munitions volunteers; (b) war work volunteers;
(c) army reserve munitions workers; (d) registered substitutes; and
(e) the substitution scheme generally. These schemes are being
carried out by the employment exchanges in cooperation with the
ministry of munitions or the ministry of national service, and already

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M O N T H L Y R E V IE W OF T H E B U R E A U O F LABOR S T A T IS T IC S .

many thousands of vacancies have been filled through the agency of
the exchanges.
Discharged sailors and soldiers.—Since April, 1915, arrangements
have been in operation under which the exchanges are furnished with
particulars of men discharged from the forces in order that steps may
he taken to assist them in finding suitable emplojunent. Down to
December 31, 1917, over 80,000 sailors and soldiers were placed in
their first employment since discharge. Further arrangements are
being made which will permit of a great extension of this branch
of work.
Workmen from the dominions and colonies.—A considerable number
of men from the dominions .and the colonies have been recruited by
the employment exchanges for munitions work in the United King­
dom.
Aliens.—The importation of alien labor for work of national impor­
tance has also been carried out by the exchanges, subject to the
proviso that aliens should not be introduced where British labor was
available and should not be paid wages inferior to or in excess of
those normally paid to British workmen.
Women.—Over 18,000 women were enrolled during the period in
the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps; over 15,000 women were placed
in agriculture as ordinary exchange applicants, while more than 6,000
women were recruited under the National Service Scheme for placing
women on the land. This scheme is now revised and includes hay
balers for the forage committee of the War Office, and women for
timber work under the timber supply department. The national
service department figures under the old scheme do not include the
enrollments in the two latter departments. In addition to supplying
these corps the exchanges have supplied about 4,000 women to the
army and navy canteen board as manageresses and workers. The
number of women supplied during 1917 to the ammunition, explosives,
and chemical trades alone amounted to over 167,000.
ADVANCES TO W ORKPEOPLE.

Under the powers exercised by the employment department 150,000
advances in respect of railway fares were made to workpeople during
1917, and the cost of the railway warrants issued amounted to
£115,000. Advances to workpeople proceeding to “ work of national
importance” have been charged since August 17 at the rate of
five-eighths of the prewar fare. Of the above £115,000 some £30,000
was in respect of these fares for the last five months of the year, of
which £12,500 is repayable.
SEASONAL LABOR.

During the months of June to October the number of vacancies
filled through the exchanges for pickers of fruit, hops, etc., was 6,699,

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M O N T H L Y R E V IE W OE T H E B U R E A U O F LABOR S T A T IS T IC S .

compared with 1,748 in 1916. Holiday workers were also placed to
the number of 1,665, compared with 743 in 1916.
As in previous years, arrangements were made with the general
post office to recruit temporary labor (sorters, postmen, etc.) required
for the Christmas pressure. Applications numbered 39,132, com­
pared with 39,030 in 1916, while the number of vacancies filled was
26,906 (men 5,437, women 1-9,879, hoys 1,502, and girls 88) compared
with 29,020 in 1916.
These figures are included in the various tables above.

E M P L O Y M E N T IN SE L E C T E D IN D U S T R IE S IN F E B R U A R Y , 1918.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics received and tabulated reports
concerning the volume of employment in February, 1918, from
representative manufacturing establishments in 13 industries. Com­
paring the figures for February of this year with those from identical
establishments for February, 1917, it appears that in three industries
there was an increase in the number of people employed and in 10 a
decrease. Men’s ready-made clothing showed an increase of 4.5
per cent in this respect, and automobile manufacturing, a decrease
of 10.8 per cent.
Ten industries show an increase in the total amount of the pay roll
for February, 1918, as compared with February, 1917. Decreases
are shown in three industries. The greatest increase shown—22.4
per cent—is in iron and steel and the largest decrease—6 per cent—is
in automobile manufacturing.
COMPARISON OF EMPLOYMENT IN IDENTICAL ESTABLISHM ENTS IN F E B R U A R Y , 1917,
AN D FE B R U A R Y , 1918.

Industry.

Boots and shoes.....................
Cotton manufacturing.........
Cotton finishing.....................
Hosiery and underwear___
W oolen...................................
Silk..........................................
Men’s ready-made clothing.
i ron and steel........................
Car building and repairing.
Cigar manufacturing............
Automobile manufacturing.
Leather manufacturing.......
Paper making.......................


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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

Number on pay
Estab­
roll in February—
lish­
ments
report­ Period of
ing for
Feb­ pay roll.
ruary
1918
1917
both
years.
69
54
17
58
51
36
33
95
23
62
48
35
50

1 w eek..
. ..d o .......
.. .do.......
. ..d o .......
.. .do.......
2 w eeks.
1 w eek ..
i month.
.. .do.......
1 w eek. .
. ..d o .......
. ..d o .......
...d o .......

66,138
53,269
14,953
31,330
49.633
15,765
24,558
147,576
32,622
20,570
134,387
19,312
27,189

[9 7 7 ]

61,092
49,399
14,533
30,483
48,912
14,651
25,659
150,524
29,573
21,093
119,882
18,684
26,473

Per
cent
of in­
crease
( + ) or
de­
crease
(-)•

Amount of pay
roll in February—

1917

1918

- 7.6 $951,523 $926,128
566.569
- 7.3
611,446
-2 .8
201,966
219,737
318; 301
- 2.7
343', 085
664, 814
696,387
— 1.5
- 7.1
378,799
358,343
+ 4.5
380,265
434,448
+ 2.0 6,167,185 7,546,257
- 9.3 1,089,816 1,138,108
246,867
+ 2.5
269,414
-1 0 .8 2,840,688 2,668,866
- 3.3
293,153
312,208
- 2.6
396,610
437,191

Per
cent
of in­
crease
(+ ) or
de­
crease
(-).
- 2.7
+ 7.9
+ 8.8
+ 7.8
+ 4.7
— 5.4
+ 14.2
+ 22.4
+ 4.4
+ 9.1
- 6.0
+ 6.5
+ 10.2

250

M O N T H L Y R E V IE W OF T H E B U R E A U O F LABOR S T A T IS T IC S .

The following table shows the number of persons actually working
on the last full day of the reported pay period in February, 1917, and
February, 1918. The number of establishments reporting on this
question is small and this fact should be taken into consideration
when studying these figures.
COMPARISON OF EMPLOYMENT IN IDENTICAL ESTABLISHM ENTS ON LAST FULL
D A Y ’S OPERATION IN F E B R U A R Y , 1917, AN D F E B R U A R Y , 1918.

Establish­
ments re­
porting for
February,
both years.

Industry.

Boots and shoes.................................................
Cotton manufacturing.....................................
Cotton finishing.................................................
Hosiery and underwear...................................
Woolen.................................................................
Silk.......................................................................
Men’s ready-made clothing.............................
Iron and steel.....................................................
Car building and repairing.............................
Cigar manufacturing........................................
AntnrnnhiIp. mannfaeturing............................
Leather manufacturing...................................
Paper making....................................................

18
32
11
18
38
22
4
73
23
16
25
16
15

Period of
pay roll.

1 w eek___
. ..d o ..........
. ..d o ..........
. ..d o ..........
...d o ...........
2 weeks. . .
1 w eek___
J m onth...
. ..d o ...........
1 w eek___
. ..d o ..........
. ..d o ..........
. ..d o ..........

Number a c t u a l l y
working on last full
Per cent
day of reported pay
period in February— of increase
( + ) or de­
crease ( —).
1918
1917
12,382
25,156
9,752
li;804
32; 245
11,471
3,296
113,263
29,031
4,328
78i 769
12,923
9,581

11,747
21,967
9,813
11,572
32; 661
10,433
4,158
116,068
26,479
4,186
72,114
13', 244
10,203

- 5.1
-1 2 .7
+ 0.6
- 2.0
+ 1.3
- 9.1
+26.2
+ 2.5
- 8.8
- 3.3
- 8.9
+ 2.5
+ 6.5

The figures in the next table show that in five industries there were
more persons on the pay roll in February, 1918, than in January, 1918.
A 3.5 per cent increase in men’s ready-made clothing was the greatest
increase and cotton manufacturing shows the largest decrease—4.9
per cent.
COMPARISON OF EMPLOYMENT IN IDENTICAL ESTABLISHM ENTS IN JAN U A RY , 1918,
AN D FE B R U A R Y , 1918.

Industry.

Boots and shoes.....................
Cotton manufacturing.........
Cotton finishing....................
Llosiery and underwear---W oolen....................................
Silk...........................................
Men’s ready-made clothing.
Iron and steel........................
Car building and repairing..
Cigar manufacturing............
Automobile manufacturing.
Leather manufacturing.......
Paper making........................


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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

Estab­
lish­
ments
report­
ing for
Janu­
ary and
Feb­
ruary.
69
56
18
57
48
35
33
94
23
60
44
30
48

Number on pay
roll in 1918—

Period
of pay
roll.

1 w e ek ..
. ..d o .......
...d o .......
.. .do.......
. . .do.......
2 w eeks.
1 w e ek ..
i month.
. ..d o .......
1 w eek ..
. . .do.......
...d o .......
...d o .......

Amount of pay
Per
roll in 1918—
cent
of in­
crease
( + ) or
de­
January. February.
January. February. crease
(-)•
61,272
60,733
50,349
52,937
14,805 ■ 14,721
29,171
29,751
46,259
45,360
14,265
14,573
24,615
25,482
151,190
151,259
29,573
29,978
21,021
21,258
112,475
113,068
14,541
14,255
25,791
26,489

[978 ]

+ 0.9 $947,849 $928,473
620,082
678,752
-4 .9
222,404
228,718
- 0 .6
+ 2.0
330,791
333,883
643,843
-1 .9
734,589
347,678
+ 2 .2
356,555
430,423
+ 3 .5
406,301
+0.1 7,296,242 7,528,828
- 1 . 4 1,122,506 1,138,108
265,074
268,457
- 1 .1
- 0 .5 2,426,104 2,507,521
252,703
239,007
- 2 .0
424,911
423,524
- 2 .6

Per
cent
of in­
crease
( + ) or
de­
crease
(-).
- 2.1
- 8.6
- 2.8
+ 0.9
-1 2 .4
+ 2.6
+ 5.9
+ 3.2
+ 1.4
+ 1.3
+ 3.4
- 5.4
+ 0.3

M O N T H L Y R E V IE W OE T H E B U R E A U OE LABOR S T A T IS T IC S .

251

Of the 13 industries reporting, 8 show increases and 5 decreases in
the total amount of pay roll in February, 1918, as compared with
January, 1918. In men’s ready-made clothing, automobile manu­
facturing, and iron and steel, increases of 5.9 per cent, 3.4 per cent,
and 3.2 per cent, respectively, are shown.
Woolen and cotton manufacturing show marked decreases—12.4
and 8.6 per cent—which is evidently due to the fact that several
plants did not operate full time during the pay-roll period.
A comparatively small number of establishments reported as to
the number of persons working on the last full day of the reported
pay periods. The following table gives in comparable form the
figures for January and February, 1918. The small number of
establishments represented should be noted when using these figures.
COMPARISON OF EMPLOYMENT IN IDENTICAL ESTABLISHM ENTS ON LAST FULL
D A Y ’S OPERATION IN JANUARY, 1918, AND F E B R U A R Y , 1918.

Industry.

Boots and shoes....................
C o t t o n m a n u f a c t u r i n g ..........

Cotton finishing...................
Hosiery and underwear___
Woolen...................................
Silk..........................................
Men’s ready-made clothing.
Iron and steel........................
Car building and repairing..
Cigar manufacturing...........
Automobile manufacturing
Leather manufacturing___
Paper making........................

Establish­
ments re­
porting for
January
and
February.

21
33
12
19
37
19
4
72
23
19
26
13
14

Period of
pay roll.

Number actually work­
ing on last f ull day of
reported pay period Per cent of
increase
in 1918—
(+ ) or deJanuary.

1 w eek___
___do..........
— do.........
— do.........
— do.........
2 w eeks. . .
1 w eek---i m onth...
___do.........
1 w eek___
__ do..........
— do.........
— do........

13,018
25,200
9,631
12,169
32,017
9,725
3,905
113,687
25,659
5,086
74,781
9,774
9,476

February.
13,157
22,471
9,879
12,533
32,413
9,956
4,158
116,969
26,479
5,068
73,150
9,833
9,702

-1 0 .8
+ 2.6
+ 3.0
+ 1.2
+ 2.4
+ 6.5
+ 2.9
+ 3.2
- 0.4
- 2.2
+ 0.6
+ 2.4

In nine of 13 industries there were establishments reporting
increases in wage rates during the period January 15 to February 15,
1918, and in four industries no establishments reported a change.
A number of firms did not answer the inquiry relating to the wage
rate changes, but in such cases it is probably safe to assume that no
changes were made.
Automobile manufacturing: Reports from four plants show
increases in wage rates. One plant reports an increase of 2 per cent
to about 4 per cent of its force and from 10 per cent to 15 per cent
to about 6 per cent of its force. One reports an increase of $0.0308
in the average hourly productive rates; one, an increase of 10 per
cent to 10 per cent of its force; and another reports small increases
but does not state the extent of the increases.
Boots and shoes: Thirteen plants report increases in wage rates.
One plant reports an increase of 10 per cent to 75 per cent of its force;


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MONTHLY BEV1EW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

another, an increase of \2 \ per cent to about 20 per cent of its force.
One reports increases ranging from 10,2 per cent to 22.1 per cent to
about 10 per cent of the employees. Seven plants report a “ war
increase’’ of 5 per cent to the entire force excepting the superin­
tendent, manager, and foremen. One plant reports an increase of
piecework prices and two plants report increases hut make no state­
ment as to the per cent of increase nor the number affected.
Car building: One plant reports an increase of 6 per cent to about
2 per cent of its force.
Men’s ready-made clothing: One plant reports an increase of 5 per
cent to about 50 per cent of the employees.
Cotton finishing: One plant reports an increase of 5 per cent but
gives no further information.
Cotton manufacturing: Six plants report increases in wage rates.
One reports an increase of 10 per cent to its entire force. Another
reports a 10 per cent increase to 90 per cent of its force; one, an increase
of about 19 per cent to loom fixers, with 10 per cent bonus for six full
days’ work. One other reports a bonus of 10 per cent to all 1'fulltime” workers. One plant reports a bonus of 10 per cent to all oper­
atives working six full days and making $16.50 or less per week; one
reports an increase of 10 per cent but gives no further data.
Hosiery and underwear: Five plants report increases in wage rates.
One plant reports an increase of 15 per cent to its entire force.
Another reports an increase of 10 per cent to its entire force; while
another reports an increase of 11 per cent to about 50 per cent of the
employees. One plant has given all its employees a bonus of 16 per
cent. Another reports a few increases but does not state the amount
of increase nor number affected.
Iron and steel: Four plants report increases in wage rates. One
plant reports an increase of 5 per cent to 83 per cent of its force and
5.45 per cent to 14 per cent of its force. Another, an increase of 5
per cent to 80 per cent of its employees. One reports an increase of
about 4 per cent to all of the employees; and another, an increase of
10 per cent to all tonnage men.
Leather: Five plants report increases in wage rates. One plant
reports an increase of 10 per cent to all of the employees, while another
reports a 5 per cent increase to the entire force. One reports an
increase of 7 per cent to 10 per cent of its employees; another, an
increase of 10 per cent to approximately 5 per cent of the force; and
a third reports an increase of $3 per week to about 25 per cent of its
force.


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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

[980]

MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

253

V O L U M E O F E M P L O Y M E N T IN T H E U N IT E D K IN G D O M (G R E A T B R IT A IN
A N D IR E L A N D ) IN JA N U A R Y , 1918.

The following table, pertaining to the condition of employment
in Great Britain and Ireland, was compiled from a report published
in the British Labor Gazette of February, 1918.
The most important change appears in the tin-plate, steel, and
galvanized sheet trades, which show a decrease of 7.7 per cent of the
mills in operation, as compared with the preceding month, and a
decrease of 11.9 per cent as compared with January, 1917.
No material changes relating to the number of employees in
January, 1918, and December, 1917, are shown. Seamen show an
increase of 6.3 per cent, while the carpet, cotton, and food prepara­
tion trades show decreases of 3.7 per cent, 2.6 per cent, and 2.3 per
cent, respectively. No other trades show a change of more than 2
per cent, and leather shows no change.
In comparing January, 1918, with January, 1917, as to numbers
employed, more important changes are seen. Iron and steel, tailor­
ing, and linen show the greatest increases—5.8 per cent, 5.3 per cent,
and 3.7 per cent, respectively. Seamen show a decrease of 29.7 per
cent; dock and riverside labor a decrease of 29 per cent; food
preparation shows a decrease of 14.3 per cent; cotton, a decrease of
13.4 per cent; quarrying, a decrease of 8.3 per cent; corset trade, a
decrease of 8.1 per cent; while eight other trades show decreases
ranging from 4 per cent to 6.9 per cent.
In January, 1918, as compared with December, 1917, several
changes in earnings are shown. Cement and shirt and collar trades
show increases of 4.3 per cent and 2.8 percent, respectively. Linen
shows a decrease of 6.9 per cent; pottery, a decrease of 5.8 per cent;
while ten others show decreases ranging from 2.2 per cent to 4.6 per
cent.
Comparing January, 1918, with January, 1917, in regard to earn­
ings of employees, important changes are shown, all of which are
increases. The tailoring trade shows an increase of 39.5 per cent;
brick, 27.9 per cent; linen, 26.9 per cent; hosiery, 23.4 per cent;
and bookbinding, 21.2 per cent. Cement and silk show increases of
20.8 per cent and 20.6 per cent, respectively. Nine other trades
show increases ranging from 11.6 per cent to 19.3 per cent, while
four others show minor increases.
46648°— 18------17


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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

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MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

VOLUME OF EMPLOYMENT IN THE U N IT E D KINGDOM (GREAT BRITA IN AND IRELA ND ) IN JANUARY, 1918, AS COMPARED W ITH DECEM BER, 1917, AND JANUARY, 1917.
[Compiled from figures in The Labor Gazette (London), February, 1918.]

Industries, and basis of com­
parison.

Per cent of in­
crease (+ ) or
decrease ( —)
in January,
1918, as com­
pared with—
De­
cember,
1917.

Coal mining: Average number of
days worked ....................... .........
Iron “mining: Average number of
days worked...................................
Quarrying: Number of employees.
Pig iron: Number of furnaces in
blast.................................................
Iron and steel works:
Number of em ployees..............
Number of shifts worked........
Engineering trades: Number of
em ployees2.....................................
Shipbuilding trades: Number of
em ployees2.....................................
T in-plate,steel, and galvanized
sheet trades: Number of m illsin
operation.........................................
Cotton trade:
Number of em ployees..............
Earnings of employees.............
Woolen trade:
Number of em ployees..............
Earnings of employees.............
Worsted trade:
Number of em ployees..............
Earnings of employees.............
Hosiery trade:
Number of em ployees..............
Earnings of employees.............
Jute trade:
N u m b e r n f em p i nyp.es__
Earnings of employees.............
Linen trade:
Number of em ployees..............
Earnings of employees.............
Silk trade:
Number of em ployees..............
Earnings of employees.............
Carpet trade:
Number of em ployees..............
Earnings of employees.............
Lace trade:
Number of em ployees..............
Earnings of employees.............
Bleaching, printing, dyeing, and
finishing:
Number of em ployees..............
Earnings of employees.............
Boot and shoe trade:
Number of em ployees..............
Earnings of employees.............
Leather trades: Number of employees2.......................................
Tailoring trades:
Number of em ployees..............
Earnings of employees.............
1 No change.

.7
.4

C1)
- 8.3

-

.3

+

-7

+ 5.8
+ 6.0

— .04

.3
+

.01

- 7 .7

-1 1 .9

-2 .6
- 4 .6

-1 3 .4
+ 4.3

—1.8
-2 .2

— 4.9
+ 17.0

1.3
-3 .7

2.6
+ 17.6

+ .5
+ 1.1

- 2.1
+23.4

1.8
- 3 .4

+ 19.3
+ 3.7
+ 26.9

-

.5

- 2.6
+ 20.6

- 3 .7
- 3 .7

- 4.0
+ 15.0

-

- 5.2
+ 9.4

.4

1.3
- 2 .8

4.5
+ 19.2

- .4
-2 .9

+ 5.4

0)
- .2
-2 .7

Shirt and collar trade:
Number of em ployees..............
Earnings of emplovees.............
Other clothing trades:
Dressmaking and millinery—
Number of employees.......
Wholesale mantle, costume,
blouse, etc.—
Number of employees—
London.............................
Number of employees—
Manchester......................
Number of employees—
Glasgow............................
Corset trade—Number of employees.....................................
Building and construction of
works: Number of em ployees...
Sawmilling and machining: Numher of employees............................
Brick trade:
Number of em ployees..............
Earnings of employees.............
Cement trade:
Number nf em ployees........ .
Earnings of employees.............
Printing, bookbinding, and paper
trades:
Printing trades—
Number of employees rep o r te d b y tr a d e - u n i o n s

2. 2

- 1 .7
- 6 .9
.6

De­
Jancember, uar v,
1917.
1917.

4. 2

-

+ .04

Industries, and basis of com­
parison.

Jan­
uary,
1917.

—0.7

+ -4
+ .3

Per cent of in­
crease (+ ) or
decrease ( —)
in January, ■
1918, as com­
pared with—

— 6 .9

+

-4

+ 5.3
+39.5

2

Number of employees reported by employers__
Earnings of employees reported by employers__
Bookbinding trade—
Number of employees reported by trade-unions2
Number of employees reported by employers__
Earnings of employees reported by employers__
Paper trades— Number of employees ...................................
Pottery trades:
Number of employees..............
Earnings of employees.............
Glass trades:
Number of employees..............
Earnings of employees.............
Food preparation trades:
Number of employees..............
Earnings of employees
Dock and riverside labor: Number of employees............................
Seamen: Number of employees. . .

1.5
+ 2 .8

+ 15.4

+ 1.8

- 1.3

+ 1.0
- 1 .7

C)
- 1.7

- 1 .5

0)

- 1 .4

- 8.1

-

.05

+

.4

- .06

-

.1

- .8
-1 .8

4- 1.4

1.1
+ 4.3

5 8
+ 20.8

+27.9

.3

+

.3

- 1 .5

-

6.9

-1 .7

+ 11.6

+

+

.1

+

.3

-

.2

-

2.9

-

.7

+ 21.2

+ 1.2

7

-1 .6
5.8

- 3.1
+ 13.3

- .4
3.8

- .9
+ 15.6

- 2 .3

-1 4 .3
+ 9.2

2. 8

— .2
+ 6.3

— 2 9 .0

-2 9 .7

* Based on unemployment returns.

The table following shows by occupation groups, the number of
individuals registered, the vacancies notified, and the vacancies filled,
indicating the extent of unemployment in Great Britain during the


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MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

five weeks ending January 11, 1918. The totals for this period are
also compared with the totals for the four weeks ending December
7, 1917.
IND IV ID U A LS R E G ISTER ED, VACANCIES N O T IFIE D , A N D VACANCIES FIL LE D
THE 5 W EEK S E N D E D JAN U A RY II, 1918.

IN

A . — I n s u r e d tra d e s.

Adults.

Occupation group.

Individuals
registered
during
period.

Juveniles.

Vacancies
notified dur­
ing period.

Vacancies
filled during
period.

Vacancies
notified dur­
ing period.

Vacancies
filled during
period.

Men. Wom­ Men. Wom­ Men. Wom­ Boys. Girls. Boys. Girls.
en.
en.
en.
Building:
Carpenters, joiners, e tc . . .
Bricklayers.........................
Masons.................................
Plasterers............................
Painters, decorators, e tc ..
Plumbers, glaziers.............
Otherskilled occupations.
Laborers..............................
Works of construction.............
Saw m illing................................
Shipbuilding:
Platers, riveters.................
Shipwrights........................
Laborers..............................
Engineering:
Molders................................
Smiths.................................._
Erectors, fitters, turners...
Metal machinists.................
Wiremen...............................
Other skilled occupations.
Laborers................................
Construction of vehicles............
Cabinet making, etc...................
Miscellaneous metal trades___
Precious metals, e tc ...................
Brickj cement..............................
Chemicals, etc..............................
Rubber and waterproof goods.
Ammunition and explosives. .
Leather:
Boots and shoes...................
Excluding boots and shoes.
Total..........................
Total, males and females.
Four weeks ending Dec.7,1917.

3,156
1,644
396
636
3,454
457
82
6,428
8,950
1,124

264
4

1

308
3

1

93
33
1,381

1,169
301
2,401
1,088
597
6,816
2,300
573
2,597
8,828
740
219
1,427

12
2

259
132
91
2,063
8,241
68

51
635
154
3,106

7.098
2.099
447
126
1,701
176
59
613
661
27,927

208
232

248
413

122

149

2,237
1,209
45
164
841
152
1
229
13
93 4,155
29 9,519
1,143
533

1,439
815
2,526

12

163

141

151
2

771
266
1,472

14
33

78
33
948

110
53
240

12

59
48
124

166

707
75
532
60
559
113
274
68
6,860
822 4,900
743
1,826 6,450 1,167 5,946
819
87
352
72
2,077 2,428 1,303 2,114
7,388 2,095 5.982 1,858
434
367
218
342
138
15
70
10
1,665
903 1,161
752
159
153
43
116
205
62
65
52
938
669
548
574
169
468
149
459
1,857 6,357 1.983 6,127

9
23
5

10

100

53
113

37
20

73
28
712
510
48
266
351
39
36
234
44

22

4
24
323
5
146
99
5
6

306
33

111

15

55
17
689
496
42
205
364
37
33

14
4
25
260

299

221

44
43

43
104

40
36

59,891 54,524 57,501 |23,182 40,348 21,129

3,653

1,642

3,307

177

126
249

96
51

84

11

6

80
11

6

118
79
3
4
256
27

202

33
5
142
30
255

101

94

220

144
37
251

2

72
35
341

1,457

114,415

80,683

61,477

57295

4,764

T l5 ,089

88,387

67,100

5,624

4,979

B

Mining and quarrying...............
581
Textile:
Cotton................................
284
Wool and worsted...............
152
Silk, flax, linen, e t c .. . .
261
Dress:
Tailors and tailoresses........
167
Dressmakers and milliners.
Seamstresses...........
Others......................
129
Conveyance ofmen, goods,etc. :
Oh railways...............
169
On roads, seas, rivers, etc.. 8,451
Agriculture..................................
619


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3,504
2,447
49
206
1,160
496
51
5,832
11,968
929

.— U n i n s u r e d

tra d e s.

10

857

6

365

1

66

4

34

669
260
1,411

304
97
180

712
200
568

148
55
126

320
145
473

111

112

82

166

293

140

566
478
725
805

90

21

152

27

10

241
109
290
193

34

35

344
171
334
193

34

214
58

21

128
117
144
49

180
2,697
673

437
6,102
602

195
1,678
672

303
4,249
127

183
1,321
345

117
2,247
77

1
1,125
22

1,722
45

829
15

[983]

67
50
317

2

256

MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

IN D IV ID U A LS R E G ISTER ED, VACANCIES N O T IFIE D , AND VACANCIES FIL LE D
THE 5 W EEK S E N D E D JAN U A RY 11, 1918—Concluded.

IN

B . — U n i n s u r e d , t r a d e s —Concluded.

Adults.

Occupation group.

Individuals
registered
during
period.

Vacancies
notified dur­
ing period.

Juveniles.
Vacancies
filled during
period.

Vacancies
notified dur­
ing period.

Vacancies
filled during
period.

Men. Wom­
Men. Wom­
Men. Wom­
Boys. Girls. Boys. Girls.
en.
en.
en.
Paper, prints, books and stationery.......................................
Wood, furniture, fittings, etc..
Pottery and glass.......................
Food, tobacco, drink, and lodgmg:
Bread and biscuit, etc.,
makers...............................
Waiters.................................
Others (jam, cocoa, and
tobacco).............................
Brushes, brooms, etc.................
Gas, water, electrical supply,
and sanitary service...............
Commercial and clerical...........
Domestic:
Laundry and washing
service...............................
Private indoor servants. . .
Other indoor servants........
Charwomen, day girls,
day servants.....................
Others...................................
General laborers.........................
Shop assistants...........................
Government, defense, and professional....................................
All others.....................................

141
16
79

905
80
226

219
41
107

544
50
137

76
5
47

414
40
79

205
64
60

407
48
71

178
53
61

321
36
41

92
92

243
1,361

97
70

362
844

22
35

307
621

72
32

65
47

53
29

57
41

131
10

594
22

247
9

860
7

96
5

729
5

83
10

221
25

62
8

179
13

178
3,554

41
9,224

917
1,438

152
3,245

609
989

125
2,523

19
805

1,099

16
597

922

1,403

648
1,477
6,059

1,181

1,240
2,133
6,515

614

816
568
4,616

402

116
236
349

267

73
85
206

11,398
508

8,658
274
7,791
2,578

3,452
195

9,155
176
1,160
464

2,731 '
82

6,376
125
836
305

530
104

1,058
29
401
484

450
78

338
370

1,435
1,247

4,726
2,243

886
617

1,642
265

608
365

1,524
194

356
1,576

255
570

353
1,498

224
499

Total.................................. 31,097 56,224 18,180 34,024 11,688 23,824

7,214

7,666

5,905

5,658

521

Total, males and females.........

87, 321

52,204

35,512

14, 880

IB 563

4 weeks ending December 7,
1917............................................

101, 230

52,794

36,355

16,600

12,856

Casual employment (men
only)..........................................

93

1 610

This table shows that during the period in the insured trades
114,415 adults registered for work, 57,891 men and 54,524 women.
There were 85,978 vacancies reported, 57,501 men, 23,182 women,
3,653 boys, and 1,642 girls. The number of positions filled was
66,241, 40,348 men, 21,129 women, 3,307 boys, and 1,457 girls.
The occupation group in which the largest number of positions were
filled by adults were: Works of constructions, 9,552; ammunition
and explosives, 8,110; laborers, engineering, 7,840; metal machinists,
7,113; erectors, 5,643; and laborers, building, 4,233.
In the uninsured trades there were 87,321 registrations, 31,097
men and 56,224 women. The number of vacancies reported was
67,084, 18,180 men, 34,024 women, 7,214 boys, and 7,666 girls.
The total number of positions filled was 47,075, 11,688 men, 23,824


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MONTHLY EEVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

257

women, 5,905 boys, and 5,658 girls. The occupation groups in the
uninsured, in which the largest number of positions were filled by
adults, were: Domestic service, 13,115; conveyance of men, goods,
etc., 6,056; general laborers, 3,567; and commercial and clerical, 3,512.
The total number of positions filled by adults in both the insured
and uninsured trades during the five weeks ending January 11,1918,
as compared with the preceding four weeks ending December 7, 1917,
shows a decrease of 6.3 per cent. The decrease in the number of
positions filled by men was 3 per cent; by women, 9.7 per cent.
The largest number of women were employed in domestic service.
No comparison can be made of the number of registrations in the
employment exchanges of Great Britain with the number of applica­
tions for work reported by the employment offices of the United
States, owing to the differences in method of registering applicants.
It is possible, however, to make a comparison of positions filled
by the offices in the two countries. The figures show the following
result:
Positions filled.
Number of
offices.

Great Britain............................................................................
United States........... ...............................................................

388
99

Total.

113,316
93,149

Average
per day.

Average
per day,
each office.

4,047
3,583

10.4
36.2

The above figures are significant in view of the fact that a very large
percentage, if not practically all, of the employment office work of
Great Britain is done through the free-employment exchanges, while
in the United States but a very small proportion of the placements is
made through the public-employment offices, the much greater pro­
portion being handled by the private-employment agencies.
EMPLOYMENT SYSTEM OF THE LAKE CARRIERS’ ASSOCIATION.

At a convention held in New York City in December, 1916, the
International Seamen's Union of America adopted a resolution re­
questing the United States Department of Labor “ to investigate the
employment system, shipping offices, and so-called 'welfare plan’ of
the Lake Carriers’ Association, and to make public the results of such
investigation. ” The resolution charged that this welfare plan was
virtually a strike-breaking and blacklisting system, the continuation
of which would almost certainly lead to a serious strike on the Lakes.
In compliance with the above resolution an investigation was made
by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, the results of which
are presented in Bulletin No. 235, just issued.

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[9851

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MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

The Lake Carriers' Association is composed of 64 vessel owners or
managers, operating over 400 vessels carrying iron ore, coal, and
grain upon the Great Lakes. Its declared object, among other things,
is “ to establish and maintain by contract or otherwise such amicable
relations between employers and employed as will avoid the public
injury that would result from lockouts and strikes in the lake carryingservice. ”
The “ welfare plan,” as finally put into effect in 1908, provides for
the maintenance of assembly rooms at the various lake ports and
sailors are given the privileges of these rooms on payment of an
annual fee of $1, which entitles them to a certificate of membership
in the “ welfare plan.” When labor is at a premium nonmembers
may be shipped, but preference is given to welfare men. Each man
registered is given a registration or record discharge book, called by
the association the welfare book, in which is kept a serial record of
his service on the boats of the association. When applying for work
the man must present this book to the “ commissioner” or shipping
master in charge of the local assembly room or shipping office and to
the captain or chief engineer of the boat on which he ships. The
book is kept in the possession of the captain or chief engineer until
he signs the sailor’s discharge record for the trip. If the entry
be good or fair the book is returned direct to the man, but if the
officer decides that such entry can not be made, and in case of deser­
tion or failure to serve after being engaged, the book is returned by
the master to the secretary of the association with an explanatory
statement. The association thereupon takes such action as it may
deem wise and just as to canceling the sailor’s certificate of member­
ship.
At the time the welfare plan was put into effect the association
announced that it had definitely adopted the “ open-shop principle. ”
The majority of the welfare men are nonunion men and the union
man who registers under the plan ceases to be an active union man.
Many seamen are bitterly antagonistic to this shipping system.
Their opposition is partly due to the fact that apart from its merits
or demerits they feel that it is a plan imposed upon them in the opera­
tion of which they have no part. They consider that it is undemo­
cratic and that it seriously infringes upon their freedom of action
and their right to organize for the betterment of their working con­
ditions. The union men insist that despite the general improvement
of sanitary and labor conditions aboard ship, the sailors are now
really worse off than they were prior to the inauguration of the wel­
fare plan and that they are subject to a system of virtual espionage,
and under constant apprehension of the black list. In 1916 the
rate of labor turnover on the association’s books was more than 600
per cent.
[986]

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MONTHLY REVIEW OP THE BUREAU OP LABOR STATISTICS.

259

The association denies that the assembly rooms are shipping or
employment offices on the ground that it is the captain of the boat
and not the commissioner who does the actual hiring. As the scheme
actually operates, however, the assembly rooms become clearing
houses for the buying and selling of seafaring labor, which is virtually
engaged by the commissioner subject to the approval of the ultimate
employer. While there is no question that the association is making
a systematic and sincere attempt to enforce a policy of neutrality
toward the unions, the interpretation and practical application of its
open-shop principle and the actual operation of the welfare plan have
undeniably had a damaging effect upon the lake unions.
A strike for higher wages and for the abolition of the welfare plan
particularly the continuous discharge book feature was ordered for
October 1, 1917. In view of this contemplated strike the United
States Shipping Board made an investigation of the welfare plan
and the discharge-book system. Conferences were meanwhile held
with representatives of the lake seamen’s unions and the Lake Car­
riers’ Association, at which the Shipping Board was assured that the
Lake Carriers’ Association would abolish the discharge book and
modify the welfare plan in any manner the board might direct after
fair investigation. As a result of its investigation the Shipping
Board decided that the discharge book is undesirable and should be
abolished.


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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

t

f9 8 7 !

WORKMEN’S COMPENSATION AND SOCIAL
■ INSURANCE.
ADEQUACY OF WORKMEN’S COMPENSATION LAWS.1
BY CARL HOOKSTADT.

Forty States and Territories have placed workmen’s compensation
laws upon their statute books. Ten of these laws were enacted in
1911 and have therefore been in effect about six years. It may be
well to consider at this time the extent to which these laws are meeting
the requirements for which they were enacted. In other words, to
what degree are they adequate ? What proportion of employees are
receiving compensation? How much are they receiving? Is it
sufficient for them needs? To what extent are the laws operating
and effective? That is, do injured employees actually receive the
benefits provided for in the statutes ?
SCOPE.

It is of no particular significance to an injured workman to know
that the compensation law in his State has a high scale of benefits
if his occupation does not come within the scope of the act. It is
important, therefore, to ascertain just how many employees are
covered by the various compensation laws. New Jersey is the only
State which includes all employments, while Hawaii is the only
jurisdiction covering all employments except those nonindustrial in
character. Fourteen States 2 limit their acts to '“hazardous” em­
ployments, thereby excluding the trades and professions as well as
farm labor and domestic service. Eighteen States3 exempt the
small employers, i. e., those having less than a stipulated number of
employees. E ight4 exclude all public employees, while most of the
States exclude casual labor and employments not conducted for gain
or for the purpose of the employer’s business. Interstate railroad
employees are necessarily excluded because of Federal legislation.
But what do these various exclusions mean when applied in the
several States ? How many employees are actually excluded through
the nonhazardous, or numerical, or- agricultural, or domestic service
1 Partial summary of a forthcoming bulletin (No. 240) on the comparison of workmen’s compensation
laws in the United States.
2 Alaska, Arizona, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Montana, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New
York, Oklahoma, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming.
’ Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, New Hampshire, New Mexico,
Ohio, Oklahoma, Porto Rico, Rhode Island, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Wisconsin, and W y o m in g
♦Alaska, Arizona, Delaware, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Porto Rico, Texas, and West Virginia.

260

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MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

261

exemptions ? An attempt has been made to compute the actual
number of employees excluded. These computations are based upon
a detailed study of the Federal occupation census of 1910, and though
the absolute figures would understate the numbers as they exist at
present the percentages would probably remain the same.
The following table shows the number and percentage of em­
ployees excluded in the 40 compensation States for each of the
several classes of occupations:
NUM BER A N D PE R CENT OF EM PLOYEES EX CL U D E D FROM PROVISIONS OF COM
PENSA TIO N ACTS, B Y CLASSES OF OCCUPATIONS.

Number of
States
excluding
each
occupa­
tional
group.

Employments excluded.

Number of
employees
excluded.

Percentage Percentage
of em­
of em­
ployees
ployees
excluded
excluded
to total
to total
number of employees
employees. excluded.

Agriculture.........................................................................
Domestic service...............................................................
Nonhazardous (trades, professions, etc.).....................
Small employers...............................................................

38
39
14
18

2,213,259
1,965,600
1,773,998
283,279

11.1
9 9
8.9
1.4

35.5
31.5
28.5
4.5

Total.........................................................................

40

6,236,136

31.3

100.0

It will be noted that 6,236,136 or 31.3 per cent of all employees
in the 40 compensation States are not covered by the several acts.
In addition there are some 1,200,000 interstate railroad employees
excluded from the benefits of State compensation acts because of
Federal jurisdiction over interstate commerce. The exclusion of
31.3 per cent of the employees, however, does not necessarily mean
that the same percentage of accidents are noncompensable. The
exempted employments, especially the professions, domestic service,
and clerical occupations, are on the whole less hazardous than manu­
facturing and mining.
But thus far it has been assumed that all the employers coming
within the scope of the law in the elective States have actually elected
to come under the compensation provisions of the acts. As a matter
of fact, however, this is not true. In some States practically all of
the employers have accepted the act, while in others relatively few
have done so. In New Hampshire only 19 employers, employing
19,000 persons, were under the compensation law in 1916. These
employees constitute less than 25 per cent of those potentially covered
by the act and only 13 per cent of the total employees in the State.
The Iowa compensation commissioner estimated (1915) that approxi­
mately 25 per cent of the employees coming within the scope of the
compensation law were deprived of compensation benefits because
of the employers’ rejection of the act. The Oregon industrial com­
mission stated (1915) that 15 to 20 per cent of the employees were

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MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

not entitled to compensation benefits for similar reasons. The United
States Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated 1 that in Massachusetts
less than 78 per cent of the total employees in the State are entitled
to compensation, whereas not less than 85 per cent come within the
statutory scope of the act. The Illinois Industrial Accident Board
reported in 1915 that 831 employers, 187 of whom were mine oper­
ators, had rejected the compensation law. Because of this refusal
of employers to accept the compensation provisions elective com­
pensation acts have been severely criticized. The Massachusetts
board recommended the substitution of a compulsory law for the
elective system, while Illinois changed to a compulsory law in 1917.
As already noted, the number of employees outside the statutory
scope of the acts in the 40 compensation States is estimated at 31.3
per cent. In view of the large number of rejections just cited, the
number of accidents not receiving compensation is not far from the
same percentage.
COMPENSATION B EN E FIT S.

In any attempt to determine the adequacy of the compensation
benefits provided for in the various laws it is obviously necessary to
have a standard of adequacy. No such standard has as yet been
adopted or agreed upon. No 2 of the 40 States have adopted the
same type of law and with the possible exception of Oregon and
Washington no State seems to have followed any definite theory in
this respect. The necessity for a workable law, not excessively bur­
densome to the employer and not conducive to malingering, while
affording such reasonable benefits to the injured workman as to pre­
vent hardships to himself and his dependents, has led to a wide vari­
ety of attempts to determine the proper amounts to be awarded.
In general it may be said that the State compensation schedules are
based upon the loss of earning power modified both by the employee's
need and by the desire to limit the employer’s burden.
One of the accepted principles of workmen’s compensation is that
the industry shall bear the burden of industrial accidents. But com­
pensation benefits based upon the social need of the injured employee
or his family do not accord with this principle although payments
upon such a basis may be desirable as a social and economic, policy.
The compensación benefits of the Oregon and Washington laws are
based upon this principle of need rather than upon loss of earning
power. It must not be understood, however, that the employer is
bearing the entire cost of industrial accidents. As a matter of fact,
he is not bearing one-half the burden and in many cases not 25 per
cent of it.
l See Monthly R eview for March, 1917, p. 414.


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MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

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Fo^ the present purpose let it be assumed that an adequate work­
men’s compensation law is one which provides complete indemnity
for the loss of earnings resulting from the injury. Such indemnity
shall include necessary medical and surgical service and full wages
for total disability or death, during such disability or during the
industrial life expectancy of the employee at the time of the injury.
In case of partial disability compensation shall be proportioned to
the wage loss and continue during disability. The compensation
benefits thus based upon loss of earnings would also fulfill the require­
ments as to social needs, assuming, of course, that the workers’
wages adequately meet their needs. With such a standard of ade­
quacy as a basis, to what extent do the present laws meet the
requirements ?
W AITING PERIOD.

With the exception of the laws of Oregon and of Porto Rico every
State compensation law provides for a preliminary waiting period
during which no compensation is paid. The reason for this noncompensable preliminary period is to prevent malingering and to
avoid the undue administrative expense resulting from a policy of
paying compensation for every accident causing disability. Just what
the most advantageous waiting period is has never been determined.
Oregon and Porto Rico, as already stated, have none. It would
seem, however, that a waiting period of not over seven days is ample
to meet the objections mentioned; and if the disability continues
longer than three weeks compensation should be paid from date of
injury. Twenty-three States (57.5 per cent) have a waiting period
in excess of seven days. Of these, New Mexico requires three weeks;
California, Massachusetts, Utah, and Wyoming require 10 days;
while 18 States 1 require two weeks. Thirteen States,2 however,
abolish the waiting time entirely if the disability continues beyond a
stipulated period.
SCALE.

In no State does the amount of compensation provided equal full
wages. Of the 37 States in which the amount of compensation is
based upon wages Porto Rico alone provides 75 per cent; Massachu­
setts, Nebraska, New York, and Ohio provide 66§ per cent; Cali­
fornia, Illinois, Kentucky, and Wisconsin 65 per cent; Hawaii, Kan­
sas, Minnesota, and Texas 60 per cent; Idaho, Indiana, and Utah 55
per cent; while 21 States,3 or 57 per cent, provide only 50 per cent.
1Oregon, Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, New
Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, and Ver­
mont. (Vermont reduced its waiting period to one week in 1917, effective July 1,1918.)
2 Alaska, Arizona, Illinois, Louisiana, Michigan, Nebraska, Nevada, New York, Rhode Island, South
Dakota, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
3 Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Mon­
tana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South
Dakota, Vermont, and West Virginia.


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264

MONTHLY BEVIEW OE THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.
MAXIMUM LIMITATIONS.

The amount of compensation benefits derived from applying the
several percentages to the wages is, however, further reduced through
various limitations. These limitations consist of maximum weekly
compensation payments, maximum periods during which compen­
sation is to be paid, and maximum amount of benefits any employee or
beneficiary can receive. Practically all of the States place a limita­
tion upon the amount of weekly or monthly compensation. In 23
States the weekly maximum is limited to $12 or less. The extent to
which compensation benefits are reduced by the weekly maximums
depends, of course, upon the wage level in the several States. At
present the influence of this factor has greatly increased because of
the high wage level due to the war.
COMPENSATION PERIODS.

If an adequate compensation law requires the payment of benefits
during the disability or dependency of the injured employee or his
dependents, then few laws are adequate. Seventeen States 1 provide
compensation payments for life in case of permanent total disability.
An equal number of States provide that benefits for such disabilities
shall continue for 8 or 10 years. The remaining 6 States make
varying provisions. The statutory benefits in case of fatal accidents
are, on the whole, less liberal than those provided for permanent total
disability. This is no doubt due to the belief that a workman totally
and permanently disabled is a greater economic loss to his family
than if he were killed outright. Whereas 17 States make compensa­
tion benefits payable for life in case of permanent total disability,
only 5 States 2 provide that benefits in case of death shall con­
tinue until the death or remarriage of the widow. A large proportion
of the States (17) furnish benefits for approximately 6 years. In
addition to the limitation placed upon the duration of payments
either in case of disability or death most of the States also place a
limit upon the total amount of compensation which any beneficiary
can receive. In case of partial disability accidents most of the State
laws provide for a schedule of specified injuries causing dismember­
ment, for which benefits are awarded for fixed periods based roughly
upon the loss of earning capacity caused by the loss of the organ.
Compensation for such injuries ranges ordinarily from 200 weeks for
the loss of an arm to 15 weeks for the loss of a little finger.
i Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware ($4,000 maximum), Idaho, Illinois, Maryland ($5,000 maxi
mum), Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Oregon, South Dakota ($3,000 maximum), Ltah
Washington, and West Virginia.
s Nevada, New York, Oregon, Washington, and West Virginia.


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265

To what extent, then, are the benefits of our State compensation
laws adequate from the viewpoint of the duration of payments for the
several kinds of disabling accidents? In other words, what is the
ratio of payment periods provided for in the compensation acts to
the life expectancy of the injured man at the time of the accident ?
Again, how fully do the specific injury-schedule payments meet the
loss of earning power occasioned by these injuries ? The committee
on statistics and compensation insurance cost of the International
Association of Industrial Accident Boards and Commissions in a
recent report formulated a schedule of severity ratings of industrial
injuries computed on the basis of time lost.1 Death and permanent
total disability, each rated at 1,000 weeks, are used as the base and
partial disabilities computed therefrom.
The purpose of the schedule of severity ratings was to obtain a
more accurate measure of industrial hazards and was not intended as a
basis of compensation awards. In fact, the committee disclaims any
such intention. Assuming, however, that the schedule is a reasonable
measure of adequacy for compensation payment, it is interesting to
note the percentages of adequacy for the more important injuries
provided for by the several State compensation laws. The following
table attempts to show such percentages of adequacy using the com­
mittee’s schedule as 100 per cent. These percentages refer only to
periods of time during which compensation is paid and do not take
into account the per cent or rate of compensation.
1 The com m ittee’s severity rates of th e more im p o rtan t injuries expressed in tim e lost are as follows:

Death and perm anent to tal disability, 1,000 weeks; loss of arm , 600 to 750 weeks; hand, 500 weeks; thum b,
100 weeks; index finger, 50 weeks; leg, 500 to 750 weeks; foot, 400 weeks; great toe, 50 weeks; sight of one

eye, 300 weeks; hearing, one ear, 100 weeks; hearing, both ears, 500 weeks. For a complete report of this
committee see pp. 123 to 143 of th e October, 1917, Monthly R eview .


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MONTHLY REVIEW OP THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

PERCENTAGE OF ADEQUACY OF D U R A TIO N OF PAYM ENTS FOR SPECIFIED INJU­
R IES PR O V ID ED FOR IN THE SEV ERAL STATES, USING THE I. A. I. A. B. C. COMMITTEE SCHEDULE AS 100 PE R CENT.
Loss of—
Total
disa­
bility.

State.

C o m m ittee............................

100

Colorado...................................
Connecticut............................
Delaware................................
Haw aii.....................................
Idaho........................................
Illinois......................................
Indiana....................................
Iow a................. ......................
Kansas.....................................
Kentucky................................
Louisiana................................
Maine.......................................
Maryland.................................
Michigan.................................
Minnesota...............................
Montana..................................
Nebraska..................................
Nevada.....................................
New Jersey..............................
New Mexico............................
New York................................
Ohio.........................................
Oklahoma................................
Oregon.....................................
Pennsylvania.................
South'Dakota.........................
Texas........................................
U tah .........................................
Vermont..................................
Wisconsin..............................;

100
52

Average.........................

64

31
100
100
50
40
42
42
40
50
50
55
100
100
100
40
52
100
100
50
100
50
40
100
26

Arm.

Index
Hand. Thumb. finger.

Leg.

Foot.

Great
toe.

Sight
of 1
eye.
100

100

100

100

100

100

100

100

28
28
26
42
27
27
27
27
28
27
27
20
27
27
27
27
27
29
27
20
42
27
33
55
29
27
27
27
23
43

21
31
32
49
30
30
30
30
30
30
30
25
30
30
30
30
30
35
30
22
49
30
40
66
35
30
30
30
28
48

35
38

36
76
92
40
70
60
60
74
90
60
60
60
70
70
20
70
78
70
40
92
70
70
138

40
60
30
40
70

60
90
20
50
64

26
33
36
51
31
31
31
31
31
31
31
31
38
31
31
31
31
38
31
25
51
31
38
69
38
31
31
31
30
45

36
76

60
30
60
60
40
60
60
50
50
50
60
60
30
60
65
60
30
60
60
60
104

28
36
39
58
30
35
35
35
40
40
35
30
35
35
35
36
35
39
35
24
58
35
35
76
43
30
40
30
34
44

60
60
30
40
50

35
35
38
43
33
33
33
33
37
33
33
33
33
33
33
33
33
30
33
33
43
33
33
58
33
33
33
33
33
47

29

33

53

66

38

35

55

36

7630
60
60
50
60
GO
40
50
50
60
60
30
60
60
60
30
76
60
60
86

In considering the above table it must be borne in mind that
several States1 pay compensation for total disability during the
healing period in addition to the schedule of payments for partial
disability. Two important facts stand out, however. One is the
relatively greater awards for the minor injuries; and the other is the
small proportionate awards for all injuries. The average statutory
compensation provided for the loss of an arm, hand, or foot is approx­
imately one-third of the loss of earning capacity caused by such inju­
ries. Moreover, this schedule, as already noted, refers only to time.
When the statutory wage percentages are applied the percentages of
adequacy are still further reduced. This can better be shown by way
of a concrete illustration. For example, what compensation benefits
would a man earning $20 a week receive for various types of injuries
under the committee’s schedule and under the laws of New York and
New Mexico? These two States are taken because they represent,
respectively, the most liberal and least liberal of the several compen­
sation States.
1 Illinois, Nevada, New Jersey, Ohio, South Dakota, and Vermont.


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COMPARISON OF B E N E FIT S U N D E R I. A. I. A. B. C. COMMITTEE SCHEDULE AND U N D E R
COMPENSATION LAWS OF NEW YO R K AND NEW MEXICO.
Money benefits received.
Type of injury.

Permanent total disability...............................................
4 woo.Us’ disability...............................................................
LI weeks* disability................... ........................................
Loss of—
Arm at shoulder...........................................................
Hand...............................................................................
Thumb............................................................................
Trid ox fin For...................................................................
Leg at knee....................................................................
Foot..................................................- .............................
Great to e ........................................................................
1 ey e................................................................................

Per cent
of New
York
benefits
New
to com­
Mexico.
mittee
benefits.

Per cent
of New
Mexico
benefits
to com­
mittee
benefits.

Commit­
tee.

New
York.

*20,000
80
260

$13,333
27
173

$5,200
10
100

67
33
67

26
13
38

15.000
10.000
2,000
1,000
10,000
8,000

4,160
3,253
800
613
3,840
2,733
507
1,707

1,500
1,100
300
200
1,200
1,000
150
1,000

28
33
40
61
38
34
51
28

10
11
15
20
12
13
15
17

LOOO

6i 000

New
York.
Por oont of employees covered by act............................
Medical service furnished for............................................

...d a y s ..

59
60

New
Mexipo.
31
'21

1 Maximum, 150.

The above table fully substantiates the statement of Mr. A. W.
Whitney that “ In practice the beneficence of the most liberal law is
probably not more than 50 per cent of full indemnity and the benefi­
cence of the least liberal law is not over half that of the most liberal.”1
When the inadequate medical service and the inadquate scope of the
acts are also considered the inadequacy of our compensation laws is
striking. In view of these facts it is rather misleading to say that
the burden of industrial accidents is borne by the employer. As a
a matter of fact at least from 50 to 75 per cent of this burden is borne
directly by the employee.
ADEQUACY OF D E A T H B E N E FIT S.

Compensation benefits in case of death have been based to a large
extent upon the principle of need. Thus, in many cases the per­
centage of compensation has been proportioned in accordance with
the conjugal condition and number of dependents of the injured man.
The statutory provisions for fatal injuries have already been noted.
To what extent our State compensation laws are meeting the eco­
nomic needs of the decedent’s family is indicated by a study recently
made by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics.2 The pur­
pose of this investigation was to ascertain what effect workmen’s
compensation laws had in diminishing the necessity of industrial
employment of women and children. The States of Connecticut
i Bui. 212, U . S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Proceedings of the conference on social insurance, p. 194.
» Bui. 217, U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, effect of workmen’s compensation laws in diminishing
the necessity of industrial employment of women and children. (In press.)


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MONTHLY REVIEW OE THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

and Ohio were selected. The study was made in 1915 and was
limited to fatal and permanent total disability accidents. The
Connecticut law then provided weekly compensation benefits of 50
per cent of the employee’s wages, but not over $10,1 for a period of
312 weeks for death; the Ohio law similarly provided weekly benefits
of 66§ per cent of wages, but not over $12, for the same period.2
It was found that the average amount of compensation awarded
to families of married decedents in Connecticut was $2,269, while the
average in Ohio was $3,098. The larger amount in Ohio is due to
the higher percentage of compensation, higher weekly maximum, and
higher wage level. The loss of the decedent’s wages to the family
“ even when modified by compensation, was a serious matter, in some
cases amounting to disaster. A rough measure of the extent of the
loss may be found by comparing the family income before and after
the accident. This is not a satisfactory measure, because after the
accident the ncome sometimes consists of the earnings of children
who have been taken from school to work or of mothers who must
leave their children to go out and earn food for them, but at least it
gives some idea of what the worker’s death has meant financially to
his family.”
There were several methods of making up the deficit in the family
income. Children might be taken out of school and put to work, the
family might move into cheaper quarters, the widow might go to
work, or friends or relatives or charitable organizations might be
called upon for help. These methods were resorted to in varying
degrees. As regards the conditions in Connecticut the report elicited
the following facts: Taking children out of school to work was the
method least frequently used. Only two cases were found in which
this had been done. Moving into cheaper quarters was a more com­
mon means of meeting the situation. Eight families, not counting
those to whom relatives gave a home, made this change. The com­
monest method of meeting the emergency was for the widow to find
some way of earning money. Of 50 widows, 10 worked for money
both before and after the fatality, and 11 who had not been gainfully
employed before took up such employment after losing their hus­
bands. Of all those subsequently employed, 7 kept roomers or
boarders, 6 did some form of domestic work, 4 were employed in fac­
tories, while the others were employed in various other occupations.
Of the 11 women who took up work for pay as a result of the hus­
band’s death, 5 worked away from home even though they had small
children.
In Ohio, for reasons already stated, the compensation benefits re­
ceived were somewhat greater than those awarded in Connecticut.
* Increased to $14 in 1917«


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MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

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The economic distress therefore was not so acute. The methods and
needs of making up the deficit in family income were, however, simi­
lar to those in Connecticut.
Summarizing the combined results of the two States shows the fol­
lowing facts: Taking the children out of school to put them to work
was seldom resorted to ; the percentage of widows who took up gain­
ful pursuits as a result of the death of their husbands was 26.3 per
cent; the percentage of families of married decedents who moved into
cheaper quarters was 11; while the percentage of families receiving
charitable aid was 1.6. In the latter, however, no account was taken
of help given by relatives or neighbors.
MEDICAL SERVICE.

It may not be deemed advisable to pay full compensation benefits
but there appears to be no valid reason why adequate and unlimited
medical service should not be furnished. Adequate medical treat­
ment is absolutely essential to complete rehabilitation yet only 4
of the 40 State compensation laws (California, Connecticut, Idaho,
and Porto Rico) require the employer to furnish unlimited medical
services. Several laws make no provision for medical treatment
whatever, and in others the low maximum limits make adequate
treatment impossible.
The following table shows the medical service requirements of the
several State laws classified as to length of time and maximum
amounts for which the employer is liable:
LENGTH OF TIME DURING WHICH MEDICAL SERVICE IS FU R N ISH E D , AND MAXIMUM
AMOUNTS.

2 weeks.

None.

3 weeks.

4 weeks.

30 days.

i weeks.

60
days.

90 days

Alaska Del. ($25).. Mich............. Iowa ($100).. Colo.($100). 111. ($200) N.Y. Ky. ($100).
Minn. ($100)
In d .............. K a n s .
A riz. Me. ($30).. Nebr. ($200)' R. I
($150).2
Nev.1..........
N. Mex.($50) S.Dak.(ilOO)
N .H .
Wisd...........
Wyo.. Mont. ($50)
N T ($50!
Pd
Vt. ($100).
.........

'
1
1 Longer period under certain conditions.
250 days.
8 15 days.
4 2 weeks additional in hospital cases.
6 Except in unusual cases.
*Necessary medical attendance as prescribed by commission.
»Such medical service as employer or insurer may deem proper.
8 Employees contribute one-half.

46648°—18----- 18


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[997]

Unlimited
as to time.
Cal.
Conn.
H a w ai
($150)
Idaho.
La. ($150).
Md. ($150).
Ohio ($200).5
Oreg. ($250).
P. R.o
Utah ($200).'
Wash.8
W. Va. ($150).

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MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.
INJURIES COVERED.

No State holds the employer liable for every injury received by
the employee. As a rule, the injury must have been received in the
course of the employment and must have arisen out of the employ­
ment; usually, also, injuries due to the employee’s intoxication,
willful misconduct or gross negligence, and occupational diseases
are not compensable. Thirty States withhold compensation if the
injury is caused by the willful intention of the employee to injure
himself or another; 27 deny compensation if the injury is due to
intoxication; 13 if caused by willful misconduct; 9 if the employee
is guilty of violation of safety laws or removal of safety devices; 9
if the injury is intentionally inflicted by a fellow employee or other
person; and one if the injury is caused by an act of God. The
exclusion of occupational diseases, however, from the category of
compensable injuries is of much greater importance. California,
Hawaii, Massachusetts, and the Federal Government are the only
jurisdictions awarding compensation for such industrial diseases.
INSURANCE.

Security of compensation payments is reasonably assured if the
employer is required to insure his risk in an authorized insurance
company or State fund or, in the case of self-insurers, to furnish
adequate security. Five of the 40 compensation States (Alaska,
Arizona, Kansas, Louisiana, and Minnesota) do not require the
employers to insure. Practically the only security possessed by the
employees in these States is the provision making compensation pay­
ments preferred claims against the property of the employer.
ADMINISTRATION.

Thirty compensation States have commissions or boards to admin­
ister the compensation acts, with power to settle disputes and make
awards. In the other 10 States 1 disputed cases are adjudicated by
the courts. In Minnesota and New Jersey, however, the departments
of labor are given limited supervision over the acts and are authorized
to aid in the adjustment of disputes but possess no power to make
awards.
The need of authoritative agencies to administer compensation
laws is sufficiently demonstrated in those States which do not possess
them. The average non-English-speaking foreign workman is fre­
quently unfamiliar with his rights under the law and does not know
what action to take in case of injury. Complaint, too, is frequent
that the fear of discharge acts as an effective deterrent in demanding
compensation. The original Nebraska compensation act did not
1Alaska, Arizona, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Rhode
Island, and Wyoming.


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MONTHLY REVIEW OP THE BUREAU OP LABOR STATISTICS.

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provide for an administrative commission but such a commission was
established in 1917. The labor commissioner of Nebraska in referring
to the operation of the compensation law said:1
The delay and expense, the unequal footing of the parties in the courts, and
unfamiliarity w ith and inherent fear of court procedure, all operate to defeat the
very purpose of a compensation law.

The commissioner of labor of Kansas, for similar reasons, recom­
mends that an administrative compensation commission be provided
for that State.
The situation in New Jersey is much the same. A further illumi­
nating side light upon the operation of the law in this State is shown
by the relatively small number of compensable accidents reported.
This is brought out by a comparison of the Massachusetts accident
statistics with those of New Jersey. Both States require all employ­
ers to report their accidents. In Massachusetts there were reported
28,060 accidents resulting in death or two weeks’ disability during
the year 1916, while only 8,611 such accidents were reported in New
Jersey. Thus, although New Jersey has 78 per cent as many employ­
ees as Massachusetts only 31 per cent as many accidents were
reported.
M A K IN G O F R A T E S F O R W O R K M E N ’S C O M P E N S A T IO N IN S U R A N C E .

Perhaps no phase of workmen’s compensation insurance is more
important or complex than the principles and practices of rate
making. A critical analysis of these principles and processes has
just been made by Mr. E. H. Downey, special deputy, Pennsylvania
Insurance Department, in an article appearing in the Journal of
Political Economy.2
All insurance rates are made up of two factors: The “ pure pre­
mium,” or actual cost of benefits insured, and the “ expense loading,”
or cost of insurance management.
Probably the greatest obstacle to the formulation of scientific
insurance rates is the lack of accurate data as to compensation costs,
therefore necessitating the introduction of conjectural factors.
The rates must be “ prospective,” and they must cover the full ultimate cost of the
benefits insured against. * * * The pure premiums of competitive insurers,
accordingly, are not the actual payments made, or even the actual costs incurred,
during an insurance year, but the e x p e c t e d cost to be incurred within the period
covered by the insurance contract. This expected cost is perforce estimated in
advance of the insurance period and on the basis of past experience. Two elements
of uncertainty are thereby at once introduced into the calculation. (1) The past,
even the recent past, never exactly prognosticates the future. Not only are industrial

1

Report upon the operation of the workmen’s compensation law for the year ending Nov. 30,1915, p. 14.
2E. H. Downey: The making ofrates for workmen’s compensation insurance. The Journal of Political
Economy, December, 1917, pp. 961-983.


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M O N T H L Y R E V IE W OF T H E B U R E A U O F LABOR S T A T IS T IC S .

equipment, methods, and personnel forever changing, with consequent changes in
the number and severity of work accidents; accident rates apparently are affected
also by economic cycles of depression and prosperity. In many, if not most, indus­
tries changes in technique and personnel are so rapid that accident experience may
be said to become obsolescent in five years’ time, while cycles of business activity
are so unpredictable that the experience of a series of favorable years may come to
be applied to a year of abnormal risk, and vise versa. (2) For the reasons just stated
it is only the experience of the recent past which can safely be relied on for rate­
making, and the experience of the recent past always contains a large element of
more or less uncertain future payments.
The large proportion of “ outstanding®’ to total incurred cost would not seriously
complicate the determination of pure premiums if the outstandings themselves could
be accurately ascertained. Unhappily this is not the case. The cost of recent claims
is uncertain because many cases of apparent temporary disability w ill develop into
death or permanent disability. Even with respect to known fatal and permanent
cases valuation is no easy matter. The present value of future payments for these
cases is affected by both mortality and remarriage, neither of which factors can be
satisfactorily measured from existing data.

Thus far it has appeared that compensation insurance rates are
projected into the future upon the basis of past pure premiums
which, in the nature of the case, will never be exactly reproduced by
the future period to which these projected rates apply aud which can
not be accurately determined even for the past period from which
the pure premiums are derived. The errors arising from both these
sources are immensely aggravated by the subdivision of experience
into industry classes. Some 1,500 of such industrial risk classes
have grown up, for each of which a pure premium is to be established
ostensibly on the basis of its own experience. Another difficulty
arises because of the fact that American compensation laws are State,
not national, in scope. Both the legal benefits and the spirit in
which the laws are administered differ widely from State to State, and
even from time to time within the same State, so that experience had
under one jurisdiction or under one benefit scale can not directly be
applied to any other. The 1,500 risk classes must accordingly be
further split up into 30 or more State units.
Various attempts have been made to overcome the deficiency of
exposure in the ultimate risk classes by grouping related classifica­
tions and by combining the experience of different States in the same
classifications. Both methods enlarge the exposure at a more or
less serious cost of homogeneity and thereby of dependability. The
author discusses in detail the principles of combination in the two
cases. For the purpose of reducing to a common denominator the
pure premiums incurred under dissimilar benefits, rate-making com­
mittees have relied upon law differentials. The law differential, in
this sense, is the ratio between the computed ultimate cost of com­
pensation for 100,000 accidents in a hypothetical standard distribu­
tion (Rubinow Standard Accident Table) under the given scale of

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benefits and the computed ultimate cost of the same accidents under
the Massachusetts act of 1912. It is pointed out, however, that a
flat law differential rests upon an assumption which is clearly con­
trary to fact—the assumption, namely, that the distribution of sever­
ity of work injuries is the same for all industries. A corrective for
this uneven distribution may be had, however. This consists merely
in the analysis of accident costs by severity of injury and the applica­
tion of an appropriate differential to each injury group—deaths,
permanent total disabilities, permanent partial disabilities, tem­
porary disabilities. The difficulties in ascertaining accurate and
reliable basic and State pure premiums are summarized by the author
as follows:
The combined effect of prospective rates, full reserve premiums, over-refined risk
classes, and flat State differentials, is to introduce a large measure of conjecture into
the most fundamental of all rate-making data—the actual cost of insured benefits
per unit of exposure. The basic pure premiums do not truly represent the reported
experience and scrarcely deserve the reliance actually placed upon them by rate­
making committees. What is scarcely less serious, the reported experience itself
even if correctly translated, is not a sufficient basis for prospective insurance rates,
because (a) the exposure on many risk classes is wholly inadequate, (6) the outstand­
ing liabilities may not have been correctly estimated, (c) the reported experience
may not have covered the precise range of business which the risk class is intended
to describe, and (d ) the experience relied on may relate to a period of greater or less
industrial activity, or of more or less effective accident prevention than that for which
the rates are projected. Hence, in the actual process of rate-making, the calculated
basic pure premiums are more or less modified by judgment, and a number of more
or less conjectural loadings are introduced into the State multipliers.
The basic pure premiums, finally, whether selected or calculated, are translated
into State pure premiums by means of multipliers which rest as much upon judgment
as upon ascertained fact, (a) The least disputable of the factors entering into these
multipliers are the State law differentials whose weaknesses were adverted to in another
connection. ( b ) The law differentials themselves are graded in accordance with the
age of the act in question, upon the theory that the cost of compensation progressively
increases during the first few years’ experience as accident reporting improves and
workmen become better educated to their legal rights, (c) In the last rate revision,
moreover, account was taken of the fact that the experienced pure premiums were
derived from several years of normal or even subnormal industrial activity, whereas
rates were to be projected for a period of unparalleled expansion. It was commonly
believed that the excessive loss ratios indicated by immature experience for 1916
were somehow correlated with this sudden expansion of industry. There was no con­
clusive evidence of such correlation, much less any quantitative measure of increased
accident cost per unit of pay roll, but the prevailing belief was borne out by certain
partial tests and by the common knowledge that the speeding up of industry means
more crowded plants, more driving of workmen, more overtime, a greater number of
inexperienced employees, and less attention to accident prevention. On this some­
what dubious basis, then, a loading of 15 per cent was incorporated in the basic pure
premiums to offset the supposed effect of increased industrial activity. (d ) Logically
antedating all the foregoing factors is an allowance of 2 per cent in the basic pure
premiums themselves for underestimate of outstandings in the reported losses. It
is doubtful whether any allowance under this head is justifiable in face of the sub-


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stantial judgment loading already referred to; in any case, the percentage fixed upon
implies a degree of accuracy in the determination of pure premiums which has not
been, and is not likely to be, realized.

The author also analyzes the factors of expense and profits load­
ing, catastrophe hazard, and concludes with a discussion of existing
rate-making organizations.
REPORT OF NEW JERSEY COMMISSION ON OLD AGE INSURANCE A N D
P E N SIO N S.1

In a report submitted to the governor of New Jersey in November,
1917, the commission on old age insurance and pensions, originally
authorized in 1911, makes a strong recommendation for the passage
of a workmen’s health insurance bill adapted to New Jersey’s needs.
In the opinion of the commission, the conditions in the industrial
world as affecting particularly the laboring class, since the United
States entered the war, have accentuated the need for health insur­
ance legislation, for it is imperative that the thousands who are
entering industry for the first time, especially women with their
greater susceptibility to sickness and with maternity functions to
be considered, may enjoy the protection that comes with adequate
health insurance legislation. As between provision for conserving
the health of the people and making pension allowances to take care
of the problem of old age poverty, the commission believes that
‘'sickness, care, and prevention will assure greater returns to the State
in the improved health and welfare of its citizens than a measure
providing for the care of the aged.” With this in mind the report
deals primarily with a consideration of the sickness problem and
measures for meeting it.
A survey of Trenton made in October, 1915, showed that 3.1 per
cent of all persons 15 years of age and over were sick, and that 2.4
per cent of all persons were so sick that they were unable to work.
Based upon these figures, the commission estimates that in New
Jersey sickness causes an annual loss of 7.2 working days to persons
15 years of age and over, and that there are at all times 43,000 per­
sons of 15 years and over who are so sick as to be unable to work.
Further data is given showing that “New Jersey can not consider
her health conditions satisfactory.”
The cfcose relation of industry to sickness is dwelt upon, especially
the prevalence of occupational diseases among workers in potteries,
smelters, tanneries, and the textile and hatting trades where lead
poisoning and mercury poisoning and consumption, pneumonia, and
other ailments induced by work in dust or humid atmosphere are
1 Report on health insurance by the New Jersey Commission on Old Age Insurance and Pensions. Rah­
way [1917], 20 pp.


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found. It is also pointed out that wages have been so low that many
wage earners and their families have not been able to obtain a suffi­
cient income to permit a healthful standard of living, thus empha­
sizing what has been found to exist in many countries—a partner­
ship between poverty and disease. Low wages of course have not
permitted the accumulation of savings to provide against possible
sickness. In 1,412 family problems which the bureau of associated
charities of Newark undertook to solve during the year 1916, 42 per
cent were needy because of sickness, not including disabilities due to
industrial accidents nor such disabilities as arise from insanity,
epilepsy, etc.
Taking up the matter of methods of insurance, the report notes
briefly that stock companies “ are expensive and few in number,”
that mutual sickness benefit associations, while saving the heavy
overhead costs of commercial insurance, are likewise few in number,
only 20 being found among New Jersey’s 3,000 factories, and that the
fraternal organizations are issuing very few exclusively sickness
policies. They “ fail to meet the situation satisfactorily, since they
do not provide the kind of medical care needed and their rates, unfor­
tunately, are frequently inadequate to provide permanently for the
expected benefits.” As to the trade-union benefit plan it is stated
that “ in a State which is less than one-quarter unionized, and where
but few of the unions grant sickness benefits, and few, if any, grant
medical benefits, the trade-union funds can not be expected to develop
immediately into a comprehensive system to cope constructively
with sickness, care, and prevention as demanded by the present
emergency.”
The report outlines briefly the provisions of sickness insurance
plans in Europe and quotes from the reports of the United States
Public Health Service, the Commission on Industrial Relations, and
the Social Insurance Commission of California, to show the trend
toward social insurance of this character. The attitude of various
trade-union organizations in New Jersey, favoring the proposition,
is noted; also the fact that industry is evidencing a desire to prevent
time loss on account of sickness. Thus, an official of a large company
employing thousands of workers, after a careful study of working
time lost on account of both sickness and accidents, has said:
As in the case of accidents, when the man is absent another man must be supplied
to take his place, and this increases both the labor turnover and the accident rate; in
other words, it is a source of considerable loss to the company as well as to the man.
* * * Health insurance is now being urged in many quarters, and if it comes about
we may expect a transfer of emphasis from accident to illness prevention.

The commission is of the opinion that health insurance is a measure
which gives great promise both of relieving economic distress due to

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sickness and of stimulating preventive action, and that to achieve
these ends such a measure, adapted to New Jersey’s needs, should
be based on the following fundamental principles:
Existing health insurance agencies that are conducted on an adequate basis at
actual cost should, with mutual management, be utilized in the further development
of a comprehensive health insurance system. In order that the greater effectiveness
and economy of a universal system may be enjoyed, health insurance should be made
to cover all regularly employed wage earners. Insurance should provide medical
care and health instruction in order that its work may be both curative and preventive.
To minimize the financial distress attending sickness the system should provide a
cash benefit during temporary incapacity for work. It should also provide maternity
care to meet the special needs of working mothers. Health insurance should be
democratically supported and managed by those directly concerned, the State bear­
ing as its share the cost of general administration as it does in workmen’s compensation.
The system should be under supervision of a special bureau in the Department of
Labor with competent medical direction and in close cooperation with existing public
health agencies, in order to place added emphasis upon the extremely important
problem of sickness prevention.


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LABOR LAWS

COMPULSORY WORK LAW OF NEW JERSEY.

Following the example of the legislature of West Virginia (see
R e v i e w , August, 1917, p. 350) and of Maryland (M o n t h l y
R e v i e w , September, 1917, p. 525), a compulsory work law was en­
acted by the recent legislature of New Jersey as a war emergency
measure. In its substantive features the New Jersey act more closely
resembles that of Maryland than that of West Virginia, its scope
being the same, i. e., able-bodied male residents of the State between
the ages of 18 and 50 years, while the West Virginia law includes those
between the ages of 16 and 60. Like the Maryland law, provision
is made for employment on public works. Thirty-six hours per week
is the minimum period of labor required, and maximum penalties are
fixed at $100 fine or three months imprisonment, or both. The pos­
session of property or income is not a defense, nor is the claim of in­
ability to obtain work, in the absence of a certificate from the com­
missioner of labor that proper application has been ineffectually made.
The common wage in the occupation must be paid, and where in­
ability to secure private employment appears, assignment and reas­
signment as necessary will be made to undertakings carried on by
the State or any county or municipality thereof, or by private em­
ployers who accept the services of such persons.
The act is to be in effect whenever the governor of the State shall
issue a proclamation determining general employment to be neces­
sary and essential for the protection and welfare of the State and the
United States. Law enforcement officers in general are charged with
the duty of enforcing this law, while the commissioner of labor is
authorized to appoint or employ, subject to the civil service pro­
visions of the State, such employees as may be necessary to aid in
carrying out the provisions of the act. Exemptions are made of
persons temporarily unemployed on account of labor disputes, bona
fide students during the school term, and persons fitting themselves
to engage in trade or industrial pursuits. The act was approved Feb­
ruary 15, to take effect immediately.
M

onthly


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H O U S IN G F O R W A R N E E D S BY T H E D E P A R T M E N T O F LA B O R .

Under a bill recently introduced in the House of Representatives
(Ii. R. 10265) the Department of Labor is provided with a fund of
$50,000,000 with which to undertake the housing of workers engaged
on work essential to the conduct of the war. The Secretary is au­
thorized to acquire by purchase, lease, condemnation proceedings,
or otherwise, such improved or unimproved land as he may consider
necessary for the purposes in question. Authority is given to equip,
manage, and maintain, alter, rent, lease, exchange, sell, and convey
any such lands, houses, buildings, improvements, parts thereof or
interest therein; and to aid in providing housing facilities by loans
of money to any firm, persons, or corporation upon such terms or con­
ditions as he may determine. The Secretary of Labor is also author­
ized to acquire by purchase or otherwise transportation and com­
munity facilities in connection with the housing undertakings.
The bill provides that the houses erected by the Government shall,
whenever practicable, be of a temporary character. The services of
the Supervising Architect of the Treasury in connection with the
work are to be utilized whenever practicable.
In leases of land by the Government a clause is to be inserted for
an option of purchase for an agreed price in each case.
No work under the terms of the bill shall be done under any per­
centage or “ cost-plus” agreement, and full and complete itemized
reports of all transactions in connection with the work shall be made
to Congress at the beginning of each session, and a final report is to be
made immediately after the declaration of peace.
While all authority to project new housing schemes under the bill
terminates upon the conclusion of peace, power and authority to care
for and rent property remaining undisposed of and to conclude
and execute contracts for the sale of property made during the War
are to continue until such period after the War as the Secretary of
Labor may determine.
The necessity for the proposed legislation in question is thus set
forth by the House Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds,
which submitted its report on February 28.
The necessity for this legislation arises from the fact that all of the manufacturing
and industrial plants existing in this country at the time of the declaration of war
with Germany which could be useful for war purposes have been enormously expanded

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and in addition very many more such plants have been established, and this expan­
sion and growth have made it necessary that many, very many, thousands of additional
workmen should be employed, and of course these workmen and their families must
be housed. The administration, realizing and appreciating the fact that it was of the
very highest importance that every plant engaged in the manufacture of arms and
munitions and other war essentials should be expanded to the utmost, and should be
kept constantly running at its highest productive capacity, and that this of necessity
would require a tremendous increase in the number of industrial workers, caused the
Committee on Labor of the Council of National Defense to make a survey of the prob­
lem in order to determine what could be done in the premises. This investigation
disclosed an alarming condition. It was ascertained that good, skilled, competent
workers could be had, but that in many cases houses could not be had, and therefore
this vitally necessary work could not be performed as speedily as the exigencies of the
situation demanded. Private capital could not or would not build on a scale to meet
the demand, and therefore it became a governmental problem to house the labor which
is absolutely necessary for the full development of our resources to successfully deal
with the emergency confronting us.
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Necessarily legislation of this character must lodge very broad discretion with those
who are to administer it. It is a temporary expedient, and entirely new to our Gov­
ernment, and * * * can only be justified by the conditions now existing, but
those conditions seem to us to imperatively demand its enactment.

H O U S IN G A N D T H E L A N D P R O B L E M .

The secretary of the committee on new industrial towns (New
York City) in an article in the January, 1918, number of the Journal
of the American Institute of Architects discusses the relation of the
unearned increment in land to the problem of housing wage earners,
and outlines a plan for the conservation of land values in housing
developments which may be undertaken by the Government as a war
emergency measure.1
The housing problem is essentially a land problem, it is stated, and
“ no real solution of the problem of getting the vast majority of our
population into attractive homes is possible unless we first solve the
problem of the unearned increment which now banks up in front of
economic progress, including housing progress, like snow before a
snow plow.” The growth of this unearned increment in land in two
large company towns is cited. In Lackawanna, N. Y., the increment
created by the Lackawanna Steel Co. has been placed at $6,788,000;
in Gary, Ind., at $22,358,900.2
The way of escape from the evils of increasing land values lies in
diverting those values to community uses through community land
ownership. “ The medium may be a nonprofit land company, the
1 What is a house? B y Richard S. Childs. Journal of the American Institute of Architects, Washing­
ton, D. C. January, 1918.
2 These data are the results of studies made for the committee on new industrial towns, of which Mr.
Lawson Purdy, of New York, is chairman.


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conduct of which the future tenants may control—a private govern­
ment, so to speak; or the Government. Either might earn a surplus
but would have nothing to do with it save to distribute it in some kind
of services among the tenants.”
In the case of an employer contemplating the erection of a com­
pany town for his employees the method of procedure is outlined as
follows:
The company should buy land enough for the plant and the town, too, create a
nonprofit land company, sell it the town site, and accept in return its first-mortgage
bonds. The land company should plan the city, pave it, provide water and other
utilities, stake out the building lots, determine which shall he business streets and
residential streets, and establish a minimum cost of buildings in the various districts
to protect the land values. It should lease, not sell, the land, fixing the rentals at a
figure sufficiently low to keep the workers from going outside the tract to find homes.
Unless the size of the future population can be definitely foreseen, rentals of business
frontages should be adjusted every five years, to correspond with the growth of the
population or, perhaps, of the factory pay rolls. Residential rentals could be made
for fairly long terms—say 15 years—since such land values, even in a rapidly grow­
ing town, do not necessarily alter much. The employer, if it be destined to re­
main a one-industry town, would have to become a partner in housing operations in
some round-about way, such as financing a building and loan association or help­
ing with the financing of a housing corporation, in case private capital proves timid
about building on leased land.

If the Government proposes to house munition and shipyard
workers the plan of procedure would be the same in every way:
Let our Government create a housing corporation with an appropriation. Let it
condemn the lands it needs, build the villages and cities that are required, and rent
the houses during the war. Then, when the war industries have been readjusted to
permanent peace conditions, let the Government write off the excess and emergency
cost of its housing adventure as a cost of war and recoup the balance by selling the
property, not to individuals but to local nonprofit land companies, to be operated for
community revenue. Thus w ill be created communities that are the owners of their
underlying lands, possessors of all present and future increments therein, and enjoy­
ing revenues a hundred per cent above those of ordinary towns of equal size.

The author estimates on the basis of the studies made of Lacka­
wanna, N. Y., and Gary, Ind., that 4 per cent on the enhanced land
values would be enough in time to replace the principal investment
and still leave twice as much for community purposes as would be
obtained from normal taxation.

C O N D IT IO N S IN O H IO LA B O R C A M P S .1

The Industrial Commission of Ohio has recently issued a report of
a preliminary survey covering living conditions in 108 labor camps
containing a population of 7,172 at the time of the survey but having
) Preliminary survey of labor camps in Ohio. Bulletin of the Industrial Commission of Ohio. Voi. iv,
No. 11. Department of Investigation and Statistics, Report No. 32. Columbus, Nov. 27, 1917. 22 pp.


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a housing capacity of 11,349. The data in this report were collected
in April and May, 1917, and cover 17 construction camps, 67 railroad
camps, and 24 factory and mill camps. Although not stated, the
inquiry appears to have been prompted by written and verbal com­
plaints by laborers who have told of certain unsanitary features
surrounding their mode of life or have referred to unfair contract or
wage payment methods followed by proprietors. There was no
attempt, it is stated, to make a study of wage and hour conditions or
degrees of skill required for varying types of labor performed, the
schedule providing chiefly for a sanitary survey.
The first important fact noted is the high percentage of labor
turnover, indicated by the showing that in 39 camps, or 44.3 per cent
of those for which information on this point was obtained, the labor­
ers remained one month or less, and in 10 camps (11.4 per cent) the
average length of residence was one day. It is intimated in this
connection that a systematic practice of job selling,1 indulged in by
foreign “ straw bosses” who can speak English and who victimize
their fellow countrymen who can not speak English, is responsible
for this high labor turnover.
Sleeping quarters were found to be greatly crowded, the beds being
generally vermin infested, and the men being bunked under condi­
tions which allow, on the whole, an inadequate per capita air space.
For example, in railroad camps 2,877 men were allowed less than 300
cubic feet of air space each; only 100 were allowed over 500 cubic
feet each.
The boarding service is furnished (1) by the companies, (2) by
commissaries who bid for the concession, and (3) by the workmen
themselves. In one-third of the camps inspected the board was
furnished by commissaries. Charges for board were found to vary
from $3 to $6 per week. The report does not comment on the quan­
tity or quality of the food served but suggests considerable careless­
ness on the part of cooks and their helpers in the handling and
preparation of the food. Washing facilities were in many instances
not conveniently situated.
In commenting on the care of the sick the report states that the
greater factory camps require physical examination and vaccination
at the time of entrance and provide care during lost time resulting
from both. Hospitals and contagious hospitals are provided with
separate service for Negroes where any are employed. Construction
camps carry their injured to a doctor or hospital but do not often
assume much responsibility for the sick, while railroad camps some­
times send men home on paid transportation or to regular company
1 This subject is dealt with more in detail in a report of the commission on “ Job selling in industrial
establishments in Ohio,” which was noted in the Monthly R eview for October, 1916, pp. 1 to 5.


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physicians. These camp laborers, it was found, are frequently
attacked by pneumonia.
It seems to be the rule among these camps to withhold wages from
one to two weeks. If a man is discharged he may secure his wages
at once in most of the camps; if he quits he has to wait until the next
pay day. Deductions from wages are made without itemization by
23 camps which require no receipt for the balance paid in cash, while
26 companies present slips showing total deductions and require
signatures to same.
Based on the living conditions as found in these 108 camps, the
report concludes with some definite suggestions by which sanitary
conditions may be improved, bearing in mind the fact that perhaps
90 per cent of the camps are of a temporary nature, which makes it
advisable to keep the financial burdens incident to improved condi­
tions at a minimum. The suggestions are as follows:
G e n e r a l l a y o u t . —Well-drained

site.
by frequent analysis. Sufficient in quantity. Stored
in tightly covered receptacles from which drawn off by faucet.
H e a t a n d l i g h t . —Sufficient to insure reasonable comfort.
T o i l e t s . —One seat to 20 persons.
Fly-proof construction. Sewer connections
where available. In other cases containers emptied and cleansed regularly with lime,
earth, ashes, crude oil, or other means of keeping down nuisance. Separate means
designated by signs for use of women.
W a t e r s u p p l y . —Satisfactory

K i t c h e n a n d o t h e r w a s t e s . — C o v e r e d m e t a l c o n t a in e r s fo r c o l l e c t i o n .
p o s a l b y in c i n e r a t io n , c e s s p o o l, b u r ia l, or a s f e e d fo r c h ic k e n s or h o g s .

R e g u la r d is ­

S t a b l e s . —At least 150 feet from other buildings.
Frequent removal of manures or
composting pits for their accumulation.
B a t h i n g . ~ Provision in or near sleeping quarters of a place where warm water baths
may be taken with reasonable frequence and privacy. Facilities for regular daily
washing to be ample and in convenient location for use. Soap and towels to be fur­
nished without charge.
F o o d s u p p l i e s . — S c r e e n e d s to r a g e p l a c e s .
o p e n i n s to r e s t o c o n t a m in a t io n .

R e f r ig e r a t io n fo r p e r is h a b le s .

L a u n d r y . —Some

N o goods

means of to be provided in every camp.
must be kept in such repair that they may be kept sanitary.
If built of wood, an under air circulation must be arranged. Roofs and sides must
be rainproof. Windows and doors to be provided with screening and with necessary
protection against intruders. No windows to be barred or fastened down in such a
way as to prevent opening. Springs or coils for self-closing to be supplied on screen
and other doors in all buildings.
No part partitions to be used in any new structures. Approximately 400 cubic
feet of sleeping space to be allowed each person.
Separate dining and kitchen quarters to be maintained at a distance of at least
100 feet from sleeping quarters, wherever practicable. If both occur under same
roof, means of communication between them to be kept carefully closed at all hours.
B u n t s . —Preferably steel.
No triple tiers except under unusually favorable con­
ditions. Two-foot aisles between and not nearer than 1 foot to floors. No exchanges
between men, and some number or tab system to prevent same.
H o u s i n g . —Floors


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B e d d i n g . — Must be sufficient in quantity and in proper sanitary condition.
Sub­
ject to destruction where found totally unfit for use. Where straw is used, it should
be changed weekly.
H o u s e k e e p i n g p r a c t i c e s . —Sweeping compounds should be used.
Bunks and bed­
ding and the cars or rooms in which they are kept should be thoroughly fumigated
each week. Except in extreme severity of weather, windows in sleeping quarters
and inside toilets should be kept open at both top and bottom at least four hours
daily. Roller towels should give place to paper or other individual ones. Cooks
and assistants should wear clean clothing while at work. Spittoons should be pro­
vided and kept cleanly.
S i c k n e s s . —Contagious disease should be at once reported to the proper authorities
and patients so afflicted segregated until other arrangement is made. No person
suffering from or convalescent from sickness to be allowed to handle foods.
C o m m i s s a r i e s a n d c o m p a n y s t o r e s . —Discontinuance of practice of sleeping among
supplies. Prices of all articles offered for sale to be plainly marked thereon. Item­
ized list of deductions to be rendered to workmen before statements of same are for­
warded to paymaster.
E m p l o y m e n t c o n t r a c t s . —Each laborer to receive written contract stating wage
terms, transportation and other charges, and employment agency fee.
C e n t r a l a u t h o r i t y . —The responsibility for hygienic conditions and the justice of
business practice in camps within the State shall be deemed to reside in those parties
for whom the work is being done. No subletting of boarding, rooming, or other
privilege shall alter this.

R U R A L P L A N N IN G A N D D E V E L O P M E N T IN CA N A D A .

The commission of conservation of Canada late in 1917 issued the
results of a study of rural conditions and problems in Canada by
Thomas Adams, town planning adviser to the commission.1 Social
conditions in rural districts, land settlement policies, problems of the
proper development and economic use of the land to secure the
highest efficiency in industrial processes, health, convenience, and
amenity are matters dealt with in the report. Consideration is also
given to such specific problems as that, for example, of the settle­
ment of returned soldiers and sailors upon the land. The study
views the problems of land as fundamental and as closely related to
the organization of labor and of the means of production.
Three reasons are pointed out for the prevalent uneconomic methods
of using land:
First, the numerous ills caused by the holding of large areas of the best and most
accessible land by speculators and the want of proper plans for the economic use
and development of the land.
Second, the compelling social attractions and the educational facilities of the
cities and town; and
Third, the lack of ready money and of adequate return for the labor of the farmer,
because of want of cooperation, rural credit, and of facilities for distribution of his
products. To secure any real improvement in rural life and conditions, we must try
1 Commission of conservation, Canada. Rural planning and development; a study of rural conditions
and problems in Canada, by Thomas Adams, town planning adviser, commission of conservation.
Ottawa, 1917. 281 pp.; illus.; plates; plans.


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to bring tracts of land held for speculative purposes into use, prepare development
schemes of the land in advance of settlement, try to take part, at least, of the social
and educational facilities of the cities into the rural areas, and simultaneously pro­
vide the cooperative financial and distributive conveniences that are necessary to
give the farmer a larger share of the profits of production.

There are two tendencies developing in Canada which favor the
practicability of the proposals suggested. First, there is the increase
in the relative number of towns and villages in the rural districts
where small manufacturing industries are springing up, and, second,
there is the tendency of large manufacturers to move from large
urban centers to rural and semirural districts. This process of indus­
trial decentralization indicates the practicability of artificially pro­
moting industrial village centers and rural industries. Unorganized,
the movement of decentralization has meant harm to production, as
it has been accompanied by the worst forms of speculation and bad
sanitary conditions. “ Properly organized, however, the movement
should help to increase production by bringing consumer and pro­
ducer nearer to each other, and if proper planning regulations were
made and enforced, unhealthy land speculation and improper sanitary
conditions in connection with these new developments would be
prevented.”
There has, however, been no proper planning of rural and urban
areas in Canada. The present rectangular system of survey is not a
method of planning land,' but only a basis on which to prepare
planning and development schemes. No stereotyped planning is
adequate and regard must be had to the physical and economic con­
ditions of the territory to which they apply, and all planning should
be made for the general purpose of securing conditions of health,
amenity, convenience, and economic use of the land. Such a system
of planning requires adequate surveys and classification of the land.
Equally as important as land planning is the planning of roads
and other transportation arteries.
Underlying the defects of methods such as the above are those
conditions which favor speculation in land. Instances are cited from
Canadian experience and that of other countries showing how specu­
lation has caused absentee landlordism, idleness of fertile and accessi­
ble areas, and inflated land values, all of which in the long run tend
to impair the value of real estate as" an investment. It has also im­
paired the producing value of the land, withholding it from profitable
agriculture, in the view of the report. Land speculation, too, has
intensified the factors producing high prices and unemployment.
I he report looks at the situation in a broad way and emphasizes
the fact that while the planning of land for its proper use and develop­
ment is important, to be effective in the accomplishment of results
other measures must accompany it, as for example, improved edu
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285

cational methods, cooperation in production and distribution, rural
credit system, and creation of rural industries. Altogether five prin­
cipal problems require attention: First, improvement in national,
provincial, and rural land policy and administration; second, making
of rural surveys, preparation of details, topographical maps, and
reports on rural conditions; third, proper system of planning land to
serve the highest interests of health, convenience, and economic use;
fourth, creation of agricultural and industrial settlements, free of
artificial pressure and on sound economic lines; fifth, formulation of
a policy of adjustment to conditions after the war, particularly in
relation to the problem of the returned soldier.
Some of the more significant paragraphs concerning the suggestion
to create agricultural and industrial settlements as a means to secur­
ing a greater comparative well-being may be quoted.
Agricultural and industrial settlements should be organized on carefully selected
sites, suitable for development on sound economic lines.
Purely agricultural settlements should only be developed on fertile and improved
land, having good transportation facilities and accessibility to markets.
New town settlements (garden cities) should be established where there are good
facilities for profitable production and distribution, where manufacturing and inten­
sive farming can be successfully carried on, and where advantage can be taken of the
tendency to remove industries from crowded centers to rural districts or to establish
new industries near water powers and raw materials.
Government capital or the guarantee of bonds should be made available for these
settlements and should be made repayable at a fixed annual rate to cover principal
and interest; the benefit of all profits derived in excess of that rate should be spent
on improving the settlements.
The increment of land values created by the conversion of cheap agricultural land
into a valuable town site gives to the garden city class of development a special finan­
cial stability which is not possessed by the agricultural settlement.
For the purposes of agricultural settlements, a county, or counties, in old territory
and a few townships in new territory should be taken and an attempt made to apply
the best kind of organization and scheme of development that can be devised for
each. The capital provided for such schemes should be ample in amount, but as
little as possible of it should be given in the nature of a subsidy. A properly conceived
scheme should pay its way.
The recommendation that industrial, or partly industrial and partly agricultural,
town settlements be established is apt to be regarded with suspicion by practical
men because of its novelty. That novelty has now worn off in England and garden
cities and suburbs are no longer looked upon as visionary schemes.
One of the main objects in carrying out the suggestion to create combined agri­
cultural and industrial settlements would be to provide opportunities for the employ­
ment of returned soldiers in varied kinds of productive enterprises in both rural and
urban areas.
These settlements would also be invaluable as a practical demonstration of town
building and land development. Social progress in England during the last 15 years
has been greatly influenced as a result of the one experiment in industrial develop­
ment and housing which has been carried on at Letchworth.
40648°—18----- 19

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Before initiating any comprehensive policy to establish new centers of population
it might, however, be more prudent to begin by developing one new manufacturing
and agricultural town, where systems of rural and urban land development could be
tried out, where opportunities for varied kinds of employment could be provided,
where the strength and weakness of different methods could be tested, and where
there could be evolved, by a process of practical experience, the soundest economic
principles on which development should be guided in the future.

H O U S IN G S H O R T A G E IN G E R M A N Y .

Two extensive inquiries on the housing question in Germany were
made during the past year, one by the imperial statistical office
(division for labor statistics),1 the other by the Central Welfare
Bureau,3 of Berlin. These two investigations show that there is
an actual shortage of housing accommodations in Germany and that
this shortage will probably be aggravated after the War.
The survey made by the imperial statistical office shows a con­
siderable decline in building activity, as brought out in the following
table:
BU IL D IN G ACTIVITY IN 45 CITIES IN GERMANY.
Number
of houses
built.

Year.

1912......................................................
1913......................................................
1914......................................................
1915......................................................
1916......................................................

9,507
7,581
6,286
2,589
1,009

Number of
apartments
in the houses.
64.107
47,817
34,475
13,646
5,015

These figures show that in 1916 only one-ninth as many houses
were built as in 1912 and only one-twelfth as many apartments.
Generally speaking, only in cities such as Essen, for example, where
the conditions created by the War necessitated immediate extension
of housing accommodations, has there been any considerable number
of new houses erected.
The report of the imperial statistical office is based on inquiries
made of 91 cities of over 50,000 inhabitants each. In 64 of these
cities the net increase in houses in 1916 is considerably less than in
1915. In the matter of small dwellings 33 cities sent in returns
suitable for comparison, and of these, 4 show an increase and 29 a
decrease in the number of such dwellings as compared with 1915.
The survey further reveals a considerable decrease in the number
of unoccupied dwellings resulting from increased pressure upon hous­
ing accommodations.
1 Reiehs-Arbeitsblatt. Supplement 14. Beiträge zur Wohnungsfrage während des Krieges. Berlin,
1917.
2 Concordia. Zeitschrift der Zentralstelle für Volkwohlfahrt. Berlin, 1917. VoL 24, Nos. 14, 15, 17, 18.


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MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

287

Of 34 cities sending in returns which can be compared with those
of former years, 7 show an increase in the number of unoccupied
dwellings, but 27, on the other hand, a decrease. According to these
statistics the highest percentages of unoccupied small dwellings are
shown by the following cities: Aix-la-Chapelle, 8.2; Altona, 6.8;
Barmen, 6.7; Berlin, 6.2; Hamburg, 6.1; Augsburg, 5.7; Frankfort on
the Main, 5.3; Crefeld, 4.6; Recklinhausen, 4.6; Buer, 4.5; Bonn, 4.3;
Düsseldorf, 4.3; Neukoln, 4.0. The lowest percentage of unoccupied
small dwellings was shown by much the same towns as had the
lowest percentages of unoccupied dwellings of all kinds, viz, Essen,
0.2; Erfurt, 0.2; Kiel, 0.3; Brandenburg, 0.3; Lübeck, 0.5; Königs­
berg, 0.6; Stettin, 0.7; Magdeburg, 1.0; Karlsruhe, 1.2; Muhlheim
on the Ruhr, 1.2; Ludwigshafen, 1.2; Linden, 1.4; Hildeshein, 1.4;
Halle, 1.5; and Bremen, 1.7.
The statistical office sums up the results of its inquiry in these
words: “ In contradistinction to the first two years of the War the
number of unoccupied dwellings has decreased in the great majority
of cities, so that 1916 has witnessed a complete and sudden change
in the development of the housing situation. While there is no
reason whatever to fear a general shortage of dwellings after the
War, the situation is nevertheless very unfavorable in an extraordi­
narily large number of communities, and the danger of a grave scarcity
of dwellings must not be underestimated.”
A census of unoccupied dwellings conducted in 1916 in Westphalia
by the Westphalian Small Dwellings Association tends to show that
in the case of four-room dwellings the danger of scarcity is the great­
est. The imperial statistical office comments on that inquiry as
follows: “ Though it is true that there is no danger of a general
scarcity of dwellings after the War, nevertheless, in a large number
of communities in Westphalia, the situation requires careful watching,
and in several communities there is great probability of a scarcity
of small dwellings after the War.”
These results are confirmed by the report of the Central Welfare
Bureau of Berlin, based upon replies from 809 cooperative building
societies. The percentage of building societies reporting that even
at the present time there is a scarcity of small dwellings is between
35 and 45 per cent, and it must be borne in mind that the figures
given by these societies are based on experiences in the larger cities.
Especially in cities of more than 100,000 inhabitants a scarcity of
small dwellings is reported to be existing. About 60 per cent of
the building societies anticipate a scarcity of small dwellings after
the War. Furthermore a large number of those societies which deny
the present existence of a scarcity of dwellings expect such a scarcity
after the War. Especially in towns of from 50,000 to 100,000 in­
habitants and over, a dearth of small dwellings is expected by over
90 per cent of the societies reporting.


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[1015]

INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENTS AND DISEASES
T R E N D O F A C C ID E N T R A T E S IN T H E IR O N A N D S T E E L IN D U S T R Y TO
E N D O F 1917.

In the M o n t h l y R e v i e w for November, 1917 (pp. 13-22), w e r e
published tables and comment showing the trend of accident frequency
in the iron and steel industry from 1913 into the period of w a r
activity in 1916 and 1917.
It is now possible to extend these tables to the end of 1917. They
are accordingly here presented. Complete tables and discussion will
appear in Bulletin 234, now in press.
T able 1 .—FR EQ U EN CY R A TES OF FA T A LITIES AND OF ALL ACCIDENTS IN THE IRON
AN D ST EEL IN D U ST R Y , DECEM BER, 1913, TO DECEM BER, 1917.
Fatal­
Total
Number ities per accidents
of 300-day 1,000 300- per 1,000
workers.1
day
300-day
workers. workers.

Year ending w ith—

December, 1913............................
March, 1914...................................
June, 1914......................................
September, 1914...........................
December, 1914............................
March, 1915...................................
June, 1915......................................
September, 1915...........................
December, 1915............................
March, 1916...................................
June, 1916......................................
September, 1916...........................
December, 1916............................
March, 1917...................................
June, 1917....................................
September, 1917...........................
December, 1917............................

153,098
146,522
137,816
128,023
117,214
111,881
111,794
117,933
133,627
148,221
160,819
168, 790
175,013
178,937
182,587
185,445
186,357

1.34
1.29
1.09
.81
.70
.63
.65
.85
.86
.96
1.09
1.02
1.11
1.15
1.08
1.11
.98

181.0
168.4
154.7
138.9
130.4
118.0
114.0
118.6
124.5
131.8
134.1
135.5
133.2
128.5
121.6
110.9
103.4

» A 300-day worker is the equivalent of one who works 10 hours per day for 300 days.
T able 3 .—FA T A L IT Y R A TES IN PLANTS PRODUCING SPEC IFIED PRODUCTS,
DECEM BER, 1913, TO DECEM BER, 1917. .
Fatality rates per 1,000 300-day workers in plants producing—
Year ending w ith—

December, 1913.................................................
March, 19i4........................................................
June, 1914...........................................................
September, 1914..............................................
December, 1914.................................................
March, 1915......................................................
June, 1915...........................................................
September, 1915................................................
December, 1915...........✓ ....................................
March, 1916......................................................
June, 1916....................................................
September, 1916................................................
December, 1916..................................................
March, 1917........................................................
June, 1917..........................................................
September, 1917................................................
December, 1917..................................................
288


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Fabri­
cated
products.

Sheets.

0.62
.64
.57
.49
.49
.56
.60
1.05
1.01
1.07
1 09
1.01
1.17
1.11
1.29
1.17
1.09
[ 1016 ]

0.70
.78
.59
.44
.20
.27
.38
.43
.48
.58
04
.60
.65
.60
.51
.61
.42

Wire
products.

Tubes.

Miscel­
Miscel­
laneous laneous
steel
steel
products, products,
group A. group B.

0.86
.61
.31
.24
.04
.09
.27
.47
.48
.71

0.58
.61
.50
.45
.43
.38
.57
.55
.53

1.84
1.86
1.77
1.30
1.21
.89
.67
.82
.88
1.11

.68
,83
.89
.76
.78
.64

.35
.33
.33
.40
.36
.41

1.45
1.63
1.63
1.44
1.57
1.35

1.50
1.48
1.22
.83
.87
.95
1.34
1.44
1.42
1.12
1.22
1.11
1.19
1.33
1.33
1.52
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MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

289

T able 3 .—T R EN D OF ACCIDENT FR EQ U EN CY R A TES DECEM BER, 1913, TO DECEM BER,
1917, IN PLANTS PRODUCING SPECIFIED PRODUCTS AND ON IN D U STR IA L
RAILW AYS.
Frequency rates per 1,000 300-day workers in plants producing—
Year ending with—

Fabri­
cated
products.

December, 1913...........
March, 1914.................
June, 1914.....................
September, 1914..........
December, 1914...........
March, 1915.................
June, 1915.....................
September, 1915.........
December, 1915...........
March, 1916.................
June, 1916....................
September, 1916.........
December, 1916...........
January, 1917..............
February, 1917............
March, 1917...............
April, 1917...................
May, 1917.....................
June, 1917.....................
J u ly ,1917.....................
August, 1917................
September, 1917..........
October, 1917...............
November, 1917.........
December, 1917...........

300.9
263.6
226.6
189.5
176.9
164.9
153.6
156.7
160.4
158.3
163.6
160.4
156.2
158.7
159.3
161.9
162.8
161.9
159.8
159.2
158.2
158.1
157.6
159.5
154.0

Sheet.

184.9
173.0
161.0
142.1
141.5
135.4
125.3
115.5
111.8
111.8
109.4
107.2
102.0
102.3
100.9
99.4
96.8
96.5
97.0
100.8
104.6
102.5
102.7
101.5
101.7

Wire.

Tubes.

177.9
159.4
152.9
143.9
138.6
131.0
132.9
149.8
157.2
159.9
156.5
149.2
144.5
141.4
139.1
136.6
135.1
132.6
127.7
123.0
118.6
111.5
108.1
101.7
97.5

81.5
67.4
57.2
45.0
37.5
30.7
26.1
30.0
32.3
34.9
36.7
36.7
37.1
36.1
36.2
35.6
34.8
34.6
34.6
33.2
32.2
31.7
31.2
30.8
30.5

Miscel­
Miscel­
laneous laneous Total for
steel
steel
specified Industrial
products, products, products. railways.
group A. group B.
212.8
205.8
188.3
167.1
152.0
130.4
128 1
140.3
155.8
179.3
188.2
200.1
202.7
201.5
199.6
196.4
193.9
190.9
186.7
180.5
173.7
167.4
162.6
158.8
154.0

123.1

181.0

116 7
100 0

168 4
154 7

88.1
82.7
81 3

138.9
130 4

6Q Q

118 0
114 0

61.3
69.0
75.9
81.0
86.2
84.6
82.1
79.7
78.5
77.4
76.0
73.4
70.6
67.5
65.4
63.1
61.9
61.4

118.6
124.5
131.8
134.1
135.5
133.2
131.7
130.1
128.5
126.7
124.7
121.6
118.2
115.0
110.9
108.6
105.9
103.4

106.4
117.5
131.5
145.9
153.9
155.7
157.5
157.1
156.2
157.8
157.3
153.7
153.7
150.5
147.0
146.6
146.9

N U M BER OF 300-DAY W ORKERS.
June,
June,
June,
June,

1914....................
1915....................
1916.....................
1917.....................

8,817
6', 706
8,276
10,110

16,841
IS] 759
21,906
25,504

22; 434
31,377
32,928

19,944
13; 329
21,031
24,880

41,744
35,670
45,673
49,893

18 922
13,477
23,000
27,046

137 816
UX, 794

160,819
182,587

1 12,240
1 16,690
117,740

1 December.

IN D U S T R IA L A C C ID E N T S IN M A S S A C H U S E T T S .

One outstanding feature of the Fourth Annual Report of the
Massachusetts Industrial Accident Board for the year ending June
30, 1916/ recently issued, is the large increase in the number of acci­
dents reported to the board during the year as compared with each
of the three preceding years that the compensation act has been in
force. During the fourth year the number of nonfatal injuries was
135,257—-an increase of 43 per cent over the third year and of 50.8
per cent over the first year of the act. The number of fatal accidents
reported was 463, or an increase of 25.1 per cent over the number
reported during the preceding year. In classifying these injuries the
board has changed the policy followed in previous years by adopting
the definition of tabulatable injuries recommended by the Inter1 Massachusetts. Industrial Accident Board. Fourth annual report, including statistical information
and tables on the experience for the year, a comparison of frequency and nature of injuries for four years,
and general information on different phases of the compensation act. July 1,1915, to June 30,1916, inclu­
sive. Public document No. 105. Boston, 1917. 272 pp. Illustrated.


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national Association of Industrial Accident Boards and Commissions,1
and the statistics in the current report are presented accordingly.
This definition is as follows:
All accidents, diseases, and injuries arising out of the employment and resulting
in death, permanent disability, or in the loss of time other than the remainder of
the day, shift, or turn on which the injury was incurred should be classified as “ tabulatable accidents, diseases, and injuries,” * * *

Under this definition, 67,717 nonfatal and 463 fatal accidents are
tabulated, the number of nonfatal accidents being an increase of 37.1
per cent over the number of tabulatable injuries during the preceding
year. Of the 67,717 nonfatal injury cases, 61,116 persons (90.3 per
cent) were employed by employers carrying compensation insurance,
and of the 463 fatal cases, 366 (79 per cent) were employed by em­
ployers carrying compensation insurance.
Taking up the fatal accidents, the following facts appear in the
report: The largest number, 30.7 per cent, occurred in road, street,
and bridge transportation, while classified by causes the largest
number, 18.6 per cent, was due to falls. In about 64 per cent of the
fatalities dependency was total within the meaning of the compensa­
tion act, while in 17.3 per cent there were no dependents. Most of
those who died, 279, or 60.3 per cent, were married, and the greatest
frequency was in the age groups 21 to 29 and 40 to 49 (22.5 per cent
and 22.9 per cent, respectively). Returns from insurance companies
transacting compensation business indicate that payments were made
in 340 fatal cases, the compensation paid and outstanding in such
cases being $885,040.48. The same returns indicate total medical
payments amounting to $834,804.52, but how much of this is charge­
able to fatal cases is not shown.
A somewhat different showing is made both as to industries affected
and causes in the case of tabulatable nonfatal injuries. Thus the
largest number of such injuries (19.2 per cent) occurred in the iron
and steel industry, and the cause of most of the injuries (29.1 per
cent) was hand labor. As to duration of total disability in these
cases, 49.3 per cent were incapacitated for 10 days or less and were
therefore not compensable. As to “ specified injuries” (injuries for
which compensation is payable in addition to that for disability),
928 (69.6 per cent) of the 1,334 so classified involved one finger. It
is estimated that these specified injuries entailed an additional benefit
cost per year of approximately $150,000. Tables giving the weekly
wages received by injured employees indicate that 61.7 per cent were
in the $8.01 to $15 wage group.
Reports from insurance companies as to benefits paid show that
of the nonfatal cases, 65,779 received medical services only, 3,887
received compensation only, 23,819 received both medical services
1 See M o n t h l y R e v i e w for October, 1917, p. 133,


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MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

291

and compensation, and that the total amount of medical payments
made and outstanding was $834,804.52, while thé compensation paid
and estimated as outstanding amounted to $3,252,146.97.
Of the 135,257 cases reported to the board, 2,029, or 1.5 per cent,
were occupational diseases, for which, in Massachusetts, compensa­
tion may be paid. Of this number, the duration of 1,351, or about
2 per cent, of the tabulatable injuries, was more than one day.
Twenty-six of these were fatal. In making comparison between the
time loss and the wage loss on account of occupational disease on the
one hand and nonfatal tabulatable injuries on the other, the report
says :
The total number of days lost in nonfatal tabulatable cases of occupational disease
is 31,333, an average of 23.3 days per case. The total amount of wages lost in these
cases was $70,154, an average of $51.93 per case. The total amount of wages lost in
all nonfatal tabulatable cases was $3,353,872, an average of $49.52 per case, and the
average duration was 27.07 days per case.

The following table shows the number of fatal and nonfatal cases
of diseases of occupation, together with the time loss and the wage
loss in nonfatal cases:
NUMBER OF PERSONAL INJURIES BY DISEASES OF OCCUPATION, SHOWING DAYS
LOST AND AMOUNT OF WAGES LOST IN NONFATAL CASES.

Occupational disease.

Num­
ber.

10
5
3

1
5
76
20
49

4
60
1,118
814
3,063

$9
72
2,138
i;645
7,645

383
77
74
7

7,734
2,402
622
164

21,018
5,054
1,420
411

84
4

4,194
162

9,764
'521

21
4
16
10
32
14
51
48
4
45
8
15
132
171

600
97
269
123
1,028
352
580
514
340
981
104
198
2,234
3,576

1,203
202
379
261
1,497
579
1,091
967
700
2,163
' 166
242
3,820
7,187

1,351

31,333

70,154

Harmful substances (causing constitutional disturbances)!
Dusts
Gases
and fumes
............ ......................................
Hides (anth1*ax)
___ ______. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Harmful conditions:
f'QTnpi’O-^Pul ft.if
............................................ ....................................
Extreme unir]
........................................... ......................
Extremehflftt - ....... ................. .............. .............. .
gyg strain
. __ T__ ___ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Strain, fatigue, cramp, faulty positions, "occupational neuroses,”
blows, vibration, pressure, etc., causing injuries to nerves, muscles and boTie*!
r................................................
Miscellaneous
.................................. .................................
Irritant fluids and substances (causing local afleetions):

4
2
2

f'eTTlUT)f
...................................................... .....................
Chrome
................................................ ................... .
....... ................ ................. .
Cyanide find platinp ^npitjon.^
n fd
Tim$
n|j
.........................................................................

Washing and. elnansdnu fluids
.................................................
I ocal irritation from constant vibration, blnws pressure etc,...........
Mj«¡pp.I]iynonus
............................... . .................................. .
Total

»

..... ......................... ........................

Nonfatal eases.

Num­
ber of
fatal
cases.

23

Days
lost.

Wages
lost.

The report does not indicate the compensation or other expenses
incurred by reason of these occupational diseases.

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MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

E F F E C T S O F D U S T IN H A L A T IO N U P O N W O R K E R S IN T H E M A N U F A C T U R E
O F SIL IC IA B R IC K S .

Under authorization of the chief inspector of factories of Great
Britain an investigation was made of the incidence of respiratory
diseases due to the inhalation of dust among workers employed in the
manufacture of silica bricks and other refractory materials used in
furnaces, with a view to ascertaining the desirability of extending to
ganister1 and silica brick works, under the Factory and Workshop Act,
1901, the regulations which have been applied to ganister mines to
lessen the dust production. It seems that when the “Regulations
for ganister mines” were made effective an interpretation of the word
“ mines” rendered the regulations inoperative so far as concerned any
works in connection with ganister mines at which the mineral is
treated and used in such manufacturing processes as the making of
silica bricks, or ganister bricks, ground ganister, silica paint, etc. The
investigation was completed during the summer of 1917, and on
August 14 a report was submitted to the chief inspector of factories.2
I t appears from a description of the processes in the manufacture of
silica bricks that the ganister or silica rock as received from the mine
or quarry consists of large blocks of stone which have to be reduced
to small fragments before the material can be molded into bricks.
This is accomplished by means of a stone-breaking machine, and in
the process from 1 to 3 per cent of lime in the form of powdered lime
or h}7drated solution of lime is added to the crushed ganister while it
is being ground, the resulting product, of the consistency of mortar,
being discharged on the floor of the brick-making shed, where it is
tempered to some extent with shovels and then molded by hand
into bricks. After the bricks are dried they are set in the kilns and
burned at a temperature rising to 3,000° F., or slightly over, for
several days.
In the crushing process, even though the stone is wetted, a large
quantity of dust is generated and the men employed in feeding the
machines are subjected to a serious dust hazard. But perhaps even
more serious is the hazard encountered by those men who are required
to break up with hammers the lumps of stone which arc too large to
enter the jaws of the crushers. This operation is productive of fine
smoke-like dust which is liable to be inhaled to some extent by the
hammer men even if the work is done in the open air. Much of the
1 Ganister or silica stone is a quartzite rock found in England beneath the lower coal measures and above
the millstone grit, in seams which seldom exceed 4 feet in thickness. It is used in the manufacture of highly
refractory bricks and linings required for steel and other furnaces, and its value as a refractory material is
due to its high percentage of silica and low content of the alkalies. Other substances similar in chemical
composition and refractory properties, e. g., firestono, silica rock, bastard ganister, quartz, chert, flinty and
silica sand are in some cases used in its stead.
2 Great Britain. Home Office. Report on the manufacture of silica bricks and other refractory materials
used in furnaces, with special reference to the effects of dust inhalation upon the workers. London, 1917,
16 pp.


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MONTHLY REVIEW OE THE BUREAU OE LABOR STATISTICS.

293

work, however, was found to be carried on in closed or partly open
sheds in the air of which the dust remains suspended. In some
plants the investigation disclosed that certain precautions had been
taken to minimize or prevent the dust hazard—the use of water spray
or steam jets, covered receptacles for the crushed rock, exhaust fans,
and dust collectors. A considerable amount of dust was also noted
in some works at sidings where the bricks are loaded into trucks
previous to dispatch from the works.
As showing the incidence of lung diseases due to silica dust inhala­
tion, the situation in the neighborhood of Kidwelly, South Wales,
where the only bricks made are silica bricks, is presented, revealing
the fact that during eight years, among an average of not exceeding
60 workers, there occurred 18 deaths from phthisis and 8 deaths from
other diseases of the lungs—a mortality from phthisis of 37.5 per
1,000 men, and from all other respiratory diseases, a mortality of 16.7
per 1,000, or a death rate from respiratory diseases alone of 54.2 per
1,000. The following table presents these figures in comparison with
similar data covering all males in England and Wales, and those
engaged in the manufacture of bricks, plain tile, and terra cotta,
indicating the relatively high risk assumed by those who make silica
bricks.
MORTALITY AMONG SILICA BRICK MAKERS IN THE KID W ELLY DISTRICT, SOUTH
WALES, AS COMPARED W ITH MORTALITY AMONG ALL MALES IN ENGLAND AND
WALES, AND THOSE ENGAGED IN MAKING BRICKS, PLAIN TILE, AND TERRA COTTA.
Death rate per 1,000 from—
Class.

All males (England and W ales).....................
Brick, plain tile, terra cotta makers...........
All persons (K idw elly)....................................
Silica brick makers (Kidwelly and district).

Age.

15 years and over
........do...................
All ages...............
A dults.................

Phthisis.

All other
respira­
tory
diseases.

2.1
1.0

2.8
2.1

1.3
37.5

0)
16.7

Period.

1900-1902
1900-1902
1909-1913
1905-1912

All
causes.

16.3
10.4
17.0
0)

1 Not reported.

Although the total number of deaths among silica brick makers upon which the
death rates are calculated is small, the death rate from lung diseases, especially from
phthisis, is sufficiently excessive to justify the conclusion that the occupation of
making silica bricks is attended with a serious mortality from respiratory diseases
among those employed, and that this mortality is far in excess of that suffered by males
in general, by the population among whom they live, and by makers of ordinary
bricks from plastic clay.

The report points out, however, that the influence of silica dust in
favoring tuberculosis infection is modified when the silica is mixed
with certain clays.
Canister or other stones containing a high percentage of free silica are mixed with
clay sufficient for binding purposes in the manufacture of certain refractory bricks and


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MONTHLY REVIEW OP THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

other articles; and stone is added in varying proportions to fireclay to increase its
refractory properties, or to modify or reduce the amount of shrinkage when subjected
to high temperatures. During this inquiry no history has been obtained, up to the
present, either from workers or occupiers that a high mortality from phthisis is
experienced by those employed in the manufacture of such articles containing clay
as an admixture.

Some suggestions are made to effect the prevention of dust inhala­
tion. Chutes to guide the stones into the crusher jaws and obviate
the necessity of having men at that point are mentioned; the use of
the water spray or steam jet playing into the jaws of the crusher has
already been referred to. Where this latter is not practicable the
provision of a powerful exhaust draught induced by a suitable fan
and properly constructed hood placed above the crusher jaws may be
employed. The installation of an exhaust ventilation plant, it is sug­
gested, must also include the provision of efficient dust-collection
appliances such as textile filters, cyclone collectors, water tanks, or
chambers fitted with water sprays. Where hand breaking of the
stone is carried on it is recommended that suitable respirators be
worn, but this expedient may be avoided “ by the installation of an
additional powerful stone-breaking machine, with jaws specially set
for dealing with large blocks.” The inhalation of the dust which is
present after the bricks have dried, and which is set in motion by the
removal of the bricks, may be largely prevented by careful wet
sweeping.
The recommendations and suggested code of regulations submitted
as a result of the investigation and which, owing to greatly increased
production of refractory goods, it is estimated will apply to approx­
imately 100 factories employing about 5,000 workers, are as follows:
We recommend that the manufacture of silica bricks and the crushing, grinding,
and sieving of silica should be certified as dangerous under section 79, Factory and
Workshop Act, 1901; and, further, that regulations should be made under section 79
to apply to all factories and workshops, or parts thereof, in which any of the following
processes are carried on: The manufacture of silica bricks; the crushing, grinding, and
sieving of silica.
S u g g e s t e d c o d e o f r e g u l a t i o n s .—In these regulations silica means material containing
not less than 80 per cent of silica (Si 0 2), and includes ganister, silica stone, bastard
ganister, firestone, quartz, quartzite, flint, chert, gritstone, and sandstone.
Silica brick means any brick composed of silica, bonded with lime, or any “ ganister
brick,3’ bonded with clay, and containing not less than 80 per cent of silica (Si 0 2).
1. No silica shall be broken in pieces by manual labor unless the process is carried
out in the open air.
2. No silica shall be crushed or ground in a stone-breaking machine or a grinding
machine unless such machine ( a ) is provided with an exhaust draught and efficient
dust-collecting appliances, so arranged as to prevent the escape of dust into the air of
any place in which work is carried on; or (6) is provided, and kept provided, with an
efficient water or steam spray or other arrangement to prevent the escape of dust into
the air; or (c) is so entirely inclosed as to prevent the escape of dust into the air.


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MONTHLY EEVIEW OE THE BUREAU OF LABOE STATISTICS.

295

3. All elevators, screens, and sieves used for manipulating silica shall be so entirely
inclosed as to prevent the escape of dust into the air, or be provided with an exhaust
draught so arranged as to prevent such escape of dust.
4. The floors of all places where silica bricks are dried shall, after each lot of bricks
has been removed, be carefully freed from all débris by a moist method. Provided,
always, that this regulation shall not apply to the floors of tunnel driers.
5. No drying stoves in which bricks are baked by fires before being placed in the
kilns shall be used after January 1, 1923, unless the chief inspector of factories shall
certify in writing that, in Ms opinion, the use of such stove involves no danger to the
health of the persons employed therein. Provided, always, that this regulation shall
not apply to tunnel driers.
6. The use of silica dust or powder for dusting the molds in brick making shall be
proMbited.
7. There shall be provided suitable respirators for the use of all persons employed
in (1) breaking silica into pieces by manual labor, unless wet brattice cloth is properly
used to prevent escape of dust in this process; (2) placing or removing bricks from
drying flats, and drying stoves, other than tunnel driers; and (3) setting or drawing
silica bricks in kilns; which respirators, when required for such use, shall be washed
or renewed at least once every day.
8. When placing or drawing silica bricks in kilns no person shall throw the bricks
to another.
9. No person shall work or cause or allow to be worked any stone-breaking machine
unless such machine complies with the requirements of regulation 2.
10. Every person for whose use a respirator is provided in pursuance of regulation 7
shall wear the respirator while employed in any process to which regulation 7 applies.

E Y E H A Z A R D S IN IN D U S T R IA L O C C U P A T IO N S .

The large number of eye injuries occurring each year to workmen
in industrial occupations is a source of much concern to employers
and to safety engineers, especially since most of the minor injuries
and many of the serious injuries, each due to an accident or to infec­
tion resulting in the loss of one or both eyes, are preventable. Al­
though definite and systematic efforts are being made in many plants
to educate employees in the use of safety appliances for the protec­
tion of the eyes, the fact remains that even in these plants some
workmen will not use the devices because of inconvenience unless the
requirement is mandatory, and where no safety rules are in force
workmen are either ignorant of the eye hazards existing in their
employment or do not fully appreciate the terrible risk they are
taking in working without properly protecting their most important
members. Owing to the lack of uniformity in reporting, it is not
possible to state with any degree of definiteness the actual num­
ber of eye injuries occurring in the course of a year in the indus­
tries of the United States. In many of the States such information
is available and published reports for the year ending June, 1917,
record 59,436 eye accidents, or approximately 8.3 per cent of


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MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE .BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

the 710,571 industrial accidents reported by these States.1 This
statement appears in connection with a tabulated digest of avail­
able statistics on eye accidents in United States industries pub­
lished in a pamphlet entitled “ Eye Hazards in Industrial Occupa­
tions,” issued in November, 1917, by the National Committee for
the Prevention of Blindness.2 The pamphlet is the outgrowth of a
survey made between August 8 and November 8, 1916, of represen­
tative industries in the city of Buffalo to ascertain the local working
conditions and the industrial accident hazards which might be pro­
ductive of eye injuries. Seventy plants employing 35,000 workers
and covering a wide range of operations were studied. The attitude
of employers and workmen alike toward the need for eye protection
in any process, or toward the use of the protective features, was
made the subject of special inquiry. Much of the report is taken up
with a description of the various operations hazardous to the eyes,
with recommendations for the installation of protective devices or
for such changes in working conditions, lighting arrangements, etc.,
as will prove effective in reducing or completely eliminating the pre­
ventable industrial accidents to eyes. The wearing of goggles is
almost uniformly recommended. It was found that the various haz­
ards to the eyesight of industrial workers are found chiefly in the
following industries and occupations: The manufacture of iron and
steel; machine operations; chipping; grinding and polishing; riveting;
welding and cutting; mining and quarrying; occupations in which
there is exposure to irritating and poisonous dustc, fumeq and gases;
the chemical industries and occupations involving the handling of
acids and chemicals; metallurgic operations where there is great
exposure to intense light and heat; glass making; sand blasting;
woodworking operations; the garment trades; and agricultural pur­
suits.
As to the incidence of eye accidents, the cases of blindness resulting therefrom, and
their economic significance, it would seem, from a review of available reports, that
the following statements, the absolute accuracy of which can not of course be deter­
mined, are probably approximately correct:
1. Of the 2,000,000 annual nonfatal accidents, probably 200,000 are accidents to the
eyes.
2. Approximately 15,000 persons in the United States are blind to-day as the result
of accidental injury in industrial occupations.
3. The maintenance of these blinded artisans during the remainder of their lives
will cost nearly $10,000,000, which expense will fall in large part on relatives, com­
munity, or State.
1 These figures are unquestionably low even for the States reporting, since in many of them thousands of
employers and employees are not covered by State acts and consequently no reports of accidents are filed.
2Eye Hazards in Industrial Occupations. A report of typical cases and conditions, with recommenda­
tions for safe practice. B y Gordon L. Berry, field secretary, National Committee for the Prevention of
Blindness, w ith the cooperation of Lieut. Thomas P. Bradshaw, U . S. Army, formerly technical assistant
to the director of the American Museum of Safety, 130 East Twenty-second Street, New York City, No­
vember, 1917. 145 pp. Illustrated.


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MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OE LABOR STATISTICS.

297

4.
The actual economic loss can not be estimated, and the loss to the unfortunate
person whose eyesight is destroyed is, least of all, a matter of dollars and cents.
From these statements is it not apparent that one of the most important industrial
problems of to-day is that of the protection of employees from accidents that will
destroy or greatly impair vision?

The lodgment of a foreign substance in the eye, too often considered
of little importance by workmen, may be a source of very serious eye
trouble and possible loss of the member. The report emphasizes the
danger from infection which may, and often does, result when the
workman neglects the condition or permits the removal of such for­
eign substance by a fellow workman instead of going at once to a
competent physician, or to a hospital. This practice is strongly
condemned. “ The potentialities of disaster which lie in this kind of
procedure should be sufficiently awful to put a stop to the effort if
workmen could but understand their significance.” The experience
of Ohio is quoted. In that State, of 74,525 industrial accidents for
which awards were made by the industrial commission in the year
ending June 30, 1915, infection was reported in connection with 7,072
or approximately 10 per cent,1 and of 71,400 cases of temporary
disability allowed there were 8,000 cases due to the presence of for­
eign bodies in the eyes, 519 (6.48 per cent) of these being attended
by infection.
The report contains a section on agricultural hazards, in which it
is noted that “ in all but the large manufacturing centers the majority
of serious eye accidents occur among agricultural laborers. Most of
them might have been avoided by care. Many of them have resulted
in infection and blindness because * * * days or weeks were
allowed to intervene between the time when the injury was sustained
and the date of calling in an oculist or physician.” A number of the
State reports are cited showing the incidence of agricultural injuries
in relation to all injuries.
A section on goggles indicates the very great probability of pre­
venting the loss of or injury to the eyes if their use can be obtained,
either voluntarily or by compulsion. It is stated that during the
year 1913, 2,499 employees of a certain railroad sustained eye inju­
ries, many of which were serious, and every one of which, according
to an official of the company, might have been prevented if goggles
had been worn. A table showing the experience of the American
Locomotive Co. (New York) for the years 1910 to 1915 offers an
interesting comparative study of the effect of the establishment of
the use of safety goggles, the years 1910 to 1913 covering the period
when the goggles were not used.
1 Infections following accidents in Ohio. Industrial commission. Department o f investigation a n d
statistics. Report No. 29. This report is noted in the M o n t h l y R eview for September, 1917, pp. 109, 110.


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MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

EXPERIENCE OF THE AMERICAN LOCOMOTIVE CO., SHOWING THE EFFECT OF THE
ESTABLISHMENT OF THE USE OF SAFETY GOGGLES, COVERING THE PERIOD 1910
TO 1915.1

Year.

1910................................................
1911................................... .. ..........
1912................................................
1913................................................
Average, 1910 to 1913.................
1914 3..............................................
1915 3..............................................

Number of
Average Number of Number of Number of
injuries
number of full-time
accidents
full-time
per 1,000
requiring Number of full-time
men per
men per
eyes
lost.
full-time
medical
men per
year per
year per
men per
attention.
year.
eye lost.
injury.
year.
518
293
491
490
448
86
52

13
7
13
9

10.5
1
2

*11,547
8,358
11,084
12.042
11,506
5,004
3,311

1,119

1,194
853
1,338
1,108
5,004
1,656

35.6
35.0
44.3
40.7
38.9
17.2
15.7

28.0
28.5
22.5
24.7
25.7
58.2
63.6

1 To obtain the statement for this year the actual figures for the first six months were multiplied by 2.
2 This figure is taken from the report. B ased upon the results obtained in the three following columns,
the number should be 14,547.
* Period during which the use of safety goggles wa3 general.

Considerable attention is given in tbe report to the matter of
adequate lighting in factories.


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ri028T

ARBITRATION AND CONCILIATION
C O N C IL IA T IO N

W ORK

OF TH E DEPAR TM EN T
15, T O M A R C H 15, 1918.

O F L A B O R , FE B R U A R Y

Under the organic act of the department, which gives the Secretary
of Labor the authority to mediate in labor disputes through the ap­
pointment, in his discretion, of commissioners of conciliation, the
Secretary exercised his good offices between February 15, 1918, and
March 15, 1918, in 91 labor disputes. The companies involved,
the number of employees affected, and the results secured, so far as
information is available, were as follows:
LABOR D ISPU T ES H A N D LED BY THE D EPARTM ENT OF LABOR, THROUGH ITS COM­
MISSIONERS OF CONCILIATION, F E B R U A R Y 15 TO MARCH 15, 1918.
Workmen affected.
Name.

R esult.
Directly.

Strike, Graniteville Manufacturing Co., Graniteville, S. C.
Controversy, Employers’ Association and pattern makers,
Pittsburgh, Pa.
Strike, coal miners, Pittsburgh district, Kansas.................
Threatened strike, machinists and helpers, Wellman,
Seaver & Morgan Co., Akron, Ohio.
Threatened strike, machinists, Stewart Manufacturing
Co., Chicago.
Strike, laundry workers, Kansas City, Mo...........................
Lockout; machinists and tool makers, General Electric Co.
(experimental department), Pittsfield, Mass.
Controversy, Erie Boiler Works and boiler makers, Buf­
falo, N. Y.
Controversy,railway clerks and station employees, OregonWashington Railroad & Navigation System.
Strike, molders, Boston, Mass...................................................
Strike, Southwestern Broom Co7 Wichita, Kans.................
Strike, American Smelting & Refining Co. (Hayden smelt­
er), Hayden, Ariz.
Strike, Geo. Hendell & Sons, Shillington, P a .......................
Strike, Detroit Sulphite, Pulp & Paper Co., Detroit, M ich..
Controversy, Tacoma Smelting Co., Tacoma, Wash...........
Strike, Wright Shipyards, Tacoiha, W ash...........................
Threatened strike, longshoremen, dock of Northern Pa­
cific R . R. Co7 Tacoma, Wash.
Controversy, Wireless Specialty Co. and metal polishers,
Boston, Mass.
Threatened strike, street railway employees, Boston Ele­
vated R. R ., Boston, Mass.
Controversy, Goodrich Rubber Co., Akron, Ohio...............
Strike, National Zinc Co., Kansas City, Kans.......................
Controversy, machinists, Liberty Ordnance Co., Bridge­
port, Conn.
Controversy, Superior Ship Building Co., Superior, W is..
Strike, retail clerks, St. Louis, Mo............................................
Threatened strike, Fulton Machine Co. machinists, Knox­
ville Tenn.
Strike, carpenters, 49 shipyards and allied essential in­
dustries engaged in war shipbuilding program, New
York.
Strike, stove mounters, Detroit, Mich., at Michigan Stove
Co., Art Stove Co., Peninsular Stove Co., and Detroit
Stove Works.
Controversy, Kroeschell Bros. Ice Machine Co. and ma­
chinists, Chicago, HI.
Controversy, Franklin, Pa., at—
French Creek Foundry C o ................................................
Franklin Foundry Co...........................................................
Venango Manufacturing Co................................................


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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

[1027]

Indirectly.
200

850
450

12,000

450

150

75

500

2,500

6,000

60

Adjusted.
Do.

Do.
Do.
Do.
Pending.
Adjusted.
Pending.

750

15,000

1,200

1,600

200

550

35
300
80

1,000

150

100

Referred to Director
General of Rail­
roads.
Adjusted.
Pending.
Adjusted.
Do.
Pending.
Adjusted.
Do.
Do.
Pending.
Adjusted.

100
306
350

30

800
9

425

3,009

Do.
Do.
Do.
Do.
Pending.
Do.
Adjusted.
Pending.

120

1,900

28

65

Do.

20
35
15

60
80
55

Do.
Do.
Do.

299

300

MONTHLY EEYIEW OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

LABOR D ISPU T ES H A N D L E D B Y TH E D EPA R TM E N T OF LABOR, THROUGH ITS COM­
M ISSIONERS OF CONCILIATION, F E B R U A R Y 15 TO MARCH 15, 1918—Continued.
Workmen affected.
Name.

Result.
Directly.

Strike, automobile mechanics, Packard Motor Car Co.,
Philadelphia.
Strike, boiler makers, Birmingham & Southern R. R. Co.
Lockout, flint glass workers, Empire Cut Glass Co., Flemington, N. J.
Controversy, Mississippi River and Bonne Terre R. R.
and maintenance of way employees, Bonne Terre; Mo.
Controversy, Southern Pacific R. R . Co. and machinists,
Los Angeles, Cal.
Controversy, machinists, Worcester, Mass...........................
Controversy, Willys-Overland Co. and machinists, Elyria,
, Ohio.
Controversy, Vari Lace Co., New York................................
Strike, Gurlow Steel Co., Philadelphia, Pa..........................
Strike, freight handlers on piers of Central Vermont R . R .,
New London, Conn.
Controversy, Lowell Cotton Mills and machinists, Lowell,
• Mass.
Controversy, Saco-Lowell Co. and employees, Lowell,
Mass.
Threatened strike, carpenters employed by contractor in
erection of hotel, Jerome, Ariz.
Strike, Mount Vernon-Woodbury Cotton Duck Mills,
Baltimore, Md.
Controversy, Elgin, Joliet & Eastern R. R. Co., Gary,Ind.
Threatened strike, packers, St. Louis, East St. Louis, and
Alton, 111.
Controversy, H. P. Snyder Mfg. Co., Little Falls, N . Y . . .
Controversy, Imperial Electric Co. and machinists, Akron,
Ohio.
Lockout, Telephone Co., Denver, Colo...................................
Controversy, Lorain Boiler Works, Lorain, Ohio................
Controversy, Shoreham, Willard, Powhatan, Lafayette,
Arlington, Raleigh, Continental, Bellevue, and 'Occi­
dental hotels, Losekam and Bartholdi cafes, and Wash­
ington Waiters’ Union No. 781, Washington, D. C.
Threatened strike, railway clerks, Baltimore Division,
Pennsylvania R . R . Co.,'Baltimore, Md.
Strike, machinists and pipe fitters, Hercules Powder Co.,
San Diego, Cal.
Controversy, telephone operators, Massachusetts...............
Threatened strike, Imperial Electric Co., Akron, Ohio___
Controversy, Louisville & Nashville R . R. Co., Jackson,
Ky.

Controversy, Los Angeles & Salt Lake R. R . Co., Los
Angeles, Cal.
Controversy, Lehigh Valley R. R. Co., Manchester, N. Y .
Strike, machinists and helpers, Hog Island..........................
Strike, Wagner Electric Co., St. Louis, Mo...........................
Controversy, metal trades, Great Falls, Mont......................
Lockout, Stone & Webster Co. and electrical workers, El
Paso, Tex.
Strike, Madison Woolen Co., Madison, Me............................
Controversy, United Big Vein Coal Co. and Sullivan Bros.
Fuel Co., Cumberland, Md.
Controversy, Huntington Lumber & Supply Co., Hunt­
ington, W. Va.
Controversy, American Graphophone Co. and machinists
and toolmakers, Bridgeport, Conn.
Controversy, Remington Arms Co., Bridgeport, Conn.......
Walkout, Pullman Palace Car Co., Wilmington, D el.........
Controversy, Western Union telegraphers, Jacksonville,
Fla.
Strike, silk mill workers, Allegany County, Md...................
Controversy, Kinlock Telephone Co., St. Louis, Mo...........
Controversy, Utah Copper Co.. Sait Lake, U ta h .................
Controversy, Keystone Steel & Wire Co., South Bartonville, 111.


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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

[102S]

Indirectly
Adjusted.
Pending.
Do

5,000
40

Do.
175

1,200

Matter referred to
Director General of
Railroads.
Pending.
Adjusted.
Do.
Pending.
Adjusted.
Pending.

1,900

Adjusted.

10

Do.

1,800

2,000

290

800

Referred to Director
General of Rail­
roads.
Pending.

400

Adjusted.
Do.

Do.

Pending.
Do.
9 adjusted, 2 pend­
ing.

350

2

200

62

950

Adjusted.
Pending.
Adjusted.
Do.
Matter investigated
for Division of La­
bor, United States
Railroad Adminis­
tration, and report
submitted.
Pending.

6

Adjusted.
Do.
Pending.
Do.
Adjusted.

50
2,000

Pending.
Do.
Do.
3,900

Adjusted.
Pending.
Adjusted.
Pending.

Do.
Do.
Do.

Do.

MONTHLY REVIEW OE THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

301

LABOR D ISPU T ES H A N D LE D B Y THE D E PA R TM EN T OF LABOR, THROUGH ITS COM­
MISSIONERS OF CONCILIATION, FE B R U A R Y 15 TO MARCH 15, 1918—Concluded.

Workmen affected.
Result.

Name.
Directly.
Strike, sheet-metal workers, The Clothel Co., Bayonne,
N . J.
Locknut TCpnnpcott Copper Co., Alaska................................
Controversy, Copper River & Northwestern R. R . Co. and
train and engine men, blacksmiths, boiler makers, ma­
chinists, carpenters, and yardmen, Cordova, Ala.
Cfmtrnvp.rsv mnehinist.s, Perth Amboy, N . J ......................
Lookout street railway employees. Waco, T ex....................
Strike firemen cotton mills, Fall River, Mass__. _______
Controversy, street railway employees, Des Moines, Iowa.
Reckont Ross Gear & Tool Co., Lafayette, Ind..................
Controversy, The Willys-Overland Co., Toledo, Ohio........
Threatened strike, blacksmiths and helpers, American Car
and Foundry Co., Wilmington, Del.
Controversy, Toledo Machine and Tool Co. and machin­
ists, Toledo, Ohio.
Controversy, Quaker Oats Co., Cedar Rapids, Iowa...........
Strike, tobacco workers, Liggett & Myers Co., St. Louis, Mo
Controversy, Bell Telephone Co., -CoffcyviUo, Kans...........
Strike, flour and grain handlers, Seattle, W ash....................
Controversy, Standard Gauge & Steel Co., Beaver Falls,Pa.
Strike, drug clerks, Denver, Colo.............................................

104

Indirectly.
67

Pending.
Do.
Do.
Do.
Do.
Adjusted.
Pending.
Do.
Do.
Do.
Do.

500

2,000

Do.
Do.
Do.
Do.
Do.
Do.

The following cases noted in the February 14 statement have been disposed of:
Controversy, plumbers and steam fitters, Camp Pike, Ark. Adjusted.
Controversy, Charles Kronauer & Co., Harness & Saddlery Works, Chicago, 111. Unable to adjust.
Controversy, Schlueter Mfg. Co. and sheet-metal workers, St. Louis, Mo. Adjusted.
Controversy, Southern R y. Co. and clerks (entire system). Matter referred to Director General of Rail­
roads.
Controversy, Remington Arms Co. and metal polishers, Eddystone, Pa. Adjusted.
Controversy, Sturtevant Co. and metal polishers, Boston, Mass. Company is considering moving two dr
three pattern makers for repair work into some other department, on account of high cost of operating
pattern shop; others advised to look for work elsewhere; company agreed to reemploy when business
increases.
In connection with strike of machinists, Tennessee Coal, Iron & R . R . Co., Ensley, Ala., Commissioner
Fairley reports strikes at the following plants:
U. 8. Cast Iron & Pipe Co., Bessemer, Ala. Pending.
Hardie, Tynes Co., Birmingham, Ala. Pending.
Kehn Foundry Co., Birmingham, Ala. Pending.
Montgomery Coal Washer Co., Birmingham, Ala. Pending.
American Casting Co., Birmingham, Ala. Pending.
Sloss-Sheffield Steel & Iron Co., Birmingham, Ala. Pending.
Central Foundry Co., Birmingham, Ala. Pending.
Southern Wheel Works, Birmingham, Ala. Pending.
Stoekham Pipe & Fittings Co., Birmingham, Ala. Pending.
Bessemer Machine Co., Bessemer, Ala. Pending.
North Birmingham Furnace Co., North Birmingham, Ala. Pending.
Demmick Foundry & Pipe Works, Birmingham, Ala. Adjusted.
Ajax Metal Co., Birmingham, Ala. Adjusted.
Controversy, Chicago & Eastern Illinois R. R . Co. and maintenance of way employees. Referred to Direc­
tor General of Railroads.
Strike, Canton Stamping & Enameling Co., Canton, Ohio. Unable to adjust.
Controversy, Jacksonville Terminal Co., Jacksonville, Fla. Referred to Director General of Railroads.
Controversy, Woodward & Tiernan Printing Co. and bookbinders, St. Louis, Mo. Adjusted.
Strike, electrical workers. Continental Can Co., Chicago, 111. Adjusted.
Controversy, Nickel Plate R. R. and freight handlers and transfer men, Cleveland, Ohio. Referred to
Director General of Railroads.
Controversy, Savage Arms Co., Utica, N . Y. Adjusted.
Controversy, Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe R . R . Co. and clerks, Chicago, Hi. Referred to Director Gen­
eral of Railroads.
Controversy, Western Gas Co., Fort Wayne, Ind. Adjusted.
Controversy, Missouri, Kansas & Texas R . R. Co. and clerks, Fort Worth, Tex. Adjusted.
Controversy, butchers, Denver, Colo. Adjusted.
Strike, Urant Smith Shipyards, Portland, Oreg. Referred to United States Shipping Board.

40648°—18----- 20


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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

[ 1029]

STRIKES AND LOCKOUTS.
S T R E E T CAR L A B O R D IS P U T E AT M IN N E A P O L IS A N D S T . P A U L .1

“ Because of the Federal interests which may become involved”
the Council of National Defense requested the President’s mediation
commission to make an informal investigation of the street car
strike in Minneapolis and St. Paul and the threatened sympathetic
strike which, if called, would affect a number of war industries.
The report of the commission was submitted to the chairman of the
Council of National Defense under date of February 14, 1918.
The facts developed by the commission indicate that while the
company conceded the right of the men to organize, it had, between
September 22 and October 4, 1917, discharged 57 of its employees
for the reason, as alleged by the union, that these men were active
in union affairs. The company denied that this reason was the
controlling one. The union called a strike effective October 6
which, however, was terminated on October 9 by the action of the
Minnesota State Public Service Commission, a statutory body with
broad powers. The union then attempted to extend its organiza­
tion, and to combat this the company proceeded to build up its
employees’ mutual benefit society, with the result that both sides
began to wear buttons designating the respective organizations to
which they belonged. A subcommittee of the State public service
commission, upon investigation, found that some irritation was
being caused by this practice and recommended on November 19
that the buttons be laid aside. Most of the union men, however,
refused to do this, and on November 25 the company posted notices
that any employees continuing to wear buttons would not be retained
in its service. Several hundred of the men thereupon considered
themselves locked out by the company, which, however, the com­
pany denied. On November 27 the State public service commis­
sion’s recommendation of November 19 that all buttons be laid aside
was given the force of an order binding both upon the company and
its employees.
A general sympathetic strike of all the trade-union men in Minne­
apolis and St. Paul was ordered for December 13, 1917, an order
which would affect a number of war industries and possibly also
interfere with interstate railroad transportation. The sympathetic
strike order Was withdrawn on December 19 at the request of the
President’s mediation commission. In January the company drew
into its employ 28 men from the country districts, while several
hundred of its former employees were idle, and the attention of the
1Data taken from Official Bulletin for Feb. 19, 1918.
302

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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

[1030]

M O N T H L Y R E V IE W O F T H E B U R E A U OF LABOR S T A T IS T IC S .

303

company was directed to the fact that such action was opposed to
the Government’s war needs which require that men employed in
war industries and in the farming districts be not removed to nonwar
industries.
After consideration of all these facts developed by the inquiry
the President’s mediation commission made the following recom­
mendations for the protection of the national interests involved:
(1) While competent former employees are available, the company should not
engage men who are at the time employed or can be used in farming pursuits or Avar
industries.
(2) The Nation’s requirement of full use of its man power makes it necessary that
industries employ men out of work who are as competent as men at the time employed
in other lines of work. The Twin City Rapid Transit Co. should in consequence
not engage men at work in other industries while idle men, at least as competent, are
available in the Twin Cities.
(3) The company should prefer for employment men skilled in the particular
line of work over others who have not already had the training or experience for
the performance of such work. The company has in the past acted upon this policy
because beneficial to it in another aspect, as it has realized that the breaking in of
new men is a financial burden which should be avoided. During the October strike
the company abstained from employing strike breakers.
Specifically, the company should give preference of employment to its former
employees who are now available for employment and who ceased to be in the com­
pany’s employ in consequence of the labor disputes of the last several months. These
men should be reemployed in preference to any others, and the company should not
seek to obtain any new employees, either by advertising or otherwise, or engage
any other men while its former employees, who are competent, can be secured for
the service of the company.
(4) The company has previously announced that it did not intend to discriminate
against men because of their affiliations with trade-unions. It understood that the
State commission’s order proAdded for the men’s going back to work on this basis.
The governor of the State, as chairman of the State commission, has publicly stated
“ that there should be no discrimination against union men.” In accordance with
the company’s announcement, Avith its understanding of the policy of the State com­
mission, and with the principle stated by its chairman, the company, in returning
to work the men who deemed themselves locked out by the company’s order, should
not discriminate against any of these because of their membership in trade-unions.
(5) The company should, in reemploying these men, follow the principle adopted
by the State public safety commission on the previous occasion when a considerable
body of men, deeming themselves aggrieved, ceased to work for the company. In
the words of the company’s representative, “ the safety commission said ‘these men
go back to work with their old standings.’ ”
The men now out, when put back to work, should be reinstated as to wages, and
their status in all respects should be the same as if they had not ceased to be employed
by the company.
(6) The employees of the Twin City Rapid Transit Co., who are still without
work, should offer themselves for reinstatement by the company as vacancies occur.


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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

P r e s id e n t ’s M ed ia tio n C o m m issio n .
W. B . W il s o n , C h a irm a n .
J. L . Sp a n g l e r .
E. P. M a r sh .
M ax L o w en th a l , A s s is ta n t S e c re ta ry .

[1031]

304

M O N T H L Y R E V IE W O P T H E B U R E A U O F LABOR S T A T IS T IC S .

On March 4 the acting chairman of the Council of National Defense
sent the following telegram to the chairman of the Minnesota State
Public Service Commission:
Because of the Federal interests involved, the Council of National Defense requested
the President’s mediation commission to make an informal investigation of the street
car strike in the Twin Cities and the threatened sympathetic strike connected w it h
it. The commission reported to the Council under date of February 14 with a num­
ber of recommendations. The Council of National Defense is strongly convinced
t h a t the policy outlined in the recommendations is essential to the promotion of na­
t io n a l defense.

At the time this issue of the R eview goes to press no adjustment
has been reached. Two members of the mediation commission are
in St. Paul endeavoring to effect a settlement.

SETTLEMENT OF LABOR DISPUTES IN THE FRENCH MERCHANT
M ARINE.1

The Minister of Commerce and Industry, Posts and Telegraphs,
and Merchant Marine issued a decree on December 22, 1917, provid­
ing for an early settlement of all collective disputes relative to wages
or conditions of labor arising in the merchant marine. The general
provisions are summarized as follows:
As soon as the port warden receives information that a collective
dispute exists, involving at least 20 regular seamen, deck-hands,
engineers, firemen, etc., he shall immediatelv invite all interested
parties to meet at his office in an attempt at conciliation. This
meeting shall not be held within 24 hours after issuing the call, but
shall be held within three days. Should either party, employer or
employees, fail to respond to the call, the port warden shall prepare
a report, addressed to the under-secretary of maritime transporta­
tion, setting forth the attempt at conciliation and its failure.
Should both parties respond to the call, the port warden shall
endeavor to conciliate the differences, and if an agreement is reached,
shall prepare a report containing the terms of agreement, which shall
be signed by him and the interested parties or their delegates. If
no agreement is possible the under-secretary shall be so informed,
and he shall immediately refer the question at issue to a superior
committee of arbitration, composed of the under-secretary as presi­
dent, and 5 employers, selected by the national association of em­
ployers, 5 representatives of the seamen, designated by the national
federation of seamen, and 2 other persons, 1 chosen by the 5 repre­
sentatives of each of these bodies from magistrates or former mag­
istrates of the judiciary or administrative class who are residents
1Journal Officiel de la République Française, Dec. 2 i , 1917, p. 10557-


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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

[1032]

M O N T H L Y R E V IE W O F T H E B U R E A U O F LA B O R S T A T IS T IC S .

305

of Paris, or from professors in the law faculty of the University of
Paris. In case a selection is not made by either of the representa­
tive bodies named, the under-secretary shall make such selection.
Not less than 6 arbitrators, 3 representatives from each of the
bodies named, together with the 2 other designated members, shall
constitute a qualified body. In all cases the parity of representation
shall be observed. In case of unequal representation the persons
who shall sit upon the board shall be determined by lot. The chief
of the under-secretary’s office shall act as general secretary to the
board.
The board shall have its office at Paris, but it may visit any port
where a dispute exists, or delegate some of its members to collect
data and complete its investigations. In any number so delegated
parity of representation shall be maintained. All decisions must be
rendered at the office of the board in Paris. In case a decision is
not reached by a majority of votes, the undersecretary shall decide,
mention being made thereof in the records. The decisions of the
boards are to be published by means of posters placed at the entrances
to the offices of the port warden, and are to be filed with official acts
relating to the merchant marine. The decree designedly provides
no penalties for noncompliance with decisions rendered.


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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

IMMIGRATION.
IMMIGRATION IN DECEMBER, 1917.

The number of immigrant aliens admitted to the United States
during the year 1916 was 355,767, as compared with 258,678 for
the year 1915, an increase of 97,089, or 37.5 per cent. There was
also an increase from month to month during 7 of the 12 months
in 1916. During 1917 the figures for the first three months show
a considerable decrease from month to month. The decrease from
the preceding month for January, February, and March, 1917, is
19.9, 22.3, and 19.4 per cent, respectively. For April, however, the
number of immigrant aliens admitted shows an increase of 32.3 per
cent over the number admitted in March. As compared with April,
the figures of May show a decrease of 48.9 per cent. The figures for
June indicate an increase of 5.5 per cent over those for May. During
July only 9,367 immigrant aliens were admitted. As compared with
the figures for July, those for August show an increase of 7.3 per cent.
In September the number fell to 9,228, or 139 smaller than the number
admitted in July. As compared with August the figures for Sep­
tember show a decrease of 8.2 per cent. In October there was an
increase over the September arrivals of 57, or 0.6 per cent. The
admissions in November numbered only 6,446, a decrease of 30.6 per
cent from the number admitted in October. In December there was
an increase of 8.4 per cent. These facts are brought out in the
following table:
IMMIGRANT ALIENS ADMITTED INTO THE UNITED STATES IN SPECIFIED MONTHS,
1913 TO 1917.
1917

Month.

1913

1914

1915

191«
Number.

January.........................................
February......................... .............
March........................................
April..............................................
M ay................................................
June...............................................
Ju ly ...............................................
A ugust..........................................
September....................................
October.........................................
November....................................
December.....................................

46,441
59,156
96,958
136,371
137,262
176,261
138,244
126,180
136,247
134,440
104,671
95,387

44,708
46,873
92,621
119,885
107,796
71,728
60,377
37,706
29,143
30,416
26,298
20,944
1 Decrease.

308

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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

[1034]

15,481
13,873
19,263
24', 532
26,069
22,598
21,504
21,949
24,513
25,450
24,545
18,901

17,293
24,740
27,586
30,560
31,021
30,764
25,035
29,975
36,398
37,056
34,437
30,902

24,745
19,238
15,512
20,523
10,487
11,095
9,367
10,047
9,228
9,285
6,446
6,987

Per cent
increase
over
preceding
month.
U 9.9
122.3
U 9.4
32.3
148.9
5.5
115.6
7.3
18.2
.6
130.6
8.4

MONTHLY R E V IE W OF T H E B U R E A U OF LABOR S T A T IS T IC S .

307

Classified by races, the number of immigrant aliens admitted
into and emigrant aliens departing from the United States during
December, 1916 and 1917, was as follows:
IMMIGRANT ALIENS ADMITTED INTO AND EMIGRANT ALIENS DEPARTED FROM

THE UNITED STATES, DECEMBER, 1916 AND 1917.
Admitted.
Race.

Departed.

December, December, December, December,
1916.
1917.
1916.
1917.
294
27
4
17
180
1
25

105
17
18
29
277
2
263

142
3
819
273
446
178
111
318
291
91
586
641
7
15

76
12
596
119
196
66
153
14
152
549
1,493
68
2
1
3
35
9
105
12
291
2
736
183

African (black).......................................... ..............................
Armenian...................................................................................
Bohemian and Moravian........................................................
Bulgarian, Serbian, Montenegrin.........................................
Chinese.. . ............. ................. 7...............................................
Croatian and Slovenian..........................................................
Cuban..........................................................................................
Dalmatian, Bosnian, Herzegovinian...................................
Dutch and Flem ish.................................................................
East Indian...............................................................................
E nglish.......................................................................................
Finnish.......................................................................................
French.........................................................................................
German.......................................................................................
Greek...........................................................................................
Hebrew.......................................................................................
Irish.............................................................................................
Italian (north)..........................................................................
Italian (south)..........................................................................
Japanese.....................................................................................
Korean........................................................................................
Lithuanian................................................................................
Magyar.......................................................................................
Mexican......................................................................................
Polish..........................................................................................
Portuguese.................................................................................
Roumanian...............................................................................
Russian.............................................. .......................................
Ruthenian (R ussniak)............................................................
Scandinavian............................................................................
Scotch.........................................................................................
Slovak.........................................................................................
Spanish.......................................................................................
Spanish-American...................................................................
Syrian.........................................................................................
Turkish.......................................................................................
W elsh..........................................................................................
W est Indian (except Cuban)............................................
Other p eop les ___ .* ................................. .............................................
Not specified ........................ ..

415
130
45
82
181
25
107
29
454
3
3,224
646
2,459
1,087
3,028
2,276
1,653
392
5,024
693
27
68
49
1,276
' 437
1,513
41
489
97
1,814
1)481
28
840
187
59
59
97

321

17

24

T o ta l ................... ............................................................................

30,902

6,987

7,005


https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

[10351

66

28
68
300
28
122
10
898
306
3
546
112
15
i
21

43

457
52
17
1
5
80

149
10
145
196
142
3
73
23
1,115
37
292
43
35
28
255
98
541
112
6
2
31
73
297
47
14
250
859
287
120
132
61
12
3
18
53
35

785
5 ,6 0 2

PUBLICATIONS RELATING TO LABOR.
O FFIC IA L— U N IT E D S T A T E S .

C a l if o r n ia .— I n d u s tr ia l A c c id e n t C o m m is sio n .
E ffe c tiv e J a n u a r y 1 5 , 1918.

G en era l C o n s tru c tio n S a fe ty O rders.
S a c ra m e n to , 1917. 32 p p .

These orders are intended to apply to the construction, alteration, repairing, reno­
vating, removal, or wrecking of buildings or other structures within the State.
-------- S o c ia l In s u ra n c e C o m m is sio n .

ra m e n to , 191 7 .

C a lifo rn ia ''s n eed o f so c ia l health in su ra n c e .

S ac­

16 p p .

The purpose of this pamphlet is to call the attention of California voters to the fact
that in November, 1918, they will be called upon to decide whether or not the State
shall have a social insurance system, and its pages are devoted to a summary of the
facts and statistics gathered by the commission in its investigation of social and indus­
trial conditions in California which convinced that body of the need of compulsory
health insurance for the benefit of the wage earners of the State.
S ta te C o u n c il o f D efen se. R e p o r t o f the C o m m itte e o n P e tr o le u m .
J u ly 7, 19 1 7 . 191 p p . N u m e r o u s charts a n d d ia g ra m s.

——

S a c ra m e n to ,

Discusses the world’s petroleum situation, laying special emphasis upon the pro­
duction and consumption of California oil, and concluding with recommendations as
to increasing the production, decreasing the consumption, the supply of labor employed
in the industry, and transportation—all intended to effect conservation of the supply.
M a r y l a n d .— A n n u a l re p o rt o f the m in e in sp e c to r f r o m M a y 1, 1915, to M a y 1, 1917, to
the H o n . E m e r so n C . H a r r in g to n , G o vern o r o f M a ry la n d .
I llu s tr a te d .

B a ltim o r e [1917].

HO p p .

M a s s a c h u s e t t s .— H o m e ste a d C o m m is sio n .

T he L o w e ll h o m estea d p r o je c t; d e s c rip tio n ,
e x p la n a tio n , a n d lis t o f q u e stio n s . 16 p p . B u lle tin N o . 7 , re v ise d D ecem ber, 1917.
I llu s tr a te d . P la n s . [B o sto n ], 1917.

This describes what is the first State-aided housing project in the United States.
The commission has begun the construction of about 20 houses with the funds at
present availaDle. A garden space will be provided with each house and the houses
will be sold on small monthly payments. Three types of houses will be constructed,
viz, two types of five-room detached cottages, and a four-room semidetached type.
The five-room detached cottages cost about $2,334 and $2,382, respectively, and the
semidetached about $1,953.
-------- I n d u s tr ia l A c c id e n t

B o a r d . F o u r th a n n u a l re p o rt, in c lu d in g s ta tis tic a l in fo r ­
m a tio n a n d ta b les o n the experien ce f o r the yea r, a c o m p a r is o n o f fr e q u e n c y a n d n a tu re
o f in ju r ie s f o r f o u r yea rs, a n d g en era l in fo r m a tio n o n d ifferen t ph a ses o f the c o m p e n ­
sa tio n a ct, J u ly 1, 191 5 , to J u n e 3 0 , 191 6 , in c lu s iv e . P u b lic D o c u m e n t N o . 105.
B o s to n , 191 7 . 2 7 2 p p . I llu s tr a te d .

This report is noted on pages 289 to 291 of this issue of the M onthly R e v ie w .
N

ew

J e r s e y .— R e p o r t o n health in su ra n c e b y the N e w J ersey C o m m is sio n o n o ld age
in s u r a n c e a n d p e n s io n s . R a h w a y [1917], 20 p p .

This report is noted on pages 274 to 276 of this issue of the M onthly R e v ie w .
O h i o .— The I n d u s tr ia l C o m m is sio n .
p o r t N o . 32.

D e p a r tm e n t o f I n v e s tig a tio n a n d S ta tis tic s . R e ­
P r e lim in a r y su r v e y o f la b o r c a m p s i n O h io . C o lu m b u s, N o v . 29, 1917.

22 p p .

This report is noted on pages 280 to 283 of this issue of the Monthly R eview .
----------------------------- R e p o r t N o . S3.

15, 19 1 7 . C o lu m b u s, 1 9 1 8 .

308

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U n io n scale o f w a g e s a n d h o u rs o f la b o r i n O h io o n M ay
44 p p .

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309

This is th e fourth annual report on this subject. A pproxim ately 95,000 wage
earners are covered; 14 cities are included; and organized trades recognized in
the report are bakeries, breweries, building, metals, p rinting and publishing, and
miscellaneous trades.
P e n n sy l v a n ia .—Department of Labor and Industry.

Safety standards of the Industrial
Board. Vol. 1, No. 2 2 . Lead corroding and lead oxidizing. 1 5 pp. Vol. 1,
No. 2 5 . Suggested safe practices for the manufacture of nitro and amido compounds.
1 8 pp.
[Harrisburg, 1 9 1 7 . ]
W is c o n s in .—Industrial Commission. Code of boiler rules. Madison [ 1 9 1 7 ] . 5 2 p p .
Diagrams.
------------ S t a n d a r d r e q u i r e m e n t s f o r b r i c k l a y e r s . [ M a d i s o n ] J a n . 1 , 1 9 1 8 . 6 p p .
An outline suggesting th e subject m atter of th e trade of bricklayer w ith which an
apprentice should be fam iliar before he can claim to be a first class m echanic and
receive th e State diploma.
U n ited St a t e s .—

C o u n c il o f N a tio n a l D e fe n se .
F i r s t a n n u a l r e p o r t, f o r th e f i s c a l y e a r
e n d e d J u n e SO , 1 9 1 7 .
W a sh in g to n , 19 1 7 .
IS O p p .

Contains a section describing in some detail th e organization and functions of the
comm ittee on labor of th e Council of N ational Defense, taking up specifically the
attitu d e of labor toward th e War, th e efforts being made to m aintain existing labor
standards on Governm ent work, the v isit of th e B ritish labor mission to th e U nited
States in May, 1917, and suggesting th e purposes in tended to be accomplished by sub­
comm ittees or divisions of th e comm ittee on labor along th e lines of wages and hours,
m ediation and conciliation, welfare work, sustenance of dependents of soldiers and
sailors, sanitation, lighting, industrial fatigue, heating and ventilation, drinking water,
industrial diseases, home nursing, m edical supervision, industrial training for the
war emergency, housing, recreation, public h ealth education, women in industry,
and protecting unskilled workers. The report gives th e complete organization of the
Council of N ational Defense, its advisory commission, and th e boards, sections, and
comm ittees under th e council and advisory commission.
-----

F e d e r a l B o a r d f o r V o c a tio n a l E d u c a tio n .
C i r c u l a r o f information No. 1 f o r u s e
i n t r a i n i n g c o n s c r i p te d m e n f o r s e r v ic e a s r a d io a n d b u z z e r o p e r a to r s (i n t e r n a t i o n a l
co d e ) i n th e U n i t e d S t a t e s A r m y .
B u l l e t i n N o . 2 , O c to b e r, 1 9 1 7 , 1 4 p p .
E m ergency
tr a in in g i n s h ip b u ild in g .
E v e n i n g a n d p a r t - t i m e c la s s e s f o r s h i p y a r d w o r k e r s .
B u lle tin N o . S, J a n u a ry, 1918.
71 p p .
M e c h a n ic a l a n d te c h n ic a l tr a in in g f o r
c o n s c r ip te d m e n ( A i r d iv is io n U . S . S i g n a l C o r p s ).
B u lle tin N o . 4, J a n u a ry , 1918.
47 p p .
T r a i n i n g o f te a c h e r s f o r o c c u p a t i o n a l t h e r a p y f o r t h e r e h a b i l i t a t i o n o f d i s ­
a b le d s o ld ie r s a n d s a ilo r s .

B u lle tin N o . 6, F eb ru a ry, 1918, 76 p p .

W a sh in g to n .

B ulletins Nos. 3 and 4 are largely devoted to outlines of courses of instruction, the
latter containing suggested list of test questions to determ ine proficiency of those com­
pleting th e courses outlined. The purpose of B ulletin No. 6 is to attem p t to m eet
the very great need for occupational therapeutists, to show w hat m ethods Europe has
found to be the best, to outline courses for th e emergency training of teachers, and to
map out the essentials of a complete national program of rehabilitation.
OFFICIAL—FOREIGN COUNTRIES.
A u st r a l ia .—

R e p o r t o f th e r e s o l u t i o n s , p r o c e e d i n g s , a n d d e b a te s o f th e c o n fe r e n c e o f r e p r e ­
s e n ta t iv e s o f th e C o m m o n w e a l t h a n d S t a t e G o v e r n m e n t s a n d o f th e F e d e r a l P a r l i a ­
m e n t a r y W a r C o m m i tt e e ( to g e th e r w i t h a p p e n d i x e s ) i n r e s p e c t o f th e s e t t l e m e n t o f
r e tu r n e d s o ld ie r s o n th e l a n d , e tc ., h e ld a t M e lb o u r n e , 1 7 th -1 9 th F e b r u a r y , 1 9 1 6 .
M e lb o u r n e [1 9 1 6 ].
60 p p .

Contains th e resolutions agreed to by th e conference pertaining to th e settlem ent
of returned soldiers on th e land, etc., and th e m inutes of proceedings and report of
debates. A ppendixes give th e report and recom mendations of th e subcom mittee


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M O N T H L Y R E V IE W

O F T H E B U R E A U O F L A B O R S T A T IS T IC S .

appointed by the Federal Parliamentary War Committee to consider the question of
settling returned soldiers on the land, a statement showing advances made to settlers
by the several States, and a statement of approximate requirements of the several
States for advances to soldier settlers.
A u str alia (V ictoria ). — T h i r t y - n i n t h a n n u a l r e p o r t o n f r i e n d l y s o c i e t i e s . R e p o r t o f t h e
G o v e r n m e n t s t a t i s t f o r th e y e a r 1 9 1 6 , to w h ic h i s a p p e n d e d v a l u a t i o n s o f s o c ie tie s ,
n u m e r i c a l a n d f i n a n c i a l s u m m a r i e s o f t h e r e t u r n s f u r n i s h e d b y t h e s e c r e t a r i e s , e tc .
M e l b o u r n e , [1917].
47 p p .

C a n a d a .—

C o m m is s io n o f C o n s e r v a tio n .
R u r a l p l a n n in g a n d d e v e lo p m e n t: A s tu d y o f
r u r a l c o n d it i o n s a n d p r o b le m s i n C a n a d a b y T h o m a s A d a m s , t o w n p l a n n i n g a d v is e r ,
C o m m is s io n o f C o n s e r v a tio n . O tta w a , 1 9 1 7 . 2 8 1 p p .
I llu s tr a te d . P la te s .
P la n s .

See pages 283 to 286 of this issue of the M onthly R e v ie w for a digest of this report.
------------ Urban a n d rural development in Canada. Report of conference held at W i n n i ­
peg, M a y 2 8 -3 0 , 1917.

O tta w a , 1 9 1 7 .

[1 0 2 ]

pp.

This conference was held jointly w ith other associations interested in an orderly and
socially beneficial developm ent of the land and natural resources of Canada. A special
session of the conference was devoted to the problems of the returned soldier.
----- (O nta rio ). — B u r e a u o f M i n e s . T w e n t y - s i x t h a n n u a l r e p o r t , 1 9 1 7 . 3 6 6 p p .
M a p s.

A notable feature of this report for 1916 is the large increase over 1915 in the num ber
of fatalities and in the fatality rate in mines, m etallurgical works and quarries, although
each was lower than in 1913 and 1914. In 1916 there were 51 fatal accidents (22 in
1915) and the fatality rate per 1,000 employees was 3.07 (1.51 in 1915). Mention is
made of the fact that the report of the workmen’s compensation board for 1916 shows
that 1,349 claims for compensation by workers in m ining and kindred industries were
handled by the board during the year, of which 87 claims were for perm anent disabili­
ties; that 24,869 days were lost through accidents; th at the average age of the injured
was 31.1 years; and that the average weekly wages was $18.21.
------ (Q u e b e c ). —Provincial Secretary’s Department.
y e a rb o o k , 4 th y e a r.
[7.917.] Q u e b e c , 1 9 1 7 . 5 5 9

Bureau of Statistics.

S ta tis tic a l

pp.

F r a n c e .—

M i n i s t è r e d e l ’A r m e m e n t e t d e s F a b r i c a t i o n s d e G u e r r e .
D ir e c tio n de
M a i n - d ’œ u v r e .
H y g iè n e et S é c u r ité des T r a v a ille u r s .
P r o te c tio n et u tilis a tio n
l a M a i n - d ’œ u v r e F é m i n i n e d a n s le s U s i n e s d e G u e r r e .
P a r is, 1 9 1 7 .
120 p p .

la
de

Circulars and orders issued by the m inister of m unitions and war manufactures
relative to hygiene, safety, and protection of women employed in factories engaged in
m anufacturing war materials. These have been noted from tim e to tim e in the
M onthly R e v ie w .

----- M i n i s t è r e du Travail et de la Prévoyance Sociale.

Office National des

R é fo r m é s de la G u e rre .
A g r ic u lte u r s m u t i lé s n e c h a n g e z p a s de m é tie r !
1917.
23 p p .
I llu s tr a te d .

M u t i l é s et
B o rdeaux,

This is a report of an address made by Dr. P. Gires, secretary-general of the bureau
for agricultural reeducation, on agriculture as an occupation for wounded and invalided
soldiers. I t is a plea for a “ return to the farm .” The volume is illustrated, showing
how it is possible for persons having suffered the loss of a lim b to m anipulate farm tools
and agricultural m achinery.
G r e a t B r it a in .—

H o m e O f f ic e .
P r o te c tiv e c lo th in g f o r w o m e n a n d g ir l w o r k e r s e m p lo y e d
i n fa c to r ie s a n d w o r k s h o p s .
P r e p a r e d b y t h e H o m e O ffic e f r o m i n f o r m a t i o n s u p p l i e d
b y H . M . in s p e c to r s o f fa c to r ie s .
L o n d o n , 1917.
15 p p .
I llu s tr a te d .
P r ic e , 3 d . n e t.

This pam phlet is noted more fully on pages 217 to 219 of this issue of the M onthly
R e v ie w .

------------ R e p o r t

o n th e m a n u f a c t u r e o f s il ic a b r ic k s a n d o th e r r e fr a c to r y m a t e r ia l s u s e d i n
f u r n a c e s , w i t h s p e c i a l r e fe r e n c e to th e e ffe c ts o f d u s t i n h a l a t i o n u p o n th e w o r k e r » .
L o n d o n , 1917.
16 p p .
P r ic e , 3 d .

This re p o rt is n o ted on pages 292 to 295 of th is issu e of th e M onthly R e v ie w .


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M O N T H L Y R E V IE W O F T H E B U R E A U O F LABOR S T A T IS T IC S .

311

L o ca l G overnm ent B oard.
M a te r n ity a n d C h ild W e lfa re . _ R e p o r t o n
th e p r o v i s i o n m a d e b y p u b l i c h e a lth a u t h o r i ti e s a n d v o l u n t e e r a g e n c ie s i n E n g l a n d
a n d W a le s .
L o n d o n , 1917.
x v i, 2 3 9 p p .
P r ic e 6 d . n e t.

G r e a t B r it a in .—

This report summarizes th e provision made in each sanitary district of England
and Wales w ith th e direct object of promoting th e h ealth and physical welfare of
expectant and nursing mothers, and of infants and children under school age.
—— M a n u a l s o f e m e r g e n c y l e g i s l a t i o n . D e f e n s e o f t h e r e a l m r e g u l a t i o n s , c o n s o l i d a t e d
a n d r e v is e d to D e c e m b e r S I , 1 9 1 7 .
1917.

x i, 8 7 p p .

E d ite d b y A le x a n d e r P u l l i n g , C. B .

London,

P r ic e , 6 d . n e t.

----- M e d i c a l

R e s e a rc h C o m m itte e .
S p e c ia l r e p o r t s e rie s , N o . 1 0 .

T h e m o r t a li ti e s o f b ir th , i n f a n c y , a n d c h ild h o o d .
L o n d o n , 1917.
84 p p .
P r ic e I s . 6 d . n e t.

------M

in is tr y o f M u n itio n s .
D i l u t i o n o f la b o r b u lle tin .
A m o n th ly p u b lic a tio n p r i­
m a r i l y f o r o f fi c e r s w o r k i n g i n c o n n e c t i o n w i t h t h e D . A . S e c t i o n (d i l u t i o n ) o f t h e l a b o r
s u p p ly d e p a r tm e n t.
L o n d o n , 1917, 1918.
I llu s tr a te d .

The November and December, 1917, and th e January, 1918, issues of th e dilution
of labor bulletin, giving an excellent idea of th e work being done by women in various
war industries in Great B ritain. The December issue contains an article on The
effect of dilution in a shell factory, and one on Shorter hours and increased industrial
efficiency. In the January issue is an article on The range of women’s work, and one
on The problem of women laborers in Wales. E ach issue contains a departm ent
giving notes on recent developm ents in th e em ploym ent of women.
-------------- (D il u t io n S e c t io n ).
1 9 1 7 .]

8, 12, a n d 16 p p .

P r o c e s s s h e e ts , N o s . 1 to 1 2
I llu s tr a te d .

(e x c e p t

N o . 5 ).

[

London

,

These sheets give a list of th e processes in connection w ith various lines of war
work on w hich women are successfully employed in Great B ritain, th e industries or
occupations covered being aircraft; guns, gun components and wagons; sm all arms;
tool room and precision work; m achine tools, sm all tools, etc.; general engineering;
blast furnaces, foundry work, m etal rolling, etc.; motor vehicles, motor cycles, and
cycles, including motor vehicle engines; chemicals, explosives, and allied industries;
woodwork; electrical engineering.
t
------------ H e a l t h o f M u n i t i o n W o r k e r s C o m m i t t e e . H e a l t h o f t h e M u n i t i o n W o r k e r .
H a n d b o o k p r e p a r e d b y th e H e a l th o f M u n i t i o n w o r k e r s c o m m it te e .
138 p p .
I llu s tr a te d .
P r ic e , I s . 6 d . n e t.

L o n d o n , 1917.

The purpose of this handbook appears to be to state in brief, categorical, and some­
w hat dogmatic form th e principal steps w hich m ust be taken to m aintain th e h ealth
and efficiency of th e worker. Much of th e m aterial is taken from the 20 memoranda
issued by the comm ittee from tim e to tim e and which have been noted in the M o n t h l y
R e v ie w as th ey have appeared. In th e introduction, which outlines the general
principles involved in improving and m aintaining th e h ealth of th e worker, th e cen­
tral purpose of th e handbook is thus briefly suggested: “ W ithout h ealth there is no
energy, w ithout energy there is no output. More im portant th an output is th e vigor,
strength, and v itality of th e nation. ’’ The book shows th a t it is to th e m utual interest
of both employer and employee to conserve the health of the latter, for “ w ithout
health the worker can not earn a decent livelihood for himself and his fam ily or pro­
duce output for the employer and the n ation.” The chapter titles indicate the scope
of the work: Relation of fatigue to industry; hours of labor; Sunday labor and night
work; lost time, incentive to work: a healthy factory environm ent; washing facilities
and baths; seats, clothing, etc.; th e industrial canteen; sickness and accident; pro­
tection of the eyesight; industrial diseases; welfare supervision; outside factory con­
ditions. There are illustrations and diagrams, and particular m en tio n should be
made of two designs for in d u stria l canteens.


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G r e a t B r it a i n .— [ M i n i s t r y o f M u n i t i o n s .]
e m p lo y e d

on

a d m ir a lty ,

L o n d o n , 1918.

-—

w ar

o ffi c e

or

S c h e d u le o f p r o te c te d o c c u p a tio n s f o r m e n
m u n i t io n s w o r k , o r i n r a ilw a y w o r k s h o p s .

40 p p .

N a tio n a l H e a lth In s u r a n c e .
R e p o r t o n th e a d m i n i s t r a t i o n o f th e n a t i o n a l h e a lth
in s u r a n c e d u r i n g th e y e a r s 1 9 1 4 - 1 7 .
L o n d o n , 1917.
845 p p .
P r ic e , I s . 6 d .

The last report issued was for the year 1913-14, and the present report covers the
three-year period since th a t tim e, the data included presum ably being for the years
ending, respectively, on June 30, although th e report does not so state. The report
is dated November, 1917, and describes the work of th e national h ealth insurance
joint comm ittee, and the national h ealth insurance commissions for England, Scot­
land, Ireland, and Wales, respectively. The accom plishments of the three years are
best shown b y the following statem ent of the am ount of the various benefits paid by
approved societies in the U nited Kingdom:
AMOUNT SPEN T BY A PPR O V ED SOCIETIES ON SICKNESS, M ATER N ITY , AN D DISABLE­
M ENT B E N E FIT S IN THE U N IT E D KINGDOM, DUR IN G 1913 TO 1916.

Sickness benefits.

Disablement benefits.
Total.

Year.
Amount.

1Q12

Maternity benefits.

Per cent
of total.

Amount.

Per cent
of total.

Amount.

Per cent
of total.

1914.....................
1915.....................
1916.....................

$31 898,384
35¡ 089^ 762
30,678,134
28,190,326

83.8
81.3
74.6
70.7

$6,158,828
7; 154,981
6,418,417
6,133,094

16.2
16.6
15.6
15.4

(!)
$935,244
4,095,885
5,576,955

2.2
10.0
14.0

$38,057,212
43; 179; 987
41,192,436
39, 900,375

Total........

125, 856, 606

77.5

25, 865,320

15.9

10,608,084

6.5

162,330,010

1 No disablement benefits paid in 1913.

——

P r iv y C o u n c il.
C o m m itte e f o r s c ie n tific a n d i n d u s tr ia l rese a rc h .
yea r 1 9 1 6 -1 7 .
L o n d o n , 1917.
68 p p .
P r ic e 3 d n e t.

——

R e p o r t s to th e L o c a l G o v e r n m e n t B o a r d o n p u b l i c h e a lth a n d m e d ic a l m a t t e r s .
( N e w s e rie s N o . 8 6 ) .
D r . F r a n k S e y m o u r 1s r e p o r t t o t h e L o c a l G o v e r n m e n t B o a r d
o n th e o c c u r r e n c e o f le a d p o i s o n i n g i n th e u r b a n d i s t r ic t o f G u i s b o r o u g h a n d i t s r e la ­
t i o n to th e p u b l i c w a te r s u p p l y .
L o n d o n , 1914■
21 p p .

R e p o r t f o r th e

N e t h e r l a n d s .—

D ir e c tie v a n b e n A r b e id .
A r b e id e r s b u d g e ts G e d w r e n d e d e C r is is .
g e g e v e n v o o r r e k e n in g v a n h e t D e p a r tm e n t v a n L a n d b o u w , N ijv e r h e id e n H a n d e l.
H ague, 1917.

141 p p .

U itThe

C h a r ts .

This volum e reports the result of an investigation of cost of living in 1917, compared
w ith 1914. According to the tables given, the weekly expenditure for food for a
fam ily of 6 persons, father, mother, and 4 children, increased during th e period under
observation from 7.56 florins ($3.04) to 16.03 florins ($6.44), and for a fam ily consisting
of father and m other and 8 children, from 19.88 florins ($7.99) to 41.34 florins ($16.62).
The expenditure for shoes and clogs (wooden) increased 123.5 per cent and 200 per
cent, respectively, for the fam ily of 10 persons. The investigation is based on 43
family budgets.
S p a in .—

M in is te r io de F o m e n to .
D ir e c c ió n G e n e r a l de C o m e rc io ,
C o n fe r e n c ia d e S e g u r o s S o c ia le s .
M a d r id , 1 9 1 7 .

In d u s tr ia y

T r a b a jo .

This volum e gives th e te x t of various papers subm itted to, and reports of the pro­
ceedings of, a conference on social insurance held at Madrid, Spain, October 24 to
31, 1917, in compliance w ith royal decree of Ju ly 29, 1917. The various classes of
insurance, industrial accident, agricultural accident, old age, invalidity, unem ­
ploym ent, m aternity, etc., are each discussed under appropriate titles. One chapter
is devoted to social insurance systems in operation in Spain.


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UNOFFICIAL.
A d a m s, H

enry
H o lt, 1918.

C.

D e s c r ip tio n o f in d u s tr y : A n in tr o d u c ti o n to e c o n o m ic s .
F t0 p p .

N ew

Y ork

Attempts to produce a simple and yet truthful description of the structure and life
of the modem business world, as a background for vocational training.
A m e r ic a n A c a d e m y

o p P o l it ic a l a n d S o c ia l S c ie n c e . A n n a l s , v o l . 7 3 .
th r o u g h s im p lifie d le g a l p r o c e d u r e .
S e p te m b e r , 1 9 1 7 .
251 p p .

J u s tic e

In October, 1916, the Phi Delta Phi Club, consisting of graduates in New York
and vicinity of the legal fraternity of Phi Delta Phi, appointed a Committee of Nine,
under the chairmanship of Henry W. Jessup, J. D., for the purpose of considering
what changes in the constitution, statutes, and rules operative in the State of New
York are essential to the simplification of practice and greater efficiency in the admin­
istration of justice. The report of this committee, accompanied by a number of
papers by various writers, on the improvement of judicial machinery, is the subject
of the important volume under review. The committee states that it is for the par­
ticular purpose of having its defects revealed that the report is given publicity and
presented as an attempt “ to frame and formulate a concise and generic scheme of legal
and judicial efficiency, adaptable to the evolution of the community and its needs
and yet sufficiently rigid to preserve from impairment those things which are vital
and necessary to the durability of the judicial system. ”
B y courtesy of the owners of the copyright, Roscoe Pound’s bibliography on pro­
cedural reform is printed as an exhibit of the report.
o p L a b o r . R e p o r t o f t h e - p r o c e e d in g s of the 37th a n n u a l c o n ­
v e n t i o n h e l d at B u f f a l o , N . Y , N o v e m b e r 1 2 - 2 4 , i n c l u s i v e , 1917.
The L a w R e p o r t e r
P r i n t i n g C o ., W a s h in g to n , D . C ., 1 9 1 7 .
482 p p .

A m e r ic a n F e d e r a t io n

A statement of the more important features of this convention was given in the
M o n t h l y R e v i e w for January, 1918, pages 139-145.
A n d r e w s, I r e n e O sgood,

and H o b bs, M a rgaret A.
E c o n o m i c e ffe c ts o f th e w a r
u p o n w o m e n a n d c h ild r e n i n G r e a t B r i t a i n .
C a r n e g ie E n d o w m e n t f o r I n te r n a ti o n a l
P eace.
N ew Y o rk, 1918.
190 p p .

The authors trace in detail the effect of the War upon women industrially, from the
first period of unemployment and distress through the gradually increasing demand
for their services up to July, 1917, when over a million and a quarter of women were
directly replacing men. A study is included of the methods of training and dilution
practiced in the munitions trades, the wages question is discussed at length, and
sections are devoted to hours of work, to the safety, health and comfort of the workers,
and to the attitude of the men’s unions toward the employment of women. On the
whole, the authors are optimistic as to the results of the changes.
The effect of the War upon the position of children is treated in less detail, as fewer
data are available. The relaxation of age and educational restrictions upon their
employment is noted, and an estimate is quoted that the number prematurely put
to work may have reached 600,000. A seldom mentioned feature of the situation is
brought out —the removal of boys and girls under 17 from their homes to places where
their labor is more urgently needed, a plan which has given rise to numerous and
serious difficulties in the way of supervision, recreation and living conditions outside
of work hours. A marked increase in juvenile delinquency is noted. In general
the effect of the changing industrial conditions seems to have been far more detri­
mental to children than to women. The hopeful feature is that the public is beginning
to realize the value of children as a national asset, and an attempt has already been
begun to put through legislation which will raise English child labor standards to a
higher level than has been attained at any previous period.


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314

B a il e y , P e a r c e , M. D.
fro m

E ffic ie n c y a n d in e ffic ie n c y : A p r o b le m i n m e d ic in e .
R e p r in te d
M e n ta l H y g ie n e , 5 0 U n io n S q u a r e , N e w Y o r k C ity , A p r i l , 1 9 1 7 , p p . 1 9 6 -2 1 0 .

A study on the relation of the study and treatment of mental diseases to industrial
and general efficiency.
B e l e v s k y , A.

and V o ronopf, B .
(C o r r e s p o n d a n ts de R o u s s k ia V ie d m o s ti de M o s c o u .)
L e s o r g a n is a t io n s p u b l i q u e s r u s s e s e t le u r r ô le p e n d a n t la g u e r r e , a v e c u n e p r é fa c e b y
M . E . D e n i s , P r o fe s s e u r à la S o r b o n n e .
1917.
H a tc h e tte e t C ie .
P a r is.

In his foreword to this important sociological work Prof. Denis lays stress upon the
capacity of the Russians to renounce their individual existence in hours of exaltation
to live the life of collective thought. He says that nowhere else do individuals
submit themselves more completely and with less resistance to the impulse of the
crowd.
This volume was written at the beginning of 1917 but was not published until
after the overthrow of the Empire. Had the book appeared sooner it would have
seemed prophetic. The authors depict vividly the social conditions which, in their
opinion, made imperative the abolition of the old régime. In this résumé of the
official reports of the Zemtos (the provincial councils) and the municipal councils
one is brought in close touch with the spirit of the Russian people. The achieve­
ments of these various public associations in meeting the war crises in the face of the
hostility of the bureaucracy are remarkable. It is shown how in the breakdown of
imperial authority the provincial and municipal councils, the cooperatives, the health
services, and the workmen’s organizations took hold of things and accomplished what
appeared almost impossible. Very interesting is the history of the work of these
associations in first aid to the wounded, hospital foundations, sanitary services, the
struggle with epidemics, the furnishing of the civilian population and the army with
food and clothing, the transformation and development of manufacturing, and the
mobilization of the small home industries.
B e m a n , L a m a r T. [C o m p il e r ],

S e le c te d a r tic le s o n th e c o m p u l s o r y a r b it r a ti o n a n d c o m ­
p u ls o r y in v e s tig a tio n o f in d u s tr ia l d isp u te s .
T h i r d e d it i o n , r e v is e d a n d e n la r g e d .
D e b a te r s ’ h a n d b o o k s e rie s .
N ew
Y o r k , H . W . W ils o n C o ., 1 9 1 7 .
225 p p .

B o st o n C h a m b e r

op Co m m e r c e .
T h e m i l k q u e s tio n in N e w E n g la n d : A n in v e s ti­
g a t i o n o f th e c o s t o f p r o d u c i n g m i l k i n N e w E n g l a n d a n d i t s d i s t r i b u t i o n i n B o s t o n ,
w ith r e c o m m e n d a tio n s .
D ec. S I, 1917.
57 p p .

B r e w e r , J o h n M.
N ew

T h e v o c a tio n a l-g u id a n c e m o v e m e n t: I t s p r o b le m s a n d p o s s ib ilitie s .
Y o r k , M a c m illa n , 1 9 1 8 .
333 p p .
B ib lio g r a p h y .

By the head of the department of psychology and education, L ob Angeles State
Normal School.
B r o n n e r , A ugu sta F .
L ittle , B r o w n

&

T h e p s y c h o lo g y o f s p e c ia l a b ilitie s a n d d is a b ilitie s .
C o ., 1 9 1 7 .
269 p p .

B o s to n ,

An attempt to discuss, in view of school and vocational misfits, “ practical aspects
of special abilities and disabilities, to offer in detail methods of attacking problemcases, and to present various types, both (a) of particular disabilities in those who
have normal general ability and (b) of particular abilities in those who are below
normal in general capacities.” Describes the tests—Binet-Simon and others—used
in the study of various cases.
B ro therhood

o p L o c o m o tiv e F ir e m e n a n d E n g in e m e n . A r g u m e n t a n d b r i e f s u b ­
m itte d o n b e h a lf o f lo c o m o tiv e fir e m e n a n d h o s tle r s . H e a r in g s o f F e d e r a l W a g e C o m ­
m is s io n , W a sh in g to n , F e b ru a ry , 1 9 1 8 .
285 p p .
C h a r ts .

For a review of th is docum ent, see pages 188 to 192 of th is issue of th e M onthly
R e v ie w .
B r o w n , U d e t t a D.

T h e h o u ses o f A m ste r d a m , N e w
Y o r k , w i t h s o m e n o t e s o n th e
p r e v a le n c e o f tu b e r c u lo s is ; i n v e s t i g a t i o n a n d r e p o r t f o r th e A m s t e r d a m C o m m itte e o n
T u b e r c u lo s i s o f th e S t a t e C h a r itie s A i d A s s o c i a t i o n , 1 9 1 7 .
61 p p .

A study of housing conditions in a city of about 31,000 inhabitants. The worst
factor found was the dark room. The basement dwelling is fairly widespread. The


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multiple house is gaining in prevalence.
factors in the spread of tuberculosis.

315

All of these, furthermore, are indicated as

C a r n e g ie U n it e d K in g d o m T r u s t .
c h ild r e n .

S c o tla n d .

V o l. S .

R e p o r t o n th e p h y s i c a l w e l fa r e o f m o th e r s a n d
E a s t P o r t, D u n fe r m lin e , 1 9 1 7 .
682 p p .
I llu s tr a te d .

M a p s.

Volumes 1, 2, and 4, together with a brief statement of the purpose of the survey,
were noted in the M o n t h l y R eview for January, 1918, p. 246.
C h a p p e l l , E d g a r L.,. e d . T h e W e l s h H o u s i n g Y e a r b o o k , 1 9 1 6 . C a r d i f f , S o u t h W a l e s ,
G a r d e n C i t i e s a n d T o w n P l a n n i n g A s s n . , [ n . d.] 9 6 p p .
The first issue of the yearbook designed to provide information for the practical
solution of the post-war housing problem in Wales. Other issues will follow. The con­
tents are as follows: Layout plan of Barry Garden Suburb; South Wales Garden Cities
and Town Planning Association; The housing problem in Wales; Conclusions of Welsh
Land Inquiry Committee on rural housing in Wales; Layout plans of Wrexham and
Ely garden villages; What town planning means; Municipal housing in Wales; Muni­
cipalities and housing reform; Cooperation in housing; Public utility societies in
Wales; War and the housing problem; What a garden city is; The garden village
method of estate development; Cottage building after the war; Building societies and
housing in South Wales; Town planning in the Welsh valleys; The acquisition of
small dwellings; Miners and the housing problem.
C o l e , G. D. H. S e l f - g o v e r n m e n t i n i n d u s t r y . L o n d o n , B e l l , 1 9 1 7 . 8 2 9 p p .
Some general suggestions for industrial reconstruction, written “ in the hope of
helping the labor movement in the formulation of a constructive policy, and of enlist­
ing the sympathies of all those to whom a capitalistic and militaristic imperialism is
abhorrent.”
The author makes the statement that “ the capitalists have no intention of a perma­
nent return after the war to prewar conditions: The war has given them their chance
* * * they have a coherent policy which they are even now putting into effect,
while the workers are still at the most only groping their way toward a constructive
alternative.”
C o m m o n w e a l t h Cl u b
N o . 11.

of

C a l if o r n ia .

S a n F r a n c is c o , 1 9 1 7 .

In d u s tr ia l

unrest.

Transactions,

V o l.

XII,

P p . 4 8 1 -5 2 9 .

Addresses and discussion on the following subjects: Trade agreements as an aid to
industrial peace, Some economic factors in the problem of social unrest, The high
cost of living and industrial unrest, and Industrial relations from the human view­
point.
C o r n E x c h a n g e N a t io n a l B a n k .
th e w o r k o f e n li s te d m e n .

P h il a d e l p h ia . P r o c e s s e s i n w h i c h w o m e n c a n d o
P h ila d e lp h ia , [1 9 1 8 ].
29 p p .

A prefatory note announces that information in this pamphlet covering the proc­
esses and positions in which women can be used has been compiled from pamphlets
issued by the British Government. These pamphlets are noted on page 311 of this
issue of the M o n t h l y R e v i e w .
Craik , Will W. O u t l i n e s o f t h e h i s t o r y o f t h e m o d e m B r i t i s h w o r k i n g - c l a s s m o v e m e n t .
L o n d o n D i s t r i c t C o u n c i l o f th e N a t i o n a l

U n io n o f R a ilw a y m e n [1 9 1 6 ].

120 p p .

Based on a series of articles by the same author in the Railway Review in 1916,
written to serve in place of a textbook for students of the National Union of Railwaymen classes.
E h rha rd , A u g u ste.
1916.

198 p p .

L e s o e u v r e s de I’H o te l d e

V i ll e p e n d a n t la g u e r r e .

L yon, R ey,

I llu s tr a te d .

An account of the various branches of relief work which have been carried out
since the beginning of the war by the city of Lyon, including municipal hospitals;
vocational schools for the wounded; the provision of linen and comforts for soldiers;
aid for prisoners of war; searching for lost soldiers and for French and Belgian refugees;


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the care of the families of soldiers and of the children of widowed soldiers; aid for
refugees, for interned civilians, and for the people of Alsace-Lorraine; and municipal
sewing rooms and home work for women.
E l y , R ic h a r d T .,
Ca r v e r . T h e

a n d R a l p h H . H e s s , C h a r l e s K . L e i t h , a n d T h o m a s N ix o n
f o u n d a t i o n s o f n a t i o n a l p r o s p e r i t y : S t u d i e s i n th e c o n s e r v a t io n o f
p e r m a n e n t n a tio n a l reso u rces.
N e w Y o r k , M a c m illa n , 1 9 1 7 .
878 p p .

The four authors, in the order named, contribute the following papers: I. Con­
servation and economic theory; II. Conservation and economic evolution; III.
Conservation of certain mineral resources; and IY. Conservation of human resources.
F a r r a r , C. B.

T h e p r o b l e m o f m e n t a l d is e a s e i n th e C a n a d i a n a r m y .
R e p r in te d fr o m
M e n ta l H y g ie n e , 5 0 U n io n S q u a r e , N e w Y o r k C ity , J u l y , 1 9 1 7 , p p . 8 8 9 - 8 9 1 .

Treats of the classification and group treatment of the nervous and mental cases
among soldiers invalided to Canada, comprising 10 per cent of all.
G id e , Ch a r l e s .

Les

s o c ié té s

c o o p é ra tiv e s

de

c o n s o m m a tio n .

P a r is,

1917.

854

pp.

T h ir d e d itio n .

A review of the history of the consumers’ cooperative movement in the different
countries of Europe, and a study of the organization, aims, and methods of consumers’
cooperative societies at the present time.
J e n k s , J e r e m ia h W., a n d L a u c k , W. J e t t . T h e i m m i g r a t i o n p r o b l e m : A s t u d y o f
A m e r ic a n im m ig r a tio n c o n d itio n s a n d n e e d s.
F o u r t h e d it i o n , r e v is e d a n d e n la r g e d .
N e w Y o r k a n d L o n d o n , F u n k & W a g n a lls , 1 9 1 7 .
605 p p .
M a p a n d d ia g ra m s .

[ J o in t

C o m m it t e e o n L a b o r P r o b l e m s a f t e r t h e W a r .] T h e p o s i t i o n o f
w o m e n a f te r th e w a r .
tO p p .
T h e p r o b l e m o f u n e m p l o y m e n t a f te r th e w a r .
7 pp.
T h e r e s t o r a ti o n o f t r a d e - u n i o n c o n d i t i o n s i n c a s e s n o t c o v e r e d b y th e m u n i t i o n s a c ts .
9 pp.
T h e r e s t o r a ti o n o f t r a d e - u n i o n c u s t o m s a f te r th e w a r .
14 p p .
London,
C o o p e r a tiv e P r i n t i n g S o c ie ty , 1 9 1 7 .

These four pamphlets are issued by the Joint committee on labor problems after
the war, composed of representatives of the parliamentary committee of the tradeunion congress, the executive committee of the labor party, the management com­
mittee of the general federation of trade-unions, and the war emergency workers’
national committee. The first pamphlet listed is a report of the joint standing com­
mittee of industrial women’s organizations presented to the joint committee on labor
problems after the war; the second pamphlet is a memoranda on the prevention of
unemployment and the necessity for the revision of the unemployment insurance
acts; the third pamphlet contains a statement of the position with recommendations
for enforcement; the fourth pamphlet contains a statement and analysis of the
Government guarantees.

Notes on military orthopedics. Published for B r i t i s h R e d C r o s s
London, New York, Toronto, and Melbourne, Cassell, 1 9 1 7 . 1 3 2 p p .
Illustrated.

J o n es, R obert.
S o c ie ty .

A reprint of a series of articles in the British Medical Journal in 1916, by the in­
spector of military orthopedics, British Army Medical Service. An attempt to
formulate rules for the correction of deformities resulting from war injuries.
K ir k l a n d , J o h n .
th e ir c a u se s.

T h r e e c e n t u r i e s of p r i c e s of w h e a t , flour, a n d b r e a d .
W a r p r ic e s a n d
J . G . Hammond ¿c Co. (Ltd.), 1 9 1 7 .
64 p p .

London,

“ This work is not issued for entertainment, but only as a handy source of reference
to the many who do, or who must, make themselves familiar with relative prices.”
It contains a statement of the chief factors which throughout the 317-year period
have entered into the prices of wheat, flour, and bread, and includes a table giving
the prices of these three commodities from the year 1600 to and including the first
six months of the year 1917, together with brief notes of events likely to influence
prices at any particular year. There is a chapter on “ An appreciation of the main
factors in the rise of prices and freights (1914-1917),” and also a chapter on “ War
time bread prices,” covering the present war. In this connection a table is given


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showing that the price per 4-pound loaf in London in August, 1914, was 5^d. (11.2
cents), while in August, 1917, it had risen to Is. (24.3 cents).
L and

U n io n , L o n d o n .
T h e h o u s in g q u e s tio n a s a ffe c te d b y r e c e n t le g is la tio n :
R e a s o n s f o r r e p e a l o f P a r t 1 o f t h e F i n a n c e (1 9 0 9 - 1 9 1 0 ) a c t , 1 9 1 0 .
2 d . ed. rev.
P u b l i s h e d b y th e L a i i d U n i o n , L o n d o n , 1 9 1 7 .

24 PP-

Relates to the so-called Lloyd-George budget which placed heavy taxes upon
land values and unearned increments in land, and advocates the repeal of those
land duties.
L a r o u s s e M e d ic a l I l l u s t r e
r a tio n o f o th e rs.

d e G u e r r e . B y D r . G a l t ie r - B o is s ie r e , w i t h th e c o lla b o ­
P a r i s , L i b r a i r i e L a r o u s s e , [1 9 1 7 ]. 3 3 6 p p .
Illu s tr a te d .

A supplement of the Larousse Medical Encyclopedia. While this work carries the
title of “ medical encyclopedia of the war,” it should not be concluded that it treats
exclusively of military surgery and medical practice especially due to the war. The
practice herein described is applicable to all individuals under all circumstances.
The work gives information as to the functional reeducation of the wounded, and
contains numerous illustrations of processes of treatment and appliances of prosthesis.
L a u c k , W. J e t t . C o s t o f l i v i n g a n d t h e W a r : A n a n a l y s i s o f r e c e n t c h a n g e s . C l e v e l a n d ,
T h e D o y le &

W a ltz P r i n t i n g C o ., 1 9 1 8 .

196 p p .

This volume is a summarization and analysis of official and authoritative data bearing
upon the cost of living with special reference to the families of wage earners. Part I
is a brief analysis and interpretation of the data contained in Part II, which consists
primarily of reprints from official publications of retail and wholesale price data and
the results of original investigations and studies relative to the budgets of workingmen’s
families.
L eague

f o r P r e v e n t iv e W o r k [B o s t o n ],
F o o d s u p p ly i n f a m ilie s o f lim ite d m e a n s:
A s t u d y o f p r e s e n t f a c t s o f th e f o o d p r o b le m i n B o s t o n f a m i l i e s , b y s i x w e l fa r e a g e n c ie s ,
m e m b e r s o f th e L e a g u e f o r P r e v e n t i v e W o r k .
B o s to n , D ecem ber, 1 9 1 7 .
24 p p .

A cooperative study based on 200 schedules recording the food purchases during
one week of representative families known to one or more of the agencies making
the investigation. The material is grouped as follows: 1. General description of the
families studied; 2. Character of their diet as shown by food purchases during the
selected week (July 8-14,1917); 3. Adequacy and economy of the diet in relationship
to size and circumstances of the family; 4. Conclusions and recommendations.
M c K il l o p , M., a n d A. D. E f f i c i e n c y m e t h o d s . N e w Y o r k , V a n N o s t r a n d , 1 9 1 7 .
215 p p .

Illu s tr a te d .

A brief account of “ certain methods recently suggested for increasing efficiency
in industry ”—in short, the Taylor system—for the information of English business men.
M a in e S t a t e F e d e r a t io n

of L a b o r . P r o c e e d i n g s o f th e f o u r t e e n t h a n n u a l c o n v e n t i o n
at B a r H a rbor, J u n e 5, 6, a n d 7, 1917.
P o r t l a n d , B r y s o n & W e l c h , [1 9 1 7 ].
71 p p .

M e r ia m , L e w i s .

P r i n c i p l e s g o v e r n i n g th e r e ti r e m e n t o f p u b l i c e m p l o y e e s .
P u b lis h e d
f o r th e I n s t i t u t e f o r G o v e r n m e n t R e s e a r c h .
N e w Y o rk a n d L o n d o n , A p p le to n , 1918.
477 p p .

B ib lio g r a p h y .

The object sought in preparing this book has been primarily “ to set forth the
principal economic, social, administrative, and financial questions involved in
establishing a retirement system and then, in so far as possible in limited space, to
summarize the more important arguments for and against alternative lines of action.”
The author does not undertake to outline an ideal retirement system, but suggests
that it is necessary to decide approximately what proportion of, say, the average salary
of the last few years of service it seems desirable to provide as a superannuation benefit
at the compulsory age of retirement; to have the actuary determine, in respect to
entrants at each age, what proportion of salary would have to be set aside each year to
provide for an annuity of that amount; to decide upon a maximum for such con­
tribution, and to provide that persons entering late in life should pay no more than
that amount and should have their benefit correspondingly decreased. The per46648°—18-----21

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centages of salary to be deposited would be worked out so as to produce the desired
benefit only in the average case.
If the service has low paid employees some special device, in the opinion of the
author, must be adopted, since one-half active salary would not take care of those whose
wages are at or near the minimum of subsistence. To meet this requirement the ideal
superannuation benefit might be regarded as composed of two parts: (1) A certain
fixed sum and (2) a certain portion of salary, the two making the total allowance.
For example, in a community where the minimum of subsistence of an aged man and
his wife was approximately $600 a year and the wages of the lowest paid employees
of the retirement age were $720 the actuary might be asked to determine, for the
different ages at entrance, what percentage of salary would have to be set aside to
provide, in the average case, a retirement annuity of $400 plus one-third the average
salary of the last five years. The deposits to the account of the employee would
then be made on that basis. Under normal advancement the employee in the $720
class would on retirement have provided himself with an annuity of $640 ($400 plus
one-third of $720), whereas the employee in the $900 class would have $700, the
employee in the $1,200 class $800, the employee in the $1,800 class $1,000, and the
employee in the $2,400 class $1,200. Each, however, will have exactly what his
contributions and those in his behalf will pay for, and these results will be produced
only in the average case. Those who advance less rapidly will get larger benefits in pro­
portion to their salaries; those who advance more rapidly, smaller benefits.
This device suggests the use of the salary scale to make the percentage deductions
uniform throughout service, thereby avoiding high re tents from late promotions and
the combination of the fixed sum and the proportion of salary in arriving at the per­
centage deduction to provide suitable minimum allowances. It has seemed to the
author that along this line lies the solution of the superannuation retirement problem
rather than along the line of benefits directly proportional to salary. The important
thing is to connect benefits and the amount available to pay for them, rather than to
connect salary and benefits and to run the risk of endangering the financial stability
of the system, or interfering with changes, and of dealing unfairly by the less highly
paid classes.
N a t io n a l C o m m it t e e

f o r t h e P r e v e n t io n o p B l i n d n e s s . E y