42 



8CIENCJE. 



[Vol. IX., No. 206 



economic questions would be of unusual value. 

 The report, which has just been laid before the 

 Connecticut legislature, amply justifies the ex- 

 pectations entertained concerning it. Guided both 

 by the judgment of the chief and a special resolu- 

 tion of the general assembly, the investigations 

 undertaken by the bureau during the past year 

 were restricted to a few topics, and then made as 

 thorough and searching as possible. 



The specific questions under consideration were 

 weekly payment and child-labor; and Professor 

 Hadley's report concerning them may be divided 

 into three parts. The first is a bare summary of 

 results, possibly intended for such legislators as 

 lack either the time or the inclination to study 

 the tables of statistics for themselves. The second 

 part is made up of two essays, — on labor legis- 

 lation and its enforcement, and on the credit 

 system. The third part consists of the tables of 

 statistics, with a brief explanation of them. 



In taking up the subject of weekly payment, 

 Professor Hadley first determined the facts as they 

 are. He found, that, of the factory operatives in 

 Connecticut, a little less than two-fifths are paid 

 weekly, a little more than two-fifths monthly, and 

 about one-fifth fortnightly. Aside from salaried 

 persons, it is found that something more than three- 

 sevenths of the hands are paid by the piece, the 

 remainder by the day. The percentage of those 

 paid by piece-work is much greater among the 

 female than among the male operatives. No con- 

 nection is found to exist between payment by the 

 piece and weekly payments. The concerns that 

 have not adopted a system of weekly payments 

 offer various explanations of their action. Some 

 make no change from their custom of monthly 

 payments because they find no demand for any 

 change ; others believe weekly payments to be 

 impracticable,; still others believe weekly pay- 

 ments to be a bad thing for the operatives them- 

 selves. 



Of the 70,000 hands specified in the report, 

 20,000 are women, and about 3,000 are children. 

 The number of children really employed. Professor 

 Hadley believes to be greater than shown by the 

 figures. With the children, monthly payment is 

 most frequent. It is an interesting fact, too, that 

 the larger the factory, the greater is the percent- 

 age of women employed. The number of children 

 reported, on the other hand, is greatest in mills 

 employing between one hundred and two hundred 

 hands. The employment of women reaches the 

 largest proportions in the manufacture of wear- 

 ing-apparel ; that of children, in textile industry, 

 where the percentage averages about nine. The 

 children are principally occupied in tending 

 machinery. The returns as to the wages of these 



children show a scale of wages running from 

 about a dollar a day (paid to hands over eighteen 

 years of age) to thirty-five cents a day (paid to the 

 youngest hands). 



Of 65,627 hands, about five per cent are em- 

 ployed 54 hours or less per week, twenty-two per 

 cent from 54 to 59 hours, over fifty-six per cent 

 from 59i^ to 60 hours, while sixteen per cent have 

 an average working-day of more than 10 hours. 

 The longer hours prevail generally in the textile 

 industries, though barbers reported the longest 

 hours of all, — 93 hours weekly. The cigar- 

 makers, the only trade in which the eight-hour 

 system was carried into effect, show a decided 

 reduction in this respect. In concluding this 

 portion of his report. Professor Hadley says : — 



" We thus reach the conclusion that monthly 

 payments, long hours, and child-labor go hand in 

 hand. This fact is in one sense precisely what 

 might have been expected ; yet the results are so 

 noticeable that they will bear repeating. First, 

 practically none of the weekly payment mills 

 have a normal working-day of over ten hours. 

 Second, leaving out cases of fortnightly or mixed 

 payment, a minority of men, a majority of women, 

 and a two-thirds majority of children, are paid 

 monthly. Third, less than one-eighth of the 

 men, but more than one-fifth of the women, and 

 more than one-third of the children, are employed 

 regularly over ten hours a day. Fourth, the coun- 

 ties and industries which show the largest propor- 

 tion of weekly payment, show the smallest pro- 

 portions of women and children employed, and 

 vice versa.'''' 



Now, these three things, — child-labor, long 

 hours, monthly payments, — when found co-ex- 

 isting, indicate a society on a low industrial level. 

 Any one of them may be, in exceptional cases, 

 necessary ; but the three in conjunction indicate 

 an evil which the state is justified in attempting 

 to remedy by legislation. The discussion which 

 follows as to the practical difficulties of labor legis- 

 lation and the proper attitudes of labor organiza- 

 tions toward the law, is in every way commend- 

 able, and we regret that lack of space forbids our 

 reproducing the most important portions of it. 

 One or two extracts must suffice. 



"To make a law worth any thing at all, some- 

 body must be willing to incur the hardship and 

 odium, and, if need be, actual danger, in order 

 that its provisions may be carried out. If a body 

 of workmen demand legislation, and then, either 

 through apathy or timidity, are not prepared to 

 support the officer of the law in its execution, 

 they are simply encouraging sham legislation. 

 It is perfectly easy for a legislator to vote for a 

 law which wiU satisfy the demands of extremists 



