This dispute hinged on the point that the working time of the operators was to be lengthened from 5 to 8 hours. The operators contended that it was a physical impossibility to stand such long hours. The Company at that time refused to deal with them in any way and a strike was threatened, which would so seriously have affected the public's interest that the Canadian Government stepped in to settle the dispute.

The second investigation was that of the Department of Commerce and Labor of the United States Government in 1910, after a resolution was introduced into the Senate asking that an investigation be made of the telephone companies engaged in the conduct of inter-state business as to their method of business, wages, hours, etc. Both these reports threw considerable light on telephony, and are significant in that these official bodies at that time argued that the wages of the workers were too low and the hours too long.

SCOPE OF STUDY

Following the suggestions in the Governor's letter, the points covered in the study submitted deal generally with hours, wages and labor turnover. Sanitation was not considered to any great extent in this investigation, because of lack of time and because the Board of Health of the City of New York had so recently made a survey of sanitary conditions in the Telephone Company.

In conference between officials of the Telephone Company and the Chief of the Bureau of Women in Industry, the week ending December 13, 1919, was decided upon as a typical period of time in which to study the pay-roll and the hours of the operating force. The hour and wage discussions which are considered in this report cover only this week. The labor turnover, however, is taken on a yearly basis for the year 1919, and in other parts of the report, wherever possible, records for the entire year are used.

Roughly speaking the study covers two-thirds of the girls employed in the exchanges of each geographical division, totaling 12,326 operators. The choice of exchanges was also reached in conference with officials of the New York Telephone Company, in order that we might have a correct picture.

In undertaking this study of the New York Telephone Company, the Bureau of Women in Industry had the fullest co-operation and support from the officials of the Company. An office was assigned to the Bureau in the New York Telephone Company's building and the officials of the Company gave unsparingly of their time and assistance.

The Bureau of Women in Industry began this study on January 2, 1920, and is submitting the final report to the Industrial Commission of New York State on April 6, 1920.

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SYSTEMS OF EMPLOYMENT AND TRAINING

The main difficulty in the Telephone Company in New York City at the present time is the fact that there is not a sufficient supply of trained operators to care adequately for the central office positions. The employment methods of the Company are then of paramount importance.

Prior to July, 1919, the employment for the New York Telephone Company was handled locally through the division Superintendents of Traffic in co-operation with the Advertising and Publicity Departments and the Training Schools, and ordinarily there was a waiting list of girls who wished to become telephone operators. This is still true in some parts of the State at the present time. In Albany, for instance, there were 50 girls on the waiting list in January of this year. In New York City, however, the situation had become so serious by July of last year that the employment work was separated from the Training School and made into a department, with an Employment Manager in charge.

In September, 1919, the main employment office for operators at 1158 Broadway was opened, after some $5,600 had been spent on remodeling and furnishing the necessary rooms. A staff of seven are employed at this office, where everything has been arranged to show the applicants who come in that telephone operating is an attractive occupation.

The policy of the Employment Department has been one made necessary by the desperate need of the Company - a policy of securing operators at any cost, by any legitimate means. No money has been spared. Few experiments in systems of advertising, bonus plans, etc., have been left untried. The Employment Department, created because of the serious situation due to a shortage in operators, has had that unhappy problem of attempting to meet ever increasing difficulties. With the public clamoring on one hand for better service, with operators constantly and increasingly leaving, on the other hand, the Employment Department has had to struggle somehow to meet the situation as best it might, and its course has not been an easy one. By February first

ment was maintaining six offices not including the efices of the Employment Manager, and the staff numLy. Efforts are made to reach every possible source of w through talks given at schools and women's clubs, personal made to school teachers and ministers, advertising, and ng through the Company's employees. A special recruitof over 60 persons to visit girls at their homes and follow 1 every possible applicant has been established. Every clue hmay result in securing a new operator is followed up.

When one takes into account the fact that the head of the Training School considers a girl an actual cost to the Company antil she has been with it at least a year, and that the traffic engineers do not feel that a girl can carry a complete "load" until she has been in the service two years, the securing and retaining of the right type of worker seems of paramount importance. With the general industrial situation such as it has been and is, and with the former wages and increases offered by the Telephone Company no special inducement, it has been impossible, heretofore, to secure the type of applicant desired in many instances.

Before the need of operators became so desperate certain tests were given almost in the nature of examinations and it was possible to select from among a group of girls and choose after consideration the ones best fitted for telephone operating. A tradition of social position, carefully fostered by the Company, surrounded the telephone operator and many girls preferred telephone operating to factory or store work for this reason. At the present time while every effort is made, of course, to secure the best type of girl, it has been impossible to live up to the old standards and the Company eagerly accepts any girl who seems at all likely. The e of operators must of necessity be governed by the uality of the applicants, and the number and quality nts now being obtained by the Telephone Company m the number and quality of the girls who entered ervice a few years ago.

know something of the type of girl now being emTelephone Company, the records of 816 applicants, ible in December and January, were gone over by Almost two-fifths of these girls were 16 and 17 years

of age, and 71 per cent were under 21. Fifty-five (55) children of 14 and 15 years of age, with working papers, had been taken on to be trained to become operators, usually serving as messengers for the first few weeks. Considering the youth of these girls and the desire of the Company to secure workers direct from school, it is surprising that only 23 per cent applying for operator's positions had never worked before. The industrial experience which the 77 per cent had had, however, had been for the most part very short and of a changing and spasmodic character. The largest proportion of these girls had had some clerical experience and a number almost equally large had done factory work. About 15 per cent had worked in stores, run elevators, been domestic servants, etc., and 12 per cent-99-had had previous experience in telephone operating.

13 per cent. had

The largest single group of the girls received at their last work $12 per week, which was the starting wage paid by the Telephone Company at the time they applied. Twenty per cent (20%) had been receiving under $12, and 51 per cent of them had been receiving less than $15.00. Only 5 per cent had earned $18 or more.

Seven hundred and fifty-two (752) of the girls were living at home or with relatives; the remaining 64 were living alone or with a friend. There were 88 married women among the applicants, 14 of whom were widows. It was known that 37 of these applicants had children, in all cases young children. Seventyfour (74) of the 88 had definitely asked for night work and in many cases special notes were found on the applications stating that the woman wished night work in order that she might be free during the day to attend to her children and household duties.

Of the 99 girls who had had previous telephone experience, more than half had been telephone operators for less than a year. The Company, however, is making a special effort to get back the girls who have had some experience and it hopes to be able to induce an increasing number of girls who have left the Telephone Company to return. So far as wage scales are concerned in these cases, the Company's policy is to credit the girl with all her experience if she has been away from the Company less than a year. If she has been out of the service more than a year, 6 months