If any organization of employees or any member thereof shall counsel, take part in, support, or assist directly or indirectly any strike on account of any industrial dispute for the settlement of which any board of conciliation shall have jurisdiction, such organization or member shall be guilty of an offense against this act, punishable as mentioned in the preceding section. (U. S. Labor Bulletin, Vol. VI., pp. 256–258.)

CANADA.

The Dominion act of July 18, 1900, called the conciliation act of 1900, provides for the settlement of industrial disputes by arbitration, and also for the creation of the usual department of labor. It provides generally that any board established, either before or after the passage of the act, for the purpose of settling disputes between employers and workingmen by conciliation or arbitration, or any association or body authorized by written agreement between them to deal with such disputes-that is, any conciliation board-may apply to the minister for registration under the act.

2. The application must be accompanied by copies of the constitution, by-laws, and regulations of the conciliation board, with such other information as the minister may reasonably require.

3. The minister shall keep a register of conciliation boards, and enter therein with respect to each registered board its name and principal office, and such other particulars as he thinks expedient; and any registered conciliation board shall be entitled to have its name removed from the register on sending to the minister a written application to that effect.

4. Every registered conciliation board shall furnish such returns, reports of its proceedings, and other documents as the minister may reasonably require.

5. The minister may, on being satisfied that a registered conciliation board has ceased to exist or to act, remove its name from the register.

4. Where a difference exists or is apprehended between an employer or any class of employers and workmen, or between different classes of workmen, the minister may, if he thinks fit, exercise all or any of the following powers, namely: (a) Inquire into the causes and circumstances of the difference; (b) take such steps as to him seem expedient for the purpose of enabling the parties to the difference to meet together, by themselves or their representatives, under the presidency of a chairman mutually agreed upon or nominated by him or by some other person or body, with a view to the amicable settlement of the difference; (c) on the application of employers or workmen interested, and after taking into consideration the existence and adequacy of means available for conciliation in the district or trade and the circumstances of the case, appoint a person or persons to act as conciliator or as a board of conciliation; (d) on the application of both parties to the difference, appoint an arbitrator or arbitrators.

2. If any person is so appointed to act as conciliator, he shall inquire into the causes and circumstances of the difference by communication with the parties, and otherwise shall endeavor to bring about a settlement of the difference, and shall report his proceedings to the minister.

3. If a settlement of the difference is effected either by conciliation or by arbitration, a memorandum of the terins thereof shall be drawn up and signed by the parties or their representatives, and a copy thereof shall be delivered to and kept by the minister.

5. It shall be the duty of the conciliator to promote conditions favorable to a settlement by endeavoring to allay distrust, to remove causes of friction, to promote good feeling, to restore confidence, and to encourage the parties to come together and themselves effect a settlement, and also to promote agreements between employers and employees with a view to the submission of differences to conciliation or arbitration before resorting to strikes or lockouts.

6. The conciliator or conciliation board may, when deemed advisable, invite others to assist them in the work of conciliation.

7. If, before a settlement is effected, and while the difference is under the consideration of a conciliator or conciliation board, such conciliator or conciliation board is of opinion that some misunderstanding or disagreement appears to exist between the parties as to the causes or circumstances of the difference, and, with a view to the removal of such misunderstanding or disagreement, desires an inquiry under oath into such causes and circumstances, and, in writing signed by such conciliator or the

members of the conciliation board, as the case may be, communicates to the minister such desire for inquiry, and if the parties to the difference or their representatives in writing consent thereto, then, on his recommendation, the governor in council may appoint such conciliator or members of the conciliation board, or some other person or persons, a commissioner or commissioners, as the case may be, under the provisions of the act respecting inquiries concerning public matters, to conduct such inquiry, and, for that purpose, may confer upon him or them the powers which, under the said act, may be conferred upon commissioners.

8. Proceedings before any conciliation or arbitration board, as the case may be, or as is agreed upon by the parties to the difference or dispute.

9. If it appears to the minister that in any district or trade adequate means do not exist for having disputes submitted to a conciliation board for the district or trade, he may appoint any person or persons to inquire into the conditions of the district or trade, and to confer with the employers and employed, and, if he thinks fit, with any local authority or body, as to the expediency of establishing a conciliation board for such district or trade.

ONTARIO.

There is in Ontario an act of 1873 providing for the settling of industrial disputes by councils of conciliation or arbitration, which the royal commission of labor, 1889, reported to have proved ineffective because it provided that nothing in the act should authorize the boards to establish a rate of wages or price of labor. Accordingly the law was amended in 1890 so as to permit the parties to a dispute to agree that the board should have such power. (Revised Statutes, Ontario, 1897, chap. 158.) The act mentions eight classes of claims or disputes to which this provision applies: 1. The price to be paid for work done, or in the course of being done, whether such disagreement shall have arisen with respect to wages or to the hours or times of working.

2. Damage alleged to have been done to work, delay in finishing the same, not finishing the same in a good and workmanlike manner or according to agreement, or a dispute respecting materials supplied to employees and alleged to be bad, or unfit, or unsuitable.

3. The price to be paid for mining any mineral or substance mined or obtained by mining, hewing, quarrying, or other process, or the allowances, if any, to be made for bands, refuse, faults, or other causes whereby the mining of the mineral substance is impeded.

4. The performance or nonperformance of any stipulation or matter alleged to have been in an agreement, whether in writing or not.

5. Insufficient or unwholesome food supplied to employees where there is an agreement to victual them, or to supply them with provisions or stores of any kind.

6. Ill-ventilated or dangerous workings or places in mines, or unwholesome or insanitary rooms or other places of accommodation, in which work is being performed, or want of necessary conveniences in connection with such rooms or places.

7. The dismissal or employment under agreement of any employee or number of employees.

8. The dismissal of an employee or employees for their connection with any trade or labor organization.

No claim or dispute can be the subject of conciliation or arbitration under this act unless at least 10 employees are affected. The councils of conciliation consist of 4 members, 2 nominated by party. It does not appear that the law has ever been put in operation and it is practically superseded by the general act for the Dominion of Canada referred to above.

CHAPTER XII.

PROFIT SHARING, STATE AID, PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT

BUREAUS, ETC.

ART. A.-COOPERATION AND PROFIT SHARING.

SEC. I. COOPERATIVE ASSOCIATIONS.

Cooperative industry is far more usual and successful in France and Germany than in England or the United States, but there does not appear to be any general legislation upon the subject. In many cases such institutions can be incorporated under the law of foreign countries in the usual way. In many cases they have special charters. It has been the policy of European States to give all possible freedom to those desiring to inaugurate cooperative industries.

The best recent account of the present condition of cooperative institutions in other countries will be found in Mr. Gilman's book, A Dividend to Labor (Boston, 1899), and particularly in the history of Cooperative Production, of Benjamin Jones (Oxford, 1894). Mr. Gilman's book gives in an appendix a list of profit-sharing firms or corporations, from which it appears that there were more than 100 such in France, besides the 27 cooperative distributive stores which give a bonus to labor; 33 such firms or corporations in Germany; 3 in Switzerland; 4 in Austria-Hungary; 4 in Belgium; 6 in Holland; 4 in Italy; 3 in Norway and Sweden; 1 factory in Russia, besides the Russian railways which have a system of collective wages; 2 in Spain, and 1 in Portugal. The methods of cooperation or profit sharing are of 5 different natures: Cash payment; investment in some kind of provident fund; indefinite percentage; deferred payment, and a collective bonus. The nature of the industries ranges from mutual insurance and savings banks, through all industrial operations, printing, publishing, champagne making, and breweries, to foundries and even mines; that is, the colliery of d'Aubigny is run upon socialistic principles. There is only 1 farm and 1 transportation company, and besides the champagne industry mentioned (Veuve Pommery) there is 1 Bordeaux vineyard (Chateau Montrose). The favorite cooperative industries appear to be printing and foundries. In Germany there are more farms in proportion; in Switzerland more textile manufactories. The Lake Leman Steam Navigation Company is cooperative. Some of these companies pay the same dividends on wages as to capital, some the same on savings as to capital. The Saxon linen industry is cooperative and pays the same dividends to labor as upon its stock. In others the cooperative feature consists merely in gratifications; that is, in extra wages. Nearly all the people's banks of Italy give their employees a

share in the profits, as do the Russian railways, by their system of collective wages. Many firms or corporations pay old-age pensions or receive deposits from their employees at a high rate of interest, which principles also generally appear among ordinary cooperative industries; such as the great printing house of Chaix in Paris, the Pleyel Piano Manufacturers, and others, but these can not be called strictly cooperative.

In Great Britain, according to Mr. Gilman, there were in 1899 about 110 cooperative productive establishments, among which it is interesting to note the Marquis of Hertford's 7 farms; Lord Brassey's 2 farms; the Crystal Palace District Gas Company of London; the Birmingham Dairy Company; Sampson, Low, Marston & Co., the publishers; the Women's Printing Society of London; Cassel & Co., the publishers; Blundell, Spence & Co., colors and paints; Arrowsmith, of Bristol, publishers; the farming establishment of Earl Grey and Lord Wantage; the engineering works of Ross & Duncan, of Glasgow, and Walker Sons & Co., engineering works, and the great establishment of Armstrong, Whitworth & Co., engineering and shipbuilding, at Tyne. In New Zealand there is established the farmers' cooperative association of Canterbury at Christchurch, who are wool and grain merchants, and deal in general merchandise. Nearly all these British cooperative enterprises simply pay an extra cash payment to their employees, though in some cases this cash is not paid directly, but is credited to the "Provident fund." In some cases it is partly invested in shares in the enterprise. The earliest cooperative establishment in England now existing, according to Mr. Gilman, is the draping firm of Jolly & Son, at Bath, established in 1865, and the woolen business of Fox Bros. & Co., in Somersetshire, from which it would appear that the pioneer experiment of all-the famous Rochdale spinners-has ceased to exist."

Mr. Gilman gives a list of only 19 cooperative establishments in the United States of America, most prominent among which are the Peace Dale Manufacturing Company, the great Rhode Island woolen manufactories; the Riverside Press at Cambridge; Rand, McNally & Co., of Chicago; the Century Company of New York; the Proctor-Gamble Company of Cincinnati; the Bourne Mills of Fall River, and the Pillsbury Flour Mills of Minneapolis. These establishments content themselves with paying a cash dividend. In the Riverside Press it is in the form of extra interest on savings; in Rand, McNally & Co., a stock dividend to the principal employees; in the Century Company, a dividend on part of the stock; while the Columbus, Ohio, Traction Company and Gas Company each pay the same dividend as to stockholders, calculated, it is presumed, upon the aggregate year's wages.

In 39 cases in the United States mentioned by Mr. Gilman, the system of profit sharing, once adopted, has been abandoned, though not always for the reason that the system itself proved a failure. The normal returns of capital at the present day are so small when taken into connection with the amount of capital an employee is likely to accumulate as to present little inducement in his eyes for the saving. For instance, in the skilled industries which we have been considering, $1,200 per year is not a large estimate of the average amount earned by employees in wages, but at 4 per cent, the normal return upon capital, it would take a capital of $30,000 to pay him this amount in dividends, a sum which he is not likely to save in a lifetime. Many of the intel

ligent labor unionists believe that the common policy of living from hand to mouth, or at least spending and not investing the wages received, is a wise one. It is also urged that the tendency of investing such savings in the employer's business and of cooperative dividends is to give encouragement or make it possible for employers to lower wages, and such might seem to be the economic result. Subject to proper qualifications for the procuring of the necessary life insurance or insurance against old age, disability, or absence from employment, it is questionable whether this view is not, after all, the right onethat there is little inducement to the laborer to become a capitalist. A penny spent is a penny had, A penny saved is a penny lost.

ART. B.-LABOR BUREAUS.

SEC. 1. STATE LABOR BUREAUS OR COMMISSIONERS.

In Great Britain a special service for the accurate collection and publication of labor statistics was established in 1886, under the direction of an officer styled "labor correspondent," by the board of trade, and in 1893 the present labor department was created, under the board of trade, under the direction of a commissioner for labor.

France was the first European country to follow the example of the United States and create a bureau for the collection of statistics and information concerning labor. The law creating this office is dated July 20, 1891. It simply provides that a bureau of labor shall be created under the ministry of commerce and industry for the purpose of "collecting, coordinating, and publishing information concerning statistics of labor." The organization and detailed duties of the bureau were fixed by subsequent decrees. As originally constituted, its work was limited strictly to the collection of statistics in relation to labor. From time to time, however, other statistical work has been turned over to it, so that at the present time it publishes not only special reports on labor conditions, and a monthly bulletin, but the annual statistical abstract, the annual returns of births, deaths, marriages, etc., the annual report on trade associations, and the results of the periodical censuses. It has, in fact, become the central or general statistical bureau of France.

The "Council Superior du Travail" was reorganized by decree of September 1, 1899, to consist of 66 members-22 elected or named by employers (15 by the chambers of commerce, 7 by the "conseillers, prudhommes, patrons "), 22 by the workmen (15 by the trades unions, 7 by the prudhommes), and 3 senators, 5 deputies, 4 members chosen as experts by the minister of commerce, and 10 ex officio (the president of the Paris Chamber of Commerce, heads of State departments, etc.).

In Belgium the decree of November 12, 1894, created a bureau of labor for the collection of statistics-office du travail. In 1895 a separate department of industry was created, of which the office du travail was made a bureau.

Germany.-Efforts for the establishment of a bureau of labor statistics after the American model were made in Germany as far back as