writing,) and from feelings of pride or delicacy would not ask others to write for them. Along with this it is true that the fatiguing manual labor of the day unfits many of them for the use of the pen, and renders them inexpert in expressing their thoughts on paper. While these reasons influenced some from answering, others again were held back by fearfear of discharge from employment in case it became known they testified.

At Crystal City, Jefferson county, the almighty power of the Crystal City Glass Company was used to indirectly intimidate employes from answering when willing to do so. Of this we have sufficient evidence, and the same of other cases in many of the towns and villages of the State, where coal, iron, lead and manufacturing corporations rule supreme. Some operatives and workingmen, to avoid detection, had the timidity to travel to distant post-offices and drop their blanks. And many were the piteous appeals made to us to not reveal their names, while calling upon us to visit their locality and investigate the facts for ourselves.

There is no reason why any employer, after knowing the objects of the Bureau, should refuse to give information such as called for by the blanks sent out, yet some few from nothing less than sheer antagonism to the welfare of their employes, bluntly declined to have anything to do with the Bureau in any way. Much of this bad feeling was engendered by a batch of incorrect statements published in a certain St. Louis evening paper, and purporting to be an account of the Commissioner's visit to the mines of Southeast Missouri. These statements unfortunately led several companies to refuse information to the Bureau, and also brought them into open and unqualified hostility to the aims and purposes of the law, which they ought to have respected.

While it would be far more preferable that the information be given voluntarily, yet in view of the conceded importance of this line of research, no person should be permitted to prevent the execution of the law in refusing or neglecting to give the statistical information asked for. The law provides that the Commissioner shall collect certain information, but it gives him no power to secure that information from those disposed or determined to withhold it. In view of this would it not be well to confer power upon the Bureau to compel replies to inquiries on subjects within its charge? As long as no power providing proper penalties exists in the law, our requests will remain unheeded, and the execution of the law will be impaired.

The exhaustive thoroughness of parliamentary labor commissions in England, the exactness of detail, the questioning of respondents,

the particularity of the information-all their entire method would justify our request for more power and better facilities for securing industrial data. Only upon exact, thorough answers can any results be reached. Such powers are given in the collection of the United States census for 1880, and such were used in taking the Massachusetts census of 1875. Along with this there also exists a necessity for some power to compel county officers to give information, and, if necessary, provision should be made to remunerate them for such services. Much valuable information from the several counties might be obtained from county officers at very trifling cost.

On the whole we have no reason to be discouraged; we are confident that after the publication of this and next year's reports, many erroneous impressions regarding the Bureau will be removed. Doubtlessly, then, as the institution becomes better known and its sphere of usefulness much better appreciated, it will encounter less obstacles, and be recognized as the noblest educator and defender of all that is good and beneficial to the labor interests of the State. In summing up the results of our work for the present year, it would not be out of place first to devote some little space to a sketch of the several labor bureaus, similar to ours, that have been established.

LABOR BUREAUS.

The General Government has always maintained a Bureau of Statistics at Washington; it was instituted with our birth as a Nation, and develops with our needs. But not until quite recently have State Governments begun to recognize the importance of securing such statistics and evidence as have not heretofore been gathered by either State or National census. Hence Bureaus of Labor Statistics have been established. The first State to see the necessity of this special work was Massachusetts; she nobly led the way and was followed in succession by Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Ohio, New Jersey, Minnesota, Missouri, and Illinois. The Massachusetts Bureau is in its eleventh year, and in that period it has done a work of unexampled value and importThe magnificent census of that State for 1875 was the fruit of its labors; and, as a model of excellence and completeness, that census is worthy of example everywhere.

ance.

The Massachusetts Bureau originated-as did the Bureau in this State and in every other-in a desire to satisfy the demands of the in. dustrial classes. In its long experience it has met many embarrassments; its trials and troubles, its lack of power and want of means: have been such as every new bureau of the kind suffers. But now, at last, it has found its way into the confidence of all classes, and com

mands unmeasured respect. Additional legislation and increased appropriations have materially aided its operations, and to-day it stands forth as an indispensable institution of the State.

In 1872 the Pennsylvania Bureau started forth with an appropriation of $7,000 per annum, and, with a sad lack of power, undertook the work of gathering general statistics. In this it failed, and in 1875 it became an adjunct of the State Department of Internal Affairs, with an extension of powers given it to pursue certain special investigations. Its duties and powers were defined by the act regulating the election of a Secretary of State, passed May 11, 1874, and are as follows:

"SECTION 4. The said Bureau shall further collect, compile, and publish such statistics in regard to the wages of labor and the social condition of the laboring classes as may enable the people of the State to judge how far legislation can be invoked to correct existing evils; and in order to facilitate the duties herein imposed, all corporations, firms, or individuals engaged in mining, manufacturing, or other business, and all persons working for wages within this commonwealth, are hereby required to furnish such statistical information as the chief of said Bureau may demand. The chief or duly authorized deputy shall have power to issue subpoenas, administer oaths, and take testimony in all matters relating to the duties herein required of said Bureau. Any corporation, firm, or individual doing business within this commonwealth, who shall neglect or refuse, for thirty days, to answer questions by circular or upon personal application, or who shall refuse to obey the subpoena and give testimony according to the provisions of this act, shall be liable to a penalty of one hundred dollars, to be collected by order of the commissioner of statistics, in an action of debt, in which the commonwealth of Pennsylvania shall be plaintiff. This Bureau shall also be authorized to collect, compile and publish, annually, the productive statistics of agriculture, mining, manufacturing, commercial and other business interests of the State."

Notwithstanding all the power granted in the above section, after three years' experience, the Chief of the Bureau in his report of 1878, complains of inability to secure the returns desired, and claims that the statistics should be gathered by personal visitation, as is now the system in Massachusetts.

Shortly after the creation of the Pennsylvania Bureau, Connecticut, in 1873, established a Bureau, which issued two annual reports; but instead of being conducted in an impartial and proper manner, it was used to the disadvantage of both employer and employe. Then it was that those most eager for its establishment became most clamorous for its abolition, and despairing of any reform in its management, at length they secured its discontinuance in 1875.

From 1873 repeated efforts were made in Ohio to establish a Bureau of Labor Statistics, and in 1877 the movement prevailed. From that time dates the existence of the Ohio Bureau. Two reports have been issued and both are marvels of labor and devoted effort. Hampered

as the Commissioner has been, he has nevertheless endeavored to present and ably has he done it-an earnest, truthful, and telling compendium of evidence and statistics on the labor question.

So also the New Jersey Bureau is worthy of mention. In 1878, it came into life, and since then it has labored faithfully, with but slim resources to aid it, to secure a thorough and honest presentation of facts. Its first report has placed it in the head rank of departments in that State, and its work finds encouragement on every hand.

The Minnesota Bureau has not made any great researches for labor statistics; next year it promises to do so.

Missouri, none the less behind her sister States, was next in order to establish a Labor Bureau. Its origin and history have been already stated in this report.

After Missouri came Illlnois, last and most recent of all, to acknowledge the demand for information on labor matters. Through the efforts of the Socialist representatives in the Legislature from Chicago, this measure was adopted June, 1879. While the law creating every other bureau was modeled after the Massachusetts act, yet Illinois has taken a new departure, and has a body of five Commissioners, who constitute the Bureau.

While these Bureaus are at work, the agitation is going on to create their like in other States. The question has been within the past year before the Legislatures of Connecticut, New York, Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan and California, and there is a likelihood that New York and California will next year adopt the measure. Connecticut will likewise re-establish her Bureau.

As this agitation in the States proceeds, there is a pressure on Congress to institute a National Bureau, corresponding in nature with the State Bureaus. This measure is now before the Senate, and is most likely to pass. The desire for such Bureau first expressed itself in 1866, at the First Annual Convention of Workingmen, at Baltimore, Md. Congress, that year, was called upon to pass the bill, and again, year after year, the measure was urged, but without any significant result until December, 1871, when a bill for a National Bureau passed the House by a vote of 134 to 36. Owing to delay, it did not reach the Senate in time for action. The next year the same bill was brought forward, but died in committee. Nothing more of importance was done from that until 1877, when immense petitions from workingmen poured into both houses of Congress, and asked for the passage of the measure. Acting upon this, and no doubt prompted by other causes, the House in 1878 appointed a special committee to investigate the condition of labor. This was known as "The Hewitt Committee."

And again in 1879 the same work was continued by "The Wright Committee," which is now at work. From the labors of these committees, sufficient has been gathered to show the fitness of inaugurating a permanent National Bureau, where proper investigations and comparisons can be made from year to year.

But here arises the question: "What is the need for any special Bureau of Labor Statistics in either State or Nation?" The answer is most emphatically given in the massive evidence already collected by Bureaus extant. Read the reports of these Bureaus, and at once the conviction follows that no system of statistics or figures, no matter how accurate, can alone set forth the condition of labor. A continuous and properly directed investigation must be made into evils and conditions affecting labor. Testimony, evidence, personal statements, and all that can be gathered to display the sum of labor grievances, are matters that can never be made apparent by bare columns of figures. In saying this, we do not disparage the collection of statistics and their legitimate uses. They have their place. But to depend upon them alone, when investigating matters affecting the interests of working people, is practically of no benefit. No arrangement of statistics, no matter how perfect, can truly demonstrate such subjects as mine ventillation, factory inspection, store order pay, reduced hours of labor, children's employment and education, and many other topics now so universally agitated by workingmen. A perusal of our report will be our best argument.

England for 48 years has conducted a thorough system of inquiry into all that relates to the condition of her wealth producers. Painstaking and complete in this regard have been the labors of her parliamentary commissions; the result is nearly three hundred volumes of evidence and statistics. Upon this have been founded many salutary and efficient reforms in the status of her working people.

France, Germany, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland, and other countries of Europe have likewise their bureaus for the collection of labor statistics. And wherever civilization exists the necessity for labor investigation prevails.

RESULTS OF OUR WORK.

In summing up our work as a beginning, we have reason to feel considerably elated at the results secured. While the work is far from being complete, still the average percentage of returns is large enough. upon which to base calculations as to the general and average wages, earnings, expenses, employment, and hours of labor of the working people of our State. While we admit the returns may not have the