Page:The Economic Journal Volume 1.djvu/420

 398 THE ECONOMIC JOURNAL that the strike should be utilized in order to secure an eight hours working da.y, secured the support of the delegates of some of the largest English umons. M. Dernet, the most prominent of the Belgian representatives, proposed that the Congress should affirm the necessity of a universal strike for an eight hours day, without however fixing any date for such strike; that the governments of Europe should be called upon to establish such a deY by convention; and that .the International Committee should instructed to take steps to anaugurate such a strike, unless the governments within a reasonable time endeavo_red to arrange such a convention. Mr. John Wilson, M.P., moved an amendment to the effect that the Congress, whilst recognizing the desirability of shorter hours of labour, was of opinion that the best way .to secure such reform was not by strikes or by legislation, but by organization and mutual arrangement between employers and workmen. This amendment received only seven votes, and M. Defnet's resolution was carried, the delegates from Northumberland and Durham voting z4ainst it. A committee was afterwards appointed to prep.are a draft constitu- tion, such draft to be submitted to the miners m each country for confirmation, modification, or rejection. In criticizing the work of the Congress, it must be remembered that it was a second successful.attemp.t to bring together the Continental and British miners. The mpresson left on the minds of the English delegates was that there is a great field on the Continent for the organization of labour. ' A great impulse,' writes one of the English delegates, ' has been given to trade unionism on the Continent. The Belgian., still more the German, delegates were warm in their expresso.ns of grat!tude for the help rendered to them in their efforts to orgamze the miners by the encouragement given through these Congresses. They were almost pathetic in their appeals for the maintenance of a connection as close and a co-operation as hearty as possible between themselves and the miners of Great Britain.' On the luestion of voting great tension existed, but the fact that good feeling always prevailed, and that the delegates separated eager to meet again, augurs well for the success of future gatherings. A Report of the business transacted at the Congress has been edited by Mr. Benjamin Pickard, the general secretary. ' J.E.C. MUNRO. REPORTS F THE MASSACHUSETTS BUREAU OF STATISTICS OF LABOUR ON WORKING WOMEN, 1870-19 THE Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labour has from the first year of its establishment paid special attention to the conditions of working-women. The first annual report issued in 1870, although containing little statistical information, gives evidence of individual operatives which throws considerable light on the working of the factory system at the tithe. The reports of 1871, 1872, and 1884, each contain the results of inquiries as to women's labour in Boston, the inquiry of 1872 being extended in scope so as to include the whole of Massa- chusetts. The sixth annual report deals with' the special effects of .certain forms of employment upon female health,' and in an examina- .tion of the condition of working-men's families, gives, amongst other