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LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL.

STATE OF MINNESOTA,

OFFICE OF BUREAU OF LABOR,

ST. PAUL, MINN., December, 1900.

To the Honorable the Senators and Representatives of the Legislature of the State of Minnesota:

GENTLEMEN: I have the honor to transmit herewith the biennial report of the Bureau of Labor for the years 1899 and 1900.

Very respectfully,

MARTIN F. McHALE,
Commissioner.

INTRODUCTORY.

The purpose of this volume is to furnish a record of the work of the Minnesota Bureau of Labor for the years 1899 and 1900. It differs materially from a number of other Labor Bureau reports in this: That it is devoted exclusively to matters pertaining to the industrial interests of this state, and to a discussion of those subjects which have been met with while endeavoring to carry out those functions for which the Labor Bureau was originally created.

Theoretical speculations find no place in this report. Such comments and suggestions as may occur are those that have been brought out by actual facts and conditions in the field of labor and industrial activity.

There having been nothing published by this department pertaining to the subject of labor since 1896, special prominence has been given in this volume to the subject of inspections,-inspections of factories, mills, mines, workshops and other institutions in which labor is employed. The division devoted to this subject will be found replete with information, collected from every part of the state, and compiled as systematically and intelligibly as circumstances have allowed.

Special pains have been taken to make the report here presented thoroughly reliable in all its parts. Nevertheless, much will have to be taken approximately. The difficulty of obtaining anything like a complete census on which to base exact deductions need not be pointed out to those familiar with such subjects. The depart ment has but one inspector and two assistant inspectors, besides two deputy commissioners, who must be relied upon for all outside work. It is needless to say that so limited a staff cannot, even with the very best intentions, so thoroughly cover the state as to be able to furnish complete and exhaustive data upon many of the subjects requiring investigation. Yet their efforts, supplemented by correspondence and special work, have brought about results which should satisfy all reasonable demands.

It will be found upon examination of the tabulated reports that

upward of 7,000 inspections have been made during the past two years, extending throughout every settled portion of the state.

And although this has been regarded as the paramount work, it has by no means precluded work along other lines, as this volume amply proves. A special canvass has been made, both years, of the mining region, which has resulted in material for the first exhaustive report of this industry ever published in the state. Another special investigation has been that of Sunday labor-perhaps as difficult a task, so far as obtaining accurate results are concerned, as was ever undertaken by the bureau, unless, indeed, we should except that of securing reliable statistics of organized labor within the state. While in the former case it has not been possible to determine just how many persons work on Sunday and how many do not, sufficient data have been secured to show with tolerable accuracy what proportion of week-day laborers also work on Sundays, what proportion of seven days' work is performed on Sunday, the different proportions in different industries, differences between Sunday and week-day pay, etc. In the matter of securing statistics of organized labor, the department has been far more successful than was expected, thanks to the ready coöperation of the organizations themselves. For the first time, therefore, the public will be presented with a fairly comprehensive and reliable directory of organized labor in the State of Minnesota, together with such other information pertaining to the subject as has frequently been sought in vain.

Besides these, the subject of child labor, and the enforcement of labor laws in general, have required and received a great deal of attention. Perhaps one-half of the department's time has been taken up by these matters alone, and the results are set forth in the present report in a manner which leaves no doubt of the bureau officials having been deeply in earnest in respect to them.

Various other matters, which it is not necessary to enumerate here, have craved and received such consideration as they have merited, among which may be mentioned the supplying of information, the assisting of employes in securing their pay, repeated overhauling of child-employing establishments, and lastly, but by no means least in respect to time and importance, the expounding of existing child labor laws, which not one in a thousand seems able to comprehend.

From the preceding, as well as from the contents of this volume, it will therefore be seen that the officials of the bureau have

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