CHAP. 10.—PROTECTION OF HOME WORKERS 89

tendency prevailed to consider the work of the trade boards as a
Part of the legal protection of labor and therefore to appoint high
officials, intrusted with general work in that respect, as chairmen of
the boards. In Saxony, Wurtemburg, and various other States the
obligations of the trade boards were rather considered as connected
with problems of industrial conciliation, and the chairmen of industrial
 conciliation committees were appointed as chairmen of the trade
boards. 2+
Public officials have in some States been appointed as assessors,
while in Prussia one employer and one employee, possessing technical
knowledge, have been appointed. The report indicates that this
choice had the advantage of introducing persons of particular knowledge
 of trade conditions, but the disadvantage that the assessors were
inclined to vote with the representatives of their class, so that the
partial decision was with the chairman alone. Up to March 28,
1925, 43 boards had been established, but up to the time of the inquiry
 only 19 had acted on wages. Three were still in the stage of
Preliminary inquiry in that respect. Two boards had concentrated
their activity on conciliation, five boards had made generally enforceable
 the stipulations of collective agreements, and nine boards had
fixed straight minimum wages for home workers. The five decisions
as to collective agreements had been unanimous. Five of the minimum
 wage determinations had also been unanimous, or with a
qualified majority. In four cases there was only a simple majority,
and the decisions had gone into force onl by confirmation of the
superior authority. The minimum wages fed in 1926 by the board
in Dresden for artistic and general knitting, sewing, and similar work
were 20 pfennigs ** per hour for simple work after a given pattern,
and 30 pfennigs per hour for more difficult work.®® Piece rates were
to be fixed in such a way that workers of normal capacity could earn,
on an average, these amounts.
The trade board for hosiery for women and children in Berlin
fixed, on November 10, 1927, the following rates: Fifty-three pfennigs
per hour, to be increased on January 1, 1928, to 54 pfennigs.®” I'he
board for home work in the furniture industry in Saxony, on September
 1, 1927,%¢ fixed elaborate piece rates, which in the calculation of
the boards are about equal to between 17 and 922 pfennigs. The
board for embroideries in Wurttemburg, on September 28, 1927, declared
 the collective agreement of the industry, concluded between employers’
 and employees’ organizations, to be generally enforceable?

Results
THE Bureau fiir Sozialpolitik comments on the results of the law
as follows: 40

The trade depression, which took place soon after the passage of the law,
has hampered the work of the committees. At the exhibition of home work
which took place in Berlin in 1925 we have ascertained that there was success

3% Reichsarbeitsblatt, Berlin, Dec. 9, 1926, p. 818.
8 6 dem, p. 819.
% At par mark=23.82 cents: pfennig=0.2382 cent.
 Reichsarbeitsblatt, Berlin, Aug. 1, 1926.
7 Idem, Dec. 1, 1927, p. 533.
® Idem, Sept. 20, 1927, p. 411.
© Idem, Oct. 20, 1927, p. 474.
0 Yetter dated June 9. 1927.