the other two quarters on the basis of the monthly reports of idleness, etc., with the following result:

On the basis of these reports and estimates the average yearly workingtime is ascertained to vary from 22714 days in 1897 to 272 days in 1905. The progression was not a steady one, as relapses occurred in 1900 and again in 1903. The last column. contains the percentages indicating the proportion of actual working days in the year during which the average wage-earner had employment. It will be seen that workingmen were employed from 74 to 88 per cent. of the time; or to reverse the figures, they were idle from 12 per cent. of the time under the best conditions to 26 per cent. of the time under the conditions prevailing in 1897, which of course were not so bad as those of the period 1893-6. The following horizontal lines are proportioned, in length, to the percentage of time lost in each year since 1897:

In explanation of the unprecedently small amount of unemployment in 1905 three or four facts may be mentioned: (1)

The rapid growth of unionism in the transport trades, engine tending and other occupations in which Sunday work is required, thereby increasing the aggregate duration of employment as reported in these statistics; (2) the absence during the larger portion of the year of such extensive and protracted labor disputes as interfered so seriously with industrial operations in 1903 and 1904;* (3) the general state of activity in business, which compared favorably with previous years. While the superiority of 1905 was more especially manifest in the second and fourth quarters of the year (see the monthly statistics of unemployment in the foregoing text), it is fairly well exhibited in the third quarter also, for which we have comprehensive statistics. In a following table (8), it will be observed how strikingly small a proportion of wage-earners worked less than three months-full time. In the succeeding table, showing the average number of days of employment in each of the principal industries or groups of trades, the superiority of 1905 is conspicuous in all but three or four of the smaller industries. It is especially noticeable in the five principal industries (Groups I-V),-construction, transportation, clothing manufacture, metal and machine trades and printing. In the two former the 1905 average for the third quarter has not been exceeded since the Bureau's records began; in the clothing trades it has been surpassed only once (1899); in the metal and machine industry not at all, if engine tending, which was included in the group until 1903, be taken out, etc.

TABLE 8.-NUMBER AND PERCENTAGE OF ORGANIZED WAGE EARNERS WITHIN CERTAIN LIMITS OF EMPLOYMENT (MALES.)

*The aggregate number of working days lost in consequence of the strikes and lockouts recorded by the Bureau of Mediation and Arbitration was 1,155,296 in 1905, as compared with 3 500,000 in 1904.

TABLE 9.-AVERAGE NUMBER OF DAYS WORKED BY MALE MEMBERS OF LABOR UNIONS.

TABLE 10.-PROTRACTED IDLENESS OF MEMBERS OF LABOR ORGANIZATIONS BY INDUSTRIES.