The average number of working days per annum of the 256 seamstresses in factories and workshops is given at 262, the average yearly earnings being 384 kroner ($102.91). Shown by classified annual earnings, the largest number (101) earned from 301 kroner ($80.67) to 400 kroner ($107.20), the next largest groups being 68 persons earning from 401 kroner ($107.47) to 500 kroner ($134.00), and 45 persons earning from 201 kroner ($53.87) to 300 kroner ($80.40). But 28 seamstresses earned more than 500 kroner ($134.00), while 14 earned 200 kroner ($53.60) or less.

As to seamstresses working at home, the report shows that the average weekly earnings of 178 working alone were 8.41 kroner ($2.254), 109, or 61.2 per cent of this class, earning from 7.01 kroner ($1.879) to 12.00 kroner ($3.216) per week.

The following table summarizes the data as to working time and average earnings for the different classes of seamstresses:

AVERAGE EARNINGS AND NUMBER OF DAYS WORKED BY SEAMSTRESSES.

There is little variation in the working time per year of the various classes here shown, though the average earnings vary considerably, seamstresses working at home with assistants having the largest income, those working in families ranking next.

The hours per day in factories and workshops were twelve for 116 of the 236 employees reported, only 6 working a longer time, thirteen hours being the longest day, while but 16 had a working day shorter than eleven hours. These periods include intervals for meals, etc., amounting to one and one-half hours for 147 employees, longer periods for 35 and shorter for 54 employees. Seamstresses in private families usually work from 8 a. m. to 8 p. m., with from one to two hours for rest and meals. The hours of those working at home are much more irregular, ranging from 10 to 17 per day, including intervals for meals, etc. Of the 102 seamstresses of this class for whom report is made, 52 worked twelve hours and only 18 had a shorter day; 17 worked from thirteen to fourteen hours, while for 15 the working day exceeded fourteen hours. These numbers all include intervals for meals, etc.

A comparison of the earnings of 456 seamstresses in 1894 with those of 407 in 1904 shows an average increase of approximately 60 kroner ($16.08) for the year.

SWEDEN.

1909.

Lifsmedels- och Bostadspriser i Sverige under åren 1904-1907. Utgifven af K. Kommerskollegii Afdelning för Arbetsstatistik. 104 pp.

This report, issued by the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the Royal Board of Trade of Sweden, shows, for the years 1904 to 1907, the prices of the necessaries of life and of food animals and the rates of rent in the principal localities of the Kingdom. The report discusses generally and then more in detail the prices of food and of food animals, showing the general increase in prices during the period covered, and the effect of locality and seasons on prices; it also takes up the subjects of rents and of board in private families, and shows that rent and board have also increased. Tables occupy practically onehalf the report, presenting in detail data for various articles of food and classes of food animals, as well as for lodgings of different sorts, by year and locality.

A summary table showing the average prices of the principal articles of food and of fuel, by years, for the Kingdom is given below:

AVERAGE PRICES OF PRINCIPAL ARTICLES OF FOOD AND OF FUEL, 1904 TO 1907.

a The per cents of increase shown in this column are based on the exact amounts shown in the original report and expressed in Swedish öre.

An öre is equivalent to 0.268 cent.

bIncrease from 1905 to 1907.

AVERAGE PRICES OF PRINCIPAL ARTICLES OF FOOD AND OF FUEL, 1904 TO 1907

a The per cents of increase shown in this column are based on the exact amounts shown in the original report and expressed in Swedish öre. An öre is equivalent to 0.268 cent.

Decrease.

Increase from 1905 to 1907.

Most of the articles enumerated in the above table show an advance in cost over the initial year for which reports are made, the only decrease being in the case of petroleum. The increase is most marked in the case of eggs and meats, though considerable advances are shown in the case of several other articles, as cheese, bolted rye flour, and fuel. The same tendency is shown in the prices of food animals, which are reported for three principal localities and for various years, fat heifers selling in Stockholm at 44 öre per kilogram (5.35 cents per pound) in 1905, as against 56 öre per kilogram (6.81 cents per pound) in 1907. Good steers sold in the same market at 51 öre per kilogram (6.20 cents per pound) in 1906, and for 55 öre per kilogram (6.69 cents per pound) in 1907, while fat hogs weighing from 80 to 100 kilograms (176 to 220 pounds) brought 62 öre per kilogram (7.54 cents per pound) in 1905, 70 öre per kilogram (8.51 cents per pound) in 1906, and 67 öre per kilogram (8.15 cents per pound) in 1907.

Rentals also showed an increase during the period 1905 to 1907, the year 1904 not being considered in this connection in the report. Thus in 48 principal localities, the average cost of an apartment consisting of a single room was 85 kroner ($22.78) per annum in 1905, 89 kroner ($23.85) in 1906, and 91 kroner ($24.39) in 1907. For a single room with kitchen the prices were 141 kroner ($37.79), 148 kroner ($39.66), and 150 kroner ($40.20), respectively; while for two rooms with kitchen the prices were 235 kroner ($62.98), 242 kroner ($64.86), and 251 kroner ($67.27), for the years named. These gains amount to a rate of increase of 7.1 per cent in the case of single rooms, 6.4 per cent for single rooms with kitchen, and 6.8 per cent for two rooms with kitchen.

Board and lodging for working people show practically the same rate of increase, or 7 per cent in the period, the average cost being 7.52 kroner ($2.02) per week in 1905, 7.75 kroner ($2.08) in 1906, and 8.05 kroner ($2.16) in 1907.

DECISIONS OF COURTS AFFECTING LABOR.

[Except in cases of special interest, the decisions here presented are restricted to those rendered by the federal courts and the higher courts of the States and Territories. Only material portions of such decisions are reproduced, introductory and explanatory matter being given in the words of the editor.]

DECISIONS UNDER STATUTE LAW.

ASSIGNMENT OF OF WAGES-LIBERTY OF CONTRACT-CONSTITUTIONALITY OF STATUTE- -WAGES AND SALARIES-POLICE POWERMassie v. Cessna, Supreme Court of Illinois, 88 Northeastern Reporter, page 152.-This case came before the supreme court on appeal from the circuit court of Cook County on the question of the constitutionality of the statute of May 13, 1905, regulating the assignment of wages, income, or salaries. Harry J. Massie had secured a decree for an injunction against Cessna on the ground that the transactions in which Cessna had been engaged were in violation of the statute above named, from which decree an appeal was taken and a reversal secured. The act in question prohibits the assignment of wages or salaries of any person unless certain prescribed formalities are complied with, including acknowledgment in person before a justice of the peace and the joint acknowledgment of the assignor's wife or husband, as the case may be, where the assignor is a married person. Assignments to secure usurious debts are also made void by this law, and assignments covering more than six months' earnings are likewise void. The complainant, Massie, was an employee of a printing company, and for about twelve years had had dealings with the appellant, Cessna, during which time he had paid exorbitant and usurious rates of interest on money loaned to him and had been required, as a condition of securing such loans, to make assignments of his wages. These assignments, it was claimed, were in violation of the above law, as they had never been acknowledged in person either before a justice of the peace or any other official, and they were, furthermore, tainted with usury.

The appellant, Cessna, had threatened to bring suit to enforce the assignments against the complainant and his employer, and the petition included a prayer not only for an injunction against such proceedings, but also for the cancellation of all assignments now in the hands of Cessna and his agents.

Cessna based his appeal on the contention that the statute in question was unconstitutional and that it violated the provisions of the constitution of the State of Illinois, which provides that "no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law." This question alone was passed upon by the court, and the statute in question was declared unconstitutional. The decree was reversed and the case remanded with directions to sustain Cessna's demurrer to the bill. The opinion of the court was delivered by Judge Scott and specially concurred in by Judges Vickers and Dunn, who held the statute unconstitutional, not only as drafted but void also if it were restricted to wage-earners only. From the opinion of Judge Scott the following is quoted:

The right to labor for and to render services to another, and the right to dispose of the compensation to be received for so doing, are property rights within the meaning of the language just quoted from the constitution. It is at once apparent upon an examination of this statute that it abridges the right of the man who earns a salary and the right of the man who earns wages to contract with reference thereto. Notwithstanding this fact, appellee contends that, the act in question is not prohibited by the constitution, for the reason that it is referable to the police power of the State. The laws which the legislature may enact in the exercise of that power are laws which have a tendency to promote the public comfort,. health, safety, morals, or welfare, or which have a tendency to prevent some recognized evil or wrong. [Cases cited.]

It is urged: That wage-earners compose a class of inhabitants of the State who, when they desire to borrow money and secure the same by the assignment of their wages earned or to be earned, become victims of men engaged in the business of loaning money at usurious rates, who are commonly denominated "loan sharks"; that, when the wage-earner finds it necessary to borrow money upon such security, he is unable to deal with the money lender upon an even footing; that the latter is able to exact usury, and to practice various like wrongs and impositions upon him, by reason of his poverty and sometimes by reason of his improvidence; and that this creates a condition of affairs which the legislature may remedy by the exercise of the police power. While we think this evil exists, it is yet apparent, upon a careful examination of this statute, that it is too broad in its terms to be justified as an exercise of the police power for the purpose of mitigating or remedying the wrong at which it is aimed. It applies not only to wages, but also to salaries. "Wages," in its ordinary acceptation, has a less extensive meaning than "salary." "Wages" is usually restricted to sums paid as hire or reward to domestic or menial servants and to sums paid to artisans, mechanics, laborers, and others employed in various manual occupations, while "salary" has reference to the compensation of clerks, bookkeepers, other employees of like class, officers of corporations, and public officers. (2 Standard Dic., p. 1573; In re Stryker, 158 N. Y. 526, 53 N. E. 525, 70 Am. St. Rep. 489.)

the

This statute, in so far as it would tend to make effective the right of wage-earner to receive the full benefit of the wages earned by him,