plants, etc.; (d) for the services connected with munitions and manufactures for war purposes; (e) for auxiliary labor in the rear of the army zone? 2. What is the available supply of labor for the above categories, and, consequently, what are the deficits in each category? 3. What have been the actual results of the various governmental circulars which have made an appeal for the enrollment of volunteer laborers of both sexes? What method was employed? What results have been obtained? 4. Has the Government established a list giving the following data: (a) The industries, trades, and establishments indispensable for the revictualing of the population; (b) of the industries, trades, and establishments which are useful in the maintenance of our exchange by means of exportation; (c) of the industries, trades, and establishments which serve neither the national defense, nor the revictualing of the population, nor for export trade, and which absorb motive energy, raw materials, equipment, and labor which could be utilized for purposes of national defense or of revictualing the civil population? In reply to the above questions, the minister of commerce sent detailed answers, based upon figures collected by the various branches of the National Government, and prepared primarily for the interministerial conference on the labor situation in France. The information thus gathered applies to the situation found to exist on February 1, 1917. Answers to the first question. (a) The labor needs of agriculture have been estimated as follows: For the work carried on during the spring months 200, 000 laborers 330, 000 laborers 270, 000 laborers 230, 000 laborers 190, 000 laborers 36, 000 laborers These figures were obtained as the result of the investigation made by the prefects of each Department. It is possible that the prefects overstated somewhat the requirements of their respective Depart ments. These figures lead to the conclusion that French agriculture requires from 200,000 to 250,000 laborers for those tasks which have a certain degree of permanency, and in addition thereto a supplementary supply of labor for the temporary tasks of haymaking and harvesting. For these tasks, however, it is possible to make extensive If we estimate at 70,000 or 80,000 the number of men that can be obtained by granting furloughs to soldiers of more advanced years and by various military arrangements which are now under consideration it will be necessary to obtain not less than 150,000 agricultural laborers from the civil population during more than half of the year. (b) For transportation and revictualing-railways, transportation by river, building of tugs, port works, etc.-there is needed at least 50,000 laborers. (Revictualing here comprises the transportation of products.) (c) For public works (which means mines only, since the labor required in connection with water power is taken care of by the Ministry of Munitions) 16,500 laborers. (d) For the operations of munitions manufacture and other manufactures for war purposes, 103,000 laborers. (e) For labor carried on in the rear of the army zone, and auxiliary to army labor, 20,000 to 25,000 laborers. (f) Commissariat, 15,000 laborers; engineer corps, 8,000; aeronautics, 3,000; or a total of 26,000 laborers. (g) Marine, 3,000 laborers. This enumeration gives the total of 365,000 to 370,000 laborers as the total requirements of civil laborers. In this total, the replies received take into account less than 20,000 women, since female labor has generally been available in sufficient quantities. It is well within the mark to assume that, in the total of 365,000 to 370,000 laborers required, the judicious employment of women, either directly or in place of men now actually employed, can furnish from 50,000 to 70,000 additional hands. The number of male laborers required and now lacking may thus be reduced to a total of approximately 300,000. Answer to the second question. The following table indicates the labor resources which have been obtained or which may be obtained from the colonies or from foreign countries: North African____ (Tunisians, 12,000; other North Africans, 8,000 are 50,000 It is possible, perhaps, to obtain a larger number of North Afri cans and of Spaniards, and perhaps less men from the other coun tries named. In any case it is necessary to reckon upon a minimun of six months for the gradual arrival of these additions to the labo force. It is not possible to furnish definite figures concerning the availa bility of these laborers for each group of occupation, for these for eign contingents are not assigned to particular groups of employment determined in advanced but are distributed, upon their arrival, according to the most urgent needs for labor. Each of the indicated groups of laborers may in fact prove unfit for the work to which they are assigned. It is practically impossible to distribute these laborers by any preconceived system of distribution. However, as regards agriculture, it has been decided to reserve 12,000 Tunisians; and agriculture may also count on more than half of the Spaniards. Little help can be expected from the other categories. This will give agriculture a total of 45,000 laborers, still leaving a deficit of more than 100,000 exclusively for agricultural requirements having a more or less permanent character. As a whole, therefore, the deficit amounts to at least 200,000 laborers, of which it would be prudent to estimate that 150,000 must be male laborers. Answer to the third question. Frequent appeals have been addressed to the unemployed, to refugees, to female laborers, and to persons receiving pensions or other public allowances; these appeals have been made by the prime minister at the beginning of the war, and by the minister of munitions, the minister of war, the minister of the interior, and the minister of labor: it can not be said that these appeals were not fruitful, when it is noted how important a contribution has been made to agricultural labor by the female population, and the prodigious increase in the number of persons employed in all the branches of production for war purposes; when we note the influx of new labor at our ports, and particularly the number of women in the manufactures of munitions and war materials, in which the number of female laborers has increased from a few thousand to approximately 400,000. ** ** One may obtain a fair notion of the transformation that has taken place in the distribution of laborers by noting the figures collected during the several investigations made by the labor inspectors and published in several bulletins of the Ministry of Labor. The last of these investigations resulted in the following table, indicating the It is evident that the mobilization of troops took out of the several occupations a large percentage of male workers, and it is therefore interesting to note the labor situation in the various groups of occupations, if we eliminate the mobilized laborers. From this point of view, the following table is of interest, indicating the total number of laborers in each group of occupation, if the mobilized laborers are eliminated from consideration. 1. Foodstuffs. 2. Chemical industries. 3. Rubber, paper, cardboard.. 4. Printing and bookmaking. 5. Textile industries, properly so called. 6. Work in textiles, clothing, straw, hair, feathers.... 7. Leather and skins. 8. Works in wood. 9. Metallurgy-work in ordinary metals 10./Work in fine metals 11. Cutting of precious stones. 12. Cutting of stones and molding; quarrying, construction in stone, building. 13. Pottery and stoneware. 14. Warehousing and transport. 15. Various commercial activities. MEASURES OF PROTECTION FOR WORKING MOTHERS IN FRANCE. In France, as in England, the exigencies of the war have taken large numbers of women into establishments in which formerly only men were employed, and in some instances at least married women have been engaged on work and under conditions unsuited to their condition. In December, 1916, the Academy of Medicine, “considering that the growing employment of women in factories constitutes a grave danger to the future of the race unless the expectant mothers and mothers who are nursing their babies are immediately and sufficiently protected," passed a series of resolutions dealing with the subject. In the same month the committee on woman's labor passed similar resolutions, and a few weeks later the minister of munitions issued a circular calling the attention of all employers to these recommendations, and urging their observance. The resolutions and the text of the circular are given in a recent number of the Bulletin du Ministère du Travail.1 The two series of resolutions cover much the same ground. Both urge that women who are expecting motherhood or who are nursing their babies should be employed only at work demanding but moderate effort, and not requiring continuous or even long-continued standing. Any work which is liable to bring on miscarriage, to overfatigue them, or to cut short their time for sleep should be prohibited. When possible they should be employed on a half-day shift with a maximum of six hours' nightwork, and all work exposing them to industrial poisons, or to injurious or insanitary surroundings should be absolutely prohibited. Under a law of June, 1913, a woman has the right to leave her work, without sacrificing her position, four weeks before her confinement. It is recommended that this optional rest should be obligatory upon all women employed in factories, and particularly in factories working upon war material. Moreover, on the advice of a doctor this period should be extended, the rest beginning before the ninth month of pregnancy and continuing for four weeks or longer after confinement. During the whole period of pregnancy the worker should be given opportunity for regular consultations ether with a doctor or with a midwife under a doctor's supervision. Furthermore, it is recommended that in all factories engaged on war work, if women are employed, it should be obligatory to set aside a room furnished with cradles, etc., to be used exclusively for breast-fed babies. Here they should remain under the care of competent nurses while the mothers are at work, and the mothers should be given a half hour off, morning and afternoon, for the purpose of nursing them. In addition to these "chambres d'allaitment," which must be reserved solely for the above purpose, the establishment of crèches for bottle babies, and of day nurseries for babies in their second, third, or fourth year, is recommended. 1 France. Bulletin du Ministère du Travail et de la Prévoyance Sociale, January to |