The French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1896-1912, 1910-03-24
An EXHAUSTIVE
PUBLICATION.

p~artnent Of Labor and Printing.
Durham Recorder
The Twenty-third Annual Report OF
the Department Of Labor and Printing
Of the state Of North Carolina has been
issued from the Office Of Commissioner
M. Il. Shipman.
THE chapters of the report cover, as
usual, farms and farm labor, wages Of
farm hands and cost of production Of
farm products, condition Of the trades,
miscellaneous factories and industries,
cotton. wooden and silk mills, furniture
factories, newspaper statistics, and rail-
road employees and wages,
In addition to this, there has been
added a 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 I says:
primarily, the purpose of the statis-
tics is to show hours Of labor and
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 to demand.
In some quarters to which the re-
port is sent, these purposes ire over
looked, the recipients expecting rather
a directory of manufacturing enter
prises. Under the peculiar conditions
of the law governing the Department
and the manner of collection of sta
tistics, it has proved impossible, ex-
cepting cotton, wooden and silk mills,
to secure a complete list of the fac
tories.
So far as the means at hand have
allowed, 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
in eighty-seven counties, decrease in
two and no change in nine. Fertility
of land is reported maintained in
eighty-four counties; fourteen report
that it is not maintained. Six coun-
ties report a tendency to have larger
farms; n~inety-two smaller. Eighty
six counties report labor scarce; twelve
plentiful. Ninety-ive counties report
negro labor unreliable; two reliable,
and one, no negro labor. Sixty coun-
ties report employment regular; thirty
eight irregular. Every county reports
an increase in cost of living.
Chapter III, covering the trades,
says:
In addition to the specific information
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, r
now laboring. The conclusions reached,
based on the answers to inquiries which
appear in one form or another on all
blanks, relate to phases of the question
that cannot be answered comprehen-
sively by yes or no., or by any figures.
A certain amount of the losses in
quantity of work offered and prices
paid fer service which occurred in the
latter part of 1907 and 1908 have been
regained, and while employment is by
no means so easily found, and it may
be that wages are slightly less than
In the floOdtide of 1907, on the whole,
conditions affecting the trades may be
said to be in a shape fully as salts
factory as at any time in the Industrial
history of the State.
Chapter ", miscellaneous factories,
says that general indications show that
the factories are rapidly being put on
a substantial basis-that is, show an
absence of mushroom growth, or what
is commonly known as schemes" Few
new factories r reported, but, on the
whole, conditions may be said to rep
resent a stable progress, sufficiently
rapid to show growth, but at the same
time at a rate that would seem to in
dictate only the meeting of a demand
that may reasonably be expected to be
permanent.
Chapter v, covering cotton, wooden,
silk and knitting mills, gives general
conditions, and much detail informa-
ton.
Chapter VI, covering furniture fac
tories, reports:
The furniture manufacturing inter
ests represent a quiet, but at the same
time an important and substantial in
dustry in the life of the State. While
the supply of raw material is by no
means acutely short, great inroads are
being made on the timber lands that
furnish this material, and it is a source
of regret that, apparently, no steps
are being taken to preserve or pro-
vide a supply for use after the present
supply has been exhausted.
The newspaper situation, as covered
by Chapter VII, shows that in keeping
with the advance in every other line of
business, the newspapers and institu-
tional publications show an increase
for the year of eight in number, and
of 1922 in circulation. Then follows
a list of papers, with names of editors,
proprietors, circulation, etc.
Taken all in all, the publication
represents a deal of crystallized infor-
nation, ~evidencing a lot of patient and
norof,11 rrorlr