the International Typographical Union. If approved, it will be a most important step toward the peaceful solution of trade disputes and will serve as an example for other industries. Labor and Industry Abroad. The BULLETIN contains statistics concerning the number of disputes settled under the Compulsory Arbitration Law in New Zealand; strikes in England, Austria and Denmark; trade unions in England, Denmark and Sweden; the labor market in Germany, and unemployment in France. It also gives the substance of an important decision of the English Court of Appeal on the status of trade unions under the Trade Union Acts, which confer certain privileges upon the unions and exempt them from some of the liabilities of ordinary corporations or joint stock companies. Labor Laws Annulled. The first quarter of the twentieth century is marked by four exceedingly important decisions of the New York courts in the sphere of relations between employers and employed. The Court of Appeals has declared unconstitutional those provisions of the Labor Law which require public officials and contractors on public work to pay their employees the rates of wages current in the locality, and to use no stone dressed outside the State; while the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court has defined the scope of the Eight-Hour Law, virtually limiting its application to public buildings and other construction work, and has declared illegal a contract for public work giving preference to union labor at an increased cost to the taxpayers. The four decisions are important on account both of the fundamental legal principles and the amount of money involved. It is estimated that in the city of New York alone contracts have been made for public work involving $100,000,000. Nearly all of those contracts contain a stipulation that workmen shall receive the prevailing rate of wages. If, as contractors claim, this clause restricts their freedom in hiring labor at the lowest possible rate, they will gain several million dollars as a result of the decision; for their estimates were made and their bids offered on the basis of the higher wage-rates. Under the ruling of the court holding these contracts illegal on account of the unconstitutionality of the statute the taxpayers will bear the extra expense without having the satisfaction of seeing their employees obtain American wages-unless the courts invalidate the contracts and require the submission of new bids, or unless the workmen combine to exclude such immigrant labor from the work in hand as refuses to maintain existing rates of wages. The Policy of One of the grounds-perhaps the chief ultimate reason-on which the of Labor Legislation. the prevailing rate wages law is declared unconstitutional is that in prescribing a minimum compensation for its employees State may increase the cost of its work, and hence also the burdens of taxation upon its citizens; that in paying more than the market rate of wages the State is using public funds for other than public purposes. This view has been urged with force in the prevailing opinion of the court; while the dissenting opinion did not discuss the policy of this legislation. It may be well, therefore, to state the principal arguments that influenced the Legislature in its adoption of the policy of labor protection and wage regulation in connection with State work: If contractors were allowed absolute freedom of contract they would be compelled by competition to hire labor at the cheapest possible rates. Instead of employing local workmen they would send to Europe or Asia for Italian, Polish or Chinese laborers, with their low standards of living. When they had completed their contract they would abandon these laborers; many of whom, being without employment, would be dependent upon the local charities. And their maintenance would cost the State more than it had saved by using cheap labor. The Contract Labor Law offers some hindrances to such proceedings, but does not prevent the employment of cheap labor. Instances have indeed been reported in which public contractors have paid their poor workmen starvation wages and sent them to the authorities for additional aid. Certainly, in such a case the State would lose nothing by prescribing as the minimum wage-rate a sufficient compensation to maintain a family in decency and according to American standards of comfort. Unless the right of freedom of contract is accordingly limited by such laws as the United States Contract Labor Law and others of this class, the danger is always present that sweat-shop conditions of life will spread through other classes of the population while local workmen, left without work, must also suffer a deterioration in their standard of well-being. But the State already finds the slums and sweat-shops a sufficiently difficult problem without aggravating the evils by encouraging the employment, on its own work, of half-paid workmen. Such must have been the reasons which induced the Legislature to enact protective labor laws of the type under discussion. REVIEW OF RETURNS FROM LABOR ORGANIZATIONS FOR QUARTER ENDED DECEMBER 31, 1900. I. Number and Membership. At the end of 1900, the number of labor organizations in New York State was 1,679 with an aggregate membership of 242,484. As compared with 1899 these figures indicate an increase of 289 organizations and 18,103 members; as compared with the preceding quarter (July-September) of 1900 they indicate an increase of 44 unions and a loss of 2,897 members, thus: 1,635 233,553 11,828 245,381 154,504 90,877 150,278 92,206 1900. September 30. The largest membership was attained at the end of June, 1900, since which date it has very gradually diminished; between June and September there was a loss of about 2,200 and between September and December, a further loss of 2,900. But the membership at the end of December nevertheless remained larger than at any date previous to June 30. The table also shows that the decline in membership in the third quarter of 1900 was in the organizations outside of New York City, it having been in fact due principally to the collapse or retrogression of numerous organizations in Western New York towns. But in the fourth quarter of 1900 the extra-metropolitan district made an actual gain in membership, while the New York City unions lost about 4,200. We turn now to the figures by industries which are printed in Table I, at the end of this article and summarized in Table 2 below. The largest increase in number of unions occurs in Group X, followed by Group I. Only Group XII shows a decline in number of organizations; while in Groups III, VI and IX there is neither increase nor decrease. The net gain in organizations is 44, which added to 51 unions that lapsed gives a total increase of 95 new unions. |