CONTENTS.

Wages and cost of living.

Agreements between employers and employees..

Digest of recent reports of State bureaus of labor statistics:

New Jersey

Digest of recent foreign statistical publications.

Decisions of courts affecting labor..............

Laws of various States relating to labor enacted since January 1, 1896 ..

Page.

703-932

933-936

937-940

941-949

950-963

964-968

To meet the constant and growing demand on the part of the public for regular and adequate statistical information relating to wages and cost of living an extensive investigation was inaugurated in the winter of 1900-1901 by the Bureau of Labor. A number of investigations having for their purpose the collection and publication of statistics of wages and prices had been previously undertaken. These, perhaps, supplied the immediate need, but it was felt that the constant demand for current data could be met only by a very painstaking and complete investigation which would result in thoroughly representative figures for a period of years, and which would serve as the basis for the regular annual collection and presentation of data from the establishments covered. The investigation as originally planned contemplated the collection of data relating to the following subjects:

1. Cost of living, 1901.

2. Retail prices of food, 1890 to 1901.

3. Wages and hours of labor, 1890 to 1901.

The great labor involved in the collection and compilation of the data and the comparatively small force available for the work, however, protracted its completion to such an extent that the Bureau was enabled to include data for the years 1902 and 1903. The large quantity of data secured and the considerable space required for its adequate presentation rendered it necessary to devote two separate reports to the subjects covered, the results of the investigation into cost of living and retail prices forming the basis of the Eighteenth Annual Report of the Bureau, now in press, and those relating to wages and hours of

labor appearing in the forthcoming Nineteenth Annual Report. Owing to considerable delay in the completion of the work and the further delay in the publication of the reports, which will present the facts ascertained in great detail, it has been deemed desirable, as with former reports, to show briefly in the Bulletin of the Bureau the most salient and interesting results of the investigations.

The issue for November, 1903, contained a summary of the results as to cost of living and retail prices of food, the subject of the Eighteenth Annual Report, down to the end of 1902. After the close of 1903 the figures for that year became available and are included in the report. Therefore, that the results for the entire period may be available, they are reproduced here, with the results of the investigation as to wages and hours of labor. An explanation is given of the scope of the investigations and of the methods employed, and the results are here presented in the order of the publication of the reports.

COST OF LIVING AND RETAIL PRICES.

The Eighteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Labor, the report for the year 1903, which is now in the hands of the printer, presents the results of an extended investigation into the cost of living of workingmen's families and the retail prices of the principal staple articles of food used by such families. The object of the investigation into cost of living was to determine the cost of housing, fuel, lighting, food, clothing, etc., in the ordinary family in the United States. The object of the investigation into retail prices was to determine the changes in the prices of the staple articles of food for a period of years, and thereby to determine as nearly as possible the changes in the cost of living in the several years covered.

The figures of income and expenditure furnished in detail by 2,567 families in 33 States, representing the leading industrial centers of the country, comprise the material for the detailed study of the cost of living. Certain data, which do not enter so much into detail, were collected in regard to the cost of living in 25,440 families, and the results are extensively summarized in the full report. The information relating to each family was secured directly from the husband or wife, or both, by the personal visit of a special agent of the Bureau, and the most important inquiries propounded were those relating to the earnings of the husband, the wife, and the children, and the expenditure of the family for housing, fuel, lighting, food, clothing, and other purposes during the year.

The following table shows for five geographical divisions and for the United States as a whole, the number of families investigated in detail, the average size of family, the average income per family, the average

expenditure per family for all purposes, and the average expenditure per family for food, the figures being for the year 1901:

NUMBER OF FAMILIES, AVERAGE SIZE OF FAMILY, AVERAGE INCOME PER FAMILY, AVERAGE EXPENDITURE PER FAMILY FOR ALL PURPOSES, AND AVERAGE EXPENDITURE PER FAMILY FOR FOOD, DURING THE YEAR 1901.

This table shows that the 2,567 families consisted on an average of 5.31 persons, 0.7 person above the average of private families in the whole country as shown by the census of 1900. This larger size of family was not due to any intentional selection of larger families, for the only basis of selection was that the head of the family must be a wage worker or a salaried man earning not over $1,200 during the year, and must be able to give information in regard to his expenditures in detail. The average income for the year of these 2,567 families from all sources was $827.19. The average expenditure for all purposes was $768.54 and the average expenditure for food was $326.90 per family, or 42.54 per cent of the average expenditure for all purposes.

The two summaries which immediately follow are also based on the facts ascertained by the special inquiry covering 2,567 families. From these it was found possible to secure accurate data not only as to the total expenditures for food, but also as to the quantity and cost of each of the several articles consumed during the year. Data in minute detail were also secured from these families as to their expenditures for other purposes. The summary showing the average quantity and cost of the food consumed in the 2,567 families during the year follows:

AVERAGE QUANTITY AND COST PER FAMILY OF THE VARIOUS ARTICLES OF FOOD -CONSUMED.