Excerpt from Fourth Annual Report on Changes in Rates of Wages and Hours of Labor, 1910: With Comparative Statistics for 1907-1909 The objects and methods of the inquiry were so fully described in the report for 1908 that they need be referred to here but briefly. The main purpose of the report is to record from year to year the principal changes which occur in market rates of wages and recognized hours of labor in the most important industries, and to compute the general effect of such changes on the weekly wages bill of the State. The statistical results obtained from inquiries like those presented here are useful chiefly for the purpose of comparing one year with another, and care has accord ingly been taken in this report to present the results in comparative form. While it must be admitted that absolutely complete statistics relating to this subject could scarcely be expected short of a census of all employers of labor in the Commonwealth, it is believed that this report records all of the more important changes in rates of wages and hours of labor which took place in Massachusetts during the year ending December 31, 1910, and that the statistics contained herein fairly reflect the condition of labor in the Commonwealth and illustrate the progressive movement in'the sev eral industries, in so far as this is to be gauged from an upward or down ward trend of wages and hours. Since these statistics are most useful in tracing the operation of the tendencies of the wages market over a period of years, it has. Been deemed desirable to devote considerable space to the comparison of the figures for the four years, 1907 - 1910. The period of four years (1907 - 1910) covered by this and the three preceding annual reports was typical of the various conditions to which industries may be subject, fie, the year 1907, up to November 1, was one of great industrial prosperity; 1908 was a year of considerable depression; 1909 was a year in which the industries were returning to a condition of prosperity; and 1910 may be said to have been a year of generally prosperous conditions, although not perhaps so pros perons as 1907. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.