ANNUAL BUSINESS MEETING The ninth annual business meeting of the American Association for Labor Legislation was held at the Shoreham Hotel, Washington, D. C., on Tuesday, December 28, 1915, with President Henry R. Seager in the chair. Secretary John B. Andrews reported on the work done in 1915 and on plans for 1916. (For Secretary's Report, see p. 103.) The treasurer's report was read, in the absence of Treasurer Adolph Lewisohn, and ordered audited. (For Treasurer's Report and auditors' statement see p. 112.) In amplification of the secretary's report, brief statements of the Association's activities in special fields were rendered by the following members of the staff: Workmen's Compensation-Irene Sylvester. One Day of Rest in Seven-Solon De Leon. Upon report of Professor Henry W. Farnam, chairman of the Committee on Nominations, the secretary was instructed by unanimous vote to cast the ballot of the Association for the following members of the General Administrative Council: General Administrative Council (In addition to the officers) MARY E. DREIER, Brooklyn FELIX ADLER, New York City MRS. FLORENCE J. HARRIMAN, Wash'gt'n HENRY J. HARRIS, Washington SIMON N. PATTEN, Philadelphia JOHN RANDOLPH HAYNES, Los Angeles ALROY S. PHILLIPS, St. Louis JOHN PRICE JACKSON, Harrisburg ARTHUR QUINN, Perth Amboy, N. J. New York City W. GILMAN THOMPSON, New York City B. S. WARREN, Washington MEETING OF THE GENERAL ADMINISTRATIVE COUNCIL The General Administrative Council immediately convened in business session and elected from its membership the following General Officers, Vice-Presidents, and Executive Committee: General Officers President, IRVING FISHER, Yale Univer-Assistant Secretary, IRENE OSGOOD ANsity Secretary, JOHN B. ANDREWS, DREWS Treasurer, ADOLPH LEWISOMN, 131 East 23d St., New York City New York City Vice-Presidents JANE ADDAMS, Chicago Executive JOHN R. COMMONS, Madison, Wis. FREDERICK L. HOFFMAN, Newark, N. THEODORE MARBURG, Baltimore Committee SAMUEL MCCUne Lindsay, New York JOHN MITCHELL, Mount Vernon, N. Y. The meeting then resolved itself into the annual business meeting, and, there being no further business, adjournment followed. SECRETARY'S REPORT 1915 JOHN B. ANDREWS Secretary, American Association for Labor Legislation Sometimes I think the hardest thing the secretary has to do is to stand up after the year's work is done, to talk about it. But if this Association has one tradition it seems to be "The secretary shall render an annual report." UNEMPLOYMENT We began the work of this year in the midst of an industrial depression accentuated by a world war. True to the principles of this Association we endeavored to put before the public a practical program for the prevention among wage-earners of unnecessary distress which in this case had grown out of unprecedented unemployment. Drawing upon the experience of our sister associations in other countries and adapting their conclusions to American conditions by means of special studies of our own, we were able to outline in a concise pamphlet of twenty pages the essential lines for legislative action. The effort was timely, for public interest was keen, and to supply the demand we published and distributed from our office 22,000 copies of this Practical Program. Investigations in progress at the beginning of the year furnished reports for the second number of our quarterly REVIEW, which also contained the report of our Second National Conference on Unemployment. The unemployment crisis of last winter urgently demanded that more attention be given to the existing methods of supplying relief. A rather ambitious survey was therefore instituted to determine what 115 selected communities thought their out-of-work problem last winter consisted of, what they tried to do about it, and with what results. More than 300 public and private officials throughout the country cooperated with our office staff in making the survey, and the results were written into the third number of our REVIEW. This survey of relief work emphasized at every point, in the language of practical workers in relief, the economy and wisdom of putting into effect the practical program for the prevention of unemployment. This, it is apparent, should be done in the intervening period of comparative good times, else we will again. face another crisis again hopelessly unprepared. Our letter files testify that our efforts in the direction of preparedness are appreciated, and already there is good legislation at least partly due to our efforts. Twenty-three states now have public employment bureaus operating sixty-four offices, and there are over twenty municipal bureaus. Moreover, definite legislative proposals, in the form of bills, are ready for advancement at the opportune time. In looking forward into 1916 it is apparent that much remains to be done toward regulating private employment agencies and toward securing additional legislation and especially additional appropriations to strengthen the growing chain of public employment bureaus, city, state and federal. Our Massachusetts Committee on Unemployment, which has worked with our national Committee on Social Insurance in drafting a bill, is about to present to the Massachusetts legislature the first carefully worked out American plan for unemployment insurance. HEALTH INSURANCE The most important work of the Committee on Social Insurance since its organization at the Boston meeting three years ago has been upon a program for health insurance. The standards which our committee purposed to follow in drafting a bill were published in July, 1914, and the first tentative draft of a bill was printed in November, 1915. On November 5th of this year it was unanimously voted by our Executive Committee that the Social Insurance. Committee should be encouraged to prepare a complete draft of a bill for health insurance to be introduced in several state legislatures in January, 1916. A first edition of 8,000 copies of the Health Insurance pamphlet including the first draft of the bill was exhausted within a month and a second edition of 5,000 copies was printed in the middle of December, making a total of 13,000 copies of the first and second tentative drafts which have been widely distributed in response to the great interest in this subject. It is significant that the American Medical Association has appointed a |