LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL.

To the Governor :

STATE OF IOWA,

BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.

DES MOINES, Oct. 1, 1901.

SIR. I have the honor to transmit herewith for your consideration the Ninth Biennial Report of the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the years 1899 and 1900.

The work of the bureau has been rather varied in character. Inspection of factories in the state has absorbed a great deal of the time and energy of the chief and his deputy. I personally investigated 276 factories and my deputy, Mr. Holder, 52. With the results of our investigations I will deal at length in a later connection. Another important undertaking was the investigation of the strikes that have occurred in Iowa in the past six years, beginning in July, 1894, up to and including 1900. In addition to the just mentioned undertakings, the bureau has compiled statistics relative to the wage-earners of Iowa, showing nativity, wages, nature of occupation, etc.; and also statistics of the organizations of labor unions. Besides this we have made an investigation of the movements for an eight-hour labor day as it affects labor generally, also the progress of manual training in Iowa schools, the development of co-operative undertakings in Iowa, and profit-sharing in adjacent states.

My original plans for this report included the results of another statistical inquiry relative to the effect on our manufacturing, commercial, and labor interests in Iowa of the employment of the convicts in our state penitentiaries. It is a subject that has been under much popular discussion and legislative consideration during the past three or four years; but lack of time and means with which to prosecute the inquiries prevented the bureau going into the matter as it most certainly should be gone into. The employment of convict labor has been the cause of much 165364