ual report in 1887, and gives the wages of
women workers as $3.58 for the lowest, and $15.20 for the highest, the
annual earnings ranging from $104 to $520. The report from the same
State for 1889 takes up the subject of working-women in detail, giving
their home or boarding conditions, sanitary conditions, their own
remarks on trades, wages, etc., and the aspect of their labor as a
whole. The average wage remains the same.

Rhode Island, in its Third Annual Report for 1889, under the direction
of Commissioner Almon K. Goodwin, gives the average wage for the State
as $5.87, and devotes the bulk of its space to working-women, with full
returns from the entire State.

For the same year California, by its labor commissioner, Mr. John J.
Tobin, gives an equally exhaustive statement of the conditions of women
wage-earners in that State. The lowest weekly wage given is $5, and the
highest $11. Plain cooks receive from $25 to $40 a month with board and
lodging, and domestic servants from $15 to $25 with board. In
cloak-making the lowest wage is $3, and the highest $7.50; and in
shirt-making the lowest is $2.50, and the highest $6. General clothing
and underwear range from $4.50 to $6, and other trades average a trifle
higher wage than in New England. The chapter on domestic service is
suggestive and important, and the whole treatment makes the report a
necessity to all who would understand the situation in detail. This,
however, is so true of all that have touched upon the subject that it
appears invidious to single out any one alone. They must be taken
together. With each year the scientific value of each increases, and
there appears to be distinct emulation among the commissioners as to
which shall embody the most in the returns made and the general
treatment of the whole.

The first report from Colorado, issued in 1888, Mr. James Rice
commissioner, devotes a chapter to women wage-earners, with an
additional one on domestic service and its drawbacks. The average wage
for the State is given as $6; and the commissioner states that
notwithstanding the general impression that higher wages are paid in
Colorado than at any other point save California, actual returns show
that the average sums in several occupations are less than that paid to
persons similarly employed in cities along the Atlantic seaboard.

Kansas, in its fifth annual report issued in 1889, gives a section to
working-women. The commissioner, Mr. Frank Betton,