OF THE

DEPARTMENT OF LABOR.

No. 17-JULY, 1898.

ISSUED EVERY OTHER MONTH.

EDITED BY

CARROLL D. WRIGHT,

COMMISSIONER.

OREN W. WEAVER,

CHIEF CLERK.

WASHINGTON:

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE.

CONTENTS.

Page.

Economic aspects of the liquor problem...

509-551

Brotherhood relief and insurance of railway employees, by Emory R. Johnson, Ph. D., of the University of Pennsylvania....

552-596

The nations of Antwerp, by J. Howard Gore, Ph. D., of Columbian University 597-612 Digest of recent reports of State bureans of labor statistics:

Laws of various States relating to labor enacted since January 1, 1896..... 658-663 Recent Government contracts..

664

III

ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF THE LIQUOR PROBLEM.

The Twelfth Annual Report of the Commissioner of Labor is entitled Economic Aspects of the Liquor Problem. The act making appropria tions for the legislative, executive, and judicial expenses of the Government for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1896, authorized the Commissioner of Labor to make an investigation relating to the above subject, providing such investigation could be carried out under the regular appropriations made for the Department of Labor.

A report on the economic aspects of the liquor problem, to cover the various phases of the subject, should consider the agricultural products and other materials used in the production of liquors; the manufacture of liquors as a distinct industry; the transportation of liquors from the place of production to that of consumption; the consumption of and the traffic in liquors; the revenue derived from the manufacture and traffic; the laws regulating the collection of revenue; the experience and practice of employers in relation to the use of intoxicants, and all the financial conditions relating to the liquor business.

The agricultural products used in the manufacture of liquors form, as a rule, a very small proportion of the total of such products, and it is therefore not possible to ascertain the capital, the number of employees, etc., represented by such portion. The transportation of liquor forms a very small proportion of the land and water transportation business of the whole country, and it is impossible to estimate the capital and number of employees represented by it. On the remaining subjects enumerated above, reliable and fairly complete data in regard to the production of liquors were found in the reports of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue and the publications of the census office. To obtain information in regard to the traffic in liquors and the revenue derived from the manufacture and traffic, as well as the experience and practice of employers in relation to the use of intoxicants, original inquiry was necessary, and it is along these lines that the main work of this inves. tigation was done, the amount of work and its comprehensiveness being limited by the provisions of the law authorizing the investigation, that it should be conducted under the regular appropriations of the Department.