known throughout the lumber region of Maine that any laborer was liable to imprisonment who refused to work according to the provisions of his contract until he had settled for all advances, no matter what misrepresentations may have been made to induce him to enter into the agreement. The contract-labor law has become a club which the foremen and superintendents draw upon the laborers who refuse to go to work or to continue at work. If a man leaves his employer before settling for advances, he will be pursued and apprehended, or someone will telephone to the constable, who will arrest the laborer. He will then be brought before the justice, and "sent down the river," to prison; or if he consents to labor until he shall have reimbursed for all advances and the fine and cost of the prosecution, the employer will settle with the court and constable and will take the laborer back into the forest. No doubt many of the laborers never attempt to escape, although they may consider that they have been basely deceived about the conditions of labor. No indications of peonage have been found in any industries of Maine except those of the lumbering and logging concerns protected by the contract-labor law. While from time to time sporadic cases of peonage have occurred in nearly all the States, there is no apparent general system of peonage and no sentiment supporting it anywhere. Prosecutions have occurred in several of the southern States, and where conducted by local United States district attorneys have more frequently succeeded than failed. The law as to peonage does not require any amendment and its enforcement is reasonably efficient in the States where prosecutions have occurred. No prosecutions were conducted in any of the northern and western States where cases of technical peonage were found to have occurred. ABSTRACT OF THE REPORT ON FECUNDITY OF IMMIGRANT WOMEN. For the complete report on the fecundity of immigrant women see Reports of the Immigration Commission, vol. 23. CONTENTS. Introductory. Rhode Island. Ohio...... Minnesota. Comparative summary-Rhode Island, Ohio, and Minnesota.. LIST OF TABLES. Page. 445 457 469 482 494 TABLE 1. Women under 45 years of age married more than one year, classified 2. White women of foreign parentage under 45 years of age married 3. Women under 45 years of age married ten to twenty years, classified 5. Women under 45 years of age married ten to twenty years, classified 6. Women under 45 years of age married ten to twenty years, classified 457 458 459 460 461 462, 463 7. Women under 45 years of age married ten to twenty years, classified 8. Women under 45 years of age married more than one year, classified 9. Women under 45 years of age married more than one year, classified 10. Women under 45 years of age married more than one year, classified 11. White women of foreign parentage under 45 years of age married 464 466 468 470 471 |