Part III of the report presents statistics relating to female labor at the principal centers of the cotton, woolen, and worsted industries in England, taken from the Board of Trade Return of Rates of Wages in the Principal Textile Trades in the United Kingdom.

Owing to the vagueness of the distinction made by employers between women and girls, working females are classified as "halftimers" and "full-timers," no attempt being made to distinguish between "women" and " young persons."

The wages covered by the statistics were the average wages for a week in October, 1886. These are shown to have been $3.51 for 67,843 females working full time in the cotton manufacture in Lancashire and Cheshire; $3.20 for 10,909 females working full time in the woolen manufacture in Yorkshire and Lancashire; $2.78 for 18,855 females working full time in the worsted and stuff manufacture in Yorkshire; $2.60 for 1,757 females working full time in the woolen manufacture in the west of England.

The following statement shows the number and per cent of females working full time, above referred to, in the industries specified, at and between different weekly wage rates:

FEMALES WORKING FULL TIME IN CERTAIN INDUSTRIES AT AND BETWEEN CERTAIN WEEKLY WAGE RATES, 1886.

The board of trade statistics for 1886 are considered in connection with those collected by the labor department in 1894. From the latter it appears that in 1894 the proportion of young persons to women was considerably higher in worsted than in cotton mills, 31.2 per cent of the full timers being young persons in the former case and 27.7 per cent in the latter. Moreover, only 21.4 per cent of the adult females in the worsted mills were married or widowed, as compared with 32.9 per cent in the cotton mills. Supposing somewhat similar conditions to have prevailed in 1886 as in 1894, it would follow that the average age of the cotton operatives was higher than that of the worsted operatives. Making all allowance for such difference in age, it would seem that the' average wages were lower in the worsted than in the cotton industry.

The change that has taken place in the woolen manufacture since 1886 makes it most unlikely that the proportion of young persons to adult women employed in 1894 approximated to that prevailing in 1886. The proportion of adult females in woolen mills was abnormally high in 1894, having been 83 per cent of full-timers, as compared with 72.3 per cent in the cotton mills. This high proportion of adult females was most probably due to the employment of girls in worsted instead of in woolen mills. Notwithstanding the high proportion of adult females, the percentage of females either married or widowed in the Yorkshire woolen mills was less than the percentage in the cotton mills, having been 28.1 per cent in the former case and 32.9 per cent in the la In 1886, before the stream of young workers was diverted fro woolen to the worsted cloth manufacture, the percentage of m females was probably lower still.

Comparing the three industries, it was found that the higher average of wages coincide with a higher percentage of adult females either married or widowed. Comparing estimated average wages of young persons in the cotton and worsted mills, the average in the worsted mills was considerably lower than in the cotton mills, although the average age of young persons would be about the same.

An examination of the relation between average wages and the percentage of married women employed in cotton mills in different districts pointed to the conclusion that in the north of England one of the causes of an exceptionally high rate of employment of married women was the high rate of wages that could be earned. In so far as this conclusion is correct, it may be inferred that a falling in wages of working females in the great textile trades would be followed by a diminution in the employment of married women, if the wages of male operatives remained unchanged.

With the relation between wages and the employment of married women in the north of England must be compared the conditions found in the woolen mills in the west of England, where the average weekly wage in 1886 was much lower than the average in Yorkshire and Lancashire, but where the percentage of working females who were either married or widowed was extremely high in 1894.

In conclusion, it is said that the current view that the employment of female labor is rapidly extending, and that women are replacing men to a considerable extent in industrial occupations, is not confirmed. On the whole, the proportion of working females remained practically stationary in the decade 1881-1891, there having been 34.05 working females over 10 years of age per 100 in 1881 and 34.42 per 100 in 1891, the slight increase being attributed to the increased number of females under 25 years of age with definite occupations, and to the increased employment of middle-class women.

The employment of married and elderly women has, on the whole, diminished, as has also the employment of women in casual occupations. There has been an increase in the employment of females under the age of 25 years, which has, however, been concurrent with a similar extension in the employment of young men and boys.

As to the substitution of female for male labor, the census returns show that 83.24 per cent of males over 10 years of age were industrially employed in 1881 and 83.10 per cent in 1891. In either year there were less than 17 males in every 100 who could possibly have been added to the ranks of the employed, whereas there were nearly 66 females in every 100 upon which to draw for an increase in wage earners, yet in 1891 this available female surplus had only been diminished by less than 1, and it appears to be clearly shown that male labor has not been displaced to any marked extent by the employment of females,

EMPLOYER AND EMPLOYEE UNDER THE COMMON LAW.

BY VICTOR H. OLMSTED AND STEPHEN D. FESSENDEN.

The relations existing between employers of labor and their employees, and the reciprocal duties, obligations, and rights growing out of those relations, are, in the absence of legislative enactments, governed by the common law in regard to master and servant, the words master and servant being legally synonymous with the words employer and employee.

The common law consists of principles, usages, and rules of action, applicable to the government and security of persons and property, which have grown into use by gradual adoption, without legislative authority, and have received, from time to time, the sanction of the courts of justice.

The great body of the common law of the United States consists of the common law of England, and such statutes thereof as were in force prior to the separation of this country from England, and applicable to circumstances and conditions prevailing here. These laws have been adopted as the basis of our jurisprudence in all the states except Louisiana, and many of the most valued principles of the English common law have been embodied in the constitutions of the United States and the several states.

In many details, however, the common law of the United States now differs widely from that of England by reason of modifications arising from different conditions and established by American adjudications. That branch of the common law governing the relation of master and servant has undergone some changes, although in the main it is the same in this country as in England. It is not the purpose of this article to point out such changes or differences, but to state the principles and rules of the common law now prevailing throughout the United States, except where they have been changed or modified by legislative enactments.

The statement which follows is derived from articles in the American and English Encyclopedia of Law on the subject of "Master and servant" and kindred topics, and from standard legal works treating of the subject under consideration. The reader should bear in mind that any rule or principle of the common law, as given in this statement, conflicting with a statute which has not been declared invalid or unconstitutional by the courts, is modified or changed by the statute, and that the statute instead of the common law now governs.

MASTER AND SERVANT: DEFINITIONS.-A master is variously defined as one who has in his employment one or more persons hired by contract to serve him either as domestic or common laborers; one who has the superior choice, control, and direction, whose will is represented not merely in the ultimate result of the work in hand, but in all its details; one who is the responsible head of a given industry; one who not only prescribes the end, but directs, or may at any time direct the means and methods of doing the work; one who has the power to discharge; a head or chief; an employer; a director; a governor. A servant is one who is employed to render personal service to his employer otherwise than in the pursuit of an independent calling, and who, in such service, remains entirely under the control and direction of the latter.

THE RELATION: ITS CREATION AND EXISTENCE.-The relation of master and servant is created by contract, either express or implied, where both parties have the requisite legal qualifications for entering into a valid contract. The relation exists only where the person sought to be charged as master employs and controls the other party to the contract of service, or expressly or tacitly assents to the rendition of the particular service by him. The master must have the right to direct the action of the servant, and to accept or reject his service. The relation does not cease so long as the master retains his control or right of control over the methods and manner of doing the work, or the agencies by which it is effected. Furthermore, the relation exists where the servant is employed, not by the master directly, but by an employee in charge of a part of the master's business with authority to engage assistance therein,

THE CONTRACT OF SERVICE.-A contract of employment is one by which an employer engages an employee to do something for the benefit of the employer, or of a third person, for a sufficient consideration, expressed or implied. The authority of a subordinate to employ an agent or servant includes, in the absence of restrictive words, authority to make a complete contract, definite as to the amount of wages, as well as to all other terms.

Ordinarily, when an adult person solicits employment in a particular line of work, the solicitation carries with it an implied assertion that the one seeking employment is competent to perform the ordinary duties of the position sought; and it is an implied condition of every contract of service that the employee is competent to discharge the duties of his employment.

A servant is presumed to have been hired for such length of time as the parties adopt for the estimation of wages; for example, a hiring at a yearly rate is presumed to be for one year; at a daily rate, for one day; a hiring by piecework, for no specified time; but such fact does not, in the absence of other evidence, necessarily fix the period of hiring. Where an employee has been hired to work by the week or month, the