RECENT REPORTS OF STATE BUREAUS OF LABOR STATISTICS.

CONNECTICUT.

Thirteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the State of Connecticut, for the year ending November 30, 1897. Samuel B. Horne, Commissioner. 240 pp.

Following are the contents of this report: Letter of transmittal and introduction, 12 pages; condition of workingmen, 106 pages; condition of manufactures, 54 pages; mercantile clerks, 10 pages; municipal employees, 12 pages; laws relating to labor and court decisions, 33 pages.

INTRODUCTION.-The introductory part of the report contains a brief abstract of the subjects investigated, and an account of the action taken by the bureau with reference to alien laborers and insanitary bakeshops. The announcement is made that the State board of mediation and arbitration has prepared no official report, the services of the board not having been required for the adjustment of difficulties between employer and employed. The introduction concludes with an outline of the contents of each report of the bureau issued since its establishment under the present law.

CONDITION OF WORKINGMEN.-This chapter contains statistics of earnings, hours of labor, cost of living, interest, taxes, and rents paid, possible savings of workingmen, occupations and nationality of workingmen, etc. The statistics are based upon returns received from 200 employees. The compilation also includes data concerning the occupations and earnings of men, women, and children taken from the Eleventh Annual Report of the United States Commissioner of Labor. A summary of the statistics presented shows that of the 200 employees reporting 47 owned their homes, 34 of which were encumbered by mortgages. The amount paid by these 47 house owners for interest, taxes, water rents, and repairs was $4,388.50, or 11.3 per cent of their annual earnings. There were 125 rent payers whose annual expenditure for rent was $14,392, or 19.5 per cent of their annual earnings. The remaining 28 employees report having paid no interest, water rent, taxes, or house rent. The annual living expenses of the entire number of employees reporting (exclusive of amount paid for interest, water rents, taxes, or house rent) were $88,094.07, the total expenditure being $106,874.57. The total earnings were $128,684.58 and the net savings $21,810.01. The table following shows, by place of birth, the average weekly earnings of the 200 employees and their families, and the percentage of earnings devoted to living expenses, to interest, taxes, rents, etc., and to possible savings.

AVERAGE WEEKLY EARNINGS AND COST OF LIVING OF EMPLOYEES.

CONDITION OF MANUFACTURES.-The statistics regarding the condition of manufactures show, by industries, for each of 768 establishments the number of persons employed July 1, 1896, and July 1, 1897, the percentage of increase or decrease in the number employed, average weekly hours of labor, number of days closed, amount paid in wages during the year ending July 1, 1896, and the year ending July 1, 1897, percentage of increase in wages paid, and estimated proportion of business done. Following is a recapitulation of the facts reported:

WAGES AND HOURS OF LABOR OF EMPLOYEES AND BUSINESS CONDITION OF ESTABLISHMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDING JULY 1, 1897, BY INDUSTRIES.

The total number of establishments represented in the table is 768. On July 1, 1897, there were 87,907 employees on the pay rolls of these establishments, a decrease of 1.2 per cent during the year. The reports from all the establishments show an average of 56 hours of labor per week. During the year ending July 1, 1897, $36,271,729 were paid in wages, a decrease of 10.2 per cent during the year. The proportion of business done of full capacity, as estimated by the manufacturers reporting, shows the average to have been 74 per cent.

MERCANTILE CLERKS.-An inquiry concerning the hours of labor, wages paid, and the provisions made for the comfort of the clerks employed in mercantile establishments in the State was made in April, 1897, by the bureau, by means of a circular and schedule sent through the mail. As a result returns were received from 115 establishments employing 2,694 persons. The following table shows by form of trade the number of persons concerning whom information was received, their sex, weekly wages, and hours of labor:

SEX, WAGES, AND HOURS OF LABOR OF CLERKS EMPLOYED IN MERCANTILE ESTABLISHMENTS.

MUNICIPAL EMPLOYEES.-The presentation consists of returns received from officials of the several cities and boroughs in the State showing the hours of labor, wages, and frequency of payment of municipal employees. The list of occupations for which the data are shown includes skilled and unskilled laborers, and police and fire department officers and employees. No summary is shown.

LABOR LAWS AND COURT DECISIONS.-In this chapter are presented copies of all laws relating to labor which were passed or rejected by the Connecticut legislature during the session of 1897. A few important court decisions respecting labor, which were made during the year in different States, are also quoted.

MARYLAND.

Sixth Annual Report of the Bureau of Industrial Statistics of Maryland. 1897. Charles H. Meyers, Chief of Bureau. 222 pp.

This report treats of the following subjects: Statistics of railroads in the State, 43 pages; culture and manufacture of tobacco, 11 pages; Baltimore-description of the city, the ground-rent system, harbor and

channel, and wholesale trade, 68 pages; list of industries in the State, 9 pages; wages and hours of labor in Baltimore trades, 9 pages; oyster culture, 36 pages; coal industry, 39 pages; financial statement, 1 page.

RAILROADS.-A brief description is given of each of the railroads doing business in the State. This is followed by a series of statistical tables showing the earnings, expenses, and freight and passenger traffic of each road, the number, wages, and hours of labor of the employees, and the number of persons killed and injured. The statistics are presented for the years 1892 and 1897. Returns from 15 railroads for the year ending June 30, 1897, are summarized in the following statement:

Earnings from passenger departments
Earnings from freight departments..
Total earnings from all sources
Total expenses of all kinds..

Number of passengers carried.
Tons of freight carried.

$3,554, 619. 39 6,624, 772. 36 10, 580, 392. 71 7,990, 426. 36 6,974, 650

9, 985, 873

The following table shows the number of railroad employees and their average wages and hours of labor, by occupations, as reported for 1892 and 1897, respectively:

NUMBER AND AVERAGE WAGES AND HOURS OF LABOR OF RAILROAD EMPLOYEES, BY OCCUPATIONS, 1892 AND 1897.

The above figures are not complete for all the 15 railroads, the data in many cases representing returns from only a few of the roads. There were 44 persons killed and 329 injured by accident during the year. Of these, 38 deaths and 280 cases of injury were reported as being due to the carelessness of the killed and injured.

TOBACCO. In this chapter an account is given of the culture and manufacture of Maryland tobacco, its history, and the various stages of its production. The chapter also contains production statistics.

INDUSTRIES.-An alphabetical list is given of all industries in the State, and a table shows the number of farmers in each county and the area of the latter.

WAGES AND HOURS OF LABOR.-The wages, hours of labor, and comments on the same are presented for each of 59 occupations in the city of Baltimore.

OYSTER CULTURE.-This chapter is mainly devoted to extracts from the report of the United States Fish Commission for 1897. Opinions of oystermen and others regarding the condition of the oyster industry in Maryland are also published.

COAL INDUSTRY.-An account is given of the development and present condition of the coal industry, the condition of the miners, and their wages and hours of labor. Statistical tables are presented showing the output for each mine in western Maryland in 1897, and the coal trade, by railways and canal carrying the same, from 1842 to 1897, inclusive. The total output in Maryland in 1897 is given as 3,931,929 tons, an increase of 269,665 over the production in 1896.

6368-No. 17——8