the rating bureau. The adjustment of claims arising under the operation of the Workmen's Compensation Law is certainly a part of the necessary administration of this act, and in my judgment it appears to be a reasonable and proper charge to be divided among the insurance carriers and self-insurers operating in the State. Under the operation of the act, where a worker dies without dependents the only charge upon the carrier is for funeral expenses in the amount of $100.00. If a law were enacted which would require the payment of the sum of $400.00 in addition to the burial charges, by the insurance carrier, or self-insurer, into the Treasury of the State where a worker dies under these circumstances a sufficient sum would be raised thereby to defray the entire expenses of the Workmen's Compensation Aid Bureau, and at the same time the insurance carrier or self-insurer would have been required to pay $1,100.00 less than would have been the case if the worker had only one dependent.

LABOR DEPARTMENT REVENUE.

There are a number of other features connected with the activities of the Department of Labor which it would appear reasonable to consider as a charge against concerns immediately affected. For instance, I believe a fee ought to be required for special engineering service involving the approval of plans for new, or alterations to old, factory buildings, and also for certificates of approval for work performed by contractors which require additional time for reinspection. Such a policy, I am informed, would yield about $8,000.00 additional revenue annually. Again there is a genuine need for legislation requiring the inspection of boilers within a reasonable classification and this work should be performed on a fee basis in sufficient amount to make a revenue large enough to defray expenses of the work.

Revenue derived from the licensing of engineers and firemen besides the proposed legislation for boiler inspection; the proposed revenue to be derived from the approval of plans and certificates of approval of work to be performed; and the revenue derived under the proposed method of administrating

the workmen's compensation laws and other sources of income such as the licensing of explosive magazines, should make a total of about $95,000.00 per year out of a total Labor Department appropriation of $150,000.00. This would certainly seem to be in line with a businesslike administration of the State's affairs.

HEALTH INSURANCE SYSTEM.

I desire to call your attention to the fact that a legislative commission appointed to investigate social insurance problems in New Jersey has reported in favor of this State adopting and organizing a comprehensive system of health insurance. In my judgment this question is on a par with workmen's compensation insurance and it fully deserves your most careful consideration. The amazing number of army rejections on account of physical disability, as well as other conditions, emphasize the increasing demand of industry upon physical endurance. In order to conserve the physical vigor of our people through the prompt and sure relief of economic distress due to sickness as well as through stimulation of preventive action in our industries, it seems to me most important to consider ways and means of establishing a health insurance system, probably under the supervision of the State Department of Labor on a basis where it will be supported and managed by those directly concerned as in the case of workmen's compensation. Obviously, such a system would automatically provide medical care and health instruction so that the plan would be both curative and preventive. Manifestly, under these certain conditions, it would be of mutual benefit to employer and wage-earner.

HASTENING STATE HIGHWAY BUILDING.

Organization is now completed for the administration of the State Highway System and the actual building of the roads must be facilitated in every way. One way is legislation enabling counties to borrow the funds for building roads prior

to the time provided in the Highway Commission's schedule in anticipation of subsequent reimbursement from the State road money, to be raised by taxation. Another way is to leave in the discretion of the Highway Commission certain matters which would have a very vital bearing on the extent to which "war prices" and the mounting cost of all construction materials will affect the estimated total cost of the highway system; for instance, the questions as to what bridges shall be widened to the width of the paved road and what grade crossings shall be eliminated. I respectfully urge prompt legislation covering both of these important subjects.

Undoubtedly increased cost of all types of construction will greatly raise the expense of installing the new highway system, but it is questionable if former cost prices will ever return. At any rate, a postponement of this much-needed business asset would simply retard progress in all directions, including the immediately vital one of military preparedness. Improved highways are so essential in every respect that delay should not be countenanced on any pretext. Immediate activity in rebuilding or repairing, however, should be confined to the main trunk line arteries. Never has the country faced a period when further means of transportation were more necessary than to-day. Organization by the State Highway Commission of their own construction department should greatly reduce normal expenses of road construction; in fact, this already has been demonstrated by the experimental road building from Georgetown to Camp Dix, wherein the Highway Department, as its own contractor, and with reformatory inmates for labor, has been able to effect a saving of twenty-five per cent. over the estimated contractual cost of the undertaking.

FOOD FUEL ADMINISTRATION-FISHERIES-MUNICIPAL FOOD

DEPOTS.

Inexcusably high prices for foodstuffs have created an economic condition, aggravated by the war, which demands that the question of food and fuel conservation and price-control

have a very large share of legislative attention. In the interest of cheaper fish, as one solution of the problem in providing substitute for meats, I recommend the passage of legislation based upon the report of our High Cost of Living Commission, giving absolute State control of the fisheries industries, which the people own anyway, in order that consumers may buy fish under State supervision and at a cost plus only the actual expense of catching and handling. Another solution of the food problem will be found in the regulation of food distribution by purchasing of certain staples daily in municipalities throughout the State under supervision of the State Bureau of Markets and retailing them at cost plus freight and shrinkage charges at municipal food depots to be established for the purpose. Provision for the daily publication of prices thus paid would have a most salutary effect in discouraging gouging on the part of unscrupulous private distributors. I recommend legislation to this end. I would also remind you that the Act of last year authorizing municipal governing bodies to buy food and sell to consumers at cost in time of emergency will be repealed automatically July 4, 1918, and I recommend that it be reënacted in even stronger form than before, and made to include fuel as well as food.

AIDING FARMERS-HOME GARDENERS-EXTENDED EMPLOYMENT

SERVICE.

Food Administration will not be a success, no matter how much legislation we enact or how diligently we coöperate in practical economies with the Federal Food Administration, unless positive steps are taken to assist the farmer in producing and handling his crops. Shortage of farm labor is an alarming problem. Men, money and food are the triumverate of necessity in this war and the labor shortgage enters so persistently into the third factor that it deserves the most profound attention.

Last spring and summer, through the help of the Department of Public Instruction, we were able, in New Jersey, to engage 50,000 school pupils in the active creation and cultivation of home.

gardens and to supply upwards of 5,000 high school boys as patriotic helpers to the farmers of the State during the hours before and after school and during vacation. It was an experiment, a novel and wholly unfamiliar kind of work for most school pupils, and yet the results were amazingly effective. While the newness of the task rendered it unlikely, of course, that there would be any immediate effect on the living problem, yet the ultimate dividends from interesting people at large in food production and providing individual experience in farm work cannot, in my judgment, be overestimated. With the coming planting and harvest seasons there will be further opportunity to develop the plan, and I know I will have the continued coöperation of other State departments in perfecting organizations early so that the development may be on a much larger scale than last year.

Practical assistance has been given farmers distressed over labor conditions by the Federal-State-Municipal Employment Bureau, an employment service conducted by Federal Government and State and, at this time, the city of Newark. Aside from the general work of this institution, which resulted, during the past year in employment being given to about 50,000 persons, from the middle of April until the middle of September, fully 2,000 placements were made on farms. I think the excellence of these results warrant a general expansion of this institution, which is under the supervision of our Department of Labor in New Jersey. Most of the placements of work-seekers with farming experience took place on farms in the upper sections of New Jersey for the reason that the only headquarters of the bureau is located in Newark, with merely small branch offices in Jersey City and Orange. In order that the benefits of this bureau may likewise be felt by the South Jersey farmer, I strongly recommend to the Legislature that authorization be given for an additional office in South Jersey, perhaps at Camden. I am informed that Ohio has opened twenty-one of these labor exchanges. The necessity of encouraging and expanding this labor-finding agency will be even more apparent if the Federal Government acts on the suggestion that registered men of military age, between the