The effect of the industrial progress of Germany upon the labor market is shown in the comparative increase of the number of breadwinners engaged in trade and manufactures and of the population at large, as shown in Table 46 next following: TABLE 46. PER CENT INCREASE OF THE POPULATION OF GERMANY AND OF THE NUMBER OF BREADWINNERS IN TRADE AND MANUFACTURES, The increased demand for labor in the industrial establishments of Germany resulted in a substantial increase of the rate of wages. "The rate of wages has risen during the recent past. . . more than the price of the necessities of life, showing that the German workingman has shared in the prosperity of the country." 2 It is admitted by the German trade-unions that the condition of labor has materially improved. I Zahn, loc. tit., p. 164. Earl Dean Howard: The Cause and Extent of the Recent Industrial Progress of Germany, p. 118. Zahn, loc. cit., p. 227. If an opinion coming from official sources is preferred, the following quotation from a recent speech by Mr. von Berlepsch, former Prussian Minister of Commerce, will be of interest: "Slowly and by little steps rises the well-being of the general body of the people; and no small number of those classes of the population which thirty years ago obtained a bare subsistence have now made their way into a middle class and enjoy a fairly adequate income."—Howard, loc. cit.. p. 181. The average annual earnings upon which membership dues to the trade-union insurance fund were figured increased from 638 marks in 1890 to 953 marks in 1909, i. e., 50 per cent. The upward tendency of wages is not confined to the skilled trades, but has affected all classes of labor. Unbiased evidence of this fact is furnished by the statistics compiled by local authorities under the provisions of the sick-insurance law, and showing the prevailing rates of wages of day laborers in the large cities. The rate of increase of the average annual earnings of coal miners appears from the following table: 3 At the same time there has been a marked reduction in the number of hours of work per day. Furthermore "there is also less changing of employment and less non-employment in Germany," than in the United States, since, "in most cases the law requires at least a two weeks' notice before the employee can be discharged."4 All these improvements are in no small degree due to the progress of organization among German wage-earners, which became possible only after the repeal of the antiSocialist law on October 1, 1890. 'Howard, loc. cit., pp. 114-115. wages are given on pp. 112-113. Howard, Loc. cit., p. 117. Under the operation of Statistical tables on the subject of that law, only local trade-unions, without national affiliations, had been tolerated, and those, only so long as they confined themselves to mutual benefit and educational objects; by executive order of April 11, 1886, strikes of any character were declared to be "revolutionary manifestations. The first national labor convention was held in 1892. It was not until January 1, 1900, however, that all laws restricting the right of federating independent local unions were unequivocally repealed. Since that time the membership of labor organizations has progressed by leaps and bounds, leaving behind the older British and American trade-unions, as appears from the following table: TABLE 48. I MEMBERSHIP OF TRADE-UNIONS IN GERMANY, 1890-1900.* The ratio of organized workers to the total number of wage-earners enumerated in 1907 was estimated at 28 per cent. 3 1 Handwörterbuch der Staatswissenschaften, vol. iv., pp. 1147-1149. Stalistische Beilage des Correspondenz-Blatt der General-Commission der Gewerkschaften Deutschlands, 1911, No. 6, pp. 161-163; New York Labor Bulletin, No. 48 (September, 1911), p. 418. The membership for the United States and Canada seems overestimated. 3 Handwörterbuch der Staatswissenschaften, vol. iv., p. 1175. A noteworthy development of the German labor movement is the progress of organization among female wageearners, who are, as a rule, unorganized in this country. The efforts of German unions among the women were stimulated, above all altruistic considerations, by recognition of the depressing effect of the competition of unorganized female labor upon the wages of men. The extent to which the women have responded to the efforts of the unions can be measured by the following figures: TABLE 49. ! PROGRESS OF ORGANIZATION AMONG FEMALE WAGE-EARNERS, IN GERMANY, 1895-1910.1 The assistance rendered by German unions to their members can be measured by the expenditures of the Socialdemocratic Gewerkschaften, i. e., the national unions affiliated with the largest and most influential of the German federations of labor. The figures are given in Table 50. The progress of the labor movement in Germany has directly and indirectly stimulated labor legislation, which has resulted in a material improvement of the condition of labor: As a rule [says Dr. Howard], the factories are kept in a much better condition, and have more arrangements for the comfort of the men, 1 Statistische Beilage des Correspondenz-Blatt der General-Commission der Gewerkschaften Deutschlands, 1911, No. 6, pp. 163, 168. than in the United States. This is the general opinion of writers who compare the conditions prevailing in the two countries, and it seems to be confirmed by direct observation. The factories usually have good light and air, are clean and orderly. The sanitary arrangements and the facilities for washing and changing clothes are splendid. Most of the factories are provided with lockers for the men, so that they need not leave the place in their working clothes.' TABLE 50. COMPARATIVE SUMMARY OF THE PRINCIPAL EXPENSES OF THE NATIONAL Germany was the first nation to introduce a system of workingmen's insurance under the control of the government. "The introduction of insurance laws protecting the workingman against sickness and accidents, and promising him a pension in his old age, has had a tendency to decrease the chances of misfortune in life. "3 In 1909 there were insured under the provisions of that law over 13,000,000 persons against sickness, over 15,000,000 against old age and invalidity, and nearly 24,000,000 persons against accident, in a total population of 64,000,000 of whom there were less than 19,000,000 wage-earners. The expansion of industry and the resulting improvement of the condition of industrial wage-earners have drawn to the cities and mining sections the whole natural increase of the rural population.5 Howard, loc. cit., pp. 127-128. 2 Ibid., p. 189. • Ibid., pp. 124, 131. Zahn, loc. cit., Annalen des Deutschen Reichs, 1911, p. 232. At the foundation of the German Empire in 1871, its rural popula |