RAILROAD STATISTICS.-This information is given for the years 1895 and 1896. The report for 1895 is incomplete, only 23 railroads having made returns. In 1896 returns were received from 28 railroads. In the latter year, these 28 railroads carried 38,750,309 passengers and 87,756,696 tons of freight. The receipts from all sources were $123,642,999, and the expenditures were $91,403,816. The fatalities and accidents during the year were 251 killed and 2,445 injured.

The following table shows the number of railroad employees, average wages, and hours of labor, by occupations, as reported for 1895 and 1896, respectively:

NUMBER AND AVERAGE WAGES AND HOURS OF LABOR OF RAILROAD
EMPLOYEES, BY OCCUPATIONS, 1895 AND 1896.

MAINE.

Ninth Annual Report of the Bureau of Industrial and Labor Statistics for the State of Maine. 1895. Samuel W. Matthews, Commissioner. 237 PP.

The contents of this report may be grouped as follows: Condition of the working people, 68 pages; railroad employees, 4 pages; factories, mills, and shops built during 1895, 4 pages; butter, cheese, and condensed milk factories, 10 pages; Maine's industrial progress and the outlook for the future, 25 pages; short sketches of the woodworking, oilcloth, lime, slate, sardine, and blueberry industries, 37 pages; extracts from the proceedings of the eleventh annual convention of the National Association of Officials of Bureaus of Labor Statistics, 34 pages; the labor laws of Maine, 10 pages; report of the inspector of factories, workshops, mines, and quarries, 35 pages.

CONDITION OF THE WORKING PEOPLE.-In making this investigation uniform schedules of inquiry were used, and the facts were ascertained by special agents, who visited 556 workingmen in 18 different lines of industry. The following tables contain the principal data collected by the agents:

CONDITION OF WORKINGMEN, BY OCCUPATIONS.

SIZE OF WORKINGMEN'S FAMILIES, AVERAGE EARNINGS, ETC., BY OCCUPATIONS.

AVERAGE EXPENDITURES OF WORKINGMEN'S FAMILIES, BY OCCUPATIONS. [Each item in this table is an average based on the number of families reporting. As the number of families reporting differs for the various items, the sums of the items do not equal the average totals which are based on the total expenditures of all families.]

Of the returns made, 433 were for Americans and 123 were for persons of foreign birth. Of the 556 persons returned, 188 owned their homes, 327 were living in rented dwellings, and 41 did not report on this point. The average value of the homes owned was $1,349.60. Forty-three of the homes were mortgaged, the average amount of the mortgage debt being $413.95. Eighty-two persons were members of labor organizations, and 131 of beneficiary societies. Two hundred and twenty-eight had accounts in savings banks. Three hundred and thirty-two had been able to accumulate savings during the year, while 63 had run into debt.

The 514 heads of families returned show an average income per family of $549.09, or $131.52 per individual member, the average size of a

family being 4.18 persons. The total expenditure per family was $466.64, leaving a net surplus of $82.45 per family. The principal items of expenditure per family were: Rent, $85.68; food, $199.97; clothing, $94.27; fuel and light, $36.23; society dues, $5.68; life insurance, $20.55; sundries, $74.96.

RAILROAD EMPLOYEES.-Returns for the year ending June 30, 1895, from 21 railroads in the State, show a total of 4,693 employees (exclusive of general officers), and a wage roll amounting to $2,268,357.86. This was an increase, both as to employees and wage payments, over the preceding year.

FACTORIES, MILLS, AND SHOPS BUILT DURING 1895.-The returns for 1895 show a decided increase of activity in the building of factories, mills, and shops over the year 1894. There were 102 buildings constructed, repaired, or remodeled at a total cost of $1,367,800, necessitating the employment of 2,797 persons. The items of total cost and persons employed were more than double those for 1894. The information is presented by industries, towns, and counties.

INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS, ETC.-In this chapter is given a brief account of some of the leading industries of the State, the natural advantages, and the opportunities offered for their development.

RECENT FOREIGN STATISTICAL PUBLICATIONS.

Travail du Dimanche. Volume V, Pays Étrangers (Allemagne, Autriche, Suisse, Angleterre). Rapports présentés à M. le Ministre de l'Industrie et du Travail. Office du Travail, Ministère de l'Industrie et du Travail, Royaume de Belgique. 1896. viii, 334 pp.

In Bulletin No. 7 an account was given of the investigation undertaken by the Belgian labor bureau concerning the extent of Sunday labor, and the contents of the first of a series of projected reports were briefly summarized. The present report, though numbered Volume V, is the second of this series to be published. It consists of separate reports by different special agents of the bureau concerning the laws relating to, and the extent of, Sunday work in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and England. It being impracticable to conduct original investigations in these countries, the reports are general in character, giving the legal status of the question and the probable extent of Sunday work as shown by existing official or other publications. From these reports the extent to which Sunday labor is prohibited by law in each of these countries can be briefly summarized.

In Germany, prior to the year 1891, Sunday labor was regulated only by the labor laws of the individual States constituting the Empire. On June 1 of that year, however, there was enacted the imperial indus trial law (Reichsgewerbeordnung), the object of which was to provide a uniform system of labor laws applicable to the whole country. The regulation of Sunday labor constitutes one of the important purposes of this law.

For this purpose a distinction is made between industrial and commercial work. As regards the former, the general principle is first laid down that employers of labor are forbidden to either compel or even to permit their employees to work on Sundays or legal holidays. The determination of which are legal holidays is left to the individual States. This prohibition relates only to factory work proper. It therefore does not apply to persons working alone or aided by members of their families only; to persons engaged in agriculture, fisheries, the professions, or liberal arts, etc.; to concert, theater, hotel, restaurant, or transportation employees; or to such persons as seamstresses who go to the houses of their clients to work. It should be remarked, however, that the labor of all of these persons may be regulated by the laws of the individual States.

To this general prohibition of factory work it was found necessary to make a number of exceptions. The federal council is in the first place