Association and the legislative committee of the New Hampshire State Federation of Labor meet for conference. The labor commissioner was chosen to act as chairman during the deliberations. A new draft of a workmen's compensation bill resulted from the conference. It was pointed out that those opposed to the new draft "made a great deal out of what the workmen were giving up in allowing the elective feature after the accident to be taken away from them. Still the fact remains the present New Hampshire law is the only one in 42 States, having compensation laws, that retains such elective feature."

In discussing the change made by the new draft in the administration of the law by doing away with the court system and establishing an independent accident board, the report contains the following:

The giving up of this feature, in the minds of men who have made careful study of the operation of compensation laws, was more than offset by the establishment of an industrial accident board to administer the provisions of the bill, to say nothing of the increased indemnities, the classified list of injuries plus the payment of compensation during the healing period, and the four weeks medical benefits.

No one interested in this piece of legislation claimed it was the last word in law of this kind, but they were convinced it would lay a good foundation for a compensation law for the State of New Hampshire, and was a long step in advance of our present law.

Under our present law the necessity of going to court on account of an industrial accident and summoning fellow employees is bound to create some bad feeling as well as costly litigation. This would have been avoided in a large degree by the creating of the board proposed in this bill and would tend to promote more harmonious relations between employers and employees.

In many of the cases taken before the courts employees are obliged to testify against their employers. The injured workman who has brought suit against his employer is often forced to sever his connection with the plant with which he has been identified for a number of years. Under a clearly defined compensation law employers and employees work to the end to insure permanent employment in the industry.

Regardless of the failure of the legislature to enact this bill into law two things were accomplished. First, the public was able to get some idea of the trend for this class of legislation, for it was clearly shown in the arguments before the judiciary committee, by those in favor, that the proposed law was greatly desired by employers and workers of the State. Second, it was the first time in the history of New Hampshire that employers and labor have gone before a legislative committee in agreement for the enactment of a labor law.

Pennsylvania

THE Department of Labor and Industry of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, in its publication Labor and Industry for the month of March, 1929, presents compensation statistics for the year 1928. The number of compensable accident cases during the year 1928, by industry, as shown in the report, is as follows:

NUMBER OF COMPENSABLE ACCIDENT CASES IN 1928, BY INDUSTRY

THE Industrial Commission of Utah published five bulletins for the biennial period from July 1, 1926, to June 30, 1928. Bulletin No. 1 contains a synopsis of decisions rendered by the commission and a digest of Utah Supreme Court rulings. Bulletin No. 2 contains financial statements of the State Insurance fund, Industrial Commission of Utah, firemen's pension fund, and the employees' combined injury benefit fund. Bulletin No. 3 contains the industrial commission's accident statistical report. Bulletin No. 4 contains coal and metal mines reports, including reports of factory and labor inspections. Bulletin No. 5 contains Utah agricultural statistics, compiled by the United States Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Agricultural Economics.

Bulletin No. 3, containing the industrial accident statistical report, shows that for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1928, fatalities numbered 83, as compared with 94 during the previous year, permanent total disabilities numbered 9 as compared with 4 during the previous year, permanent partial disabilities numbered 305 as compared with 352 during the previous year, and temporary injuries numbered 13,654 as compared with 14,650 during the previous year. Of the 83 fatalities occurring during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1928, 32 occurred in metal mines, 17 in coal mines, 6 in smelters and concentration plants, and 28 in other industries. The 83 deceased employees left an aggregate of 46 widows and 125 minor children.

Nova Scotia

THE Workmen's Compensation Board of Nova Scotia, in its report for the year 1928, presents several interesting tables showing the result of its experience for that year. The report also contains an analysis of the injuries reported in 1927. The following table, taken from the report, shows the number of accidents in 1928, by industry and extent of disability:

NUMBER OF ACCIDENTS COMPENSATED IN 1928, BY INDUSTRY GROUP

LABOR LAWS AND COURT DECISIONS

Legal Regulation of Hours of Work of Salaried Employees

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SURVEY of the existing laws and regulations on hours of work of salaried employees in all countries possessing such legislation has been made by the International Labor Office, to serve as a basis for the discussion of this subject at the 1929 session (the twelfth) of the International Labor Conference.' Colonies and protectorates, except in the case of the British Empire, were not included. The survey covered all classes of salaried workers-men, women, young persons, and children-classed as nonmanual workers or who were working in commercial undertakings, except salaried employees in industry coming under the Washington convention on the 8-hour day and the 48-hour week. No account was taken of agricultural, maritime, home, or domestic workers.

It was found that the great majority of the 55 member States of the International Labor Organization have legislation providing for a more or less general limitation of working hours, either for all salaried employees, or at least for shop assistants, although in some countries the legislation does not apply throughout the whole territory, and in others it applies only to women and children or to young persons.

In 22 of the countries covered the hours of work of both manual workers and salaried employees in industrial and commercial undertakings, and in some cases of all persons engaged in paid work, are regulated by a single enactment. These countries are: In EuropeAustria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, France, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Yugoslavia, Spain, Switzerland (Cantons of Basle Town and Glarus), and the Soviet Republic; in South America-Argentina (States of Cordoba, Mendoza, Salta, San Juan, San Luis, Santa Fé, Tucuman), Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Panama, Uruguay, and Venezuela.

In other countries the laws cover all workers in certain specified classes of industrial and commercial establishments; namely, in factories, shops, and offices, Alberta, Canada; in offices and shops, New Zealand; in factories and shops, Western Australia, Victoria, and Queensland, Australia; and in shops, Greece, Gibraltar, Kenya, Grenada (certain classes), Jamaica (certain classes), South West Africa, and Union of South Africa (Cape of Good Hope, Natal, Orange Free State, and Transvaal).

The laws of certain other countries cover women and children, or young persons under a certain age, either in all establishments or in certain classes of establishments. The legislation of Argentina (Federal act) and Peru applies to women and children in general; of Ontario, Canada, to those in factories and shops; and of Tasmania, Australia, and Manitoba, Canada, to those in shops. It applies to young persons in various classes of establishments in Denmark, and

International Labor Office. Hours of work of salaried employees. Report and draft questionnaire. (Item IV on the agenda of the International Labor Conference, 12th session, Geneva, 1929.) Geneva, 1929.

to young persons in shops in Great Britain; Irish Free State; British Columbia and Nova Scotia, Canada; and South Australia and New South Wales, Australia.

In seven countries the legislation regulating the hours of labor applies generally to salaried employees as such. These countries are: Finland, Germany, Luxemburg, Bolivia, Chile, Peru (women and children), and Salvador.

The report contains the following general summary of the findings of the investigation as to stipulated working hours:

In the first place, it appears that, with few exceptions, most countries take working hours as meaning the time during which the employee is at the disposal of his employer, excluding statutory rest periods. As regards normal hours of work, the great majority of systems of legislation applying to commercial undertakings fix these at 8 hours per day or 48 hours per week. In point of fact, these or even shorter hours are the maxima prescribed by 24 out of 31 systems of legislation, e. g., in Finland, where the maximum week for commercial employees is 47 hours; in Poland, where it is 46 hours; and in Latvia and the Soviet Republic, where the maximum working day for intellectual workers is 6 hours. The legis lation applying to shops only generally provides for longer hours. Some of them, however, have also adopted the 48-hour maximum. Out of 24 acts relating to shops, only 6 provide that working hours are not to exceed 48; 8 others that they are not to exceed 52 hours; and 2 go up to 54 and 8 to 60 hours or more.

It is in offices that the daily and weekly maxima of 8 and 48 hours, respectively, are most widely found.

In certain countries, such as Austria, Basle Town, France, Greece, the Netherlands, Queensland, and Victoria, normal maxima higher than those fixed for undertakings in general are authorized for certain branches.

But in a considerable number of countries the general normal maxima have also been fixed for such classes of undertakings as hospitals, clinics, hotels, restaurants, etc., which must work continuously in order to meet the needs of the community. Indeed, there are none of the classes of undertakings dealt with in this chapter for which some country has not fixed a 48-hour week. This remark, while not perhaps conclusive, nevertheless raises a presumption that there are no insurmountable difficulties in the way of adopting this maximum for the general normal standard.

The distribution of working hours over periods exceeding one day or one week is provided for in a certain number of countries, but chiefly for certain classes of undertakings where more flexibility is required by reason of the nature of the work. These distributions, which are, after all, only administrative methods used generally to a very restricted extent, do not affect the principle of a maximum of working hours.

Making up for lost time and compensation for extra time do not appear to be expedients very widely used. Their aim is merely to regularize, in the one direction or the other, the normal working hours laid down by the law, and the result therefore is that, as far as possible, and, having regard to the various cases which arise in practice, they tend to insure the observance of the maxima prescribed for working hours.

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Suit for Damages Based on Blacklisting Upheld

SUIT for damages based on the blacklisting of an employee because of membership in a labor union was upheld by the Supreme Court of North Carolina on January 9, 1929.1 David Goins was employed by the North Carolina Granite Corporation as a stonecutter at its quarry in Surry County, N. C., prior to January 1, 1922. On that date he was discharged from the employment. He sought employment as a stonecutter by other persons, firms, and corporations

1 Goins r. Sargent et al., 146 S. E. 131.