No regular number of employees reported. Care of public grounds and parks is let out to contractors. The work on public buildings is also contracted for. No half-holidays were granted.

The number employed in the above departments varies as follows: Cemetery, 15 to 30; health, 24; park and public grounds, 14 to 30; public buildings, seven to 15; sewer, 98 to 481; paving, 15 to 20; street cleaning, 75 to 100; water, 60 to 74. No half-holidays allowed. Street lighting done by contract.

Analysis of the foregoing presentation would be a mere repetition of facts shown in the tables. That comparisons may readily be drawn between the same departments of work in the different municipalities, the following table is inserted showing departments and cities with rates of wages per diem:

Rates of Wages of City Labor: By Departments and Cities.

Rates of Wages of City Labor: By Departments and Cities

Concluded.

In

In the table just presented the branches or grades of labor under each department have not been considered separately, but the lowest and highest rates of wages prevailing in each department are given in each case. some instances where only three quotations were reported, all have been taken. Wide variations in wages are seen between the cities. Considering the highest maximum wage, Boston leads in every department except the health department (where Brockton takes precedence), and the water department where New Bedford equals Boston-both cities paying $5 maximum daily wage.

In order to compare the wages of laborers in the different cities of Massachusetts we have brought together in the next table the daily rates of wages paid municipal laborers, by cities, no distinction being made between skilled and unskilled labor.

It will be seen that $2 is the prevailing daily wage in 10 cities of the Commonwealth. North Adams pays the lowest daily wage, $1.50; New Bedford pays from $1.50 to $2.25; Woburn pays $1.66 and $1.75 a day; Pittsfield and Springfield follow with $1.75 a day; Fitchburg, $1.75 to $1.80; Waltham, $1.80 and $2; Brockton, $2.25; Everett, Fall River, Lowell, and Worcester as high as $2.50 a day, while Boston pays city laborers from $2.00 to $3.50.

The wages paid laborers in the city of Boston are classified by departments and divisions of labor in the following table:

Wages Paid Laborers in the City of Boston: By Departments.

The highest wages of laborers in Boston are paid in the sewer division of the street department, and in the water department, the former ranging from $2 to 2.75, and the latter varying from $2 to $3.50 a day. To show the number of laborers receiving each specified wage in the city of Boston we insert the following tabular statement showing the rates of wages paid, and the number employed at such rates:

Out of 1,889 so-called laborers employed, 1,490, or 78.88 per cent, receive $2 a day; 343, or 18.16 per cent, receive over $2 a day but less than $2.50; 49, or 2.59 per cent, receive $2.50 but under $3; six laborers receive $3, while one receives $3.50.

Half-holiday for City Employees.

The following law, passed by the Massachusetts legislature of 1898, provided for a half-holiday for city employees:

The City Council of a city may provide that the employees of such city including laborers and mechanics and all other classes of workmen employed by said city shall be allowed one half-holiday in each week without loss of pay during such portions of the year as the City Council determines. [Revised Laws, 1902, chap. 26, sec. 22.]

Many of the city councils have taken no action whatever on the above statute, while others have issued orders making the Saturday halfholiday operative during a portion of each year. Cities taking action have chosen Saturday as the half-holiday. In some instances the men received the half-holiday on Saturday, but worked the full 48 hours a week making up on the other five days the time lost on Saturday.

We append a résumé of the action taken in cities of the Commonwealth on the Saturday half-holiday movement in 1903.

Boston. On January 2, 1903, the Mayor issued the following order to the heads of departments:

In accordance with the request of the City Council you are hereby directed to allow a half-holiday on Saturdays during the year 1903, without loss of pay and in part compensation for their services, to all laborers and mechanics whose services can be dispensed with without detriment to the public service. Employees whose services cannot be dispensed with on Saturday afternoons are not to be allowed extra pay.

Cambridge. Saturday half-holiday was granted for six months of the year.

Fall River and Lawrence. City employees had Saturday afternoons but made up time on the other five days.

Holyoke. All out-door departments, excepting the park, had Saturday half-holiday during the Summer, but full 48 hours a week were made up.

Lowell. The following departments did not work Saturday afternoons, but made up the time during the week: Park, sewer, street, and

water.

Lynn. Saturday half-holiday was granted city employees during June, July, August, and September.

Medford. Saturday half-holiday was in force for eight weeks. Salem. All city employees had Saturday half-holiday for two months.

Somerville. Saturday half-holiday was granted to the following departments during July and August: Health, highway, public grounds, sewer, and water.

Taunton. All city employees had half-holiday on Saturdays during June, July, and August.

The following cities did not grant the half-holiday to laborers and mechanics in 1903:

Beverly, Brockton, Chelsea, Chicopee, Everett, Fitchburg, Gloucester, Haverhill, Malden, Marlborough, Melrose, New Bedford, Newton, North Adams, Northampton, Pittsfield, Quincy, Springfield, Waltham, Woburn, and Worcester. In Chelsea, the permanent men received one week's vacation in the Summer without loss of pay. In Springfield, the laborers were allowed one hour on Saturday, their work closing at four P.M.