Compensation Board of Ontario, on "Method of rate making in Canadian Provinces," being read by George A. Kingston, while the method of rate making in exclusive State-fund States was discussed by T. J. Duffy, chairman of the Industrial Commission of Ohio, and the method used in the New York insurance fund was set forth in a paper by Leonard W. Hatch, manager of the State insurance fund, Department of Labor of New York, read by Chas. E. Baldwin, Assistant Commissioner, United States Bureau of Labor Statistics. Andrew F. McBride, Commissioner of the Department of Labor of New Jersey, reviewed briefly the laws of the States as to "Regulations of selfinsurers."

Among the resolutions passed by the convention was one that a committee be appointed to consider the question of the preparation of a medical work bearing upon the etiological relation between the trauma and the various known diseases, and one expressing regret at the untimely death of Carl Hookstadt of the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The following officers were elected for the ensuing year:

President.-O. F. McShane, chairman Utah Industrial Commission. Vice president.-F. M. Williams, chairman Connecticut Board of Compensation Commissioners.

Secretary-treasurer.-Ethelbert Stewart, United States Commissioner of Labor Statistics.

Executive committee.-Ralph Young, deputy commissioner Iowa Workmen's Compensation Service; L. A. Tarrell, member Wisconsin Industrial Commission; W. H. Horner, director Pennsylvania Bureau of Workmen's Compensation; W. C. Archer, senior referee New York Department of Labor; and H. G. Wilson, commissioner Manitoba Workmen's Compensation Board.

The next annual meeting will be held in Salt Lake City, Utah.

TH

Recent Workmen's Compensation Reports

Pennsylvania

HE Department of Labor and Industry of the State of Pennsylvania has undertaken to make a monthly statement of the accidents reported and the days lost to industry by reason of the industrial accidents in the State. On account of the promptness in making such reports lost time will necessarily be estimated, but it is hoped that the figures will be useful in calling attention to the hazards causing the greatest number of accidents.

The initial publication covers the first six months of 1924, during which 89,385 accidents were reported, of which 1,109 were fatal. Comparing the data for the first six months of 1923 with that for 1924, there was a reduction in 1924 of 167 fatal cases and 10,869 nonfatal cases, 11,036 in all. "It is impossible to tell whether this reduction has been due to increased safety activities or a decrease in industrial activity," though it is hoped that the former has been largely instrumental.

The table showing lost time uses the weighted scale recommended. by the International Association of Industrial Accident Boards and

Commissions. This scale rates a death at 6,000 days' loss, a permanent total disability the same, loss of an arm above the elbow at 4,500 days, etc. The table shows a loss of 8,608,516 days, which is equivalent to a year's time (300 working-days), each for an army of 28,695 workers.

For the number of accidents occurring in the different industries. and the days lost thereby, see page 169.

Wisconsin

THE Industrial Commission of Wisconsin in its May issue of Labor Statistics presents tables showing compensable injuries for which settlement was made during the calendar year 1923. The rapidly mounting number of industrial accidents is noted, but no explanation appears. The total number of industrial injuries reported for 1921, 1922, and 1923 was 16,350, 19,049, and 25,950, respectively. The increases shown exceed the exposure to hazard due to increase of employment, and while they add to the costs of insurance carriers and to the burden on industry, efforts at prevention have thus far failed to secure the desired results.

A table is presented showing compensable injuries, classified by 22 industry groups for 1922 and 1923, the cases considered being those settled during the respective years. Comparing the compensable injuries for 1922 (16,705) with those for 1923 (20,941) an increase of 25.4 per cent is shown. Each of the 22 classes shows an increase, with the exception of cleaning and dyeing, where a reduction of 25.9 per cent is found, and printing and publishing in which there is a reduction of 6.5 per cent. The greatest increases appear in mining, 126.5 per cent; rubber and rubber products, 62.3 per cent; machinery and instruments, 58.5 per cent; and metal and metal products, 48.3 per cent.

The largest number of accidents in 1923 occurred in lumber and lumber products, 3,252 cases, furnishing 15.5 per cent of the total number of injuries for the year and accounting for 16.7 per cent of the working time lost. Construction comes next with 2,993 cases, furnishing 14.2 per cent of the total number and accounting for 18 per cent of the time lost. This latter item shows a severity in excess of the average. The same is true in public utilities and transportation, where 2,104 injuries furnished 10.4 per cent of the total number, but accounted for 13.7 per cent of the total number of days lost.

In all industries, 9,476 workmen working 300 days per year would be required to make up time lost from compensable injuries. In lumber and lumber products 1,580 men would be required to make up the time lost, while in construction the number would be 1,709. Of the 20,941 compensation cases settled in 1923, 191 were fatal, 4 were permanent total disabilities, and 1,831 permanent partial disabilities. Of the 18,915 temporary injuries, 6,869 lasted from 1 to 2 weeks and 12,046 continued beyond that period. Construction furnished the largest number of deaths (40) and 3 of the 4 cases of permanent total disability. Public utilities and transportation were charged with 38 fatalities, and lumber and lumber products with 31. Temporary disabilities formed 90.3 per cent of the total, 32.8 per cent lasting from 1 to 2 weeks and 57.5 per cent for over 2 weeks. Exceeding the average (57.5 per cent) for cases causing more than

2 weeks' disability are mining (65.4 per cent), personal and professional service (63.1 per cent), clay, glass, and stone products (62.6 per cent), farming (61.5 per cent), quarrying (61.2 per cent), and construction (61 per cent).

The total number of working-days lost was 2,842,765, and the total amount of compensation paid was $2,794,998, or less than $1 per day. The total amount of medical aid paid, however, added $924,032 to the total relief. The average number of working-days lost per case was 136, the average amount of indemnity paid $133, and the average amount of medical aid, $44. The highest average loss of work time was in farming, 218 days per case in 275 injuries. Public utilities and transportation came next with an average of 186 days per case in 2,104 injuries, ranking with chemicals as to the average number of days lost (186), though in the latter industry there were but 263 cases.

These figures give a general idea of the burden to industry due to industrial accidents, while also indicating the loss to the workman, since his benefits are less than $1 per day as an average for the time lost. As the report states, using construction work as an illustration, the interested parties, contractors and employers, "had no notion at all" as to the amount of working time that is lost by reason of such injuries; while attention is also directed to the burden remaining which is "still borne by injured workmen themselves."

LABOR ORGANIZATIONS AND CONVENTIONS

Biennial Convention of National Women's Trade-Union League 1

T

HE National Women's Trade-Union League of America held its ninth biennial convention in New York, June 16-21, 1924. One of the outstanding subjects of discussion was the technique of labor organization, there being considerable protest "against the double standard of efficiency applied to men and women organizers by the men in official places in the labor movement, the double efficiency demanded of women in order to get less than men's recognition.'

Among the many decisions of the convention were the following: Continuation of legislative work in various States "for the ratification of the child-labor amendment, for eight-hour laws for women, minimum wage, and restriction of night work, one day rest in seven, exclusive State-fund workmen's compensation, limitation of the use of injunction in labor disputes," and the creation of an international committee of women to make a study of the industrial conditions of the Orient with special reference to women.

Mrs. Maud Swartz was reelected president of the League.

R

International Sociological Congress

ESOLUTIONS in the labor field, passed by the Third International Sociological Congress held at Rome, April 22-29, 1924, includes the following:

Economic Problems

WITH regard to economic problems the convention placed itself on record as favoring the allowance of greater freedom in directing the flow of immigration, and as urging that cooperative institutions in the different countries unite and make an effort to bring about "international coordination and collaboration."

Social Insurance

TWO resolutions on social insurance advocated—

(1) That social insurance in the various countries be organized in accordance with the standard principles prevailing "in the more civilized countries," and (2) that all governments simplify and coordinate their insurance systems by setting up central schemes covering all risks, yet adaptable to the special legal requirements of different kinds of insurance.

Life and Labor Bulletin, June, 1924, p. 3, and July, 1924, p. 1.

2 International Labor Office. Industrial and Labor Information, Geneva, July 21, 1924, pp. 15-17.

International Labor Code

ON

N THE subject of an international labor code the convention recommended

(1) That the present international convention "be brought into line and coordinated in the light of general principles elucidated by the comparative study of national legislations," and (2) that in view of the findings of this comparative study an international labor code be formulated "to serve as a model for national legislations without in any way infringing their rights of self-development and adaptation to national requirements.'

Unemployment

THE subject of unemployment was dealt with in the following resolution: (1) That unemployment and emigration be studied as correlative problems; (2) that unemployment insurance, and placement work be under the same administrative department; (3) that employers be made responsible for the entire cost of unemployed insurance; (4) that unemployment insurance be organized territorially as well as by industries; (5) that unemployment insurance include intellectual workers; (6) that the "doles" system be abolished and that the practice of "giving work, preferably of urgent public utility, to the unemployed be encouraged and extended"; (7) that remedies used for unemployment be based on accurate statistical data compiled in accordance with uniform principles; and (8) that a study be instituted regarding the effect of "the growth of towns on unemployment."

Domestic Service

IN N VIEW of the fact that the dearth of domestic labor, which is seriously disorganizing family and social life, is due to economic, psychological, and economic causes, the congress recommended: (1) That the dignity of domestic workers be raised; (2) that education tend from childhood to make individuals able to meet their own domestic needs; (3) that domestic labor be simplified and expedited by the development of domestic science; and (4) the replacement of the old-fashioned domestic by a higher grade worker who shall be "considered as sharing domestic labor.'

Vocational Guidance

VOCATIONAL guidance was touched upon in resolutions urging— (1) That a plan be worked out, through international collaboration, for the establishment on uniform standards of the mental and physical qualities necessary for different kinds of labor, such standards to be used in vocational guidance and in connection with emigration; and (2) that predominant capacities and technical aptitudes be studied in view of both "sociological distribution and. international economy," such sociological distribution to be made the subject of an international investigation.