month of the second half of the year except in July is seen, therefore, to have been due to the greater demand for labor.

In the following table there appears a comparison by industries of idleness for all causes at the end of December, 1912, with the same date in 1911, together with the mean percentage for the second half of the two years.

PERCENTAGE OF IDLENESS IN REPRESENTATIVE UNIONS, BY INDUSTRIES.

In eight of the twelve industries, both the mean percentage of idleness for the six months and the end-of-December percentage were less than for the corresponding period of 1911, while in two industries both percentages were greater.

The idleness in the building industry reached the lowest point touched since 1905 and 1906. Activity in subway construction in New York City probably had much to do with this reduction of idleness. Statistics of other building operations also indicate largely increased activity in the metropolis. Idleness in the New York City building trades at the end of December for lack of work was only a little more than half of that at the end of December, 1911.

In the transportation trades the figures above would indicate a remarkable decrease in amount of idleness between last year and this year. But here an important qualification is necessary owing to a change in the list of unions reporting in the two years in the navigation trades included in this group. Owing to difficulties in reporting it became necessary to substitute this year unions in those trades in New York City in place of a large Buffalo union which heretofore has made up the greater part of the membership reporting in those trades in the list of representative unions. The significance of this change lies in the fact that in the winter and early spring there is almost complete suspension of work in Buffalo navigation trades owing to the closing of traffic on the great lakes, whereas in the New York City navigation trades which are on salt water, there is no such seasonal idleness.*

It is this change which practically accounts for a drop in the mean percentage in the navigation trades from 23.2 for the second six months of last year to 5.0 this year. But while this change in the navigation trades makes the figures for the transportation trades as they stand misleading as to the extent of the decrease in idleness this year, it is nevertheless true that the figures for other branches of that group indicate some decrease. Thus in two of the other sub-groups (railways and freight handling)

* It is to be noted that, quite aside from the difficulties of reporting, there is propriety in this change in the list of representative unions owing to the great change which has occurred in the distribution of union members in the navigation trades in the State. Thus in March, 1902, above 50 per cent of the union men in those trades were in Buffalo, whereas in September, 1912, only 7 per cent were in Buffalo and 90 per cent were in New York City.

both the mean for the six months and the end-of-June percentage are much lower this year. The sub-group teaming, however, had an increase of idleness both at the end of December and in the mean for the six months.

Clothing, the next largest in membership after the building industry, was the only industry in which both the end-ofDecember idleness and the mean idleness for the six months was appreciably greater than for the same period in 1911. This increase of idleness was concentrated in New York City. Analysis of the returns for the clothing trades shows that at the end of July there was an unusually high percentage of idleness due to excessive idleness reported by the cloak and suit tailors in New York City, whose union reported 13,554 members idle on that date in 1912 on account of lack of work out of a membership of 19,072 (71 per cent), whereas at the end of July, 1911, only 675 were reported idle for the same reason out of a membership of 17,475 (less than 4 per cent). The explanation for this increase in 1912 is that the busy season in the cloak and suit. making trade which usually begins in July did not begin in 1912 until August. In 1911, the busy season began unusually early before the end of June- so that the returns for both June and July, 1912, show greater idleness for lack of work as compared with those months in 1911.

The greatly increased idleness at the end of December in the clothing group (80.2 per cent as compared with 59.4 per cent in 1911) was due to the general strike in the clothing trades in New York City which was called to go into effect on December 30th and, although the majority of all workers in those trades did not go out until after January 1, 1913, the returns show that more than 80 per cent of the members of these representative unions in the clothing trades in New York City were on strike at the end of December. At the end of December, 1911, none of them were idle for that reason and practically the same number were idle in both years for lack of work.

In the metal trades, the fourth largest industry as to union membership, there was a marked decrease of idleness as compared with the previous year. This was due in part to considerably less dispute idleness and to a still greater decrease in idleness for

lack of work. No other of the important industries show marked differences between conditions in 1911 and in 1912.

In the two following tables are comparisons as to end-ofDecember idleness between New York City and the state as a whole, and comparative figures as to the former for a period of years. It will be seen that apparently the improvement in conditions was much less marked in New York City than in the entire state. Inspection of the figures, however, reveals that idleness for lack of work in the metropolis was very much less than in 1911, and that the dispute idleness, all of which was due to the strike in the clothing trades which began nominally on December 30th, alone prevented the percentage of idleness for all causes from falling to a point slightly lower than that in the state as a whole. In other words, there was an improvement in conditions both in New York City and throughout the state.

PERCENTAGE OF IDLENESS IN REPRESENTATIVE UNIONS IN THE STATE AND IN NEW YORK CITY AT THE END OF DECEMBER.

IDLENESS IN REPRESENTATIVE TRADE UNIONS IN NEW YORK CITY.

While comparisons have been made in the foregoing analysis more directly with 1911, it is evident from the tables that not only were labor conditions better in the latter half of 1912 than in the corresponding period of 1911, but that, so far as returns from these representative unions indicate, the year 1912 was better than any other year since 1907, although not so good as the years prior thereto.

INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS IN NEW YORK, FOURTH QUARTER, 1912.

Strikes and Lockouts.

Two contrasting facts of importance are revealed in the statistics of strikes and lockouts during the fourth quarter of 1912. One is that comparatively few strikes occurred, in fact less than in the same quarter of any other recent year, as shown in the table below. The number recorded by the Bureau of Mediation and Arbitration was 22, a decrease of seven since last year, and less than half the number which occurred in 1910. The other important fact is that the number of employees involved in disputes was abnormally large. There were 118,449 direct participants, twelve times as many as in the 29 disputes of last year and three times as many as in 1909, the year which held the record until now.

COMPARATIVE SUMMARY OF DISPUTES, FOURTH QUARTER.

* Including both new disputes and earlier disputes which lasted into the quarter.

The explanation of the extraordinary number of people involved in strikes is found in the occurrence of the general strike of clothing makers in New York City which started December 30, two days before the end of the quarter. There were 115,000 direct participants in that one strike. Not all of them, however,

were on strike in December as some of the strikers did not leave