separate room in which the women can dress, wash and lunch, separate water closets for the two sexes, and that seats for females must be furnished. Finally, provision is made for the appointment of a female inspector by the chief justice of the state to enforce the provisions of the act. She is required to report annually to the chief justice. Her salary is but $300.

NEBRASKA. The law of March 31, 1887, creating a bureau of labor in Nebraska, provided that it should be a part of the duty of the commissioner of that bureau to visit industrial establishments and see that the laws in respect to child labor, hours of labor for women and children, fire escapes, and similar enactments were enforced. As no provision for deputy inspectors was made, no effort to carry out a system of the inspection of factories was ever attempted.

WASHINGTON.-The legislation of the state of Washington is similar to that of Nebraska. By the law of March 3, 1897, provision was made for the appointment of a commissioner and an assistant commissioner of labor to act as factory, mill and railroad inspector." These officers were given the duties, among others, of enforcing the laws relating to the employment of women and children and having for their purpose the protection of the lives and health of employees. It is doubtful if any effective system of factory inspection can be created under this law.

TENNESSEE. Such a slight measure of factory inspection has been provided for in Tennessee that the barest mention will be sufficient. The act of March 21, 1891, creating the bureau of labor and mining statistics, also makes it the duty of the commissioner to inspect factories and workshops. As the power of the commissioner is limited to investigation, and his time is so largely taken up with his other duties, practically nothing is accomplished in the way of real factory inspection work.

CALIFORNIA.-In California provision for a measure of factory inspection was made by a law passed in 1889. This

law made it obligatory on factory owners to keep their establishments in a clean and hygienic condition, to guard against the formation of dust, to provide seats for females where practicable, etc. Another law passed in the same year regulated the employment of children. The enforcement of both of these laws was made a part of the duties of the commissioner of labor, and to that extent this officer serves as a factory inspector, though there seems to be no express provision of law requiring him to visit industrial establishments.

WEST VIRGINIA.-The act of 1889 creating a state bureau of labor in West Virginia provided that the commissioner of labor should" once at least in each year visit and inspect the principal factories and workshops of the state, and shall on complaint or request of any three or more reputable citizens, visit and inspect any place where labor is employed, and make true report of the result of his inspection." He is then directed to report any infraction of the law that he may discover to the state's attorney for prosecution. As this law, however, contains absolutely no provisions regulating labor, and there are no other laws of this character in the state, it would seem that the commissioner has, properly speaking, no duties under this law, and the state consequently no effective system of factory inspection.

KANSAS.-In 1899 Kansas reorganized her bureau of labor. The chief of this bureau is styled both commissioner of labor and state inspector of factories, and, as these two designations indicate, has the twofold duty of collecting statistics of labor and inspecting factories. He is directed to enforce all the labor laws of the state.

In the foregoing history of the organization of factory inspection in the individual states, special attention has been given to the kind of administrative organization that has in each case been selected. This is one of the most important considerations involved in the question of factory inspection, for on it depends to a large extent the effectiveness of the system that has been adopted. Eleven of these states

-Maine, Michigan, Missouri, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Washington, California, West Virginia, Kansas and Tennessee-have connected the duty of inspection with the bureau of labor statistics. The adoption of this policy is in every way regrettable. An inspection service, to accomplish the best results, should be absolutely independent of all other work.

The function of the factory inspector is to see that certain laws relating to the conduct of labor in factories are enforced, and to do this he should possess a certain technical knowledge, such as that relating to machinery, hygiene, ventilation, construction of buildings, etc. The duties of the commissioner of labor are to collect facts and present them properly. The greatest objection to joining the two offices, however, is not that it is difficult to find a man with the mental equipment for them both, but that the two classes of duties are largely antagonistic. The labor commissioner has to depend on the good will of the employers for his information, while the inspector has frequently to oppose the latter's wishes.

The advisability of an independent inspection service can not be shown better than by reproducing the remarks of the chief factory inspector of New York concerning the proposition to combine the three services of the bureau of labor statistics, the board of arbitration and office of factory inspection.

Such a plan, if carried out, would be to the detriment of the work of factory inspection. The duties of a factory inspector are of a police nature. He must see that certain provisions and restrictions of law are obeyed; that children of certain ages must not be employed; that guards must be attached to dangerous machines; that women and children shall not work during certain hours; that unsafe buildings must be made secure, and a score of other matters, concerning all of which he must exercise the compulsory arbitrary powers of the state. In case of refusal to comply with his orders, it devolves upon him to swear out warrants for the arrest of the delinquent persons and prosecute them to the full extent of the law. These duties, which are only briefly outlined, are not compatible with the work of gathering statistics and arbitrating differences between employers and employed,

especially as the work of factory inspection may oftentimes bring him into contact, if not into conflict, with the very persons to whom appeals must be made for reliable statistics or on whose sense of fairness must rest the conciliatory policy of arbitrating wage or other difficulties in labor controversies . . . It will thus be seen that the duties of the commissioners of statistics and arbitration and those of the factory inspector are in no way harmonious and are in many respects antagonistic and dissimilar.

Experience has more than demonstrated the correctness of this reasoning. In those states in which factory inspection has been joined to the bureau of labor relatively slight results have been accomplished, and one might almost say that a real system of factory inspection exists only in the 10 states of Massachusetts, New Jersey, Ohio, New York, Illinois, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Michigan and Rhode Island, which have independent inspection services. We now turn to a consideration of the character of the work that has been assigned to factory inspectors; in other words, to their duties and powers. In the historical sketch of the development of factory inspection no attempt was made to state all of the duties that were placed on factory inspectors in each state. Only such were specified as tended to show the growth of the service in each state. In the following table the attempt has been made, after a careful examination of the laws relating to factory inspection, or laws the enforcement of which is intrusted to state officials, to present in a concise form the duties of inspectors in each of the twenty states. The adoption of this method of presentation makes it possible to compare at a glance the extent of the services in the different states. This table, of course, only indicates the extent of the duties of inspection, but throws no light on the efficiency with which they are performed. Thus a state that has enumerated but a few duties may provide for an adequate force of inspectors and really accomplish more valuable results than another state with an elaborate inspection law, but inadequate provisions for its enforcement.

DUTIES OF FACTORY INSPECTORS IN THE UNITED STATES.

This table does not pretend to show absolutely all the duties of factory inspectors. Frequently the laws are so