Letter of Transmittal. STATE OF NEW JERSEY, OFFICE OF THE BUREAU OF INDUSTRIAL STATISTICS, To His Excellency James F. Fielder, Governor: SIR: In accordance with the provisions of Chapter 105, Laws of 1878, and the several supplements thereto, I have the honor of submitting to the Senate and General Assembly, through you, the thirty-seventh annual report of the Bureau of Industrial Statistics of New Jersey. GEORGE C. LOW, Director. INTRODUCTION. This report, the thirty-seventh of the series issued by the Bureau of Industrial Statistics annually since 1878, is, following the usual form, divided into three parts, the first containing the annual "Statistics of Manufactures of New Jersey," a carefully prepared compilation of data which shows the standing of the factory and workshop industries of our State, as indicated by individual establishment reports covering the twelve months ending December 30, 1913. Practically every phase of the great industrial interests of our State, on which upwards of 400,000 persons-wage earners and employers, are dependent for individual or family maintenance, are clearly and concisely explained in the series of comparison tables and analytical text of which this part is composed. The ten general tables included in this part, show for each of the eighty-nine industries into which the total number of establishments are divided, the capital invested, number of personsmen, women and children employed, the cost value of all material used, the selling value of all goods made or work done, the number of persons employed by months, the total amount paid in wages, the average yearly and weekly earnings, the average working hours per day and per week, and the character and quantity of power used. On pages 20 and 21 will be found a table embodying information for which, as shown by letters addressed to the Bureau from time to time, there appears to be a very considerable demand. This table shows the actual number and equivalent percentages of men, women and children in each of the industries in which the labor of women and children is employed in any of the processes of manufacture. The entire compilation, which occupies 132 pages of the report, is accompanied by all the explanatory review matter required for a thorough understanding of the results produced. The second part of the report contains a study of employment, working hours and wages, on steam railroads in New Jersey during the twelve months ending June 30, 1914; a study of retail prices of food supplies (pages 153-163) in practically all parts of the State, with comparison tables showing in minute fractions the changes-increases or decreases if any, in the price of each article, reported as having occurred during the year; and the statistics of the fruit and vegetable canning industry (pages 165-174) based on reports from all the canneries of the State that had contributed to the season pack of 1913. The third part of the report is devoted to a group of investigations the results of which are shown under the title-Industrial Chronology of New Jersey (pages 175-240). Principal among these is the "Accidents to Workmen While on Duty;" the "Increase and Decrease of Factory and Workshop Property;" and the "Strikes and Lockouts" that occurred during the twelve months covered by the investigation. In reviewing the Statistics of Manufactures, it will be seen that twenty-five industries have been selected from the total number for the purpose of making comparisons of the data presented on each of the general tables; these are our principal industries and the results shown by the comparisons may be confidently regarded as correctly indicating the trend of manufacturing activity throughout the State. An examination of these comparisons will show that notwithstanding some serious drawbacks, the volume of business reported by our factory and workshop industries for 1913, showed an increase not far from equaling the averages of preceding years. "Capital Invested" shows an advance of 5.5 per cent.; "Value of Stock or Material Used," 6.3 per cent.; "Goods Made or Work Done," 7.3 per cent. ; "Average Number of Persons Employed," 3.0 per cent.; "Average Yearly Earnings," 2.8 per cent. A reduction is shown in the "Average Number of Days in Operation" for all industries, and in the "Average Proportion of Business Done," of 1.3 per cent. and 3.9 per cent. respectively. The classification of labor employed (page 22) shows that of every 1,000 wage earners there were, in 1913, 728 men, 252 women, and 20 children. In 1912, the classification per 1,000 was 731 men, 249 women, and 20 children. The equivalent percentages of these divisions of the labor force is-73.1 men, 25.2 women, and 2.0 children under 16 years of age. A most remarkable demonstration of the stability of our industrial organization, is shown by the fact that the proportion of women |