The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1910-03-01

1t &OhliIliSoIoIltI 1cOfSC d.
Justice Have Given the Fullest Re
port Yet Made OF the Industries of
the State.
A publication that represents a deal
of CryStaIized Information, showing a
lot OF careful and patient work. is the
twenty-third annual report Of the De-
partment of Labor and Printing Of
North Carolina, issued from the office
OF Commissioner NJ. l.. Shipman.
The publication is one that shows
that the State is making progress in
many lines, the report being the most
exhaustive ever made of the Industries
OF the State, full of Value and inter
est. The chapters of the report cover,
as usual, farms and farm labor,
wages of farm hands and cost of pro-
ductiOn Of farm products, condition of
the trades, miscellaneous factories
and industries, cotton, wooden and
silk mills, furniture factories, news
paper statistics, and railroad employees
and wages.
In addition to this, there has been
added q classified list of factories, the
labor laws of the State, and a resume
OF the reports issued for the past ten
years. and other interesting Informal
ton.
An excerpt from chapter l says:
Primarily. the purpose of the sta
Issues Is 10 snow IDuIS U dDO Liz
wages, conditions Of labor. and to give
an idea of what progress is being made
in an educational and moral way,
whether there is an Improvement in
general proficiency, and the relation
of supply and demand
In some quarters, to which the re-
port is sent, these purposes are over
looked, the recipients expecting rather
Il directory Of manufacturing enter
priSeS. Under the peculiar conditions
- +h1 Any,n - r
and the manner Of collection of statls-
ties. it has proved impossible, except
ing cotton, WOODEN and silk mills, to
secure a complete list Of factories.
SO far as the means at hand have
showed, it has been the purpose to
include every factory, of whatever
kind, employing five or more people,
that it was possible to reach.
Chapter Ii, farms and farm labor,
shows an increase in the value OF land
III eighty-SeNen counties, decrease IN
two and no change IN nine. Fertility
of land is reported maintained IN
'eighty-four countless; fourteen report
tina it is not maintained. Six counties
report a tendency to have larger
farms: ninety-two smaller; eighty-six
counties repOrt labO: scarce; twelve
plentiful. Ninety-five counties report
negro labor unreliable; two reliable,
and one no negro labor. Sixty coun-
ties report employment regular; thir-
- 1AACo f1A
ports an increase in cost of living
Chapter III, covering the trades,
gays:
In addition to the specific informa-
ton asked for in the blanks sent out,
the Department has taken a general
survey of the conditions under which
the trades, or more properly speaking,
the body of working men and women,
are now labOring. The conclusions
reached, based on the answers to IN
quiries which appear in one form or
another on all blanks, relate to phases
of the question hat cannot be anSWer
ed COMPREHENSIVE by yes or no, or
by any figures. A certain amount OF
the losses in quantity of work offered
and prices paid for service which oc-
CURED in the latter part of 1907 and
1908. have been r~ega:ned, and while
employment is by no means SO easily
found, and it may be that wages are
slightly less than in the ~flood-tide
of 1907. on the whole, conditions al
fecting the trades may be said to pc
in a shape fully as satisfactory as at
any time in the industrial history OF
the State.
Chapter ", miscellaneous factories,
says that general indications snow
that the factories are rapidly beng
put on q substantial basls-that IS,
show an absence OF mushroom growth
or what is commonly known as
schemes" Few new factories are
reported, but, on the whole. cOndl-
tons may be said to represent a sta
lie progress, sufficiently rapid to show
growth. out at the same time at a rate
that would seem to indicate only the
meeting of q demand that may reason
ably be expected to be permanent.
Chapter V, covering cotton, WOODEN,
silk and knitting mills, gives general
conditions, and much detail lnfOrIna-
ton.
Chapter VI. covering furniture fac
tories, reports:
The furniture manufacturing in
terests represent n quiet, but at the
same time an important and substan-
tiaI industry in the life of the State.
While the supply of raw material is