INTRODUCTION. This is the Tenth Biennal Report of the Bureau of Labor Statistics of Illinois, and its contents are presented under two general heads corresponding with the two subjects which have received the attention of the bureau during the year 1898, to which is added an appendix containing the more important laws affecting labor enacted by the Forty-first General Assembly. Part I is devoted to a study of the results of private and municipal ownership in the operation of gas works, electric light and power plants and water works in the cities and towns of this State. The investigation on which the report is based has embraced, and the tables herewith exhibit, not only the details of construction and of physical condition which characterize the plants in these three groups, but also the financial status of each, and the results of operation as shown by books of account and other record evidence of actual business experience. The object of this investigation has been to gather trustworthy statistics concerning the essential economic facts relating to this group of public utilities, and the measure of success which has been attained in this effort will be disclosed upon an examination of the text and tables of the subject in subsequent pages. Part II consists of a collation of the experience of other states and countries in the establishment and maintenance of free employment agencies by the State, for the relief and protection of the unemployed in cities. This is a function which has been assumed by government in the most advanced countries of Europe; and in recent years by a number of states in this country with gratifying results, and a compilation of those results gathered from official and other sources, is presented here for the information of the Forty-first General Assembly of Illinois, and in the belief that a necessity for such intervention in the metropolis of this State will be recognized and provided for by proper legislative action. |