weak among women laborers. According to the canton the movement has a
purely economic or a socialist-political character. Only a few
organizations of workingwomen belong to the Swiss Federation of Women's
Clubs. Since 1891 the men's trade-unions have admitted women. The first
women factory inspectors were appointed in 1908. According to the census
of August 9, 1905, 92,136 persons in Switzerland are engaged in home
industry; this number is 28.3 per cent of the total number of persons
(325,022) engaged in these industries. The foremost of the home
industries is the manufacture of embroidery, engaging a total of 65,595
persons, of whom 53.5 per cent work at home. The next important home
industries are silk-cloth weaving, engaging 12,478 persons (41 per cent of
the total employed); watch making, engaging 12,071 persons in home
industry (or 23.7 per cent of the total); silk-ribbon weaving, engaging
7557 persons (or 51.9 per cent of the total). The highest percentage of
home workers is found among the straw plaiters (78.8 per cent); then
follow the military uniform tailors (60.1 per cent), the embroidery makers
(53.5 per cent), the wood carvers and ivory carvers (52 per cent), the
silk-ribbon weavers (51.9 per cent), and the ready-made clothing workers
(49.3 per cent). The International Association for Labor Legislation, as
everybody knows, is trying to ascertain whether an international
regulation of labor conditions is possible in the embroidery-making
industry. The statistics just given indicate the importance of this
investigation for Switzerland. The statistics of the home industries of
Switzerland will be found in the ninth issue of the second volume of the
Swiss Statistical Review (_Zeitschrift fuer Schweizerische Statistik_).

The new Swiss law for the protection of women laborers has produced a
number of genuine improvements for the workingwomen. A maximum working
day of 10 hours and a working week of 60 hours have been established.
Women can work overtime not more than 60 days a year; they are then paid
at least 25 per cent extra. The most significant innovation is the legal
regulation of _vacations_. Every laborer that is not doing piecework or
being paid by the hour must, after one year of continuous service for the
same firm, be granted six consecutive days of vacation with full pay;
after two years of continuous service for the same firm the laborer must
be given eight days; after three years of service ten day