Of the 970 families studied in the foregoing table, it will be seen that a certain proportion is shown as having entire income from each of the various sources specified, except from wife, wife and children, wife and boarders or lodgers, children and boarders or lodgers, and boarders or lodgers.

Comparing the native-born and the foreign-born it will be seen that the former show a larger proportion having entire income from husband and from children, while the latter show larger proportions in each other specified source in which proportions are reported.

Of the foreign-born races the largest proportion for each is shown as having entire income from husband, while only three report entire income from husband and wife, with the highest proportion being shown by the English. Each race reports a certain proportion as having entire income from husband and children, the largest being shown by the English, and the smallest by the Slovaks. Only three races report proportions as having entire income from the combination of husband, wife, and children, with less than 2 per cent being shown by each. With the exception of the English, Irish, and Swedes, each race shows a certain proportion as having entire income from husband and boarders or lodgers, the largest being shown by the Croatians. The Bohemians and Moravians, Irish, and Poles are the only races showing a proportion as having entire income from children, less than 2 per cent being shown by each. Of those having entire income from "sources or combination of sources not before specified," each race shows a certain proportion, ranging from 19.4 per cent, as shown by the Bohemians and Moravians, to 6.1 per cent, as shown by the Lithuanians.

The following table shows, by locality and by general nativity and race of head of family, the per cent of families having entire income from husband:

TABLE 55.-Per cent of families having entire income from husband, by locality and by general nativity and race of head of family.

(STUDY OF HOUSEHOLDS.)

[This table includes only races with 20 or more selected families reporting in each of two or more localities. The totals, however, are for all races. For selection of families, see p. 413.]

From the foregoing table it may be seen that 51.4 per cent of the total number of families reporting have their entire income from husband.

The native-born show a larger proportion in each locality than do the foreign-born.

Of the foreign-born, it may be seen that each race, with the exception of the Polish, which shows the largest proportion in Chicago, shows a larger proportion having entire income from husband in South Omaha than in any other locality, while the smallest proportion is shown in Kansas City by the Poles. The Bohemians and Moravians and the Germans each show proportions slightly below 50 per cent in each locality, except South Omaha, where the Bohemians and Moravians show 56.4 per cent.

RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF THE DIFFERENT SOURCES OF FAMILY INCOME.

The relative importance of the principal sources of family income is disclosed by the following table, which shows by general nativity and race of head of family, the per cent of total yearly income derived from husband, wife, children, boarders or lodgers, and other sources.

TABLE 56.-Per cent of total family income within the year from husband, wife, children, boarders or lodgers, and other sources, by general nativity and race of head of family.

(STUDY OF HOUSEHOLDS.)

[This table includes only races with 20 or more families reporting. The totals, however, are for all races. Families excluded which report income as none.]

Of the total income of all the families for which information was secured, 73.1 per cent is derived from the earnings of husband, 19.2 per cent from the contributions of children, and only a very small proportion from the payments of boarders or lodgers, earnings of wife, or sources not specified. The native-born families derive a larger

proportion of the total family income from the earnings of husband and a smaller proportion from the contributions of children and the payments of boarders or lodgers than do the foreign-born families.

Among the foreign-born, the North Italian, Lithuanian, Slovak, and English families, in the order mentioned, have the largest proportion, and the Irish, German, and Swedish families the smallest porportion of the total yearly income from the earnings of husband, while the Irish, Swedish, German, and Bohemian and Moravian families, in the order mentioned, have the largest proportion, and the North Italian and Slovak families the smallest proportion of the total yearly income from the contributions of children. The proportion of the total yearly income derived from the payments of boarders or lodgers is of importance only in the case of the Croatian and Polish families.

The following table shows, by locality and by general nativity and race of head of family, the per cent of total annual family income derived from husband:

TABLE 57.-Per cent of total family income within the year from husband, by locality and by general nativity and race of head of family.

(STUDY OF HOUSEHOLDS.)

[This table includes only races with 20 or more selected families reporting in each of two or more localities. The totals, however, are for all races. For selection of families, see p. 413.]

The above table shows that in each locality studied about the same per cent of the total yearly income is from the husband, the nativeborn in each locality reporting a larger proportion of total income from husband than the foreign-born.

While the native whites of native father show a slightly larger per cent of income from husband in South Omaha than in Kansas City, the same is true as regards the Germans and Poles in these localities, the per cent of income reported by the Poles being considerably lower in the former than in the latter locality.

Comparing the per cent of income from the husbands of the several races in Kansas City and South Omaha with the percentages reported by the same races in Chicago, it will be noted that in Chicago the per cent of income from husband for each race is larger than in the other localities.

CHAPTER IV

WORKING CONDITIONS."

Hours worked per day and per week-Regularity of employment-Liability to accident or disease-Labor organizations-Labor disputes- The immigrant and organized labor-[Text Tables 58 to 63 and General Table 26].

HOURS WORKED PER DAY AND PER WEEK.

For most of the employees of the packing industry the working period consists, at the present time, of sixty hours per week or ten hours each day. There was formerly much uncertainty as to the hours of work required of some of the workmen, and particularly of those constituting the "killing gangs." Cattle were generally brought into the yards at night and in the morning the packers made their purchases for the day. It was often 9, 10, or 11 o'clock in the forenoon before the cattle could be driven through the chutes and to the killing floors. The men were required to report at 7, and if, as was frequently the case, there was no work to be done at the time, a sign would be displayed stating at what hour the slaughtering of the animals would begin. The men received no compensation for time. spent in waiting. As the packers were charged 50 cents a head for steers left in the yard over night, it was the rule that all cattle should be slaughtered on the day on which they were purchased, and the men, in consequence, often had to work late at night. These difficulties seem to have been done away with without a strike upon an appeal by the members of the butchers' union to the packers. The men now report at the yards regularly at 7 in the morning and work not later than 5.30 in the afternoon. If at the close of the ten hours' work there are still some cattle that have not been slaughtered, these are held over until the following day. The hours of labor are the same at all the principal packing centers of the country.

REGULARITY OF EMPLOYMENT,

One of the distinctive features of the packing industry consists in the variability of the demand for labor, the number of men employed varying according to the seasons. This situation is, of course, due to the requirements of the cattle and meat markets. In general, but few cattle are received at the yards at the beginning or at the end of the week, and consequently Monday and Saturday are often half days at the packing plants, while on the other days of the week the men may be required to work full time. As the demand for certain kinds of meat, particularly pork products, is much less active in the summer than in the winter, the packers materially reduce their output

• Attention in this connection is called to a detailed article entitled "Labor conditions in meat packing," by John R. Commons, in Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol. 19, pp. 1-32; to a Report on Conditions in Chicago Stock Yards, by James Bronson Reynolds and Charles P. Neill, submitted to the President June 2, 1906, and also to the annual reports of the Illinois Bureau of Labor Statistics.

during the former season. There are also considerable minor variations in the amount of work done from week to week in all seasons. These weekly and seasonal variations, of course, determine the amount of labor required at any given time. When business is slack the employers find it necessary to adjust their force to prevailing conditions, either by letting a portion of the employees go and working the others full time or by retaining all the men and working them part of the time. The second alternative is the one usually favored by the workmen and by the labor organizations, as it leaves none of the men entirely without employment. The packers, upon the other hand, formerly preferred to employ a smaller number of men full time, feeling perhaps that these men would then become attached to the interests of their employers. It was pointed out also on the occasion of labor controversies, by the packers, that it was the short hours of work that gave force to the constant demand for higher rates of compensation, but the general preference of the workers seems generally to have prevailed.

The weekly changes in the number of hours of work available for some of the men is very great. This is true particularly in the case of the cattle butchers, who have employment only when killing is actually going on. The maximum week for these men, as well as for the other employees of the industry, consists of sixty hours' work, but there are very few weeks in the year when this maximum is reached or even closely approximated. It is probable that, considering the industry as a whole, the number of hours per week for which the members of a killing gang are busy does not amount on the average to more than two-thirds of the possible sixty, and that during many weeks the men are employed less than half time."

The above statements relate only to the cattle butchers. While these men probably have shorter and less regular hours of work than certain of the other employees of the industry, it is still true that the majority of the workers are employed less regularly than the employees of most industries. As nearly all of the packing-house workers are paid either by the hour or by the piece, the effect of irregularity of employment upon the amount earned is, of course, direct and not advantageous.

The following table shows months worked during the past year by males 16 years of age or over in the households studied who were employed away from home in the slaughtering and meat-packing industry. The presentation is by general nativity and race of individual.

a This subject has been worked out in considerable detail by C. W. Thompson in an article entitled "Labor in the packing industry," which appeared in the Journal of Political Economy, vol. 15, pp. 88-107.