Farming is one of the few occupations which is not influenced by seasons, so far as unemployment is concerned. Practically all of the trades have their busy seasons and their idle seasons, and any movement which would tend to make employment more permanent by providing small farms for a larger number of people, would be of immense benefit to the Island as a whole. The Bureau of Labor of Porto Rico in an investigation which covered the last five months of the year 1913, found that of the total number of union men reported, 27 per cent were unemployed during the month of August, 26 per cent during September, 38 per cent during October, 34 per cent during November, and 46 per cent during December. The men reporting were engaged in various occupations. It was estimated that 28 per cent of all the laborers who reported were unemployed on account of lack of work and not on account of not desiring work. The different trades represented are as follows: among the dock laborers 62 per cent were unemployed, 56 per cent of the carpenters, 47 per cent of the agricultural laborers, 23 per cent of the cigar makers, and 10 per cent of the typesetters reported that they could not find employment. Thus it will be seen that when the individual workman is at the mercy of the employer, he has no independent status such as he would have were he the owner of even a very modest piece of property, and it is inevitable that he will find employment only part of the year. Part time employment tends to low standards of living, because during the period of reduced financial income the standards of living are lowered, and when it is found that the family can exist on the reduced income there is little inducement for seeking work since the desire for economy and saving is not greatly developed among the working classes of Porto Rico. We find a gradual lowering of the moral standard as the necessary accompaniment of low standards of living, and if continued long enough, this low moral standard gradually leads to moral and social degeneration. The necessary steps should be taken by the legislature to provide for the relief of the landless and unemployed classes, as otherwise these people will constitute a serious handicap for the economic and social development of a competent body of citizens. POVERTY