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It is further understood that all existing agreements and obligations of the employer, including those to present employees, shall be respected; the manufacturers, however, declare their belief in the union, and that all who desire its benefits should share in its burdens.

Fifteenth. The parties hereby establish a joint board of sanitary control, to consist of seven members, composed of two nominees of the manufacturers, two nominees of the unions, and three who are to represent the public, the latter to be named by Meyer London, esq., and Julius Henry Cohen, esq., and in the event of their inability to agree, by Louis Marshall, esq.

Council to Continue Its Investigations.

V. This council has been requested by the mayor to continue as a commission to investigate thoroughly the fundamental problems of regularization, standards of wages, and enforcement of standards throughout the industry, of trade education, and a more thorough organization of the industry, and on the basis of such investigation it shall submit a constructive policy to both organizations. VI. Wages.

1. As a temporary arrangement until a maturer study of the industry shall lead to a final adjustment, the standard observed for pieceworkers in fixing piecework rates shall be at the rate of 70 cents an hour for each hour of continuous work for operators and piece tailors, and 50 cents an hour for each hour of continuous work for finishers, taking the worker of average skill as the basis of computation, and making no allowance for idleness.

Piece prices shall be settled between the employer and a price committee. If the parties can not agree, they shall call in price adjusters furnished by both sides.

Wages for week workers shall be as follows:

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Skirt finishers, $11, provided each department be permitted to have
one learner to six finishers.

Reefer pressers and under pressers to be paid as other pressers
providing the unions prove their contention that such wages have
been paid outside of the association houses.

Piece prices for buttonhole makers: Class A, $1.30 per hundred but-
tonholes; class B, 90 cents per hundred.

VII. For determination by arbitration.

That the following questions shall be submitted to the arbitration of this council, their decision to be rendered within 30 days, and to be accepted as final and binding:

(a) Whether the pressers and pieceworkers shall during eight weeks in each season be permitted to work overtime on Saturdays until 4 o'clock.

(b) What legal holidays shall be observed in the cloak, suit, and skirt industry, and under what conditions they shall be observed.

VIII. It is distinctly understood that there shall be no shop strike nor general strike, nor individual nor general lockout during the term of this agreement. IX. The union and the association, with the assistance of the council, will, as soon as practicable, create a joint board of supervision and enforcement of standards throughout the industry.

X. Since the council will continue in existence for study and constructive recommendations, it will be available whenever the parties desire to consult with it, and if either organization feels aggrieved against the other such organization may address the council upon the subject, and the council will do the best it can to assist.

Finally, since peace in industry, as in families and among States, is the offspring of good will, and since no peace can be sound or enduring that is not based on this indispensable prerequisite, it is agreed that the leaders on both sides shall exert their utmost endeavors to create a spirit of mutual good will among the members of their respective organizations, such good will taking the specific form of a disposition to recognize the inherent difficulties which each side has to meet-a spirit of large patience under strain, and withal, a belief in the better elements which exist in human nature, be it among employers or wage earners, and the faith that an appeal to these elements will always produce beneficient results. These recommendations, when accepted by both parties, shall constitute the agreement between them.

This agreement to enter into force on the date hereof and to continue for the period of two years, and thereafter for like periods of two years, unless terminated by either party on two months' notice.

Any modification of the terms of the agreement, requested by either party, shall be presented to the other at least two months before the termination of any period.

COMPULSORY ARBITRATION IN DENMARK.

Denmark stands alone among European countries as having a limited compulsory arbitration law, recognizing about the same principles of State interference in the settlement of labor disputes as do the arbitration laws of Australia. The permanent arbitration court. was established by the law of April 12, 1910. It consists of 12 members (6 associates and their alternates), a president, a vice president, and a secretary. Three associates and their alternates are elected annually by the Association of Danish Employers and Masters (Dansk Arbejdgiver-og Mesterforening); the other three and their alternates are chosen by the Danish Federation of Labor (De Samvirkende Fagforbund), as long as these organizations represent the majority of employers and workmen on either side, and when they cease to do so, steps are to be taken for a change in the law. The associate justices select a president and vice president, while the Minister of the Interior appoints the secretary.

The court may be cited by either of the above organizations in the cases following: (1) When an employers' association acts in violation of an agreement with the labor organization; (2) when by one or more members of an employers' association an act is committed which violates an agreement entered into by the association

whereby the rights of the workmen's association or of any of its members are infringed; (3) or, conversely, when a labor organization or any of its members violate an agreement entered into with an employers' association; (4) when a contract between a single firm and a labor organization has been violated by either party; (5) when an employers' association or any of its members give notice to a trade-union or its members of an intended lockout, and the trade-union claims such lockout is a violation of contract; (6) likewise when the legality of a proposed strike is at issue, and (7) when other disputes between an employers' organization and a workmen's organization or disputes between firms and individuals arise, provided the parties agree on such reference, either in general cases or in the specific one at issue.

Fines may be imposed on any parties who violate the terms of a trade agreement, who refuse to comply with an arbitration award, or who refuse to refer a case to arbitration when such reference has been previously agreed upon.

The records and proceedings of the court conform to those of the other courts of the country. Witnesses may be summoned who are bound to appear and to testify under oath. The judgments of the court are enforceable like those of any other court.

Since the organization of the court, in 1910, 136 cases have been decided by it. During the two years 1913 and 1914, 48 cases (24 in each year) were referred to the court for decision. As reported in a recent issue of the British Board of Trade Labor Gazette (July, 1915, p. 240), during these same years 31 proceedings were begun by employers' associations or individual employers and 17 by tradeunions. Eight cases were settled by the parties before final proceedings were had, 4 were dropped, and 1 was postponed.

During the same two years the largest number of disputes occurred in the building trades, where 22 cases were represented; transportation and the woodworking trades came next, with 7 and 5 cases each.

The question at issue in 20 cases turned upon the matter of strikes and lockouts; interpretation of agreements or awards in 17 cases; alleged boycotts, 5; working conditions, 2; wages, 1; blacklisting or dismissal, 1; employment of nonunionists and noncompliance with the award of the court, 1.

Fines were imposed during 1913 and 1914 in 15 cases amounting to approximately $1,207. The total costs involved in the settlement of the 48 cases during the same two years amounted to $1,217, of which $282 were assessed upon employers alone, $662 upon trade-unions alone, $229 upon both employers and trade-unions in equal amounts, while $44 were assessed upon both parties unequally.

EMPLOYMENT IN VARIOUS COUNTRIES.

GERMANY, MAY, 1915.'

The journal of the imperial labor office reports for May on the condition of the labor market as follows:

For the majority of industries business conditions were entirely satisfactory during May. This is especially applicable to establishments which directly or indirectly were engaged in the manufacture of war materials. Several of these establishments were compelled to strain all their forces to fill these orders; they had to work overtime, and operated with two and three shifts. Generally speaking, no essential change has taken place as compared with the preceding month; it is, however, a noteworthy fact that throughout the Empire unemployment among female workers has considerably decreased.

According to reports from individual concerns and from manufacturers' associations the favorable business conditions in the mining industry have remained unchanged. In the iron and machine industry business was as brisk as during the preceding month; the same may be said of the electrical industry, in so far as it is engaged in the manufacture of war materials, for which large orders have been placed. Conditions were equally satisfactory in the textile industry, with the exception of certain special branches, such as the silk industry. Conditions in several other industries, such as the chemical and woodworking industries, were less favorable. Among the industries which report prosperous conditions should be mentioned several branches of the food-products industry, as, for instance, beer brewing and cigar manufacture. In the building trades, conditions in which were unsatisfactory even before the outbreak of the war, and were made worse by its occurrence, some improvement was reported in certain cities during the current month, due to increased public building activity; this improvement is indicated in the increased number employed in that trade.

RETURNS FROM EMPLOYERS.

Returns from 334 employers of labor showed 283,976 workmen employed, as compared with 345,735 during the corresponding month of 1914, being a decrease of 17.86 per cent. This decrease is explained as due to the withdrawal of men to the army.

The relative decrease in numbers employed in different industries in May, 1915, as compared with May, 1914, was as follows:

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Miscellaneous, including building materials and navigation.... 52. 12

1 Reichsarbeitsblatt, Hrsg. von. K. Statistischen Amte, Abteilung für Arbeiterstatistik. Berlin. June, 1915.

2 Increase.

RETURNS FROM SICKNESS INSURANCE SOCIETIES.

Monthly returns of the membership of local sick relief funds are obtained by the imperial office of labor statistics. These returns are in a way a measure of the amount of employment existing in any month, as the sickness insurance law requires practically all wage earners to enroll on a sick register, exempting them only if out of employment. Returns of the sick funds show that the male membership, compared with last month, has decreased 1.41 per cent, while the female membership has increased 0.92 per cent; the total number of employed members of both sexes decreased by 36,341, or 0.44 per cent. This small decrease was due largely to the calling in of the last reserve (Landsturm) of the army.

RETURNS FROM TRADE-UNIONS.

Thirty-five trade-unions sent in returns as to the ratio of unemployment among their members on May 31. These had a membership of 1,097,279, although the information compiled pertained to only 1,033,475. Since the outbreak of the war the ratio of the unemployed to total membership reported stands thus:

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The percentage of unemployed in the six largest Social-Democratic trade-unions appears as follows:

PER CENT UNEMPLOYED AT END OF EACH MONTH IN THE SIX LEADING SOCIALDEMOCRATIC TRADE-UNIONS IN GERMANY, AUGUST, 1914, AND JANUARY TO MAY,

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