laborer earning $40 the first month, under the law, may be required to pay to the agency $4 fee. The agency fees are $2 each as a rule, and in the case of some padrones no fee is charged, provided the employer gives the padrone the commissary privilege of selling food supplies and articles of clothing to the workmen at the labor camps. or other places. If the workman refuses to accept the position to which he is sent, or does not obtain employment, the agency is required to refund the fee in full upon demand. When the licensed employment agency or padrone sends one or more persons to work as laborers outside of the city where the agency is located, the law requires such agency within five days thereafter to file with the commissioner of licenses a statement containing the name and address of the employer of such laborers, the name and address of the employee, the nature of the work to be performed, hours of labor, wages offered, destination of the persons employed, and terms of transportation.

A duplicate copy of this statement must be given to the laborer in a language which he is able to understand. After the passage of the law some of the employment agencies filed with the commissioner of licenses of the city of New York the statement required, but many of them did not. It was not until after the passage of the amended act in April, 1906, that the law on this point was enforced, and that the licensed agencies reported the number of persons shipped out of the city, with other details.

In August, 1906, 61 licensed agencies shipping laborers out of the city were reporting in detail to the license commissioner. As the license fee is $25 per annum and the bond required is in the sum of $1,000, there are persons who evade the law and who secretly engage in the business of sending out laborers without taking out the license. Quite often, too, such persons are swindlers, who take the fee and have no employment to furnish the laborers. It can be stated, however, that such agencies are of little importance and can send out comparatively few men without the knowledge of the bureau of licenses.

A complete year of the enforcement of the law will probably show shipments out of New York City by the licensed agencies of from 50,000 to 60,000 men.

Through the courtesy of the commissioner of licenses, the writer was given access to the individual statements of each shipment of each labor agency reporting up to the month of August, 1906.

The distribution of immigrants by the licensed New York labor agencies and by societies for the protection of immigrants of the various nationalities is, in a sense, a redistribution. At Ellis Island immigrants having tickets for and destined to the various States are so reported.

Immigrants having tickets for New York City and giving that as their destination are sent from Ellis Island and landed at Battery

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Park, New York City. Immigrants destined to interior western points are not landed at New York City, but are sent from Ellis Island to the Jersey City railway depots and take trains from there. In the Immigration Bureau records, all immigrants with tickets to New York City only, and landed there, are tabulated and credited to New York.

The records of the labor employment and other agencies show that thousands of immigrants secure employment on the days of landing from the ship, and are immediately forwarded to various States. The law requires the address in New York City of the laborer sent out, but if the immigrant does not go to a lodging house, which happens in many instances, the only address that can be given is the steamship he left on the morning of his arrival. Many of the immigrants, however, go to lodging houses and after a few days or a week are shipped out of the city.

The reports of the employment agencies include still other immigrants who have been for months in the United States and return to the agencies for new employment when the work they have been on is completed. A small portion of the number shipped, who secure employment through those agencies, are laborers born in the United States.

The agencies before making any shipments receive orders from employers. They send blank forms to railway companies, contractors, coal-mining companies, factories, etc. On this form the employer "as party of the first part authorizes" the agency specified to hire for his use a specified number of laborers. The form states the nationality preferred, the nature of work to be performed, the destination, wages to be paid, hours of labor, cost of board and lodging, the fee to the agency for each man, the terms of transportation, the amount that will be allowed for supplying provisions by the agency during travel, and whether the fares, fees, and other expenses are to be deducted from wages. The employer also is required to state if there is a strike where the labor is wanted.

The employer agrees to pay to the agency for its services a specified amount of money for each man, payable in New York City. The agency, as party of the second part, agrees to hire the laborers requested under the conditions and terms named, informing them if there is a strike. Usually a representative of either the employer or the agency accompanies the laborers to the place of destination.

The number of laborers taken from the individual records of the licensed employment agencies as having been shipped out of New York City was 40,737. From those records tables have been made. The summaries show that of the total 40,737 persons shipped, 17,105, or 41.99 per cent, were Italians and 5,164, or 12.68 per cent, were Slavs and Hungarians. Thus the three races constituted a total of

22,269, or 54.67 per cent of the total persons shipped, the remaining 18,468, or 45.33 per cent, being of eight or ten miscellaneous nationalities, including some Italians, Slavs, and Hungarians, not separable.

They were sent to 14 Northern States (including West Virginia) and 12 Southern States; 14,124 Italians being sent to the Northern States, and 2,981 Italians to Southern States; 2,476 Slavs and Hungarians sent to the Northern States, and 2,688 to the Southern States; 5,593 of other nationalities sent to the Northern States, and 12,875 to the Southern States.

The following table shows the distribution by States:

DISTRIBUTION OF LABOR REPORTED BY NEW YORK EMPLOYMENT AGENCIES MAY 1, 1904, TO JULY 31, 1906. (a)

a After the law went into effect (May 1, 1904) but few agencies filed the required statements of laborers sent out. It was not until after the passage of the amended law in April, 1996, that this requirement was fully enforced. For the three months from May 1 to July 31, 1906, 9,378 men were reported as sent out by the agencies.

The distribution of the entire 40,737 was to 643 cities, towns, and villages. In the group of Northern States 1,418 persons went to 20 cities of 50,000 population or over, while 20,775 persons went to 468

towns and villages of less than 50,000 population. In the group of Southern States 1,799 persons went to 8 cities of 50,000 population or over, while 16,745 persons went to 147 towns and villages of less than 50,000 population.

The following table shows the distribution by States and to cities of 50,000 population or over, and to towns and villages of less than 50,000 population:

DISTRIBUTION OF LABOR BY NEW YORK EMPLOYMENT AGENCIES TO CITIES OF 50,000 POPULATION OR OVER AND TO TOWNS AND VILLAGES OF LESS THAN 50,000 POPULATION, IN NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN GROUPS OF STATES.

The more detailed distribution of Italians, of Slavs and Hungarians, and of other nationalities was as follows:

DISTRIBUTION OF ITALIANS, OF SLAVS AND HUNGARIANS, AND OF LABORERS OF OTHER NATIONALITIES, BY NEW YORK EMPLOYMENT AGENCIES, TO TOWNS AND CITIES OF NORTHERN AND OF SOUTHERN GROUPS OF STATES.

• Including many Italians and Slavs, combined with other races, native and foreign born, not separable.

OCCUPATIONS.

Of the total 40,737 persons of all nationalities sent to the various sections by the New York City labor employment agencies not more than 10 per cent could be classed as skilled. Classifying skilled and unskilled, it was found that in the Northern States the Italians engaged in 51 different occupations and in the Southern States in 24 different occupations. The Slavs and Hungarians in the Northern States engaged in 18 different occupations and in the Southern States in 14 different occupations. The "miscellaneous nationalities" in the Northern States engaged in 35 different occupations and in the Southern States in 26 different occupations.

The following table shows occupations in detail and number in each: