may leave without notice: (1) If he can not continue his work without injury to his health; (2) for violent illtreatment or gross insult from the employer; (3) if the employer attempts to lead him into immoral or illegal transactions; (4) for improperly withholding his wages or other violation of the material condition of the contract by the employer; (5) if the employer is unable or refuses to pay his wages. The labor contract is dissolved ipso facto by the discontinuance of the business or the death of the employer.

Unless otherwise agreed upon, employment is presumed to be by the week, and a notice of 14 days must be given of intention to terminate the contract; but employees who are paid by the piece or task may only leave when they have properly performed the work.

Russia.-In Russia the civil code prohibits a workingman from leaving his work or an employer from dismissing an employee before the expiration of the term of service agreed upon. The industrial code supplements this by providing that in case of a contract of indetermined duration at least a fortnight's notice must be given.

In Russia the employer is prohibited from reducing the wages of an employee in any way before the expiration of the term of contract, or without two weeks' notice in the case of contracts not for a fixed term, and reciprocally the workingmen have no right to demand a change in the terms of the contract before its termination. Infractions of these provisions are punishable by fine.

The labor contract between a factory employee and his employer can be terminated without regard to the foregoing provisions: (1) By a common agreement between the parties; (2) by the expiration of the term of service agreed upon; (3) by the completion of the work undertaken; (4) by either party giving a two weeks' notice in the case of contracts for an undetermined period of time; (5) by the employee being removed by a competent authority from the place of work, or being condemned to a term of imprisonment of such length that the performance of the contract is rendered impossible; (6) by the employee being compelled to perform obligatory military or civil service: (7) by the institution which has granted the employee a passport for a fixed time refusing to renew it; and (8) by a suspension of work in the establishment lasting more than seven days, as the result of a fire, boiler explosion, flood, etc.

Independently of the above cases, in which the labor contract can be considered as ipso facto sundered, the industrial code authorizes either the employer or employee to terminate the contract in certain cases. The employer can exercise this right without having recourse to a court in the following cases: (1) Where the employee without sufficient reason absents himself for more than three days at one time or six days in the course of the same month; (2) where the employee is absent for more than a fortnight at one time, even though with good cause; (3) where the employee is summoned before a court to answer for a crime entailing punishment by imprisonment or a more severe penalty; (4) where the employee is guilty of insolence or bad conduct which may prove of injury to the establishment or the personal security of those in charge; and (5) where the employee contracts a contagious disease. The dismissed employee has a right to bring an action for damages against his employer, and if the court decides that the contract of employment was illegally broken, it can fix the amount of the damage to be paid. Action must be taken by the employee within a month from his dismissal.

The employee, on his side, can demand, but only by judicial means, the termination of his labor contract in case the conditions regarding his remuneration are not observed, and in the following cases: (1) Where he is beaten, struck, or otherwise maltreated by his employer or a member of the latter's family or one of his agents; (2) where the conditions regarding food and lodging are not complied with; (3) where the conditions of work are injurious to the health of the employee; (4) in case of the death of the husband or wife or other member of the family of the employee who has been furnishing the family with the means of existence; and (5) where the members of the employee's family who has been supporting the family enters the obligatory military service.

New Zealand.-In the case of a woman or person under 18, any forfeiture on account of absence or leaving work, shall not be deducted from wages, except to the amount of the special damage, if any.

SEC. 6. AMOUNT OF WAGES.

So far as is known, no European or civilized country has yet fixed by law the amount of remuneration that shall be given workmen in private employment. In public employments organized labor has made a definite movement for a "usual wage law;" that is, that public municipalities, or contractors for them, shall be required to pay at least the usual rate of wages prevailing in that locality. Something of this sort may be found in the legislation of Germany, France, and some of the Australian colonies.

The minimum wage act of New Zealand comes the nearest to prescribing a minimum rate in private employment, though aiming at the prevention of the employment of children in factories practically without pay.

This is entitled "the employment of boys and girls without payment prevention act," passed in 1899, and is unique among the legislations of European communities in providing minimum wages, viz, 4 shillings per week, and 5 shillings for boys under 18, while employed in any capacity in a factory or workroom, such payment to be made at weekly or fortnightly intervals. The law also forbids the acceptance of premiums from such boys and girls for employment in the factory or workroom.

Public wages.-The New Zealand public contracts act of 1900 applies to every contract exceeding the value of £20 entered into by or on behalf of the government of any education board, harbor board, or local authority involving the employment of skilled or unskilled labor, and provides that the contractor shall, notwithstanding his contract, be deemed to have agreed to observe such length for the working day and to pay such rates of wages and for overtime as are generally considered in the locality to be usual and fair for the description of labor to which they relate, such length to be not greater than and such rate not to be lower than the rate fixed by arbitration, if there has been any under any award or order of the court of arbitration existing at the time. These provisions are deemed to be incor porated in every public contract, and the employee is forbidden to contract himself out of the same under penalty of £10 to the contractor. France. The French law of August, 1899, regulates extensively contracts of labor between the state and any municipality, both as to

hours and rate of wages. For instance, section 3 of the first article provides that the contract shall contain a clause for the payment of the workmen by a normal salary equal, for each profession and in any pro fession for each category of workmen, to the wages usually paid in the town or locality where the work is done. The contractor, by article 2, is forbidden to sublet his contracts without express authority from the administration and under the condition of remaining personally responsible both to the administration and to his employees or to other persons. The normal rate as above mentioned is determined by the Government or administration itself with reference to the agreements made between the syndicates of employers and the workmen of the locality, and with the advice of mixed commissions, etc.

Ontario-Profit sharing.-Ontario has a unique provision (Revised Statutes, 1897, chapter 157) regarding profit sharing, as follows:

It shall be lawful in any trade, calling, business, or employment for an agreement to be entered into between the workman, servant, or other person employed and the master or employer, by which agreement a defined share in the annual or other net profits or proceeds of the trade or business carried on by such master or employer may be allotted and paid to such workman, servant, or other person employed, in lieu of or in addition to his salary, wages, or other remuneration; and such agreement shall not create any relation in the nature of partnership, or any rights or liabilities of copartners, any rule of law to the contrary notwithstanding; and any person in whose favor such agreement is made shall have no right to examine into the accounts or interfere in any way in the managements or concerns of the trade, calling, or business in which he is employed under the said agreement or otherwise; and any periodical or other statement or return by the employer of the net profits or proceeds of the said trade, calling, business, or employment, on which he declares and appropriates the share of profits payable under the said agreement, shall be final and conclusive between the parties thereto and all persons claiming under them respectively, and shall not be impeachable upon any ground whatever.

Every agreement of the nature mentioned in the last preceding section shall be deemed to be within the provisions of this act, unless it purports to be excepted therefrom, or this may otherwise be inferred.

ART. B.-AS TO HOURS OF LABOR OF MEN, WOMEN, AND CHILDREN IN FACTORIES, ETC.

The European laws generally, and even the English acts of Parliament, are much more free than the American States in legislating as to the length of daily labor permitted in factories, workshops, and stores, and even in ordinary industrial avocations, to men and women of full age. In fact, it may be said that the continental countries generally legislate as to the length of daily labor in certain industries, having in mind solely the nature of the industry, not the age of the persons to whom the legislation shall apply, except perhaps in the case of young children. But the more free the form of government according to the American point of view, the less autocratic it is; and the more progressive and democratic in form, the more we find the Ameri can tendency to avoid legislating as to the liberty of labor of competent male citizens. Thus we find at the one extreme Russia, where the laws make practically no mention of the age of persons to whom they apply, and at the other extreme Belgium and Great Britain, where the laws do not as a rule apply to adult male labor.

SEC. 1. LENGTH OF THE DAY'S WORK IN THE ABSENCE OF CONTRACT.

It is notable that in no country but certain States of the United States has it as yet been attempted to enact a general statute fixing

It is hard to account for

the working day in the absence of contract. such omission; the more detailed legislation as to each individual industry may, however, be the reason.

SEC. 2. PUBLIC LABOR.

France. The law of August 10, 1899, provides that all public contracts, that is, contracts for public work or for the State, shall contain a clause limiting the length of the day's work to the day usual to the locality, with overtime allowed, but with increase of wages for such

overtime.

New Zealand.-The public-contract act of 1900 fixes a maximum length of 8 hours for a working day of skilled or unskilled labor in all public contracts as therein defined.

SEC. 3. HOURS OF LABOR OF WOMEN, MINORS, ETC.

There appears to be no general statute in any European country or in the British colonies applying to the hours of labor of women and children in all occupations. France has a law, however, that no child under 16 years of age can be employed at actual labor for more than 10 hours per day; and no child from 16 to 18 years of age can be employed at actual labor for more than 11 hours per day, or 60 hours per week. In all cases the labor period must be broken by one or more intermissions for rest, the total duration of which must not be less than 1 hour. Russia also has a law prohibiting the employment of children under 12 in any "industrial establishment" (see sec. 5, below); and the laws of Germany, Belgium, and other countries apply to so many kinds of factories or industrial occupations as to become almost general in effect. (See secs. 4 and 9, below.)

SEC. 4. HOURS OF LABOR IN FACTORIES, MINES, RAILROADS, AND OTHER SPECIAL OCCUPATIONS.

FACTORIES.

France, with other continental countries, differs from England and the United States in prescribing the hours of employment of adult males as well as females and minors in general employment in factories and workshops, which include all establishments making use of a mechanical power, and in other industrial establishments employing more than 20 persons in the same place. By the act of September 9, 1848, the hours of actual labor of employees are limited to 12 hours per day. The Government has power to designate certain industries which should be exempt from the provisions of the act, which has been done in many decrees, notably those of May 17, 1851, January 31, 1866, April 3, 1899.

In Germany the Bundesrath has been given the power of fixing the time that work shall begin and end, and the maximum duration of a day's labor, in those industries in which it deems that long hours are especially injurious to the health of employees; and such laws which, of course, apply to the labor of adult males as well as others, have, in fact, been promulgated in many particular industries.

Austria.-In Austria the hours of labor of adult males, as well as women and children, are regulated by law. Thus no employee in a

factory is allowed to work more than 11 hours in each 24 hours, exclusive of periods of rest, except that the minister of commerce and the interior, after consultation with the chamber of commerce, may designate certain industries in which workingmen may be employed an extra hour per day. This is generally permitted in workrooms where the work must be carried on uninterruptedly, such as iron, steel, and other metal works; lime, cement, and tile factories; paper mills, flour mills, sugar refineries, breweries, distilleries, etc. (See U. S. Labor Bulletin No. 28, p. 578.) There is also a special order, May 27, 1885, modifying the requirements in various industries as to the hour of rest. Russia.-By the law of June 2, 1897—

1. All factories and workshops to which articles 128 to 156 of the industrial code apply, mines, blast furnaces, iron and steel and other metal works, gold and platinum mines, railway shops, as well as factories and establishments belonging to the cabinet of His Imperial Majesty, to the general administration of the appanages, and to the domain of the State, shall be subject to the following regulations concerning the duration and division of the hours of labor:

Technical establishments coming under the ministries of war and the marine are subject to the special regulations and orders of those departments.

2. In fixing the workday or hours of labor in each 24 there must be counted the time during which the workingmen, in conformity with the provisions of the labor contract (arts. 92, 103, 134, 137, and 142 of the code), are obliged to be inside the works at the disposition of the persons directing their work.

In mines the time consumed by the workingmen in descending into and leaving the mines must be counted as work time.

3. That work shall be considered as night work which, in the case of work performed under the single-shift system, is performed between the hours of 9 p. m. and 5 a. m., or, in the case of work under the system of two or more shifts, is performed between the hours of 10 p. m. and 4 a. m.

In gold and platinum mines exploited by private persons article 29 of the appendix to article 661 of the mine regulations shall apply.

4. In the case of persons employed exclusively during the day the hours of labor must not exceed 113 in each 24, and on Saturday and the days before the 12 holidays mentioned in section 6 must not exceed 10. On the day before Christmas work must not be prolonged beyond noon.

5. In the case of workingmen employed partly during the night the hours of labor must not exceed 10 per day.

In Russia overtime work is only permissible by express agreement. It is made the duty of the ministers of state to elaborate the foregoing provisions, to authorize exceptions in important cases, and generally to promulgate regulations concerning the duration and division of the labor period in industries and trades which are specially injurious to health. Acting under this, the order of September 20, 1897, provides that 18 hours of work is performed in 2 shifts. The hours of labor of each employee may be increased to 12 hours per day during any period of 2 weeks. When the hours of labor exceed 10 hours there must be an interval of rest of at least 1 hour. They must be allowed to take their meals as often as once in 6 hours. The number of hours overtime may not exceed 120 per year. Workmen who are specially authorized for continuous work (i. e., through Sundays), must have at least 24 hours continuous rest thrice a month if his hours are 8 a day, or 4 times a month if he works more than 8 hours a day, and the hours of work in 2 consecutive days must never exceed 24, or 30 where there is an alternate shift. The usual exceptions are made for repairs, accidents, etc.

Special exceptions are made for many establishments by the interior department, such as bleacheries, dye works, print works, paper mills, foundries, potteries, manufactures of organic products, food stuffs, and chemicals.