Of all the other males employed for whom information was available, onethird earned less than $7 a week, one-half less than $10. Among the women of 16 years of age and over, more than one-fourth earned less than $6, and almost 70 per cent less than $8 per week.

Of all members of these families who contributed to the family income, two out of every five reported irregular employment for the previous year-and irregular employment meant the loss of from several weeks to six months.

Of 56 persons discovered in the investigation who had left school before 16 years of age, 25, or nearly one-half, had left because their parents had not felt able to continue them in school.

Over one-fourth of the mothers in the 100 families were earning money to augment the family income.

Finally, conditions found in Springfield showed clearly, as they have in other investigations elsewhere, the important part which low wages and unemployment play in the problems of bad housing, child labor, evasion of the laws as to compulsory education, neglected childhood, and the predisposition of families to physical and often moral breakdowns. No solution of these problems, therefore, will be effective that does not eliminate the great economic waste of unemployment and correct the evil of low wages.

The report points out that the betterment of industrial conditions depends upon employers acting together in some degree but for the most part singly, employees acting individually and through labor organizations, and the public acting through crystallized public opinion and the power of the State. The largest responsibility is laid upon the employers who, it is stated, have large latitude in fixing wage rates, methods of payment, hours of labor, conditions as to safety and sanitation, and regularity of employment. In conclusion, the report briefly sums up the findings of the survey and offers definite recommendations to effectuate industrial betterment, laying particular emphasis upon the importance of consolidating and coordinating all State bodies having to do with industrial conditions into a single State department of labor with bureaus organized to have charge of special work.

These should include a bureau of inspection responsible for railroad, factory, and other inspection service, except mining; a bureau of child labor; of employment, including supervision of the public employment agencies; of mining; of research and labor statistics; and any other bureaus that may later be needed. The plan of reorganization should provide for the establishment of an industrial commission as an integral part of the new labor department, with the commission, instead of a single commissioner, acting as the executive head of the department.

The administration of the workmen's compensation act should be made a function of the industrial commission of the reorganized labor department. It is believed

as in the case of workmen's compensation laws, that health insurance legislation will act as a powerful force for prevention of dis* It is recommended, therefore, that a commission of

ease.

*

*

the legislature be appointed to study and report upon the matter.

Under the reorganization plan recommended the enforcement of the childlabor law should be in the hands of a bureau of child labor in the new department of labor and mining.

The establishment of a minimum-wage board through which assurance may be had that wages at least adequate for the self-support of girls giving the whole of their working time to stores or other work places is recommended.

It is recommended that thorough study of the unemployment situation and unemployment insurance be taken up through a commission to be created by the legislature.

The courts of New York State have held a law prohibiting the 7-day work week in factories and mercantile establishments to be constitutional. A similar law is recommended for Illinois.

The law allowing women to work 10 hours a day 7 days per week should be changed to make it illegal to employ women at most for more than 8 hours per day or 48 hours per week. This would merely be eliminating the 7-day week and reducing hours on the other 6 days to 8. Moreover, the law should be amended to prohibit nightwork by women and girls.

· THE ORGANIC DEVELOPMENT OF BUSINESS.1

This is the subtitle of the report of the committee on vocational guidance submitted at the fourth annual convention of the National Association of Corporation Schools held at Pittsburgh, May 30 to June 2, 1916. As stated in the report of the committee for 1915, "vocational guidance in industry is the organic conception of the individual in industry, and is possible only through organic progress in industry; hence the subtitle of the report." The present report is "an attempt to set forth what employee, employer, and society should strive for in the human relations in industry-the realization of an organic unity in each individual life, in each business, between businesses, and between business and society." It appears to be concerned primarily with the problem of "suggesting machinery for getting the organic conception of the individual in industry to operate efficiently in each firm of the association."

In order to grasp the significance of the organic unity of man, certain normal human needs are emphasized, among which are physical integrity, adequate compensation, training and knowledge, appreciation of the beautiful, social opportunities, and justice. Health is absolutely the foundation of economic and social efficiency, declares the report in drawing attention to the necessity of physical examination of employees, the protection of all workers after they are in their

1 National Association of Corporation Schools. Guidance (The Organic Development of Business). May 30, 31, and June 1, 2, 1916. New York, 1916.

Report of Committee on Vocational Fourth annual convention, Pittsburgh 148 pp.

position, the prevention of accidents, and the control and elimination of occupational diseases. In order to give concreteness to the organic progress of the employee in industry, the report gives in synthetic outline a picture of the worker at his job from start to finish, having an adequate starting knowledge of his prospective employer, fairly selected for his job, instructed in his work, guaranteed bodily integrity, given a chance to learn the business, justly remunerated, working reasonable hours, surrounded by machinery designed to keep open channels, assured that merit will win, and freely and fearlessly taking part in all those activities that awaken, train, and develop personal power.

Representatives of the committee on vocational guidance made a tour of investigation, visiting a number of individual firms in New York, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia, and this personal contact with more than 200 executives of all grades revealed a "keen interest in the significance of the human relations in industry and a deep appreciation of it," and also that "the organic. conception of the employee must include work, income, food, home, sleep, training, protection, recreation-the total life of an efficient contented human being-in work and out of work." This personal investigation also revealed a clear tendency among the firms visited "to get away from the old type autocratic one-man rule and substitute therefore the functionalized and cooperative committee system." Furthermore, many firms expressed a desire to have an efficient clearing house established in the association that would effectively gather, evaluate and pass along helpful assistance in the understanding and solution of their problems. In laying emphasis upon the general considerations resulting from this personal investigation-the rapidly growing interest in the human relations in work; the grasping in business of the organic ideal; the open, friendly, give-and-take spirit; the definite, helpful cooperative arrangements with our educational institutions; the rapidly developing, scientific, and human spirit in business, evidenced through the demand for the expert and the deep interest in experiments in industrial cooperative control; the searching efforts to anticipate and prepare for the readjustments certain to follow the war-"we see clearly that business is being recognized as the all correlating life fact of our time, in which the sovereignty of the normal individual must be realized.”

Part II of the report is devoted to the formulation of ways and means for putting the organic conception of the individual employee in industry into practical operation-to make it of real working value. The general subjects discussed in this connection relate to a central employment and service bureau, the selection and adjustment

of men to jobs, health, education, promotion and transfer, grievances, and management sharing.

Decentralization in dealing with questions of employment is regarded as the fundamental weakness in the whole employment problem. Through a well thought-out centralized employment and service bureau should function all fundamental problems having to do with job analysis and the educational value of the job, and with the selection, hiring, compensation, promotion, and discharge of workmen. The importance of job analysis which includes a careful study of every kind of occupation, both within the industry itself and in relation to the life of the employee outside of his occupation, is emphasized. The medical examination of employees is regarded as the basis for all accurate work along the line of health conservation. The education and training of employees within the industry "is one of the most significant movements in the world of industry and gives promise of rapid extensive and intensive development. The training of employees is 'good business.' This conviction is turning our large corporate industries into veritable schools, colleges, and universities. It is already having a wholesome retroactive influence on our formal educational procedure in schools and colleges, giving it a more concrete content and shaping up educational methods more in terms of vocational business and social values." The report discusses some prerequisites of corporation education, pointing out the necessity of making physical, mental, and vocational tests in order to get "the right man on the right job.” The value of systematic promotion and the advantages of a policy of transferring men from one job or department to another-remedying misfits-are briefly mentioned. Taking up the matter of grievances, the report declares that "a wise handling of misunderstandings, dissatisfactions and grievances is one of the most important problems now receiving wide attention." The report concludes with a brief description of how some firms are encouraging the cooperation of their employees in the management of the business-that is, making the workers practically partners in management.

Part III of the report includes special articles on the general subjects of Selection, Employment department, Home conditions, Training courses, and Adjustment machinery.

CHOICE OF OCCUPATION OF CHILDREN LEAVING SCHOOL IN THE CANTON OF ZURICH, SWITZERLAND.

In a recently issued bulletin of the statistical bureau of the Swiss Canton of Zurich are published interesting statistics as to the choice of the occupation of pupils leaving the cantonal primary and secondary schools in 1915. It may be noted that in the primary schools the school age varies from 6 to 16 years. The secondary school supplements the work of the primary schools for those children who desire to increase their knowledge though having no idea. of going on to higher studies, and also prepares certain pupils for entrance into the middle schools. Attendance is compulsory in the primary school but generally voluntary in the secondary schools.

The course of studies in the secondary school covers from two to four years and pupils are admitted from ten years and upward. In the Canton of Zurich, the primary schools have eight grades and the secondary schools three grades. Attendance is compulsory for eight

years.

The total number of pupils leaving the primary and secondary schools in Zurich in the spring of 1915 was 7,972, against 8,077 in 1914. The decrease is partly explained by the fact that at the outbreak of the war a large number of alien children who had been living in the Canton returned with their parents to their native country. It is interesting to note that the pupils leaving school in 1915 had on an average a higher education than those leaving in 1914. In 1914, 51 per cent of the pupils leaving had attended the primary schools and 49 per cent the secondary schools, while in 1915 this proportion was exactly reversed.

The statements of those who were able to report that they had made a choice of occupation before leaving school are summarized in the following table:

1 Die Berufswahl der im Frühjahr 1915 aus der Volksschule ausgetretenen Schüler. Winterthur, 1916. (Statistische Mitteilungen betreffend den Kanton Zürich. Herausgegeben vom Kantonalen Statistischen Bureau.)

Heft 122.

58 pp.