Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-03-05

is evident that labor unions are being formed very rapidly. Several are 1 springing into being each week. Ac- cording to the records of this office 156 l unions were instituted i'll 1902.
 Part VI. Strikes and Lockouts. l The chapter on strikes and lockouts 1 contains a review of 1O4 strikes, caus- l ing the idleness of 10, ,141 workers, for an aggregate of 235, ,453 working days during the twelve months ending De cember 31, 1902. The figures for that period show diminished losses in every essential particular as compared with l the year preceding. The most marked decrease is in the average duration of :, each strike from 17.94 days to 1918 l days. More or less substantial con- sessions were secured as result of fully 60 per cent of the strikes re- ported. t
 l The activity of journey1nen carpen ters referred to in last years report was again in evidence during the past season, and the largest number of strikes. affecting any one group of in dustries includes those of carpenters !, and others directly connected with the building trades. These strikes, com prising 25 per cent of the total number reported, caused the idleness of 2,7O5 men for varying periods and were for the most part either wholly or partial I ly successful
 So far as the strikes of the year are susceptible of orderly arrangement ac- cording to the causes for which they were undertaken, they resolve them selves into two groups, the one involv- ing principally questions of wages, and the other, questions of the recognition, either directly or indirectly, of organ ized labor. Of the first group, it is significant that by far the greater num- ber were to secure some positive inn lprovement in conditions, and compara- 4 lively few of these were lfnavailing. Four only were against reduction of wages. The unyaTying lack of suc- cess in these cases would seem to indi- cate that action, so entirely at variance with the general trend, is taken by em- ployers only after the most serious con- sideration, and for reasons which are imperative and unalterable. At least g strikes are included in the other group, and an examination of their causes and results discloses evidence of the continued activity and growing
 
 I Comparatively few of the adjust ments between labor and it's employ CTS are worked out by means of strikes. They are but ripples on the surface of I the great current of industrial activ- Eity, apprising the intelligent observer of the volume, character and direction of the real movement going on beneath. Wages have been advanced and other concessions granted in hundreds of cases. either voluntarily or as a result of friendly conference, and during the I past and preceding years labor has been adjusting itself to an improved condition of general business.
 4 Part VII-Free Public Employment I Bureaus.
 | Seven thousand six hundred and sev- enty nine persons who were idle were furnished with work by the five free public employment bureaus in this state from December |, 1901, to De cember l. 1902. The proportion of ap- plicants in the whole state who were furnished with work was 54.S per cent, ranging in different offices as follows: Bridgeport, 70 per cent; Norwich, 54.S per cent; Waterbury, 54 per cent; Hart ford, 53.9 per cent; New Haven, Al II per cent. Of the entire number of ap- plications for help in the state 70 per cent were filled. N
 As in 1901, the predominamce of wo- men, especially domestic help, in the columns of ssSituations Wanted, ;" "Help ] Wanted" and Positions Secured, over shadows all else in the statistical ta- bles. The greatest number of appli- cations among the males was for posi- tions as farm laborers. There were l1,474 of these applications.
 The bureau had 7.437 applications for situations from females and 6,471 Al from males; 7,69S applications for fe- male help wanted and 3.26S for male help wanted: 4,806 females and 2,s73 males secured positions.
 ] The average number, Der month, of all positions filled in 1901 and 1902 was as follows: 19O1-News Haven. 76. Hartford, 325; Bridgeport, 12S; Nor Wich. 33; Waterbury, 65; total average. 627; 19O2-New Haven, 129: Hartford, 249: Bridgeport, TYP; Norwich, 30; Wa terbury, 5S; total average 63S. Eleven persons more each month secured posi- 'l tions in 1902 than in 1901.
 The bureau feels that 1t should call attention to the poor results that are being realized. in Waterbury (5s posi- tipns secured monthlyl and In Nor wich (30 positions secured monthly). These results are not because of any shortcoming of the experimenting of these bureaus for each of the two has had as able, loyal, intelligent, energet- !, ic and active management as have the other three bureaus It is because the cities are too small to give the results that the three larger cities give This bureau believes that by the legislature the Waterbury bureau should be al . lowed to establish d branch office in Meriden and that the Norwich bureau should be allowed to open branch
 office in New London. Thereby the
 fields of each of these bureaus would ] be nearly doubled. and the expense :. need be only slightly increased.