EXCHANGE STATE COLLEGE JUN 6 '34 STATISTICS OF LABOR-1915. PREFATORY NOTE. The matter presented in this volume constitutes the Forty-sixth Annual Report on the Statistics of Labor for Massachusetts, and consists of nine parts issued by this Bureau during the fiscal year ending December 1, 1915. Beginning with the year 1913 all of the publications of the Labor Division of the Bureau have been styled "Labor Bulletins", and a certain number of copies have been set aside for binding and publication at the end of the year under the title of the "Annual Report on the Statistics of Labor." The nine parts included in the present report continue the series of Labor Bulletins as 104 to 112 respectively. The subject matter of these bulletins may be briefly described as follows: PART I. Handbook of the Labor Laws of Massachusetts. This compilation includes the laws relative to labor which were in force in Massachusetts at the close of the legislative session of 1914. In this Handbook the various provisions have been classified by subject instead of being arranged in the order of the passage of the several Acts, the purpose being to present a Handbook of the greatest convenience to the layman. PART II. Sixth Annual Report on Labor Organizations for the year 1913. In this report attention has been confined principally to the presentation of statistics relative to the number and membership of labor organizations in the Commonwealth and the employment of their members. A chart, showing graphically the fluctuations in unemployment in the United Kingdom, Germany, New York State and Massachusetts during the period 1908 to 1913, has also been included. PART III. Fourteenth Annual Directory of Labor Organizations in Massachusetts, 1915. In addition to the facts with reference to local organizations (name, location, place of meeting, name and address of secretary and of business agent) the names of all national and international organizations in the United States, with the names and addresses of their respective secretaries, have been included, in so far as these facts were obtainable. [iii] PART IV. Fifth Annual Report on Union Scale of Wages and Hours of Labor in Massachusetts, 1914. The information presented in this report was obtained principally from local trade unions in the Commonwealth whose members were known to be working under a time-rate system. To some extent information was also obtained from employers in order to supplement or confirm the data obtained from trade union officials. PART V. Immigrant Aliens Destined for and Emigrant Aliens Departed from Massachusetts, 1914. For use in this report, data having particular reference to Massachusetts were selected from the Annual Report of the Commissioner-General of Immigration for the year ending June 30, 1914. The report also contains comparative data for the twentyyear period 1895-1914, and a chart showing the volume of immigration to the United States and to Massachusetts during the same twenty-year period. PART VI. Wages and Hours of Labor in the Manufacture of Paper Products in Massachusetts. The information presented in this report was, for the most part, secured directly by special agents of the Bureau who visited the establishments in the industries studied and in most cases personally copied the desired data from the pay-rolls. This investigation supplements an investigation made at the same time and along similar lines in the paper and wood pulp industry in Massachusetts, the results of which were published as Part VII of the Report for 1914 and issued as Labor Bulletin No. 103. PART VII. Labor Legislation in Massachusetts, 1915. This part consists of a compilation of the Acts relating to labor which were passed by the Legislature of Massachusetts during the session of 1915, and is intended to serve as a supplement to the Handbook of Labor Laws (constituting Part I of the present report and issued as Labor Bulletin 104) which contains the text of labor laws in effect at the close of the legislative session in 1914. Certain other matter having a direct bearing upon the labor legislation of the present year was also included in the compilation for 1915. PART VIII. Labor Bibliography, 1914. This bibliography, constituting the fourth annual publication of this character issued by this Bureau, includes a wide range of important titles both of books and of articles in periodicals, having reference to labor, broadly defined, which appeared during the calendar year 1914. An endeavor has been made to include the more important titles of publications on this subject which appeared during the year in English, French, German and, in so far as obtainable, in other languages. PART IX. Seventh Annual Report on Labor Organizations for the year 1914. The usual statistics relative to the number and membership of labor organizations in the Commonwealth and the employment of organized workmen have been presented in this part, together with a general review of the labor movement in Massachusetts during the year, the latter constituting a new feature of the report. Owing to unavoidable delay in publishing the report on labor organizations for 1913, which constitutes Part II of the present report, two parts on a similar subject are necessarily included in this volume. Two charts have been included, the one showing the fluctuations in the number and membership of labor organizations in Massachusetts during the period 1908 to 1914, and the other showing the fluctuations in unemployment in the United Kingdom, Germany, New York State and Massachusetts during the same period. The several parts of the present report have been prepared under the immediate supervision of Mr. Roswell F. Phelps, Chief of the Labor Division of this Bureau and of Mr. Frederick J. de Sloovere, Legal Assistant, by whom the compilations of the labor laws have been prepared. STATE HOUSE, BOSTON, November 30, 1915. CHARLES F. GETTEMY, Director, Bureau of Statistics. |