During the year we find that the applications for female help have increased in greater proportion than the number of servants registering with us; in fact they are nearly equal in number. This, of necessity, means quite a number of situations which must remain unfilled, as from such a limited number on the list it is impossible to secure those who will meet the requirements of the employers in all cases. JOHN J. BEALIN, LABOR NOTES. The Fourteenth Annual Report of the United States Commissioner of Labor (for the year 1899) is on the subject of private and municipal ownership of water, gas and electric-light plants. The Amalgamated Sheet Metal Workers of New York City, an organization of 1,200 members, obtained a general increase of twenty-five cents per day at the end of August. The new rate is $3.75. An increase of fifteen cents per day-from $2.15 to $2.30-was conceded in August on demand to the 700 members of Progress Association of Steam Fitters' Helpers of New York City. The Master Steam and Hot Water Fitters' Association also granted these workers the Saturday half holiday during June, July and August. The August Bulletin of the Massachusetts Bureau of Labor Statistics contains the following articles: Household Expenses; Comparative Occupation Statistics for the Cities of Fall River, New Bedford and Taunton; list of subjects pertaining to labor considered in the latest reports of American Statistical Bureaus; Massachusetts Labor Legislation in 1900; Quarterly Review of Employment and Earnings. The July Bulletin of the United States Department of Labor is principally devoted to the results of a statistical investigation of trusts and industrial combinations, conducted by the Department in co-operation with Professor Jenks, expert of the United States Industrial Commission. The article occupies 170 pages. Briefer articles are published on the "Yukon and Nome Gold Regions," and "Labor Day," in addition to the usual summaries of reports of labor bureaus. United Brotherhood of Cloak Makers' Union No. 1, composing eight branches in Greater New York, began a movement in the fore part of August for an increase in wages. Up to the 31st of that month thirteen manufacturers, employing 3,750 men and 750 women, had granted the demands, the advances, the union reports, ranging from twenty-five to thirty-five per cent. This is a restoration of the wages that prevailed last spring. three other establishments were pending on the above date. Strikes in A strike of ten days' duration was instituted in seventy establishments in August by the three vest makers' unions in New York City, composed of 900 men and 600 women, and resulted in an increase of wages of from ten to fifteen per cent, this being a renewal of the schedule that existed earlier in the year, but which had been reduced. Other successful demands were for weekly payment of wages, union shops, not more than one apprentice in each subdivision of the trade per factory, such apprentice to be registered on the books of the unions, and that the business agent of the several organizations be allowed to visit the workshops. Early in the year the Enterprise Association of Steam and Hot Water Fitters of New York City notified the Master Steam and Hot Water Fitters' Association that the members of the former desired an advance in wages and the Saturday half holiday, besides several changes in trade regulations, the same to take effect in the succeeding August. Conferences were held by the representatives of the two associations, and finally, on the 2d of August, it was mutually agreed that the workmen were to thereafter receive $4 per day, an increase of twenty-five cents, and the Saturday half holiday during June, July and August. Some additions were made to the trade rules, which are contained in the agreement printed elsewhere in the BULLETIN. This compact, which is to remain in force until August, 1903, immediately benefited 675 members of the Enterprise Association. When the United Tight Work Coopers of Greater New York and Vicinity, comprising Coopers' International Union No. 2, L. A. 1475, K. of L., of New York City, and Local Assembly No. 7698, K. of L., of Brooklyn Borough, requested the master brewers in the latter part of April to reduce the hours of labor from ten to nine per day, with eight hours on Saturday, the unions in their circular letter informed each employer that "we wish to remind you that we have not acted with undue haste in this matter, inas much as all the mechanical trades have secured these or less hours of labor; also that in all brewery centers outside of New York nine hours is the regular day's work for coopers." Favorable response to the proposition was forthwith given by the proprietors of twenty-nine breweries, and after a short strike in May in seven others the terms of the unions were complied with. Wages remained stationary. Over 300 coopers profited by the reduction in working time. able York rietors Seven ges re nction THE LABOR MOVEMENT ABROAD. Old-Age Pensions in Belgium. By a law of May 10, 1900, the Belgian government established a permanent system of State subsidies in aid of old-age insurance. The law follows in general the conclusions reached by a special. commission appointed April 5, 1895, which presented its report on January 30th last. It may be noted in passing that this report, which makes a volume of 273 quarto pages, offers an important fund of material for both fact and theory of the subject, including a review of previous provisions for such insurance in Belgium, a summary of foreign legislation on the subject, a full discussion of the proper character and scope of State action, and the commission's recommendations, accompanied by extensive explanations. The law of 1900 does not create a new system of old-age pensions, but rather supplements the system known as the "General Superannuation Fund," which was instituted in 1850. The es sential point of the new law is the establishment of a permanent State subsidy by which the government adds a bonus to every annuity or pension purchased in the General Fund. Even this is. not new in practice, inasmuch as Parliament has voted an annual sum for that very purpose every year since 1891. The new statute, however, greatly increases the amount of such aid and makes it a permanent system. Before the passage of the present law pensions in the Fund of not less than one nor more than 1,200 francs ($231.60) per annum could be purchased by subscription of any sum not less than one franc, the cost of annuities being calculated on a basis of three per cent compound interest. Such annuities might be either immediate or deferred. If the latter they must be made payable, at the choice of the purchaser, sometime between the end of the 50th and the beginning of the 66th years of age of the beneficiary. Anyone could subscribe to the General Fund directly, but very often the subscription was made through the medium of friendly societies, many of which were formed for the sole purpose of affiliating their members to the Fund. It was those subscribing to |