EDITOR, CHAS. P. NEILL, COMMISSIONER. ASSOCIATE EDITORS, G. W. W. HANGER, CHAS. H. VERRILL, G. A. WEBER. II In Bulletin No. 53 of this Bureau, published in July, 1904, an article was presented entitled "Wages and cost of living." That part of the article relating to cost of living was a summary of the data since published in full in the Eighteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Labor entitled "Cost of living and retail prices of food." The part relating to wages was a preliminary summary of the data shown in much more extended detail in the forthcoming Nineteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Labor entitled "Wages and hours of labor." The object of the extended investigations into cost of living and retail prices of food and wages and hours of labor, was to meet the constant and growing demand on the part of the public for regular and adequate statistical information concerning these important subjects. The two reports are believed to furnish fairly adequate presentations of conditions as to family income and expenditure in 1901, and wages and retail prices in the years from 1890 to 1903, inclusive. The present article on "Wages and hours of labor" and the one immediately following on "Retail prices of food" are the beginning of a regular series of Bulletin articles to be published annually, supplementing and continuing the two reports above named. The work of the Bureau, so far as the preparation of the present article is concerned, has been limited to gathering data for the year 1904. The work was begun in December of that year and was continued up to the month of June, 1905. 1 In taking up the investigation of rates of wages and hours of labor the design was to cover thoroughly the principal distinctive occupations in the leading manufacturing and mechanical industries in the United States with a view to securing data that would be representative of conditions and show the trend of wages and hours of labor during the period covered. The office and field force available for the prosecution of the work did not admit of the extension of the investigation to cover transportation, mining, agriculture, and the other great industrial groups. It is believed, however, that the data presented in the forthcoming Nineteenth Annual Report are more comprehensive and representative, so far as the manufacturing and mechanical industries are concerned, than any that have been published heretofore. The scope of the investigation relating to wages and hours of labor has been reduced to some extent in this article. The work of securing data being so great, it was deemed advisable to attempt to cover only those industries in which the wages paid in the United States in one year were $10,000,000 or over, as shown by the census of 1900. The data presented in this article and in the Nineteenth Annual Report were secured in all cases by personal visits of special agents of the Bureau to the several establishments represented, and have been taken directly from the pay rolls and other records in existence and available for reference. The preservation of records of this character for any considerable period of years is not usual, and in securing data for the period from 1890 to 1903 great difficulty was experienced in some industries in finding establishments which had been in existence since 1890 and had preserved their pay rolls and other records of transactions with their employees. It was necessary in many cases to take data from small establishments when large establishments canvassed had not preserved their records or were not in existence in 1890, and even then some of the industries were not so well represented as it was intended and hoped they would be. In securing the data for 1904 for this Bulletin a number of the small establishments carried in the Nineteenth Annual Report were dropped and quite a number of important establishments added in order to secure as good a representation for the several industries as was obtainable. An examination of Table I shows that all occupations usually pertaining to the various industries are not covered. As has been mentioned, this is in accordance with the plan adopted of securing data for only the important and distinctive occupations which are considered representative of each industry. This plan resulted in a great saving of time in the collection of the data, without materially affecting their representative character. Data concerning all occupations engaged in each industry would be desirable, but the |