seven establishments, out of which I found only one not amenable to the law. Minor changes were ordered in four and very important changes in two establish

ments.

On July 16th I left Columbus and went to Cincinnati, Hamilton county, where I found a great field of labor. An investigation disclosed the fact that Cincinnati had over 1,000 manufacturing establishments to be visited, which would, if properly inspected, take the inspector over a year, as most of the buildings are from five to seven and even more stories high. The most careful work was required here, as sanitary conditions, safety and comfort and every provision of the law, were found to present a strong claim to attention.

I visited, in the city of Cincinnati, one hundred and seventy-five (175) of the leading establishments, and such others as my attention was called to, from time to time, by persons employed in such shops and factories.

I started out in the same manner, as I did in other cities, by notifying all manufacturers and owners of shops and factories, nearly 1,300 in number, of my coming. Out of the 175 establishments visited, from July 17 to October 11, I found only eleven being operated in accordance with the law creating this office. I ordered important changes in sixty establishments, and minor changes were ordered in most of the others.

During the time I stayed in Cincinnati I made occasional trips to the other cities and revisited shops and factories where I ordered changes with satisfactory results. I found many shops in Cleveland which complied with my requests in regard to important changes, also a number in Columbus and Logan.

Receiving a letter from Akron, Summit county, calling my attention to the shops and factories of that city, I started on October 21 from Cleveland to Akron, where I found nearly fifty (50) establishments to be visited, and, after notifying all owners of shops and factories, I inspected forty-five of them from October 21 to 31.

It is a pleasure to state that, generally speaking, I found the establishments in Akron in better condition and nearer the requirements of the law than any that I have visited.

Out of the forty-five establishments I inspected I found twenty-five working in accordance to law creating the office of Inspector of Shops and Factories. Minor changes were ordered in nine establishments and very important changes in eleven. Nearly all of the latter changes were in sewer pipe factories and potteries.

In these establishments the greatest danger I found was in the mills where the clay is ground. These mills are started or stopped by means of a cone or friction pulley, and I found the most of these pulleys were not given lift enough or clearance enough to make them safe, as it will sometimes happen that these mills will start up of themselves, either through dirt falling between the two friction pulleys, or through the starting lever slipping from the bolt, which I found in many instances very poorly secured. Most of the levers were only provided with a common iron rod, with an eye in the end, which eye was carelessly hooked on to a common bolt or spike, which was driven in the wall, whereas those eyes should, by all means, be properly provided with hooks securely fastened in the wall, so that the jarring of the mill cannot unhook the iron rods and thereby start the mill up suddenly, endangering the lives of persons engaged in shoveling clay out of the mills. Several accidents of that kind happened in Akron, one man being killed and others had their legs broken and were badly

maimed.

EMERY POLISHING WHEELS.

I found in polishing establishments, stove foundries and other shops and factories where emery wheels are used continually that those wheels, in a good many instances, were too high-speeded, which is very dangerous and often results in their bursting and consequently in the killing or serious injury of somebody. I herewith present a table for speeding solid emery wheels of different diameters:

4,500 3,700 3,200 2,700 2,400 2,100 1,800 1,600 | 1,350 | 1,200 | 1,050 950 900 850 750

Wheels which are speeded higher than is shown in the above table are dangerous to the operator.

Another danger which arises from emery wheels of all descriptions is that most of them are not provided with exhaust fans, and the persons working at them are compelled to inhale the poisonous dust, which will settle on the lungs, and in most cases consumption will be the result. Providing emery wheels with exhaust fans is not only beneficial to the person operating such wheels, but also to the owners of establishments where such wheels are used.

An exhaust fan will absorb every bit of emery dust which escapes from the wheel, and therefore all other machinery in such establishments, especially shafting, will be freed from emery dust, and consequently last three times as long. The saving of shafting and boxes alone will pay the cost of the use of an exhaust fan, and still many proprietors of such establishments are totally blind to

these facts.

Buzz-Saws.

Another important matter is the use of buzz-saws in planing-mills and other establishments. They are, in fact, the most dangerous tool in use, and although persons operating them know their danger, in the course of time they become. careless. Therefore a protection is absolutely necessary, and this also can be done at a small expense, and to the advantage of both operator and owner, by putting a guard or hood over the buzz-saw, which will not in the least interfere with the work of the sawyer, but, on the contrary, will enable him to turn out more work in less time, while protecting his life and limbs.

By investigating the facts about accidents I found through the reports of some accident insurance companies that there are on an average from fifty to fiftythree persons killed or injured daily in the United States alone through accidents. occurring by operating buzz-saws.

FLY-WHEELS.

Another prolific source of danger is the non-protection of fly-wheels on stationary engines, which can easily be done by putting an iron or wooden railing or casing around the fly-wheel.

The eccentric of an engine is generally located between the bed-plate of the engine and the fly-wheel, and the engineer is, therefore, compelled to go close to the same to oil either the eccentric or other parts of his engine, and many accidents take place through neglect in not fencing in the fly-wheel properly.

One accident occurred to an employee in Cincinnati which resulted in his death. The deceased, endeavoring to ascertain the time of day from a clock hanging on the wall near the engine, in some unexplained manner passed too near the flywheel, was caught by the wheel and held fast, and, being whirled around at a great velocity, was almost instantly killed. Hundreds of similar accidents occur every year and many valuable lives are lost.

Now, all such accidents can be prevented by a small outlay of money, which will, at all events, be less expensive than contesting suits for damages in court. I have and shall in the future enforce the law in regard to these matters to the letter.

ELEVATORS.

Another danger I have discovered-and it is one that I meet everywhere-the very unsafe condition of elevators.

In many places elevator wells, or shafts, are not properly and in many cases not at all protected. On all floors doors open either directly into the shafts or have no protection or safeguards, and the lives of persons working at their ordinary avocations are endangered.

All these places should be protected by automatic doers or safeguards, so set that they will raise and lower when the elevator is at the floor. I have not yet gone further than to suggest that all elevators be provided with automatic doors, but wherever the necessity for protection exists have insisted upon an adequate safeguard being provided.

FIRE-ESCAPES.

Nothing in the course of my inspection has more strongly impressed me than the necessity of requiring all shops and factories of a greater elevation than two stories to be provided with a safe and efficient system of fire-escapes. The duty of supplying safeguards against casualties always likely to occur in the event of conflagrations in crowded shops and factories is so obvious and imperative that there can be no difference of opinion respecting it. It is of that class of self-assertive obligations which admit of no controversy, the only question being as to the best method of adequately meeting it. Nevertheless it is a fact, amply demonstrated in the observation I have had, that very many owners and proprietors of shops and factories are wholly indifferent to this important duty, and I have found some so utterly destitute of all concern for the safety of employees as to refuse to provide proper escapes when their attention was called to the necessity for such provision. It is somewhat difficult to speak with calmness of men whose overweening selfishness has excluded from their natures every spark of consideration for their fellow-beings, who, while liberally insuring their property against fire, so that in case of such a visitation-a danger always imminent -their pockets shall not suffer, will not expend a dollar for the security of the lives of those by whose labor they profit, and it is but simple justice that this class be compelled, by the mandate of inflexible law, to perform a duty which men of ordinary humane instincts accede to without a question. The frequent occurrence of fires which have their most serious result in the loss of human lives furnishes fearful warnings that should not be heedlessly dismissed from attention, and I submit that the business of legislation can have few worthier objects than that of diminishing, so far as may be, the possibility of such calamities.

In Cincinnati many of the buildings used for shops and factories are from five to nine stories high, and generally the first three or four floors of the building are used as storerooms, the employés occupying the upper floors, escape from which would in most cases be extremely difficult in the event of a rapidly spreading fire, and loss of life or serious bodily injury almost inevitable. Most of the buildings are improperly constructed with reference to means of egress, the ingenuity of the architects having apparently been exerted to secure the greatest possible economy of space in the matter of stairways. Some of these buildings are provided with but a single stairway, and where there are two or more they are generally located so near together that a fire which would render any of them useless as an avenue of escape would be very likely to do so with all. In many cases, also, these stairways are located near elevators, which are most potent aids to the rapid progress of fire. While it is not the province of the State to require that these faults and defects in the construction of buildings shall be remedied, it is unquestionably within the rightful powers of the State to demand that the security which the builders have failed to provide shall be supplied in some other way, and a thorough system of fire-escapes is the only other practicable method. The use of straight ladders, as a substitute for some improved fire-escape, on buildings over two stories high, should not be allowed, since they are worse than useless as a means of escape. Not one in twenty who should attempt to reach the ground in this way would get there in safety. They might escape the fire only to find death or permanent injuries from being precipitated to the earth below.

The great pertinency of these remarks was brought forcibly to the notice of the people of the State by two horrible casualties which occurred in Cincinnati during

the spring of 1885: one the burning of Dreman & Co.'s rag-factory, by which nine lives were lost, the other the burning of the building on West Sixth street, occupied by the Parisian Dyeing and Scouring Company and the Sullivan steamprinting establishment, by which sixteen lives were sacrificed, and several persons seriously wounded, if not maimed for life. In both these holocausts most if not all of the lives lost could have been saved had the buildings been provided with properly constructed fire-escapes.

In my judgment the most secure and effective plan is that of a balcony on each story, with incline ladders extending from one another between the windows. Persons descending on ladders thus placed avoid the flames that issue from the windows, are in no danger of falling, and by the exercise of the simplest care in their movements may make their escape unscathed. I found Cincinnati to be a great field of labor, and during the necessarily short time that I was there I ordered the erection of about fifty fire-escapes on shops and factories. In most cases these orders were complied with, but in several instances the agents for buildings refused to pay any attention to the demand of the Inspector that fireescapes should be supplied.

The law relating to this matter would seem to be sufficiently explicit in its requirements, and the penalties for violation ample to insure a universal compliance with it, but such is very far from being the fact.

In 1887 Chief-Inspector Dorn invented a fire-escape which has been pronounced by all experts to be the simplest and most practicable invention of the kind extant. It consists of a rectangular enclosure of brick, built from the foundations to the roof, and within the exterior walls of the building. This enclosure or well contains the stairways, access to which is had from balconies constructed on the outside of the building at the level of each floor. The balconies communicate by a door with each floor of the main building and by another door with the enclosure containing the stairways. By means of this arrangement the occupants of each floor can immediately pass out of the building on the same floor, and along the balcony to the stairway which, being entirely cut off from the interior of the entire building, would be perfectly free from flame or smoke, even if the whole building should be on fire.

This escape evidently obviates a serious objection to all others, viz., the fear people have of descending them, especially from very high buildings. This invention, the result of Mr. Dorn's ingenuity, has not been patented, owing to the humane desire of its inventor to make its adoption as universal and free from expense as possible."

On the subject of " child labor " Mr. Dorn says:

"The subject of child labor has engaged the earnest attention of publicists and philanthropists for generations, and in the general progress of ameliorating influences and agencies this matter has received a share of consideration. That it has not obtained that full measure of regard which its great importance merits will not be seriously questioned by any one whose experience or observation give him authority to speak.

Legislation has bravely sought to baffle the cupidity and selfishness of those who would profit by the labor of children, but its success has been only partial and irregular, and throughout this enlightened nation thousands of children of tender years are now laboring ten and twelve hours a day in shops and factories, the great majority of whom should be acquainted with no severer tasks than those of the school and the home.

Ohio, I regret to say, has her full share of guilt in this matter, the statute relating to the employment of children under sixteen years of age being freely and persistently violated, for the obvious reason that no adequate means are provided for its enforcement.

In visiting the different shops and factories in the regular course of my duties I made it a part of my inquiries to ascertain the extent to which children were employed, and in many places I found children of nine or ten years of age performing labor that should give employment to adults, or at least to minors who have passed the period of childhood, and might properly be expected to earn their own livelihood. In the cigar-factories of Cincinnati I found a great number of children employed, the demand for this class of workers being at that time.

probably exceptionally large, owing to the strike of the cigar-makers. I also found many young children in chair-factories in different parts of the State, where they worked at polishing and painting chair-frames and making cane-seats. They were also found in printing-offices, nickel-plating works, paper-box-factories, match-factories, etc.

While it is true that much of the work required of children thus employed is not of a severely exacting nature, yet it must be maintained that the practice of subjecting young children to a daily round of labor for which they receive a mere pittance in the form of wages is a wrong alike to the children and to the State, and wholly antagonistic to the enlightened and liberal sentiment of this

age.

The tens of thousands of children throughout the country who are in this way deprived of the opportunity to obtain as much of an education as would enable them, when grown to adult age, to understand the obligations of citizenship, is a dark blot upon our character as a people, for which our advanced civilization and wonderful material progress do not atone. It is true that ample provision is made for securing to every child in the State at least an elementary education, but the State is still derelict if it fails to compel those in whose behalf such provision is made to take full advantage of it. Now it is sufficient to declare, in the form of a statute, that this must be done. Laws do not enforce themselves. There must be an active, energetic, and vigilant executive force behind them, fully armed with the power to put them into effect.

There is hardly any limit to what may be said upon this subject, but the object in referring to it here is simply to bring it to the thought and attention of the legislative power, and not to give to it elaborate discussion. Such discussion, indeed, it cannot need with intelligent men, who intuitively understand that the intellectual and moral training of the youth of the commonwealth is of far greater importance to its future welfare than can be any consideration relating to its merely material affairs. But the policy of controlling and restricting child labor finds approval as well upon economic as upon moral grounds. There is no gain to the general welfare from this class of ill-remunerated toil. Its products are not materially, if at all, cheapened to the consumer. The profit is reaped by the employers, and it is the heartless cupidity of this class, incidentally aided by the improvidence of parents, that is responsible for the extensive prevalence of child labor. To successfully combat this sordid instinct there is required something more aggressive than a simple statutory declaration of hostility. As previously observed, there must be a zealous and vigilant executive force, amply supported behind the declaration."

During the first six months after the enactment of the law for the inspection of workshops and factories Mr. Dorn visited 487 establishments, with a working capacity of 45,511 males and 4,808 females. Letters from many of the leading manufacturers and business men of the State were received, congratulating him on the success of his efforts, and expressing their approbation of his recommendations, and asking for a vigorous prosecution of the good work and the rigid enforcement of the law.

The work performed by Mr. Dorn was remarkable in its extent and efficiency, and it was only by his perfect system of conducting the affairs of his office that so much was accomplished. The appropriation was so small in consideration of the work necessary for the enforcement of the law as to almost defeat its own object, and in closing his first report Mr. Dorn called the attention of the Legislature to the necessity of an increased appropriation, as follows:

"To carry on the office so as to do justice to all interests there should be at least three deputy-inspectors appointed. One inspector cannot do the work as thoroughly and satisfactorily as it should be done.

An appropriation should also be made by the General Assembly to create a contingent fund outside of the travelling expenses.

So far the Inspector has had to use a portion of his own salary for defraying necessary expenses, such as postage, telegrams, express charges, and many other items too numerous to mention.

The Inspector would also recommend the striking out of the word "ten" in section 2873a, where it says, "whose duty it shall be to visit all factories and