PERSONS HAVING ITINERANT OCCUPATIONS.-This series of tables deals with persons whose occupations necessitate their going from place to place, and who have no fixed place of business, such as a store or workshop. The following table gives a summary of the information contained in this part of the report:

PERSONS FOLLOWING ITINERANT OCCUPATIONS, BY SEX AND INDUSTRIES.

There were in all 126,885 persons enumerated who were following itinerant occupations. Of these 81,348, or 64.11 per cent, were males, and 45,537, or 35.89 per cent, were females. Compared with the total population on June 14, 1895, there were 2.45 persons of itinerant occupations for every 1,000 inhabitants and 6.11 per 1,000 of persons engaged in earning a livelihood. Of the whole number of itinerants enumerated 113,329 were working independently on their own account. Of these 74,844, or 66.04 per cent, were males, and 38,485, or 33.96 per cent, were females. The itinerant work was adopted as a principal occupation by 100,236, or 79 per cent. There were 13,556 persons having itinerant occupations who were in the employ of others. Of these, 13,060 were assistants accompanying others, and 496 were sent out by employers having a fixed place of business.

In the following summary persons of itinerant occupations are classified according to age:

PERSONS FOLLOWING ITINERANT OCCUPATIONS, BY AGE, SEX, AND INDUSTRIES.

Considered by industries, it is found that out of the total number of persons following itinerant occupations 98, or 0.08 per cent, were engaged in the gardening and live stock industries; 5,124, or 4.04 per cent, in mining, manufacturing, and building trades; 113,520, or 89.46 per cent, in trade and commerce; and 8,143, or 6.42 per cent, in professional service.

STATISTICS OF THE UNEMPLOYED.-A preliminary report covering this portion of the enumeration was reviewed in Bulletin No. 11.

Statistica degli Scioperi avvenuti nell'Industria e nell' Agricoltura durante Vanno 1895. Ministero di Agricoltura, Industria e Commercio, Direzione Generale della Statistica. 1897. 66 pp.

This report on strikes in Italy during the year 1895 was prepared by the bureau of statistics of the Italian department of agriculture, industry, and commerce. Digests of Italian strike reports for previous years appeared in Bulletins Nos. 1 and 6.

The report shows a total of 126 strikes in 1895, participated in by 19,307 strikers, or an average of 153 per strike. While the number of strikes was greater than during the preceding year, the number of

participants was considerably smaller, the average number per strike being smaller than for any year since 1882.

The following table shows the number of strikes, the number of strikers, and the average number of strikers per strike during each year from 1879 to 1895:

STRIKES, STRIKERS, AND AVERAGE NUMBER OF STRIKERS PER STRIKE, 1879 TO 1895.

The causes of strikes during 1895, and the results by causes, are shown in the two following tables:

For increase of wages.
For reduction of hours
Against reduction of
wages
Other causes..

Num- Per Num- Per Num- Per Num. Per Num Per Num- Per ber. cent. ber. cent. ber. cent. ber. cent. ber. cent. ber. cent.

6385

The prevailing cause of these disturbances appears from the above tables to be the demand for increased wages, 36 per cent of the strikes, involving 44 per cent of all the strikers, being due to this cause. Next in importance were strikes against a reduction of wages, namely, 17 per cent of the strikes, involving 16 per cent of all the strikers. Of the strikes for increase of wages, 31 per cent, and of the strikers

involved, only 11 per cent, failed. In the case of strikes against reduction of wages, 55 per cent, and of persons involved, 62 per cent, were unsuccessful.

The following table shows the percentages of success, partial success, and failures, by strikes and by strikers involved, for the years 1878-1891 to 1895:

RESULTS OF STRIKES, 1878-1891 TO 1895.

There appears from the above an almost steady increase in the percentages of successful strikes, and a general decrease in the percentages of failures from 1878-1891 to 1895. With regard to the number of strikers this tendency is not so marked, there being a decided fluctuation in the percentages of success and failure from year to year.

The number of strikes, strikers, and working days lost is shown in the following table, according to occupations:

STRIKES, STRIKERS, AND WORKING DAYS LOST, BY OCCUPATIONS, 1895.

The greatest number of strikes was reported in the group of weavers, spinners, and carders, miners and ore diggers, day laborers, masons and stonecutters, and printers and compositors.

Of the 19,307 participants in the 126 strikes, 11,788 were males, 5,192 were females, and 2,327 were children of both sexes 15 years of age or under. There was a total loss of 125,968 working days.

The report concludes with a detailed description of each strike.

DECISIONS OF COURTS AFFECTING LABOR.

[This subject, begun in Bulletin No. 2, will be continued in successive issues, dealing with the decisions as they occur. All material parts of the decisions are reproduced in the words of the courts, indicated when short by quotation marks and when long by being printed solid. In order to save space, immaterial matter, needed simply by way of explanation, is given in the words of the editorial reviser.]

DECISIONS UNDER STATUTORY LAW.

CONSTITUTIONALITY OF STATUTE-CLAIMS FOR WAGES PREFERRED-Hennig et al. v. Staed, Sheriff, 40 Southwestern Reporter, page 95.-Action was brought in the city court of St. Louis, Mo., by the Continental National Bank against the A. Siegel Gas-Fixture Company by attachment. Jule A. Hennig and others presented claims for labor against the defendant to Patrick M. Staed, sheriff, who was in possession of the attached property, and, on the refusal of the sheriff to pay such claims, interpleaded in the action by motion for an order requiring their payment. From an order so made, and from the overruling of a motion to set it aside, the sheriff appealed the case to the supreme court of the State, which rendered its decision April 3, 1897, affirming the action of the city court of St. Louis in ordering the sheriff to pay the claims, and deciding that section 4911, Revised Statutes, 1889, under which the payment of the claims for labor was sought to be enforced, was constitutional and valid.

The opinion of the supreme court, which was delivered by Judge MacFarlane, reads in part as follows:

The section of the statute under which these claims are made is as follows:

"Hereafter when the property of any company, corporation, firm, or persons shall be seized upon by any process of any court of this State, or when their business shall be suspended by the action of creditors, or be put into the hands of a receiver or trustee, then, in all such cases, the debts owing to laborers or servants, which have accrued by reason of their labor or employment to an amount not exceeding one hundred dollars to each employee, for work or labor performed within six months next preceding the seizure or transfer of such property, shall be considered and treated as preferred debts, and such laborers or employees shall be preferred creditors, and shall be first paid in full; and if there be not sufficient to pay them in full, then the same shall be paid to them pro rata, after paying costs. Any such laborer or servant desiring to enforce his or her claim for wages under this chapter shall present a statement, under oath, showing the amount due after allowing all just credits and set-offs, the kind of work for which such wages are due, and when performed, to the officer, person, or court charged with such