To His Excellency, JAMES E. CAMPBELL, Governor of Ohio:

COLUMBUS, January 22, 1891.

SIR: I have the honor to herewith submit to the General Assembly, through you the fourteenth annual report of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Respectfully yours,

HARVARD

JOHN MCBRIDE, Commissioner.

UNIVERSITY

MAY 8.941

Commissioner's Report.

BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS,

COLUMBUS, OHIO, January, 1891.

INTRODUCTION AND RECOMMENDATIONS.

The General Assembly, at its last session, changed the name of this Bureau from the "Bureau of the Statistics of Labor" to that of the "Bureau of Labor Statistics."

As the changing of the name involved no change in the character of work to be performed, I have thought best to continue the annual numberings of reports, hence submit this as the fourteenth annual report of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The year of 1890 was one of industrial activity and, in the main, prosperous alike to capital and labor.

I took charge of the Bureau on April 8, 1890, and after carefully reviewing the subjects investigated and treated upon in former reports of the Bureau, I concluded that the subject of capital and labor, and their relations to each other, as invested in the industrial enterprises within the State, was the one all important subject that required investigation.

The collection of statistical data, such as I desired for this report, was a somewhat difficult task. The methods by which statistics were obtained consisted: First, in the sending out by mail of thousands of blank schedules to manufacturers and producers to be filled out and returned by them in stamped envelopes which were inclosed to them. Second, by the employment of one general agent who traveled over the State and visited business firms for the purpose of securing information from them. Third, by the superintendents of the "Free Public Employment offices" in the cities of Cleveland, Cincinnati, Columbus, Dayton and Toledo, canvassing the firms operating within their respective cities.

The system of collecting information by mail is an absolute failure, but if a more severe and direct penalty was imposed by law upon all who refused or neglected to promptly and correctly fill out the schedules sent out from the Bureau this system might be made effective.

The work done by our general agent, and by the superintendents of the "Free Public Employment Offices," was very satisfactory to the