inconceivable magnitude. The commission exercises supervision of the administration and enforcement of labor laws through eight large bureaus, as follows: Inspection, fire hazards, mediation and arbitration, statistics and information, industries and immigration, industrial code, employment, and workmen's compensation. It also has power to make and amend rules and regulations for carrying into effect the provisions of the labor law, to grant variations from the law in special cases, and to determine the awards in workmen's compensation cases. The functions of the commission are therefore not only executive, but in part legislative and judicial.

The report gives a comprehensive description of the activities of each bureau and at the end of each chapter summarizes its conclusions and submits recommendations for reorganization or improvement or development of the particular agency under discussion. These recommendations are designed to aid in overcoming the difficulties against which the commission is contending, the more important ones dealing with further improvement in civil-service methods, larger appropriations, and a larger force for many departments of the commission's work, more careful differentiation between procedure in making modifications or orders and in granting variations from the law or code, more energetic prosecutions, expansion of the industrial council to include representatives of the general public, the desirability of abolishing home work, and diminishing the amount of routine work of commissioners.

The right to modify or amend the labor law or to grant exemptions from compliance with its provisions with respect to the physical requirements of buildings and devices for preventing accidents should be particularly noted as an important power of the commission, for it opens the way for securing safety without compelling compliance with requirements which are unreasonable and impracticable in particular circumstances. These variations are granted on petition after public hearing, and while they occasion an enormous amount of work for the commission and the various bureaus operating under it, they seem to have brought about a more equitable and just administration of the law and a better feeling on the part of those subject to its restrictions.

Referring to the industrial commission as an administrative body, it is suggested that much of the detailed work now brought before it should be disposed of in other ways in order that it might have more time and energy for considering general policies, initiating plans for extension and reorganization of work in the various bureaus, and promoting the establishment of codes; and that there should be more direct contact between the bureau heads and the commission in order that each might become familiar with the work of the others and

develop more of a spirit of pulling together in the interests of the department as a whole.

A feature of the reorganized labor department under the industrial commission is the industrial council composed of five members representing employers and five representing employees, to whom the commission shall submit all questions of general policy in connection with the labor laws, including the workmen's compensation act, as well as all proposed rules and regulations for the industrial code, the council to give its advice on these matters and on the appointment of employees to positions requiring special knowledge or training and to cooperate with the civil service commission in conducting examinations and preparing eligible lists for such positions. This council, however, according to the report, has failed to prove an important factor in the administration of the labor laws, and in order that it might have greater opportunity to demonstrate its possibilities for usefulness it is recommended that the commission should refer to it more matters of general policy, that greater use should be made by the commission of the council as a means of extending its educational activities, that the commission should bring the council into closer touch with the initial preparation of new codes and amendments to codes, and that the council should contain one or more employer representatives of the large industries centered in New York City.

Another interesting feature in the enforcement of labor laws in New York, pointed out by the report, is the establishment of a “departmental" or municipal term court in New York City for reviewing violations prosecuted by the industrial commission. One day a week is regularly assigned to the commission for the adjudication of its cases. Not only, states the report, is there a great saving in time which the inspectors must devote to appearing in court, but there is also a great gain in both the efficiency and the uniformity of the administration of the law, because the judge assigned to this court soon becomes familiar with the technical and other perplexing problems involved.

Although the bureau of workmen's compensation is but one of the eight bureaus constituting the industrial commission, more than onehalf of the entire time of the members is devoted to the administration of the workmen's compensation law. The section of the report dealing with this subject, however, is relatively small and less comprehensive than the importance of the subject demands. Many important aspects of the compensation law have been inadequately treated or not even mentioned. The experience of the commission in dealing with such matters as voluntary agreements, delay in compensation, payments, failure or delay in accident reporting, lump-sum

settlements, informal conferences as a method of settling disputed cases, impartial physicians and medical examinations, physicians' and hospital fees, self-insurance, revision of benefits, etc., would be extremely valuable. It is to be hoped that a more exhaustive study of the workmen's compensation law will be undertaken at some future date.

The report concludes that on the whole the operation of the industrial commission act, after making due allowance for the exceptional difficulties and circumstances of the first year of its administration, confirms the opinion that the act is one of the most beneficial pieces of labor legislation ever adopted by the New York Legislature. Not only have its fundamental principles been vindicated, declares the report, but under its provisions the enforcement of the State's labor laws has been improved. The act is regarded as a progressive piece of legislation creating new conditions as the result of its operation, and it is believed that if modifications in its terms or in its methods of administration, necessitated in part by these new conditions themselves, are required from time to time, it is not a cause for discouragement but rather furnishes a new opportunity to the forward-looking worker for industrial betterment.

WHOLESALE PRICES IN THE UNITED STATES, JANUARY TO JUNE, 1917.

The mounting cost of living in the United States is reflected in statistics of wholesale prices collected by the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the United States Department of Labor for the first six months of 1917. Notable increases during this period are shown for the principal farm products, foodstuffs, and metals and metal products. Among lumber and building materials and fuels the increase since the first of the year has also been quite pronounced. For all commodities included in the bureau's investigation, aggregating 294 distinct articles or price series, the increase for June over January was 23 per cent.

In the following table are shown the bureau's weighted index numbers for the first six months of 1917 by groups of commodities. The table also shows the number of articles or price series in each group, together with the per cent of increase for June as compared with January.

INDEX NUMBERS OF WHOLESALE PRICES, JANUARY TO JUNE, 1917.
[Aggregate value of commodities exchanged in 1916-100.]

RETAIL PRICES OF FOOD IN THE UNITED STATES.

According to reports received by the Bureau of Labor Statistics the retail price of food declined 4 per cent from June 15 to July 15, 1917. This decline in food prices was largely due to the marked decline in the price of flour and potatoes, which articles form a large part of the diet of the average family. These two articles decreased 10 per cent and 33 per cent, respectively. Onions also decreased considerably during the month-27 per cent.

A table showing the course of prices in the United States in June and July, 1917, is given herewith:

AVERAGE MONEY RETAIL PRICES AND RELATIVE RETAIL PRICES OF FOOD ON JUNE 15 AND JULY 15, 1917.

[The relative price shows the per cent that the average price on the 15th of each month was of the average price for the year 1916.]

In the year from July 15, 1916, to July 15, 1917, prices of food as a whole advanced 32 per cent. Onions was the only article which was lower. Flour made the greatest jump-91 per cent. Potatoes were 83 per cent higher in July, 1917, than in the same month of the previous year. Corn meal was 81 per cent higher, and beans 67 per cent higher. Of the meats, pork advanced more than beef.

Comparing prices on July 15, 1914, just prior to the present war, with prices on July 15, 1917, food as a whole advanced 42 per cent. In July, 1917, flour was 125 per cent higher-that is, two and onefourth times the price in July, 1914. Cornmeal was 89 per cent higher, lard was 78 per cent higher, sugar 75 per cent higher, and potatoes and bread each 59 per cent higher.

A table showing the average and relative retail prices in July of each year from 1913 to 1917 is given herewith:

AVERAGE MONEY RETAIL PRICES AND RELATIVE RETAIL PRICES OF FOOD ON JULY 15 OF EACH YEAR, 1913 TO 1917.

[The relative price shows the per cent that the average price on the 15th of each month was of the average price for the year 1916.]

A table is given below showing average prices of food on June 15 and July 15, 1917, in Atlanta, Ga.; Boston, Mass.; Chicago, Ill.; Denver, Colo.; New York, N. Y.; Philadelphia, Pa.; St. Louis, Mo.; San Francisco, Cal.; and Seattle, Wash.