This Issue in Brief

About 120,000 persons are engaged in the fishing industry, it is estimated. Because of the seasonal character of the industry, a large proportion of these are only part-time workers. This fact influences greatly the average annual earnings. A study made by the National Recovery Administration showed that average annual earnings per man in 1933 ranged from $184 to $1,389. Page 551.

More than three-fifths of the money loaned by the Rural Electrification Administration has been granted to cooperative societies. Of 104 projects. approved up to the middle of July, for which the sum of $14,699,412 was set aside, 66 have been those of cooperative organizations. These cooperative projects were designed to serve 33,187 customers, using 8,282 miles of line. Page 593.

There is considerable uniformity in labor conditions throughout the union shops in the hosiery industry, due to the influence of the agreement with one large employers' association and to the functioning of the impartial chairman. The provisions of the union agreements and the administration of these agreements by the impartial chairman, in the various branches of the hosiery industry, are described on page 558.

Labor at the site received 43 percent of the loan obtained from the Public Works Administration and used by the Pennsylvania Railroad in the electrification of its lines between New York City and Washington. Slightly over 38 percent was spent for materials, 3.3 percent was used to retire bonds and pay interest, and 15.6 percent was used for insurance, engineering, and other miscellaneous items. The work furnished 22,673,000 man-hours' employment. Page 586.

By the middle of August 1936, the old-age assistance plans of 36 States, 1 Territory, and the District of Columbia had been approved by the Federal Social Security Board and all but 3 of these had received Federal grants. Of the States not yet operating under the national act, 4 were making payments under State-wide acts and 2 under county systems, 3 had passed legislation which was not yet in effect, and 7 had no old-age pension laws. One State which had no law had submitted a plan which had met the approval of the Federal Board and was operating under that plan. Page 584.

The International Federation of Trade Unions, formed in 1901, now has in membership the recognized national federations of 29 countries, including some 13,500,000 trade-unionists. The purposes of the organization are (1) to serve as an agency through which to formulate a common statement of policies, (2) to serve as labor spokesman on an international scale, and (3) to collect and disseminate information as to the trade-union movement and labor conditions in the various countries. A description of this organization and of its 1936 congress is given on page 573.

A striking correlation between sickness and economic status and sickness and unemployment was found in a recent study by the U. S. Public Health Service (p. 600). It showed a consistently higher rate of sickness among low-income families than among those on the higherincome levels. The families of the unemployed had about 50 percent more cases of disabling illness than was found in families having a full-time worker. These results also corresponded with the situation found in regard to food supply; at income levels of less than $3 or $4 per person per week there was a marked tendency toward poorly balanced diets having less than the "safe" requirements of protective foods.

Legislative action in regard to minimum wages has been taken in 13 Latin American republics. In several countries this antedates 1920 and in one country action was taken as far back as 1916. The situation in each of these 13 countries is described briefly on page 606.

FISHING is one of the pioneer American industries, and it is still a

livelihood for a substantial segment of the population. In 1930, according to the Bureau of the Census, 73,280 workers were employed in the industry. The census figures, however, tend to understate the importance of the fishing industry, as they do not include the Alaskan fishermen; the members of fishing crews who reported their occupations as engineers, cooks, radio operators, seamen, sailors, and deckhands; and many of the persons with whom fishing is an auxiliary occupation. With these workers included, the Bureau of Fisheries estimates that in recent years the total working force of the industry has been in the neighborhood of 120,000.

Despite the importance of the industry in the economic framework of the country, comparatively little has been known about the earnings of fishermen. This deficiency is supplied in part by an analysis of the earnings of fishermen recently completed by the National Recovery Administration. The study was originally undertaken in connection with the minimum-wage provisions of the N. R. A. fishery code. The main body of the data was obtained by means of a questionnaire which, in August 1934, was sent to recorded owners of fishing vessels of 5 net tons and over. Replies to this questionnaire were received for 894 vessels in active use for commercial fishing in 1933, but 392 of the schedules were defective and could not be used in the analysis. Subsequently, through the medium of supplementary studies, comparable information was obtained for 65 additional vessels. The final analysis is, therefore, based on the reports of 567 vessels. It is believed that this sample is reasonably representative of the industry as a whole.

1 National Recovery Administration. Division of Review. Industry Studies Section. Earnings of Fishermen and of Fishing Craft-Appendix to the Fishery Industry and the Fishery Codes, by John R. Arnold. Washington, 1936.

1

Extent of Part-Time Employment

BEFORE summarizing the principal results of the survey it is necessary to consider briefly the extent to which the seasonal character of the industry influences the earnings of the fishermen. This is an extremely important factor in some branches of the industry. As a result fishing is simply a supplemental means of livelihood for a substantial fraction of the total working force. Statistics compiled by the Bureau of Fisheries show that approximately a third of the workers engaged in the boat and shore fisheries of the Atlantic and Gulf coasts and the Great Lakes are "casual" fishermen; i. e., those with whom fishing is a secondary occupation.

The part-time fishermen of the Eastern United States tend to be found in larger proportions on the Great Lakes, in the Chesapeake Bay area, and on the South Atlantic and Gulf coasts. They are chiefly small farmers or farm laborers. The combination of fishing and farming in these areas is facilitated by the fact that some of the important fisheries of the South and the oyster fishery of the Chesapeake Bay are most active during the winter months.

The principal fisheries in the Northeastern States, when not affording more or less year-round employment, tend to be concentrated in the summer and early fall. Consequently, the New England fishermen are unable to transfer to farming during the slack season as readily as those in the Middle and South Atlantic coast regions. Likewise, there are comparatively few industrial establishments in the area that can offer employment to the fishermen during the off season. To some extent fishing is combined with the resort trades in both New England and on the Middle Atlantic coast, but here again there is an occupational conflict.

No reliable statistics are available on the number of fishermen on the Pacific coast who obtain a major share of their income from other sources. The evidence indicates, however, that the number is not large. The Pacific fisheries are for the most part carried on in deep water and for the large-scale supply of canneries and reduction plants. This type of enterprise is not easily undertaken by the casual worker. Along the Pacific coast, moreover, the agricultural populationthe class from which casual fishermen are usually recruited in other parts of the country-is not generally settled in close proximity to the seacoast; but even in this area there are exceptions. Fishing is not as a rule the sole occupation of either the salmon fishermen of the Columbia River or the Alaskan fishermen.

Although it is clear that a significant proportion of the total working force is employed only part time, no information was obtained by the National Recovery Administration as to the extent the earnings of fishermen were supplemented by income from other sources.

Methods of Remuneration

A DISTINGUISHING feature of the fishing industry is the wide variety in the methods of wage payment. Compensation both by straight wages on a time basis and by piece rates exists. In the marine fisheries, however, by far the most common plan is to pay each member of the crew by a share in the value of the catch. Under this plan the compensation received by individual fishermen is primarily dependent on the quantity of fish caught and the unit price received for them, and secondarily on the items deducted from the gross revenue before arriving at the crew's share.

The arrangement whereby the value of the catch of a fishing craft working on shares is distributed among the persons and interests concerned is known as a "lay." A share fisherman may receive a wage or a bonus on a time or percentage basis in addition to or in lieu of a share in a lay. This arrangement, however, ordinarily applies only to persons with exceptional responsibility, such as the captain, mate, or pilot, or to members of the crew engaged in specialized work, such as the engineer, fireman, radio operator, or cook.

Straight wages on a time basis are usually restricted to the following classes of vessel fisheries:

(1) The crews of most oyster dredges.

(2) The crews of the craft operating pound nets on the coast of New Jersey.

(3) The crews of the menhaden fishing vessels operating out of Reedville, Va. This was the home port of approximately a third of the vessels actively engaged in this branch of the fishing industry in 1933. Some of the menhaden vessels working out of the Middle Atlantic ports north of Virginia operate on a share basis, and a modified share system is used by those operating on the Atlantic coast south of Virginia.

(4) The crews of the paranzella net vessels working out of San Francisco.

(5) On the Great Lakes, and especially on the upper lakes (Huron, Michigan, and Superior), a straight time wage appears to be the prevailing system. Of the vessels on the Lakes for which reports were obtained, approximately two-thirds paid their crews straight wages in 1933.

(6) The crews of one important trawling fleet working out of Norfolk, Va., are paid on a time basis. The method is also used on some shrimp vessels on the Gulf and in Alaska and occasionally elsewhere. Piece rates are general among the fishermen employed by the salmon canneries of Alaska. The piece rates may be accompanied, however, by the payment of fixed sums, often referred to as "run money." The only other vessels whose crews are compensated on a straight piece