the market. Some of these promote the safety of the operative to a fair degree, especially where the machine is used constantly on one kind of work. The trouble has come where the machine is used on a variety of different work, inclusive of small and large pieces.

Particular attention has been given to § 83c, providing for cleaning up waste materials and other inflammable matters. That part of the law providing that sweepings be removed from the building once a day gave us much trouble. The problem was finally solved by directing the erection of a fireproof room in basements or cellars in which to store materials gathered from floors of factories.

The following amendments of law relating to mats for electric switchboards, hours of women, dressing rooms for women, and toilet facilities in foundries are recommended by Supervising Inspector W. R. Erskine in District No. 7:

ARTICLE II, SECTION 20-b.- This section to be amended so that it will permit the use of cork linoleum and other suitable material for mats in front of switchboards.

ARTICLE VI, SECTION 77.- Subd. 6 reads: "Where a female or male minor is employed in two or more factories or mercantile establishments in the same day or week the total time of employment must not exceed that allowed per day or week in a single factory or mercantile establishment;". It is the writer's opinion that this section is somewhat deficient owing to the fact that a factory employee, after finishing his or her day's work in a factory, could be employed in a mercantile establishment, without violating the law. In view of this fact I would suggest that this subdivision be amended so as to read as follows:

"Where female or male minor is employed in two or more factories or mercantile establishments or in one factory and one mercantile establishment in the same day or week, the total time of employment shall not exceed that allowed per day or week in a single factory."

SECTION 88.-This section reads in part as follows: "Where females are employed, dressing or emergency rooms shall be provided for their use; each such room shall have at least one window opening to the outer air and shall be enclosed by means of solid partitions or walls."

Numerous inquiries have been received at this office regarding the above portion of § 88. Occasionally an inspector will issue an order to provide a dressing room and again an order will be issued to provide an emergency room. It is the writer's opinion that in reading this section one would be led to believe that they could have their choice of providing either a dressing or an emergency room and owing to this fact I would suggest that this section be changed to read as follows:

"Where females are employed, dressing and emergency rooms shall be provided for their use, which said rooms shall have at least one window opening into the outer air and shall be enclosed by means of solid partitions or walls."

SECTION 97, SUBDIVISION 6.- To be changed so as to make this section applicable to foundries where five or more persons (ten or more at present) are employed.

The following difficulties concerning working hours of women in canneries, child labor certificates, washing facilities and waterclosets are noted by Supervising Inspector W. F. Jordan in District No. 8:

The inspectors found twenty-seven violations of the labor laws in reference to hours being worked by females in canning industries, of which they had positive and indisputable evidence, but in not one case were they able to obtain a conviction whether trial was by judge or jury. This shows conclusively that the judges and juries in farming communities will not uphold the labor laws, which is very discouraging to a conscientious inspector to find while engaged in the performance of his duties. He is regarded as an offender rather than the defender for his activities in the enforcement of the law. Nevertheless, there is always some good accomplished, as no employer of labor wishes to defend such actions and is usually more careful regarding the laws, and the publicity that such acts give tend to affect others as to the observance of the same.

Children between the ages of fourteen and sixteen years frequently omit to acknowledge that they have employment certificates or state they have none and represent themselves to the employer as over sixteen years of age; that they are unable to secure birth certificate, school record, or record of any kind for the purpose of identification and furnishing their age, with the object in view of working longer hours and obtaining better wages, and being allowed employment on machinery. When such cases are found by the inspector the only option the inspector has (in justice to the employer) is to require proof of age or dismiss the child within ten days of notice, the result being in most cases that the child hires out at some other establishment and awaits detection again.

Children, after reaching the age of sixteen, have been found to have sold their employment certificates to younger children for a nominal sum, or have transferred employment certificate to a younger brother or sister, and the inspectors have found such exchanges made where the description tallies and only by an error in such child writing its signature have the inspectors been able to detect them. They have also resorted to erasures of names and dates. I believe that all employment certificates should have the date of birth perforated to avoid erasures.

Section 88 of article 6 reads: "In every factory there shall be provided and maintained for the use of employees, suitable and convenient wash rooms, separate for each sex, adequately equipped with washing facilities consisting of sinks or stationary basins provided with running water or with tanks holding an adequate supply of clean water. In all factories where lead, arsenic or other poisonous substances or injurious or noxious fumes, dust or gases are present as an incident of a result of a business or process conducted by such factory, there shall be provided washing facilities which shall include hot water and soap and individual towels." I would recommend that it read, 66 * * shall include hot water provided on each floor, to

*

be supplied through proper pipe connections to wash sinks where deemed necessary by Commissioner of Labor." Where hot water is necessary on different floors, especially where there are ten to twenty-five employees on a

floor, hot water in basement should not be considered a compliance, especially where a building is five or six stories high, as the experience of the Department is that to get employees to use anything, it must be also convenient, or the employee will neglect to use what is provided for him.

Chapter 340, § 88-a, subd. 3 should, in my opinion, be modified in respect to abolishing trough water-closets by adding when deemed necessary by the Commissioner of Labor," as several of the factories in this district originally installed individual closets and owing to their abuse by workmen throwing cast-off clothing in them and keeping them constantly plugged up, had to discard them and install the troughs, in what might be termed self-defense. There are a great many of these trough closets in this district and it would take a great deal of argument to convince the manufacturers that their removal would in any way enhance the health and welfare of the employees, in fact they are kept cleaner in most cases than the individual closets. However, I am greatly in favor of the provision of this section calling for the individual enclosure. This can be had with the trough water-closet. Another matter in this same section is the painting of the interior of all water-closet enclosures with a light colored paint. I do not believe that I am exaggerating when I make the statement that in some instances this will mean the painting of the water-closets once a week, and dark colored paint has had to be resorted to to curb the apparently insane desire of some persons to mark the walls with obscene writing and markings.

REPORT OF CHIEF OF DIVISION OF HOMEWORK INSPECTION.

Hon. JOHN WILLIAMS, Acting Inspector-General:

SIR: The report of the work of this Division for the year ending September 30, 1913, relating to the regulation of work on specified articles in tenement houses in New York State is herewith respectfully submitted.

This report covers the inspection of tenement houses in Greater New York, and bears no reference to work of like character performed by inspectors in other places in the State outside of the greater city. It is impossible to arrange a report on this class of the Department's work so as to correctly and fully cover the activities of the field force employed. A review of the daily service summaries submitted by the inspectors would more adequately indicate the work in detail than could be conveyed by any statements set forth by me.

On October 1, 1913, there were outstanding 11,183 licenses in the greater city.

Ten inspectors were detailed to this Division during the year, and the attached table shows that their labors combined produced visitations to 17,023 different tenements and other buildings affected by the law, and in every section of the greater city, as follows: 10,985 licensed tenement houses, 325 licensed rear shop buildings, 1,959 buildings for which requests had been filed for new licenses, 284 revisits to buildings where licenses had been denied, 2,601 observation visits to buildings suspected of violating the law (this was very largely due to patrol work in congested sections) and 869 licensed buildings against which sanitary orders had been issued as result of regular inspections.

These figures of compliance visits take no account of revisits for the same purpose, nor to hundreds of other revisits made to enforce orders promptly. I canceled 1,587 licenses during the year, while 198 were revoked for sanitary causes, as required by law. There were 77 applications canceled for various reasons. A total of 162 children under 16 years of age were reported at work in the home, 111 of which number attended school. The balance, who attended no school, were nearly all new arrivals in this country. These children were found at work after school hours,

or on days when the schools were not in session. All children reported as not attending school were promptly referred to the Board of Education to be attended to under the Compulsory Education Law, as no power was vested in this Division to treat otherwise. There were 447 persons found illegally employed in living rooms by the tenant worker therein. All such violations were promptly dealt with by having the outside hands discharged or the work stopped by tagging. In all cases where the tenant employer hesitated or refused to comply, the application of the tenement tag had the desired effect. A total of 856 persons, not members of the family, were found employed by custom dressmakers. This employment was legal, for it was consistent with the provisions contained in section 100, relating to work of this class done on the ground floor or second floor of tenement houses. Very largely as the result of patrolling in certain sections of the city where work is congested, 1,837 owners or agents were served with notice under section 105 for work being done in unlicensed houses. Quite a good many owners will not allow tenants to do work of a public character in their apartments if they know it, and in consequence of our notice the offending tenant is often ordered to cease work or move. I caused investigation to be made of 500 houses where work had ceased or licenses were removed, and in only 17 of this number was work found going on which came under the law. I consider this a very remarkable showing on this point. There were 26 cases of disease reported by the inspectors, and only 4 of such cases were found in living rooms where work was also reported. The tenement tag was used in 228 cases, while in 36 of these cases the inspector also seized the goods tagged as provided in section 102. The tag is a most effective argument to use in obstinate cases, as it leaves the offender no choice but to clean or remain idle. Its use also has the merit of arousing the anger of the worker, very often to the fighting pitch. It is a common act of the inspectors to call in a policeman or a second inspector when he has a case where the work must be stopped by the use of the tenement tag. Two of the inspectors were severely assaulted this past season. In one case a father and son fell upon the inspector and beat him, notwithstanding the fact that a second inspector was present. These parties were ar