1910, pp. 83). Comparisons as to production and trade movements are made for a period of forty years. Freight rates are also analyzed.

There has just appeared a belated printing of a verbatim report of the legislative debate and hearings held by the legislature of Illinois from February to May, 1909, in a document entitled, Deep Water Way Debate: Forty-Sixth General Assembly, Illinois, 1909 (Springfield, 1910, pp. 387).

The investigation of trade conditions abroad, authorized by the Act of June 17, 1910, has been carried into South America. Special Agents Series of the Bureau of Manufacturers, No. 43, is entitled The Trade Development in Argentina, by J. D. Whelpley (Washington, 1911, pp. 94). Special attention is given to the meat production of Argentina.

The Bureau of the Census has issued Bulletin 110, Supply and Distribution of Cotton, for the year ending August 31, 1910 (Washington, 1911, pp. 32), the sixth of this series, presenting the usual statistics in regard to the domestic crop, and containing chapters on the world's consumption of cotton, and the relative importance of the leading textile fibres.

Corporations

The increasing scope of the supervision by the Interstate Commerce Commission is seen in the First Annual Report of the Statistics of Express Companies in the United States, for the year ending June 30, 1909. (Washington, 1911, pp. 82). Revenues and expenses have been adjusted to rules of accounting similar to those prescribed for other agencies of transportation. Apart from the tables, there is a discussion of accounting rules, the character of express service, operating contracts, and computation of charges. In the appendix is an account of the history, organization, and capitalization of express companies.

The Synopsis of the Proceedings of the Railroad and Warehouse Commission of Illinois, from July to September, 1910 (Springfield), contains the decision of the commission in regard to rates charged by express companies (pp. 9-11). Rates are held to be excessive and in many instances discriminatory. Terminal charges should be uniform, irrespective of distance; and transportation charges should be based upon weight and distance.

Complaint Docket, No. 1001, before the same commission gives a decision affecting coal rates (November 28, 1910). The commission.

held that the rate should represent actual cost, six per cent upon the investment, and an additional sum covering the actual annual interest upon bonds sold for the purpose of properly building and equipping the roads. The railroads were, therefore, granted an increase of seven cents per ton, instead of ten cents asked for.

The Annual Report of the Attorney General of the United States (Washington, 1910, pp. 91), summarizes the prosecutions of the year under the Anti-Trust law. Questions relating to public lands occupy more than the usual space.

The Eleventh Annual Report of the Corporation Commission of North Carolina (Raleigh, 1910, pp. 702), for the year 1909, contains a compilation of state banking laws, freight and export tariffs, a digest of complaints and decisions, and a statement of assessments for taxation of the property of public service corporations.

In 1909 the legislature of Michigan gave to the state jurisdiction over the conditions under which public service corporations may issue stocks, bonds, and other securities. According to the Third Annual Report of the Michigan Railroad Commission, for 1909 (Lansing, 1910, pp. 1020), the opposition displayed at the time of the passage of the law, has now disappeared. Securities are said to find a more ready sale and to bring a better price.

On January 19, the Public Service Commission of the Second District, New York, held a conference with representatives of electric railways to consider the question of accidents. The proceedings are reported in the Electric Railway Journal, for January 28, 1911.

In the Daily Consular Trade Report, January 25, 1911, is an eighth report on the "The Legal Status of Trusts in Germany." Appended is a brief bibliography.

In the Report of the Railroad Commission of Wisconsin, for 1910 (Madison, 1911), comment is made on the stock and bond law, as construed by the Supreme Court in the case of the State ex rel. Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie Railroad Company vs. Railroad Commission (137 Wis. 80). According to this decision the commission is limited in its inquiry to determining simply the legal competency of the corporation to issue securities in question. As the wider inquiry of financial competency is denied, the commission recommends in the interest of investors an amendment of the law whereby a decision may be rendered as to whether the securities are reasonably required.

Labor

The Twenty-fourth Annual Report of the United States Commissioner of Labor is devoted to the subject of Workmen's Insurance and Compensation Systems in Europe. It presents a study of various systems, including insurance against accident, sickness, old age, invalidity and unemployment, as developed in eleven European countries. The first volume which will soon be ready for distribution contains chapters on Austria and Germany by Dr. Henry J. Harris, on Belgium by Dr. E. H. Lewinski-Corwin, and on Denmark by Dr. J. E. Pope. The second volume which is soon to follow will contain chapters on Great Britain by L. D. Clark; Italy, Russia, and Spain by Dr. I. M. Rubinow; Norway by Dr. J. E. Pope; and Sweden by H. O. Hanson. It will also contain original texts or translations of accident compensation laws which have been adopted up to the present time in all foreign countries.

A comprehensive account of the condition of woman and child workers engaged in the cotton textile industry is given in the recently issued report of Commissioner Charles P. Neill (published as Sen. Doc. No. 645, 61 Cong., 2 Sess.). The report which comprises over 1000 pages, was prepared under the direction of Special Agent Walter B. Palmer and Chief Editor Charles H. Verrill. This is the first part of the extensive investigation on the condition of woman and child wage-earners in the United States recently authorized by special act of Congress. The study covers the extent of child labor, violation of child labor laws, illiteracy and school attendance, hours of labor and earnings, sanitary conditions of mills, and family conditions of the workers.

The Report of the Department of Labour of Canada, for the year ending March 31, 1910 (Ottawa, 1910, pp. 225-231), furnishes a useful working tool for the library of labor literature. It summarizes the varied investigations of the department and includes a list of all the special articles published in the Labour Gazette. The operation of the Industrial Disputes Act of 1907 receives special attention, and with it is an account of proposed legislation along similar lines in several of the American commonwealths. The Appendix gives detailed statements of proceedings under the Act.

The Commissioner of Industrial and Labor Statistics of Maine has endeavored to make a statistical study of the household servant problem. 1500 blanks were sent out to employers and 333 replies were received and tabulated. The questions covered scope of work,

employers, wages, privileges, training, nationality, etc. Generous extracts from letters from employers are printed, and though the results are indefinite, the report has considerable interest. (TwentyFourth Annual Report, Augusta, 1910.)

The report of the Senate Committee on Wages and Prices of Commodities has been supplemented by the publication of a Topical Digest of Evidence, submitted in the hearings held by the Committee (Washington, 1910, pp. xiv).

In Kansas, delegates of trade unions and labor organizations are called together once a year by authority of statute law (1910), to hold a meeting at the state capitol. Provision is made for representation according to membership in local organizations. The secretary is the Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor. The proceedings of the last meeting, the Twelfth Annual Convention of the State Society of Labor and Industry, held February, 1910 (Topeka: Department of Labor, pp. 51), gives a list of the societies represented and reports of addresses and resolutions.

The Massachusetts Commission on the Inspection of Factories, Workshops, Mercantile Establishments and Other Buildings, was created by a legislative resolve in June, 1910, to carry out a comprehensive investigation of the subject of inspection in all its branches. The commission decided, however, to confine its work to the field of industrial inspection. Its report, submitted to the legislature in January, 1911, contains a searching criticism of the present system of industrial inspection, which the commission finds to be generally inefficient. The unique feature of this system is the separation of health and police functions, the former being assigned to the State Board of Health only, the latter to the District Police. The commission points out the disadvantages resulting from this division of authority and responsibility, and recommends the complete reorganization of the service under a single department. The bill drawn for this purpose provides for the establishment of an unpaid board of industrial inspection, of five members, to which are transferred all the powers and duties in this field now exercised by the State Board of Health and the District Police. The board is to appoint a chief commissioner and two deputy commissioners, one of whom shall have charge of the enforcement of laws relating to health, and the other, of general laws relating to the employment of labor. The number of inspectors appointed under the act is not to exceed fifty. Provision is also made for the appointment of a registrar of industrial

statistics. Besides its chief recommendation for the creation of a separate department of industrial inspection, the commission offers. numerous suggestions for the improvement of the service.

The Chief Factory Inspector of Illinois, Mr. Edgar T. Davies (Springfield), has prepared separate reprints of the Illinois Ten Hour Law and the Decision of the Supreme Court sustaining its constitutionality; and also of the Brief of Samuel A. Harper, counsel for the Bureau.

The subject of employers' liability receives special consideration in the Tenth Biennial Report of the Bureau of Labor of West Virginia, 1908-10 (Charleston, 1910, pp. 297). Chapter V (pp. 119-232) contains a summary of common law principles, followed by reprints of the statute laws of the several states.

In the Twentieth Annual Report of the Chief Factory Inspector of Pennsylvania (Harrisburg, 1910, pp. 50), it is noted that there is a trend toward a preference for girl employees under 16 years of age in industries open to girls. The number, however, of boys and girls employed under the 16 year age limit is considerably less than in 1905. Undigested data in regard to the new child labor law in Michigan may be found in the First Annual Report of the Department of Labor of Michigan (Lansing, 1910).

More descriptive is the account of the enforcement of the child labor law of South Carolina in the First Annual Report of the Committee of Agriculture, Commerce and Industries (Columbia, 1910, pp. 73).

A special investigation of child labor in Wisconsin is reported upon in the Fourteenth Biennial Report of the Bureau of Labor and Industrial Statistics of Wisconsin (Madison). This was based on the study of the condition of 4009 children under sixteen years of age, who were obliged to secure permits before engaging in employment. Tabulations are made for sex, age, health, education, earnings, fatigue, danger, moral environment, size of family to which child belongs, nativity of fathers, education of parents, and earnings of families. The physical consequences are not regarded as injurious, but the intellectual, moral and social results are considered to be seriously harmful.

The fifth volume of a series of reports dealing with the earnings and hours of labor of workpeople in the United Kingdom has been published by the Board of Trade. This report, Agriculture (London: Wyman, 1910, pp. xxvi, 58), is the third which has been published on