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acts of 1913, which relate to labor, showing in the usual fashion charges made in existing law as well as new provisions.

To afford ready reference to this large mass of laws, a classified reference list arranged according to field of industry affected and subject treated is also given. Three general facts appear as perhaps the most notable features of the year's labor laws. First is the great prominence of the subject of health and safety in manufacturing employments including home work, a large majority of the year's acts being devoted thereto, resulting in practically a general revision of the laws upon that subject. Second, is the large advance made in the matter of enforcement of labor laws including a general reorganization of the Labor Department together with an increase in its resources amounting to an addition of 151 attachees and over $300,000 in appropriations, so that for the coming year the personnel of the Department will include 343 persons and its total appropriations will amount to $691,220. Third, and most far-reaching in its significance is the adoption of the principle of administrative regulation of particular conditions by delegation of legislative authority to an Industrial Board created in connection with the reorganization of the Department of Labor. In order to complete the record of the year's legislative action concerning labor the Bulletin presents, in addition to the text of new statutes, an index of all bills relating to labor introduced at the session, showing the final status of each. This index has heretofore been published as an appendix of the annual report of the Commissioner of Labor early in the year following the session of the Legislature, but is now included in the Bulletin for the sake of earlier publication and to present in one place a complete record of the year's legislation.

Court
Decisions.

The usual summaries of decisions of New York courts relating to labor appear in the Bulletin. Among the more important of these are a unanimous decision by the Court of Appeals that the prevailing rate of wages law does not apply to work done in another state for a public contractor in this state (Ewen v.

Thompson-Starrett Co., 208 N. Y. 245); another by the same court that an agreement by an employee that voluntary acceptance of payment from a relief fund shall act as a bar to action for damages in case of injury, is valid (Colaizzi v. Pennsylvania R. R. Co., 208 N. Y. 275); and an Appellate Division decision giving an extended interpretation of the word "plant" which was added to the employers' liability law in 1910 as an extension of the field for the safety of which the employer is responsible under the liability statute (Lipstein v. Provident Loan Society. 154 App. Div. 732).

The usual returns as to idleness of union members on the last day of March were received from 2,475 of the 2,530 labor organizations in the state. Those reporting as to idleness included more than 90 per cent of the total membership. The percentage of idleness (19.6), as will be seen below was less than that on the corresponding date of any other year since 1906. Since 1897, there have been only four years 1902-1906 inclusive with the year 1904 excepted-in which the percentage of idleness was lower at the end of March than in 1913. The showing is all the more favorable in view of the fact that the number reporting as to idleness exceeded by more than 120,000 the number reported in March, 1912, and by more than 100,000 the number in March, 1911, which was the greatest number previously reported in any March.

IDLENESS OF MEMBERS OF LABOR UNIONS AT THE END OF MARCH.

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The reported causes of idleness at the end of March are given in the following table. The proportions of the total idleness due to the specified causes do not differ particularly from those of the previous March except in two cases. The idleness reported as caused by the state of the weather was less, the improvement appearing in the building and paving trades and in navigation, while the idleness caused by labor disputes was greater. More than 90 per cent of the latter idleness was in the building and

clothing industries and practically all of it was in New York City. More than 2,900 painters, on strike in Manhattan, constituted the major portion of the idleness due to this cause in the building industry. In the clothing industry, there were 350 clothing pressers and tailors on strike in Brooklyn, while in Manhattan there were on strike 900 laundry workers and shirt workers, 360 straw hat makers and 1,300 silk workers.

CAUSES OF IDLENESS OF MEMBERS OF LABOR UNIONS AT THE END OF MARCH.

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Inspection of the following table giving returns as to idleness by industries reveals a smaller percentage of idleness as compared with the previous year in ten of the industries as against a greater in only three-theaters and music, tobacco and public employment. The differences are not important except in two of the leading industries. One of these, the building industry, reported a marked decrease. As already noted, this industry had smaller idleness on account of weather conditions and greater idleness on account of labor disputes, but the explanation of the percentage reduction is the smaller number (more than 11,000 less) idle on account of lack of work. In the metals-machinery industry, there were less than half as many idle on account of lack of work as in the preceding March and the dispute idleness had been reduced to a nominal amount.

IDLENESS OF MEMBERS OF LABOR OR GANIZATIONS At the End of March, by IndustRIES.

INDUSTRY

1. Building, stone working, etc.....

2. Transportation..

3. Clothing and textiles.

4. Metals, machinery, etc.

5. Printing, binding, etc..

6. Wood working, etc. 7. Food and liquors..

8. Theaters and music.

9. Tobacco..

10. Restaurants, trade, etc.
11. Public employment..
12. Stationary engine tending.
13. Miscellaneous.

Total..

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1913 1913 1912 1911 1910 1909 1908 1907 1906 1905
37,863 28.9 37.6 39.2 26.6 36.3 56.0 37.3 11.1 21.9
9,268 11.3 11.9 14.9 14.9 19.6 25.6 12.7 14.1 14.6
33,146 15.1 16.5 17.8 17.1 14.2 46.7 12.4 14.3 19.5
2,314 7.6 13.4 17.2 6.3 18.3 31.8 4.2 4.8 9.2
2,203 7.5 8.6 4.9 7.4 7.9 17.9 9.9 9.4 80
1,720 14.8 17.8 17.6 14.9 17.6 31.1 13.0 7.1 18.7
1,280 7.6 10.9 8.2 8.9 11.4 10.2 7.1
292 5.9 4.3 0.9 0.1 9.7 8.8 13.2
1,052 12.6 11.7 11.5 14.5 13.6 25.8 3.5
442 4.6 9.1 7.2 5.7 7.6 11.4 2.5
683 4.2 1.7 1.9 2.2 8.6 8.8 13.9
513 4.6 7.7 6.6 3.2 6.3 7.7 1.9
1,176 14.1 14.5 14.5 23.3 13.9 29.9 4.4

5.6 7.7 7.3 8.0 6.4 11.7 3.3 5.6 2.6 6.0 2.7 3.3

8.8 11.5

91,952 15.9 19.6 20.3 16.1 21.1 35.7 19.1 9.9 15.1

The idleness in each industry classified by causes appears in the following table. As usual, the disability idleness shows no marked change. The dispute idleness in the building and clothing industries has already been noted in connection with a preceding table. The ending of the strike of the boiler makers and helpers in the New York Central shops accounts for the decline of dispute idleness in the metals-machinery group. In connection with the greatly increased number idle, due to unemployment in the strict sense, in the clothing industry should be remembered the fact that the membership of that industry has more than doubled since March, 1912. In other words, the increase in idleness was not so great proportionately as the increase in membership.

CAUSES OF IDLENESS OF MEMBERS OF LABOR UNIONS AT THE END OF MARCH, BY INDUSTRIES UNEMPLOYMENT*

LABOR DISPUTES

DISABILITY

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