Vol. VIII. No. 95. 
IMPERIAL INSTITUTE JOURNAL. 
[November, 1902.] 29 t 
so extensively made in the past are of little or no value in interpreting the 
relation of a soil to water under field conditions. This power of soils to 
transport wafer through capillary action is particularly important in 
connection with problems relating to alkali soils. As to the influence of 
dissolved salts on the capillary rise of soil waters, it has been found that 
sodium carbonate has a marked effect in apparently facilitating the rise of 
water, at least in dry soils. This is attributed, in part at any rate, to the 
solvent action of the carbonate on any grease that may be present on the 
surface of the soil particles, which would consequently offer a cleaner 
surface to the ascending water. As bearing upon the relations of carbon 
dioxide (carbonic acid gas) to the soil, it has been found that if specially 
purified quartz sand be left exposed to the air it will take up by absorption 
200 times as much carbon dioxide as would be contained in a volume of 
free air corresponding to the total volume of the interstitial space in the 
soil. The atmosphere, within ordinary soils, contains from 30 to 200 times 
the percentage of carbon dioxide found in the free atmosphere above the 
soil, so that the amount of carbon dioxide actually absorbed and held by the 
soil particles must be enormous. Soils undoubtedly differ in their capacity 
for holding carbon dioxide, but the amount in any case is probably very 
great. This propensity of the soil to absorb large quantities of carbon 
dioxide has an important bearing upon sodium carbonate, which constitutes 
the worst form of alkali in soils. "When the carbonates of soda, lime, or 
magnesia are brought into the presence of carbon dioxide under normal 
conditions they are very largely converted into bicarbonates. In the case of 
the lime and magnesia salts this greatly increases the solubility of the 
material. As regards sodium carbonate, it is, after being converted into 
the bicarbonate, much less harmful to plants. Laboratory investigations 
show that, whilst sodium carbonate is one of the most harmful salts, sodium 
bicarbonate is one of the least harmful. Anything that will increase the 
amount of free carbon dioxide in the soil, such as decaying organic matter, 
should have a tendency to convert the carbonate into the bicarbonate, and 
so diminish the danger from the presence of the sodium salts. In view of 
their economic importance, not only in the “ bad lands ” of the United 
States, but in a considerable area of the Canadian prairie adjoining the 
49th parallel of latitude, it is satisfactory to know that these matters are 
undergoing further investigation in the laboratory, at the hands of Dr. Milton 
Whitney, chief of the Division of Soils at Washington, and his colleagues. 
-♦ — — 
LABOUR RETROSPECT. 
United Kingdom. — The extent of the backward movement in industry 
can be deduced from the returns published in the October number of the 
Labour Gazette . The falling off is most marked in the shipbuilding and 
engineering trades. On the other hand, employment for miners has remained 
good, and some branches of the textile industries have improved. In the 
2 2 r trade unions, with an aggregate membership of 553,870, making returns 
27,522 (or 5 # o per cent.) were reported as unemployed at the end of 
September, as compared with 37 per cent, in the 216 unions, with a member- 
ship of 542,917, from which returns were received for September, 1901. 
The mean percentage of unemployed returned at the end of September 
during the 10 years, 1892-1901, was 4*6. In coal-mining, employment 
continued good, and was about the same as a year ago. The pits worked 
on an average 5 '35 days per week, and the number employed was 1*5 per cent, 
greater than a year ago. In iron-mining and in the pig-iron industry the 
days worked remained up to the average of the past twelve months. In iron 
and steel manufacture, employment was worse than the previous month, 
and showed a greater decline as compared with the previous year. The 
total volume of employment (taking into account both the number employed 
and the number of shifts worked) shows a decline of 2‘i per cent, as 
compared with a month ago, and 57 per cent, as compared with a 
year ago. 
The tinplate trade furnished a happy exception. At the end of September, 
895 mills were at work compared with 402 at the end of August, and 378 
a year ago. Employment in most branches of the engineering, metal and 
shipbuilding trades showed a falling off when compared with August, and 
was considerably worse than a year ago. The building trades continued 
dull, the percentage of unemployed union members among carpenters and 
joiners at the end of September being 37 as compared with 2'S at tire 
end of August, and 2'S in September, 1901. The percentage for plumbers 
was 5 '9 as compared with 6‘i in August, and 57 in September of last 
year. Employment in the spinning branch of the cotton trade showed a 
decline, and was moderate. In the weaving branch it has improved, but is 
still only moderate. 
Information respecting cotton factories employing about 82,000 women 
and girls, shows that 82 per cent, of those in spinning mills were working 
in mills giving full employment during the w r hole month, compared with 
85 per cent, during August, and 88 per cent, a year ago. The corresponding 
percentage of full time for those employed in weaving factories was 
79 per cent, during September, compared with 72 per cent, during August, 
and 69 per cent, a year ago. 
The arrangements are now practically complete for the commission of 
enquiry which Mr. Alfred Mosely, C.M.G., is taking across the Atlantic at 
the end of the month to study the relations of capital and labour and the 
conditions of production in the United States. The delegates will probably 
number 25, and nearly all the societies that were invited to send representatives 
have now made their selection. The following is a list of the institutions 
which are represented : — Amalgamated Carpenters and Joiners, Operative 
Bricklayers, Operative Plasterers, Amalgamated Engineers, Ironfounders of 
Great Britain and Ireland, Boiler Makers and Iron and Steel Ship Builders, 
Associated Iron and Steel Workers, Associated Shipwrights, Sheffield Trades, 
Amalgamated Operative Cotton Spinners, Amalgamated Tailors, National 
Union of Boot and Shoe Operatives, National Amalgamated Furnishing 
Trades, Amalgamated Leather Workers, Amalgamated Lithographic Printers, 
London Consolidated Bookbinders, Amalgamated Paper Makers, Northern 
Counties Amalgamated Weavers, Blast Furnacemen, London Trades Council, 
Trades Union Parliamentary Committee. Special enquiry will be made into 
the working of the Civic Federation, a powerful body, comprising some of the 
best minds of the country, which is prepared, on the invitation of both parties, 
to arbitrate on questions they cannot settle by themselves. This organisation 
offers its services at the first signs of a dispute, before any bitterness has been 
imported into the question at issue. The results of its mediation are, in 
many cases, excellent, and Mr. Mosely hopes that a similar organisation may 
be introduced into this country. 
In the report recently prepared by a special Commission appointed by 
the British Iron Trade Association to study the differences between American 
and British labour, Mr. James, who gave special attention to the steel 
industry, refers to the idea that the American workman works harder than his 
British colleague, and says this is not strictly correct. “ They are attentive 
and quick at manipulating levers and similarly easy work. They are also 
much more desirous of getting out large quantities than in England. They 
are better paid and more regular in their attendance at the works, loss of 
time through drinking habits or otherwise not being tolerated.’’ Mr. Sahlin, 
an expert in blast furnace work, in his report, says that “ the American work- 
man generally aspires to higher grades of labour, leaving the purely manual 
labour to workmen from other countries. Thus, it is,” he says, “ that around 
American blast furnaces the American is found in a very decided minority. 
He may be foreman, master mechanic, blast engineer, locomotive driver or 
stove tender, but he will not work S4 hours per week shovelling ore or wheel- 
ing scrap. For these duties are employed, in the south, the negroes, and, at 
northern furnaces, immigrants, mostly Irish, Slavs, or Italians." As to the 
cost of living, Mr, Jeans declares that “ the average American workman, in 
most of the essentials of life, can live, mutatis mutandis , as cheaply as he can 
in the old country.” Commenting on this report, Bradstreets remarks that all 
of this reads very nicely, were it not for the evidence that a very large section 
of the community — in other words, the labour organizations — are apparently 
not satisfied with present conditions, and are evidently aiming to transplant 
the system of restriction of individual effort, which has been brought to such 
perfection in the United Kingdom— The tendency towards the reduction of 
hours noted of late years is an example of this. That this reduction of time 
must result in a greater initial cost, which will cripple the employer in com- 
peting with the rest of the world in the field of international trade, would 
seem a foregone conclusion were it not for the fact, proved often in the past, 
that necessity will cause the invention of machinery, which will act as a 
counterbalance, and still further lessen cost. The net result must, however, 
be an unsettlement of the basic conditions which govern productive industry, 
and one which, from the standpoint of labour itself, will, in the long run, 
prove detrimental. It would seem as if the best interests of all concerned 
would lie in a clearer view of the real circumstances governing production, 
and that the American workman should, like the German, and unlike the 
British workman, see that his interest, like that of his employer, lies in the 
cheapening of cost, or at least in keeping it down to a point which will allow 
of us underselling the foreign producer. 
Colonies. — Regarding the prospects of employment for whites in the 
new colonies, many conflicting statements have been made. 'The Trades 
and Labour Council of Cape Colony describe the labour market there as 
being greatly overstocked. They state that about a hundred artisans lately 
reached Cape Town under the auspices of a labour agent in London, who 
had promised them immediate employment upon landing, and that none of 
these men found any work. In the 'Transvaal and the Orange River Colony 
first-class mechanics in the building trades are in request, whilst in Natal an 
over-supply already exists ; the obvious lesson being that men in that 
line t had better stop at home. The immigrant with capital and special 
knowledge comes under another category, and is generally welcome. A 
young engineer or surveyor starting in Cape Town with ^200 to live on 
while looking round, will not have to wait long before finding employ- 
ment, and, once started, his advance should be rapid. The new colonies, 
without doubt, possess great possibilities of development, but too great 
insistence cannot be made on the point that much capital must be expended 
before this development is effected. And until the money is in the country, 
the demand for fresh labour will not be great. If the influx of whites 
