Wholesale prices.-In its wholesale price inquiries the Bureau obtains from trade journals, or by correspondence with manufacturers-monthly, weekly, or daily price quotations on more than 300 commodities, grouped in nine classes, viz., food, farm products, cloths and clothing, fuel and lighting, metals and metal products, lumber and building materials, drugs and chemicals, house furnishing goods, and miscellaneous.

Prior to the issuance of the bulletin for 1919, it was the practice to include in the annual Wholesale Price bulletin a list of these quotations for all commodities reported upon. The monthly quotations were omitted, however, from the bulletin for 1919; and it is planned to. omit them from succeeding reports. They will still be collected, however, and used as the basis for the comparative average price tables which form the major portion of the publication. The Wholesale Price bulletin contains a detailed average price table, summary tables, graphic charts, and explanatory text. The detailed average price table compares average prices of the current year with corresponding figures for preceding years back to 1890.

Retail prices. In its retail price inquiry the Bureau secures its data from about 2,000 retail merchants located in the principal cities of the country. These merchants report actual selling prices of the articles on which reports are required. The Bureau obtains information in this manner as to the selling prices of the principal articles of food on the 15th day of each month; prices of commonly used articles of dry goods on the 15th day of February, May, August, and October; and prices of anthracite and bituminous coal on the 15th day of January and July. It secures from gas companies selling prices on manufactured and natural gas on April 15 of each year. The reports are secured by mail on blanks furnished by the BuField agents of the Bureau visit the reporters from time to time and personally select and instruct new merchants who are added to the list. All the merchants reporting serve voluntarily and without compensation.

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The actual prices reported for each commodity and by each merchant are included in the annual Retail Price bulletin, which consists of over 400 octavo pages. For comparative purposes tables showing the relationship of annual price averages for preceding years, back to 1907, are included in this publication.

Cost of Living Studies.

As stated above the main purpose of the Bureau's recurrent inquiries into the subject of retail prices is to disclose the trend of prices in items figuring in the cost of living of all citizens. But there are times, especially when questions of wage adjustments for particular classes of workers are in the forefront, when more comprehen

sive information regarding living costs is desired. From time to time the Bureau accordingly conducts surveys designed to determine the cost of living of typical wage workers' families in selected localities.

The first survey was made in 1890-1891, and the results were published in the annual reports of the Commissioner of Labor for those years. The second survey occurred in 1901-1902, the results being published in the annual report for 1903. The third survey, undertaken under a joint resolution of Congress approved December 20, 1916, had to do with family expenditures in the District of Columbia during the calendar year 1916. The fourth survey dealt with family expenditures in 35 shipbuilding centers during the year 1917. The latest survey, undertaken during the years 1918-1919, had to do with the expenditures of 13,000 families in 92 localities scattered throughout the country. It was the most complete investigation of the kind ever undertaken by the Bureau. The results of these more recent surveys have been included from time to time in the Monthly Labor Review, issued by the Bureau.

These surveys have varied somewhat in detail but they have followed the same general plan. Information is sought from two sources: First, selected families are requested to state their incomes and the quantities and cost of all commodities and services procured by them during the year covered by the inquiry; second, the merchants with whom the selected families trade are requested to state the prices at which the commodities and services were furnished, not only for the year covered by the inquiry, but for previous years for purposes of comparison.

The collection of these data is entrusted to field agents. They select typical families of wage workers in the industrial communities to be studied, and by interview with a member or members of the family group, fill out a questionnaire for each family showing the family income and the detailed expenditures made for the family maintenance during the year. The expenditures are divided under six main headings: Food, clothing, housing, fuel and light, furniture and furnishings, and miscellaneous; and fall under no fewer than 450 subclassifications.

Six schedules are employed in obtaining price data from the merchants with whom the selected families trade, as follows: Clothing (male), clothing (female), rents, fuel and light, furniture and house furnishings, and miscellaneous. Food prices are obtained from the retail price reports described above.

Industrial Accidents.

The Bureau's statistics of accidents to industrial workers are limited to the iron and steel and machine building industries. Gen

erally speaking they are designed to show the causes and relative frequency of such accidents.

Reports are made annually to the Bureau of Labor Statistics by about 90 per cent of the iron and steel manufacturers of the country. Each establishment shows by departments the total number of hours worked by all employees during the year, and the number and character of accidents occurring in each department. Accidents are classified according to their termination; that is, in death, in total permanent disability, partial permanent disability, and temporary disability. Each accident is described in detail, and full particulars are given as to the nature of the injuries sustained.

The most recent publication of accident statistics for the iron and steel industry is Bulletin 298, entitled Causes and Prevention of Accidents in the Iron and Steel Industry, 1910-1919. This bulletin of 398 pages brings together the results of a study of accidents in the iron and steel industry which has been going on in the Bureau of Labor Statistics during the last 10 years. Detailed tables are presented for the period 1910 to 1914 as a whole, and for each year from 1915 to 1919. The major part of the bulletin is devoted to a text discussion of the causes of accidents in the industry and of preventive methods. Two other reports published on the same subject are: Bulletin 234, entitled The Safety Movement in the Iron and Steel Industry, 1907 to 1917, and Volume IV of the report on Conditions of Employment in the Iron and Steel Industry of the United States.1

In 1919 the Bureau published a bulletin entitled Accidents and Accident Prevention in Machine Building. About one-half of this publication, which consisted of 123 octavo pages, was devoted to accident statistics for the year 1912 in 194 machine-building plants. The remainder of the bulletin was a textual discussion of the safety methods employed in such plants, which included manufacturers of ships, mining machinery, cranes, iron and steel machinery, locomotives and engines, electrical apparatus, machine tools, etc. The data were collected in the same manner as described above for the iron and steel industry. The 1919 bulletin (Bulletin 256) was a revision of a similar publication (Bulletin 216) issued in 1917.

Other Statistical Work of the Bureau.

This report thus far has discussed only the regularly established or recurrent statistical inquiries of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. However, as previously stated, the Bureau's investigations may be extended to any subject directly or indirectly affecting labor. Accordingly the Bureau has from time to time conducted investigations into such subjects as industrial depression, convict labor, strikes and

1 S. Doc. 110, 62nd Cong., 1st Sess.

lockouts, cost of production, industrial hygiene, building and loan associations, housing of the working people, regulation and restriction of output, industrial education, employment and unemployment, women in industry, workmen's insurance and compensation, labor laws and court decisions relating thereto, welfare work, etc.

Scattered here and there through the publications that present the results of the studies made in these broad fields, are found many statistical tabulations. It would, however, be impossible to discuss these tabulations without giving a detailed description of the various investigations which have incidentally involved statistical work. Such tabulations, of course, follow the lines of the respective investigations in which they are utilized, being compiled in some instances from reports obtained in extensive inquiries covering the entire country, and in other instances from house to house canvasses made in intensive inquiries relating to small geographical areas, as for example certain blocks in a city.

The Monthly Labor Review.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics issues a monthly publication entitled the Monthly Labor Review. It has a circulation of about 15,000 copies. Each issue contains from 200 to 375 octavo pages. It was first published in July, 1915, under the name Monthly Review of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The main purpose of the publication is to present the results of those investigations which are too fragmentary for separate bulletin publication or regarding which current information is important. Included within the former class are investigations relating to strikes and lockouts, to employment and unemployment, and to labor turnover, while within the latter class are included the studies of current wholesale and retail prices above referred to.

The Monthly Labor Review summarizes all bulletins issued by the Bureau; gives advance publicity to material to be later published in bulletin form; reviews official reports, domestic and foreign, whenever they refer to labor subjects; makes note of labor legislation in the several States, as well as of Federal legislation and Federal court decisions affecting labor; and collects and summarizes all news items affecting labor, whether reported by other bureaus in the Department of Labor, by other United States Government agencies, or by offices under State and foreign governments.

CHILDREN'S BUREAU.

The Children's Bureau was created as a bureau in the Department of Commerce [and Labor] by the Act approved April 9, 1912. It was transferred to the Department of Labor when that Department was established in 1913.

Section 2 of the Act creating the Bureau provides that—

The said Bureau shall investigate and report to said Department upon all matters pertaining to the welfare of children and child life among all classes of our people, and shall especially investigate the questions of infant mortality, the birth rate, orphanage, juvenile courts, desertion, dangerous occupations, accidents and diseases of children, employment, legislation affecting children in the several States and Territories.

The Children's Bureau has, therefore, no administrative authority, its activities being purely investigative in character. Its investigations are reported in pamphlets and monographs which are distributed to the public. One hundred and seven such publications had been issued up to October 1, 1922. Of these, 48 contained considerable statistical matter-7 relating to juvenile courts, 3 to mental defectives, 12 to child labor, 10 to infant mortality, 5 to maternity and infant care in rural districts, 4 to illegitimacy, 4 to the work of mothers and mothers' pensions, 1 to dependency, and 2 to statures and weights of children.

As far as possible the Bureau utilizes available statistics in its publications, whether compiled by Federal, State or private agencies; but in many instances it has to make its own compilations in order to bring out the facts essential to its investigations.

So closely related are the statistical activities of the Bureau to the particular investigations which it is required to conduct that it is impossible to discuss them independently of those investigations. In its study of the various subjects relating to child welfare, the Bureau usually follows a plan involving an intensive investigation of a few limited and scattered areas, instead of endeavoring to cover the country as a whole. The conditions found in these representative areas are regarded as typical of conditions elsewhere. Examples of these intensive investigations are found in the following publications:

Maternity and Infant Care in a Rural County in Kansas.

Mental Defectives in the District of Columbia.

Mental Defectives in a Rural County. A medico-psychological and social study of mentally defective children in Sussex County, Delaware.

Children Before the Courts in Connecticut.

Infant Mortality. Results of a field study in Brockton, Mass., based on births in one year.

In pursuing the plan of conducting intensive local investigations, the Bureau accepts the statistics compiled by other agencies as a starting point, but it subsequently requires its own agents to fill out