RECENT REPORTS OF STATE BUREAUS OF LABOR STATISTICS. KANSAS. Fifteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Labor and Industry, for 1899. W. L. A. Johnson, Commissioner. viii, 587 pp. The following subjects are treated in this report: Statistics of wageearners, 305 pages; labor organizations, 24 pages; the packing industry, 12 pages; the creamery industry, 18 pages; the lead and zinc industry, 3 pages; county charities, 64 pages; industrial education, 5 pages; chattel mortgages, 12 pages; factory inspection, 15 pages; strikes, labor difficulties, and court decisions affecting labor, 46 pages; proceedings of the State Society of Labor and Industry and State Association of Miners, 72 pages. STATISTICS OF WAGE-EARNERS. The usual investigation was made with regard to the condition of wage-earners. Details are presented showing earnings, cost of living, hours of labor, nativity, conjugal condition, etc. The following table shows, by occupation groups, the more important data presented: STATISTICS OF WAGE-EARNERS, BY OCCUPATION GROUPS, 1899. Of 819 wage-earners making returns, 454 reported increased opportunities for employment as compared with 1898, 137 reported decreased opportunities, and 228 reported conditions about the same. Of 770 returns, 339 reported increased wages, 76 reported decreased wages, and 355 reported no change in wages as compared with the preceding year. Of 714 returns, 473 reported an increased cost of living as compared with 1898, 41 reported a decreased cost, and 200 reported no change. Returns regarding accident insurance were received from 83 wageearners. The accident insurance carried amounted to $1,895.48 per person insured, costing an average of $24.24 annually, or 2.7 per cent of the total income. Of 1,058 wage-earners reporting, 504, or 47.6 per cent, carried life insurance. Of these, 114 were insured in old-line companies, the amount of insurance carried being $1,649.83 per person insured, costing an average of $45.50 per year, or 6.1 per cent of the total income. There were 430 insured in fraternal organizations, the insurance carried amounting to $2,277.31 per person insured, at an average cost of $24.12 per year, or 3.6 per cent of their entire income. A comparison between organized and unorganized wage-workers shows that 127 who were organized earned an average of $0.248 per hour, while 133 who were unorganized earned an average of $0.181 per hour; 128 organized wage-workers were employed an average of 8.9 hours per day, while the same number of unorganized wage-workers were employed 10.1 hours per day. LABOR ORGANIZATIONS. The following table shows the number and membership of 98 labor organizations on December 31, 1899: NUMBER AND MEMBERSHIP OF LABOR ORGANIZATIONS, DECEMBER 31, 1899. Labor organizations. Local unions or Members. branches. Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen of North America. American Federation of Musicians. Teamsters' Union... Trades and Labor Assembly United Association of Journeymen Plumbers, Gas Fitters, Steam Fitters, and Total.. a Not including 1 union not reporting. Not including 2 unions not reporting. Returns from 100 labor organizations were tabulated, but of these 4 did not report membership. The other 96 reported a total of 5,930 members on December 31, 1899. Fifty-three unions reported an aggregate increase of 1,982 members, and 15 reported a total decrease of 480 members during the year. Of 95 local unions reporting, 71 had agreements, schedules, or contracts with employers. The annual fees charged for membership in 92 unions reporting ranged from 24 cents to $25, the average annual fee being $5.79 per member. Ninety-one unions reported an average of 71.3 per cent of the trade in their localities as being organized. The members of 85 unions reporting were employed an average of 10.5 months per year. The average working day of members of 79 unions was 9.9 hours. Of 89 unions, 62 reported increased opportunities for employment as compared with 1898, 9 reported decreased opportunities, and 18 reported no change. Of 79 unions, 37 reported increased wages, 10 decreased wages, and 32 reported no change as compared with 1898. THE PACKING INDUSTRY.-Tables are given showing the character of ownership, capital invested, assessed valuation, receipts and expenditures, capacity of plant, number, wages, and salaries of employees, etc., for 11 packing plants in the State. The returns published were largely incomplete, only a few of the items being given for all the establishments. The 11 plants employed 8,333 persons, and paid a total of $4,146,190.86 for salaries and wages. THE CREAMERY INDUSTRY.-Returns for this industry were likewise incomplete. The tables given show for each establishment reporting the character of ownership, capital invested, value of plant and of product, receipts and expenditures, the number, wages, and salaries of employees, etc. THE LEAD AND ZINC INDUSTRY.-This part of the report contains statistics of the output and value of the mine products and a descriptive account of the lead and zinc industry of the State in 1899. Returns from 138 plants show an output of 14,186,670 pounds of lead, valued at $375,553.40, and 128,120,310 pounds of zinc, valued at $2.738.431. INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION.-This chapter gives an account of the character of the manual training taught in each of 4 educational institutions in the State, the number of pupils taking manual-training courses, the cost of these courses, effects of manual training, and other information. STRIKES.-Accounts are given of 8 strikes which occurred in the State during the year, as follows: 1 of coal miners, 3 of coopers, 2 of team owners and drivers, and 2 of carpenters. MARYLAND. Eighth Annual Report of the Bureau of Industrial Statistics of Maryland, for 1899. Jefferson D. Wade, Chief of Bureau. x, 167 pp. The following subjects are treated in the present report: Strikes, 15 pages; seamen, 17 pages; sweat shops, 6 pages; labor laws, 1 page; trade unions in Baltimore, 4 pages; incorporations in Baltimore, 119 pages. STRIKES.-Detailed accounts are given of 11 strikes which occurred in the State during the year. SEAMEN. This chapter consists of a report made by the local agent at Baltimore of the Atlantic Coast Seamen's Union, calling attention to certain abuses in the treatment of seamen, particularly by means of the "crimping" system, and making suggestions for the guidance of legislators as to the correction of these abuses. It also contains a synopsis of the act of Congress of December 21, 1898, (a) having this object in view. SWEAT SHOPS.-A brief account is given of an inspection of sweat shops in Baltimore and of the difficulties encountered by the health department in correcting the evils under existing legislation. TRADE UNIONS.-A list is given of 55 trade unions in Baltimore, all of which were affiliated with the Federation of Labor. Of these, 17 were organized during the year. CORPORATIONS.-A list is given of the incorporations in the city of Baltimore from 1870 to 1899, showing in each case the name, date of incorporation, and amount of capital stock. This list supplements that given in the previous report, relating to incorporations in the rest of the State. There were 3,616 incorporations reported in Baltimore, with an aggregate capital stock of $795,189,200. Of these, 1,096 were building and loan associations, under a variety of names, with a capital stock of $422,843,500. MICHIGAN. Seventeenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Labor and Industrial Statistics. 1900. Joseph L. Cox, Commissioner. vii, 264 pp. The present report consists of a number of short chapters devoted to various subjects. The following relate to labor and industrial conditions: Review of industrial conditions, 3 pages; statistics of retail trade, 6 pages; hotel statistics, 3 pages; real-estate interests, 10 pages; labor canvass, 11 pages; organized labor, 13 pages; electric railways, 4 pages; the vehicle industry, 5 pages; the furniture industry, 17 pages; the sugar-beet industry, 5 pages; coal mines, 20 pages; labor laws, 5 pages; labor disputes, 5 pages; papers on factory inspection, 8 pages. INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS, 1899.-A canvass of nearly 5,000 factories of the State by the factory inspectors showed that 545 had increased their invested capital $6,531,884 during 1899, and that 1,382 factories employed 24,262 more persons in 1899 than in 1898, or an average increase of 17.6 per cent per factory considered. Seventy-four per cent of the factories reported an increase of business over 1898. The average daily wages of all grades of employees found at work in fac a For a copy of this act see Bulletin No. 24, pages 756-762. tories in 1899 were $1.39 per day in that year, as compared with $1.37 per day in 1898. LABOR CANVASS.-One chapter is devoted to male and another to female wage-earners. Special canvassers interviewed 5,399 male and 2,102 female wage-earners outside the regular factory-inspection canvass. Inquiries were made regarding age, nativity, social condition, number of dependents, occupation, length of service, hours of labor, months employed during the year, daily wages, etc. The two following tables show for male and female employees, respectively, for selected occupations, the average daily wages, hours of labor per day, number of months employed during 1899, and the average number of years engaged in present occupation: WAGES AND HOURS OF LABOR OF MALE EMPLOYEES, BY SELECTED OCCUPATIONS. WAGES AND HOURS OF LABOR OF FEMALE EMPLOYEES, BY SELECTED OCCUPATIONS. The returns for all of the 5,399 male employees canvassed in 61 cities and villages showed the following average results: Daily wages, $1.78; hours of labor per day, 10.2; months employed during the year, 10.9; years engaged at present occupation, 13.5; age, 33.4. Sixty per cent |