reported in tenements, three of which cases were found in rooms in which work was proceeding. All such matters were promptly treated as directed by section 103. Tenement house owners to the number of 683 were notified to comply with the provisions of section 105; 1,909 employers were notified to label articles sent by them into tenements, as required by section 101; 71 manufacturers and contractors were notified to withdraw all work from tenement workers, as directed by section 104, relating to infants' or children's wearing apparel; and 1,395 notices to factory owners to comply with the provisions of section 106 were sent out. There were 881 factory permits issued and 92 permits were cancelled. There were 462 children reported as at work in the home on factory articles. The great bulk of these children were found on the west side in the flower section. Immediate and drastic action was taken in every case of this character. The places where little children were found at work were revisited and watched and in consequence our records show less than a dozen repetitions of the violation by the same persons. We have pursued the same methods in dealing with illegal employment of children in the home as were set forth in my annual report of last year as follows: The change made in the law, which aims to give the Department control over the employment of children in the home, under 16 years of age, is very complicated, and most difficult of enforcement; in fact cannot be enforced as it is written. The responsibility sought to be placed on the factory owner who employs the parent to do the work in the home, cannot be made to work out in fact, as was desired in theory. To make this feature of the law really effective, responsibility should be made to rest directly on the person, parent or guardian having direct control over the child, and who compels or permits the little ones to help with the work. My instructions to the inspectors on this subject left them no choice of action but to report all facts discovered by them when a child was found employed in the home illegally, which they did, but in all cases that were reported, not one contained sufficient elements of fact to warrant counsel to order the prosecution of the employer. The experience of the year now past only serves to emphasize and confirm this view. The attitude of manufacturers toward this feature of the law, generally speaking, is all that could be asked for. No reports have reached me of connivance or scheme on the part of any employer to defeat the purpose of the law. In every case where we have notified the manufacturer of the employment in the home of children under age on work furnished by him, his action in withdrawing the work from the hands of the offending worker has been prompt. This co-operation has been of great aid to the field worker. The method employed by the inspector is to stop work at once, notify the employer of the violation and then force the mother to understand that if she persists in having her child help on the work she will not be permitted to take in any work at all. While this method serves the purpose, it is far from being satisfactory. Surely some one is blamable for having the child at work. If the child were found at work in a factory there would be no question as to responsibility. The court always fixes that on the owner of the factory. In this case the owner of the factory has no dealings with the child. He may not even know of the child's existence. He deals with the parent and warns the parent under penalty to stop all work, that children under age must not help or touch the work. The parent is the employer in this case, and whether he forces the child to do the work or merely allows, without stress, the little one to work is immaterial; the responsibility should be placed on the person, parent or guardian who thus forces or allows the young child to engage in employment of this kind. The ages of children reported range from 4 to 151⁄2 years. Persons belonging to 32 different races were found engaged in doing homework. The predominating numbers engaged were Italians, 7,773; Jews, 6,647; Germans, 1,074; Americans, 1,000; leaving 1,561 workers to be charged to the other 28 races. respectively. The depressed industrial conditions prevailing during the year forced many women to take up home work who never before engaged in such employment. It was quite common to be told that "the times are so hard and my husband has been out of work so long that I feel I must try and do something to help out," or "I have small children who must be fed and my husband has been unable to find anything to do in months, so I must try and do something to earn even a little money to keep going until he gets a job," etc. Very few of these beginners continue at the work for any great length of time, for the progress is too slow and the compensation is too small to give much encouragement to the beginner. Experience teaches that necessity is the greatest impetus to this line of work. We are in almost constant contact with that side of life where the struggle of existence is greatest and where misery, want and destitution cannot be hidden. We come in contact every day with the good mother who is seeking and struggling as only a mother can struggle to keep her little ones together about her. The father is dead, the father is gone away, or is ill, or is unable to find employment. No matter what the cause, the family is in want and the mother has taken upon her weak shoulders the burden and care of providing for the wants of her helpless ones. Section 104 should be modified, giving power to the Industrial Commission to draw a line in the matter of children's clothing. I am forced to again repeat my annual suggestion that more inspectors should be furnished to this division to enable it to perform the work of tenement house inspection as the statute directs that it should be done. The law demands that all licensed tenement houses "shall" be inspected "at least" twice each year. This cannot be done with the present field force. I might be able to go much further in this direction if I were given at least six more inspectors. The general conditions are satisfactory. We have no sweat shops in this state to-day. The shop in the tenement house living room is a thing of the past. We cannot transform a dirty housekeeper into a clean, tidy one, but we can and we do keep the dirty one from engaging in homework until satisfactory sanitary conditions are made to prevail. No such foul conditions are met with in tenements like those of a few years ago. We do the best we can and will continue to do so even though we are not able to do all that the law demands. I am pleased to be able to report that the work of the division on the whole for the year has been satisfactory. The inspectors have, as a rule, been attentive to their duties and zealous in prosecuting their labors. We will try, and if it is at all possible to do so, make the work of the division more thorough and efficient. DANIEL O'LEARY, Chief of Division. (4) REPORT OF DIVISION OF MERCANTILE INSPECTION To the First Deputy Commissioner: To the report of the Division of Mercantile Inspection hereby submitted are appended tables showing in detail the work of the division. The report for the past year shows an increase over that of the preceding year, notwithstanding the fact that we have had additional duties placed upon us by the adoption of the Industrial Code, and the enactment of section 161-a requiring the posting of the hours of labor of women and children in mercantile establishments. Section 161-a is the most valuable addition made to the mercantile law, as only by the posting of the hours of labor of females and minors could we ever hope to prove that they were not employed more than the legal number of hours per day. Greater results were also accomplished in the enforcement of section 8-a, known as the day-of-rest law. Inspections were made throughout the state in the villages and cities other than those of the first and second class, and for failure to comply with this law after due notice had been given, prosecution was brought. We are unable to give proper attention to this section of the law in third class cities. and villages with our present force of inspectors without neglecting our regular work in the first and second class cities. Since October 1, 1915, our field of duty has also been enlarged by the addition of Binghamton to the list of second class cities where we are charged with the enforcement of all the provisions of Article 12. COMPLAINTS During the fiscal year 1914-1915, we received 1,167 complaints covering twenty-four different subjects. Of this number, 753 were anonymous, and 414 were signed by the persons making the complaints. Whenever the names and addresses of the persons making the complaints were furnished, the Division communicated with them and they were informed as to the results of our findings. Of the 1,167 complaints investigated, 534 were sustained and 633 were not sustained; 367 were in relation to violations of section S-a, the day-of-rest law; 184 related to females working over nine |