pose by the Surgeon-General of the Army, the creation of 25 large base hospitals at convenient points in the United States was effected. Carefully selected trained personnel of larger civil hospitals may be mobilized as hospital units in time of war and transferred to the base of operations, where the staffs that have been working together in peace time will continue to work together under war conditions. In this connection a National Committee of Medical Service was organized, which corresponds to the long-existing National Committee on Red Cross Nursing Service. The number of enrolled American Red Cross graduate-nurses throughout the United States has mounted to above 7,000. The permanent Red Cross national headquarters in Washington, a gift of Congress and of individ ual philanthropists, is nearing completion.

have been launched. One of the for- of the Medical Corps of the U. S, eign-relief societies reports that 5,000 | Army assigned for the special purrelief organizations of varying size are coöperating with it in various parts of the United States, Canada, Hawaii, Cuba and Bermuda. There is noticeably more coöperation between war-relief societies than there was a year ago. Fraudulent relief undertakings are not so common as one might expect, in view of the opportunities that exist for imposture. American Red Cross.-The humanitarian efforts of the American National Red Cross, the official relief agency of the U. S. Government, during the eight months of 1916 ending Aug. 31, were largely absorbed by the European War, as was the case in 1915, and very nearly $600,000 was expended in various ways. In war relief the Red Cross concentrated on the shipment of surgical and hospital supplies and from its general fund for this purpose expended $453,585. In behalf of Polish war victims and from a special fund for that purpose Central Councils of Social Agencies. the Red Cross spent $58,938. From A recent form of organization for the Turkish war relief fund it used improvement of the work of chari$50,000. About $11,009 from the Jew- table societies and institutions which ish war-relief fund was expended. has matured sufficiently to warrant For Mexican relief and Mexican bor- review is that of the central counder relief funds $10,273 was used. cils of social agencies. Probably Continuing relief for Lusitania sur- without exception these councils have vivors entailed an expenditure from been formed on the initiative of sothe Lusitania relief fund of $2,191. cial workers who are concerned with From contingent relief funds the raising the standards and coördinatfollowing sums were expended for the ing to a higher degree the activities purposes indicated: relief of China of the charitable organizations in flood sufferers, $1,100; relief of na- their communities. Active councils tives, Rota Islands in the Pacific, of this type exist in Cincinnati, $500; relief of Arkansas flood suf- | Cleveland, Columbus, Milwaukee, ferers, $2,124.72; relief of Kentucky Pittsburgh, Rochester, St. Louis, Seflood sufferers, $1,200; relief of Nat- attle, Springfield, Mass., and elsechez, Miss., flood sufferers, $497.73; where. relief of West Virginia flood sufferers, $100; relief of Augusta, Ga., fire sufferers, $2,000; relief of Hopewell, Va., fire sufferers, $41.11; relief of destitute in Haiti (result of revolutions), $2,380.32; additional Mexican relief at Brownsville, Tex., $40; relief of famine sufferers, Cape Verde Islands, $1,000.

The American Red Cross has experienced a growth in membership from 30,000 in January to approximately 250,000. With the organization early in the year of a military relief department, headed by a colonel

The original charity-organization society in this country, instituted in 1877, stood for the principle of coordination of all charitable efforts in the community. The central council of social agencies goes a step farther and attempts to unify the operation of the agencies whose object is social betterment. These bodies ordinarily hold meetings of semi-public character for the discussion of prac tical questions, usually of a technical sort. Their main service appears to be in the operation of their subcommittees, under each of which some

group of agencies, such as children's | to perform, and without any inteninstitutions or medical agencies, is tion of or authority for revising the classified. Their activities are chiefly action after the organization has of two kinds: on the one hand, the begun to operate. Those who adpromotion of social-welfare work not vocate a reform assert that a private falling within the scope of established charity is a public trust, and thereinstitutions or which can be handled fore the situation ought to be under only through coöperation of two or the control of some authority espemore agencies; and, on the other cially qualified and empowered to rechand, the gradual raising of stand-ognize only legitimate agencies. ards of operation of the established agencies themselves. The principle of the central council of social agencies is used in modified form in many places. An interesting variation is the Association of Children's Agencies of Los Angeles County, California.

In

only seven states, Indiana, Massachusetts and Ohio being leading examples, is there any requirement of examination as to worthiness before the incorporation papers issue. There are 10 states which require the licensing of home-finding and childEndorsement, Chartering and Licen- caring agencies and boarding houses sing of Charitable Agencies.-The for infants. The crux of the problem year has been notable for a tighten- in the matter of licensing and charing of public control over illegiti- tering, as contrasted to the act of a mate and ill-considered types of phil- commercial body in making a "white anthropy. This is being accomplished list" of legitimate charities, lies in both by voluntary associations the fact that it is difficult to define through their work of endorsement and by government through licensing and the issuance of charters. Approximately 185 chambers of commerce or organizations of similar type in the United States make investigation of local charities for their members or others. A few have some arrangement whereby a certain list of voluntary charities in their communities are certified to the public as having their approval. In many cities without endorsement schemes relationships among private charities tend to be chaotic. There is now a growing demand for national regulation or endorsement, owing to the fact that undesirable out-of-town agencies can operate without much difficulty under the present endorsement schemes.

Licensing and chartering by public authority, usually that of the state, approaches the same problem from another angle. It has been estimated by Robert W. Kelso of Boston that there are about 10,000 active charitable corporations in the United States, possessed of assets amounting to $1,225,000,000, and having an income of $207,000,000 annually. These corporations for the most part have received certification from the secretaries of state of the various commonwealths without close scrutiny of the service they propose

A

the task of examining and approving agencies of a philanthropic character so that these functions can be performed by an administrative body without recourse to the courts. widely noted case during the year in this connection has been that of a certain agency against the City Charities Commission of Los Angeles. Attack was made on the validity of an ordinance whereby the Commission was authorized to endorse charities in much the same way as is now being done by chambers of commerce, no charitable undertaking being allowed to operate without such endorsement. The Supreme Court of California has decided adversely to the ordinance. A unique enactment is the new statute in Massachusetts providing for the issuance of licenses to agencies conducting "tag days" or similar schemes for charitable purposes.

Public Relief.-The year has witnessed a continuation of the reexamination of public-relief policies which has been going on for some time. Special report has been made upon the practices of outdoor relief in Chicago and Brooklyn. Under the Los Angeles County department of charities and corrections, relief work has been organized according to the typical charity-organization society plan. At Grand Rapids a new char

Legislation relative to the deaf and blind includes the authorization of a commission in Louisiana to inquire into the feasibility of establishing an institution for deaf, dumb, and blind negroes, and an arrangement in the same state whereby the school for the deaf and blind will be under the control of the state Board of Education. In Massachusetts the poor-law authorities are required to aid the commission for the blind in the matter of reporting cases which come under their care, and the Commission is required to register cases of seriously defective eyesight and to arrange for home instruction for the blind. In the same state a commission on economy and efficiency is directed to investigate the advisability of pensions for the needy blind. Mississippi has enacted a statute for the prevention of infantile blindness. The state commission for the blind in New Jersey is authorized to use money for purchase of tools, stock in trade, etc., for blind persons, and to give hospital treatment to blind infants.

ter has been adopted providing for a | stitutions which receive public money department of public welfare, the re- hereafter will be given such support lief division of which represents a per capita for their inmates. complete departure from the customary arrangements of the poor law. The charter provides that, after thorough investigation, if it shall seem desirable to render aid, the public department "shall in each case attempt, through approved methods of social service, to restore the dependent to self support and to maintain at least a minimum standard of living which shall secure physical, mental and moral wellbeing." Another striking example which has attracted public attention is the reorganization of the charities of Westchester County, New York. This began with a reform administration of the county almshouse and with the extension of the authority of the superintendent of this institution so that he might give aid to the poor in their homes. State Legislation. The sm a 11 amount of state legislation respecting public relief includes a provision in Louisiana whereby forfeitures of bonds in certain parishes and cities may be used for poor relief. In New York the commissioner of charities of New York City is excluded from the board that administers pensions for Interest has developed during the mothers. Maryland has exacted a year in several states in codifying and new statute providing a system of bringing up to date all the laws bearpensions to widowed mothers for the ing upon the welfare of children. relief of their children (see also Child Among these states may be enuWelfare, supra). Maryland also merated Colorado, Connecticut, Illimakes it a misdemeanor for an adult nois, Kentucky, Minnesota, Missouri, person having a destitute parent and Nebraska and Ohio. One of the first able to furnish support not to do so. developments of this type was a codiThe legislation of the year on gen-fication of children's laws in Ohio a eral supervision and administration few years ago. Recently, in connecincludes a provision in Georgia mak- tion with the National Conference of ing it the duty of grand juries, Charities and Correction, a committhrough committees which they may tee for standardizing children's laws appoint, to visit sanitaria, hospitals, has come into existence. During the asylums and similar institutions, and year a state commission on this submake public report thereon. Three ject in Missouri has reported. The states, Louisiana, Maryland, and New report relates chiefly to public adJersey, have arranged for the budget ministration, delinquency, defective, system as a basis for state appropri- destitute and neglected children, child ations, a measure of wide effect upon labor, school attendance, health, reccharitable institutions receiving pub-reation, and education. (See also lic support. In Maryland private in- Child Welfare, supra.)

XVI. LABOR AND LABOR LEGISLATION

TRADE DISPUTES

LABOR

JOHN B. ANDREWS

The Strike Record. It is stated on reliable authority that never in the history of the United States were labor troubles more frequent and more widespread than in the year 1916. For the first seven months of the year, when disputes were relatively most common, the U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported 1,947 strikes and 77 lockouts, as against 581 strikes and 73 lockouts for the same period in 1915. While the Bureau drew information from more complete sources in 1916, the difference by no means can be ascribed entirely to that cause. On May 1, when disputes were especially prevalent, over 100,000 persons were involved in strikes and lockouts in New York City alone, 25,000 in Chicago, and thousands more in Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and other industrial centers. The total number affected was probably not far from half a million. Although strikes were most numerous in the metal, clothing and building trades, and among miners and transportation workers, a wide variety of occupations was affected, from unskilled laborers to lifeinsurance agents, from telegraph boys to jewelers and silversmiths who earned at times as much as $100 a week.

rising cost of living, employees seized their opportunity to demand higher wages, shorter hours, and "recognition of" (that is, the making of agreements with) the union. In the great majority of cases these efforts were successful. It is possible in the following discussion to mention only a few of the largest and most significant of these disputes.

Transportation. Transportation workers were widely affected by the prevailing unrest. A nation-wide strike of four railroad brotherhoods was barely averted (see infra) and strikes were many among street-car employees and among sailors, longshoremen and others engaged in water transportation. Nearly every form of local transportation in New York City was affected by strikes during the year. The series of disputes was begun in April by a strike of 10,000 "muckers," unskilled laborers digging the excavations for the new subways. The men asked $2 a day as a minimum wage instead of $1.50-$1.75. Through the intervention of the Public Service Commission the contractors were induced to grant the demand. During the year New York City twice faced the problem of a traction strike, which, however, in each case proved of slight inconvenience to the traveling public. The first tie-up affected The main cause of this epidemic of the surface cars only and lasted but strikes seems to have been the un- three days, Aug. 3-6. The strike beusually favorable position of labor re- gan on the suburban lines in Westsulting from the European War. The chester County on July 22, and spread general prosperity of the country, to Yonkers and finally to Manhattan. which created an almost unprecedent- The strikers' grievances of low wages, ed demand for labor, appears to have excessive hours, and denial of the originated in war orders in the metal right to organize were adjusted and munition industries (see XIII, through the intervention of Mayor Economic Conditions). The decrease Mitchel and Oscar Straus, chairman in immigration, also due to the war, of the Public Service Commission. accentuated the scarcity of workers The terms of the agreement gave the available. Spurred on by the ever-employees the right to organize but

still withheld official recognition of the Amalgamated Association of Street and Electric Railway Employees; the questions of wages and hours were submitted to a board of arbitration which was to adjust all future grievances; strikers were permitted to return to work without prejudice; conferences between officials of the companies and committees elected by the employees were to be held at frequent intervals.

zation and remained at their posts. With the aid of strikebreakers the Interborough was soon enabled to maintain fairly adequate service. The operation of the surface cars was crippled to a somewhat greater extent, while in the suburbs few cars were in operation as late as the beginning of November, as city ordinances forbade the employment of inexperienced motormen. The Central Federated Union of the city labor organizations voted for a general strike to begin on Sept. 27 but the call was responded to by only a few thousand men.

Other important street-car strikes took place in Washington and Pittsburgh, where wage increases were obtained; in Portland, Me., and Toledo, Ohio, where recognition of the union was secured from the companies, and

towns, where the state Board of Mediation and Arbitration induced the men to go to work pending arbitration of a question of unjust discharge.

Employees in water transportation, such as longshoremen, freight handlers, dock hands, as well as those employed on the boats, as engineers and sailors, were all involved in strikes during the year. The most extended strike was that of the longshoremen of the Pacific Coast who stopped work on June 1. The original issue, an increase in wages, was shifted to the demand for the discharge of strikebreakers, who, the union claimed, were responsible for the killing of two strikers. The San Francisco longshoremen came to an agreement with their employers on July 20, but the other strikers did not reach a settlement until October. The terms of settlement were not made public.

Alleged violations of the agreement soon led to a second conflict. The Interborough Rapid Transit Co., which operates the subway and elevated lines, was not a party to the agreement, although it has the same directorate as the main surface lines, but voluntarily affirmed its adherence in principle. Soon, however, the Interborough was said to have promot-in Albany, N. Y., and surrounding ed the organization of a rival union and to have required its employees to sign individual working contracts which ran for two years. The union which had called the first strike demanded that its members be released from the necessity of signing these contracts. The refusal of this request, the discharge of 14 men active in the first strike, and alleged interference in the election of committees led to a second strike on Sept. 7, in which the subway and elevated lines as well as the surface lines were affected. Mayor Mitchel and Mr. Straus placed the blame on both the union and the traction companies for not submitting their differences to arbitration as agreed upon, and asked the strikers for a cessation of the strike pending an adjustment. They upheld the claim made by the men that the agreement of Aug. 6 was binding on all traction lines, since the directors A strike of government employees of the New York Railways Co. also con- took place, April 22-29, among labortrolled the Interborough Rapid Tran-ers working on the construction of the sit Co. The union representatives not only refused to call off the strike when requested by the mayor but threatened to tie up all trades connected closely or remotely with the operation of the traction lines, and if necessary to call a general strike in New York City. The threatened results, however, did not materialize. Even the strike on the subway and elevated lines was not effective, as most of the motormen belonged to another organi

government railroad in Alaska. A commission appointed to investigate their claims for higher wages precipitated the strike by delay in filing its report. Federal mediators effected a compromise settlement.

Garment Trades. Nearly all the larger centers of the garment industry were the scene of industrial warfare during the year. In New York City the result was the downfall in the cloak and suit trade, for which