daily demands of one department, sometimes entirely without regard to the needs of the morrow in other departments.

In some establishments where the work of these bureaus has been perfected, large savings have been reported because of the much greater stability of the force. Estimates have been made of the cost of hiring a man, ranging from $50 to several hundred dollars per man. It is obvious, even if the lowest figure is at all fair, that enormous savings are possible in the great establishments which hire several thousand men each year.

The purpose of the study will be to learn in detail all the methods which have proved most successful and the results which have been secured, both as affecting the employer and the men.

The investigation of labor conditions in Hawaii is the regular investigation required by law to be made once in five years. The study will, in general, cover the ground and follow the method of previous studies, the results of which were published in reports of the bureau in 1901, 1902, 1905, and 1910.

OVERTIME IN THE FRUIT AND VEGETABLE CANNING AND PACKING INDUSTRY OF OREGON.

The Oregon Industrial Welfare Commission, under date of May 26, 1915, published an order providing for the issuance of emergency overtime permits for fruit and vegetable canning and packing establishments. Provision is made that such overtime shall not be permitted for more than six calendar weeks, and that the working time, including overtime, shall not exceed 60 hours in any calendar week nor 10 hours in any one day. The order is quoted in full below.

TAKE NOTICE: That pursuant to the authority granted by chapter 35, General Laws of Oregon, 1915, the industrial welfare commission has investigated the emergency overtime requirements of the fruit and vegetable canning and packing industry of Oregon and finds that for six (6) weeks of each year the aforesaid industry requires emergency overtime beyond the fifty-four (54) hours a week prescribed as maximum hours for women workers in such industry in I. W. C. Orders No. 2 and No. 5.

WHEREFORE, the industrial welfare commission authorizes and permits the employment of adult women in fruit and vegetable canning and packing establishments in the State of Oregon for more than fifty-four (54) hours a week under the following conditions and rules which the aforesaid commission hereby to-day determines and prescribes:

1. Such emergency overtime shall not be permitted for more than six (6) calendar weeks, from May 1 to December 1 in any year.

2. The emergency overtime shall not exceed the fifty-four (54) hours a week now prescribed by IÏ. W. C. Orders No. 2 and No. 5 by more than six (6) hours for any calendar week.

3. Nothing in this permit or order shall be interpreted as authorizing the employment of any woman for more than ten (10) hours in any day.

4. Such emergency overtime shall be paid for at a rate of not less than twenty-five cents (25c) an hour; and the earnings for emergency overtime shall in no case be included in the weekly minimum wage prescribed by the rulings of the commission, but shall in every case be over and above the weekly minimum wage prescribed by I. W. C. Orders No. 2 and No. 5 for adult women workers.

5. The owner or manager of every fruit and vegetable cannery or packing establishment in Oregon employing women under this emergency overtime permit shall furnish the industrial welfare commission on or before the 5th day of each month a tran

script, duly verified as hereinafter provided, of the weekly time and pay roll of each woman who has worked more than fifty-four (54) hours in any one week of the preceding month. Said transcript shall furnish the name and employee number of each woman employee.

6. Said transcript shall be verified by said owner or manager or some person in his behalf having knowledge of the facts by subscribing and swearing to a statement that said transcript is a full, true, and accurate statement of the overtime worked by and wages paid to each and every woman who has worked overtime.

ADMINISTRATION OF THE CHILD-LABOR LAWS OF CONNECTICUT.

The Children's Bureau of the Department of Labor has recently published a bulletin on the above subject, taking up specifically the effect of the employment certificate system as an enforcement agency. The bulletin contains 69 pages and presents the result of field work in text form, with copies of the laws, and graphs showing the administrative agencies provided for and the methods in use for procuring employment certificates. Forms of certificates and sample educational tests add to the completeness of this initial study by the bureau in this particular field. Studies of other States, taking up legislation of different types, are to follow.

An outstanding feature of the law of Connecticut is the completeness with which the matter of the issue of employment certificates and the following up of employment under them is placed in the hands of the State board of education and worked as a part of the compulsory education law of the State, instead of connecting it with the work of factory inspection, thus securing a strong centralization of control, which makes for efficiency. The law permits no employment in mechanical, mercantile, or manufacturing establishments of children under the age of 14 years, and requires employment certificates until the age of 16. These certificates cover the points of age, education, and physical condition, and are issued only to children holding an employer's declaration of intention to employ the child if a certificate is issued to him or her. The employer retains the certificate and is required to report the child's entrance on employment and also the termination of such employment. On such termination the child is to return to school unless new employment is obtained, for which also a new certificate is required. Besides issuing certificates, the board of education, through its agents, inspects places where children are employed for the purpose of detecting violations of the law in regard to children under 14, children 14 to 16 without certificates, and children between those ages who are physically unfit for labor. Inspectors have the legal right of seeing the list of certificates on file, but not of going through the establishment, though employers generally permit this. Inspectors of the department of factory inspection have a right to go through the establishments, but not to inspect the register of children employed,

though this is done occasionally. While, therefore, there is a disposition on the part of the two agencies to cooperate, and it is done to some extent, the amount of cooperation is much lessened by reason of these divergent powers. There is also a natural cooperation between the inspectors and local attendance officers and school authorities, a weakness in this respect being the lack of complete cooperation as regards parochial schools.

A prime difficulty discovered was with reference to the return to school of children becoming unemployed after a time. They have lost their places in their classes and are often looked upon by their teachers as undesirables, both on account of thus becoming ungraded and because of loss of interest. So great and evident are the difficulties attendant upon the return to school of a child after a period of employment that efforts in this direction are found to be rather perfunctory, and the inspector's activities are frequently directed toward securing new places of employment rather than enforcing a probably fruitless school attendance, especially if the family is known to be in need of the child's earnings. In any case there is apt to be delay in getting results in any effort in this direction. This adds to the difficulties, since habits of idleness quickly develop during unemployment and the more or less active avoidance of the inspector by the child while the latter is perhaps nominally looking for a new position.

With many excellencies both of substance and of administration, the above apparent weaknesses were noted, together with others, which are, in brief, allowing the reading and writing of any language instead of requiring English, and the acceptance of too low an educational standard generally, especially where school records were taken in lieu of examinations; inadequacy in the matter of physical examinations, which are apparently quite infrequently required; and the imperfection of any methods adopted to prevent the employment outside of school hours of children not legally employable.

The issue of future studies in this field, which will afford a basis of comparison, will be awaited with interest, the avowed purpose of the undertaking as a whole being to bring out a standard method of administration in this important field.

FOREIGN FOOD PRICES AS AFFECTED BY THE WAR.

To show something of the effect of the European war upon cost of living following the outbreak of hostilities in August, 1914, the bureau has just issued Bulletin No. 170 under the title "Foreign food prices as affected by the war." Much of the information of the report was obtained through the consular service of the Department of State, and, in the main, covers the period from August to December, 1914. Prices are given for 18 countries and represented by reports from over 100 cities, towns, and consular districts.

The report shows that the first effect of the war was the same practically throughout Europe. Its outbreak was followed by a sharp rise in prices due mainly to panic and uncertainty. In some countries legislative measures were at once taken to check this rise. In others the Governments strictly adhered to a hands-off policy and trusted to the natural course of events for readjustment. Within a fortnight the first panic was over and except in the actual war zone prices began to fall. In most places, however, prices did not drop to the July level and after an interval again took an upward turn, which has probably not yet reached its climax.

The price figures available are somewhat incomplete, but almost everywhere the upward tendency of prices appears. Potatoes were among the few articles which showed a fall in prices in most of the more important countries. Meat, also, was another important article which in many places increased but little in price.

Flour, on the other hand, showed decided changes. Russia is the greatest wheat exporting country of Europe, and the war practically shut off its foreign markets. It is not surprising, therefore, to find that the price of wheat flour had actually fallen in Moscow. In Germany and Austria the rise was marked, prices compared with the July level, in Germany, showing an increase of 25 per cent by December and 34 per cent by January. In Vienna the increase by December was 73 per cent and by January 82 per cent. In Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Great Britain, flour prices in December were 13 or 14 per cent above the July level, but later figures show a continued increase in February, reaching 24 per cent in the Netherlands and 33 per cent in Great Britain. Bread prices in most cases followed those of wheat flour. In Germany and Austria, however, the increases in the prices of bread were somewhat less than those in the price of wheat flour.

Sugar prices showed marked differences, resulting from the war, in different localities. In France the best sugar-beet fields lie in the northern parts, which were early invaded, and as a result the price of sugar rose sharply. Germany and Russia are sugar exporting countries, and in Berlin and Moscow sugar showed little change in price. England imports its entire supply, and in London the price rose 70 per cent. Turkey usually imports her sugar from Russia and from Austria. The Russian supply was shut off altogether when Turkey entered the war, and the Austrian supply was reduced to what could be brought through by rail, a very uncertain dependence.

Administrative and legislative measures to check the rise in cost of necessaries were very generally taken. Denmark, Egypt, Great Britain, Italy, Russia, Spain, and Turkey prohibited the export of practically all foodstuffs. France, Norway, and Sweden listed certain articles which must not be exported, and Holland placed an embargo on butter and cheese.

Fixing maximum prices, especially for foodstuffs, by some Government agency was a very common measure. To some extent it was used by every country included in the bureau's report, although in Great Britain and Sweden so little of the sort was done that these countries might almost be excepted.

The methods adopted for fixing prices differed considerably. In France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Russia, Spain, and parts of Turkey the municipal authorities, either alone or in cooperation with the central or military authorities, might fix maximum rates if they thought best. In most cases this right was of long standing. In all of these countries the municipal authorities have very generally made use of this right. In Bulgaria a special law was passed early in August authorizing local authorities, with the participation of financial authorities, to fix prices, both wholesale and retail. In Egypt a commission was appointed by the central Government with power to fix maximum prices. Denmark, Norway, and Sweden also resorted to commissions for this purpose. In Servia the minister of the interior was charged with the duty of fixing maximum prices.

Some Governments, while allowing the local authorities to fix prices on most things, issued decrees applicable to their whole territory concerning a few highly important articles. Thus, Austria and Germany both prescribed the proportion of wheat or rye flour that should be used in making bread. Later both Austria and Germany fixed the wholesale price of cereals, and brought the distribution and consumption of flour and bread under strict control. Turkey fixed prices for petroleum, sugar, and flour. In Italy salt, tobacco, and matches are Government monopolies, so that their prices were fixed by the central authority. Denmark, Holland, and Switzerland limited themselves to controlling the most important breadstuff of each country.

The importance and full significance of the increases in prices which occurred would not be fairly presented without reference to the fact that increased cost of living, and especially the increase in food prices, has for several years been a question of serious concern in practically all of the European countries. The upward movement in prices prior to the war had in fact been world wide. An inquiry of the British Board of Trade in 1912 showed increases in food prices in various countries, over prices in 1900, ranging from 15 per cent in Great Britain and France, to 16 per cent in Australia, to 30 per cent. in Germany, to 32 per cent in Belgium, and 35 per cent in Austria. In Canada and in the United States the increase shown was even greater than the highest of these figures. Thus, it will be seen that the increased prices directly due to the war, coming as the culmination of a long period of increases, are much more serious to the masses of the population than the mere figures indicate. It is obvious, too, that the increases of the first four to six months represented only the beginning of the war's effect on the cost of living.