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against 53,559 for the same months in 1914. The significance of compliance visits should be borne in mind, as from these visits. the record of the actual results accomplished is eventually made. Our statistical statement for April will give a good general idea of the activities of the reorganized department.

Orders affecting over 100,000 factory workers, which were issued by the Department of Labor during the month of April, were carried out in a way that indicates the desire of the manufacturers to co-operate with the Department in bettering conditions in shop and factory.

The whole number of inspections of factories made by the Labor Department during April was 5,872. Besides this there were 3,435 inspections of mercantile establishments, 2,095 inspections of tenements, 8 inspections of mines and quarries, and 3 inspections of railroads, making a grand total for the month of 11,419.

On these inspections there were issued 22,335 orders and at the end of the month there had been compliances in 20,803 cases. In many cases the orders were issued so late in the month that compliance could not be made during April.

Our April report shows that the Department has continued to bend its energies toward the conservation of human life. This is evidenced in the fact that of the whole number of orders that were issued, there were 7,397 that had to do with fire prevention, 5,868 that related to accident prevention and 5,047 were orders for better sanitary conditions. Of the orders that the Department issued in connection with improving fire protection, nearly 2,600 demanded structural changes in buildings. Of the whole number of orders issued, 14,712 were in New York City and the rest up the State. Of the compliances, there were 15,921 to the credit of New York City and the balance up the State. In the second inspection district, which includes all of the up State, there were approximately 600 orders complied with at the time they were issued.

The statement shows that the inspectors visited 1,015 factories occupying whole buildings, 666 tenant factories, 338 bakeries. The number of people who were affected by the inspections and orders was 113,511, of which 61,590 were in New York City.

Besides the original inspections, the Department inspectors made 16,248 visits to see that the orders issued were complied with.

The Department's legal force brought 172 prosecutions in cases where orders had not been carried out. Eighty of these were against factories and 92 mercantile establishments; 6 were against factory owners who did not carry out orders on sanitation; 8 against those who failed to comply with orders on accident prevention, and 20 against factory owners who failed to comply with orders on fire protection. Prosecutions were brought against 16 factory owners who failed to comply with orders relating to children and 24 were prosecuted because of failure to carry out orders that had to do with women. There were 67 prosecutions against owners of mercantile establishments who neglected to carry out orders relating to children.

Besides all of these prosecutions, the Department stopped work in 41 cases where the factories were unclean and in one unclean bakery. Work was stopped in 2 cases because of dangerous machinery, and in 3 cases because of the use of scaffolding not properly protected. There were 50 cases where the inspectors tagged goods in tenement houses.

The Bureau of Industries and Immigration made 364 inspections, which included one labor camp, 59 employment agencies, 117 immigrant lodging houses and 26 philanthropic societies which secure employment for aliens. This bureau licenses 5 immigrant lodging houses and sent 1,210 alien children to the school authorities.

The homework inspection division received 364 applications for tenement licenses and granted 299. There were 357 licenses canceled and one revoked for unlawful conditions, a net decrease in the outstanding licenses of 50 for the month.

JAMES T. HOILE, addressed the Commission.

By Mr. ELKUS:

Q. Will you state for the record your name and whom you represent? A. I am the secretary of the Manufacturers Association of New York. I reside at 393 Hancock street, Brooklyn.

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Q. How many members are there in your association, approximately? A. Probably five, six, seven hundred or more.

Q. Now you want to address the Commission upon this subject? A. Well, I have no special desire to address the Commission beyond referring to a few general facts which I believe are conceded by most manufacturers and business men.

Q. We are taking up this one subject today of the duplication of inspection? A. The one subject,— yes, sir,— if I am correctly advised by newspaper report and by inspection of public documents, I say that if from observation, newspaper report and public documents there is any reliability in these sources of informnation we are abundantly supplied with inspections. If we take a building from its inception, if you please, or the beginning of its construction, from the digging of the cellar to the putting on of the roof, and its occupancy, there are at least fifteen different departments or bureaus that have something to say with regard to how that building shall be built, how it shall be operated and who shall occupy it. Now if there is any doubt about these buildings being subject to these eight, ten, twelve or fifteen departments or bureaus why it is a matter of record that the Commission can very easily learn for themselves.

Q. Now assuming what you say is true, that in erecting a new building and also in maintaining it, it requires more than one inspection what is your remedy; we want to get a remedy? A. Well, if I had my way about it I would have one law that would cover this whole business and I would not have inspectors tumbling over themselves inspecting buildings.

Q. Do you mean one department taking charge of the inspection? A. Yes. I would have as many inspectors as are absolutely necessary and not one more and comply with every condition of the law. It is a question of fitting conditions to the law.

Q. Your statements are too general; we want some concrete proposition; would you abolish the building department; would you abolish the fire department; would you abolish the health department, or would you consolidate them; give us some concrete facts. A. For that we have Senators and Assemblymen who make our laws.

By Commissioner GOMPERS:

Q. The Senators and members of the Legislature are simply ordinary men, ordinary citizens, and this Commission was created

for the purpose of ascertaining the views of the employers and the views of the workmen and the views of business men so that some legislation may be proposed of an effective character? A. Well, is it necessary, Mr. Gompers, to have a specialist to know how many cubic or square feet of breathing space there is in a room? Should a man be especially fitted to make that inspection? Should a man be specially fitted to say whether a buzz saw should be covered or not? I believe that it is possible to take the laws as they exist and reduce this multiplicity of inspection. There is no argument — you don't question that there is a multiplicity of inspection, do - do you contend that?

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Q. I am not making the argument. A. That is all we are here for. We are here to show you we are legislated to death, first an inspection of this kind and then of another kind.

By Mr. ELKUS:

Q. Can you give us any specific instances where there have been contrary orders given by different departments? A. Is that the purpose of this meeting?

Q. Yes. A. The purpose of this meeting was stated by you in your first question.

Q. Don't lets waste time arguing what the purpose of this meeting is; can you give any instance of conflicting orders by the departments? A. I can put a man on the stand here, the Commissioner of Buildings, who will give them to you. (Indicating Mr. P. J. Carlin).

Q. Can you give them? A. No, sir.

Q. Now have you given us all the ideas and suggestions that you have? A. No I have not.

Q. Go ahead then. A. I want to ask you or any of the Commissioners if there is any doubt about multiplicity of inspections? Q. I do not know that we are here to answer questions. A. I am here to make that assertion.

Q. I would like to get some facts from you; it is easy enough to make assertions. A. That is the fact we are here to prove.

By Commissioner GOMPERS:

Q. Statements have been made that there is such duplication? A. Yes.

Q. Now the mere repetition of that statement proves nothing; what we ask from you is can you give us specific instances in which such duplication has occurred? A. I say this, that in each and every case it has been carefully provided for by legislation, that all this duplication is legal. It is a law. We are compelled, the owners of buildings are compelled, to comply with the laws. By Mr. ELKUS:

Q. What we would like to get is some real suggestion as to how to remedy it? A. Wipe about ninety per cent of it out.

Q. Which ones would you wipe out; what do you say should be wiped out? A. I say it should be put under

Q. Which ones? A. Which ones? I don't know that any of the features that are provided for by law should not be carried out, but I would take the contract of doing all the inspection for twenty-five per cent of what it is costing the State of New York to-day. Seventy-five per cent you can wipe out easy.

By the CHAIRMAN:

Q. Are you in favor of any inspection at all? A. Certainly, absolutely.

By Commissioner GOMPERS:

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Q. What kind of inspection? A. Proper inspection. wouldn't send a girl into a factory, as they have been sending them in Brooklyn lately, to go around among machinery and tell men what should be done. I would put a man there to tell what should be done.

By the CHAIRMAN:

Q. Are you sure that the girl didn't know? A. According to the inference in the department, the head of a department, she did

not.

By Mr. ELKUS:

Q. Which head of a department told you that? A. Didn't tell me that but one of our Brooklyn manufacturers who is doing everything possible

Q. Which head of a department told you that? A. The head of a department in New York City.

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