The full text on this page is automatically extracted from the file linked above and may contain errors and inconsistencies.
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
JAMES J. DAVIS, Secretary
BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS
ETHELBERT STEWART, Commissioner
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES 1
M ^ C OA
BUREAU OF LABOR S T A T IS T IC S /................... llO. OOV
M I S C E L L A N E O U S
S E R I E S
ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTAL
OFFICIALS IN INDUSTRY OF THE
UNITED STATES AND CANADA
SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL CONVENTION
LOUISVILLE, KY., MAY 20-23
1930
NOVEMBER, 1930
UNITED STATES
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE .
WASHINGTON: 1930
For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, Washington, D. C.
Price 25 cents
CONTENTS
Page
Officers, 1929-30_________________________________________________
Constitution____________________________________________________
Development of Association of Governmental Officials in Industry___
vi
vi
ix
WEDNESDAY, MAY 21—MORNING SESSION
Business Session—Maud Swett, President Association of Governmental Officials
in Industry, Presiding
Committees appointed___________________________________________
Report of secretary-treasurer, May 30, 1929, to May 20, 1930_________
Reports on new labor legislation from member States and Provinces____
Arkansas___________________________________________________
California__________________________________________________
Kansas____ ________________________________________________
Kentucky----------------- ----- ---------------------------------------------------- Massachusetts____ ______________________________ ____________
New Jersey_________________________________________________
New York________________________ ____ - ___________________
North Dakota______________________________________________
Ohio_______________________________________________________
Ontario_______________ _____________________________________
Pennsylvania. _______________________________________________
Quebec........— ----- -------------- ----------------------------------------------West Virginia_____________ ________________________________ Alabama___________________________________________________
Discussion______________________________________________
John Roach, of New Jersey.
Ethelbert Stewart, of Washington, D. C.
E. Leroy Sweetser, of Massachusetts.
James L. Gernon, of New York.
Report of calendar reform committee_______________________________
Provision for program committee__________________________________
State supervision of employment agencies___________________________
Statistics of employment_________________________________________
Program for statistics of employment and unemployment in the
United States_________________________________ 1__________
1
2
3
3
4
7
8
8
9
10
15
15
16
16
18
18
18
19
20
20
20
21
21
WEDNESDAY, MAY 21—AFTERNOON SESSION
Uniformity in Labor Legislation—E. Leroy Sweetser, Commissioner Massachu
setts Department of Labor and Industries, Presiding
Some problems and methods of State uniform labor legislation, by Leifur
Magnusson, American representative, International Labor Office_____
Need for uniformity in labor industrial relations laws and administration,
by Newton Bright, commissioner department of agriculture, labor, and
statistics, Kentucky____________________________________________
Discussion__________________________________________________
Ethelbert Stewart, of Washington, D. C.
Isabelle M. Summers, of New Jersey.
James L. Gernon, of New York.
HI
26
33
39
IV
COKTEKTS
THURSDAY, MAY 22—MORNING SESSION
Factory Inspection, Safety, and Sanitation— Eugene B. Patton, New York De
partment of Labor, Presiding
Inspection of industrial establishments, by James L. Gernon, director
bureau of inspection, department of labor, New York________________
Methods of factory inspection, by Thomas C. Devine, chief division of
factory inspection, department of industrial relations, Ohio__________
Methods of factory inspection, by M. F. Nicholson, chief inspector division
of factory inspection, department of labor, Tennessee_______________
Discussion__________________________________________________
Eugene B. Patton, of New York.
James H. H. Ballantyne, of Ontario.
John Roach, of New Jersey.
Henry McColl, of Minnesota.
Public interest in labor-law administration, by John B. Andrews, secretary
American Association for Labor Legislation_______________________
Discussion______________ ___________________________________
Edward F. Seiller, of Kentucky.
John B. Andrews, of New York.
Isabelle M. Summers, of New Jersey
James H. H. Ballantyne, of Ontario.
E. Leroy Sweetser, of Massachusetts.
Page
42
50
53
56
59
62
THURSDAY, MAY 22—AFTERNOON SESSION
Safety Codes—W . A. Rooksbery, Commissioner Arkansas Bureau of Labor,
Presiding
State and national aspects of the safety code movement, by P. G. Agnew,
secretary American Standards Association_________________________
Report of committee appointed to study the relation of the Association of
Governmental Officials in Industry to safety regulations, safety codes,
etc----------------------------------------------------------------------------------•____
Reports of representatives of Association of Governmental Officials in
Industry on safety code committees______________________________
Safety codes, by John Roach, deputy commissioner of labor, New Jersey
Department of Labor__________________________________________
Discussion______________________________ ___________________
John B. Andrews, of New York.
Ethelbert Stewart, of Washington, D. C.
James L. Gernon, of New York.
64
70
82
85
89
THURSDAY, MAY 22—EVENING SESSION
Administration of Labor Laws for Women and Children—Mary Anderson,
Director United States Women's Bureau, Presiding
Problems confronting an inspector, by Edward F. Seiller, chief labor in
spector, Louisville, Ky_________________________________________
Reasons for labor laws protecting women and children, by Frieda S.
Miller, director New York Bureau of Women in Industry___________
Discussion__________________________________________________
E. Leroy Sweetser, of Massachusetts.
Frieda S. Miller, of New York.
Isabelle M. Summers, of New Jersey.
Ethelbert Stewart, of Washington, D. C.
Louie Brown, of Kentucky.
Eugene B. Patton, of New York.
James H. H. Ballantyne, of Ontario.
90
96
99
FRIDAY, MAY 23—MORNING SESSION
Trends of Problems in Industry—James H. H. Ballantyne, Deputy Minister
Ontario Department of Labor, Presiding
Methods of adjusting industrial disputes in Canada, by F. J. Plant, chief
labor intelligence branch, Ontario Department of Labor_____________
Age and employability, by B. C. Seiple, commissioner of employment,
Cleveland, Ohio________________________________ ______________
Labor camps, by Russell J. Eldridge, director bureau of employment, New
Jersey________________________________________________________
101
107
118
CONTENTS
V
Business Session—Mand Swett, President Association of Governmental Officials
in Industry* Presiding
Page
Report of committee on officers’ reports____________________________
Report of committee on constitution__________________________ ____
Report of committee on resolutions________________________________
Place of next meeting____________________________________________
Election of officers_______________________________________________
Honorary life members___________________________________________
123
124
124
125
125
125
APPENDIXES
A p p e n d i x A . —Association
of Governmental Officials in Industry Repre
sentation on safety code projects__________________________ *_____
A p p e n d i x B.—List of persons who attended the seventeenth annual con
vention of the Association of Governmental Officials in Industry____
126
128
OFFICERS, 1929-30
President.—Maud Swett, Milwaukee, Wis.
First vice president.— James H. H. Ballantyne, Toronto, Ontario.
Second vice president.—W. A. Rooksbery, Little Rock, Ark.
Third vice president.—E. Leroy Sweetser, Boston, Mass.
Fourth* vice president.— Eugene B. Patton, New York, N. Y.
Fifth vice president—Judge T. E. Whitaker, Atlanta, Ga.
Secretary-treasurer.—Louise E. Schutz, St. Paul, Minn.
CONSTITUTION
Adopted at Chicago, 111., May 20, 1924; amended August 15, 1925; June 3, 1927;
May 24, 1928; May 23, 1930
A r t ic l e
I
Section 1. Name.— This organization shall be known as the Association of
Governmental Officials in Industry of the United States and Canada.1
A r t ic l e
II
Section 1. Objects.—To encourage the cooperation of all branches of Federal,
State, and Provincial Governments who are charged with the administration
of laws and regulations for the protection of women and children, and the
safety and welfare of all workers in industry; to maintain and promote the
best possible standards of law enforcement and administrative method; to
act as a medium for the interchange of information for and by the members
of the association in all matters pertaining to the general welfare of men,
women, and young workers in industry; to aid in securing the best possible
education for minors which will enable them to adequately meet the constantly
changing industrial and social changes; to promote the enactment of legis
lation that conforms to and deals with the ever recurring changes that take
place in industry, and in rendering more harmonious relations in industry
between employers and employees; to assist in providing greater and better
safeguards to life and limb of industrial workers, and to cooperate with other
agencies in making the best and safest use of property devoted to industrial
purposes; to secure by means of educational methods, a greater degree of
interstate and interprovincial uniformity in the enforcement of labor laws
and regulations; to assist in the establishment of standards of industrial
safety that will give adequate protection to workers; to encourage Federal,
State, and Provincial labor departments to cooperate in compiling and dis
seminating statistics dealing with employment, unemployment, earnings, hours
of labor, and other matters of interest to industrial workers and of importance
to the welfare of women and children; to collaborate and cooperate with asso
ciations of employers and associations of employees in order that all of these
matters may be given the most adequate consideration; and to promote national
prosperity and international good will by correlating as far as possible the
activities of the members of this association.
A rticle III
Section 1. Membership.—The active membership o f this association shall
consist of—
(a)
Members of the United States Department of Labor, United States
Bureau of Mines, and the Department of Labor of the Dominion of Canada;
^Name changed May 24, 1928.
VI
CONSTITUTION
YH
such representatives of the bureaus or departments of the United States or
Canada being restricted by law from paying dues into this association may be
members with all privileges o f voice and vote, but are not eligible for election
to office. They may serve on committees.
(&) Members of State and Provincial departments o f labor.
(c) Members of Federal, State, or Provincial employment services.
Sec. 2. Honorary members.—Any person who has rendered service while con
nected with any Federal, State, and Provincial department of labor, and the
American representative o f the International Labor Office, may be elected to
honorary membership by a unanimous vote of the executive board.
Sec. 3. Associate membership.— Any individual, organization, or corporation
interested in and working along the lines o f the object o f this association may
become an associate member o f this association by the unanimous vote o f the
executive board.
A rticle IV
Section 1. Officers.—The officers o f this association shall be a president, a
first, second, third, fourth, and fifth vice president, and a secretary-treasurer.
These officers shall constitute the executive board.
Sec. 2. Election of officers.— Such officers shall be elected from the members
at the regular annual business meeting o f the association by a m ajority ballot
and shall hold office fo r one year, or until their successors are elected and
qualified.
Sec. 3. The officers shall be elected from representatives o f the active mem
bership of the association, except as otherwise stated in Article III.
A rticle V
Section 1. Duties of the officers.—The president shall preside at all meetings
of the association and the executive board, preserve order during its delibera
tions, appoint all committees, and sign all records, vouchers, or other documents
in connection with the work o f the association.
Sec. 2. The vice presidents, in order named, shall perform the duties o f the
president in his absence.
Sec. 3. The secretary-treasurer shall have charge of all books, papers, records,
and other documents of the association; shall receive and have charge of all
dues and other moneys; shall keep* a full and complete record of all receipts and
disbursements; shall keep the minutes of all meetings of the association and
the executive board; shall conduct all correspondence pertaining to the office;
shall compile statistics and other data as may be required for the use of the
members of the association; and shall perform such other duties as may be
directed by the convention or the executive board. The secretary-treasurer
shall present a detailed written report of receipts and expenditures to the
convention; shall pay out no money until a voucher has been issued and signed
by the president. The secretary-treasurer shall publish the proceedings of the
convention within four months after the close of the convention, the issue
to consist of such numbers o f copies as the executive board may direct. The
secretary-treasurer shall receive such salary as the executive board may decide,
but not less than $300 per year.
Sec. 4. In the event o f a vacancy in any office, the executive board may elect
a successor: Provided, The president shall be succeeded by the ranking vice
president.
Sec. 5. The business o f the association between conventions shall be conducted
by the executive board, and all questions coming before the board shall be de
cided by a m ajority vote, except that o f the election o f honorary members,
which shall be by unanimous vote.
A rticle VI
S ection 1. Finances.—The revenues of the association shall be derived from
annual dues determined on the following basis: (a) Federal, State, or Provin
cial departments of labor, when the department staff consists of 1 to 5 persons,
$10; 6 to 25 persons, $15; 26 to 75 persons, $25; more than 75 persons, $50.
The executive board may order an assessment levied upon affiliated depart
ments not to exceed one year’s dues.
Sec. 2. The annual fee of associate members shall be $2.
CONSTITUTION
VIII
A rticle VII
S ection 1. Who entitled to vote.—All active members shall be entitled to vote
on all questions coming before the meeting of the association as hereinafter
provided.
Sec. 2. In electing officers of the association, State departments of labor rep
resented by several delegates shall only be entitled to one vote. The delegates
from such departments must select one person from their representatives to cast
the vote of the group.
The various bureaus of the United States Department o f Labor and the
Department of Labor o f Canada may each be entitled to one vote.
The rule for electing officers shall apply to the vote for selecting convention
city.
A rticle VIII
Section 1. Meetings.—The association shall meet at least once annually at
such time and place as the association in convention may select. The date of
the annual meeting shall be decided by the executive board unless otherwise
ordered by the convention.
A rticle IX
Section 1. Program.—The program committee shall consist of the president,
the secretary-treasurer, and the head of the department of the State or Province
within which the convention is to be held, and they shall prepare and publish
the convention programs of the association.
Sec. 2. The committee on program shall set aside at least one session of the
convention as a business session, at which session the regular order of business,
election of officers, and selection of convention city shall be taken up, and no
other business shall be considered at that session until the “ regular order ” has
been completed.
A rticle X
Section 1. Rules o f order.— The deliberations o f the convention shall be
governed by “ Cushing’s Manual.”
A rticle X I
Section 1. Amendments.—Amendments to the constitution must be filed with
the secretary-treasurer in triplicate and referred to the committee on constitu
tion and by-laws. A two-thirds vote of all delegates shall be required to adopt
any amendment.
A rticle X II
Section 1. Order of business.—
1. Roll call of members by States and Provinces.
2. Appointment of committees.
(а ) Committee of five on officers* reports.
(б) Committee of five on resolutions.
(c ) Committee o f three on constitution and by-laws.
(d) Special committees.
3. Reports of officers.
4. Reports of States and Provinces.
5. Reports of committees.
6. Unfinished business.
7. New business.
8. Selection of place of meeting.
9. Election of officers.
10. Adjournment.
DEVELOPMENT OF THE ASSOCIATION
IX
DEVELOPMENT OF THE ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTAL
OFFICIALS IN INDUSTRY1
ASSOCIATION OF CHIEFS AND OFFICIALS OF BUREAUS OF LABOR
No.
1
?
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
1?
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
flO
?1
n
?3
?4
25
Date
Convention held at—
President
September, 1883______
.Tiinp, 1884 __________
June, 1885....................
JiiTifi, 1886 ______ __ ,
Jima, 1887 ...............
May, 1888....................
June, 1889___________
1890..............................
May, 1891....................
May, 1892....................
1893..............................
May, 1894...................
September, 1895______
Jiitip, 1896
May, 1897....................
Jnnfi, 1898
___
July, 1899.....................
July, 1900.....................
May, 1901....................
April, 1902...................
April, 1903...................
July, 1904___________
September, 1905______
July, 1906___________
July, 1907....................
August, 1908_________
June, 1909___________
Columbus, Ohio_______
St. Louis, M o_________
Boston, Mass_________
Trenton, N. J_________
Madison, W is ________
Indianapolis, Ind...........
Hartford, Conn________
Des Moines, Iowa_____
Philadelphia, Pft______
Denver, Colo_____ ____
Albany, N. Y .................
Washington, T),f!
Minneapolis, Minn........
Albany, N. Y .................
Nashville, Term, „
Detroit, Mich_________
Augusta, Me__________
Milwaukee, Wis_______
St. Louis, M o_________
New Orleans, La............
Washington, D. C .........
Concord, N. H ...............
San Francisco, Calif___
Boston, Mass_________
Norfolk, Va___________
Detroit, Mich_________
Rochester, N. Y .............
H. A. Newman..............
____do........ ............... .
Carroll D. Wright..........
....... do..............................
____do________________
....... do........ ....................
....... do____ ___________
No meeting___________
Carroll D. Wright..........
Charles F. Peck.............
Henry Luskey.
Do.
John S. Lord.
E. R. Hutchins.
Do.
Do.
Carroll D. Wright.........
....... do________________
....... do..............................
....... do.............................
____d o ..______________
____do__ _____________
____do________________
____do________________
____d o . . . _____________
. .... d o .............................
____do.................. ...........
....... do..............................
Charles P. Neill.............
____do..................... ........
....... do..............................
L. G. Powers.
Do.
Samuel B. Horne.
Do.
Do.
Do.
James M . Clark.
Do.
Do.
Do.
Do.
W. L. A. Johnson.
Do.
Do.
Do.
Do.
Secretary-treasurer
Do.
Frank H. Betton.
Do.
INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF FACTORY INSPECTORS
No.
Date
1 June, 1887___________
2 August, 1888..._. . . _
3 August, 1889_________
4 August, 1890_________
5 August, 1891. _______
6 September, 1892______
7 September, 1893______
8 September, 1894 _____
9 September, 1895______
10 September, 1896..........
11 August and Septem
ber, 1897.
12 September, 1898______
13 August, 1899_________
14 October, 1900 _______
15 September, 1901______
16 December, 1902______
17 August, 1903................
September, 1904______
18
19 August, 1905_________
20 June, 1906___________
June, 1907___________
21
22 June, 1908___________
23 June, 1909___________
Convention held at—
President
Philadelphia, Pa______
Boston, Mass_________
Trenton, N. J_________
Nfew York, N. Y ............
Cleveland, Ohio_______
Hartford, Conn________
Chicago, 111....................
Philadelphia, Pa______
Providence, R. I ______
Toronto, Canada______
Detroit, Mich_________
Rufus R. Wade_______
____do________________
....... do.......................... -
Boston, Mass_________
Quebec, Canada_______
Indianapolis, Ind______
Niagara Falls, N. Y
Charleston, S. C _______
Montreal, Canada_____
St, Louis, M o_________
Detroit, Mich_________
Columbus, Ohio_______
Hartford, Conn________
Toronto, Canada______
Rochester, N. Y ........... .
Secretary-treasurer
Henry Dorn.
Do.
Do.
John Franey__________ Mary A. O’Reilly.
____d o ............................. Evan H. Davis.
Rufus R. Wade..........
____ do________________
Alzina P. Stevens.
Joseph L. Cox.
James Mitchell________ Davis F. Spees.
Daniel H. McAbee_____
Do.
Edgar T. Davies....... .... C. V. Hartsell.
Malcolm J. McLead___ Thos. Keity.
John H. Morgan_______
Do.
George L. McLean_____
Do.
James T. Burke_______
Do.
JOINT MEETING OF THE ASSOCIATION OF CHIEFS AND OFFICIALS OF BUREAUS
OF LABOR AND INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF FACTORY INSPECTORS
No.
Date
24
August, 1910________
25
26
27
Convention held at—
Hendersonville, N. C.,
and Columbia, S. C.
September, 1911______ Lincoln, Nebr_________
September, 1912______ Washington, D. C _____
May, 1913.................... Chicago, 111.....................
President
J. Ellery Hudson...........
E. J. Watson.
Louis Guyon__________ W. W. Williams.
Edgar T. Davies...........
Do.
A. L. Garrett_________ W. L. Mitchell.
1 Known as Association of Governmental Labor Officials, 1914-1927.
Secretary-treasurer
X
DEVELOPMENT OF THE ASSOCIATION
ASSOCIATION OP GOVERNMENTAL OFFICIALS IN INDUSTRY1
Resulting1 from the Amalgamation of the Association of Chiefs and officials of Bureaus of
Labor and the International Association of Factory Inspectors
No,
Date
June, 1914______
June-July, 1915..
July, 1916______
September, 1917..
June, 1918...........
June, 1919............
July, 1920............
May, 1921.......... .
May, 1922.......... .
May, 1923.......... .
May, 1924......... .
August, 1925___
June, 1926......... .
May-June, 1927..
May, 1928______
June, 1929______
17 May, 1930..
Convention held at—
President
Nashville, Tenn ______
Detroit, Mich..... ........
Buffalo, N. Y ..............
Asheville, N. C ...........
Des Moines, Iowa.......
Madison, Wis............. .
Seattle, Wash..............
New Orleans, La.........
Harrisburg, Pa............
Richmond, Va............
Chicago, 111.................
Salt Lake City, Utah.,
Columbus, Ohio.........
Paterson, N. J............
New Orleans, La........ .
Toronto, Canada........
Louisville, K y _______
Barney Cohen,
.do.
James V. Cunningham..
Oscar Nelson.................
Edwin Mulready..........
C. H. Younger.......... ....
Geo. P. Hambrecht____
Frank E. Hoffman........
Frank E. Wood—..........
C. B. Connelley..........
John Hopkins Hall, jr...
George B. Arnold..........
H. R. Witter.................
John S. B. D a v ie .........
H. M. Stanley...............
/Andrew F. M cBride2__
\Maud Swett..................
Maud Swett_____ _____
i Known as Association of Governmental Labor Officials, 1914-1927.
* Doctor McBride resigned in March, 1929.
Secretary-treasurer
W. L. Mitchell.
John T. Fitzpatrick.
Do.
Do.
Linna E. Bresette.
Do.
Do.
Do.
Do.
Louise E. Schutz.
Do.
Do.
Do.
Do.
Do.
\ Do.
Do.
BULLETIN OF THE
U. S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS
WASHINGTON
n o . 530
N o v e m b e r , 1930
PROCEEDINGS OF THE SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL CONVENTION OF THE
ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTAL OFFICIALS IN INDUSTRY OF THE
UNITED STATES AND CANADA, LOUISVILLE, KY., MAY 20-23, 1930
The seventeenth annual convention of the Association of Govern
mental Officials in Industry of the United States and Canada opened
on the evening of Tuesday, May 20, 1930, at the Brown Hotel, with
an informal dinner which was given for visiting delegates by the
Kentucky Department of Labor. In the absence of Mr. Newton
Bright, commissioner of agriculture, labor, and statistics of Ken
tucky, Mr. Edward F. Seiller, chief labor inspector, Louisville, Ky.,
presided. Mr. Seiller introduced the mayor of Louisville, who, in
closing his address, suggested “ that when we begin to consider
labor, not as a commodity but as humanity, we shall have made
some progress.” Miss Maud Swett, president of the association,
responded to the address of welcome.
An address on the subject of “ Problems of Unemployment55 was
made by Paul Douglas, acting director of the Swarthmore unem
ployment study, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, Pa.
WEDNESDAY, MAY 21—MORNING SESSION
Maud Swett, President Association of Governmental Officials in Industry,
Presiding
BUSINESS SESSION
After the roll call of members, by States and Provinces, the presi
dent of the association gave an address, and the following committees
were appointed:
Officers’ reports: Frank J. Plant, Mrs. Daisy Gulick, Joseph
Kitchen, James Southall, James Reagin.
Resolutions: Charles R. Blunt, Henry McColl, Ruth Scandrett,
Ethelbert Stewart, Agnes Peterson.
Constitution and by-laws: E. Leroy Sweetser, W. A. Rooksbery,
T. E. Whitaker, E. F. Seiller.
The secretary-treasurer read numerous letters and telegrams
received from the members who could not be present and from
governors of various States, and submitted her report, as follows:
1
2
17TH ANNUAL MEETING OP A. G. O. I.
REPORT OF SECRETARY-TREASURER, MAY 30, 1929, TO MAY 30, 1930
BALANCE AND RECEIPTS
Funds on hand May 30, 1929:
Checking account_____________________________________ $115. 41
Savings account_______________________________________
315. 60
------------- $431.01
Receipts for fiscal year ending July 1,1929 (interest and dues):
1929
June 6. Iowa________________________________________
15. 00
21. Kentucky___________________________________
10. 00
24. Washington_________________________________
25. 00
July 1. Interest on savings account__________________
3. 30
1. Nova Scotia_________________________________
10. 00
15. 00
3. Manitoba___________________________________
6. Colorado____________- _______________________
15. 00
8. Alberta_____________________________________
10. 00
13. Delaware____________________________________
10. 00
Oct. 4. Michigan____________________________________
15. 00
Receipts for fiscal year ending July 1,1930 (interest and dues):
1929
Sept. 19. Oklahoma___________________________________
10. 00
Nov. 1. Virginia_____________________________________
15. 00
4. New Hampshire_____________________________
10. 00
22. Georgia Industrial Commission______________
10. 00
22. International Labor Office___________________
10. 00
23. Ontario_____________________________________
15. 00
Dec. 4. New York___________________________________
50. 00
9. New Jersey__________________________________
25. 00
9. Kansas______________________________________
15. 00
1930
Jan. 2. Interest on savings account__________________
. 65
6. Arkansas____________________________________
10. 00
20. Nova Scotia_________________________________
10. 00
20. Manitoba___________________________________
15. 00
20. Kentucky____________________________ ______
10. 00
31. Wisconsin__________________________________ _
50. 00
25. 00
31. Canada_____________________________________
Feb. 3. Alberta_____________________________________
10. 00
7. Minnesota___________________________________
25. 00
10. Illinois______________________________________
15. 00
10. Pennsylvania________________________________
50. 00
25. 00
18. Washington_________________________________
19. Delaware____________________________________
10. 00
Apr. 3. Interest on savings account__________________
1. 21
25. Massachusetts_______________________________
50. 00
26. Georgia Industrial Commission______________
15. 00
------------610. 16
Total................................................................... 1, 041. 17
d is b u r s e m e n t s
1929
June 13. Postage, $5; telegram to James Ballantyne, $1.05________
6. 05
18.
Nelson Butcher, official stenographer for Toronto convention.176. 50
July 3. Partial payment honorarium, 1928-29, L. E. Schutz ($40
from checking account, $140 from savings)_____________
180. 00
8. Telegram to Maud Swett______________________________
.42
31. Balance on honorarium, Louise Schutz, 1928-29__________ '
120. 00
Aug. 19. Postage, registered package, Washington------------------------1. 15
Sept. 10. 2,000 letterheads, Chase Printing Co____________________
19. 40
Nov. 13. Stamps_____________________________________________
2. 00
1930
Jan. 1. 1,000 large envelopes__________________________________
7. 50
2. Expenses of secretary-treasurer, October executive board
meeting at Buffalo__________________________________
99. 50
3
NEW LABOR LEGISLATION
1930
Jan. 6. Stamps____________________________________________ $3. 00
23.
D o____________________________________________ 3. 00
19.
D o____________________________________________ 3. 00
Apr. 2.
D o____________________________________________ 3. 00
5. 00
16.
D o________ ___________________________________
May 5.
D o____________________________________________ 2. 00
---------9. Stenographic service, Betty Holstrom_____________________
14. Stamps___________________________________________________
$19.00
15. 00
2. 00
Total disbursements________________________________
Balance on hand, savings account___________________________________
648. 52
392. 65
Total___________ _______ ____________________________________ 1, 041. 17
The secretary-treasurer reported that she wrote letters required by
resolutions adopted at the Toronto convention, June 4,1929, to differ
ent persons mentioned therein, thanking them for courtesies extended
to the delegates, etc.; that she wrote, as required by resolution No. 4,
a letter of condolence to the family of Frank Hoffman, of Minnesota,
past president of the association.
She also reported that in conformity with resolution No. 5 a com
mittee was appointed by the president, Miss Swett, to urge the
various States to adopt the safety codes of the American Standards
Association, and so to harmonize said laws and regulations that it
will be possible for machine-tool builders to safeguard equipment at
its source. The committee that was appointed consisted of Mr.
Chas. E. Baldwin, Washington, D. C., chairman; Mr. Murphy, Okla
homa; Mr. Voyta Wrabetz, Wisconsin; Mr. Campbell, Pennsylvania.
In accordance with the report of the committee on officers’ report
submitted at Toronto letters were sent to the governors of the various
States urging them to have representatives from the labor depart
ments at the next meeting of the association. She has carried on a
correspondence with labor officials throughout the United States and
Canada urging them to attend the convention. T w o formal letters
of announcement of the approaching convention were mailed out by
the secretary-treasurer.
At the suggestion of the secretary-treasurer, letters were sent by
Mr. Newton Bright, of the Department of Labor of Kentucky, to
governors of States urging attendance at the convention in Louis
ville. Favorable and appreciative letters in reply were received by
Mr. Bright from a number of individuals.
As vacancies have occurred on safety code committees of the
American Standards Association, or as new committees were formed
upon which it seemed advisable to have representation from the
Association of Governmental Officials in Industry, representatives
were appointed by the president through correspondence carried on
by the secretary-treasurer.
REPORTS ON NEW LABOR LEGISLATION FROM MEMBER STATES
AND PROVINCES
Arkansas.
Our legislature meets this coming January. The governor has employed a
research bureau in New York City to reorganize our State government. It
has been in our State some four months and will file its report in September,
and I think from the attitude of those who were there and in discussion with
the governor that it is going to be very beneficial to the department of labor.
4
17TH ANNUAL MEETING OF A. G. 0. I.
I think it is going to place in this department the enforcement of several laws
now enforced by other departments o f the State.
We have also organized a State safety council, which is doing some very good
work at the present time. The governor is in sympathy with all programs and
it seems that we are going to be able to do some very good work this coming
year.
California.
The following review shows some of the action of the California Legislature
during the 1927 and 1929 sessions:
During the forty-seventh session of the legislature (1927) the following
amendments to the payment of wages laws were passed:
The labor commissioner was authorized to bring civil suits for the collection
of penalties due the State from employers violating the semimonthly pay day
act; the legislature also authorized' the labor commissioner to accept and
receive such penalties from employers without court action.
Wage claimants were given the privilege o f levying execution on one-half of
the wages of a judgment debtor.
“ Theft of labor ” was made a felony offense in all cases where the amount
involved is over $200.
The law regulating advertisements during strikes was changed to make it
mandatory upon employers to indicate strike conditions even if the advertise
ment is inserted in a paper published in the same locality where the strike
exists, provided the paper is circulated outside of that locality. This amend
ment also makes it obligatory upon advertisers to insert their names in the
advertisement. The appearance of the name was made prima facie evidence
as to the firm, corporation, or association responsible for the advertisements.
The law regarding misrepresentation of conditions of employment was
enlarged to include cases o f misrepresentation o f the existence of work, or of
the length of time the work would last. The amendment to this law changed the
criminal penalty provision in order to make the law more readily enforceable.
The law relating to cash bonds was strengthened by the requirement that
unless the employee is intrusted with money or property of an equivalent value,
or is advanced goods or merchandise on a current open account, the bond money
must be deposited by the employer in a savings account to be drawn out only
upon the joint signatures of employer and employee.
The law regulating private employment agencies was strengthened as follow s:
The license fees of private employment agencies were made uniform accord
ing to the sizes of cities in which the agencies operate.
The penalty provision of the act was made clearer and more certain of
enforcement.
Organizations which collect employment agency fees under the guise of
membership dues, initiation fees, or tuition fees were brought under the pro
visions of the act.
Employment agencies were definitely prohibited from attempting to operate
on deposits or fees to which they were not entitled. This law makes it obli
gatory upon employment agencies to refund fees or deposits of applicants
for employment who do not secure jobs to which they are sent, and for which
they paid fees or deposits. Failure to return such fees or deposits within
48 hours makes the employment agency liable to the applicant for double the
amount of the fees or deposits.
Section 484 of the Penal Code was made more effective by providing that
the hiring of additional employees without advising each of them of every labor
NEW LABOR LEGISLATION
5
claim due and unpaid, and of every judgment the employer has been unable to
meet, shall be prima facie evidence of intent to defraud.
Section 3065 of the Civil Code, relating to loggers’ liens, was more clearly
worded in order further to safeguard the wages of loggers. This amendment
made loggers’ liens prior to all other liens, except a lien to the landowner for
stumpage.
The law establishing the 8-hour day on public works was amended so as to
require contractors to file a verified report as to the nature of any extraordinary
emergency when employees are permitted to work over eight hours per day,
and the failure to file such report was made prima facie evidence of violation
of the law.
Other labor laws passed were—
A law providing for the creation and management of credit unions.
A new law requiring sanitary facilities to be installed in operating rooms
of theaters and motion-picture houses.
An amendment to the workmen’s compensation law extending its coverage
to include all farm labor, unless either the employer or the employee* gives
written notice to the industrial accident commission o f his desire not to come
under the law.
A law creating a State board of barber examiners to prescribe minimum
standards of sanitation in barber shops and to license barbers.
At the forty-eighth session of the legislature (1929) the following enactments
were made:
The private employment agency law was amended to require employment
agents to insert, on the receipts issued to applicants for employment, the pro
vision of the law requiring the return of the fee or deposit of an unsuccessful
applicant upon demand, within 48 hours. The private employment agency law
was also extended to cover farm labor contractors.
The law establishing an 8-hour day on public works was amended to make
it mandatory upon contractors doing public work to keep accurate records
showing the actual hours worked by all employees, which records must be
open to inspection by the labor commissioner and the agents of the public
body awarding the contract. This amendment also extended the 8-hour law to
cover irrigation and reclamation districts.
The child labor law was amended to make it unlawful to employ minors under
the compulsory school age in agricultural pursuits when the public schools are
in session. The law was further amended to require that vacation permits shall
be issued by superintendents o f cities and counties wherein the minor resides.
Where such minor resides in a portion o f a county not under the jurisdiction
of the superintendent o f schools of any city such vacation permits shall be
issued by the superintendent of schools of such county or by a person authorized
by him in writing to do so. Formerly vacation permits were issued by school
principals or by custodians of school records.
An amendment to the part time education law was passed providing that
unemployed minors must attend continuation classes for not less than three
hours per day during the period* of the minor’s unemployment.
Theft of labor in excess of $200 was definitely made a felony and the pro
cedure in charging theft was simplified so as to require the prosecution to allege
and prove merely that the defendant unlawfully took the labor of the worker.
To facilitate the administration and enforcement of the payment of wages
laws, a law was passed providing that a summons may be served on a defendant
in a suit for the collection of wages in any county where he may be found.
6
17TH ANNUAL MEETING OF A. G. 0. I.
The pay check law was amended to provide that pay checks must be actually
negotiable and payable upon presentation to the bank.
Another amendment made it a misdemeanor willfully to ignore a subpoena
issued by the labor commissioner, provided such subpoena does not call for an
appearance at a distance greater than 25 miles.
The law providing an 8-hour day for female employees was amended to
include within its provisions women employed in barber shops. This law was
also amended to prohibit employers in all industrial establishments from giving
home work to women who have already worked eight hours and to require em
ployers to keep accurate records of the actual hours worked by female employees,
failure to keep such records being made a misdemeanor. Still another amend
ment made the penalty section of the law more specific, thereby making the
law more enforceable.
The blacklisting law was amended to prohibit the fingerprinting and photo
graphing of employees and applicants for employment by agencies for the pur
pose o f interfering with their employment.
The cash bond law was amended to prevent employers from using in their
business money intrusted to them as cash bonds. The employer must now hold
such money in trust; he is now considered guilty of theft if he mingles it with
his own money or uses it in his business.
A law was passed making it mandatory upon employers who require their
employees to turn over to them the tips or gratuities left by patrons to post
notices to that effect in conspicuous places in their establishments.
Section 1206 o f the Code of Civil Procedure was amended to require the
sheriff or constable to pay preferred labor claims filed under attachments or
executions as soon as the time for disputing the claims expires and to require
any party disputing a preferred labor claim to give notice of such dispute
to the labor claimant.
Section 3065-B was added to section 3065-A of the Civil Code, relating to
loggers’ liens, to give a loggers’ lien claimant a full 30 days after final cessation
of labor to bring suit to foreclose his lien.
The mechanics’ lien law was amended so as to deprive bonding companies
that write labor and material bonds of many defenses they formerly resorted
to, and so as to require the courts to construe all bonds of this type most
strongly against the surety companies. Liens were also given for demolition
of buildings and landscaping where there is a permanent improvement to the
property.
The law creating the industrial welfare commission was amended to provide
for more specific records concerning the employment of women and minors;
and providing that employers who refuse to keep such records or refuse the
industrial welfare commission access thereto shall be guilty of misdemeanor.
The jurisdiction of the industrial welfare commission was extended to
females under 21 years of age in conformity with the State law passed by the
forty-seventh legislature, which establishes the age of majority of women at
21 years.
The following major amendments were made*to the workmen’s compensation
insurance and safety act by the same legislature:
The maximum weekly payments were increased from $20.83 to $25.
A “ subsequent injury ” fund was established for the benefit of those who
sustain a second injury.
A penalty of 10 per cent, but not exceeding $1,000, may be added to payments
of compensation awarded to employees whose employers willfully fail to secure
the payment of compensation as provided by law.
NEW LABOR LEGISLATION
7
The industrial accident commission was given safety jurisdiction over the
State and its political subdivisions.
The definition of the term “ employer ” was enlarged to include “ every
State agency.”
The industrial accident commission was given the power to deny the privilege
of the appearance before it of any person, including attorneys, as representa
tives of other parties.
The State compensation insurance fund was authorized to insure employers
against their liability for compensation or damages under the Federal long
shoremen and harbor workers’ compensation act.
The industrial accident commission was given complete power to decide what
constitutes a case o f serious and willful misconduct, and insurance carriers
were prohibited from reducing the compensation of an injured worker on the
ground of willful misconduct.
A law was enacted providing for the periodical inspection of air-pressure
tanks by the industrial accident commission and prohibiting the operation of
tanks without a permit from the commission. This law also provides for the
issuance of injunctions restraining the operation of air-pressure tanks without
permits. The industrial accident commission is also empowered under this
law to fix and collect fees for the inspections.
A similar law applying to steam boilers was also passed by the 1929 session
of the legislature. This law, like the air-pressure tanks law, requires periodical
inspections, prohibits operation without permits, provides for injunctions, and
for the fixing and collecting of fees for such inspection by the industrial
accident commission.
The other important laws of interest to labor are as follow s:
A system of old-age pensions was adopted under which needy persons 70
years of age and over who have been citizens of the United States and residents
of California for 15 years may get State and county aid not to exceed $30
per month.
Needy blind persons may require State and county aid not to exceed $600
per year.
A new law was passed providing for the labeling, disinfecting, and advertis
ing of all convict-made goods and requiring that notice that such articles are
on sale shall be conspicuously posted in places where such articles are offered
for sale. This law also requires that all convict-made goods, whether wholly
or partly manufactured or produced in prisons or other penal institutions
where convicts are employed, “ must be plainly, legibly, conspicuously, and
indelibly branded, molded, embossed, stenciled, or labeled with the words
*Convict-made * in plain, bold letters, followed by the name of such penitentiary,
prison, reformatory, or other establishment in which the goods, wares, or
merchandise were made.”
A constitutional amendment was proposed giving the legislature power to
provide a retirement system for civil-service employees. This proposal will
be voted on by the people during the general election in November, 1930.
Kansas.
The labor department was separated from the public labor committee in 1929
and it now controls all labor and industry. It has supervision over free em
ployment and the women’s and minors’ division. The labor department is now
very well organized.
14886°—30------2
8
17TH ANNUAL MEETING OF A. G. 0. I.
Kentucky.
The Kentucky Legislature convened for a regular 60 days’ session, beginning
January 7, 1930, and the following legislative labor bills were presented: A
measure providing for the reorganization of the department of labor, expanding
its scope and powers and increasing its personnel; a measure for the establish
ment of a public employment service to operate in conjunction with the United
States Employment Service; a measure for the regulation of private employ
ment agencies; and a measure for the further regulation of hours o f work
for women by reducing the working-day to 8y2 hours.
The bill for the regulation of private employment agencies was passed by
the legislature and approved by the governor.
The bills to reorganize the department of labor and to establish the public
employment service passed both houses of the legislature, but were vetoed
by the governor after the close of the session. Both o f these bills were drafted
and sponsored by the department of labor. We regret very much the governor’s
veto of these two bills and we feel that the people of the State will suffer a
distinct loss because they were not enacted. These measures were well indorsed
by the press, labor organizations, competent experts, representatives of industry,
and the public. The deepest regret is that the department remains in a rut
for another two years, unable to cope with the complexity of problems in new
industrial fields because of inadequate law, and unable to perform the duty that
the State owes to its citizenry and its industries.
A measure introduced by the workmen’s compensation commission, appointed
by the 1928 legislature to revise the workmen’s compensation law, failed to pass
Massachusetts.
There has been very little change in the labor laws o f the Commonwealth
of Massachusetts since the last convention.
The creation of the Massachusetts Industrial Commission, which became
a part of the department of labor and industries last year (1929) and which was
organized for the purpose of promoting and developing the industrial, agri
cultural, and recreational resources of the Commonwealth, is now making an
investigation (by authority of the legislature) o f the conditions affecting
the textile industry and the problems of unemployment in that industry and
in other industries, and in connection therewith to consider the question of
providing insurance against unemployment.
The department has appointed a committee which is now revising our com
pressed-air rules and regulations (established in 1916) so as to bring them
up to date in . anticipation of the construction of a tunnel under the harbor
from Boston to East Boston.
The commission appointed last year to make an investigation of the laws
relating to dependent, delinquent, and neglected children, and children other
wise requiring special care, has made its report, and the legislature this year
passed a resolve continuing the commission and authorizing it to obtain data
for and otherwise cooperate with the White House Conference on Child Welfare
and Protection, and to report further in the matter.
In 1919 there was established a special commission on the necessaries of
life to study and investigate the circumstances affecting the prices of the com
modities which are necessaries of life. It was given power to inquire into all
matters relating to the production, transportation, distribution, and sale of
the said commodities, and into all facts and circumstances relating to the cost
of production, wholesale and retail prices, and the methods pursued in the
conduct of the business of any person, firm, or corporation engaged in tlu»
production, transportation, or sale of the said commodities, or o f any business
NEW LABOR LEGISLATION
9
which relates to or affects the same. It was further authorized to hold hear
ings, to administer oaths, to require the attendance and testimony of witnesses
and the production of books and documents and other papers. This commis
sion went out of office May 1 of this year (1930) and its work is to be assigned
to a separate division established for the purpose within the Department of
Labor and Industries.
The workmen’s compensation act has been extended in cases where death
results from an injury to an employee, to include the children by a former
wife wholly dependent upon his earning for support at the time of the injury.
The legislature also passed a law this year which provides that any person
operating or using a motor or other vehicle (whether or not belonging to his
employer), with his employer’s general authorization or approval, in the per
formance of work in connection with the business affairs or undertakings of
his employer, whether within or without the Commonwealth, who is injured
in an accident arising out of and in the course of his employment, shall
be conclusively presumed to be an employee and to come within the scope
of the workmen’s compensation law of Massachusetts.
Since the last convention the commissioner of labor and industries has
appointed a committee, composed of the leading industrial physicians in the
Commonwealth who have consented to work with and advise the commissioner
in the study and prevention of occupational diseases. Every such case has
to be reported under our statute. This has brought good results to the depart
ment in its prevention work.
New Jersey.
Digest of 1980 labor legislation, Jyy Colonel Blunt:
Joint Resolution No. 6 creates a commission to investigate and study the
matter of employment of migratory children in this State, and conditions
surrounding such employment.
Chapter 26 gives the commissioner of labor control over the distributors of
home work.
Chapter 104 prohibits discrimination in public employment against a person
over 40 years of age. Does not apply to police or fire departments, or guards
at penal institutions.
Chapter 185 establishes a safety code in the construction industry.
Chapter 42 regulates the manufacture, storage, transportation, and sale of
fireworks.
Chapter 16, which was approved March 18, 1929, continues the commission
created pursuant to the provisions of an act entitled “ An act to create a
temporary commission to inquire into and report upon the number, distribution,
and condition of crippled children throughout the State, to recommend means
more adequately to meet their needs, and making an appropriation therefor,”
approved March 26, 1926.
Comments on two Mils introduced during the legislative session of 1930, by
Mrs. Summers:
During the legislative session o f 1930 in New Jersey, two bills were intro
duced at the request of the bureau for women and children in the department
of labor. One of these bills, known as Assembly Bill No. 159, further regulates
home work in New Jersey by requiring the licensing o f contractors and dis
tributors as well as the home workers, thereby giving the bureau access to the
list of home workers held by these contractors and the further knowledge of
where and under what conditions home work is being done. This bill is now
10
17TH ANNUAL MEETING OF A. G. O. I.
chapter 26 of the Laws o f 1930, and already a vast improvement in the home
work situation is apparent.
Another bill introduced for the bureau is known as Assembly Joint Resolu
tion No. 6, or the migratory child resolution, and is the first official step taken
toward the correcting of a very serious condition caused by the influx into the
State of New Jersey of children from Pennsylvania who, with their parents,
are employed on the truck farms and in the cranberry bogs of New Jersey
from early April until late October. The conditions under which these
children particularly are employed, the housing, sanitation, absence from
school, and many other factors entered into any possible attempt at solution.
Legislation has been introduced year after year in New Jersey in an attempt
to correct the condition, but up to the time that the bureau for women and
children was established nothing at all had been accomplished.
The director of the bureau soon realized that if anything was to be done
at all, the farmer himself must be an interested and cooperative part of the
program, and after many conferences, wherein suspicion o f the director’s
motives and fear for their own industry was very apparent on the part of the
farmers, the final establishment of an understanding between the farmers and
the bureau became a reality, and with the consent of all concerned this resolu
tion was introduced, calling for a commission to be composed of a representa
tive of the State department of labor, State department of education, State
department of agriculture, and the State department of health. This commis
sion has the widest possible powers and will endeavor to bring about a solution
of the problem and proper legislation covering all phases of this work. The
bill became a law and the commission will be appointed this week (May 19).
In anticipation of this appointment, a complete and comprehensive question
naire has been prepared covering every possible phase of the migratory
situation.
New York.
Chapter 585 removes from section 17 of the labor law the maximum limitation
of $7,000 upon the salary of the deputy industrial commissioner. Chapter 85,
the general appropriation law, assigns him a salary of $8,000.
Chapter 323, amending section 18 of the labor law, subjects transfer of
employees within the department, removal of them from State employ, and
abolishment or consolidation of their positions to the civil service law. It takes
effect December 1, 1930. By chapter 642 of the Laws of 1921, the industrial
commissioner had been exempted from the civil service law’s provisions relative
to such transfers, removals, and changes of position, with exception that he
might not remove an employee without advance notice, statement o f reasons
in writing, opportunity to reply, etc.
Woman employees.— Chapters 867 and 868, effective April 28, 1930, amend
sections 172 and 181 of the labor law in order to give females over 16 years of
age employed in factories and mercantile establishments a half holiday in
addition to an entire day of rest each week throughout the year. They prevent
employers from lengthening weekly short workdays beyond four and one-half
hours each by applying to them the 78 hours overtime permitted under amend
ments to these sections by chapter 453 of the Laws of 1927. They thus annul
the court decisions in People v. Elite Steam Laundry, 226 App. Div. 35, and
People v. Marlin Rockwell Corp., 133 Misc. 741.
Railroad grade-crossing eliminations.—Chapter 804, effective April 25, 1930,
declares elimination of grade crossings for cost of which the State or a civil
division thereof is liable in any proportion to be public work for the State or
NEW LABOR LEGISLATION
11
such civil division and as such subject to article 8 o f the labor law which limits
hours of mechanics, workingmen, or laborers to eight hours, except in extraor
dinary emergency. Presumably such grade-crossing work is subject also to
section 160 o f the labor law, which debars agreement for overtime upon work for
the State or a municipal corporation. Every contract for such grade-crossing
elimination must contain an 8-hour stipulation. Enforcement o f the act
is committed to the industrial commissioner. This legislation offsets the court
of appeals decision in the grade-crossing case (People ex rel. N. Y., Brooklyn &
Manhattan R. R. v. Prendergast, 209 N. Y. Rep. 598), as interpreted by opinion
of the attorney general, May 18, 1921.
Motion-picture projectionists.— Chapter 748, effective September 1, 1931, more
than 16 months after signature, gives a day of rest each week to projectionists
or operators in the employ of motion-picture theaters.
Railroad grade-crossing eliminations.—Chapter 804, described under the pre
ceding title, governs wages as well as hours. In accordance with it, the pre
vailing wage rate for a day’s work in the same trade or occupation in the
locality where a grade crossing is situated must be paid to mechanics, working
men, and laborers engaged in its elimination. Every contract must so stipulate.
Wages must be paid in cash.
Mechanics’ liens.—Chapter 859, effective October 1, 1930, amends the lien law
generally. New provisions inserted by it subject insurance proceeds of build
ings destroyed by fire or other casualty to wage liens and regulate liens for
both public and private improvements o f real property by making contractors,
subcontractors, and other assignors of moneys responsible for such moneys as
trust funds to be applied to payment of laborers, surveyors, engineers, architects,
subcontractors, and material men before use for any other purpose. Labor
lienors upon public improvement work have preference over lienors o f other
classes. An assignor violating this trust is guilty of larceny, instead of mis
demeanor as heretofore. Other new provisions set up court procedure for ex
pediting payment to assignors o f contract moneys in excess of pending liens
and for vacation of liens found to be groundless or otherwise defective. The
court may void a lien willfully exaggerated by the lienor. The joint legislative
committee that framed chapter 859 has been continued for future investiga
tion and report upon the subject.
Payment after death of employee.— Chapter 175 puts it within the power of
an employer to pay wages or personal earnings not exceeding $150 due to a
deceased employee direct to his family without administration or probate pro
ceedings. At least 80 days must intervene between death and payment. I f the
employee’s estate has other assets, recipients of the wages are not to be relieved
o f accountability. The term “ employers ” includes the State and its municipal
corporations without limitation.
Canal employees.— Chapter 479 of the laws of 1929 gave the court of claims
jurisdiction over claims of canal laborers, workmen, and mechanics for the dif
ference between the wages paid by the State to them subsequent to April 1,
1923, and higher wages paid by other employers in the localities where they
had been working, such claims to be filed within six months from April 10,
1929. Chapter 736 of the laws of 1930 amends the 1929 act so as to extend
the time for filing claims until September 1, 1930, and to include claims of
canal laborers, workmen, and mechanics paid monthly or yearly wages under
the annual appropriations acts of the State. Claims filed under the amendment
are to cover employment subsequent to September 15, 1924. Chapter 736 appar
ently supersedes chapter 701 on the same subject.
12
17TH ANNUAL MEETING OF A. G. O. I.
Public works.— The State has liberally appropriated many millions of dollars
for public building, highway, and other construction work largely with a view
to relief of unemployment.
Chapter 689, effective April 23, 1930, amends section 222 of the labor law to
give preference to citizens of the State of New York over other persons in
employment upon public work of the State or its civil divisions. As it stood
before this amendment, the section gave preference to citizens over aliens, the
word “ citizens” presumably putting all citizens of the United States on an
equal footing. To be a citizen of New York one must be both a citizen o f the
United States and a bona fide resident of the State. The time limit of resi
dence for citizenship of New York is accordingly indefinite. The contracting
authorities of New York City, Buffalo, Rochester, and Syracuse must report to
the department of labor the name and address of every contractor for public
works of such cities, and each such contractor must keep a list of his employees
showing their status as to United States citizenship.
Study of State employment offices.— Chapter 425 authorizes the industrial
commissioner to study the employment offices of the State, the intent being to
cooperate with the Federal authorities in an intelligent long-time employment
program. The commissioner may accept contribution of funds for this work.
War veterans and widows—Licenses for peddling.— Chapter 384 amending
section 32 of the general business law, regulates hawking and peddling by war
veterans or widows, design being to exclude imposters. It includes an amend
ment effected by chapter 107, an earlier chapter of the session.
Blind workmen's labels—Protection.— Chapter 120 makes it a misdemeanor,
punishable by fine or imprisonment, or both, to use an imprint or label falsely
indicating that an article has been made by a blind workman.
Goods made by convicts in other States.—By act of Congress approved Janu
ary 19, 1929, goods, wares, and merchandise manufactured, produced, or mined
by convicts or prisoners in one State and transported into another State will,
on and after January 19, 1934, be subject to the laws of the State into which
they have come as though manufactured, produced, or mined in such State;
that is, the statutes of the State governing goods produced by its own convicts
will govern imported goods. In anticipation of this event, chapter 136 of the
New York Laws of 1930 prohibits the importation of such goods into New York
for sale from and after January 19, 1934. On that date the present New York
law requiring and regulating the branding, labeling, or marking o f imported
convict-made goods and providing for the licensing of vendors o f them, will
stand repealed by section 2 of chapter 136. For the present law, see Special
Bulletin No. 155, pages 10 and 59.
Wages of prisoners.— Chapter 503 regulates compensation o f State prisoners
for work performed by them. Such compensation is no longer to be based upon
earnings of prison industries, but is to be paid out of capital funds and is no
longer to be subject to forfeiture for violation of parole. Disbursement of it
to dependent relatives is conditioned upon investigation and certification by
a public welfare agency in the county wherein they reside.
Chapter 273, a companion law to chapter 503, increases the clothing, pocket
money, and railroad fare allowance of prisoners upon discharge of parole.
Investigating commission.— Chapter 825 creates a temporary State commis
sion for study of prison administration, one o f whose objects is to formulate a
plan for expansion of prison industries.
Permits for construction.— Chapter 309, effective April 4, 1930, amends section
276 of the labor law to require that plans and specifications for all buildings
or structures, except those in New York City, required to conform to the
NEW LABOR LEGISLATION
13
structural requirements of the labor law or the Industrial Code shall be sub
mitted to and approved by the department of labor before construction begins.
Hitherto such submission has applied to factory buildings only, has extended
to alteration as well as construction and has been permissive, not mandatory.
Section 276 is part of article 11 of the labor law, the title of which is “ Fac
tories.” The engineering division of the department of labor, proceeding to
enforce the new provision, is holding it applicable to factory buildings, fac
tories, buildings containing mercantile establishments, and places o f public
assembly, as these terms are defined by subdivisions 9 to 12, inclusive, of sec
tion 2 of the labor law.
Demolition.— Chapter 603, effective April 19, 1930, empowers the industrial
board to make rules relative to the demolition of all buildings or places to which
the labor law applies and extends the law’s provisions relative to safe scaf
folding and other contrivances to demolition work upon buildings or structures
of all kinds. It also requires the fencing o f elevator and hoisting shafts used
in construction work, whether such shafts be without or within buildings.
New York City classification.— Chapter 857 excludes from the labor law’s
definition of a “ factory building” any building in New York City used exclu
sively by one employer if not more than one-tenth of the employees therein are
doing work for a factory, as defined in section 4 of the labor law. Chapter 858,
amending section 270 of the labor law, specially exempts such New York City
buildings from the fireproofing and exits provisions prescribed for factories.
The two chapters took effect April 28, 1930. They are apparently applicable to
large department stores that do factory work incidental to mercantile business.
Factory floors—Linoleum, etc.— Chapter 293 permits factories to use linoleum,
cork composition, or rubber composition one-half inch thick or less upon their
floors, but not upon their stairs.
Window cleaners.— Chapter 605, effective April 19, 1930, defines “ public build
ings ” and requires safety devices for persons cleaning their windows from the
outside. Apparently it does not cover churches but does cover dwelling houses
if three or more stories high or occupied by three or more families.
Passenger elevators—Seats for operators.— Chapters 604, effective July 1,
1930, requires seats in public passenger elevators for their operators in any
building having more than one elevator, if such operators do not have recess
periods. It does not apply to factories.
Chapters 60,183,184, 316, 521, 609 and 698, seven in all, amend the workmen’s
compensation law. Other acts directly or indirectly affecting compensation are
chapter 192, amending the correction law ; chapter 327, amending the civil
practice act; chapter 85, the general appropriation law ; and chapters 343 and
832, other appropriation measures.
Occupational diseases.— Chapter 60, effective October 1, 1930, adds blisters,
abrasions, bursitis, synovitis, and dermatitis to the list of compensable occupa
tional diseases and broadens the application of the radium and X-ray provision.
It renumbers the clauses o f the list to make them continuous.
Total loss of sight—Minimum compensation.— Chapter 609, effective April 19.
1930, raises the minimum weekly compensation for loss of both eyes from $8
to $15.
Neck disfigurement.— Chapter 316, effective July 1, 1930, permits the indus
trial board to award compensation for disfigurement of the front of the neck
in addition to any award for disfigurement of the face or head, the total not
to exceed $3,500. The department’s referees may not hear such cases. This
legislation partly annuls the decision in Fostner v. Morawitz, 211 App. Div.
S21; 215 App. Div. 176; 340 S. B. 142.
14
17TH ANNUAL MEETING OF A. G. O. I.
Previous disability fund—Additional revenue.— Chapter 521 makes the license
fees collected from representatives of compensation claimants and self-insuring
employers under section 24-a and subdivision 3-b o f section 50 of the workmen’s
compensation law an additional source o f revenue for the special fund estab
lished by subdivision 8 of section 15. Other additional sources are fines col
lected under sections 25 and 52. Chapter 698 requires payment of fines col
lected under section 52 directly to the industrial commissioner, instead of the
State treasury, as heretofore.
Vocational rehabilitation fund—Investment.— Chapter 183 empowers the com
missioner of taxation and finance to invest surplus moneys of the special fund
established by subdivision 9 o f section 15 o f the workmen’s compensation law
in securities legal for savings banks. Incidentally thereto he may sell securities.
Wage-earning capacity—Determination.— Chapter 316, effective July 1, 1930,
establishes two methods of determining wage-earning capacity as a basis for
compensation in cases falling under paragraph v of subdivision 3, or subdivision
5 of section 15, or section 39, of the workmen’s compensation law. First, if the
employee has been, or is working after his injury, such capacity is identical
with his earnings. Second, if he has earned nothing following his injury, the
industrial board may assign to him an earning capacity reasonable, in the
interest of justice and not in excess of three-fourths of what he earned on full
time before his accident. These new provisions are intended to clarify con
ditions that have caused much controversy.
Wages paid or compensation advanced to injured employee, credit against
awards for.— Chapter 316, effective July 1, 1930, permits and requires credit
against unpaid awards in reimbursement of an employer for payments made to
an injured employee “ in like manner as wages,” as well as for “ advance pay
ments of compensation,” but such employer may waive reimbursement.
S elf-insurer1s securities.— Chapter 184 makes deposit of securities a manda
tory condition of self-insurance and gives the industrial commissioner power to
deny the self-insuring privilege. The commissioner may determine the amount
o f securities in each case.
Insurance of employers and corporation officers.—Chapter 316, effective July
1, 1930, changes subdivision 6 of section 54 of the workmen's compensation law
by automatically including every executive officer of a corporation in any insur
ance contract covering its employees unless he elects in writing not to be brought
within the law’s coverage, and incidentally takes away the privilege of work
men’s compensation insurance from an unincorporated employer, but not from
his employees. This provision relative to election is the direct opposite of the
former plan under which employers and corporation officers were included only
if they elected so to be.
Action of injured employees for damages—Reversal of judgment or termina
tion of action.— Chapter 327 amends section 23 of the civil practice act with
intent to relieve an injured employee who has brought an action for damages
on account of accidental injury and whose action has been terminated otherwise
than by voluntary discontinuance, dismissal of complaint for neglect to prose
cute, or final judgment upon the merits, or whose favorable judgment has been
reversed on appeal without award of a new trial. Intent of this 1930 amend
ment is that in such a case the injured employee or his beneficiaries, if he has
died of his injuries, may institute compensation or death benefit proceedings
under the workmen’s compensation law within one year after termination or
reversal of the action. The workmen’s compensation case of Decker v. Pouvailsmith Corp., 252 N. Y. 1, illustrates the condition that Chapter 327 aims to
correct. In its opinion the court of appeals expressly held that section 23 of
NEW LABOR LEGISLATION
15
the civil practice act was inapplicable to Decker’s claim. The appellate divi
sion’s decision in Golden v. Hotel Kenmore, 217 App. Div. 807; 149 S. B. 270,
was of like import.
State employees.— Chapter 192 grants three-fourths o f his annual salary and
maintenance allowance as pension to a State prison or reformatory employee
or an employee in the department of correction who is totally disabled by acci
dent or injury while on duty and who is not a member of the up-State general
retirement system. This applies to six or seven hundred older employees.
Section 30 o f the workmen’s compensation law apparently excludes them from
the compensation law’s benefits.
Explosives.— Chapter 512, effective April 16, 1930, generally amends the labor
law’s article governing explosives. Its amendments (1) strike out an exemp
tion of small quantity of five pounds of explosive or less; (2) require encase
ment and storage of explosives except while being “ blasted,” instead of while
being “ used” as heretofore; (3) confine storage to magazines alone, instead
of factory buildings and magazines; (4) compel storage of blasting caps or
detonators in quantity of less than 1,000 in locked magazine, separate from
other explosives, such requirement having heretofore applied only to quantity
of 1,000 or over; (5) prohibit possession of explosives without certificate show
ing compliance with magazine requirements, such prohibition having hitherto
applied to storage; (6) permit possession without such certification if holes are
drilled and explosives are obtained and loaded into them for immediate blast
ing; (7) forbid delivery, gift, or sale of explosives to persons under 18 years
of age; (8) forbid sale or gift in any quantity whatever without record in
writing, sale or gift of five pounds or less having been exempt from record
heretofore.
Section 1894 of the penal law prescribes penalties for offenses in the handling
o f explosives. Chapter 571, effective September 1, 1930, amends such section
to make injury to person or property by unauthorized alcoholic distillation
a felony.
Injunctions in labor disputes.— Chapter 378, effective September 1, 1930, pro
vides that a court may grant an injunction order only upon notice. Heretofore
judges have had power to issue such orders with or without notice at discretion.
Bribery of employees.—Chapter 409, effective September 1, 1930, amends sec
tion 439 of the penal law relating to corrupt influencing o f agents, employees,
or servants. Its amendments (1) penalize omissions and falsifications of
receipts, accounts, invoices, or other documents with intent to deceive employers,
both third party and employee being liable; (2) permit imposition of both fine
and imprisonment; and (3) allow courts to require persons to testify conditional
upon immunity from prosecution.
North Dakota.
Much time has been given to the subject of eight hours for women. This
found much opposition, but a test case before the supreme court resulted in the
8-hour law for women. Since then there has been a complete reorganization in
the compensation board and now unity reigns between board and governor.
Ohio.
The only labor legislation enacted by the last general assembly was the addi
tion of three occupational diseases, as follows:
Manganese dioxide poisoning.—Any process involving the grinding or milling
of manganese dioxide or the escape of manganese dioxide dust.
Radium poisoning.—Any industrial process involving the use of radium and
other radio-active substances in luminous paint.
16
17TH ANNUAL MEETING OF A. G. O. I.
Tenosynovitis and prepatellar bursitis.—Primary tenosynovitis characterized
by a passive effusion or crepitus into the tendon sheath of the flexor or extensor
muscles of the hand, due to frequently repetitive motions or vibration or pre
patellar bursitis, due to continued pressure.
This law became effective July 24, 1929.
Ontario.
The apprenticeship act, 1928, was amended to permit defraying the costs of
maintaining a system of apprenticeship and administering the act, and the
responsible minister is empowered to assess employers in any designated trade
such annual sums or otherwise as may be specified in the regulations. A fur
ther amendment to this act provides for regulations being enacted to govern
the manner of making all such assessments and the collection and distribution
of same.
Important regulations pertaining to the operation of mines were enacted by
an amendment to the mining act. These regulations govern the age of employ
ment in and about mines, physical fitness of workmen to engage in underground
work, provisions for an inquest to be held in case of a fatality, empowering a
manager of a mine to make rules not inconsistent with the regulations and the
enactment of rules pertaining to fire protection, aid to injured, prevention of
dust, method of handling water, ventilation, sanitation, care and use of ex
plosives, protection in working places, shafts, winzes, raises, etc., ladderways,
ladders, shaft equipment, raising or lowering persons, hoisting, signals, code of
mine signals, haulage, inspection of boilers, method of removing material in
sand and gravel pits, protection in metallurgical works, operation o f cranes and
elevators, use of electricity, and generally all matters associated with the opera
tion of mines and the protection of persons engaged therein.
A further amendment of the mining act makes the owner, manager, proprietor,
or superintendent of any mine or works liable to a penalty of not less than
$100 nor more than $500 for permitting any person to be employed in a mine
without being the holder of a certificate given by a medical examiner under the
requirements of this act.
A minor amendment to the mothers’ allowances act gives statutory power to
the secretary of every local mothers’ allowances board for the purpose o f taking
declarations and affidavits and receiving evidence under oath.
An amendment to the old-age pension act, 1929, provides that for the pur
poses of this act a member of a municipal council may be appointed as a mem
ber of a local old-age pension board and is not disqualified from being a member
of any such municipal council by reason of this appointment.
Pennsylvania.
Since the passage of the labor laws affecting the employment of women and
children in 1913 and 1915, respectively, and the general factory act of 1905
there have not been any radical changes until the 1929 session of the legislature,
at which time the department of labor and industry fostered seven bills covering
changes in these laws.
There was no change in the child labor law. A bill, however, was passed
in which this department was not directly concerned and which provided for an
extension of physical examination service for minors 14 and 15 years of age
desiring to obtain employment certificates. So far as the general factory act
is concerned the original act has been superseded in a number of its sections
by later legislation. The act as originally passed in 1905 included general
factory inspection, elevator inspection, home-work restriction, bakery inspec
tion, boiler inspection, and requirements for means of egress in certain build
NEW LABOR LEGISLATION
17
ings. The first o f these sections to be superseded was that covering means of
egress, which was covered by a separate act of 1909. The next section to be
superseded was the bakery requirements which is covered by the present bakery
law of 1919. In 1923 the sections pertaining to elevator and boiler inspection
were amended. In 1909 and 1913 the original provisions pertaining to the
employment of women and children were superseded by the child labor law
and the present woman’s law. The administrative features of the act pertaining
to the department o f factory inspection were repealed in 1913 by the act creating
the department of labor and industry, which act abolished the department of
factory inspection but continued the powers and duties of that department
with additional ones under the department of labor and industry. In 1917,
1921, 1923, and 1925 amendments were passed for the fire and panic act of 1909
covering means o f egress from all buildings in which persons are employed or
assembled. In 1915 an amendment was passed for the woman’s law providing
in certain hotels, and institutions that the required day o f rest each week might
be subdivided into two half days each week. In 1927 the fire and panic act
with its amendments was repealed and a new act substituted. This, then, was
the status of the several laws at the time the legislature met in 1929.
Preliminary to the convening of the legislature it was decided that certain
further changes were desirable in some of these laws. As regards the woman’s
Jaw there was some question in connection with prosecution procedure, inas
much as the act contradicted itself by declaring that a violation of the law
constituted a misdemeanor but the proceedings specified summary action. This
was clarified by an amendment which struck out the term “ misdemeanor ” and
specified distinctly that the action would be summary proceedings. Similar
changes were made in the bakery law and in the act of 1913 creating the de
partment, changing procedure in prosecution from misdemeanor cases to sum
mary proceedings. This permits prosecution before an alderman, magistrate,
or justice of the peace and so obtaining a final decision in their courts .instead o f
going through the formality of obtaining an indictment before a grand jury.
The sections of the original factory act of 1905 pertaining to the inspection
of elevators and boilers were repealed and covered by separate and uniform
laws covering both o f these subjects. At the same time our enforcement au
thority was strengthened by providing for placing unsafe elevators and boilers
out of service either temporarily or permanently. Also, the new laws provided
uniform regulations for the examination and certification of inspectors of
elevators and boilers in Pennsylvania. The only other new feature in these
laws was a provision requiring the registration with this department of all
elevators and boilers coming within our jurisdiction.
A new building law was drafted and introduced into the legislature, but it
was thought, under the circumstances, wiser to make amendments to the fire
and panic act of 1927 to strengthen it and overcome certain objectionable fea
tures due to the loose construction o f the 1927 act than to pass a new law.
In view of the fact that the regulation of labor camps in this State.is not
clearly handled in legislation a bill providing definitely for regulations and
control of labor camps was also drafted and introduced. This bill, unfortu
nately, on the second reading was returned to the committee and died there.
In addition to legislation sponsored by the bureau of inspection, the bureau
of employment drafted and introduced legislation covering the regulation of
employment agencies, superseding the original act of 1915. This bill was
intended to strengthen the control of employment agencies, fixed fees for
definite classes of employment agencies, and provided for its enforcement.
18
17TH ANNUAL MEETING OP A. G. 0. X.
The bureau o f workmen’s compensation sponsored one piece o f legislation
covering the reporting of accidents, changing the basis for reporting from
disability of two or more days to cover disability extending beyond the day,
shift, or turn in which the accident occurred. The amendment also required
the immediate reporting of all fatal injuries. It was rather interesting to note
that the opposition which resulted in this legislation’s dying in committee came
from sources now reporting injuries on the same basis as required by the new
legislation.
The workmen’s compensation law was further amended to extend the benefits
o f compensation to employees of Pennsylvania concerns whose duties require
them to go temporarily beyond the territorial limits of the State and who may
sustain injury while on such duty. A further amendment increased the penalties
to be imposed upon employers who failed to take out compensation for their
employees. In addition there were some further amendments in the awards to
the beneficiaries in compensation.
There was a further piece of legislation enacted in 1929, known as the
Administrative Code, which covers powers and duties of all branches of the
State government. As far as this department is concerned, this legislation
merely restated the powers and duties o f this department given in the original
Administrative Code o f 1923. The principal change in this legislation pertains
to the regulation making power o f this department. Under the act of 1913
creating this department the industrial board was the authorized agency for
the drafting and adoption of rules and regulations. Under the 1923 Admin
istrative Code, however, the status of the industrial board was changed to that
o f an advisory board and the rule and regulation making authority was trans
ferred to the department and is now reposed in the bureau of industrial
standards.
Quebec.
The most salient feature of labor legislation in this Province is the adoption
o f the 55-hour week for all industries, the radical improvement of the minimum
wage law, and the application of a new compensation act, which is on trial at
the present time.
West Virginia.
The last biennial session of the legislature was in 1929. One act provided
for rigid supervision of employment agencies, and as a result the private em
ployment agencies in the State have just about been eliminated. That was
one act of importance and value.
The 1929 legislature amended and reenacted the section of the law relating
to the guarding of all power-driven machinery, projecting set screws, laundry
machinery, vats and pans, and other receptacles containing molten metal.
The law further provides that dangerous places in workshops be properly
fenced or guarded; and that machines known to be defective be not used.
The law further authorizes the commissioner of labor to adopt codes promulgated
by the American Association of Mechanical Engineers and approved by the
United States Department of Labor relating to scaffolding, hoists, etc. It also
provides that first-aid equipment shall be kept on hand.
Alabama.
This State has no labor law s; and factory owners come in from New York,
Massachusetts, and California because of this situation. About four years
ago a sort of “ gentlemen’s agreement” was made whereby the mills work
53 hours a week.
17TH ANNUAL MEETING 0E A. G. 0. I.
19
DISCUSSION
Mr. R o a c h (New Jersey). I am interested in what the previous
speaker said about mills moving from the North to Alabama, because
not long ago the manager of one of our very large mills advised
me that he could move his business south and thereby effect a con
siderable saving. In the community he had under consideration
he was offered a large tract of land with excellent water facilities
and free taxes for a period of five years. After the 5-year period
the taxes were to be levied on a nominal basis. It was said that
in that section of the country labor was plentiful and that labor
troubles were uncommon. This offer looked attractive but I have
reason to believe, in view of the unrest that seems to prevail in the
South among the labor forces, that removals of this kind have their
disadvantages. It seems to me there are definite economic forces
that can not be overcome by removing a business enterprise from
one section of the country to another. If, in a populous city in the
North, taxes are higher than in a rural section of the South, there
may be manufacturing advantages that are to be enjoyed. While
in some parts of the South it is said that tax exemptions in one form
or another for a period of 25 years are inducements offered to
northern mill owners, such concessions may or may not be advanta
geous to the South in the final economic analysis. The position that
tax boards in our State would take on a suggestion of this kind
is not problematical.
Mr. S t e w a r t . Relative to this mill proposition, would you sug
gest to the tax commissioner that, in order to keep this firm, he
recommend that it be freed from all such taxes mentioned for a
period of 25 years, and further should be furnished power and light
for 25 years; otherwise it would move to the State which was
bribing it to come ?
Mr. R o a c h . I am sure our tax boards would not give serious con
sideration to a proposition of that kind.
In regard to the reduction of accidents, Mr. Reagin, delegate from
Indiana, claimed that his State had reduced the number of accidents
in industry. This statement met with opposition from many of
the delegates, who claimed that it was impossible to show that any
State had reduced the number of accidents. If Mr. Reagin’s State
had done it, the other delegates wanted to know how it had been
accomplished.
General S w e e t s e r (Massachusetts). None of us knows very much
about it. If all States were under the compensation law we might
be able to determine the number of accidents, but in New Jersey and
in Massachusetts there are 100,000 companies that are not under
compensation laws at all. It may be that in States where they have
complete coverage they may know; we can never know in any State
in the Union whether we are coming or going or standing still until
we know the number of man-hours, and so forth, and are completely
covered.
As far as safety campaigns go3 I know of an incident where, in
a factory of 235,000 men, one gang interested in safety work suffered
a total of 105 fatalities, while another gang, much larger and not
20
17TH ANNUAL MEETING OF A. G. O. I.
interested in safety work, during the same period, suffered only 25
fatalities. It may have been a case of luck with the second group.
I once heard a superintendent say that the men were not doing
safety work and that he did not believe they were reporting acci
dents, in order to make a record, win the prize, or whatever it was.
We can not say we have reduced accidents until we have gotten
to the base of the thing.
Mr. G e r n o n (New York). We will never be able to reduce acci
dents until we are able to place the responsibility. Education and
safety are fine, but when we have the sort of safety campaign that
offers prizes and keeps the men from reporting accidents rather
than spoil their record, we have nothing.
REPORT OF CALENDAR REFORM COMMITTEE (ETHELBERT
STEWART, CHAIRMAN)
There has been no meeting of the committee since the last convention. The
question I wish to bring before the organization for consideration at this time
is, however, the follow ing:
Are we in favor of having a world conference on the subject of reform or
change of the calendar with no delegate from the United States present?
Representation of the United States was all that the resolution last year
called for. That was all that the bill in Congress called for.
After some discussion the following resolution was adopted:
jResolved f That it is the desire of this convention that the United States
should be represented in any world conference which is to consider change
or changes in the calendar.
PROVISION FOR PROGRAM COMMITTEE
After Miss Swett had made some comments on the desirability of
the executive board’s meeting at least once to frame a program,
Mr. Stewart suggested that a program committee, composed of the
president, the secretary, and a third member appointed each year
by the president, might acceptably serve in drawing up a program.
The tentative program could then be acted upon By the executive
board.
Mr. Stewart’s suggestion received favorable consideration by the
convention.
STATE SUPERVISION OF EMPLOYMENT AGENCIES
Referring to Mr. Jarrett’s comment on the employment agency
situation in West Virginia, Doctor Patton said that the New York
State Department of Labor has no control over private employment
agencies. The department operates 10 employment offices, 4 in New
York City and 1 each in six other cities of the State. These offices
register, refer, and place a large number of workers each year, but
the majority of registrations and placements are made by private feecharging agencies. The New York State Department of Labor, like
other State departments, lacks resources to operate a sufficient num
ber of offices to fill the need for public employment agencies. Private
employment agencies operate under the general business law of the
STATISTICS OF EMPLOYMENT AN D TTNTEMPLOYMEITT
21
State, which places supervision, inspection, and regulation under
the separate municipalities of the State.
STATISTICS OF EMPLOYMENT
Doctor Patton outlined the program of the American Statistical
Association for statistics of employment and unemployment in the
United States to be presented to the National Conference of Gover
nors of States in Salt Lake City in June, 1930, after being presented
for consideration at this convention. The report, with the resolution
adopted unanimously at this session, is here given in full.
Program for Statistics of Employment and Unemployment in the
United States
Recommendations of the Committee on Governmental Labor Statistics of the
American Statistical Association, to be presented to the National Conference
o f Governors of States in Salt Lake City, June 30 to July 2, 1930, after con*
sideration in the Association of Governmental Officials in Industry of the
XJmted States and Canada, in May, 1930
At a meeting o f the executive committee o f the National Conference of
Governors of States, held in Annapolis, March 22, 1930, the following resolution
was passed:
Resolved, That the executive committee of the governors* conference rec
ommends that the governors’ conference provide for a permanent administrative
committee to act as a research and service organization and as a fact-finding
body to furnish any information on public questions which may be from time
to time required by the State governments or their various branches, depart
ments, or bureaus, and the administrative setu p ; the financing and all other
details connected with such permanent administrative committee (provided the
governors’ conference decides on the same) shall be determined by the governors’
conference or under its direction.
At the same time four topics were decided upon for discussion at the next
annual conference of governors, to be held in Salt Lake City, June 30 to July 2.
One o f these was unemployment.
This committee has long studied the essential needs in regard to the collec
tion of data on employment and unemployment, and thus is prepared to make
a series of recommendations to the governors’ annual conference, after con
sideration in the Association of Governmental Officials in Industry of the
United States and Canada, in May. These recommendations relate to five main
topics, as follows :
A. General collection of statistics of employment trends.
1.
The collection and publication, at least once each month, of statistics of
employment trends as indicated by number of persons employed, total wages
paid and, whenever feasible, total hours of employment, in a selected list of
firms in the following industries and their principal subdivisions: (1) Manu
facturing; (2) mining and quarrying; (3) construction; (4) agriculture; (5)
transportation and communication; (6) retail and wholesale trade; and such
other industries as may be important to include.1
1 This recommendation was made by the committee at the annual meeting o f the asso
ciation in December, 1923. A t that time the committee set up the main requirements for
the collection o f employment statistics and suggested that the initial responsibility for
the collection be put upon the States, with the United States Bureau o f Labor Statistics
as the coordinating cen ter; that the bureau should make the collection in the inactive
States and should publish a comprehensive summary. Federal departments, such as the
Department o f Agriculture o r the Geological Survey, should collect employment data in
their fields and report them to the Bureau o f Labor Statistics for inclusion in the sum
mary. F or the set-up o f the committee’s plan in 1923 see the report o f the American
S tatistical Association fo r March, 1924.
22
17TH ANNUAL MEETING OF A. G. 0. I.
2. To this end it is o f utmost importance that more States should adopt the
present method of monthly collection of employment data for a selected list of
firms, and that more nonmanufacturing industries should be included in the
compilations. (As indicated in the appended table, monthly employment data
on manufacturing are at present collected by State or other bureaus in 15
States; for public utilities, including transportation, water, light and power,
etc., in 9 States; for the construction industry, in 6 States; for retail or whole
sale trade, in 5 States; for mining, in 5 States; for services, in 3 States; for
hotels, in 2 States—1 includes restaurants; for quarrying, in 2 States—1
includes stone crushing; and for logging, in 1 State.)
3. The extension of the present collection of employment data by the United
States Bureau of Labor Statistics to cover, in more nearly complete form, all
the industries now included, and to include other industries, notably building
construction.
In April, 1928, Senator Wagner introduced a bill proposing an amendment,
prepared by the committee, to the United States Department o f Labor act, to
extend the collection of employment statistics of the United States Bureau of
Labor Statistics to industries other than manufacturing. Although the bill was
not passed at the time,2 the Government acted on its proposals. The necessary
funds were provided and the Bureau of Labor Statistics extended the scope
of its employment data. In August, 1928, wholesale and retail trade were
encompassed, and before the close of the year certain public utilities— anthracite
and bituminous coal mining, metalliferous mining, and hotels—were added. The
reports for May, 1929, were further extended to include canning and preserving,
and for June to include quarrying and nonmetallic mining.
By March, 1930, the pay-roll reports of the bureau represented 36,810
establishments, with 4,915,407 workers and a weekly pay-roll disbursement of
$132,227,077. The distribution of this sample was as follow s:
ESTABLISHM ENTS, EMPLOYEES, AND AMOUNT OF PAY ROLLS IN MARCH, 1930,
BY INDUSTRY
Industry
Estab
lishments Employees
Weekly
pay roll
1. Manufacturing_______________________________________________
2. Coal mining_________________________________________________
Anthracite_________________________ ____ _________________
Bituminous______________________________________________
3. Metalliferous mining......................................................................... .
4. Quarrying and nonmetallic m i n i n g __________ _______ _________
5. Public utilities................ ................ ......... ................................ .........
6. Trade..................................................................................................Wholesale________________________________________________
Retail______________________ _____ ___ ______ _____________
7. Hotels________ _____ _______________________________ ______ __
8. Canning and preserving_______________________________________
13,074
1,532
152
1,380
361
679
10,117
8,754
2,069
6,685
1,862
431
3,307,559
308,921
84,645
224,276
58,288
34,159
727,072
294,190
63,490
230,700
164,762
20,456
$89,103,676
7,412,624
2,497,942
4,914,682
1,748,343
873,136
22,247,085
7,584,981
2,014,896
5,570,085
2,881,537
375,695
Total................................................................................................
36,810
4, 915,407
132,227,077
A great lack still exists in the employment reports of the bureau, in the ab
sence of data on construction. Although the problems connected with the com
pilation of such data are many, it is essential that such collection be undertaken
because of the great importance of this branch of industry.
With June, 1929, the bureau began its first current monthly report on labor
turnover in manufacturing industries. These data had been collected and
2 In late April, 1930, Senator W agner’s bill was passed by the Senate (along with his
bill authorizing the preparation o f a long-range construction program ).
STATISTICS OF EMPLOYMENT AND UNEMPLOYMENT
23
compiled for several years by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. under the
direction of Dr. W. A. Berridge; the figures had been forwarded to the Bureau
of Labor Statistics and published quarterly in the Labor Review. The project
was transferred to the bureau in midsummer, 1929. Feeling that labor-turnover data for “ all industries” alone were not adequate, the bureau expanded
the work to separate industries, and in January, 1930, began the publication of
current data for automobiles, boots and shoes, cotton manufacturing, iron and
steel, slaughtering and meat packing, and sawmills, and, in February, for foun
dries and machine shops.
4. Classification o f the employment data o f the Bureau of Labor Statistics
for smaller geographical divisions selected on the basis of economic and indus
trial significance, especially city areas.
5. Fuller and more prompt reporting of employment and earnings data on
the railroads to the Bureau of Labor Statistics by the Interstate Commerce
Commission (which already collects these data in great detail), and closer
cooperation between the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Geological Survey
in the collection of mining employment data.
6. Greater comparability of the employment data of the Bureau o f Labor
Statistics and the various State labor bureaus, Federal reserve banks, and the
Census of Manufactures in such matters as industrial classification and the base
period used in the construction of indexes.
This committee undertook in 1928 a survey of existing employment indexes
with particular reference to methods of construction, choice of a base period,
and the comparative significance of the chain-link and the fixed-base indexes.
The results showed a trend in practice toward the adoption of the multipleyear base, and in general a closer correlation of the fixed-base indexes with
trends shown by census compilations as compared with the correlation indi
cated by the link-relative numbers. At its annual meeting in December, 1928,
the committee voted to accept the principle of a multiple-year base and that
the period 1925-1927 should be adopted.
The Department of Labor of the State of New York is already using the base
period 1925-1927 for all its indexes except those which show the differentiation
of sex; the Industrial Commission of the State of Illinois, for all its indexes;
and the Department of Labor and Industries of Massachusetts, for all its in
dexes except building employment (for which 1928 has been taken). The
Bureau of Labor Statistics at present prefers the year 1926, since its indexes
are already recomputed on that base; while the Federal Reserve System uses,
wherever possible, the period 1923-1925 as a base, in accordance with an agree
ment made in 1926 with the Department of Commerce.
B. Development of an index of public employment, including employment given
directly by public authorities, Federal, State, and municipal, and employ
ment on work done by contract.
As a part of its project of developing statistics on public works, this com
mittee, with the support of the Welfare Council of New York City, has begun
work on a monthly index of employment afforded by the New York City gov
ernment. The procedure for compiling the employment and pay-roll data on
work afforded directly by the city government has already been well developed.
As an experiment in this procedure, the posting on ledger cards and tabulating
of the data for the some 2,000 pay rolls have been completed for two months.
Totals of both numbers employed and amounts o f pay roll have been com
puted for these months for the various departments and the entire city
government.
14886°—30---- 3
24
17TH ANNUAL MEETING OF A. G. O. I.
The procedure for the reporting of employment on city work let out to con
tractors (i. e., on such city projects as bridges, buildings and alterations, sub
ways, etc.) has also been developed. A questionnaire for submission to the
contracting firms has been formulated and the ledger card has been set up.
No data, however, have yet been collected.
The welfare council is cooperating by undertaking to urge the adoption of
this plan, and it is hoped that a regular system of reporting the employment
and earnings of the employees on work of the New York City government will
shortly be instituted.
0. Development of a statistical procedure for public employment offices.
At the request, made in 1929, of the International Association of Public
Employment Services, this committee has undertaken a study of the statistics
of public employment offices, with a view to the development of a statistical
procedure that would commend itself to State bureaus of labor and to tlie
United States Employment Service. In view of the meager statistical experi
ence of employment offices in the United States, the study involves examination
of the methods worked out after long experiment by the employment exchanges
of the principal European countries. On this part of the work the executive
secretary of this committee, Bryce M. Stewart, is now engaged in Europe.
D. The collection of data on unemployment.
The collection of comprehensive data on unemployment presents great diffi
culties. The United States is not in a position to secure material comparable
with the data in those countries which have unemployment insurance. We
must make current estimates of the numbers of unemployed from statistics of
trends of employment—estimates which never can be satisfactory until the
statistics of trends cover a larger number of industries than at present. Mean
while, there are certain methods by which we can obtain data which have a
direct bearing on unemployment.
a. Through censuses of unemployment in individual cities.
Such censuses were taken, for example, in April, 1929, in Philadelphia (with
the cooperation of the University of Pennsylvania), in November, 1929, in
Buffalo (with cooperation from the colleges), and in early 1928, 1929, and
1930 in Baltimore.
This committee recommends—
(1) The repetition of censuses of unemployment in various cities.
(2) The taking of censuses of unemployment in other cities especially in
those in which the cooperation of the universities is possible. Such cooperation
is well exemplified in the census in Buffalo in November, 1929. The work was
accomplished through the combined efforts of the New York State Department
of Labor, State Teachers College of Buffalo, University of Buffalo, Canisius Col
lege, and the Buffalo Foundation. Tlie census was a sample study of 15,104
persons, and the students of the various colleges made the house-to-house can
vass, for which they received course credit.
b. Through Federal censuses of unemployment, as in April, 1930.
This committee had worked with the Census Bureau, prior to the enumera
tion, in drawing up a set of questions which might be asked in the census.
The schedule as finally adopted was not fully in conformity with our recom
mendations, but we nevertheless have welcomed it as the first promising
attempt in this country to get figures on the extent of unemployment. The
full recommendations of the committee (which may be used for State and
municipal as well as Federal censuses) are published as part of its annual
report in the Journal of the American Statistical Association for March, 1930,
STATISTICS OF EMPLOYMENT AND UNEMPLOYMENT
25
and would also be separately available by application to Dr. Eugene B. Patton,
secretary of the committee, addressed at room 600, 130 East Twenty-second
Street, New York City.
E. The collection of basic data from the United States Census of Manufactures.
So that there may be an adequate check on the sample used by the State and
Federal bureaus in their collections of employment data, we recommend the
collection and publication of comprehensive employment data by the United
States Census of Manufactures, as follows:
( a ) Continued collection and publication of monthly data on employment,
classified by States and by industries.
Because of the bulk of the work on the present decennial census, the Bureau
o f the Census departed for 1927 from its practice of publishing in the Census
of Manufactures monthly employment figures for all individual industries
(although the inquiry had been made for every industry), and instead limited
the monthly tabulation to 13 industries. These industries together accounted
for over 3 per cent of the total number of establishments and about 20 per
cent of the total number of wage earners reported in the census of 1925.
In the censuses for 1929 and 1931, the Director of the Census has informed
this committe, the inquiry in regard to the number of wage earners employed
on the 15th of each month or nearest representative day will be retained on the
schedule and if practicable the monthly employment figures will be tabulated
for all industries. In any event, after the close of the Fifteenth Census period
the publication of the monthly employment figures will be resumed.
(b) Publication of average annual data on employment and earnings for
cities of 25,000 and over.
(c) Collection and publication of monthly earnings by States and by
industries.
The Bureau of the Census, has advised this committee that the “ amount of
work already planned, in line with recommendations of the advisory committee,
appointed by the Secretary o f Commerce is so great as to render it imprac
ticable to undertake anything further, and especially anything o f an experi
mental character.”
(d) Collection and publication of man-hours data.
This committee and other agencies have been urging the collection of such
data, with the result that the Bureau of the Census agreed to gather data on
man-hours for the year 1929, for the following industries: Blast furnaces;
lumber and timber products (limited to establishments reporting products
valued at $1,000,000 or more) ; machine tools; and petroleum refining.
The following resolution was unanimously adopted by the
convention:
Resolved, 1. That the Association of Governmental Officials in Industry of
the United States and Canada indorse the principle o f collection and publica
tion of employment and pay-roll figures by industries;
2. That in order to secure comparability of figures such collection and publi
cation be on the same general lines as those now followed by the United States
Bureau of Labor Statistics and by a number o f the leading industrial States;
3. That in order to avoid duplication, all States collecting such reports co
operate with the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics on the same basis
as now in effect between that bureau and the nine States now cooperating
with the Federal bureau.
[Meeting adjourned.]
WEDNESDAY, MAY 21—AFTERNOON SESSION
E. Leroy Sweetser, Commissioner Massachusetts Department of Labor
and Industries, Presiding
UNIFORMITY IN LABOR LEGISLATION
Chairman S w e e t s e r . We are interested in uniformity of labor
laws, especially in a State like Massachusetts, not only because we
want the best labor laws there are but because we want competition
between States to be eliminated. The manufacturer in Massachu
setts complains about lack of uniformity in that other States are
in competition, but in spite of all that we are doing very well.
There is need of uniformity in those fundamental laws that affect
us all. Conditions vary, and one State does one thing and one an
other; but we should have an 8-hour law for women and children,
and laws that take care of safety and health of employees. Again,
in connection with that, we must have the law of enforcement. We
in Massachusetts do not think our laws are any better than any
others but we do think that we enforce them, and I know that we do.
We have the machine force and money to see that it is done.
One thing I think this association could do which would be of
great advantage is to see that the department of labor in each
State had a copy of every law. We have such a department
in Massachusetts which we call a library and here is kept a copy of
every law from every State. Recently one of the commissioners
from Canada came in to see me and I took him into this library
and showed him all the data from his own Province and he was very
much pleased with it.
This system has also been of great value to us in getting appro
priations and acts through the legislature. I think every State
should have a copy of the laws of every other State and that it should
also keep up with all changes therein.
We are fortunate in having for our next speaker, Mr. Leifur
Magnusson, American Representative of the International Labor
Office.
Some Problems and Methods of State Uniform Labor
Legislation
By L eifer Magnusson , American Representative, International Labor Office
This paper goes back to an indiscreet letter which I wrote last
September to the president of this association in which I raised the
question whether there should not be a discussion on this year’s
program of the need for and method of obtaining greater uniform
ity in State labor legislation. At the time I said my suggestions
were prompted by the labor difficulties brought to light in the South.
I pointed out that capital moves more freely from one jurisdiction
to another, and can take advantage of a labor differential that exists
by reason of inadequate and unreasonable laws. I went on to observe
26
UNIFORM LABOR.LEGISLATION— LEIFER MAGNUSSON
27
that the solution suggested by the Governor of North Carolina runs
in terms of uniform State action, though he made his suggestion
applicable to only a few Southern States. On the other hand, I
said, one has only to ask oneself the question: Why are all tradeunions national and all-embracing in their scope and activities, and
why are employers’ associations interstate and nation-wide?
In a somewhat different sense this paper is a continuation or sequel
to one that I read at the Salt Lake City convention in 1925. There
I described the functioning of the International Labor Office in
terms of the American situation and Federal form of government,
and showed the part which both employers and workers can play
in a scheme of social fact finding and legislation.
A Mixed Scene
The problem of securing uniform labor legislation in the United
States, it seems to me, does not consist in condemning wholly the
evils of individual competitive enterprise; nor does it consist in
merely pointing out the difficulties and intricacies of our Federal
system of organization. These are facts we must reckon with, and
then lay our plans to deal with them in the light of the exigencies
of industrial peace and social justice.
(May I say as an aside that I presume that social justice is a desir
able thing; that what the most progressive and enlightened State
desires for its wage earners and producers is what every other State
in the American federation should desire for its toiling masses?)
Any program of social legislation in the United States, unless it
wishes to be completely pessimistic and revolutionary, must take
account of existing political forms and institutions in relation to
diverse local and sectional economic interests. One must recognize
that in its economic and social diversity the United States is not a
nation but a continent. Within that continental free-trade area
there exist differences in geography, climate, and racial and
industrial development almost as great as those between the inde
pendent sovereign nations of the world.
THE FOREGROUND.
In pushing the program of social legislation in the United States
those interested have had recourse either to National or State action,
according as the distribution of powers under the Constitution has
determined. We have national legislation with respect to seamen
and other workers in interstate and foreign commerce. We have
proceeded either by constitutional amendment or by direct legisla
tion. On the other hand, when the subject matter is within the
competence of the State, the result has been State legislation which
has been rather haphazard and certainly without any large degree
of uniformity except what may come by imitation and the general
drift of common ideas in such matters.
These two forms of approach—National and State—have in recent
years been coordinated through the method of grant-in-aid. By this
method Congress has declared a public policy with respect to a given
social problem and has offered to aid the States in securing such ends,
provided the States share the burden of administrative costs and by
inference accept the legislative policy declared in the Federal act.
28
17TH ANNUAL MEETING OF A. G. O. I.
For instance, two bills are now before Congress based on this method,
namely, legislation for creating a coordinated system of employment
exchanges and for the securing of pensions to the aged. This method
has the merit of being constitutional; it permits of State or sectional
acceptance of legislation according to its need and adaptability to
a given State or area; it leaves administrative initiative and control
in the locality, and thereby guards against too great centralization.
Two other methods of legislative approach have been suggested
but have not as yet proved to be practical or in any way effective.
These two methods are the State compact and reciprocal legisla
tion. The State compact idea, or the making oi agreements by a
group of States for either regulating or promoting certain common
interests, is an inherent part of the Constitution. It received some
notice about four years ago when Prof. Felix Frankfurter, of Har
vard University, suggested its applicability to the regulation of pub
lic utilities.1 The method had, however, been pointed out as a possi
bility by Elihu Root in an address to a group of conservation gov
ernors in May, 1908.2
The method of reciprocal legislation by which legislation in one
State is made conditional upon action of a similar character in
another has been largely a theoretical proposal, made first, I believe,
by Prof. Samuel McCune Lindsay, of Columbia University, before
the Atlanta meeting of the National Child Labor Committee in 1908.3
Professor Lindsay pointed out certain advantages of his proposal,
and cited cases to show its constitutionality as a method of legisla
tion. In a sense, Professor Lindsay’s proposal was related to the
earlier one of Mr. Hoot mentioned above, as well as to a discus
sion of the problem by Prof. Ernst Freund, of the University of
Chicago, in 1909, who raised and answered, partly negatively, the
question: Can the States cooperate for labor legislation ? 4 Profes
sor Lindsay concluded his remarks by saying that reciprocal legisla
tion offers to private organizations “ a new and promising
instrument for educational and reformatory effort.”
To sum up, the foreground of the American picture of social legis*
lation consists of (1) a direct effort to secure national legislation;
(2) enactment of State legislation; and (3) combination of State
and national action through the grant in aid. Nor must we forget
the overshadowing Supreme Court, which, like a sort of nemesis,
secures a certain coordination and uniformity in State legislation
by lopping off branches here and there. But the Supreme Court
has been altogether a negative force, restraining rather than pro
moting legislation.
THE BACKGROUND.
Back of these rather unwieldy structures in the foreground of our
social legislation effort lies an atmospheric landscape of many con
fused elements, high lights and low lights, protecting forests, bogs
of social resistance, criss-crossing lines of communication, and
confusion of effort.
1 Yale Law Review, New Haven, Conn., May, 1925: The State Compact, a Study in
Interstate Adjustments, by Felix Frankfurter and James M. Landis.
2 Elihu R o o t : Address before Conference o f Governors, Washington, May, 1908.
3 P olitical Science Quarterly, New York, September, 19 1 0 : R eciprocal Legislation, by
Samuel McCune Lindsay.
4 Tlio Survey, New York, April, 19 09: Can the States Cooperate fo r Labor Legislation?
by Ernst Freund.
UNIFOIiM LAB Oil LEGISLATION----LEI FEE, MAGNUSSON
29
While under our Federal system the chief method of social legis
lation has been State action, the form of organization taken by those
who have sought to promote social legislation has always been na
tional. This, of course, reflects the obvious fact that the interests
of labor and industry are national rather than state-wide. And
these, of course, are the two problems which we are trying to recon
cile— political federalism and economic nationalism. However con
fused the background of American social effort, it is at least bound
together by the cement of economic nationalism.
In order to make this background more concrete, an enumeration
and brief description of the elements and institutions of which it is
composed should be helpful and clarifying:
(1) The conference of commissioners of uniform laws, which was
established in 1892. The commissioners, usually three from each
State, are appointed by the governors of the different States. They
meet in annual conference, draft and recommend measures to secure
uniformity of legislative principle and method of administration,
where such uniformity seems practicable and desirable. Special
committees deal with special measures. The committee on labor
legislation of this body has sponsored a uniform child labor law,
which the latest records show has been enacted in only four States.
An act for safety devices in industry has been sponsored, but no
record of any acceptance appears to be available to date. Nor has
any State adopted the standard bill for occupational diseases.
(2) The conference of governors, called together for the first time
by President Roosevelt in 1909, once hailed as a valuable adjunct
to our Federal system, has had no influence in promoting social
legislation. It has never passed resolutions nor indicated points of
view, and has been little more than a forum of discussion. It lacks
effective administrative machinery to keep things going between the
intervals of the conference. In the language of the street, it has not
panned out as anticipated, although it did secure for President
Koosevelt in 1908 a certain amount of publicity and influence for
his conservation movement and child labor agitation.
(3) The American Legislators’ Association, organized in 1925,
while created to improve legislative standards, does not definitely
promote uniformity, but may conceivably come to that some day.
(4) Associations of administrative State officials are bodies like
our own and the International Association of Industrial Accident
Boards and Commissions, and the International Association of Pub
lic Employment Services. All of these—over 50 of them 5—grew
5 American Association o f Economic E ntom ologists; American Association o f Instructors
o f the Blind ; American Association o f P ort A u th orities; American A ssociation o f M useum s;
American A ssociation o f State Highway Officials; American Association o f Zoological
P a rk s; American Institute o f Park E xecu tives; American Scenic and H istoric Preservation
S ocie ty ; American Uniform Boiler Law S ociety ; American Park S ociety ; American Prison
A ssociation ; American Legislators A ssociation ; Assembly o f Civil Service C om m issions;
Association o f American Dairy, Food, and Drug O fficials; Association of Governmental
Officials in In d u stry ; A ssociation o f Land-Gran t Colleges and U niversities; Association o f
State Highway Officials o f North A m erica ; Association o f Official Agricultural Chem ists;
Conference o f A rt C om m issions; Conference o f Governors o f the States o f the U n ion ;
Conference o f New England G ov ern ors; Conference o f State and Provincial Health Au
thorities o f North A m erica; Conference o f State Directors in charge o f the local admin
istration o f the M aternity and Infancy A c ts ; Conference o f State Sanitary Engineers:
Conference o f Weights and Measures in the United S ta tes; Eastern Conference o f MotorVehicle A dm inistrators; Federated Societies on Planning and P a rk s; Federation o f State
Medical Boards o f United S ta te s; International A ssociation o f Dairy and Milk Inspectors;
International Association o f Game, Fish, and Conservation C om m issioners; International
Association o f Industrial Accident Boards and Com m issions; International Association o f
Public Employment S ervices; Joint New England Railroad C om m ittee; National Associa-
30
17TH ANNUAL MEETING OF A. G. O. I.
out of administrative needs, and attest vividly the appreciation of
these officials of the necessity for common action.
(5)
Private agencies seeking to promote social legislation and to
introduce harmony into diverse State legislation occupy a prominent
position in the background of the American picture of social legisla
tion. These bodies again are too numerous to mention in a paper
of this sort, but include among others the American Association for
Labor Legislation, the American Association for Old Age Security,
the National Consumers5 League, the National Child Labor Com
mittee, the American Bar Association, the American Federation of
Labor and its State branches, the National Association of Manufac
turers, the United States Chamber of Commerce, the farmers’ organi
zations, and numerous other bodies dealing with specific types of
State legislation like the National Conference on Highway Safety,
the Prison Labor Association, and so forth and so on.
It will be observed that the first four bodies named—the conference
of governors, the legislators’ association, the administrative officials,
and the commissioners of uniform laws—are either official, semi
official, or spring from the ranks of officialdom. The last-named
group consists ox the private agencies which are seeking to bring
pressure to bear upon State and national legislatures. Even the
semiofficial groups do this, but in a somewhat less invidious manner.
Merely to enumerate these elements working for social legislation in
the United States is to show the chaos that has developed and that
threatens to persist unless certain things are done and certain new
developments started on their way.
The Dark Painted Canvas
With this picture of the American effort at labor legislation before
us, why is our movement so dark or at least hazy, to put it more
mildly"? With all this machinery at work, why have we not
secured a greater degree of uniformity and nationality in our social
adjustments?
There are several reasons, it seems to me, for this darkness of the
American picture of labor legislative progress. The original
painter, so to speak, began with a dark canvas instead of one painted
with the colors of the sun. I hinted at one reason for our difficulties
when I indicated the continental character of the United States and
the tremendous forces of sectional interest. Another reason is the
inevitable character of our Federal system. Each State may legis
late one year in harmony with the other, and the following year
each legislature has a perfect right to change the law. A third
factor also makes it practically impossible to maintain uniform
ity of legislation, even if we had obtained it—the doctrine of judition o f A ttorneys G eneral; National Association o f Boards o f Medical E xam iners; Na
tional Association o f Civil Service Com m issions; National Association o f Commissioners,
Secretaries, and Departments o f A griculture; National Association o f Comptrollers and
Accounting Officers; National Association o f Dental E xam iners; National A ssociation o f
State Directors o f Vocational E d u cation ; National Association o f Railroad and Utilities
C om m issioners; National Association o f State U niversities; National A ssociation o f State
Auditors, Comptrollers, and T reasurers; Nat ional Association o f Securities Com m issioners;
National Association o f Supervisors o f State B an ks; National Committee on Inheritance
T a x a tio n ; National Convention o f Insurance Com m issioners; National Conference on State
P a r k s; National Council o f Teachers’ Retirement System s; National Probation A ssocia
tion ; National Tax A ssociation ; National University Extension A ssocia tion ; New England
State Tax Officials A ssociation ; Pacific Coast A ssociation o f P ort A u th orities; Society o f
American Foresters.
UNIFORM LABOR LEGISLATION----LEIFER MAGNUSSON
31
dal supremacy. This permits the courts of the various States
to give varying interpretations to laws that were once uniform,
until as a result of this judicial interpretation discrepancies develop
in laws which were originally identical. It is, therefore, logically
true that there is probably only one way we can maintain and secure
an ultimate and continuous uniformity in our social legislation,
namely, by making social legislation on a national scale, bringing it
within the competence of Congress by constitutional amendment or
interpretation, or by extending the method of the grant in aid to all
the different forms of social legislation. This, at least, makes
uniformity in legislative principle, coupled with diversity and local
autonomy in administration.
Brighter Perspectives Ahead
Admitting all the dark and sinister spots in the picture, I still
think we have not made the most of our situation. There are still
loopholes in our voluntary efforts at bringing greater harmony into
State labor legislation. What we need are some new methods of
voluntary action to reinforce the governmental machinery and to
strengthen the legislative processes which our Federal system makes
possible—that is, national congressional action, sectional compact,
and State law. It is our private and voluntary agencies, that I have
enumerated above, which lack councils of hope and institutional
coordination. It is to improve matters along these lines that my
suggestions lie.
First, do we not need a national council of the agencies interested
in social legislation? By that I mean not merely a conference of
such agencies for discussion and elaboration of opinions, but a true
administrative council such as have been created in localities to
handle the chaos of community charity services. Would it not be
helpful to have a national council made up of representatives from
the American Association of Labor Legislation, the American Asso
ciation for Old Age Security, the American Federation of Labor,
the National Association of Manufacturers, the United States Cham
ber of Commerce, etc., in order to introduce a coherence and some
unity of principle and strategy?
Second, do we not need the heading up in Washington, or, shall
I say, guidance from Washington, by some one of the governmental
departments to bring together in conference and in council those
forces which are interested in labor legislation? We have had the
beginning of such efforts as, for example, the conference on the
8-hour day in the paper-making industry of several years ago, the
industrial safety conference, and the numerous conferences of a
related character summoned and convened by the departments of this
and past administrations. My suggestion, here, is little more than
an extension to social legislation and the labor field of the practices
already developed in trade and industry, the trade practice con
ferences, the conference on the standardization of material and
simplification of practices, conferences on public questions like
street safety, etc.
Third, should there not be brought into the picture those two
underlying groups in the community which have the most interest
at stake in any movement for social legislation, namely, the employers
n
17TH ANNUAL MEETING OF A. G. 0. I.
and the workers? It has been declared good form to promote the
organization of agriculture and agricultural cooperation. How
about some promotion of the interests of wage earners and attention
to the problems of unemployment, accidents, ill health and old age,
night work, weekly rest, and leisure? Here is a wide field for con
ference and associated effort that is in line with industrial develop
ment and the larger social claims of the community as a whole.
There are several points at which workers and employers could
be brought into the situation. There is a place for them, it seems to
me, among the commissioners of uniform State laws, helping to make
more practical the laws proposed. Already workers have been intro
duced into the various conferences called by the Department of
Commerce, but, usually it seems to me, in much too few a number
in relation to the whole. Several private groups interested in labor
legislation do introduce both workers and employers, but in a rather
haphazard and incomplete manner, while the possibilities of the
labor-consultative conference under the Federal Department of
Labor appear to me to be many—embracing, as they well might,
every aspect of industrial relations in American industry.
Fourth, and as a climax to the suggested development of labor
conferences under the auspices of a Washington department or
departments, might there not come a larger and more general con
ference representing the three forces in the different States most
interested in social action, namely, the public at large, the employers,
and the workers? Would it not prove enlightening to convene
a conference of delegates from each State representing the governor
of the State, the State federation of labor in that State, and the
State industrial council of the National Association of Manufac
turers or other employer group, some type of which exists in each
State in the Union? We alread}^ have one or more of the depart
ments at Washington which could serve as the permanent coordinat
ing agency of such a conference, which could provide it with a
program to work upon, which could conduct the necessary under
lying research and could issue the acts or results of the conference
either in the form of findings of fact respecting the social or indus
trial situation or in the form of a model law, if a law is deemed
necessary for dealing with the problem. We need not take at once
the step of formulating the findings of the conference in the shape of
law, but can readily confine the activities to fact finding and recom
mendations of desirable policies short of the compulsion of law.
You will, of course, have noted a similarity between this institu
tion I am suggesting and the international labor organization, as I
described it to you some five years ago at Salt Lake City. But the
international labor organization was a much newer and daring in
stitution to establish on an international scale in 1919 than the or
ganizing of such a group is for this country in 1930. There were
few if any precedents for the international labor organization in
1919; there was no existing permanent agency around which to co
ordinate it. Both these difficulties are already taken care of in the
American situation. We have as precedents the commission forms
of labor administration in the different States, based upon the tri
partite representation idea. We have had a great deal of experience
with a Federal commission form of government, such as the Inter
UNIFORM LABOR LEGISLATION----NEWTON BRIGHT
33
state Commerce Commission, the Federal Trade Commission, the
Federal Reserve Board, and the two farm boards, loan and market
ing. In the second place, we have the permanent administrative
body to serve as a nucleus for preserving the continuity and efficient
functioning of such a nation-wide continuous conference. The De
partment of Labor has had a continuity of experience and leader
ship since the days of Colonel Wright in 1886. Nor should I fail to
mention the value of the experience and technical knowledge of such
a group as your own, and the administrative part it can play and
the technical advice with which it can assist such a Federal or State
conference of governments, employers, and workers.
Such a conference method of handling our social problems, it
seems to me, is suited to the nature of our Federal machinery and
does not violate any of its current practices. It has the further ad
vantage of bridging the gap between our political and economic in
stitutions which as the power and prestige of industry increase are
in danger of drifting further and further apart, leading to an ulti
mate breakdown of one or the other. Such a tripartite conference
preserves the initiative and individualism of American life as it is
truly democratic in its make-up and voluntary in its action and
functioning. It would be a genuine form of “ self-government in
industry55 in which both sides would find representation and a
chance to work out the inevitable compromises that must be made
as between employer and worker and the community welfare in any
legislation that is to prove effective and enduring.
Need for Uniformity in Labor Industrial Relations Laws and
Administration
By
N e w t o n B r ig h t ,
Commissioner Kentucky Department of Agriculture, Labor,
and Statistics
[Read by John W. Rogers, deputy labor inspector, Louisville, K y.]
Article 2 of the constitution of the Association of Governmental
Officials in Industry of the United States and Canada defines, in
part, the object of the organization in these words:
To encourage the cooperation of all branches of the Federal, State, and
Provincial Governments who are charged with the administration of laws and
regulations for the protection o f women and children and the safety and welfare
of all workers in industry; to maintain and promote the best possible standards
of law enforcement and administration method.
It is with these central tenets of your organization in mind that
I present for your approval suggestions for the adjustment of some
of the difficulties that prevent a full realization of the projects set
forth in the constitution.
The problems that confront the modern State or Provincial de
partment of labor are diversified and complex and involve in some
degree problems not only of local significance but of interstate and
even national scope. Goods manufactured in one State where cer
tain labor welfare laws prevail are shipped out and sold in other
States where the laws are different, perhaps less liberal or more
stringent. Such inequalities breed conflict. Such a condition gives
the employer operating under obsolete or inadequate laws an un
34
17TH ANNUAL MEETING OF A. G. 0. I.
earned advantage over his colleagues whose factories are located in
a State where enlightened labor welfare laws prevail.
A modern State labor department usually contains several
branches. There is sometimes a kind of industrial police system
composed of factory inspectors whose constant surveillance is neces
sary to prevent infractions of the laws or safety codes. There are
other departments concerned with the investigations of the violation
or nonobservance of the women’s and children’s laws; statistical
bureaus and other branches of labor welfare which may include an
industrial rehabilitation service, a workmen’s compensation board,
or other groups of similar function.
A great diversity exists in the scope, power, authority, latitude of
interpretation, and other relevant matters in the State labor or in
dustrial departments charged with the supervision and enforcement
of these laws. The diversity of terminology itself is confusing and
the separation of the departments in the several States, departments
which are consolidated under one unit in some places, adds to the
chaos.
Twenty-eight of our States have two or more agencies or bureaus
that concern themselves with the administration of the labor laws,
and some States have many more.
The methods of administration are almost as varied as the number
of labor welfare groups. In six States there is a commission which
divides the authority among the members, sometimes composed of a
committee of experts, sometimes of representatives of employers
and employees, or in other ways. Such an organization assumes all
of the governmental functions, since it exercises executive power
and through its promulgation of codes and regulations, which have
the effect of statute law in some States, a quasi legislative power.
In States where the board has the power to hear cases of offenders
against the commission’s rules, it also has a quasi judicial power.
In eight other States there has been a tendency to centralize the
administrative power and in these States the authority has been
vested in one responsible head, the commissioner or director.
The commission form of administration for labor welfare groups
began with the workmen’s compensation boards. Thirty of our
States have commissions administering the workmen’s compensation
laws and functioning, in most States, independently of the other
organizations concerned with the workers. That brings us to a
main issue in the organization of labor departments.
The operation of a compensation board as an independent unit
of the labor welfare group presents an anomaly. A compensation
board is or should be a component part of the labor welfare groups
and should coordinate its work with the factory inspection depart
ment, the vocational rehabilitation board, and all other agencies that
exist for the purpose of collecting industrial statistics or other data.
Operating independently, it produces an overlapping of functions,
with resultant friction, duplicated work, and increased expense of
administration of the law.
Variation in the legislative provisions of the compensation laws
is most marked. The New York compensation law may be con
sidered as an example of the liberal law, when it is compared with
the chief provisions of other State laws.
UNIFORM LABOR LEGISLATION— NEWTON BRIGHT
35
Factors to be considered in the liberality of a compensation law
are scope, that is, the employments that the law covers; the inclu
sion of industrial accidents and occupational diseases; the liberality
or scale of benefits, as well as the means or methods of securing
claims.
There is a distinct difference in the provisions of compensation
laws in the various States. For instance, New York is one of the
32 States which includes hazardous as well as nonhazardous occu
pations. Some States include workers engaged in domestic service
and agriculture; other States exclude them. The number of em
ployees of the excluded small employer varies from 3 in Kentucky
to 15 in other States. The waiting period before compensation
begins also shows a wide diversity—one to three weeks in some
States, none in Oregon and in South Dakota.
In Kentucky the workmen’s compensation board is one of the
independent labor welfare groups. The members of this board are
responsible to the governor, since they are appointed by the chief
executive of the State. Their duties include the receiving and
filing of records of industrial accidents, medical certificates, state
ments of compensation, agreements reached between employers and
employees and receipts of compensation paid; visiting of industrial
districts; approving agreements reached, and hearing and deciding
claims not reached by agreement.
This department is also charged, jointly with the insurance com
missioner, with the regulation of rates charged by carriers and the
approval of all policies issued by the carriers to the employers of
the State.
The vocational rehabilitation board is the second group in the
labor welfare set-up in Kentucky. Its purpose is to provide for
“ the promotion of vocational rehabilitation of persons disabled in
industry or otherwise and to return them to civil employment.”
This department is so closely related to the problems of adminis
tration of the labor welfare groups that it logically belongs to that
province rather than to the department of education under which it
is now functioning.
The labor welfare groups now operating in Kentucky will con
veniently symbolize the haphazard method of administering these
laws. In addition to the compensation board and the rehabilitation
board, there is a labor department (a unit of the bureau of agricul
ture, labor, and statistics), whose duties are prescribed by law
as visiting by inspectors of places of employment for the purpose of
investigating the conditions affecting the life, health, and safety
of workers and the administration of all laws of the State regulating
the employment of labor and the collection of statistics pertaining
thereto.
That seems broad enough to give the department of labor almost
infinite scope. In practice, however, the department is hampered
by the narrowness and ambiguity of the law. A force of four
deputies, two men and two women, is provided for the inspection and
enforcement of all the labor laws throughout the State, which
leaves scant time for the collection of statistics “ pertaining thereto,”
or for anything else.
36
17TH ANNUAL MEETING OF A. G. 0. I.
There is, however, one notable feature of the law for the establish
ment of the labor department—the clause that provides that appoint
ments are made to the staff only through competitive examination.
The labor department is the only State department in Kentucky
which is run under a quasi civil service system for the examination
of candidates for positions.
Another welfare group that operates in the State of Kentucky is
the department of mines. The chief mine inspector and his deputies
are appointees of the governor and are directly responsible to him.
The purpose of this department as set forth in the law is “ safe
guarding of workers in the coal-mining industry and the publication
of statistics pertaining thereto 55 which seems to be the duty of the
heads of all Kentucky labor welfare groups.
This department, too, is restricted by the narrowness of the pro
visions of the law. Granted that coal mining is the most important
and extensive mining industry in Kentucky, is that a reason why
workers in other fields of mineral extraction should be ignored and
deprived of their right to have a safe place to work and to have
that place of employment certified as safe by an unbiased govern
ment service?
A department of mines should not be restricted to coal mining
but should include other varieties of mineral extraction, such as
quarrying, mining of asphalt or of fluorspar, or any other method
of mineral extraction that involves the use of explosives or other
dangerous practices. The inspection of mineral-extracting industries
other than coal mining is now under the supervision of the labor
department.
The point that all this is leading up to is this: A new slant on
social welfare administration, the realization that the administration
of labor laws is no longer a matter of local patriotism but a matter
of national concern. Much usage has blunted the effectiveness of the
old maxim “ A chain is as strong as its weakest link,” but it does not
alter or affect its validity.
Consolidation of the scattered State units, that now operate
in slipshod fashion with overlapping duties and that are so heavily
swathed in red tape and beaurocratic methods, is a compelling neces
sity. In the first place, State departments should be reorganized,
and the declaration is made with the knowledge that such reorgan
ization should begin in Kentucky. All the labor welfare organiza
tions of the State should be welded into a central department to
include industrial safety, sanitation and hygiene, compensation and
vocational rehabilitation, as well as the operation of a public employ
ment service. Industrial statistics should be handled by a central
agency instead of by several more or less unrelated bureaus all work
ing for an undetermined end.
As for the executive control of such an organization, that is per
haps more a matter of local concern. Here in Kentucky where indi
vidualism is rampant, it is felt that to place the executive power, as
well as a sort of judicial and legislative power, in the hands of one
man— a commissioner—would smack of tyranny. Such arbitrary
assumption of power is not relished in Kentucky, although it seems
to be well adapted to the needs of the situation elsewhere. It seems,
then, that the most feasible method in this State would be the forma
UNIFORM LABOR LEGISLATION— NEWTON BRIGHT
37
tion of an administrative board with three to five members in which
both the employers and the employees would be represented.
There now exists among the legislators of this country a strong
sentiment for the centralization of labor welfare groups. The fac
tors that inspire this sentiment are obvious—increased efficiency,
economy of operation, and the fixing of responsibility.
It is fairly obvious that before there can be any harmonious coor
dination of State laws that will lead to uniformity in State legisla
tive provisions there must first be an internal harmony and the
formulation of a definite sentiment for uniformity among the States
and Provinces.
One hundred and fifty years of industrialism have evolved a high
type of industrial standards which should be definitely determined,
codified, and enforced so that the public welfare will not be threat
ened by disputes and conflicts. The right of all men to have a safe
place to work and the protection of women and children in industry
should be extended to all workers of every State, not merely to an
isolated few.
When the preliminary spade work of unifying the State depart
ments has been accomplished, the relationships between the State
and Provincial departments will be put on a more practical basis for
the maturing of the plan for uniformity in the State laws.
The members of this association are the executive heads of labor
departments and industrial commissions. Such administrators and
public officers are coming to consider it a part of their duty to recom
mend and secure improved legislation to bolster up and reinforce
the weak points in the laws they are enforcing and to raise their
standards to the best practice that has been evolved by their col
leagues and other experts in the field.
If your neighboring States have obsolete social welfare laws, your
own industries will be forced to compete with employers who have
gained unwarranted advantage because of legislation that is an
anachronism in an enlightened era. If your neighbors’ laws are
negligent in any phase it may mean that some of your industries
will move to another State which affords a minimum of protection
to its wage earners. That means the loss of business in your State
and the loss of taxable property.
An example of this sort of migration of industry is illustrated by
the reported conversation of a manufacturer who moved his factory
to Kentucky when he learned that the State labor laws in Kentucky
were less well adapted to the modern industrial world than those of
progressive Wisconsin. Probably Wisconsin was glad to get rid of
such an employer. Certainly Kentucky does not consider an em
ployer who comes here to exploit our citizenry, because our laws are
lax enough to permit it, a shining star in our crown.
Such inequalities and lack of coordinated effort, as well as tlie
variation in the State labor laws, breeds conflict and instability. A
strong central motive should run through the laws, based on the same
fundamental principles expressed in your constitution and with the
same ultimate objective—“ The administration of lawTs and regula
tions for the protection of women and children, and the safety and
welfare of all workers in industry.”
In this slow process o f b u ild in g up a staunch structure, founded
oil sound prin cip les o f social science, the keystone arch should be
38
17TH ANNUAL MEETING OF A. G. 0. I.
uniformity of law, the centralization—in the State—of all the
branches of the labor welfare groups, and the formation of an agency
for interchange of ideas—a central clearing house of information.
There is now in action a body of experts that exerts a potent
influence in the struggle for the unification of State laws. This is
the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniformity of State
Laws, an organization of the American Bar Association. A commit
tee of this organization is charged with the duty of drafting and
approving uniform social welfare laws. This body sponsored and
promoted the uniform child labor law which was adopted by Ken
tucky in 1912.
This organization is composed entirely of lawyers, two from each
State in the Union, and representatives from our Territorial posses
sions.
The Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws is
always interested in other organizations that have a similar purpose.
Such an affiliation would add vigor to the struggle for unification,
a project that is daily becoming more significant to the discerning.
The proposal to unify labor welfare laws into a workable standard
for all the States will be met with opposition from certain quarters.
A false cry of protest will arise from those who mask their ulterior
motives under the guise of superindividualism. It will be pointed
out that the liberalizing of social welfare acts in the backward States
will drive out industry. It hasn’t driven industry out of Wisconsin,
New York, and Ohio or the other States where liberal social wel
fare acts are now in effect. It shouldn’t do it elsewhere. The un
scrupulous employer would have to conform or suffer the con
sequences.
Such criticism is captious and unconvincing. It is unfair to force
an enlightened employer to cope with a cutthroat competitor whose
product can be made more cheaply because he exploits his employees.
If adequate compensation laws are good in Manitoba, they are good
in Missouri. If a machine guard in Portland, Me., keeps a workman
from mutilating his fingers in that city, a similar machine equipped
with a similar guard should be just as effective in saving an operator
from a mangled hand in Portland, Oreg., or Medicine Hat, Alberta.
What benefits would accrue from the uniformity of labor welfare
laws and the reciprocal relations of the various groups in the States
and their agreement on uniform legislation ?
It would lighten the already heavy burden of the taxpayer and
equalize the competitive struggle among manufacturers who are now
operating under varying laws. It would reduce the overlapping of
the various bureaus now enforcing the law and result in a codified
set of laws that would be fair to everyone concerned—the employer,
employee, and the general public. It would assure justice and reason
able and safe standards of working conditions; and it would bring
to industry reliable and accurate data on industrial problems of
employment and production, as well as other important information.
It would insure a practical, safe, efficient, and just enforcement
of labor welfare laws in all the States and Provinces.
One might begin to wonder, at this point, why such a Utopian state
of affairs which seems so logical and natural has not yet been put
in practice.
UNIFORM LABOR LEGISLATION— DISCUSSION
39
Social investigators speak of “ social lag,” that is, the tendency
of institutions and laws to lose their usefulness long before they are
replaced; of the sluggish progress in the conformity of laws and
institutions to public opinion and common custom. That may be
one reason, but there is perhaps a more vital one. Perhaps it all
simmers down to a problem in human adjustments. Dreams that
men cherish are so far away in a millennial fog that they seem
impossible of realization for a long, long time.
The men and women who control the destinies of the industrial
welfare groups form the spearhead in the program for uniform indus
trial laws. They can advance or retard the project.
That leaves the problem up to you. What are you going to do
about it ?
DISCUSSION
Mr. S t e w a r t . I was rather surprised to hear General Sweetser
say what he did regarding the matter of each State not having a
copy of the laws of every other State, when as a matter of fact, for
a great many years, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has published
the labor laws of every State, and has supplemented that each year
with the labor legislation passed at each session, including special
sessions. If you will refer to Bulletin No. 370 you can get the labor
legislation of every State and Territory up to the time that bulletin
was issued in 1925. Every year we publish supplements thereto
which contain the acts of the State legislatures concerning labor.
In these various bulletins we have all the labor laws down to 1928
and the bulletin now in the Government Printing Office contains
the labor legislation of 1929.
There is no excuse, on the part of any State enacting a labor law,
for not knowing the legislation of other States on that particular
law. It is all in print and costs nothing.
In regard to uniformity in labor legislation, well, of course that
is something that we just feel we are up against. When Mr. Magnusson talks about uniform legislation he is talking with the back
ground of European experience behind him. He has been in the
United States long enough to know that Germany can pass a law,
and it affects Germany, but the United States may pass a law, and
it refers to the territories of Hawaii and Alaska, and to the District
of Columbia. It has no effect on the legislature of any of the 48
States. In other words, it is not worth while to talk about our
problems in relation to what foreign countries are doing.
If there is a solution, probably the best thing to do would be to
have the Labor Department call a conference of the States for uni
form State law and see just how many States would be represented.
Mrs. S u m m e r s (New Jersey). We worked very hard to bring
about uniformity between the iour States of New Jersey, Delaware,
Maryland, and Pennsylvania, but our efforts were hopeless. When
we got together we found that Pennsylvania’s problem was not New
Jersey’s problem. Delaware’s problems were different from those of
Maryland, and so on. We talked for hours and hours. This com
mittee is going to meet again this week.
We do not have very much trouble with offenders of the 10-hour
law; if they violate the law we call them in and warn them that if
14886°—30------ 4
40
17TH ANNUAL MEETING OF A. G. O. I.
they do not abide by the law, if this thing happens again, they will
be prosecuted, and nine times out of ten they cooperate with us.
Frequently they come to us and tell us that their work or their kind
of business demands that they work more than the regular hours,
and if we do not permit them to do so they will move to a State that
does. In that case we tell them to go; that if they can not abide by
our laws we do not want them. If we made an exception in one
case we would have to do it in another.
In regard to the child labor law: The New Jersey law had been
interpreted by an attorney general, prior to my coming into the
department, to apply only to the children of citizens of the State.
Then, too, the question of local school facilities was a considerable
part of the problem, in that the counties into which the majority of
the children migrated were farming counties where the proper and
sufficient education of their own children was a problem, they having
no facilities to take care of and finance annually some 1,900 children
from Pennsylvania. The attitude, prior to this time, of our com
missioner of education was one of disinterestedness and unwilling
ness to consider the problem as any of his concern.
Another circumstance which worked against the solution was
the fact that children in agriculture are exempt from the provisions
of the New Jersey child labor law, the same as they are exemj>t from
the provisions of the laws of many other States. And, as is the case
sometimes in other States, even if the law could be applied, the two
months of July and August when there is no school in session—leav
ing absolutely no control of any kind during that period—would
still be a problem from the child labor law standpoint. The fact
that farmers and those sympathetic to farmers constitute the major
ity members of our legislature made it quite impossible to do any
thing without the cooperation of all concerned. Hence we called
together on several occasions the bog owners, the truck farmers, and
the representatives of the State departments of education, health,
labor, and agriculture. At first the bog owners were very suspicious,
fearful, and quite unwilling to go along with any program tending
toward a solution. The director of the bureau finally threatened to
make a public statement in which she would make clear that an at
tempt had been made to get cooperation from those concerned but
had failed. She then would make an attempt to secure legislation
without any assistance from them, such legislation necessarily being
of a nature which would not consider their needs or desires. This
attitude on the part of the director rather frightened the representa
tives at one of the meetings and when she offered a resolution ask
ing the governor to appoint a survey commission they very reluc
tantly voted to have such a commission selected, representatives on
this committee to be from each of the four State departments named
above.
Apparently, after the report of the bog owners’ representatives
came back, the action which they had taken did not meet with the
approval of the larger group and without informing the director of
the bureau of their change of mind they sent to the legislature a
letter in which they stated they were not in sympathy with the
resolution due to the fact that it called for an expenditure of $5,000,
and that the department of agriculture was willing to conduct tlie
UNIFORM LABOR LEGISLATION— DISCUSSION
41
survey without any additional cost. The director of the bureau,
who had had two years’ experience as a member of the New Jersey
Legislature appropriations committee, issued a statement to the
press in which she drew attention to the fact that this was an un
derhand action and not worthy of the citizens of New Jersey, and
also pointed out that her experience on the appropriations com
mittee had shown her very clearly that the department of agricul
ture constantly asked for special appropriations for special pur
poses and was in no better position than the department of labor
to undertake work of this kind without necessary funds. The de
partment of agriculture substantiated this statement and the result
was that a legislator, who had been long opposed to legislation of
any kind as regards migratory children, offered his support of the
measure, spoke for it on the floor of the house, and materially
assisted in its passage.
This legislator also pointed out to the bog owners that they were
making a mistake in further fighting the project, as the director of
the bureau had shown a willingness to consider their side of the case
and they in turn should be willing to cooperate.
The result is that at present the bog owners and all concerned
are working together quite harmoniously and as soon as the director
returns to New Jersey, field workers will begin the compilation of
necessary data for a complete survey of this most vexing problem.
Mr. S t e w a r t . There is the same problem in cranberry picking
that exists in another industry on the Pacific coast. There they herd
all the people they can get from Mexico to Oregon in the fruit-pick
ing season, beginning with strawberries and ending with apples.
These States have tried to get together for a number of years but so
far have gotten nowhere. Wisconsin has the .same problem as
Maryland in the vegetable-canning season. I think that perhaps the
situation is least acute in Wisconsin, but 011 the Pacific coast it is
exceedingly grave. It would seem that these four States could get
together and organize some system whereby they could standardize
not only living conditions for the parent, but education for the child,
a schoolhouse on wheels so that the child can get some sort of an
education. I have been trying to look into this thing for some time,
but haven’t been able to do it—haven’t been keeping tab on it.
I want to help but I do not know what to do. Picking cranberries
in Jersey isn’t any different from picking other kinds of berries in
Pennsylvania, or canning in Maryland as far as that is concerned.
There is only one way to solve this thing and that is to work together
and agree.
[Mr. Stewart asked Mrs. Summers if they had thought about the
schoolhouse on wheels.]
Mrs. S u m m e r s . We are taking this matter before the commission.
Mr. S t e w a r t . Must the child have a school certificate before being
permitted to work in agriculture?
Mrs. S u m m e rs . No.
New Jersey has no control over children in
agriculture.
Mr. G e r n o n (New York). No child coming into New York may
work without having such a certificate.
[Meeting adjourned.]
THURSDAY, MAY 22—MORNING SESSION
Eugene B. Patton, Director Bureau of Statistics and Information, Depart
ment of Labor, New York, Presiding
FACTORY INSPECTION, SAFETY, AND SANITATION
Inspection of Industrial Establishments
By J ames L. Gernon , Director Bureau of Inspection, Department of Labor,
New York
The inspection of industrial establishments is important in order
to enforce the requirements of the numerous labor laws or code rules
applicable to the various industrial establishments in the State.
As to the best method of inspection, much depends on the type of
statutes enacted, the volume of law and code rules existing, the num
ber of establishments to which the law and code rules are applicable,
and the size of the inspection force in comparison to the type and
number of industrial establishments to be covered.
We have in all States legislators who are willing to enact labor
laws and code rules of high standard, but they will not provide an
adequate inspection force to apply them properly. This is one way
of making good laws and codes ineffective. Although we are a
nation of reasonably law-abiding people we have not reached that
state of perfection where our laws enforce themselves. Regardless
of how high a standard the labor laws and code rules have attained,
they are of little value in securing results unless they are properly
enforced, which means a just application of their requirements.
This is most essential. Nothing is so disastrous to proper enforce
ment as to have an owner of an industrial establishment feel that
the law is applied to his establishment and not to a competing or
neighboring establishment. The employees soon observe whether
the laws are enforced or complied with, and are ready to complain
when they are not enforced. Nothing so fosters disrespect for gov
ernment as the failure properly to apply its laws. Therefore, it is
most important that the application of the labor laws and code rules
should reach all of the industries of the State with reasonable ap
plication but strict enforcement.
The method of inspection and enforcement followed in New York
State has existed for a number of years. It has proved very satis
factory in securing results. It is not all that it should be—it can
be improved when the legislature will provide an adequate force to
cover the various types of establishments as frequently as necessary.
We hold that one regular inspection a year is not sufficient enforce
ment. The inspections should be as frequent as the plants’ records
of industrial injuries would necessitate and their failure to observe
the law would justify.
42
43
FACTORY INSPECTION— JAMES L. GERNON
The system of inspection and enforcement in New York State
produces the maximum of enforcement, and secures speedy compli
ance with the orders issued, thereby affording a high standard of
protection to the health and safety of the employees of the numerous
industries in the State.
The inspection and enforcement problem is difficult. You may
realize this from the following table, showing the number of different
types of industries inspected during the report year 1929:
N U M BER OF INSPECTIONS IN N EW Y O R K STATE, 1929
Number of—
Places inspected
Inspec
tions
Em
ployees
Factories___________________ . . . . . . ___________________________________________
Mercantile establishments______ ____________________________ __________________
Buildings under construction________________ _____ ____________________________
Mines, tunnels, quarries, and magazines_______________________________________
Boiler inspections..................................... .... .................................................................
Places of public assembly................................................................................................
67,299
76,328
40,499
1,711
4,260
791
.........
T o t a l..... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . __ _____ . . . . . ____ - __________ - ___________________
190,888
2,105,281
1,436,754
406,326
251,861
10,340
In addition to this large number of inspections, we made buildings
surveys of 48,686 industrial structures over one story high; 83,926
special inspections; 86,661 information calls; and 99,433 compliance
visits—a total of 270,020 visits in addition to the regular inspections.
To this number of industrial establishments there are many laws
and code rules which are applicable. The labor law comprises 18
articles, consisting of 245 separate sections of the statutes. These
provisions of the law are amplified by 30 industrial code bulletins,
including the State standard building code, and these codes consist
of 1,082 separate rules.
A regular inspection means a visit to the industrial establishment
to which the law applies and a thorough covering of the premises,
and the making of a survey of the building or buildings where
necessary. This survey includes a floor plan of the building which
indicates the exits or means of escape, stairways, horizontal exits,
outside stairs, elevators, hoistways, and other provisions covered by
the law and code rule relative to fireproof construction, fire-alarm
signal systems, and fire drills, and, in addition to the survey of the
building, a report giving complete details of the condition of the
building as to its compliance with the law. All violations of the law
relative to safety, health, and sanitation are noted on the buildinginspection report, and an inspection report for each tenant in the
building is made.
Where violations are found orders are issued to the employer
operating the premises, or the owner of the building, to correct the
conditions to which the orders relate. A time for compliance is
fixed on the notice of orders issued. If compliance is not secured
with the orders issued on the first compliance visit, which visit is
not made until the expiration of the time fixed in the original notice
of orders, the inspector on the first compliance visit must see some
person in authority and fix the time for compliance. This is the
only occasion on which the inspector has any authority in fixing the
44
17TH ANNUAL MEETING OF A. G. 0. I.
time for compliance. If on the date designated for compliance by
the inspector on his first compliance visit the order is not complied
with, the order must be referred to the supervising inspector, who
may refer the matter to what is known as the departmental calendar
(which is used only in the larger cities), or he sends a counsel letter
fixing a final date for compliance. This letter indicates that if
the order is not complied with on the stated date, the violation will
be presented to the court.
The departmental calendar is used as a means of assisting the
courts and for reducing the number of cases for violations of hours
of labor of females and minors, illegal employment of children, and
the day-of-rest violations that might be sent to court, and the secur
ing of speedy acquiescence with orders issued. In addition to orders
not complied with, only first violations of illegal employment of
children and the day-of-rest law are put on this calendar. In these
cases the law is explained, and the violator is warned that another
violation will mean a prosecution. Summonses are mailed to the
persons who have failed to comply with the law, to appear at a
hearing. At the hearing they are required to explain why they
failed to observe the law. If it is an order issued by the depart
ment, a time is fixed for compliance, and if not complied with on the
date fixed the case is sent to court. The number of firms that com
ply between the time the summons is served and the date of hearing
is remarkably large. Most of the other orders are complied with by
the date fixed, thus reducing the number sent to court. During the
year 1929 there were 10,198 summonses issued to violators of the law
to appear and explain why they failed to observe the requirements
of the law.
Securing Compliance with the Law and Orders
It is obvious that in order to cover this vast amount of work it is
necessary to use the block system. This block system extends
throughout the entire State. The block may be a number of city
blocks grouped together, or a village or town in a rural district of the
State. The inspector is assigned to what is known as an inspection
district. In this territory he is responsible for correcting violations
of the law and code rules. These districts are divided into blocks,
which are assigned to the inspector by the supervising inspector as
the inspector completes each block when making regular inspections;
this means that the inspector follows a regular itinerary except
when making a special inspection or an investigation of a complaint,
or when he is covering his district relative to violations of day-ofrest provisions or to illegal hours of labor of females or minors.
When the inspector has completed this special class of work he
returns to the block assigned him to complete the regular inspection
work. In this way we know at all times just what portion of the
work has been covered and what remains to be done.
The inspector must inspect and report on all places recorded, for
the block assigned. With the block records furnished, the inspector
is given an index card for each firm found within the block in the
previous inspection year. Corresponding with this index card the
supervising inspector has a history card. On both cards is recorded
the record of important orders issued, violations of hours found,
FACTORY INSPECTION— JAMES L. GEBNON
45
prosecution begun, or variations granted by the industrial board.
These records cover a number of years. The inspector also has a
copy of the survey of the building, and if there are any changes in
the building he must make a new survey showing the conditions at
the time of inspection.
By the use of these cards an inspector who has never visited the
plant before has in his possession important knowledge regarding
the plant he is inspecting. All places found vacant at the time of
the regular inspection are reached in the latter part of the report
year, and if occupied, they are inspected. In this way we have a
rather complete coverage of all industrial establishments.
The inspector is held responsible for applying the provisions of
the labor law and code rules, and the issuance of such orders as will
correct any violation found. He reports each day the field he has
covered, furnishing a daily record of each place he visits in the
order of the visits. He is required to complete the record of each
inspection on the premises. The purpose of this is to enable him to
obtain correct information as to the conditions. If he has missed
anything in his report he can obtain the information while on the
premises, and therefore does not have to guess at it, because his
report is required to be correct. The orders he issues are subject to
examination. When filed in the office, experienced examiners scru
tinize the reports and check them to see that all orders are issued
in accordance with the records shown on the report, that the orders
are legal under the law and code rules, and that they are issued
legally to the owner, agent, or lessee of a building, or to the owner
of an industrial establishment as may be provided for in the law
or code rules.
The original order is sent to the firm or to the persons responsible
for compliance; of the four typewritten copies made, one copy goes
to the inspector for reporting compliance, and the others are office
records. The orders specifiy the number of days from date or
issuance when compliance is required. The inspector may not
visit the premises on compliance work until the expiration of the
time fixed for compliance in the notice of order. On his first com
pliance visit, if an order is complied with, he so states over his
signature on a special form, as well as on his regular compliance
sheet. This special form is sent immediately to the office, and when
all the orders are complied with the regular compliance sheet is
submitted to the supervising inspector. If the order is not complied
with, he must see a person in authority and explain what is required,
and the inspector then fixes a date in the near future for compliance.
Orders issued can be disposed of only by compliance, by waiver if
conditions change and make the order unnecessary, or by variation
by the industrial board, which variation must meet the spirit of
the law.
The effectiveness of this system of securing compliances may be
realized when it is known that during the year 1929 we issued
306,781 orders and secured 298,090 compliances, completing the year
with but 8,691 of the orders not complied with. During the year
the inspection force was on special work for three weeks relative
to checking up employers failing to provide compensation for em
ployees, which work of necessity had to be taken out of the time
46
17TH ANNUAL MEETING OF A. G. 0. I.
that would have been devoted to compliance work. If it had not
been for this interruption of compliance work, the record of com
pliances would have been even better than is shown in these figures.
Safety Equipment
It will be noted that the greatest amount of inspection work is in
connection with factories, mercantile establishments, and buildings
under construction (this at least is true as far as New York State
is concerned). It is in these three branches of inspection work that
we issue the greatest number of orders, and naturally secure the
largest number of compliances with orders. The largest amount of
machinery exists in the factories. Considerable machinery is used
in the present-day mercantile establishments, and there is an everincreasing amount of machinery operating in connection with build
ing and subway construction work.
In all of the work performed by the inspection bureau, where
orders are issued and compliances are secured we have obtained
very satisfactory results. In no instance is there a better showing
than in the compliances secured as to orders for guarding machinery
in all branches of industry. These orders are considered important
by the bureau because the machines are hazardous to the employees,
and if the orders are not immediately complied with, may result in
industrial injury.
In all branches of our work during the year 1929 we issued
96,039 accident-prevention orders and secured 92,249 compliances
with these orders. All of the orders in this group were not machin
ery orders, but all the machinery orders were included in this group.
In New York State we have been successful in reducing injuries
due to mechanical apparatus. The proportion of compensation paid
for injuries due to mechanical apparatus has decreased from 25 per
cent in the earlier years before 1923 to 15 per cent in 1929. This is
the only class of injury showing a reduction during that time, while
injuries due to falls show a marked increase. We believe the policy
of the department relative to machinery hazard is largely responsible
for this reduction. This policy is making an impression on industrial
managements in our State.
Please note that this reduction in injuries due to mechanical
apparatus was accomplished during a period when the use of
power-driven machinery had increased as never before in the history
of industry.
We have the right under the labor law to tag as unsafe a machine
that is hazardous and not properly guarded. Consequently, we
have two means of securing compliances when the orders issued are
not readily complied with by the person or firm to whom they were
issued. We can tag the machine as unsafe and stop its operation,
or we can prosecute for failure to comply with all the orders issued,
or we can do both. We do not tag machines without first serving
a notice of our intention to do so.
In comparison with the orders issued and the compliances secured
relative to orders for mechanical apparatus, the number of instances
where we have to tag machines or prosecute is small, but we do send
a large number of tagging notices. We tagged dangerous machinery
FACTORY INSPECTION— JAMES L. GERNON
47
in 126 instances, and we prosecuted in 369 cases for failure to comply
with orders for accident prevention. All of this number of prosecu
tions was not for machinery, for this group covered the full range
of accident prevention, including orders for handrails on stairways,
etc. Where we use the “ unsafe ” tag on machinery, it means the loss
of use of the machine, for we stop its operation. This furnishes the
urge for speedy compliance on the part of the owner or company
who operates the machinery. This tag is a time saver for the bureau,
because when the notice is served the firm usually complies, and
where we attach a tag we readily get compliance. This saves time
in prosecuting, because each prosecution consumes considerable time
of an inspector before a case is disposed of in court.
Because of the policy followed by the inspection bureau we have
made an impression upon those responsible for the operation of indus
trial establishments, who realize that the issuance of our orders means
a compliance on their part or summary action by the inspection
bureau.
It should be understood that in comparison with all other equip
ment in industrial establishments, the number of machines in industry
far outnumber all other types of equipment. It would be quite
natural to suppose that machinery was the most potent factor in
causing injuries, but such is not tne case as far as New York State
is concerned, and it is very significant that the best results were
obtained where the hazards were most serious.
There has been inaugurated a system which places each establish
ment in an industrial group and the recording of the accidents in
each establishment, so we will have a complete history of injuries
occurring in each separate establishment in the industry.
In view of all the orders we issued and the number of compliances
secured in 1929, the number of instances where we were compelled to
prosecute for failure to comply with orders issued was comparatively
small. They were as follows: Administration, 39; sanitation, 507;
accident prevention, 369; fire prevention, 393; total, 1,308.
We prosecuted during the year 6,073 cases for violations, but only
1,308 were for failure to comply with orders issued. The other 4.765
prosecutions were for the following violations: Child labor, 1,124;
hours of labor of women and minors, 3,227; day of rest, 411; payment
of wages, 3.
Education in Safe Practices
One of the chief activities of the inspection force is the educa
tional work it performs: First, by furnishing knowledge of the labor
law and its requirements to the industrial establishment; second,
by acquainting the employer with what is to be done to correct
conditions, how to comply in a legal way with the orders issued,
and how to obtain a substantial compliance at the least possible
expense; and, third, by instructing employers and employees as to
the necessity for safe practices in industry as to providing proper
safeguards to prevent industrial injuries on hazardous machines,
and the preventing of injuries from other hazardous conditions,
such as defective floors, stairways, etc., impressing upon the em
ployee the necessity of using safeguards when provided, and the
48
17TH ANNUAL MEETING OF A. G. O. I.
teaching of safe practices where all of the hazards can not be elimi
nated by the installation of safeguards.
There are those who believe that education in safety is more effec
tive than plant inspection. Both education and inspection have
their proper places in industry. If a choice is to be made, inspec
tion, with the authority of the State exerting power enough to foster
respect for the orders issued, is the most effective. The experience
of the New York Department of Labor proves this to be so. We
secure a greater measure of compliance with orders because of the
State’s power to compel respect for its authority than could be done
by any means of education yet conceived.
The employers of our State are the same as in any other State.
They are no better and no worse. We have those that rank with the
best in doing all they can for the protection of employees. Safety
education is a potent factor for getting good results where such
education is absorbed and practiced, and in this connection it should
be remembered that we are not dealing alone with a few wellconducted plants, but with many thousands of places where the
owners may know how to make a certain product, and outside of
this, either know nothing of safe practices or safeguarding ma
chinery, or care nothing for either. Some employers believe that
when they have paid a premium covering them from liability for
compensation, they have done all that is necessary. They care little
for what may happen to the employee.
As we find conditions, educational work imparted by the State in
spectors and other agencies is not always observed either by the
employer or employee; at least this is true to a very large degree. It
is conceded that education is good for those who are capable or
willing to learn the best methods to make their industries as safe and
free from industrial injuries as possible. Most of the employers
cooperate with the inspection bureau in bringing their establishments
into compliance with the law and thus protect their employees as
far as it is humanly possible. Many go beyond the requirements of
the law in their efforts to protect employees. They cooperate with
the bureau of inspection because they know it is good business and
pays profits. Some comply with the law and its requirements because
it is the law, some reluctantly and others willingly.
There is another class of employers who refuse to be educated until
they learn that there is a possibility of going to court for punishment.
There is still another class that does nothing until taken to court.
This last class is small in comparison with the number that do
comply with the law or the orders issued, but as a class they are
persistent, and going to court seems to have little deterrent effect.
The work of a State inspection bureau includes as much educa
tional as law-enforcement work. The inspection bureau is the only
agency with authority that can reach all industrial establishments in
the State to instruct employers as to the requirements of the State
for protection of the lives, health, and safety of all persons employed.
In the year 1929 there were 100,462 compensated accidents in New
York State. The chief causes were as follows:
FACTORY INSPECTION----JAMES L. GERNON
49
COM PENSATED ACCIDENTS IN N EW Y O R K STATE, 1929
Cause
Number Compen Average
per
of cases sation paid cost
case
Handling objects and tools_________________________________________
Falls of workers ____________ _____________________________________
Mechanical apparatus_____________________________________________
Vehicles_________________________________________________________
Falling objects___________ _ _____________________________________
Dangerous and harmful substances_________________________________
Stepping on and striking objects___________________________________
Others or indefinite_______________________________________________
36,101
19,197
15,402
8,908
6,258
5,442
4,718
4,436
$6,865,248
7,894,178
6,754,845
4,537,585
2,113,989
2,066,070
609,955
1,280,945
$190
411
439
509
338
380
129
289
Total______________________ ______ __________________________
100,462
32,122,815
320
Mechanical apparatus stands third on this list in the number of
injuries. Injuries from falls are greater in number, and the cost of
compensation paid because of falls is in excess of that paid in
compensation for injuries caused by mechanical apparatus. The
average cost of compensated injuries caused by vehicles is highest—
$509. Mechanical apparatus is second, at an average cost of $439.
When we consider the total cost, $32,122,815, paid for compensation
for industrial injuries in New York State, and realize the total cost
in the entire country, there is no question that the reduction of
industrial injuries represents a field for real constructive work in
an endeavor to reduce the frequency of injuries, the compensation
cost, the frightful suffering, and the economic loss resulting there
from. Compensation paid for industrial injury does not represent
the total cost. Competent authorities, after analyzing all the losses
due to industrial injuries, figure the whole cost to be four times the
cost of compensation paid.
The inspection bureau of a department of labor has many duties,
chiefly that of applying the requirements of the labor law and the
code rules which have been adopted to protect employees. The
proper enforcement of these laws and rules has a most beneficent
effect in reducing industrial injuries to a minimum. These bureaus
alone can not do all there is to be done. Industry must do its share.
It is evident that we can not succeed in reducing the frightful loss
of life and human suffering which occur in industry as a whole
without the cooperation of the employers and employees.
The causes of injuries in industry are relatively the same in each
State. Examination of these causes indicates that most of them
are not due to mechanical apparatus. The major portion of them
are in a field where it is not possible to prevent the injury by the
use of safeguards. The greatest part of the improvement to be made
there must be through proper instruction as to the hazard of the
industry and the teaching of the right technique of performing the
work.
As industry is conducted to-day, speed in operation is an important
factor in producing injuries. The speed necessary to keep pace
with mass production requires greater alertness on the part of opera
tors. This necessitates the proper coordination of workers in the
tasks performed; consequently, there is necessity for careful instruc
tion as to the technique of the particular operation.
The old-time term “ common labor” has no place in modern in
dustry to-day. No labor worthy of the name should be so desig
50
17TH ANNUAL MEETING OF A. G. 0. I.
nated. What industry as a whole must learn is that skill is neces
sary to-day in even the most ordinary class of work.
With high-speed production there is greater need of thorough
training for operators of all kinds and of more attention to the
working conditions resulting in injuries such as handling objects and
tools, falling objects, falls of persons caused by improper floors,
stairs, etc., and slipping on or striking objects.
There will be need for more educational work by industry to
instruct employees as to the safe and efficient manner of carrying
on their work than there is at present. Numerous agencies may
assist in this work, but much effective work can and should be done
by the industries themselves.
When we do what is outlined here, we will make a reduction in the
industrial injuries that are preventable.
Methods of Factory Inspection
By T homas 0. D evine , Chief Division of Factory Inspection, Department of
Industrial Relations, Ohio
To know and understand the operations of the division of factory
and building inspection in the State of Ohio it is important that we
become acquainted with its family, so permit me to introduce the
folks of this peace-time army of 600, comprising the department of
industrial relations, with Wm. T. Blake as director.
D ivisions
of the
D epartment
of
I ndustrial R elations
Industrial commission.
Division of workmen’s compensation.
Division of factory and buiiding inspection.
Division of labor statistics and employment offices.
Division of safety and hygiene.
Division of mines and mining.
Division of boiler inspection.
Division of examiners o f steam engineers.
D epartments
in the
D ivision
of
W orkmen ’ s Compensation
Claims department.
Auditing department.
Actuarial department.
Medical department.
The department of industrial relations is a veritable “ beehive”
humming with the activities of stenographers and clerks and investi
gators and referees of the industrial commission. The majority of
the divisions are located in the Pure Oil Building, occupying four
floors and basement, with a capacious hearing room on the first floor
which is the busiest court in Ohio.
I f we should examine the records of the claims department we
would find that 1,000 claims per month are handled, eliminating
Sundays and holidays, or an average of 38 claims per day.
Each of the divisions of the department of industrial relations
operates in its respective field, with which you are familiar.
Now let me introduce another of the family, the division of safety
and hygiene. The function of this division is educational and direc
tive, and, through its office personnel, inspectors, and safety engi
FACTORY INSPECTION— THOMAS C. DEVINE
51
neers, it conducts a campaign of safety and accident prevention
through posters and pamphlets, organizes factory safety groups,
and through its staff delivers safety talks to civic bodies and com
piles codes after public hearings thereon. For this purpose a sepa
rate fund is set aside from the workmen’s compensation fund in an
amount not to exceed 1 per cent per annum; the remainder is kept
in the industrial insurance fund.
These groups are mentioned here so that you may understand the
set-up of the department of industrial relations of Ohio, and the
corresponding relation they bear to the enforcement of all laws gov
erning factory and building inspection, and all other laws pertaining
to labor— defensive, protective, and compensatory.
The division of factory and building inspection is composed of
practical men and women engaged in the routine of inspection and
enforcement of the labor laws of one of our greatest industrial
States. It has no fund except the annual budget appropriated from
the State treasury.
In 1874, Ohio had the first factory inspector who, after his appoint
ment, had neither office nor equipment, and, to prevent the annoyance
of his constantly seeking space, provision was made for the incum
bent, Mr. Dorn, to have desk room at the State capitol. To-day we
have one entire floor in the Arcade Building at Columbus, Ohio, with
five spacious office rooms and an office personnel of 12, as follows:
Chief of division, assistant chief (architect), second assistant chief
(draftsman), one safety engineer, one special supervisor of inspec
tors, two emergency men, and five stenographers. An assistant secre
tary and one stenographer are connected with the State board of
building standards, of which the chief of the division of factory and
building inspection is ex officio secretary. Add to these the 31 male
inspectors and 12 woman visitors operating in their respective dis
tricts and we see some progress made since 1874. The board of
building standards is composed of seven members appointed by the
governor and approved by the legislature. They are selected from
the different sections of the State, receive no salary, and meet once
every month. Their duty is to establish “ standards of equivalency ”
for building operations and material, and they are selected because
of their knowledge of such.
This set-up or background is important because it gives impetus,
strength, and effectiveness to our efforts toward enforcement of the
laws governing factory and building inspection in the State of Ohio.
Time is pressing, so let me summarize the foregoing by stating
that the beneficial result of this departmental relationship is the
interlocking and reciprocal action, and leads up to the two great
est assets ever given to inspection and enforcement work—viz., work
men’s compensation and additional award.
Assuming you understand workmen’s compensation, though its op
eration does present various methods, I believe Ohio is still peculiar
in that it supplements compensation by allowing an additional award
where a violation of a “ specific requirement ” can be shown.
Now let us proceed with these weapons to our task of inspection.
Previously an employer felt that he could run his business to suit
himself because, as he stated, he had always done so. The employee,
too, felt that he knew best how to perform his work and resented
52
17TH ANNUAL MEETING OF A. G. 0. I.
regulations, suggestions, safe practices, or safety devices. Employer
and employee were reluctant to accept innovations, either directory
or compulsory, from a division inspector and resented as meddle
some any agency that advised or ordered changes or improvements,
regardless of the costly lessons learned through experience.
Piecework prompted the employee to remove a guard or safety
device and increase of production turned the employer’s head.
Progress was gradual in the installation of safety devices and safe
practices and advisory regulations were ignored until official orders
were placed or legal prosecutions resorted to.
A great change has come about since the adoption of the work
men’s compensation laws and added impetus has been given by the
penalty imposed through the additional award, of which my time
will permit but a brief explanation.
Ohio has a total of 24 codes, 11 of which are classified as “ specific
requirements,” meaning as the words imply that the requirements
for safety are specific and not general and, therefore, can not be
either evaded or avoided, hence wherever it can be shown that a
“ specific requirement ” has not been met it is prima facie evidence
of neglect, and an additional award of not less than 15 per cent and
not more than 50 per cent of any compensation allowed for an injury
is granted the injured.
The following codes are enforced by the division of factory and
building inspection:
Administration; theaters and assembly halls; schools; standard
devices; churches; hospitals and homes; hotels and apartments;
public garages; workshops, factories, mercantile and office buildings.
Codes of specific requirements.—Elevators; building and construc
tion work; general safety standards; fire drills in factories and lofts;
foundries and core rooms; woodworking machinery; metal-working
machinery; polishing and grinding; blowers and exhausters; steel
mills; potteries.
Other laws.— Compulsory education, child and female labor laws;
laws governing factory and building inspection; eight-hour public
work laws; mattress laws.
Specific methods of factory inspection,—Each district inspector of
the division of factory and building inspection, assigned to a district
for inspection of shops, factories, and public buildings, is required
to inspect the sanitary conditions, system of sewerage, situation and
condition of toilets, system of heating, lighting and ventilating of
rooms where persons are employed, and means of egress. He is
also required to examine belting, shafting, gearing, elevators, fly
wheels, and machinery in and about such shops and factories. For
the purpose of an inspection or examination each inspector may
enter a shop or factory at any reasonable hour. If alterations or
additions are found necessary or safety appliances should be installed,
the district inspector mails his order blank incorporating his recom
mendations to the office, and the owner or employee is given a written
order to be complied with within a certain time.
Safe practices.—Workmen are compelled to use, and the employer
is held responsible for the use of, safety devices and equipment such
as gloves, boots, aprons, and goggles, such equipment to be practical
and not burdensome.
FACTORY INSPECTION----M. F. NICHOLSON
53
Safety regulations.—Regulations and practices are taught and en
forced as to the proper handling of tools, clearance of aisles of all
material, and under the heading of “ good housekeeping ” workers
are taught that negligence in the placing and handling of tools, spill
ing of oils or water on floors, etc., is not only dangerous to them
selves but to their fellow workers, and that a careless or negligent
worker is as dangerous in a factory as a careless soldier or hunter
is to his comrades when carrying a cocked gun or insisting upon
rocking the boat.”
Compliance—How to secure.—Experience has taught us that com
pliance is the paramount problem of the inspector and that until
recently many inspectors considered a large number of inspections a
sufficient criterion of efficiency. We have learned to classify the
inspector who fails to culminate his reports with compliance as simi
lar to the salesman who presents and interests the buyer, but fails
to get the buyer’s signature on the “ dotted line ” ; this is futile and
wasted energy, as the goods are neither sold nor delivered. Likewise,
then, the inspector who, having inspected and placed an order, fails
to obtain compliance, has failed in his mission because, figuratively,
the goods have neither been sold nor delivered. We, therefore, have
inserted at the bottom of every order the time in which it must be
complied with and signature of the employer accompanying his state
ment—Order N o.------ has been complied with. A check up is made
by the inspector and the compliance verified. Where compliance does
not follow, affidavits are filed and prosecution follows. This, how
ever, we are seldom compelled to resort to as, once more permit me
to remind you, we find our most potent weapon in the penalty of
an additional award which, once cognizant thereof, the employer
makes every effort to avoid.
Methods of Factory Inspection
By M. F. N icholson , Chief Inspector Division of Factory Inspection, Depart
ment o f Labor, Tennessee
The department of labor consists of five divisions, namely: Work
men’s compensation division, factory inspection division, mining
division, hotel inspection division, and fire prevention division. Each
division has a chief inspector who supervises the work of his
inspectors and office force. The commissioner of labor has super
vision over all divisions. His department has a secretary and two
stenographers. There are 46 employees in all in the department of
labor which has branch offices in Knoxville, Chattanooga, and
Memphis.
The factory inspection division enforces the following labor laws:
Female labor laws, child labor laws, laws providing for separate
toilets for females and seats for females, semimonthly pay day law,
sweatshop law, workshop and factory inspection laws, fire escape
law, employment agency law, foundry bath law, workmen’s compen
sation law, and mattress law.
As I understand, the above laws were drawn up, sponsored, and
enacted by organized labor and its friends, but these laws are for the
protection of unorganized workers as well as organized workers.
54
17TH ANNUAL MEETING OF A. G. 0. I.
The writer makes joint inspections with his deputy inspectors at
different times in the year in their respective territory. The results
from these inspections are a great help to the employees as well as
to the employers. The writer visits each inspector three or four
times a year and makes it a point to visit all new plants and furnish
them the necessary information concerning the State labor laws.
Different subjects are discussed, such as the guarding of machinery,
ventilation, sanitation, accidents and how they occur, fire preven
tion, protection of the health of the employees, female labor laws,
and child labor laws. By this method we acquaint the employers
with the State laws and get their cooperation at the start and then
there is no excuse for any violation of the State labor laws.
This division has made it a practice to write the plant owners in
regard to the recommendations of the inspectors, where the inspector
is not receiving the right cooperation. We find that this method has
resulted in obtaining compliance with orders. This division has
not had to prosecute any plant owner for not complying with orders
to guard machinery, as they find it is to their interest to give pro
tection to their employees, for it is a financial saving to them. Our
inspectors sell safety to the manufacturer by giving him the benefit
of the dear experience of the other manufacturer, explaining to him
how numbers of accidents occur throughout the State. We have
heard the superintendent or foreman say when we call his attention
to certain machinery that should be guarded that he has never had
an accident on this machine. Our inspectors are armed with in
formation and can call his attention to different accidents that have
occurred on similar machines and by doing so we sell him safety,
and the orders of our inspectors are complied with.
All serious and fatal accidents are investigated by the inspectors
of this department. Whenever an accident is reported to the com
pensation division, the factory inspection division is furnished with
a synopsis of the report and on receiving the synopsis this division
sends a letter with the report to the inspector in whose territory the
accident occurred. If it is in his home city, the investigation is
made immediately; if it is out of the city he makes the investigation
when he makes his inspections in that part of his district. By this
method we get the information as to how accidents occurred, whether
it was on account of machinery unguarded, whether it was due to
the carelessness of the employee or was caused by incorrect super
vision. Our inspectors make the necessary recommendations to
prevent future accidents. The want of correct supervision has
caused many accidents.
Guarding machinery is one of the most important subjects in the
factory inspection division, and the inspectors are doing good work
along this line.
An improved guard, such as an electric automatic stop which we
find is a practical guard, is now being attached to machinery. This
kind of a guard can be attached only to motor-driven machinery.
We find now that most all the machinery being built is directly motor
driven, which does away with the belt hazard. The factory inspec
tors of this division are all practical mechanics and have made a
study of their inspection work. They are able to show you how to
FACTORY INSPECTION----M. F. NICHOLSON
build and erect a safeguard on any kind of machinery. They are
also able to discuss with you the repairing and maintaining of
machinery.
“ Supervision ” means a great help in safety. Many accidents
occur every year on account of poor supervision by the owners of
industry.
The factory inspection division has the cooperation of practically
every manufacturer and the different establishments throughout the
State as well as the cooperation of the members and officers of
organized labor.
During the year 1929 the factory inspection division made 2,162
general inspections; issued 3,155 inspector’s orders; made 759 special
reports on ventilation, sanitation, fire escapes, and employment
agency law, mattress law, and investigation of accidents; made 528
female labor inspections, including hours of work, separate toilets,
and seats for females; 513 child labor inspections. Orders complied
with for the year 1929 numbered 2,191. The number of employees
in the different plants and establishments at time of inspection was
183,479; males under 16 in industry, 154; and females, 265.
Laws relating to female labor.—The female labor laws have been
given special attention by this division. We have a special inspec
tor, a woman with considerable experience in factories and workshops
who is well able to discuss with the employer the different female
labor laws and child labor laws and what is needed for the protection
of the health of his employees. She travels from one end of the
State to the other making investigation as to the hours worked,
seats for female employees, sanitary conditions in rest rooms, and
other matters pertaining to female labor. We have had only a few
violations of the law in the manufacturing plants; but we have had
several in laundries and ready-to-wear stores, which have been pros
ecuted. There are quite a number of industries, department stores,
and other establishments locating in this State and the majority
of their employees are females. We find the territory is too large
for one woman inspector and the law should be amended to add
another special inspector, as investigations as well as inspections have
to be made.
The number of females working in establishments and industries
inspected by this department in 1929 was 46,785.
Child labor laws.—The child labor law is another law enforced
by the factory inspection division. We find that the number of
children employed in industry is very small. The number of chil
dren working in industry at time of inspection in 1929 was 154 males
and 265 females. The factories that now employ children between
the ages of 14 and 16 are located in the small towns or rural
districts.
We have very little trouble with the manufacturer now in en
forcing the child labor laws. We had only a few violations in the
past year, the majority of these coming from the drug store, curb
service, grocery stores, and sandwich stands. However, they are
given special attention by our inspectors.
The child labor laws should be amended so as to prohibit any
minor under the age of 18 from working as a messenger or in the
14880°—30----- 3
56
17TH AXXUAL MEETING OE A. G. 0. I.
distribution of merchandise after 7 p. m. We find this nowadays
a very hazardous occupation.
The number of employment certificates issued by the city superin
tendent of schools was 2,427; employment certificates issued by the
county superintendents of schools, 1,122; child labor reports, 513,
Elevators.— City elevator inspectors and a boiler inspection law are
needed in the larger cities of this State. We have a boiler inspector
and elevator inspector in Memphis and Nashville, but Chattanooga,
Knoxville, and Jackson have no inspection service of this kind. The
inspection offices are maintained on a fee basis and are no expense
to the city.
A State elevator inspection law is another law that should be
enacted. The elevator is a very dangerous machine and we have
noticed several fatal accidents occurring on- this machinery in the
past two years. A State law would take care of this in rural
districts.
Boilers and tanks.—The boiler inspector inspects all boilers and
air tanks, including their equipment, inside the corporate limits,
whether in a manufacturing plant or any other kind of establish
ment. These are very dangerous if they are not taken care of and
kept in good condition. Chattanooga, Jackson, Knoxville, and John
son City have no boiler inspection code. If the larger cities like
Memphis and Nashville would enact a city code it would be a for
ward step in protection of life and property. In addition to this
city boiler inspection law, a State boiler inspection law should be
enacted to provide inspection of boilers and air tanks throughout the
State. By having this law the boilers and tanks would be inspected
where they are not inspected by insurance inspectors. This law
should cover all boilers and air tanks throughout the State,
Fire escapes.—The fire escape law should be amended, so as to
make it a misdemeanor if a person fails to erect a fire escape on any
kind of establishment or industry according to the regulations set
out in the fire escape law.
Blue prints and specifications.—There is badly needed in this State
a law requiring any person firm, or corporation remodeling or erect
ing any building to be used as a workshop, factory, department store,
or any kind of establishment where labor is employed to get a permit
from the Department of Labor and to submit all blue prints and
specifications for the approval of the Department of Labor.
DISCUSSION
Chairman P a t t o n . Y o u will recall the excellent paper on “ Fac
tory inspection as a profession,” given by Mrs. Van Buskirk at the
Toronto meeting last year, and the interesting discussion which fol
lowed. Mr. Gernon has indicated in his paper that the inspector
should exercise two distinct functions, educational and punitive, or
as Mrs. Van Buskirk expressed it last year, that of teacher and
policeman.
We need not, I think, quarrel over the matter. It would seem
self-evident that there must be what lawyers term a “ sanction ” for
the proper enforcement of any statute. By this is meant that there
must be power to enforce orders. Such power should not, of course.
FACTORY INSPECTION— DISCUSSION
57
be paraded, but there are times when only the use of legal force will
be effective.
As pointed out by Mr. Gernon and Mr. Devine, the largest field
for accident-prevention work lies in the field where educational work
alone can be effective. Training of the workers in safe practices and
right working habits is now the major task, a duty incumbent both
upon the inspector and the employer. In other words, while the
policeman idea can not be ignored, the teacher concept should have
greater prominence.
Mr. B a l l a n t y n e (Ontario). While all phases of labor legislation
are important, in my opinion there is no phase as important as fac
tory inspection. The lives of our workers are important. Just as
our chairman brings out, it is up to us to apprehend the danger
before it occurs; don’t wait until the accident happens. Of course
a great deal depends on the inspector as to whether his way of doing
things is the correct way.
Most accidents occur because of ignorance on the part of the
worker, and we can only reduce accidents of this kind by education.
We must educate the worker as well as the employer as to the value
of prevention and care.
Mr. R o a c h . The cardinal points of the program of safety may be
considered as housekeeping, engineering, and safety education.
Clean, orderly plant premises have great safety value. Big busi
ness has learned this in the school of practical experience for acci
dents have proved that slovenly kept floors, dirty side walls, and lit
tered workbenches are menaces to physical safety that must be cor
rected before substantial progress can be made in the work of edu
cating the individual to think and act safely. Cluttered aisle spaces
are bad in case of fire. They prevent free maneuvering in work
rooms and interfere with the movement of men and materials. Many
accidents can be charged to bad housekeeping. Recently in a foun
dry a pile of flasks was improperly arranged, the pile toppled, and a
workman was buried underneath. A fatality resulted.
Handling-rrmtermL accidents.—In our last report falling objects
and tools being handled caused 5 fatal accidents and 3,800 nonfatal.
Nearly a million lost days resulted, and the cost in money was re
ported to be $162,000. Of course, it is idle to talk about the money
loss; that can not be computed; the amount tabulated was the amount
actually paid in compensation awards.
Engineering.—I am not going to give engineering an inferior posi
tion in this discussion. Without competent safety engineering
serious accidents are bound to occur. It is all very well to talk about
safety education, but open elevator shafts will take their toll in spite
of every academic warning. Unguarded gears, pulleys, or belts will
continue to cause havoc even though safety slogans are printed on
pay envelopes. When machine accidents occur they are usually of a
serious nature and when they result from unguarded hazards the
responsibility is easily placed.
Safety education.—Manifestly everv effort in accident-prevention
work will be neutralized if workmen fail to cooperate. That is why
safety education is so important in industry. It has been estimated
that 75, perhaps 85, per cent of all accidents result from carelessness,
58
1 7 T S a n n u a l m e e t i n g o f a . G. 0. 1.
thoughtlessness, or negligence on the part of the worker. If these
calculations are true (the percentages quoted are said to be more or
less empirical) it can easily be seen that the promotion of safety edu
cation in a plant is a matter of major importance. It is thought that
this work can be done best by holding foremen’s meetings, safety
committee meetings, and plant safety meetings, at which times re
ports and addresses on the safety program be given. In many in
stances motion pictures have been found valuable in impressing work
men with a sense of personal responsibility.
Housekeeping, engineering, and safety education therefore are the
three legs on the safety stool that provide a firm, secure seat. The
factory inspection department that can put over a program that will
give careful attention to these cardinal points will do a great work
in the accident-prevention field. To do this, however, requires sales
manship, engineering ability, and knowledge of human nature. That
makes the task one of stupendous proportions. Management must
be “ sold ” on the idea first. The supervisory group, such as foremen
and safety committees, will naturally fall into line. The work, then,
of selling safety will depend upon the ability of management and
supervision to get the cooperation of workmen.
Mr. M c C o l l (Minnesota). I believe it was at the Toronto meeting
that Mr. De Blois spoke of a law that prohibited manufacturers
from sending a machine into a State without its first being equipped
with a safety guard.
Laws relating to industrial-accident prevention in Minnesota have
been improved from time to time, but the outstanding forward step
was taken by the legislature in 1913, when it passed a law prohibit
ing the manufacture or sale within the State of any machine or
mechanism not guarded whenever practicable for the maker to guard
the points of danger. The passage of this law had the support of
both the employers’ and manufacturers’ associations. However, on
account of inadequate funds, little effort was made to enforce the
law until the spring of 1926, when the industrial commission
instructed its division of accident prevention to take steps to
enforce it.
Notice of the enforcement of the law was given to manufacturers
of machines within the State and to local representatives of manu
facturers outside the State who sold machinery within the State.
Inspectors of the division of accident prevention examined machines
made or offered for sale within the State, indicated faulty construc
tion, and made suggestions for proper guarding. This resulted in
numerous conferences between manufacturers and representatives of
the commission, each resulting in a more satisfactory understanding.
In order to keep a close check on manufacturers and sales agencies,
clearance cards are issued by the commission, and no manufacturer
in Minnesota or outside the State is permitted to sell machines within
the State without first obtaining a clearance card for each kind of
machine made or offered for sale. One inspector has been placed in
charge of this work. It is his duty to examine machines, make
suggestions as to necessary guarding, and report to the division of
accident prevention. Catalogues, circulars, and advertisements of
machines for which there is no sales agent within the State are ex
amined, faulty construction or failure to guard dangerous places
LABOR-LAW ADMINISTRATION— JOHN B. ANDREWS
59
are noted, and notice is sent to the manufacturer of the guarding
necessary before the machines may be sold in the State. The regular
inspection force makes notes of new machines brought into the
State.
A card index of every manufacturer or sales agent of machines is
kept in the department. These cards show the machines approved
for sale, recommendations made for making machines safe, and those
rejected until made safe for use.
The commission has had unstinted support of users of machines
in its efforts to enforce the law, which, in turn, has had salutary
effect on manufacturers of machines in inducing compliance with the
commission’s orders.
Doubtless the benefit of this law has extended to other States;
for it naturally follows that manufacturers required to render their
machines safe for sale in Minnesota will apply the same forms or
safety devices on machines offered for sale in other States.
Numerous requests for information concerning this law and its
operation have come from other States and some even from foreign
countries.
Doctor P a t t o n . At the Toronto convention of the A. G . O . I .,
held in 1929, Doctor Andrews, of the American Association for
Labor Legislation, discussed briefly the subject, Suggestive Trends
in Workmen’s Compensation. At that time he brought out for
comment and discussion four points: (1) How compensation law
administrators might finance their work without depending upon
appeals for appropriation from the legislature; (2) how to impose
effective penalties for violation of labor laws; (3) the use of adminis
trative orders having the force of labor laws; (4) the advisability
of continuity of administrative office holding. At that convention
there was not sufficient time for discussion, criticisms, and sugges
tions in regard to points raised by Doctor Andrews. He has, there
fore, been invited to attend this meeting of the association to
elaborate on questions raised at that time, and to discuss the general
subject, Public Interest in Labor-Law Administration.
Public Interest In Labor-Law Administration
By J ohn B. A ndrews, Secretary American Association for Labor Legislation
I recently received a letter from a prominent State commissioner
of labor inquiring: “ How can we develop public interest in laborlaw administration?” This administrative official declared: “ It is
fairly easy to organize public support for a legislative program but
it appears to be most difficult to get the public interested in the
administration of labor laws.”
After 22 years of rather intensive work in support of legislative
programs in this field, I might not be inclined to agree that that
is especially “ easy,” but I do believe that the public can be led
into interested support of labor-law administration and by somewhat
the same methods as commonly employed in successful legislative
campaigns.
Naturally, during the past 20 years much emphasis has been con
centrated upon getting labor laws enacted in this country, but it is
60
17TH ANNUAL MEETING OF A. G. O. I.
also true that during this same period we have made our greatest
advances in labor-law administration.
At the Richmond convention of your organization, in 1923, I
traced the development of labor legislation and administration up
to that time, pointing out that the year 1911 marked the beginning
of a new era. It was in 1911 that we adopted in this country our
first permanent State workmen’s compensation laws and it was dur
ing that same year that we established our first modern State indus
trial commission with authority to combine legislative action through
administrative regulations with the more common administrative
functions.
During the period since 1911 there has been a very considerable
growth of the idea that labor legislation is for the general welfare,
“ protecting not only wage earners, but also conscientious employers
and the community as a whole.” Although the legal regulations are
primarily for the protection of labor they at the same time, through
their uniform application in establishing minimum standards, also
protect the forward-looking employers from undercutting by their
less scrupulous competitors. The public is relieved to a considerable
extent of charity burdens and also gains in good will from a sense
of justice done. With this enlightened approach to the problem of
labor laws effectively enforced, the public can be still further edu
cated to a proper appreciation of its interest and to increasing coop
eration in giving support to law administration.
Let me illustrate from our experience of some years ago with
workmen’s compensation law administration in New Jersey. By
1914 that pioneer State law had been in effect three years and the
Association for Labor Legislation made an intensive investigation
of the actual operation of the law. It was one of the comparatively
few compensation acts which did not provide a special administrative
commission but relied upon court administration. The conditions
uncovered by a state-wide survey so shocked New Jersey officials
and representative citizens who had been especially interested in
securing the enactment of compensation legislation at Trenton that
the next session of the legislature was led to abandon court adminis
tration and to build up special provision in the department of labor.
At the same time a number of other weaknesses in the New Jersey
law were strengthened in accordance with recommendations of the
association’s national committee on social insurance.
Another instance is still nearer the special field in which your
organization is particularly interested. Recently, in a survey of meth
ods of industrial inspection carried on by special investigators under
my direction, we called attention in one State to the need of (1) more
inspectors, (2) higher salaries, and (3) more money for general
administration expenses. The legislature in that State was then in
session and it increased the number of inspectors 25 per cent, raised
salaries somewhat, and also increased the general appropriations for
the State labor department. This kind of a response should be the
result wherever the need is made clear with inescapable facts. Co
operation of influential citizens can be secured for the purpose of
improving labor-law administration.
One year ago, at your Toronto convention, in fewer than 2,000
words, I attempted in response to your courteous invitation to outline
LABOR-LAW ADMINISTRATION----JOHN B. ANDREWS
61
in a tentative way what are some of the major public issues in laborlaw administration. My talk was published in your proceedings and
in perfected form was published as an article in the American Labor
Legislation Review for December, 1929. There was no time for
discussion of my paper at Toronto and I understand that on that
account one hour is set aside for that purpose at this convention in
Louisville.
Without going too much into detail I will say briefly that I put
adequate financing first as a major public issue in labor-law admin
istration. A1 Smith, at a dinner in New York the other night, told
us that, just as public health within reasonable limits is purchasable,
so also is the enforcement of labor laws. He said: “ Laws of eco
nomics work in the enforcement of the labor code as in everything
else. You get the number of factory inspectors, clerks, and neces
sary officials that you pay for. You don’t get any more. And you
have to be constantly on the alert to see that you don’t get any less.”
Last year I enumerated various methods successfully used in some
States and Provinces in getting funds for labor-law administration
without going to the legislature, and at the close of my article on the
subject I invited reports from the various State labor departments
on the practices which they had followed most successfully.. During
the 12 months that have intervened, Doctor Witte, of Wisconsin, has
drawn up and published a valuable report on revenues received by
labor departments.1 Miss Elizabeth Johnson has also prepared for
us an illuminating report on “ Expenditures in Labor-Law Admin
istration,” 2 in which she concludes that the total amount expended
for labor-law administration in 48 States in the year 1927 was
approximately $9,280,000. This, she points out, is less than $1.50
per wage earner in the factories and mines of this country. About
two-thirds of the total was expended in administration of the indus
trial inspection and workmen s compensation laws.
The two reports just mentioned are good steps made during the
past year in assembling information which can be used in educating
the public to a better appreciation of the importance of labor-law
administration.
One year ago I also raised the question as to what inducements or
penalties serve best to bring about compliance. By way of illustra
tion mention was made of the extra compensation payable on account
of injuries to minors while illegally employed. This is said by one
authority to be the most effective device ever invented for the
enforcement of child labor laws. I have also been interested in
learning of the experience of some States, notably New York, in
holding “ department hearings ” where offending employers without
being haled into court are less formally told of their shortcomings
and urged to be law abiding, but always with the understanding
that a further offense may lead to prompt and vigorous prosecution.
Is this device to be generally recommended?
As a third point I suggested the importance of a fuller use of ad
ministrative orders, by means of which there may be introduced into
the labor law greater elasticity to meet special conditions and at the
1U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Monthly Labor Review, April, 1930: Revenue Re
ceipts of State Labor Departments, by Edwin E. Witte.
2American Labor Legislation Review, June, 1930.
62
17TH ANNUAL MEETING OF A. G. 0. I.
same time provide the necessary technical detail to fit modern indus
trial conditions. My intensive study of this phase of legislation
and administration has led me to sound a warning that the future
success of this exceedingly valuable development calls for appro
priate procedure carefully followed in the development of such
administrative orders. Here is a situation where the public is
clearly entitled to a hearing and where public interest may be
developed. More attention needs to be given also to the making of
a proper record of these legal regulations, in order that not only
employers and wage earners generally but interested citizens may
know what is the law.
In conclusion I raised the question “ What methods and machinery
work best in building up and maintaining an efficient administrative
staff?” Is it not possible that this is the most important question
for study in the immediate future ?
What is the best experience of the various State labor departments
in dealing with these outstanding problems? I believe these points
ought to be discussed openly by those who are charged with the
responsibility of enforcing our labor laws. By such discussion and
exchange of opinion and experience there may be developed that
ettective public interest in labor-law enforcement which an officer
of your association wrote me is so much needed. It is a public
interest which can be further developed and maintained through
the cooperation of State labor departments with organizations of.
interested citizens who desire to be helpful in bringing about an
administration of the labor laws which will protect our millions
of wage-earning men, women, and children, our right-minded em
ployers who will thus be encouraged to take further advance steps
in furnishing conditions which promote comfort, health, and safety,
and which—through the resulting increased efficiency and good
will— will benefit the whole community.
DISCUSSION
Mr. S e i l l e r (Kentucky). We of the Department of Labor in
Kentucky find it impossible to get any help from the legislature. I
would like to know how we can command attention for labor legis
lation. Who can back us up? Senators in Kentucky serve four
years and representatives one year and we find they are interested
only in what their constituents want. It is a nerve-wracking matter
for us to go before them and try to have our problems solved. What
to do is a mystery to me.
Doctor A n d r e w s . Naturally the members of the legislature are
interested only in what their constitutents want and we must get
influential persons in the department who can get the legislature to
hear us and to help us. The members care only for what their
constituents are interested in. I would get those people together
before the legislature meets and go over the matter with the repu
table citizens and then we can get a thousand dollars’ worth of free
service from the best people in the country. Moreover, when they
come to see the necessity of it, these people will get on their toes and
at their own expense go to the legislature and fight for it because
they know why.
LAB0R-LAW ADMINISTRATION— DISCUSSION
63
Mrs. S u m m e r s (New Jersey). I believe the chief difficulty in
getting laws passed by the legislature is that we try to get the whole
thing over at one time, and bring in too many bills at the same time.
It is my firm belief, based on experience, that we should take only
two, and put all our effort into them. If we follow this plan and do
not crowd the legislators, we will make better speed and in less
time.
Mr. B a l l a n t y n e (Ontario). It has been my pleasure on two occa
sions to hear Doctor Andrews over the radio. That is a good way to
advertise. It is educational.
General S w e e t s e r (Massachusetts). A while ago Mr. Gernon
spoke about doing away with this u police ” idea. I agree with
him—believe we snould educate those in industry and not try to
arrest.
[Meeting adjourned.]
THURSDAY, MAY 22—AFTERNOON SESSION
W. A. Rooksbery, Commissioner Bureau of Labor, Arkansas, Presiding
SAFETY CODES
State and National Aspects of the Safety Code Movement
By P. G. A gnew , Secretary American Standards Association
At the convention of your association in Toronto last year, Lewis
A. De Blois, director of the safety engineering division of the Na
tional Bureau of Casualty and Surety Underwriters, discussed the
“ Necessity for safety standardization.” The discussion of Mr. De
Blois’s paper, and the increased interest in safety-code development
work manifested during the past year by several States which hereto
fore had not been active in this work, seems to justify a further dis
cussion of national codes. In this particular attention will be paid
to the relation of national codes to State regulatory work and to the
desirability of the State commissions’ taking a more active and
responsible part in the development of the national codes.
In order to save as much time as possible for the discussion which
is to follow, I will not enter into the details of the organization and
operation of the American Standards Association, under whose aus
pices the national codes are being developed, or of the functions of
the technical committees in charge of the individual codes. I have
prepared a statement on this point, which it is hoped may appear
in the proceedings as a part of this paper. It might not be amiss,
however, to touch briefly upon the organization of a technical com
mittee and its work of developing a safety code.
A joint technical committee is in charge of each national code. It
is made up of representatives of interests broadly classified as follows:
1. Manufacturers (makers of equipment).
2. Employers (purchasers, owners, users of the equipment).
3. Employees.
4. Governmental bodies having regulatory power, or influence over
the field in question.
5. Specialists at large, such as staff representatives of technical
societies, consulting experts with no exclusive business affiliation, and
college professors.
6. Insurance representatives.
This representation insures that all interests in any way concerned
with the project have a voice in its development. It is the same
group classification as that which is in general use by States that
have been developing safety codes, and has proved satisfactory to
them. Generally speaking, individuals on the committee do not
serve as individuals, but as representatives of national associations,
so that the committee is truly national in scope, and the membership
04
SAFETY CODES— P. G. AGNEW
65
of the association, through its official organs, is kept constantly in
touch with the development of the project.
It will be noted that State regulatory bodies, such as labor de
partments, are given a definite place in committee representation.
This representation is individual, or through such organizations as
the Association of Governmental Officials in Industry or the Inter
national Association of Industrial Accident Boards and Commis
sions. The policy has been definitely established that any State that
so desires, regardless of any representation that it may have through
either of the organizations mentioned, may have membership on
technical committees. The Association of Governmental Officials in
Industry now has representatives serving on about 20 technical com
mittees, which indicates that it is the policy of this association to co
operate very extensively in the development of national safety codes.
The technical committees elect their own chairmen and secretaries
and proceed to develop a code that will cover the scope previously
laid down. The committee is free to obtain and use any advice that
it can get to enable it to complete its work, and in many cases
organizes subcommittees composed of persons who are not members
of the main technical committee. The final draft of the code is
submitted to the entire membership of the technical committee for
approval. If approved, it is sometimes printed and widely dis
tributed for criticism, and sometimes it is submitted without further
delay, through the sponsor body, to the American Standards Asso
ciation for approval. The American Standards Association takes
formal action only when it is satisfied that all interests in any way
affected by the code have had ample opportunity to participate in
its development, and that the completed document represents a real
national consensus.
As an example of this standardization method of arriving at a
national consensus, let us choose a specialized but relatively simple
industrial problem, the protection of workmen in the use of grinding
wheels.
The work of formulating a safety code on the subject was carried
out by a joint committee made up of representatives of all interested
groups: The manufacturers, through their national trade associa
tions ; regulatory bodies having authority over safety matters in the
industries, through their national associations; employing groups
which are users of grinding wheels, through their trade associations;
casualty insurance companies, through their two national organiza
tions ; the workmen whom the code is designed to protect, this repre
sentation being arranged through the United States Department of
Labor; national engineering societies; technical bureaus of the Fed
eral Government; and independent specialists.
In all, 17 national organizations are represented on the joint com
mittee, which has 30 members. After two years of painstaking
work, unanimous agreement upon a complete code was reached.
This was not accomplished, however, without encountering some
serious difficulties and differences of opinion.
The code covers the general safety requirements to be met in the
construction, care, and use of grinding wheels. It is recognized as
the authoritative guide to industry, and is being legally adopted by
the various State commissions.
66
17TH ANNUAL MEETING OF A. G. O. I.
The procedure followed in connection with the development of
the code has recently been followed in its revision. Revision was
undertaken as a result of information presented to the American
Standards Association by an important national trade association,
and extensive tests and experiments were made before the committee
agreed to include in the revised code the results of these investiga
tions. These methods have been perfected as a result of 10 years’
experience in the development of national safety codes.
A short time ago it was felt that it was time to take stock so as
to determine to what extent the wrork was serving the various groups
affected. This stock-taking showed definitely that the national pro
gram had become well established; that much excellent work in the
development of codes had been done; that some of the codes, such
as the Safety Code for Elevators and Escalators and the Safety
Code for Abrasive Wheels had practically reached the status of a
“ Bible ” in their respective industries; but that much yet remained
to be done in furthering the use of completed codes and speeding up
the work on the codes in process of development.
A general strengthening of the safety-code work was considered
necessary, and in the main this is being concentrated in the work of
two committees—the committee on promotion of the use of codes in
industry and the committee on scope. In general, these two com
mittees will be responsible for the planning, stimulation, and carry
ing out of methods for bringing codes into general use, by making
them part of the regular operation of industrial concerns. They
will also consider the need for revision, the question of the develop
ment of new codes, and the correlation of codes, so that in their
published form they may be more effective instruments than would
otherwise be the case.
To assist in carrying out this program a safety engineer was added
to the staff of the American Standards Association—a man schooled
in safety work in industry and with an extensive experience in the
department of labor of one of the large industrial States.
I have gone into these details in order to emphasize the desire of
the American Standards Association to be of service and to draw
forth your suggestions as to how this service may be most effectively
rendered, either in the discussion or by personal suggestion.
Some of the States are not permitted by the laws under which
they operate to administer safety codes in their accident-prevention
work. These, and other States which do so by preference, work
under direct legislative acts. This situation is one which deserves
careful study. It has a vital relation to the national safety-code
program. The experience of States cooperating in the national
safety-code work indicates several very definite advantages in the
use of the regulatory as compared with the legislative method:
1.
Accident-prevention work is placed in the hands of a special
ized body. It is only proper that those who are confronted daily
with the problem of preventing accidents should be intrusted with
the duty of preparing the complete plans and putting them into
effect. In legislation the ultimate decision is necessarily in the hands
of a body whose members themselves can not have an adequate
knowledge of the intricacies of the subject with which the legislation
deals. Consequently it not infrequently gets distorted in the larger
game of partisan politics.
SAFETY CODES----P. G. AGNEW
G7
2. Participation of industry in the development of an accidentprevention program is secured. Not only does industry welcome
the opportunity to assist in the development of safety regulations,
but through this contact it also becomes awakened to the genera]
accident situation, and is ready and willing to offer constructive
suggestions for the working out of a comprehensive program. I
believe that in practically every case where a State has entered
upon an active safety-code development program, it has eventually
instituted a general program covering all phases of accident-prevention work.
3. Legislation must be enforced as written. Nowhere do the basic
laws of the various States give executive departments the right to
decide what sections of the laws shall be enforced or against whom
they shall be enforced. Regulations, on the other hand, may be
enforced in such a way as to meet specific conditions. For example,
in the State of New York, certain procedure in regard to variations
has been established under which the industrial board, upon petition,
may, if the facts so warrant, make a variation from a particular rule
to meet a specific condition in the establishment of the petitioner,
which will also apply to all establishments with the same specific
conditions. This flexibility of procedure and enforcement secures
a maximum compliance without hardship, and promotes the good
will of industry toward the department responsible for safety work.
4. Regulations may be amended or repealed whenever conditions
warrant. Experience gained through the enforcement of regulations
frequently shows the necessity for changes. Regulations may be
revised without difficulty; the same can not, however, be said of
legislation. Legislation is dependent on the whims of the legislature,
and several years may pass before it is possible to obtain the amend
ments needed.
An example of the impracticability of including detailed speci
fications in legislation is found in certain provisions of the mining
law of the State of Pennsylvania. The law in question specifies
in some detail how blasting shall proceed. It provides that the hole
shall be filled, leaving no air voids. Research in the course of the
last few years has shown it to be desirable to have a certain amount
of air void, since this “ eases off ” the explosion, and the danger of
falling rocks is thereby reduced. It also results in 2 per cent more
salable coal. Here we have a case of a law prohibiting a practice
which prevents accidents and is of considerable economic value. If
the same condition existed in a safety code, it could be amended
without delay, while several sessions of the legislature may pass
before the law can be changed.
Assuming that it is true that the adoption of regulations by labor
departments in accident-prevention work is highly desirable, what
advantages may be derived from the use of national safety codes as
the basis of State regulations ? Several very definite points empha
size such advantages to (1) labor departments that have been en
gaged in the development of safety codes for some time, and (2)
even more to departments whose budgets do not permit their re
taining the staff necessary to carry on such work.
It has been pointed out that regulatory bodies have direct repre
sentation on technical committees, and that they are also represented
68
17TH ANNUAL MEETING OF A. G. 0. I.
through the Association of Governmental Officials in Industry and the
International Association of Industrial Accident Boards and Com
missions. As already stated, the former organization is now repre
sented on about 20 technical committees and the latter on about 30.
That national safety codes will be prepared in a form acceptable to
regulatory bodies, that they will admit of enforcement, and may be
applied with the least possible friction is assured by such representa
tion. In other words, the provisions of national safety codes are
not so drastic that industry would protest their enforcement, nor are
they so weak or general that the regulatory body would find it neces
sary to spend considerable time in redrafting their provisions to
render them effective.
The careful selection of the members of the technical committees,
particularly as to their experience, is one of the safeguards insuring
the correctness of the codes. A very definite effort is made to secure
individuals of the widest possible experience for .service on the com
mittees. Also the best literature available is obtained for their use.
This point is important particularly to regulatory bodies which
through limitation of funds may be unable to employ adequate tech
nically trained staffs to conduct the research and investigation neces
sary to the development of a correct code. The wide distribution of
tentative drafts for the securing of criticism, and their reference to
regulatory bodies for public hearings, brings to the American Stand
ards Association a wealth of information that is incorporated in the
code before the final draft is completed.
The national codes naturally are far from perfect. Like codes
developed by individual States, they need amending from time to
time in the light of new information, but at the time they are de
veloped, the national codes represent the best in thought and
practice.
Another advantage in using national codes lies in the fact that
they may be adopted with a minimum of opposition. Any State
starting a safety-code program is bound to meet with a certain
amount of opposition from uninformed local industries. Some of
them have the misconceived notion that the department of labor
through the enforcement of the code will operate in such a manner
as to cause the industries endless embarrassment and hardship. The
organization of the technical committees, and the influence of
national trade associations through their membership on technical
committees, tends to minimize the possibility of such misunderstand
ing in regard to individual codes. Most industries that will take the
trouble to be represented at public hearings and present their con
structive criticism are interested enough in their own self-advance
ment to be members of national trade associations, and through such
associations they receive information concerning the codes which
the associations have assisted in developing.
The industries have learned that through the cooperative effort of
the various groups concerned, they may establish national standards
that will benefit all the groups affected. This viewpoint, which is
becoming more widespread every day, tends largely to remove objec
tions to the adoption of national codes by regulatory bodies.
The adoption of safety codes by the regulatory bodies does not
end the service which the American Standards Association is able
SAFETY CODES— P. G. AG1STEW
69
to render. A definite policy has been established which will enable
the American Standards Association to insure uniformity in interpre
tation and adaptation of specific requirements of the codes. In some
cases the technical committees are held intact for the purpose of
making periodic revisions. In other cases, the main committee is
discharged and a committee on interpretation is appointed, which
may be called upon for information concerning the interpretation
of specific requirements, and practical methods of applying the pro
visions to specific conditions. This service has not yet been devel
oped to the fullest extent of its possibilities, and such service must
be expanded, if for no other reason than to obtain the uniformity
intended in the establishment of national codes. The use of this
service can be of great advantage to labor departments. The ad
ministrative knowledge and experience of the various departments
using the codes may thus be pooled, and the American Standards
Association will become the clearing house for information on this
point.
One of the greatest factors in the accident-prevention movement
to-day is the insurance business. Personally, I admire the efforts of
these organizations. Years of contact with executives of companies
engaged in this work have led me to the conclusion that they not
only consider it good business, but that they are genuinely inter
ested in it as a service to humanity. Every labor department in its
enforcement is bound to come in contact with the representatives of
insurance companies. Hence the field work of the department using
the national codes as a basis for State regulations is greatly simpli
fied through the policy that has been established by the stock and
mutual companies of bringing their schedules into conformity with
the national safety codes. This means that the labor departments
will obtain considerable assistance, both direct and indirect, from the
inspection service of the insurance companies in obtaining compli
ance with the State regulations.
If time permitted, other advantages in the use of national codes
could be presented, but I want to discuss with you before closing
another question, namely, the desirability of a more extensive and
intimate cooperation of the States in the development of national
codes.
In discussing the organization of a technical committee, I men
tioned the established policy that regulatory bodies can secure mem
bership on technical committees. The fact is, however, that less than
a dozen States have borne the burden of maintaining the labor de
partment point of view in the development of national codes. The
representatives of these States have served with fidelity, and I am
glad to have this opportunity of publicly thanking them on the part
of the American Standards Association for the great service they
have rendered in the development of the safety codes that are al
ready recognized as American standards. I am sure that these gen
tlemen will agree that in rendering this service they have received
a fund of information that has been of great value to them. I am
also sure that they will agree that the national codes would be
stronger than they are if many more of the States would take an
active part in their development.
It is realized that inasmuch as the headquarters of the American
Standards Association are located in New York, and that this re
70
17TH ANNUAL MEETING OF A. G. 0. I.
suits in most of its meetings being held in that city, it is difficult and
very costly for many of you to attend the committee meetings. The
American Standards Association is so desirous of securing your ad
vice and help, that it will welcome your service on the committee
by correspondence if you find you can not attend the meetings in
person.
The representatives of your association serving on code com
mittees will welcome your interest in their work. At present they
serve as individuals, and their vote on approval of final drafts of
codes represents their individual opinion, and not that of this asso
ciation. Your representatives have many times expressed the wish
that they could in some way more truly reflect the views of the asso
ciation in their work on these committees. May I therefore suggest,
in the absence of any definite procedure for instructing your repre
sentatives how to vote on the questions coming before them, that
you indicate to your representatives the fact that your State is in
terested in the code under consideration, and that you would be glad
to be kept informed of the progress of the work.
It is abundantly evident that there is much to be gained in the
movement for the prevention of industrial accidents by a far more
intimate and active participation of the States in the national safetycode program, not merely in the use of the codes in State work, but
in directing policies and in the formulation of individual codes.
The benefits of such cooperation will accrue to the State officials, to
the industrialists, to the insurance companies and technologists, and
most of all to the workman himself.
Report of Committee Appointed to Study the Relation of the Association of
Governmental Officials in Industry to Safety Regulations, Safety Codes, etc.
(Charles E. Baldwin, chairman)
Your committee appointed to study the question of the relation of the
Association of Governmental Officials in Industry to safety regulations, safety
codes, etc., presents the following as its report:
At the outset the committee assumed that it was not necessary to discuss the
importance of basic safety standards or the necessity of their adoption
if there was a real desire to make industrial accident prevention effective. It
has taken for granted, therefore, that its job was primarily to find out and
report what has been done by the various States toward the formulation and
adoption of safety codes and regulations and their administrative procedure in
makng them effective and useful to industry.
To this end a letter in the form of a questionnaire was sent to the administra
tive official of each State, asking for descriptive answers to the three following
inquiries submitted by the president of the association as a basis for our
report:
1. Methods of formulating safety regulations.
2. Methods for approving and adopting specific devices.
3. General methods of administration.
The replies received in answer to these inquiries disclosed a marked lack
of uniformity and in several cases a lack of any well-defined method of
procedure. Nearly all of the States have some form of factory inspection
laws and many of them contain provisions making mandatory the installation
of safety devices to protect workers from accidents, but very few make any
ItEPOBT— A. G. 0. I. RELATION TO SAFETY CODES
71
specific provision for the formulation or adoption of safety codes, nor do they
specify any definite method of administration.
In some States, safety regulations are formulated by statute, the statute
requiring that safety devices shall be adequate, in the opinion of the factory
inspector, but provide no method for arriving at practical results.
Several States, however, have taken advanced steps and have well organized
and definite methods of procedure for formulating safety regulations for the
approval of safety devices and for their administration.
To your committee, it seems fitting that a few of the best formulated
methods should be embodied in this report, not as a recommendation that they
be adopted by this association, but that they may be presented as exhibits
for the general information of those engaged in accident prevention.
The following are the verbatim statements, or in some instances a digest
of the statements, made by the State officials to whom the questionnaires were
sent:
Statement N o. 1
(a) All regulations are developed with the aid of committees. These com
mittees are made up of representative persons who would be affected by the
regulations when adopted. As far as possible we try to get the most outstand
ing men in the field which the regulations affect to act on these committees.
Where the regulations affect both employer and employee, representatives of
both groups are invited to sit on the committee.
Depending upon the type of regulation which is being developed, this com
mittee may be an active operating committee or simply an advisory one. If
an operating committee, the personnel of that committee meets with representa
tives of the department drafting regulation and works directly with them.
I f an advisory committee, the advice of the committee is solicited, usually by
correspondence, and the proposed regulation is then drafted along the lines
suggested. Probably the majority of the work is carried on by advisory
committees.
Let us consider the different steps taken in developing a regulation covering
a given subject. The request for the regulation may originate with some
group affected by it, it may originate within the department, or it may be
necessary to carry out the intent and purpose of an act of the legislature. In
any case the procedure is the same.
The bureau of industrial standards is the code-making body of the depart
ment. It would assemble all the information necessary and write the pre
liminary draft of the code, basing this draft on the information available.
A copy of this preliminary draft would then be sent to the bureau of inspection,
all supervising inspectors and to the advisory committee (assuming that the
committee in this case was an advisory one).
The bureau of industrial standards would then revise the regulations in
the light of the criticism received. The advisory committee would probably
base this criticism on a general knowledge of the subject, while the bureau of
inspection would base its criticism on the enforcement difficulties which might
be encountered.
The revised draft would be known as the tentative draft of the regulations.
This is then submitted to the industrial board which would conduct public hear
ings on it throughout the State.
The criticism received at the public hearings is taken verbatim by reporters
and is transmitted to the bureau of industrial standards. The tentative draft
is again revised in the light of this criticism. Debatable points are referred
14886°—30------0
72
17TH ANNUAL MEETING OF A. G. 0. I.
to the committee for advice, and the committee is consulted frequently in
preparing this final draft. The final draft is then again submitted to the
industrial board for approval and is approved, effective 30 days from that date.
(&) We have in effect two distinct types of approvals; namely, approval
by the industrial board and approvals handled by the bureau of industrial
standards.
In some of our regulations we require that certain devices be o f an approved
type, that is, approved by the industrial board. Under this classification
would fall elevator interlocks, shuttle guards, and many other devices.
The procedure to secure such an approval is as follow s: The person manu
facturing or wishing to use such a device makes application to the industrial
board for approval. The industrial board transmits the request to the bureau
of industrial standards for investigation, the bureau of industrial standards
submits its reports to the industrial board recommending that approval be
granted or rejected. The industrial board then considers this recommendation
and if agreed to, carries out the recommendation. I f approval is granted, a
certificate of approval is issued to the applicant for the device, and if rejected,
the applicant is so advised, giving the reasons why the request was not
granted.
The other type of approval— the bureau of standard approvals—comprises
requests for approval of devices which are not required by the regulations to
be approved. These are simply service approvals, the department volun
tarily attempting to pass judgment on safety devices submitted to it, and
basing its findings on its general experience in accident prevention. These
approvals have no official status, in that they are not necessary before the
device may be used. They do, however, furnish the applicant with convincing
sales arguments if he wishes to market his devices.
The latter type of approval is not solicited, but we handle a great many of
them. They are given the same thorough investigation before approval as
are the approvals which are required. We find that many manufacturers of
safety devices are taking advantage of this approval service.
(c) The administration or enforcement of all rules and regulations is
vested in the bureau of inspection. This bureau of inspection is divided into
10 inspection districts, under the direction of a supervising inspector for
each district. Each inspection district has as many inspectors as is necessary
for the adequate enforcement of all rules and regulations of the department.
Each inspector is required to know all the different rules and regulations and
is directly charged with the enforcement of them in his own territory.
In case of difficulty in enforcement or interpretation of policy, the inspector
consults his supervising inspector. Where the supervising inspector is unable
to supply the information needed, he consults with the director of the bureau
of inspection.
The director of the bureau of inspection has access to all information he
may require, as from the industrial board, the bureau of industrial standards,
or elsewhere. Several other bureaus of the department may be called upon
to furnish information on any particular subject.
The bureau of inspection is also composed of several sections, each dealing
with one specialized activity, such as boiler section, elevator section, building
section, mines and quarry section, etc. Several of these have their own in
spectors who report directly to the chief of that bureau rather than to the
supervising inspector. These inspectors are concerned only with their own
particular section, and a boiler inspector does not handle elevators, and vic<>
versa. The tendency has been more and more to specialize during the past
few yen vs.
REPORT— A. G. 0. I. RELATION TO SAFETY CODES
73
Statement N o. 2
(a) With the authority to adopt safety codes, the legislature gave the indus
trial commission power to appoint advisors to assist in the execution of its
duties.
Under this authority, the commission has appointed various code committees
to formulate specific codes relating to special industries or fields and to special
hazards. In organizing any such committee, the commission has selected represen
tatives from the various fields and interests directly affected as well as experts
(engineers, architects, physicians, etc.) who have special knowledge of par
ticular hazards and of methods of prevention. So far as possible, men are
selected who are familiar with both the practical and theoretical phases of
the problems under consideration and know of and have access to the sources
of fundamental and research data and practical information needed in the
preparation of regulations of the highest possible standards consistent with
practicability. As an illustration, the building code advisory committee is made
up of representatives from designers, builders, engineers, material manufac
turers, material dealers, real estate brokers, general business interests, govern
ing bodies, insurance, and labor. In order that there be continual contact with
the industrial commission and that its records and experience be continually
available, one member of the committee is an engineer from the commission’s
safety and sanitation department.
Each advisory committee, upon organization, operates under its own rules.
It meets regularly for a period of time sufficient to accomplish its purpose.
After a study of the particular field is made, a tentative code of proposed
regulations is drafted. These proposals are mailed to all persons and indus
tries which are affected. Public hearings are conducted in convenient cities
throughout the State to give all persons interested an opportunity to be heard.
Thereafter, further consideration is given by the committee to suggestions
and objections made at each hearing. Final regulations are then recommended
to the commission. Upon a further hearing held, the industrial commission
adopts such recommendation as a State code and the regulations—each code
upon proper publication—become law. All such committees are made con
tinuing so that changes and revisions in the light of new experience and
new development may be made.
(&) No hard and fast rules for formulating rules and regulations is followed.
Each committee is permitted to function freely and without restraint to the
end that its work may produce a code which is of high standard, yet practical,
reasonable, and enforceable.
All available sources o f information are consulted. In some instances stud
ies by individuals or subcommittees are made. From the very nature of the
committees’ organization, familiarity with the problems involved, practical expe
rience, and personal knowledge and opinions are immediately made available
for the work in hand. The following are some of the sources of information
consulted, through correspondence, personal contact, and publications:
1. Published successful building codes, and the advice of enforcing officials.
2. Research and other authentic data of national organizations, including
those interested in materials, design, equipment, insurance, and enforcement.
Some of the organizations are: American Society for Testing Materials, Na
tional Fire Protection Association, Building Officials’ Conference of America,
American Society of Civil Engineers, American Society o f Mechanical Engineers,
and National Safety Council.
3. United States Government bulletins, including those of the Bureau of
standards and the Bureau of Mines.
74
17TH ANNUAL MEETING OF A. G. O. I.
4. Bulletins o f recognized institutions, including universities, underwriters’
laboratories, National Safety Council, etc.
5. Fire insurance records.
6. Publications, including books, journals, proceedings, and magazines.
7. Personal contact with, and correspondence with, national authorities in
matters of building construction, fire protection, equipment, sanitation, etc.
An advisory committee on dust and fumes, consisting of representatives of
major interests, is at present working on new regulations for enforcement to
protect workmen against industrial poisons and dusts. The sources of infor
mation being consulted by this committee are, in part, as follow s:
1. Experiences and bulletins of other States.
2. Research data and bulletins of United States governmental departments,
including Bureau of Mines and Public Health Service.
3. Periodicals, including the Journal of Industrial Hygiene, and others.
4. Publications, books.
5. Experiences and bulletins of foreign countries, including Sweden and
Germany.
In the case of code amendment or code revision, the statistical records of the
commission and its experience in the administration of the code under consid
eration is of primary importance.
(c) Under the statutes of the State, the employer is required to comply with
the law and with the safety codes. It is the duty of the industrial commission
to enforce such compliance. For this purpose, the commission has in its per
sonnel a number of deputies who, o f course, must be familiar with safety laws
and code regulations. These deputies inspect factories and public buildings,
within certain districts assigned to them, to determine whether or not code
requirements are complied with. Such inspections are not made merely in the
r61e of policemen to ferret out violations, but rather that of a safety advisor
to aid the employer in complying with the code and in solving safety problems.
These inspections are always made in company with some one in authority in
the factory, so that quostions may be fully discussed and faults pointed out
and solved. Where failures to comply with requirements exist, a copy of a
list of such failures is given to such employer, usually with a fixed time before
which such failures must be remedied. In view of the fact that industries are
represented on code committees and aid in the development and establishment
o f the code under which they will operate, employers generally are readily
convinced of the reasonableness of code requirements and compliance is effected
rather quickly. Of course, when compliance does not come following such
inspection and report and no good cause for such failure exists, prosecution
must follow. Penalties for such failure are provided for in the statutes.
Statement No. 3
(a)
The labor laws of the State make provision specifically for the safe
guarding of the machinery, for proper lighting, for the installation of handrails
on stairways, for safeguarding elevators, for proper building exits, the erection
of scaffolding, etc. The commissioner o f labor is given ample authority to
inspect all work places and issue such orders as he may deem necessary for
the protection of workers. The best method of formulating safety regulations
is to use the safety codes adopted by the Bureau of Standards and the National
Safety Council as a guide and formulate a safety code for each industry sep
arate from all others. For illustration, formulate a “ safety code and standard
specifications for safeguarding machinery and other equipment in laundries
and cleaning establishments ” and as a foreword point out the principal hazards
REPORT— A. G. O. I. RELATION TO SAFETY CODES
75
common to that industry; then name each machine or other equipment sep
arately and by number, and specify just what must be guarded, how it must be
guarded, and the kind o f material that must be used.
( 6)
Such safety rules and regulations as may be necessary to give effect
to the law are determined and issued by the commissioner, based on the recom
mendations of his inspectors. He does not approve of any specific safety de
vice; his idea is simply to formulate and adopt a code and specifications and
let the manufacturer of safety devices meet the requirements of the code and
specifications and sell his* product subject to the approval of proper authorities
after the installation is made.
(c) The best method of administering safety regulations is in selling the
safety idea (its success depends on the ability of the safety inspector as a
salesman). It is simply a matter of salesmanship on the part of the inspector;
if he is able to do that he will receive the cooperation of those he is dealing
with. On the other hand, if he drops in, makes his inspection, issues his order
to correct certain physical defects in a cold-blooded business manner, leaving
the impression that the order must be complied with because it is required by
State law, he has only made an enemy for the safety movement.
Statement No. 4
(a) A very satisfactory method for developing safety regulations in indus
try is to obtain membership in the American Standards Association and use
the rules developed by this group of engineering experts. This method of de
veloping State safety regulations will tend to uniformity, and the time may
come when machinery will be safeguarded at its source and we shall not be
confronted with the difficulty of safeguarding machinery exposures after the
equipment is installed.
(&) It has been found necessary for the State to approve specific safeguard
ing devices in order that a manufacturer may know that the device, if installed,
will be acceptable to the department. In this connection it is always more
satisfactory if the approved device is of such a nature that the compensation
rating bureau will give it a credit rating when it has been installed.
(c) I f safety rules represent the engineering thought in industry, there
should be little difficulty in efficient administration. I f new problems arise
that are not covered by the State regulations, we might refer a case relating
to fire to the rules of the Underwriters’ Association. In case o f a complicated
machine exposure we might confer with the compensation rating bureau’s
engineering department. In a matter dealing with sanitation it is the common
practice to consult with sanitary experts connected with the United States
Public Health Service.
Statement No. 5
(a)
The workmen’s compensation, insurance, and safety laws give the
commission power to issue “ general or special orders, rules or regulations,”
“ to declare and prescribe what safety devices, safeguards or other means or
methods of protection are well adapted to render the employees of every em
ployment and place of employment safe as required by law or lawful order,”
“ to fix such reasonable standards and to prescribe, modify, and enforce such
reasonable orders for the adoption, installation, use, maintenance, and opera
tion of safety devices, safeguards, and other means or methods of protection,”
and “ to require the performance of Qther acts which the protection of the life
and safety of employees in employment and places of employment may reason
ably demand.”
76
17TH ANNUAL MEETING OF A. G. O. I.
The commission fixes a “ time and place for the holding o f hearings for the
purpose of considering and issuing general safety orders.” The actual pro
cedure in this case is for the commission to write suggested safety orders,
and then call a committee of employers and employees, of insurance com
panies and engineering organizations to consider these orders. These com
mittees are called to meet in two principal cities, and after the two committees
have agreed on the orders, public hearings are held in the two cities. After
the hearings, the orders are either adopted by the commission or are referred
again to the committees for further consideration to settle the point brought
out at public hearings.
The orders may again be presented at public hearings or may be then
adopted by the commission. When adopted, a certified copy is sent to each
city clerk and to the clerk of each city and county, and these orders then
become the minimum requirements of that city or city and county.
(b) The method of approving and adopting safety devices at the present
time is as follows: The blue print of the device, accompanied by the device
itself, if it is not too large, is submitted to the commission. The head of the
division interested makes such investigation and tests as he deems necessary
and is able to make, and either rejects the device or recommends that it be
approved for use in this State. The recommendation is submitted to the
superintendent of safety, and if he concurs with the head of the division
interested in the device an approval for use in this State is issued. If the
device is not approved, the person presenting the device may appeal to the
commission against the decision of the safety department. When a device has
been approved by a recognized laboratory, such as the underwriters’ labora
tories, due consideration is given to that approval, but approval by a standard
laboratory does not necessarily mean that it will be approved by the industrial
accident commission for use in places of employment in this State.
(c) The commission has engineers and inspectors who visit places of em
ployment, make inspections, and advise the employer wherein his place of
employment does not meet the orders, rules, and regulations of the commission,
and the employer is required to remedy these unsafe conditions. If he does
not remedy them, he is given an opportunity to appear before the commission
and show cause why he should not comply with the order. If the commission
decides that he should comply, he must either do so or the commission will
prohibit the further use of the device or devices or place of employment. The
use of such device or devices or place of employment after having been pro
hibited by the commission is a misdemeanor. The commission may also apply
to the superior court for an injunction restraining the use or operation of the
device, devices, or places of employment until the unsafe conditions have been
corrected.
Municipalities whose requirements are at least equal to the requirements of
the commission may have their boiler and elevator inspectors examined by
the commission and, if they pass the examination, these inspectors may be
certified by the commission. When so certified, the commission accepts inspec
tion reports made by them as though they were made by employees of the
commission.
Insurance companies who have boiler and elevator inspectors may also have
their inspectors examined and certified, and the inspection reports of such
certified inspectors are also accepted by the commission.
Where inspections are made by certified elevator or boiler inspectors, the
commission does not make the inspection.
The commission charges for inspections of boilers, elevators, and air tanks
when made by its employees, but makes no charge for other inspections.
REPORT— A. G. O. I. RELATION TO SAFETY CODES
77
No arrangements have been made whereby the commission could accept the
reports of insurance-company inspectors making compensation inspections.
The law does not provide for such an arrangement, but it is a matter that
should be considered.
S t a t e m e n t No. 6
{a) The commissioner, assistant commissioner, and associate commissioners
of the department may appoint committees, on which employer and employee
must be represented, to make investigations in any line of industry and recom
mend rules and regulations for the prevention of accidents and occupational
diseases. Before adopting any rule or regulation in this connection, public
hearing must be given, and not less than 10 days before the hearing a notice
thereof must be published in at least three newspapers.
When rules or regulations have been approved by the associate commissioners
and the assistant commissioner, they take effect 30 days after such publication,
or at such later time as the associate commissioners and the assistant commis
sioner may fix.
( 6)
The State publishes in bulletin form the rules and regulations that have
been adopted to protect the employee against accidents. These bulletins define
provisions for emergency stopping devices; standards relating to belt guards;
regulation of pulleys on line, counter, and jack shafting and the spacing of
pulleys to prevent belt falling from one pulley and being caught between it and
an adjacent one; height and type o f guards for shafting; eliminating danger
from projecting set screws; requiring couplings and collars of a safety type;
specific type of guards for inrunning gears and sprockets; protection for bal
ance and fly wheels; the use of portable ladders with metal spikes or spurs;
regulating permanent platforms and railings; requiring stairway treads to be
kept in good repair at all times and equipped with permanent handrails o f
metal or wood free from splinters or other dangerous projections; and the
requirements regarding specific types of hazardous machinery, such as powerpunch presses and woodworking machinery, and other regulations including
foundry rules; rules for prevention o f accidents in building operations; paint
ing rules; industrial lighting code; requirements for the care o f employees
injured or taken ill in industrial establishments; and regulations governing
compressed-air work.
The appearance of new devices in the market, for the control of machinery
standards, are promptly made known to the inspectors through a monthly
bulletin issued to them. The department does not approve each type of safety
device which appears on the market, but does require compliance with its
rules and regulations and that all machinery having movable parts shall be
securely guarded so far as pract’cable.
(c) The administration of safety regulations is accomplished through inspec
tion of work places. Plants in which hazardous conditions may arise are
given more frequent inspection than places where these conditions do not
prevail. Thus concerns engaged in the manufacture of explosives are inspected
every three months; and in places where industrial poisons are used in work
processes, inspections are made two and in some cases three times a year.
Other visits to these places may include the investigation o f accidents or
reinspection visits to determine if compliance with orders has taken place.
Statement No. 7
(a) When this commission contemplates the formation of any safety regula
tion or set of regulations, it circularizes the interested groups. Kaeh group
78
1 7 I H ANNUAL MEETING OP A. G. O. I.
is advised of the contemplated action of the commission with the request that
said groups appoint a committee to confer with like committees from other
groups regard.ng said matter. At a later date, and when the personnel of
the respective committees has been furnished the commission, we prepare a
tentative draft of said order or orders and call a conference of the committees
with the commission. The tentative order or orders is furnished the members
of the conference with the request that a general discussion be had.
Usually at the conclusion an adjournment is taken for a sufficient length
of time to permit the various committees to report back to their respective
groups said tentative proposals, with the suggestion that such criticism be
made and offered the commission as seems most likely to result in satisfactory
and helpful rejgulations. Another and final meeting is then called at which
the respective criticisms are gone over and such amendments made to the
tentative draft as seem proper. The committees, having then finished their
work by furnishing the commission with criticisms and suggestions, are
adjourned. As a last step the commission takes up the matter and finally
disposes of the same in the form that seems most likely to meet the require
ments demanded by the situation.
(&) This commission does not formally adopt any safety device. Inasmuch
as the administration of all safety regulations comes within the scope of
the duties of the industrial commission, we rely very largely upon the opinion
of our respective inspectors as to whether or not a particular device meets
the requirements of our safety standards. I f the opinion of the inspector is
that a particular device does meet the requirements of our safety standards,
then installation follows as a matter of course and without any formality
on the part of the commission.
(c) Regarding the administration of our safety regulations, the commission
is empowered by statute and does appoint inspectors whose duty it is frequently
to inspect various places of employment. Where an inspector finds any place
of employment that is not complying with the safety standards prescribed for
that particular operation, the attention of the management is called to that
fact with a request that the safety standards be immediately complied with.
This is done in writing.
A copy of the inspector’s demand is furnished the industrial commission.
Employers are requested to acknowledge receipt of the exception to their
safety practices and to advise the commission in writing that they are now
complying with the safety standards prescribed for their particular operations.
Statem ent
No. 8
(a)
The industrial commission appoints a general advisory committee, as a
standing committee, composed of an equal number of representatives o f em
ployers and of labor and indicates to this committee from time to time the
particular operations, subjects, or industries which appear to need regulation
as determined by the industrial commission in its experience in the hearing and
adjudication of claims under the workmen’s compensation law.
The general advisory committee selects subcommittees, composed also of
equal representation of employers and employees who are engaged in the
industry, or are authorities on the subject of operations for which a code is to
be prepared. A separate and distinct subcommittee is selected for each code.
The division of safety and hygiene collaborates with these code committees in
the preparation of codes in an advisory capacity.
When a tentative form of code is formulated, public hearings are held at
various points in the State to enable all those interested to meet with the
REPORT— A. G. O. I. RELATION TO SAFETY CODES
79
committee and present constructive criticism and comment. These hearings are
officially reported verbatim and the reports thoroughly reviewed by the com
mittee at meetings subsequent to the hearings and such alterations made of
the code which may be agreed upon by the committee as the result of the public
hearings. After these final meetings the code goes to the general advisory
commmittee for review, possible changes, and approval, and in turn is sub
mitted by that committee to the industrial commission for official adoption.
( 6)
To obtain approval of safety devices a demonstrating or working model
or working drawings of the jflevice must be furnished, the same being referred
to the engineers of the division of safety and hygiene of the industrial com
mission or to engineers of a division of the industrial relations department most
competent to pass upon the particular device. If it is found that the device con
forms with requirements of State safety codes and with safe practice, recom
mendation is made to the industrial commission for approval, which may be
made by resolution of that body.
(c)
The exercise of authority in the enforcement o f the safety regulations,
codes, or specific requirements or other orders promulgated by the industrial
commission rests with the department of industrial relations and its various
divisions of factory and building inspection, mines, and boiler inspection.
By legislation effective in 1925, the industrial commission was authorized to
create a bui'eau for the prevention of industrial accidents and diseases and to
employ a force of persons for its efficient operation under the direction of the
industrial commission. Its maintenance was provided by an annual appropria
tion of 1 per cent from the contributions of employers to the State insurance
fund.
This bureau is known as the division of safety and hygiene. It has no police
power and its activities are directed to acquainting employers with legal re
quirements for the safety and health of their employees and advising of meas
ures and means of compliance and of the economic and humanitarian advan
tages of observance of the laws. By process of education and the employment
of persuasion and reason this agency has been, since its inception, no small
factor in the administration of safety regulations.
Statement N o. 9
Whenever the industrial commissioner or the board finds an industry, trade,
occupation, or process involving danger to the lives, health, or safety of per
sons employed therein unprotected by the labor law or industrial code rules,
the commissioner directs the division of industrial codes to prepare proposed
rules for such conditions. The division consists of two referees and a steno
graphic force; one of the referees acts as chairman of the advisory committee
appointed, alternating with the other, who becomes chairman of the next com
mittee constituted. An advisory committee is appointed by the commissioner
to assist the division in this work. Upon receipt of such instructions from
the commissioner, the chairman communicates with associations of employers
and of industries, labor organizations, underwriters representing insurance
interests, chambers of commerce, and other associations and societies, re
questing the names of men who will serve on the advisory committee, to rep
resent the various interests. The chairman communicates also with experts,
technical and practical men well qualified and experienced in the particular
subject, and selects suitable men from the engineering staff of the department
of labor, whom the commissioner then appoints, which constitutes the ad
visory committee for that code. In the meantime, the chairman collects and
80
17TH AXXTLXL MEETING OF A. G. O. I.
assembles all data and information obtainable from the various States and
code-making bodies relating to the subject and calls a meeting ot the com
mittee. At such meeting the work o f the committee is organized, the scope
and nature of the work outlined, suggestions are noted, and to facilitate
progress and thoroughly cover every subject, the chairman appoints subcom
mittees, selecting from the advisory committee such men as are by profession,
training, or practical experience best fitted for the particular subject, and
appoints as chairmen o f the subcommittees men with such qualifications and
who have also had experience on code committees.
The chairman of the advisory committee is an ex officio member of all sub
committees. All data, suggestions, and information in the hands o f the chair
man is given to the chairmen of the various subcommittees, who then proceed
with the work of formulating rules. The subcommittee drafts rules, then
holds the meeting to review and discuss them, and when all the proposed
rules are completed and agreed to, a copy is sent to the chairman o f the ad
visory committee, who has 4 sufficient number of copies made, sends one to
each member, together with a notice of a meeting of the advisory committee,
allowing sufficient time for members to look them over carefully and be pre
pared to discuss them intelligently. At the meeting, the chairman reads the
rules one by one to the committee, each rule being discussed separately, until
all are in accord. Many times subcommittees, while preparing rules, visit va
rious factories or places to which the rules will apply to inspect conditions, ob
serve operations, and note whether or not a proposed rule is practicable and
affords adequate protection.
Public hearings
A provision of the labor law makes it mandatory to hold public hearings on
all proposed industrial code rules, the purpose o f which is to afford the public
and all interested in the rules an opportunity to express an opinion, to make
constructive criticism and suggestions, or to voice an approval.
Copies of the proposed code, one for the commissioner and one for each mem
ber of the board, are then handed to the industrial commissioner, who trans
mits them to the industrial board for action. After the board reviews the
rules, it adopts them tentatively, fixes a date and place to hold public hearings
throughout the State, names the newspapers in which a notice o f such hear
ings shall be published, and directs the division of industrial codes to make
the necessary arrangements, together with printing and distributing the pro
posed rules, which is usually done about four weeks before the public hear
ings are held. All members o f the board are present at the public hearings
and the two industrial code referees are in attendance to arrange and care for
the details incidental to such hearings and to listen to the speakers. A stenog
rapher is present to record the proceedings of the hearings. The names of all
those attending are taken and made a part of the minutes. After all have
been heard that wish to speak the meeting is closed.
Action by the board
After the minutes have been transcribed the industrial board holds executive
meetings to consider the rules. With a copy of the minutes of the public hear
ings before them, each rule is carefully considered and those that are satis
factory are adopted, three votes being necessary to adopt; others, if they think
it wise, are amended, and a date fixed upon which they shall become effective.
After this a copy of the rules as adopted by the industrial board is trans
mitted to the industrial commissioner for action thereon, as the rules can not
REPORT— A. G. O. I. RELATION TO SAFETY CODES
81
become effective unless and until approved by the commissioner. Then the sec
retary o f the board sends a certified copy of the code as adopted to the secre*
tary of state to be filed at the capitol, a copy to the bulletin, published by the
department, and if the rules affect New York City, a copy to the city record
of New York City for publication.
Method of approving fireproof material and safety devices by the New York
State Department of Labor
All applications for approval are referred to the committee on approval,
which was appointed by the commissioner and consists of the deputy industrial
commissioner (chairman), the two industrial code referees, various bureau
heads, and the mechanical and electrical engineers of the department. When
an application for approval of fireproof material or safety devices is received,
a sample and detailed description of construction of the material, article, or
device, and blue prints are required.
The secretary of the committee on approval refers the application to a sub
committee appointed from the committee on approval—usually three in num
ber—for investigation, review, report, and recommendations; for fireproof
material, a copy of the testing laboratories’ report of the fire and water tests
must accompany the application for approval. The report of any recognized
laboratory with proper facilities for making tests is accepted, the material
and devices are carefully reviewed and examined, and when there are any
installations in the State, the subcommittee inspects the device in operation,
after which it makes its report and recommendations. This is then consid
ered at a meeting of the committee on approval and the report together with
the committee’s recommendation is transmitted by the secretary to the indus
trial board for action. If the test is found to have been of severity equal to
that prescribed in the specifications of the department of labor and passes the
test satisfactorily, it is invariably approved by the board. After an approval
by the board, a letter is sent to the applicant advising that it has been approved
as conforming to the requirements of rules, when constructed to conform with
the description attached to the letter.
C o n c l u s io n
A few other States have plans more or less definite, but a large proportion
o f the States are doing their safety work in a haphazard sort of way without
any well-organized plans.
While none of the foregoing statements, perhaps, presents a model method or
form of procedure, they do furnish sufficient suggestions to be of service and
to assist other States in formulating a definite practical program.
It is very evident that no State legislature will be induced to enact safety
laws of the right kind unless there is presented to it some definite, logical,
and workable plans to be adopted and followed, which would make the laws
effective. Therefore, the officials of each State are urged to study the procedure
in all of the States and, out of the fund of practical experience, formulate
a plan that will make effective a safety program for their State.
In the formulation of safety regulations and the adoption of specific safety
devices, your committee suggests and urges the consideration of the various
safety codes adopted by the American Standards Association, known as the
** National Safety Codes.” These constitute the best thought and judgment of
the foremost safety engineers and experts in accident-prevention work in the
82
17 T H ANNUAL MEETING OF A. G. 0 . I.
United States. Sixteen of these codes have been published as bulletins by the
Bureau of Labor Statistics and are available upon request.
In order that all may be familiar with the status of industrial safety regu
lations in the various States it presents, as an appendix to this report, a copy
of a pamphlet published by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics,
which shows the States that have adopted rules, regulations, or orders that
have been approved by the American Standards Association or which are in
process of development by that organization; also certain other safety pro
visions that are not included in the National Safety Codes. This pamphlet
is not strictly up to date, having been published a year ago, but it will be
revised by the bureau in the near future and will be sent to the officials of each
State as soon as published.
[Pamphlet, which was submitted with report at the convention but not
included in the proceedings, may be obtained upon application from the United
States Bureau of Labor Statistics. See Monthly Labor Review, March, 1929,
pages 103-115.]
On motion of Mr. Stewart, the foregoing report was approved and
indorsed by the association, and the committee was continued for
another year.
Reports of Representatives of the Association of Governmental Officials in
Industry on Safety Code Committees
Reports were read in person or submitted by persons mentioned
below regarding safety codes on which the Association of Govern
mental Officials in Industry has representation. A complete list of
codes and representatives serving on the code committees is given
in Appendix A.
Safety code correlating committee.
Representative, Thomas P. Kearns, department of industrial relations, Co
lumbus, Ohio.
Only one meeting of the safety code correlating committee has been held
during the past year, but it has been carrying on its work through its execu
tive committee, subcommittee on promotion of codes in industry, and subcom
mittee on scope.
The subcommittee on scope has been active in insuring that the personnel
of sectional committees is properly balanced and that the scope of new proj
ects and projects already under way do not overlap the work of projects being
handled by other sectional committees.
The most interesting development of the safety code correlating committee
comes through the committee on promotion of codes in industry. This com
mittee at a recent meeting laid plans for interesting manufacturers all over
the United States in the safety-code work, and it is hoped that the manufac
turers will voluntarily use the codes as a part of their regular operations.
The general work of the safety code correlating committee is routine in
character, and the reports of the representatives on the various sectional
committees indicates more completely the progress of the safety code work
than a detailed report of the safety code correlating committee would do.
A 9 (1929)—Building-exiU code.
Representative, John Campbell, department of labor and industry, Harris
burg, Pa.
Since the last meeting o f this association the building-exits code has been
approved by the American Standards Association as tentative American
standard. The sectional committee handling this work is a standing com
REPORTS— SAEETY-CODE COMMITTEES
83
mittee and is constantly developing new phases of the subject and making revi
sions o f provisions that have been in effect long enough to secure criticism
from application by regulatory bodies.
A 10— Construction code.
Representative, John Roach, department of labor, Trenton, N. J.
The sectional committee has not as yet been completely organized, due to
the fact that the National Safety Council has not been able to Qbtain a proper
representative. As the National Safety Council is one of the sponsors of the
project, it does not feel that the sectional committee should begin work until
its representative has been appointed. It is hoped and expected that this
vacancy on the sectional committee will be filled before the convention at
Louisville is held.
A 17—Elevator safety code.
Representative, John P. Meade, department of labor and industries, Boston,
Mass.
Committee acted on revisions to Elevator Code on April 19, 1930. Revisions
are not printed or available for distribution.
A 22—Safety code for walkway surfaces.
Representative, John Campbell, department of labor and industry, Harris
burg, Pa.
(The draft is now in the hands of the American Standards Association.)
B 9—Refrigeration safety code.
Representative, M. H. Christopherson, New York State Insurance Fund, New
York, N. Y.
This code applies to the safe installation, operation, and inspection of every
refrigerating system, hereafter installed employing a fluid which is expanded,
vaporated, liquefied, and/or compressed in its refrigerating cycle.
This code is intended to provide reasonable safety for life, limb, health, and
property.
A tentative copy of the revision of the safety code rules on this subject was
prepared in August, 1927. Various meetings were held in the next two years
at which the tentative rules were revised and the final details were completed
by letter ballot.
B 20— Safety code for conveyers and conveying machinery.
Representative, John P. Meade, department of labor and industries, Boston,
Mass.
No meeting of the sectional committee for the Elevator Safety Code has been
held since the last convention of the Association of Governmental Officials in
Industry.
B SO— Safety code for cranes, derrickst and hoists.
Representative, Eugene B. Patton, department of labor, New York, N. Y.
The committee on the development of the safety code for cranes, derricks,
and hoists has made substantial progress during the past year. The main
committee was divided into various subcommittees to handle different branches
of the work. All of these subcommittees have received orders to complete their
reports by June 1, 1930.
An editing committee lias been appointed to edit the reports of the subcom
mittees and weld them into a complete code. Another year should see the com
plex e adoption of this code and the distribution of it to all interested parties
throughout the country.
K IS (1930)— Code of colors for gas mask canisters.
Representative, John Roach, department of labor, Trenton, N. J.
84
17 T H ANNUAL MEETING OF A. G. 0 . I.
This code has been formally approved as American standard by the American
Standards Association and the work of the sectional committee is finished.
Code is now being printed by the United States Bureau o f Labor Statistics
and copies will be available at an early date.1
L 1 {1929)— Safety code for textiles.
Representative, John Campbell, department of labor and industry, Harris
burg, Pa.
This code has been approved as tentative American standard since the last
meeting of this association. We now have one additional industry tied into
the safety-code work.
X 2 (1922)— Safety code for protection of heads and eyes.
Representative, John P. Meade, department of labor and industries, Boston,
Mass.
It is intended in the new revision to extend the scope of the code to include
protection afforded by gas masks and respirators. This is now in progress.
Z 4— Safety code for industrial sanitation.
Representative, Thomas C. Eipper, department of labor, New York, N. Y.
This committee, sponsored by the United States Public Health Service, was
appointed about two years ago. It has no chairman or secretary. Some effort
was made to prepare a code but it does not appear that satisfactory progress
was made, although a rough draft was formulated.
About two months ago Doctor Jones of the United States Public Health
Service was appointed, and is now engaged in revising the first draft, or is
preparing a new one, which will be submitted to the committee as soon as
completed.
Z 5— Ventilation code.
Representative, Thomas C. Eipper, department of labor, New York, N. Y.
This is sponsored by the American Society of Heating and Ventilation. It
was appointed about three years ago. Nothing appears to have been accom
plished, and it was finally decided that a code was not essential and the com
mittee recommended that the work be dropped.
Z 9—Safety code for exhaust systems.
Representative, John Roach, department of labor, Trenton. N. J.
Subcommittees of the section committee are now being appointed to develop
sections of the proposed code covering exhaust systems in industries or for
processes already covered by other national codes. For instance, there is a
national code on the use, care, and protection of abrasive wheels. One of the
subcommittees will develop requirements for exhaust systems for this type
of apparatus. Any other existing national code which is incomplete because
of lack of exhaust requirements will be considered by one o f the subcommittees
now being appointed.
Z 12—Safety code for prevention of dust explosion.
Representative, W. J. Burke, department of labor, New York, N. Y.
For information as to progress in the safety code, I would refer you to Mr.
David J. Price, chairman o f the dust explosion hazards committee, Bureau o f
Chemistry and Soils, Washington, D. C.
Z 13— Safety code for amusement parks.
Representative, Thomas C. Eipper, department of labor, New York, N. Y.
Two meetings o f the sectional committee have been held. At the first, on
October 17, 1929, the purpose and scope of the codes wras decided upon; i. e.,
1Published as Bulletin No. 512.
SAFETY CODES— JOHN HOACH
85
classification o f devices, construction and rules for maintenance and operation—
22 classifications were agreed upon and a subcommittee of one for each was
appointed. Following is a list o f such subcommittees:
Gravity rides.
Central driven circular rides.
Circle swings, sea planes, airplanes, etc.
Ferris wheels and swoopers.
Caterpillars, over the jumps, tilt-a-whirl, lindy looks, tumble bugs, etc.
Danglers, chair-planes, etc.
Whirlpools, pits, foot ball, etc.
Waltzer.
Cuddle up.
Cable driven type—whits hey days, etc.
Water rides, old mill chutes, chute the chutes.
Railway or train type.
Swings, etc.
Water toboggans and land slides, fun houses, and walk throughs.
Swimming pools, bathhouses, and benches.
Boats and launches.
Shooting galleries.
Zoomer.
Buildings, skating rinks, dance halls, etc.
Parks general—gates, driveways, walks, parking, first aid, sanitation, etc.
At a subsequent meeting of this committee, held at Springfield, Mass., on
February 26, 1930, a report was presented by two of the subcommittees: (1)
Shooting galleries; (2) dodgems, skooters, and similar rides. Both were fully
discussed, some changes were made, then recommitted to the subcommittees for
further consideration, and to be submitted at the next meeting o f the sectional
committee. Other subcommittees will be ready to submit reports at the next
meeting. Considerable interest is shown by members o f the various sub
committees and progress is fairly good.
Rules relating to shooting galleries cover construction, arrangement, and
protection of galleries, regulating minimum width o f ranges o f various lengths,
material o f targets, loading of guns, prevention o f ricocheting o f bullets, etc.
Code for dodgems, skooter, and similar rides: These rules completely cover
construction of buildings, floors, tracks, construction and safety of cars,
bumpers, maximum speed of cars, electric wiring, maximum voltage, guarding
o f machinery, floors to be kept free from projecting screws, bolts, etc.
Safety Codes
By J o h n
R
oach
, Deputy Commissioner of Labor, New Jersey Department
o f Labor
I have had an opportunity of knowing intimately so many of the
State officials who are intrusted with the enforcement of labor laws
that I feel safe in saying that not many of them are entirely satis
fied with the present state of accident-prevention work in their
respective jurisdictions.
I do not mean to infer that we are at a standstill or that the situa
tion is getting beyond our powers to meet it but, in a general way,
I am sure we all recognize the absence of a stabilized, definite
program based on certain acknowledged fundamentals of procedure
that meet with the approval of officials in all the industrial States.
86
17TH ANNUAL MEETING OP A. G. 0. I.
It is easy enough to show that substantial progress has been made
during the 19 years that compensation laws have been enforced in
the United States. Before these laws were passed we knew very
little about accident frequency or severity and had, therefore, no
satisfactory way of estimating the toll in life, limb, health, and
wasted social opportunity that was being taken.
It is a matter of surprise that these laws were passed as the
employers were soundly intrenched behind common-law procedure
and it was difficult indeed for an injured man to pass the commonlaw defenses—act of a fellow servant, assumption of risk, and con
tributory negligence—in order to have his case heard by a jury.
The employers had grave misgivings of the effect of these laws and
were skeptical indeed when it was suggested that an injured person
or his dependents should receive compensation because he had been
hurt, rather than as formerly because an employer had neglected
to discharge a legal duty.
The first elective schedule to be adopted in this country was passed
in New Jersey and by implication covered every employed person
with certain exceptions such as casual, interstate, and maritime
workers. The most that friends of these laws hoped to obtain
by their passage was a prompt alleviation of distress due to accidents.
That early benefits were small and inadequate need occasion no
surprise, for employers thought they were surrendering great privi
leges when it was well known that at common law injured people
were not very successful in lawsuits.
Attention Drawn to Accident Causes
But the elimination of common-law liability and the substitution
of the present-day theory have done even more for the working
group than merely giving injured people temporary relief through
definite schedules of compensation payments and providing per
manent benefits in certain types of cases.
The real service rendered has been due to the attention drawn
to accident causes, with the result that some of the best engineering
minds in American industry are convinced that accidents can be
prevented by the introduction of safety programs based on a study
of ascertained facts. The prevention feature is the one that has
the greatest interest to me, for the very term “ compensation ” seems
out of place and hardly justified under the circumstances. The
thing the handicapped person gets or the dependent ones receive
is so inadequate when measured against the loss sustained that the
term used does not seem to cover the subject at all.
Do not mistake my meaning in making this statement, for a bird
in the hand is worth two in the bush. A hungry man needs pennies,
not sympathy. A jobless man needs work, not a discussion on the
present state of employment. The payment of high wages in a
fortunate industry “ butters no parsnips ” for an untrained woman
worker employed in a calling subject to slavish and debilitating
competition. If minimum wage laws will help that dependent
creature by adding one drop to her cup of happiness I am for that
kind of legislation.
What the injured worker needs at the moment of his trouble
when his little world has been disrupted and his house pulled down
SAFETY CODES— JOHN ROACH
87
on his unfortunate head is prompt and adequate relief, and then
rehabilitation that will, in some measure at least, preserve his selfrespect, bolster his failing courage, and save him from the humili
ation of becoming a victim of either public or private charity.
Accidents Can Be Prevented
But grant that we do this much for the injured man, still it is
not enough. The aching hearts, the maimed bodies, and the de
stroyed hopes of our injured army are a standing indictment to
the absence of adequate and effective programs that so far have
marked our efforts to stem the tide of industrial accidents. This
is deplorable, too, because enough has been done in spots to prove
that a very large percentage of all accidents can be prevented if
proper measures are used.
Now, who is to blame for our complete lack of success in the
industral-accident field? Shall we say the employer? Can it be
the worker himself? Are State officials, smugly satisfied with
bureaucratic efforts, the ones to slap? It is always very easy to
blame trouble on our neighbor. In Russia at one time pogroms
were encouraged as measures of relief for nationalistic troubles.
In America hard times were at one time chargeable to political
parties which tinkered with the tariff. Formerly, many great
plagues were blamed upon Providence because it was thought they
were punishments for a sinful people. Well, it is to our credit that
we do not use that line of reasoning so much as we did. We know
better now, and when we study a problem we attempt to base our
judgments upon ascertained facts.
At the outset of this feature of the discussion I would suggest
that experience seems to show that the employer and the man on the
job have not had a satisfactory meeting of minds on the subject of
accident prevention, and that complete success will not attend our
efforts until this has been done. In the first instance, the employer
is responsible for the selection, training, and supervision of the
man’s work. Safety of operation is a feature of production. If
the boss recognizes this point, he is doing his part. If he does not,
he is guilty of moral misconduct, for more real responsibility for
the avoidance of accidents rests upon him than upon any other
person. In the next instance the man, and he is the one who should
be most concerned, but often is not, has a decisive part to play in
obedience, thoughtfulness, and cooperation. If he steps out of the
picture, nothing can prevent accidents, and, therefore, it is a mat
ter of utmost importance that he shall be educated, trained, super
vised, and convinced of the value of accident-prevention work.
Lastly the State should do its part by coordinating all the inter
ested forces in the Commonwealth, adopting safety codes based
on sound engineering practices, conducting intensive campaigns of
safety education, and keeping everlastingly at it every single working-day of the year.
A Specific Program Should Be Adopted
Now let us become less general about the State’s responsibility
and indicate some of the things it can do. In the first instance the
14886°—30----- 7
88
17TH ANNUAL MEETING OF A. G. O. I.
State should encourage every plant, large and small, to become a
part of the National Safety Council. Local safety councils should
be organized in every industrial center and training courses on
safety given. The insurance carriers should be urged to give their
engineering bureaus more resources, latitude, and freedom in serv
ing their risks, for excellent prevention work can be done and often
is done by the service bureaus of casualty carriers. Some of them
at least recognize that prevented accidents may mean the difference
between a profit or a loss on an assured. Safety education should
be made a feature in our public schools and children taught to
cultivate the theory that reckless, careless habits of thought or action
are a menace and a detriment to the community, and no individual
has a right to jeopardize the personal security of another.
While these are a few of the steps that may be taken in the right
direction you may say that they are not new and they have been
given expression before. Well what of that! There is nothing so
very new about the Ten Commandments but I know you will all
admit that a great deal can be done toward popularizing their
practice. Safety procedure in its most effective form is well under
stood by engineering experts. The great problem that confronts us
is how to reach and convince those masses of people who have as
yet given no consideration to it. Let us stress the importance of
the work and not give so much attention to the brilliant rehabilita
tion efforts that are made after injuries occur, for I am not nearly
so impressed with the attempts that are made to neutralize the
effects of accidents as I am by the tragic consequences that still
form an inseparable part of nearly all of them.
The Adoption of Safety Codes
In States where code work is enforced strictly, arguments are
often advanced that employers are pressed too hard and compelled
to spend money that in other States could be saved. While I ques
tion the logic of this objection to the enforcement of a code, it often
carries weight even though we know that experience has shown
that the best guarded plant and the most carefully operated plant
is the one that makes a profit. I am of the opinion that these
standards are far superior to any that could be compiled by an
individual State. It is for this reason that I have been interested
from the first in the development of uniform standards.
Labor departments with standards of practice based on the ex
perience of industry as a whole are sure to have a higher rating in
the estimation of plant managers than those that are more inclined
to favor haphazard methods. While factory inspection methods
have improved since labor departments were first created, there is
still an opportunity for betterment in this class of service. A
delegate has informed us that in his State when the department of
labor was organized many years ago, factory inspectors were re
garded as something of a nuisance. I think that has been the ex
perience of enforcement officers in every State. The nuisance
period was succeeded by the police age when the principal function
of a factory inspector was to ferret out violations of law and bring
actions for penalties against employers. The more penalties col
lected the greater was supposed to be the efficiency of the depart
SAFETY CODES— DISCUSSION
89
ment. This period was succeeded by the messenger age when
factory inspectors were regarded in the light of messenger boys to
fetch and carry and make formal reports that were often filed away
and never had any serious influence on safety work. In our day
the factory inspector is a salesman, rather than a policeman, who
is selling safety thought to the industries committed to his care.
He should be, and often is, a technician, a consultant, and an adviser
whose opinion is worthwhile and is eagerly sought by plant man
agers who are in earnest about accident-prevention work. When
factory inspectors have been clothed with this dignity and power
and they really represent in the spirit and the flesh an enlightened
and a thoughtful departmental program, they cease to be a nuisance
and they become valuable safety factors in industry. The adoption
of uniform safety codes will undoubtedly be a great help to this type
of public official.
DISCUSSION
Doctor A n d r e w s . I feel that one of the most important things
before us is the making of a code on ventilation.
Mr. S t e w a r t . Speaking of ventilation and sanitation codes, in
the city of Philadelphia—a good many years ago, of course—the
council passed an ordinance making it a crime to build a bathtub in
a private dwelling house without a special prescription of a physi
cian. I do not know whether they repealed that ordinance or not,
but I know that anyone putting in a bathtub without the prescription
of a physician was guilty of a felony.
Mr. G e r n o n . It is not easy to make a proper ventilation code. In
New York we have been about 15 years trying to make a satisfactory
ventilation code. The trouble with most codes is that they contain
too much language and the employer and the employee fail to under
stand them. Therefore, we must instruct the employer as well as the
inspector as to the requirements of the code. Many times code rules
are too involved to be properly understood or interpreted, the simpler
the requirements of the code the better.
It is one thing to make a code, another to enforce it. No matter
how satisfactory the code is, there is difficulty in making the person
responsible for compliance see the necessity of its provisions.
If anything is important it is ventilation in mercantile and manu
facturing establishments.
In the enforcement of the codes the inspectors must necessarily
have the ability of salesmen, and the department of labor must edu
cate them, for it requires skill to secure compliance with the provisions
of the codes. In the majority of cases the inspectors secure excellent
results. We have numerous cases where the owner welcomes the
information and advice of the inspector. Many employers are willing
to do the things the inspectors require as a compliance with the law
or rules and will be perfectly willing to ventilate their places properly
when standards are fixed in the code.
However, I feel that most of our trouble comes from the fact that
our codes are too complicated, and are not easily understood; it is
therefore, difficult to properly follow their requirements.
[Meeting adjourned.]
THURSDAY, MAY 22—EVENING SESSION
Mary Anderson, Director United States Women’s Bureau, Presiding
ADMINISTRATION OF LABOR LAW S FOR WOMEN AND
CHILDREN
Chairman A n d e r s o n . Y o u who are interested in the administra
tion of labor laws as regard inspection for safety have a way of
knowing whether or not the law is complied with—and you must
derive a certain amount of satisfaction from that—while with the 8,
9, and 10 hour laws for women there is no way of telling when and
to what extent the law has been violated. In your inspection you
may order a guard placed on a machine and when you return you
can see whether or not your order has been adhered to, while with
us there is no way to check back. The same applies to child labor.
With regard to labor laws you can measure your success upon the
compliance with your orders, while with woman and child labor
laws we never know to what extent we have been successful. There
is a great deal of difference, and I hope that after the speakers are
through there will be a great deal of discussion.
I wish to present at this time the first speaker of the evening, Mr.
Edward F. Seiller.
Problems Confronting an Inspector
By
E dw ard
F.
S e il l e r ,
Chief Labor Inspector, Louisville, Ky.
The employment of women in industry has increased during the
last 20 years and is still increasing. Women in gainful occupations
are constantly assuming a more important position in the economic
and industrial fields, and this increase in the gainful employment of
women has been accompanied by more liberal labor legislation and
more protective laws applying to women.
Because of the ever-increasing strain of industrial life, the in
tensive workday, the intricacies of operations required of telephone
exchange workers and workers in clothing factories, textile mills,
and other industries that employ large numbers of women, the ques
tion of protective legislation has become a problem of paramount
importance.
Legislation of some sort concerning the employment of women in
industry has been enacted in every State of the Union except Flor
ida, and there are only four States (Alabama, Florida, Iowa, and
West Virginia) that do not have some sort of law regulating the
hours of work for women. All the other States have either definitely
forbidden the employment of women for more than a certain num
ber of hours, or have penalized the employment of women beyond
certain hours by providing that such work must be paid for at an
90
LABOR LAWS— WOMEfr AND CHILDREN— EDWARD F. SEILLER
91
increased rate. Most of the States have various other regulatory
measures for woman workers such as prohibited employments, mini
mum wage laws, supervision of home work, and other similar pro
tective laws.
It can be clearly seen from this resume of the State laws concerned
with women in industry, that this problem is one of the most re
current and important that confronts the inspector, and one that
develops so many difficulties to perplex and restrict him in the
performance of his duty
The Kentucky woman’s law is one that falls in the middle column
with the majority of States that provide a 10-hour workday for
women. Its chief provisions are that no woman shall work more
than 10 hours in any one day nor more than 60 hours a week, the
only exceptions being domestic service and nursing. The law further
requires that seats shall be provided in workrooms; suitable wash
rooms and toilets and dressing rooms shall be installed when the
nature of the work is such as to require any change in the workers’
clothes. Every person, firm, or corporation employing females is
required to keep a time book in which shall be correctly recorded
the name of each female employee and the number of hours she is
employed each day. It is also required that a copy of this act must
be conspicuously posted in each workroom where females are
employed. Penalties are provided for the violation of the provisions
of the act.
In its general scope, the Kentucky woman’s law seems broad enough
to cover any contingency that may arise. In practice it has been
found narrow, lacking in flexibility and specific detail. The law
fails to set up standards necessary for its efficient application.
One of the main problems that confront the inspector in the
enforcement of laws regulating the employment of women is a
personal one. Often the personality of the inspector is not well
adapted to the sometimes delicate task of tactful management of
such violations.
If we were to catalogue the personal qualifications of a perfect
inspector, we should find it necessary to endow him or her with some
of the following attainments:
The inspector should have, first of all, a thorough knowledge of the
law that he is enforcing and should be able to present to the offend
ing employer the various aspects of the law in a way that will not
antagonize the employer. The experience of Kentucky inspectors,
which may be safely assumed to reflect the universal attitude, for
fundamental human reactions are similar whether the stimulus is
applied in Louisville or Luzon, indicates that an aggressive approach
is not the most effective way to bring about the desired end.
Experience dictates that the arrogant approach which makes the
problem a personal one, the use of the personal pronoun as in, “ I de
mand that the law be complied with,” is scarcely the way to bring
about an amicable solution of the problem.
An indirect reference to the law and its provisions and an
impersonal attitude of the inspector, in the aspect of an unbiased
agent who is charged with the duty of interpreting the law to the
layman who has through ignorance broken one of its provisions, seems
to be the most satisfactory method of bringing the facts to the
employer.
92
17TH ANNUAL MEETING OE A. G. 0. I.
The foregoing may seem to indicate that the inspector should
he a wishy-washy sort of automaton who only spouts legal phrases in
a weak voice. These qualities should be mixed, judiciously, with
tact and diplomacy as well as a certain amount of firmness.
The inspectors should have sufficient discernment to discover when
a wily employer is using a meretricious argument to bolster up his
defense. He may cry that his competitors have forced him into
violating the law, complain that others are being excepted, or that
the violation is an occasional one that should not be construed as
a deliberate, long-continued violation. Discrimination is, in this,
as in all matters of human adjustment, vitally necessary.
A little experience will indicate the stock arguments that will be
used by the ordinary run of employers who are detected in a viola
tion of such a law, and, with a little preparation, the inspector can
prime, himself to refute such arguments, which are usually based
011 the flimsiest of premises.
The inspector has need of other qualities besides judgment and
information about the law he is enforcing and the other relevant
matters that have been touched upon. And the most important of
these is a haw^k eye and a trained faculty for minute observation.
The inspector should also be an adept in the questioning of witnesses,
in making workers, frightened by the economic lash that the em
ployer holds over them, give details or testimony regarding the viola
tion. Lynx-eyed alertness is perhaps the most indispensable quality
of the inspector in establishing a case.
Perhaps the most essential need for the inspector is an adequate
law. Most of the State laws, except in the ultraprogressive States,
are somewhat antiquated, restrictive, vague, or ambiguous. Too
much is left to the discretion of the courts, the judgment of the
employer, or delegated to other incompetent authorities.
The failure of the law to give a clear exposition of its scope and
authority is illustrated by the Kentucky woman’s law. For example,
the section that provides for wash rooms and closets is couched in
these words: “ Every person, firm, or corporation employing females
shall provide suitable and proper wash rooms and water-closets.”
Such ambiguous phrasing, subject to diverse interpretations, can
only lead to confusion and conflicting decisions by the courts. Under
the present status, the enforcement of the law depends in large
measure on the decision of the courts instead of resting upon some
responsible and competent authority who could determine, without
equivocation, wrhat constitutes “ suitable and proper.”
The amount of confusion, costly litigation, and loss of time brought
about by such defective law is demonstrated by a case in Kentucky,
now pending before the court of appeals. The facts of this case
follow: The first inspection of the premises in question, July, 1926,
revealed that the employer had 2 white women, 16 colored women,
and 5 men, engaged in the operation of a laundry. The only toilet
in the building was described as “A very unsanitary open toilet,
unscreened, and with large cracks between the rough boards of the
walls.” The inspectors, who collaborated with the city health in
spectors in the investigation, declared the toilet “ Unsatisfactory,”
although the employer contended that the male employees used the
sanitary facilities of an adjacent building. A warrant was issued
LABOR LAWS----WOMEN AND CHILDREN----EDWARD F. SEILLER
93
and the employer haled to a magistrates’ court, where the defendant
Was found guilty as charged. The defendant was instructed to com
ply with the orders of the labor department because the court held
the toilet facilities were not “ suitable and proper.” The defendant
declined to conform to the orders of the court, pending appeal of his
care.
Next, the case was tried before a jury and this trial resulted in
the same verdict and the defendant was again fined $50 and costs.
The defendant appealed the case, this time to the Kentucky Court
of Appeals, which sustained the fine and the decision, but did not
write an opinion on the case.
Several months passed, and another inspection ,of the premises was
ordered. It was found that no effort had been made to comply
with the law and another warrant was issued through a magisterial
court. Another guilty verdict was rendered by the court, then the
weary round of guilty decisions and appeals was begun over again,
when the decision of the magistrate was appealed. A jury in the
criminal court returned a verdict for the State and the case is now
pending for the second time in the court of appeals. A decision is
momentarily expected.
All along, the defendant in this case insisted that he was comply
ing with the letter of the law. The toilet provided for the female
workers and characterized by city health officials as well as the labor
department investigators as unsanitary and inadequate, he insists
is “suitable and proper.” He maintains that the toilet is there for
the use of women and is not used by the male employees.
As it happened, the courts sustained the labor department in their
contention in this case. But no standard has been set up, no line
of demarcation which stipulates in unquestionable terms "what is
suitable and proper and what is convenient. The waste of time and
effort spent 011 this case is a strong indictment of inefficient policies
in drafting and enactment of labor legislation. There is no guaranty
that the courts will follow ainy consistent line of conduct in deter
mining what is “ suitable and proper.”
Many unsatisfactory, unsanitary conditions could be eliminated if
the wording of the law were modified or made more flexible in
application to future conditions that might arise, or more specific
in its details. In order to assure adequate sanitary facilities for
women, the law should either be more exact or the power to pro
mulgate necessary regulations should be vested in some board or
commission which would declare and define the necessary standards;
fix ratios by which a certain number of workers of each sex would
be provided with a toilet; stipulate that the toilet must be con
veniently located and declare in unquestionable language what a
convenient location is; and explain in detail all the requirements
so that there could be no dispute about it by any of the parties con
cerned—employer, employee, or enforcement officials.
Although the Kentucky law has recognized the injurious effects
on woman workers of continuous standing, a survey conducted by
the Women’s Bureau of the United States Department of Labor in
1921 revealed some glaring inconsistencies in the present law.
The law stipulates that “ every person, firm, or corporation that
employs females shall provide seats for their use in the room where
94
17TH ANNUAL MEETING OF A. G. 0. I.
they work and shall maintain and keep them there, and shall permit
the use of such by them when not engaged in the active duties for
which they are employed. In stores and mercantile establishments
at least one seat shall be provided for every three females employed.”
The evasions of the law through the clause, “ when not engaged in
the active duties for which they are employed,” indicate the need
for definite and specific detail in the law. For it is quite possible for
a store or factory to live up to the letter of the law and yet fail to
provide its woman workers with seating facilities or the opportunity
to use them. The employer finds it simple to arrange the duties of
a woman employee so that the worker is always engaged in the
active duties for which she is employed. If the law is intended to
afford protection to all female wage earners, employers, employees,
and labor inspectors should have some definite, required stanaard
that is unquestionably established.
The vigilance of the labor department inspectors and the coopera
tion that has been given to this department by the various public
bodies has not sufficed to stamp out violations of this law which is
so lax in its generalizations.
Another defect in the woman’s law in Kentucky is the difficulty
of establishing proof of violations that will be admissible as evi
dence. The law in Kentucky requires that employers of women
shall keep a time book, but does not specify what kind of time book
shall be used nor any standardized method of keeping account of
the working hours of women. Since the law was drafted, time
keeping methods have changed. Time-clock systems of several
varying types have been installed in many of the large and even the
small stores, factories, and workshops. It has become a part of the
labor department’s policy to waive the requirement for a time book,
because a time book could be so easily altered or changed to comply
with the law.
The time-clock records are, however, not such indisputable evi
dence as one would imagine them to be. In cases of illegal employ
ment the employees are sometimes instructed not to punch in on
their overtime work. In other instances the employees do not punch
out for their rest or lunch periods, which further complicates an
already involved problem.
The same defect in law and similar difficulties in enforcement face
the inspector in the application of the child labor law. For instance,
section 1 of the Kentucky child labor law reads:
Nor shall any child under 14 years of age be permitted to perform in or
appear upon the stage of any theater, motion-picture establishment, or other
place of public amusement, whether for pay or not: Provided, hoicever, That
nothing in this act shall prevent a child under 16 years of age from being
employed to perform or from performing in a duly licensed theater if such
child is not an inhabitant or resident of the Commonwealth of Kentucky and
at the time of such performance is accompanied by or in the custody, care, or
control of a parent, guardian, governess, teacher, or some other adult custodian
who remains in the wings or behind the curtain or scenery in such theater
during the performance of such child and accompanies such child to and from
the theater to the child’s place of abode while performing at such theater.
Such a clause is nothing more nor less than discrimination against
the child actors or performers of this State, and this fact has often
been pointed out when a child in the custody of his parent has been
LABOR LAWS— WOMEN AND CHILDREN— EDWARD F. SEILLER
95
barred by labor department inspectors from taking part in some
stage presentation or public contest of one sort or another.
Another flaw in the provisions of the child labor law was discov
ered after a long and bitterly contested court fight. A certain news
paper vender was arrested in 1925 on a warrant charging him with
violation of the street-trades section of the law. The facts of the
violation were set forth in the warrant as follows:
About 11.30 o’clock on the morning of November 26, 1924, Lipginski (the
vendor) knowing that one Barnard Cecil, a boy between 14 and 16 years of
age, did not have the badge required by the statutes (street-trades section of
the child labor law ), furnished him newspapers to be sold on the streets of
Louisville, and knew that Cecil was going to sell the papers in violation of
the law ; that the public schools were in session at this time and Cecil was
not licensed to engage in a street occupation during school hours.
A hearing was held before a magistrate and Lipginski was found
guilty and fined. The defendant then appealed to the district circuit
court and a general demurrer was interposed to the warrant on the
ground that no public offense was charged. It was claimed that the
boy to whom the newspapers were delivered to be sold was over the
age of 14 and between the ages of 14 and 16, although he had no
permit and wore no badge or button indicating his authority to
engage in a street occupation as required by law.
The specific point of difference was raised in the language of the
following two sentences of the statutes. The first sentence reads:
No boy under 14 years of age shaU be employed, permitted, or suffered to
work at any time in any city of the first, second, or third class in or in con
nection with the occupation of peddling, bootblacking, distribution or sale of
newspapers, magazines, periodicals, or circulars, nor in any other occupation
pursued in any street or public place.
The second sentence reads:
No boy between 14 and 16 years of age shall be employed, permitted, or
suffered to work in any city of the first, second, or third class in connection
with a street occupation of peddling, bootblacking, distribution or sale of
magazines, periodicals, or circulars nor in any other occupation pursued in
any public place except upon the following conditions: [The exceptions men
tioned are educational activities.]
The circuit court sustained the demurrer to the warrant, holding
that the statute did not apply to the sale of newspapers. The Com
monwealth took exception and appealed to the court of appeals.
The Commonwealth argued that the word “ i newspapers5 em
ployed in the first sentence was, by inadvertence, oversight, and
mistake by the draftsman, omitted from the second sentence of the
act,” and maintained that the court should read the statutes ac
cording to the intention which the General Assembly must have had
when it made the law; that the omission of the word “ newspapers ”
was termed “ causus omissus.”
The decision of the court of appeals was based on the act, how
ever, not the intention of the lawmakers and the court held that the
“ sale of newspapers was not intended or intended to be included in
the inhibition.”
The laxness in the drafting or proofreading of this law, and the
subsequent court action, nullified the entire section regulating the
employment of children engaged in the street trade of selling news
papers.
96
1 7TH ANNUAL MEETING OF A. G. 0. I.
In spite of a favorable public opinion and the activities of varioi!
civic organizations concerned with social welfare legislation and its
enforcement, it has been virtually impossible rigidly to enforce the
section of the law relating to street trades.
The attitude of the general public as reflected by court attaches
and judges often is a potent help in enforcing the law or an insuper
able stumbling block. If the magistrates or other public officers
charged with issuing warrants against violators refuse to act, or if,
after the offender has been haled into court, the judge is indifferent
to the social aspects of the case and thinks only in narrow terms of
his fellow citizens’ private affairs, or, if the State’s attorney or other
official charged with the prosecution is lax in pushing the case, sum
moning witnesses, preparation of the case, or in other ways, a satis
factory solution of the problem is almost impossible to achieve.
Public opinion in the large cities supports the efforts of labor
departments in the enforcement of such protective laws, but in the
smaller cities and town of the States, the inspector who investigates
an alleged violation must j>roceed warily, for such investigations
are often looked upon as unwarranted intrusions upon the privacy
of the employer and a restriction of the personal liberty of the
worker.
These are some of the tangled threads that trip the inspector
seeking to enforce the woman’s laws and other laws in this State.
Others arise with each case and the personality of the offender.
What can be done to eliminate these pitfalls ? Perhaps the prime
requisite is the selection of a trained, alert, and vigorous staff with
the technical training necessary for this type of work. It follows
that some provision to pay salaries that will attract such technicians
is necessary.
A foolproof law, drafted after a study of the local conditions
and embodying the best principles of social science and labor wel
fare legislation adapted to the need of labor in industry, is another
requisite that should be considered as fundamental—a" law that is
neither too restrictive nor too inclusive to be unwieldy but one that
is flexible and adaptable to the needs of the situation as they arise.
The third need is education, the education of the public to know
the law so that the workers know their rights and the employers
theirs; the formation and crystallization of a public opinion in favor
of the law that will make the outlaw a social pariah, opposed to the
general good.
If those three millennial projects could be encompassed many of
the difficulties of the inspector enforcing the law for the protection
of workers would melt away like the morning mist in the sun.
Reasons for Labor Laws Protecting Women and Children
By
F r ie d a
S.
M il l e r ,
Director New York Bureau of Women in Industry
It seems to me that this is a question with which all of us, in what
ever capacity we may be called upon to function in a department of
labor, are faced in one way or another. If we examine the different
types of legislation that a labor department is called upon to enforce,
they do seem to divide into distinct groups, yet I doubt if we could
LABOR LAWS----WOMEN AND CHILDREN----FRIEDA S. MILLER
97
get up much of an argument showing in what fundamental way they
are separate.
In our handling of the group of labor laws which has as its object
the protection of woman and child workers I believe that one of our
chief aims should be to educate our clients, the employers; they must
be made to realize that it is to their benefit and that of their State
that their woman and child employees work under healthy and safe
conditions. We all know that the employers of our various States
have not yet come altogether to realize this. And it is one of the
important functions of a department of labor to educate them on
these points. But what specific arguments can we use in bringing
this about? Fundamentally, the same as those used in the early
discussions of compensation. The industrial worker was not able
alone to bring out the justice of his cause and the same applies to
the woman; she is not able as an individual to bargain for favorable
terms and hours with her employe? or to assure for herself safe and
healthy working conditions, and it is to the interest of her State to
regulate these for the sake of its own future well-being.
The actual matters that call for regulation are therefore those
which would affect the conditions just mentioned—safety, health, and
the wage bargain. Among the health items regulation of hours has
long been considered of foremost importance. Yet even here many
questions are still a matter of controversy. Such, for example, in
New York State, is the question of overtime, it had been the con
tention of certain manufacturers that at certain seasons and under
certain conditions they could not get out their product and at the
same time keep within the regular scheduled Working hours. In order
to produce, they claimed, overtime was necessary. In order to meet
this situation the 1927 amendment to the hours law carried a provi
sion permitting any woman to work 78 hours of overtime annually
and fixing the daily limit, including overtime, at 10 hours. The
Bureau of Women in Industry was naturally interested in ascertain
ing what use actually was made of this provision. It therefore under
took to make a study of the actual overtime records of a group of
establishments throughout the State which sent to the Department of
Labor notice of their intention to use overtime. The records of 126
firms—78 factories and 48 mercantile establishments—employing
about 10,000 women and using a considerable amount of overtime
during the first nine months or 1929, were finally analyzed. Of the
78 factories, 46 used overtime during their busy seasons; of the 48
mercantile establishments, only 7. Only three factories and one store
used overtime to meet emergencies. The most frequent use of over
time as reported by a third of the factories and five-sixths of the
stores—64 firms in all—was to lengthen regular working hours. An
addition of an hour and a half to each regular working week, or of
18 minutes to each working-day was frequently reported. This, of
course, was not the purpose for which the amendment was sought,
but was quite contrary thereto. It would seem to indicate, first, that
the need of overtime for busy seasons or emergencies is not so wide
spread as had been claimed; second, that the legal limitation placed
upon daily and weekly hours is, in many instances, the really effective
limitation placed upon working time, since the full amount permitted
as overtime was deliberately added to regular hours. This is the
98
17TH ANNUAL MEETING OF A. G. 0. I.
more significant in view of the fact that our hours laws do not apply
to such large groups of woman workers as, for example, beauty-parlor operators, telephone and telegraph operators, cleaning women,
and hotel workers.
Reasons for labor laws protecting children can be most effectively
sought in a study of conditions under which employed children must
carry on their occupations. If the type of work that growing
children are called upon to do, the conditions under which they do
it, the hours for which they are occupied are such as actually to
impair the child’s chances of a healthy manhood or womanhood,
certainly a reason for State regulation to prevent such an outcome
is established. Sometime ago the Bureau of Women in Industry
sought to ascertain the effect of their actual working conditions upon
the health of a group of continuation-school children in New York
City. A special effort was made to ascertain what proportion of
the children’s physical defects were being accentuated by work.
Where a child with poor eyesight and weak posture had a job requir
ing no close work and no posture strain, although the job necessitated
long hours of work in a badly ventilated room, no correlation was
found. Where a child with marked scoliosis, or lateral curvature of
the spine, had a job requiring him to stand all day, a definite rela
tion between the physical finding and the work conditions was said
to exist, and it was concluded that a continuance of this type of work
would tend to increase the posture defect. These findings when
relating to the future effect must, of course, be regarded as specula
tive.
Nine hundred and twenty-two defects were found among the 412
children examined, and 260, or 28 per cent, of these defects were
considered to be accentuated by some condition of work. The defects
found were bad posture, flat feet, low strength, hernia, defective
eyesight, conditions of the heart or lungs, and nervous overstrain.
Of the 412 children, 18 had no physical defects, 99 had minor
defects requiring hygienic regulation and diet, 179 had moderate
defects requiring minor medical care as well as hygienic supervision,
95 had more serious conditions causing temporary or partial in
capacity, but capable of cure by treatment, 16 had organic disease
or physical impairment capable of mitigation by supervision and
treatment, and 7 had such serious organic lesions as to require
immediate medical treatment and probable cessation from work.
Ninety per cent of the boys with bad posture, and 80 per cent of
the girls, had a work condition accentuating their weakness. The
condition of 73 per cent of the boys and a third of the girls with
flat feet was aggravated by their" work. Over two-thirds of the
boys with low strength and one-fifth of the girls were unsatisfactorily
employed in jobs that were too heavy for them. Six of the seven
boys with hernia were improperly placed. In over one-fourth of the
cases of defective vision among girls and one-fifth among boys,
the conditions of work were considered to intensify the defect. The
hearts of 17 children were affected, 4 of the 5 boys and 6 of the 12
girls were placed on work that would intensify their condition. The
lungs of 11 children were affected and 3 of the 8 girls were em
ployed where the work conditions intensified their physical defect.
Twenty-eight children were suffering from nervous overstrain and
LABOR LAWS----WOMEN AND CHILDREN— DISCUSSION
99
seven of the eight girls were improperly placed, but, with one
exception, the boys had no irritating work conditions.
The work conditions which caused aggravation were too much
standing or sitting, handling heavy loads, bad chairs, eyestrain, bad
light, nerve strain, and bad ventilation. There were altogether 244
conditions of work which were found to accentuate physical defects.
Most of us have been faced, now and again, with the question,
Do women and children who work really want the type of legislation
designed to protect them against such situations as we have been
discussing ? Testimony on this point, unsought, spontaneous,
poignant, comes to one only too often in the shape of letters asking
why the hours law can not be applied here or a night-work pro
hibition there, or children protected against still another type of
situation. Such letters keep coming continuously. Let me read
you only one which came early this month and was addressed “ To
Someone with Influence.”
This will be like a small, plaintive cry in a wilderness of noise. It will be
drowned under the stronger voices of our employers. But if you can effect
this no more than 8-hour day for us, six days a week—us being merely the
bookkeepers of our many Woolworth stores—you will be doing something like
what Lincoln did for the slaves, give them a little freedom.
I f you could see us working in a cage without any windows until 6 every
day, through an interminable Saturday till 10 o’clock at night, getting home
about 11.30 to sleep, drunk with exhaustion and lack of air and sunlight,
through a beautiful Sunday morning, but still looking forward to that one
small, small day which we treasure more than a miser his gold, you would
somehow see that getting a few more hours of freedom for us would be a
benediction.
Think of being able to have a little more time to look around and see what
the world is made of.
This is only one little plea, but it is the echo of a thousand voices that have
not the courage to raise themselves in unison, in a strong chorus of protest at
being such inevitable, ridiculous slaves to mammon.
DISCUSSION
General S w e e t s e r . Is it not true that children have to pass a
physical examination before they get a certificate from school ?
Miss M i l l e r . Yes; but a few minor defects do not keep them from
getting a certificate. A lot of these defects would not keep them
from working, but these conditions aggravate their defects—like
hernia and curvature. As a matter of fact we need more school
doctors.
General S w e e t s e r . It seems that a good line of attack would be
to get after school doctors.
[General Sweetser, referring to the paper read by Mr. Seiller,
said he thought it would be a paying proposition to keep bringing
the violator into court six days a week and charge him $50 each time.
Mr. Gernon said that the Kentucky law in that case is better than
New York’s law.]
Mrs. S u m m e r s . We must do a bit of bluffing to get laws over.
Often we enforce a law that does not even have a penalty. No one
knows they haven’t a penalty because I don’t tell them. Get behind
a law and put it over. It depends entirely upon the interpretation.
A lawyer can turn a law into anything.
100
17TH ANNUAL MEETING OF A. G. O. I.
Mr. S t e w a r t . The power to bluff is not to be sneezed at. Mrs.
Summers has been trying to find out what the employer couldn’t do
rather than find out what he could do. I don’t believe the situation
in Kentucky is as bad as it seems to be.
Miss B r o w n (Kentucky). After finding employees working 1 2 % ,
13, and 14 hours in the Schulte stores and endeavoring to do some
thing for them, they came into o»mrt and testified that they enjoyed
spending this number of hours around the store because of the com
forts and conveniences. The manager claimed also that the new
manager had not been informed of the rules governing hours.
Doctor P a t t o n . From my point of view, bluffing is dangerous
business. When they find out you have been bluffing they are hard
to manage. In regard to Mr. Seiller’s predicament—I believe some
code should be set up so that when a violator is brought into court
he can point out that they have not lived up to this code. There is
a great difference between convincing a jury of the violation of a
statute couched necessarily in general terms and in convincing an
employer that he is not complying with the specific, definite, detailed
provisions of an industrial code. In this particular case Mr. Seiller
had to convince a jury that the water-closets in question were not
u suitable and proper.” In order to do this he had to convince each
of the individual jurors having necessarily different ideas as to sani
tation, convenience, and other matters. If, however, he could have
gone to the proprietor and pointed out to him that the water-closets
in his establishment did not comply either in number, arrangement,
location, sanitary arrangements, or with other provisions of the
code, it would have been much easier to secure compliance. In other
words, the code is an interpretation of the meaning of the law and as
such prevents the necessity of securing a uniform interpretation a.s
to the meaning of the law by the jury.
Mr. B a l l a n t y n e . I believe that custom and practice are better
than law itself. Mrs. Summers uses a practical and psychological
way. In Canada we try to keep our laws 100 per cent. We have
the highest respect for women and children.
[Meeting adjourned.]
FRIDAY, MAY 23—MORNING SESSION
James H. H. Ballantyne, Deputy Minister Ontario Department of Labor,
Presiding
TRENDS OF PROBLEMS IN INDUSTRY
Methods of Adjusting Industrial Disputes in Canada
By F. J. P l a n t , Chief Labor Intelligence Branch, Ontario Department of Labor
With a view to indicating the methods employed in the Dominion
of Canada in the settlement of labor disputes I wish to mention,
first, that we have a conciliation act which is administered by the
Federal Department of Labor, and which has been on the statute
books for nigh on to 30 years. Through its machinery a large num
ber of disputes have been from time to time satisfactorily adjusted
by a representative or representatives of the Department of Labor,
the number for the fiscal year ended March 31, 1930, being 28 out of
32 disputes in which the Government mediators had taken part.
While this law for the settlement of industrial disputes had been
and still is of value, it does not prevent a strike occurring before a
conciliator has endeavored to effect a settlement. Consequently in
1906 there was a prolonged strike in the coal mines of Lethbridge,
Alberta, which had threatened to cause a fuel famine in the prairie
Provinces of the Dominion. Negotiations resulting in a settlement
of the strike were conducted by Mr. W. L. Mackenzie King, then
deputy minister of labor and now Prime Minister of Canada, who, in
his report on the subject, dealt at length with the danger and loss
to the country ensuing from such stoppages and recommended that
consideration be given by Parliament to industrial-disputes legisla
tion which would have as its dominant motive the prevention of
strikes seriously menacing the public safety. The outcome of this
suggestion was the enactment of the industrial disputes investiga
tion act, 1907, the intent of which is more fully set forth in its com
plete title “ An act to aid in the prevention and settlement of
strikes and lockouts in mines and industries connected with public
utilities ” and which became law on March 22, 1907.
The essence of the legislation is the provision that in disputes
arising in mines and public utility industries no strike or lockout
may be lawfully declared until after the subject of the dispute in
question has been investigated by a board of conciliation and inves
tigation and every reasonable effort has been made to bring the par
ties concerned to an agreement. The act does not forbid strikes or
lockouts failing an ultimate agreement, but forbids them only pend
ing inquiry before a board. The award of a board is not binding
unless the parties agree to make it so. At least 30 days’ notice
must be given by employers and employees regarding an intended
101
102
17TH ANNUAL MEETING OF A. G. 0. I.
or desired change affecting wages or working conditions, and the
act prescribes further that, in the case of a dispute arising, any such
contemplated change may not take place until the dispute has been
finally dealt with by a board.
Penalties are named in the statute for employers causing a lock
out or change in wages or hours, and for employees engaging in a
strike, prior to board proceedings; also for persons who incite, en
courage, or aid those taking part in such strikes or lockouts. While
the act applies equally to strikes and lockouts, it may be remarked
that the lockout is rarely encountered in Canada, though it is true
that here and there in an industrial-dispute the nature of a stoppage
of work becomes sometimes confused and it is difficult to determine
whether it may be correctly attributed to either the one cause or the
other. An admitted lockout is practically unknown.
Validity of the Act
The constitutionality of the industrial disputes investigation act
has been the subject of judicial proceedings on two occasions.
In 1911, in connection with a board constituted under its provi
sions to deal with a dispute between the Montreal Street Railway Co.
and certain of its employees, a permanent injunction was obtained
restraining the board from proceeding with its inquiry by reason
of an alleged technical defect in the establishment of the board. The
judges of both the superior court and the court of review of the Mon
treal district, however, declared the act to be constitutional and intra
vires of the Dominion Parliament.
In August, 1923, proceedings concerning the constitutionality of
the industrial disputes investigation act were instituted in the Onta
rio courts by the Toronto Electric Commissioners, who refused to
recognize the authority of a board of conciliation and investigation
established to deal with a dispute between the commissioners in
question and their electrical workers. The commissioners contended
that, as the Toronto Hydro-Electric System was controlled by a
municipality, the provisions of the act could not be applied to the
particular dispute; also that the statute invaded provincial rights
and was unconstitutional. The case was heard by various Ontario
courts, and was carried to the judicial committee of the Privy Coun
cil. The judgment of the latter was delivered on January 20, 1925,
and was to the effect that the act in its then existing form was
ultra vires of the Dominion Parliament on the ground that it en
croached upon the rights given to the Provinces under the provisions
of the British North America act. A volume was issued by the de
partment of labor during 1925, containing a full account of the legal
proceedings in this case and including the texts of the judgments
of the various Ontario courts and of the judicial committee of the
Privy Council, the cases for the several parties as presented be
fore the judicial committee, the argument before the judicial com
mittee, and other correlated data.
Scope of the Act
Following the decision of the judicial committee of the Privy
Council, the question of constitutional limitation was carefully con
INDUSTRIAL DISPUTES IN CANADA----P. J. PLANT
103
sidered and amendments to the industrial disputes investigation act
were drafted with the object of confining the application of the
statute to matters not within the exclusive legislative jurisdiction of
any Province. The amendments were enacted at the 1925 parliamen
tary session and the statute accordingly remains applicable to indus
trial disputes in such enterprises as come clearly within the purview
of the Dominion Parliament, these undertakings being enumerated
in the amending measure as including works carried on in connec
tion with navigation and shipping; lines of steam or other ships, rail
ways, telegraphs, canals, ferries, and other works extending beyond
any one Province; works operated by aliens; works declared to be
for the general advantage of Canada or for the advantage of two or
more of the Provinces; and works of any company incorporated by
or under the authority of the Parliament of Canada. The applica
tion of the act is also defined as extending to any dispute which the
governor in council may in apprehended national emergency de
clare to be subject to the provisions of the act, and to any dispute
within the exclusive control of the Provinces which is brought within
the scope of the Federal act by provincial legislation. The legis
latures of six of the Provinces, namely, British Columbia, Saskatche
wan, Alberta, Manitoba, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, have
taken advantage of this latter provision of the industrial disputes
investigation act and have enacted enabling legislation by which the
terms of the Federal statute are made applicable to disputes of the
classes named in the Dominion law and otherwise within the exclu
sive legislative jurisdiction of the Province.
Although the act applies directly only to disputes in the indus
tries or trades specifically named therein, its machinery may be put
into operation in the case of differences arising in any other industry
or trade with the joint consent of the disputants. A few disputes of
this nature are usually referred under the statute in the course of a
year.
Machinery of the Act
The general administration of the act is placed under the Minister
of Labor, and, since the enactment of the statute, the position of
registrar of boards of conciliation and investigation has been held
in conjunction with that of deputy minister of labor.
Boards of conciliation and investigation are established by the
Minister of Labor, usually on an application from one of the parties
to the dispute. The minister has power, if he deems it expedient, to
constitute a board on his own initiative. A municipal authority
may also apply for a board. An amendment passed at the 1925
session places clearly upon the party desiring a change in wages
and hours the full responsibility, in the event of a dispute occur
ring, for making application for a board.
Application forms are supplied by the department on request; it
is not necessary vhat application be made on these forms, but an ap
plication should be, in any event, accompanied by a statement setting
forth (1) the parties to the dispute; (2) the nature and cause of the
dispute, including any claims or demands made by either party
upon the other, to which exception is taken; (3) an approximate
14886°—30------ 8
104
17TH ANNUAL MEETING OF A. G. O. I.
estimate of the number of persons affected or likely to be affected by
the dispute; and (4) the efforts made by the parties themselves to
adjust the dispute. The law requires further that the application
shall be accompanied by a statutory declaration setting forth that,
failing an adjustment of the dispute or a reference thereof by the
minister to a board, to the best of the knowledge and belief of the
declarant a lockout or strike will be declared, and (except where the
application is made by an employer in consequence of an intended
change in wages or hours proposed by the said employer) that the
necessary authority to declare such lockout or strike has been ob
tained. When, however, a dispute concerns employees in more than
one Province, and such employees are members of a trades-union
having a general committee authorized to carry on negotiations in
disputes and so recognized by the employer, there is an alternative
procedure, free from the necessity of obtaining authority to declare
a strike, whereby a declaration may be made by certain union officials
setting forth that, failing an adjustment of the dispute or reference
thereof by the minister to a board, to the best of the knowledge and
belief of the declarants a strike will be declared, that the dispute has
been the subject of negotiations between the committee of the em
ployees and the employer or that it has been impossible to secure
conference or to enter into negotiations, that all efforts to obtain a
satisfactory settlement have failed, and that there is no reasonable
hope of securing a settlement by further effort or negotiations.
A board of conciliation and investigation consists of three mem
bers appointed by the Minister of Labor. One member may be
recommended by each of the disputing parties and the third member,
who is chairman, is secured if possible by joint recommendation of
the two members first appointed. Failing a joint recommendation
the chairman is selected and appointed by the minister. There is
also provision for the selection and appointment by the minister of
a member for either of the parties who fails or neglects to nominate
a person for appointment as board member within five days after
being requested by the minister to do so, or within such extension
of that period as the minister may allow. Members of a board must
be British subjects, though not necessarily residents of Canada.
On the constitution of a board the registrar forwards to the chair
man the necessary documents and instructions. The sittings of the
board are fixed as to time and place by the chairman and the pro
ceedings conducted in public unless the board, of its own motion or
by request of any of the parties to the dispute, directs that they be
held in private. The board may at any time dismiss any matter
referred to it which it deems .frivolous or trivial; also it may, with
the consent of the Minister of Labor, employ competent experts
or assessors to examine the books or official reports of either party,
and to advise upon any technical or other matter material to the
investigation.
The act gives the board the requisite powers for taking evidence,
etc., and provides for the remuneration and payment of expenses of
board members and witnesses, and for all clerical assistance. Pro
cedure under the statute is on simple lines, and in practice the effort
lias been to free the tribunal as far as possible from the formalities
o f a court o f law.
INDUSTRIAL DISPUTES IN CANADA----F. J. PLANT
105
If the board by conciliation effort, brings the disputants together
and a working agreement results, a copy of the memorandum of
the settlement, with a report of the proceedings, is forwarded to the
minister. If a settlement of the dispute is not reached during the
course of its reference to a board, the board is required to report
fully thereon and to make such recommendations as it sees fit for the
settlement of the dispute. If the board deems it expedient the report
shall state the period during which the proposed settlement shall
continue in force and the date from which it shall commence. This
report is sent to the registrar and, similarly, a minority report may
be made by a dissenting member of the board. Copies of the re
ports and minority reports made by boards or members of boards
are, in accordance with the requirements of the statute, furnished
the parties to the dispute. All reports are also published, either
verbatim or in summary form, in the Labor Gazette, the official
monthly publication of the Department of Labor, and are given
publicity in the press.
R ailw ay Disputes
While the industrial disputes investigation act has since its incep
tion applied to all classes of railway disputes, save only in certain
rare cases where a dispute might affect a railway within the ex
clusive jurisdiction of a Province, certain classes of railway em
ployees and the railway companies have established a tribunal
through which many disputes have been adjusted, this body being
known as Canadian Railway Board of Adjustment No. 1. This
tribunal was voluntarily formed in August, 1918, by agreement be
tween (a) Canadian railways being members of the Canadian Rail
way War Board, afterwards the Railway Association of Canada,
and comprising practically all railways of importance in Canada,
and (b) six trades-unions, namely, (1) Brotherhood of Locomotive
Engineers, (2) Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen, (3) Order of Railway Conductors, (4) Brotherhood of Rail
road Trainmen, (5) Order of Railroad Telegraphers, and (6)
Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees.
A new agreement, executed on April 15, 1921, is effective until
amended or terminated “ upon service of 30 days5 notice by the one
party upon the other.” The board consists of 12 members, 6 selected
by the Railway Association of Canada and 6 by the executive offi
cers of the organizations above named. Under the terms of the
agreement, decisions of the board are binding. In the event of a
majority vote of the members of the board not being obtained, pro
vision is made for the unanimous choice of a referee, or, in case of
failure to agree, for the appointment of a referee by the Federal
Minister of Labor. However, all decisions so far rendered by the
board have been unanimous. The board deals with all disputes
between the respective railway managements and their employees,
members of the unions above named, concerning the interpretation
or application of wage schedules or agreements and which have not
been settled by direct negotiations. Disputes arising out of the nego
tiation of new agreements as to wages and working conditions or
amendments thereto are not, however, embraced within the juris
diction of the Canadian Railway Board of Adjustment No. 1, and
106
17TH ANNUAL MEETING OF A. G. 0. I.
several disputes of this nature have, since the creation of the board,
been referred to boards of conciliation and investigation under the
terms of the industrial disputes investigation act. The Canadian
Railway Board of Adjustment No. 1 also determines differences
existing between railways and classes of employees not represented
on the board, provided joint submission of the case is made to the
board by the parties concerned.
A similar tribunal, the Canadian National Railways Employees’
Board of Adjustment No. 2, was organized on September 1, 1925,
by agreement between the Canadian National Railways and its clerks,
station, baggage-room, and freight-shed employees, roundhouse,
shop, and stores laborers (members of the Canadian Brotherhood
of Railway Employees), for the purpose of disposing of grievances
or disputes which might arise respecting the application, nonappli
cation, or interpretation of agreements as to wages or working condi
tions. All disputes arising out of proposed changes in rates of
pay, rules, or working conditions are specifically excluded from the
jurisdiction of the board. The board is composed of eight members,
four of whom are selected by the railway management and four
by the employees concerned. A majority vote of the full board is
necessary for a decision, which is binding upon the parties; if no
decision is reached, provision is made for the appointment of an
arbitrator. The agreement is effective until canceled by 30 days’
notice given at any time by either party to the other. In November,
1925, the scope of the board was enlarged to include additional
classes, namely, dining, sleeping, and parlor car employees.
An agreement between the Railway Association of Canada and
Division No. 4, Railway Employees’ Department of the American
Federation of Labor, governing rates of pay and rules of service
for crafts in the locomotive and car departments of various Canadian
railways, contains a provision that all grievances and disputes which
can not be adjusted directly by the railway officials and the em
ployees’ representatives shall be jointly submitted in writing to the
Railway Association of Canada and to Division No. 4, Railway
Employees’ Department, American Federation of Labor, 44for ad
judication or final disposition.” This arrangement has been in oper
ation for several years.
The railways and employees participating in the above-mentioned
agreement are not exempted from the operation of the industrial
disputes investigation act, but, since all the disputes going before
these voluntary agencies for adjustment are settled, comparatively
few disputes affecting the railway labor classes are now referred
under the terms of this statute.
Twenty-three Years’ Operation
The industrial disputes investigation act, as previously mentioned,
became law on March 22, 1907, and had therefore been in operation
for 23 years at the close of the fiscal year 1929-30.
During this period applications under its terms reached the total
of 730. Boards of conciliation and investigation were granted in
500 cases, leaving 230 disputes which were either settled by other
efforts than those of a board of conciliation and investigation or in
which it was found that the machinery of the statute could not be
AGE AND EMPLOYABILITY— B. C. SEIPLE
107
utilized. Of the above-mentioned 500 disputes, in each of which it
had been declared on oath that a strike or lockout was believed to
be impending, a cessation of work was averted or ended in all save
38 cases. The number of applications for boards in the fiscal year
above mentioned was 24; of these, 15 were granted and in each case
a strike was averted.
The Province of Alberta has a labor disputes act which provides
for boards of investigation and conciliation in labor disputes within
the legislative jurisdiction of the Province and which are not covered
by the provisions of the Federal industrial disputes investigation
act. The appointment of boards of conciliation, constitution, pro
cedure, functions, powers, etc., of boards are somewhat similar to
those appointed under the Federal statute.
In Ontario there is a trades dispute act, designed to prevent inter
ruption in industry, and which provides for mediation in labor dis
putes by a Government official and also for (1) councils of concilia
tion and (2) councils of arbitration, to which the parties to a dispute
agree to have the matter submitted.
In Quebec there is also an act similar in its provisions to the
Ontario statute, which, however, does not include municipal em
ployees. For this class of workers there is a special law, the pro
visions of which prohibit strikes or lockouts until the matters in
dispute have been submitted to a board of arbitration.
Age and Employability
By B. C.
S e ip l e ,
Commissioner o f Employment, Cleveland, Ohio
You have listened to many able addresses on various phases of in
dustrial problems, such as safety, sanitation, compensation, etc., all
of which have related directly to safeguarding and protecting those
who have employment. It seems very fitting, therefore, that this
concluding session should be devoted to a thought for those who are
unemployed.
The question of “ age and employability ” is really only a by-prod
uct of the general problem of unemployment. I am, therefore, going
to summarize briefly the unemployment problem in order to show the
proper relationship to my subject.
The Unemployment Problem
The problem of recurrent periods of unemployment, and partic
ularly the present problem, is the most important and serious ques
tion confronting our Nation and the world to-day. The tariff, the
world court, the peace conference, flood control, farm relief, and all
other major problems pale into insignificance when compared with
this unemployment problem which strikes directly at the heart of
our economic, social, and moral life. No one is immune. The cost
of unemployment affects every individual and is therefore vital
to our own personal happiness and prosperity.
Periodic Unemployment
Records of the past 50 years show that serious depressions have
occurred with almost constant regularity, on an average of every
108
17TH ANNUAL MEETING OF A. G. O. I.
three and one-half years. At such times people were generally
much concerned, many addresses were delivered, magazine articles
were written, and some more or less indefinite plans for immediate
relief were worked out. However, we gradually came to look upon
these periods of unemployment as “ necessary evils 55 which must be
endured. For the most part, recovery from these periods of de
pression was more or less complete and in the course of a few months
every one was again employed and thus enabled to pay off old
debts and accumulate some reserve with which to meet future
depressions.
Seasonal Unemployment
The periodic unemployment which I have just referred to was
bad enough and brought forth plenty of actual suffering among
certain .classes of our citizens, but for the past eight or nine years
we have been confronted with a new’ phase of this problem, that of
“ seasonal unemployment.”
You will recall that President Harding was elected on the slogan of
“ back to normalcy.” General industry, in accordance with this
slogan, attempted to go “ back to normalcy,” which meant to the
general industrial set-up prevailing prior to the opening of the
World War in 1914. At that time industry was generally engaged
in manufacturing a standard product and therefore operated with
a quite steady force of employees, filling orders as they were avail
able and at other times storing the manufactured product on their
warehouse shelves for future delivery as demand required. This, of
course, meant steady employment for practically all of their em
ployees. Under this slogan “ back to normalcy ” industry attempted
to do the same thing in 1923 in spite of the warning of our Federal
Reserve Board and other large financial organizations, the result
being that during the first six months of 1923 more products were
manufactured than there was immediate demand for, the excess be
ing stored away in anticipation of future requirement.
Industrial leaders had not given proper consideration to the rapid
changes, the newer inventions, and the ever-changing requirements
of the general public. The result was that by the time the demand
came for the product stored on the warehouse shelves, it was often
found to be obsolete and had to be either remachined or entirely
scrapped.
The loss to industry was tremendous and from this experience
the standard product passed almost entirely out of existence. Since
that time we have been producing on the “ piecemeal ” basis; when
orders are received a large force is employed and these orders are
filled and delivered as quickly as possible. When orders decrease,
the working forces are promptly reduced until further orders are
received.
What has this meant to the workingman? Instead of one steady
job lasting throughout the year or longer, the workingman has been
constantly faced with the problem of seeking a new connection every
few weeks or months. It is not unusual for a skilled mechanic to
work in eight or nine different plants in the course of a year. There
is always loss of time, the result being that the average workingman
to-day is able to be employed not more than 10y2 months out of 12,
even in times of high production.
AGE AND EMPLOYABILITY----B. G. SEIPLE
109
I think you will agree that it is a thrifty workman who will be
able to save 10 per cent of his earnings at prevailing wages. Let us
calculate for a moment. A man who saves 10 per cent of his monthly
earnings over a period of nine months will spend all of his nine
months’ savings if unemployed for one month on the same basis of
living. This leaves no reserve with which to meet emergencies or
depressions. Under seasonal unemployment therefore, when depres
sions come, the workmen thrown out of employment are almost
immediately forced to ask for some form of material assistance.
With no reserve and practically no credit, their situation becomes
immediately serious and each recurrent depression finds them less
able to carry on until better times arrive.
It has been estimated on very good authority that if all the pro
ductive forces of this Nation, both man power and machinery, were
steadily in operation for 9 months, we could produce all we could
consume or sell under present conditions in 12 months. If this be
true, it simply means that over a given period, either one-fourth of
our forces must be idle all the time or all our forces inactive onefourth of the time.
Chronic Unemployment
For the past five years it has been increasingly apparent that we
do not need all of our available man power to meet the required
amount of production. We therefore have drifted slowly but surely
into chronic unemployment. During the earlier months of 1923
there was an actual shortage of all classes of labor and we found
employers competing with each other for even common or unskilled
help. In 1925 and 192G this country produced considerably more
than in 1923, and yet there was at no time a shortage of semiskilled
and unskilled labor.
During the first nine months of 1929, this Nation produced more
product than in any equal period in the Nation’s history. Yet, dur
ing all of that nine months’ period there was an excess of semiskilled
and common labor available, proving conclusively that we are now
able to produce an ever-increasing quantity of product with a con
stantly decreasing number of human hands engaged. The steady job
has almost entirely passed out of existence as far as the laboring
man is concerned. His purchasing power has been reduced accord
ingly, and this in turn was bound to be reflected in the quantity of
product consumed.
Unemployment Index Rising
All available indexes of employment or unemployment for the past
10 or 15 year period show that the ratio of employment has not kept
pace with increasing production. With each passing year it is more
and more difficult for a displaced workman to find other immediate
employment.
Contributing Factors in Unemployment
There are a number of direct factors in this unemployment prob
lem of to-day of which I should like to mention three: (1) Laborsaving machinery; (2) greater efficiency in management; and (3)
amalgamations and consolidations.
110
17TH ANNUAL MEETING OF A. G. 0. I.
The first two can be considered jointly. Greater efficiency in man
agement has led to an increased introduction of labor-saving de
vices. We are prone to think of labor-saving machinery as
confined largely to the factories and workshops. This is not true.
Labor-saving devices are in the home, making it possible for the
housewife with the assistance of such devices, either to do all her
own work or to greatly reduce the amount of domestic help formerly
required; thus the demand for domestic help has been reduced ap
proximately 50 per cent. Labor-saving machines are in the offices,
where the bookkeeping machine, the billing machine, the comptom
eter, the addressograph, the electric multigraph and mimeograph,
and dozens of other devices have reduced the demand for office work
ers by approximately 40 per cent. Labor-saving machinery is in the
mines, and has contributed largely to our difficulties and disagree
ments in that industry. Similarly, machines are on the farm, mak
ing it possible for one man with the assistance of highly developed
machinery to cultivate two or three times as much land as he could
15 years ago.
May I give just one general illustration of the really alarming
magnitude of this displacement of man power? A prominent in
dustrial plant in a city near Cleveland employed a maximum of
35,000 in 1919. Seven years later, in 1926, this same plant produced
8 per cent more product with a maximum of 19,000 employees, largely
through the installation of automatic conveyors and other laborsaving devices. There are dozens of illustrations which I might give
of the displacement of men by machinery, but I am certain this is
not necessary to convince those who are assembled here.
The Rise of the Automobile Industry
I am certain that some of you are wondering why we are only now
beginning to realize the seriousness of this displacement of men.
The answer? in my estimation, can be found in the rapid rise of the
automobile industry. In 1895, on the outskirts of the city of Boston,
the first endurance contest for automobiles was held. Twenty-five
automobiles were entered in this contest and they were to endeavor
to run what was then considered the almost impossible distance of
25 miles. People gathered from far and near to see this contest
and we can imagine the bystanders along the road saying something
like this, “ it can’t be done ” or “ them fool contraptions can never
take the place of old Dobbin and the buggy,” and yet, 2 of those
25 entries did complete the course, while the other 23 broke down
somewhere along the way. Again we can imagine the incredulous
spectator saying, “ well they did it, but they will never amount to
anything.”
Since that day the people of this Nation have spent $68,000,000,000
just to purchase those “ fool contraptions ” which were “ not going
to amount to anything.” Can you imagine the additional billions of
dollars expended for the upkeep and servicing of those automobiles ?
Can you imagine further, the money which has been required to build
a system of roads making it possible for us to travel from the far
reaches of Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, and from the Atlantic to
the Pacific without getting off a hard surfaced road ? When we add
AGE AND EMPLOYABILITY----B. C. SEIPLE
111
to this the thousands of garages and service stations, the great sys
tem of modern hotels and lodging places, even the millions of “hotdog ” and “ pop ” stands, we are not surprised that 200,000 persons
were able to leave the farms for the city in 1928 or that 1,600,000
persons should have deserted the farms during the past five years.
In 35 years the automobile industry has grown to take its place
among the three leading industries of America. Other major in
dustries have taken hundreds of years for their development. We
were not alarmed by the displacement of a few hundred or even of a
few thousand men by labor-saving machinery because, for the most
part, they were readily absorbed by this rapidly developing industry
or in other lines directly connected with it. However, we must now
face the certainty that even this industry can not go on indefinitely
expanding. It is my personal opinion that the automobile industry
has already passed the saturation point. If it has not already done
so, it will reach that point just as soon as we have completed the
motorization of land transportation vehicles.
The best figures available for 1929 indicate that between 80 and 85
per cent of all motor vehicles sold during that year were sold to
people who had already owned such a vehicle. The industry there
fore is now largely devoted to replacement and it is not at all sur
prising that we find this industry somewhat demoralized or that the
effect is being shown in increasing unemployment, limited purchasing power, lower consumption, and reduced production in all lines
By-Products of Unemployment
The most serious by-product of unemployment is seen in “ the
plight of the aging worker.” As fewer men have been needed to
produce a given product in a given time, the employer has been able
to use greater discrimination as to whom he shall employ. Un
fortunately this discrimination has been directed largely against the
man who has passed middle age, and right here and now, with all
the vigor at my command, I want to say that this is a most unjust
discrimination. It seems almost criminal to me that anyone should
be refused employment simply because he has committed the “ un
pardonable sin ” of living beyond the age of 40 or 45 years. I do
not believe there is any justification in determining age simply by
the number of years a man has lived. Some men are old at 30, other
men are young at 55 or 60. Health, happiness, experience, train
ing, loyalty, all are forgotten if you are over 40.
May I recite one instance which is indelibly stamped on my mind ?
A few months ago I happened to be standing by the skilled-help
desk in our employment office in Cleveland. I observed a man
approach the desk with some hesitancy, although there was about
him an air of confidence in himself. He was a splendid type, vigor
ous, square shouldered, with a direct gaze. His whole attitude was
one of certainty as to his own ability. The following conversa
tion ensued between him and our placement clerk:
“ Is this the place where you get a job? ”
“ Yes; this is the employment office.”
“ I want a job as a millwright.”
“Are you an experienced millwright? ”
“ Yes, sir.”
112
17 T H ANNUAL MEETING OF A. G. 0 . I.
“ Do you have a full set of tools? ”
“ Yes, sir”
“ Do you live in Cleveland? ”
“AH my life.”
“ Where have you worked? ”
. At this point the man enumerated several places and the place
ment clerk continued:
“You are rather fortunate; I haven’t had many millwright jobs
lately but I have one to-day which I believe you will fit on. Have
you ever been here before? ”
“ No, sir; I have never had to look for a job much.”
“ Will you please fill out this card and bring it back to me and
I will send you out? ”
Some little time later the man returned to the desk and demon
strated that he “ had not been looking for a job much.” If he had
been accustomed to doing so, he would never have given his age
as 46; he would have learned* to lie a bit. The placement clerk
glanced at his card and then at me and finally said—
“ I am sorry but I guess I can not send you out on this job after
all.”
“ W h y?”
“ Because this firm does not hire anyone over 45 and you would
just be wasting your time and carfare.*
A look of blank amazement passed over the man’s face, and he
finally stammered——
“ You mean—I am too old? ”
“ No, I would not say you are ‘ too old,’ but it just happens that
this firm won’t hire anyone over 45.”
The man started to expostulate but finally turned and walked
out.
Ladies and gentlemen, I am saying to you that a real tragedy was
committed in those few moments. The man who walked into that
office was not the same man when he walked out again. For the first
time in his life and long before it should have been necessary, he
was made to feel that he was getting old. Should he live to be 100
he will never forget. He will never again approach anyone with
the same confidence. He will never be able to sell himself in the
same way.
So much I actually saw and heard, but I can imagine him going
home and shuffling in at the door, where his wife immediately detects
that something has happened. I can even imagine the following
conversation:
“ Why, John, what’s the matter? ”
“ Oh f Mary, I guess I am getting old.”
. “ Why, John, don’t be silly; what has happened? ”
“ I am top old; they won’t hire me any more.”
I can even imagine, after a silent dinner, John sitting by the fire
place, with his unread paper before him, staring blankly into the
future. I can imagine his wife’s approach in silent sympathy and
hear him say—
“ Mary, I guess I don’t amount to much. When we were married
I intended to do big things but we have been so happy getting along
together and watching the children grow up, that I haven’t thought
AGE AND EMPLOYABILITY— B. C. SEIPLE
113
much about saving a lot for our future. Now I am getting old and
they don’t want me any more.”
I hesitate to follow the picture further. I will leave it to your
imagination to visualize the change in that home, the different atmos
phere, the absence of that fullness of happiness which only assur
ance of ability to make an honest living can bring forth.
Before me I see a number of men and women whom I have known
for several years at least, who are past the age of 45. Do you believe
for one moment that you have passed the age of efficiency? I see
others before me like myself, who are getting too near this dead
line for actual comfort. Do you believe that once you have reached
this age, you should be placed on the shelf and labeled, “ Of no
further constructive value? ” I certainly do not, and this question
of “ age and employability ” therefore directly concerns you and me
and every one, everywhere. The greatest constructive programs of
the ages, the greatest inventions, the most instructive literary master
pieces, the most wonderful developments in science and art, have been
contributed largely by men and women of mature years and seasoned
judgment. Then why should we deny those opportunities to our
iellow men in machine shop or factory ?
The Age Hazard in Industry
One of the chief arguments in the refusal to employ persons past
middle age is that they are not so keen of eye, so nimble of finger,
or so quick of foot as the younger workers, and therefore become
a greater hazard to the employer under workmen’s compensation
insurance. In the first place I do not believe this is true, at least
not before 55 years of age. How many of you will deny that when
you were in your early twenties you confidently intended to “ set
the world on fire.” You were going to be different. You were not
going to be content with small things. You were going to build
up a fortune quickly and then, possibly, travel and see the world.
The job you were forced to accept during those years, in your esti
mation, was far beneath you. You didirt prize it highly; in fact,
it was something that was holding you down and you were just
tarrying in this menial position until you were ready “ to apply the
match to this old universe.” But as years sped by and you ap
proached the 40-year mark and saw your children growing up
about you, you found that you probably were not going to be so
“ different ” after all, that you would probably live much as your
parents, relatives, and neighbors had lived before you. You then
began transferring your ambitions to your sons and daughters. You
made the firm resolve that “ they shall be different.” They must
have a “ better ” education, different environment, and more oppor
tunities than you had.
How can all this be secured for them? Only through your job.
Immediately that job takes on new significance and you want to
hold it. You are more careful and conscientious, you are more loyal
to your employer and show a greater appreciation. You also by
this time have become more stable. You are not running around
every night until the wee small hours of the morning. You are more
content to stay home, read your paper, listen to the radio, and go to
114
17 T H ANNUAL MEETING OF A. G. 0 . 1.
bed early for a full night’s rest. As a result you are back on the
job the next morning on time, keenly alive, with a clear mind and
a steady hand. Do you mean to tell me that this man with his
experience, his consciousness of what the job means to him, his
clear mind and refreshed body, is likely to be more subject to
injury than the young fellow in his twenties or early thirties, who
has not this same incentive, the same experience, and the same keen
ness of body and mind ? I do not believe so.
But should it be true that there is a greater hazard (and this can
be obtained from our compensation records), then there is a solu
tion. Our State laws have provided relief for employers who hire
a man physically handicapped. If a one-armed man loses the other
arm in the course of his employment, the employer is not charged
with a total disability. He is charged only with the loss of the
member sustained while in his employ. From a contingent fund
charged against all employers, the State makes up the balance of the
total disability. If this can be done in cases of physical handicap,
it can also be done in cases where there is an age handicap, should
such facts be established.
Other By-Products of Unemployment
If you will permit me I would like to speak briefly of some other
by-products ot chronic unemployment. For the past 10 years at
least, the engineeering minds of this country have been devoted largely
to increasing production and reducing production costs, and those
minds have truly wrought wonders. The latest development in this
direction is seen in the change from the “ capitalistic age ” to the
“ corporation era.” We can scarcely pick up a paper to-day which
does not tell of some merger, consolidation, or amalgamation of
smaller organizations into one large unit or corporation. This con
dition is binging home to the white-collar man and the executive
the problem of unemployment, which has previously been confined
mostly to the laborer or mechanic.
If five smaller businesses consolidate, we do not need five purchas
ing agents, office managers, general superintendents, etc. The main
office, with the assistance of mediocre clerks or assistants, will func
tion nicely. The result is that to-day there are more highly trained,
competent executives walking the streets of our large cities, seeking
suitable connections, than has ever been the case before.
All of this leads to another by-product of unemployment which I
have termed on my notes 46the specter of unemployment.” We see
all about us relatives, friends, and neighbors who have been suddenly
displaced from good positions which they fully expected to hold for
many years to come. In consequence we are confronted with the
constant fear that we may be next to fall. This fear hangs over
our heads day and night, month after month, as a “ sword of
Damocles ” suspended by a silken cord which any breath may break.
With our consciousness that we are unable to stop the wheels of
time and that year by year we are approaching nearer and nearer
to that middle-age dead line, we are called upon through this specter
of unemployment to endure a certain agony of uncertainty which is
almost beyond our power of imagination to estimate. I am certain
that you are aware of the fact that a dozen men or women are stand
AGE AND EMPLOYABILITY— B. C. SEIPLE
115
ing immediately behind you, with abilities equal to your own, only
awaiting an opportunity to step into your shoes.
What is this ghost of unemployment doing to us as a Nation? In
my estimation it is making a Nation of cowards of us. We are
afraid to say what we think about anything for fear that some one
will take offense and we will lose our jobs in consequence. I frankly
admit that I am almost afraid to stand before you to-day and speak
thus openly for fear that some one back in Cleveland may learn of
my utterances and decide that I am speaking too freely. This is
not a healthy condition of mind and I do not believe it is conducive
to the best interests of a free country such as we like to consider
America to be.
No Argument Against Labor-Saving Machinery
Some moments ago I referred at some length to the displacement
of men by machinery. Lest you misunderstand me, I wish to em
phasize that this is no argument against the introduction of tech
nological devices. Through the ages man has been endeavoring to
eliminate human drudgery and we have marked our progress in civ
ilization largely by our ability to do so. Certainly I do not wish
to go back into a muddy trench to stand in water up to my knees
all day long at the risk of my health, and I do not believe that you
would want to do so, particularly not when we have machines to
do this human drudgery faster and better.
It is hard for us to estimate the value of labor-saving devices in
our everyday life. High-production machinery has made it possi
ble for us to have conveniences which we could have enjoyed in no
other way. The office girl in the building across the street has at
her finger tips every hour of the day conveniences of which Mary,
Queen of Scots, in her castle, could not even dream, and the ordi
nary laborer through the medium of high-production methods has
at his command protections in health and happiness which the kings
of old were entirely unable to imagine. We therefore would not de
sire, even were it possible, to attempt to turn the wheels of progress
backward. What we must attempt to do is to provide constantly
and consistently for readjustment to these ever-changing conditions.
Attempted Solution for Unemployment
Through these many years of periodic, seasonal, and even chronic
unemployment we have developed in this country no serious and
earnest attempt to solve this problem, which has been aptly termed
“ the greatest economic waste in the world.” In looking over our
attempts to relieve unemployment I find only two which have been
more or less definite. We have established a rather incomplete sys
tem of public employment offices and we have tried to apply a “ hit
or miss ” policy of local charity in times when immediate relief was
imperative. Public employment offices have their place and are
rendering a very valuable service which should be extended. How
ever, no system of employment offices will ever eliminate serious un
employment depressions. You can place an employment office on
every street corner, but if there are no jobs to distribute these offices
accomplish very little.
116
17 T H ANNUAL MEETING OF A. G. 0 . I.
Charity, in my estimation, is equally futile as a solution for un
employment. At best it can be only a temporary relief, salving oyer
the wounds which will eventually break forth again with increasing
virulence. A man who is willing and able to work should never be
forced to accept charity in lieu of employment. By doing so we
take from him that spark of independence which should be his
birthright in a free nation such as ours. If he is forced to accept
charity on several different occasions, we have simply created a de
pendent whose morale has been broken down and who will hence
forth be willing to depend upon society for a living. No system of
charity or doles will ever prove a solution for general unemploy
ment. A biblical quotation, “ if his son ask bread, will he give him
a stone ? ” might well be translated, “ if a man ask work, shall we
give him a dole?”
Unemployment an Affliction
Unemployment is really an affliction which first affects the men
tality of its victim and if long continued, through privation, insuffi
cient food, lack of clothing and home conveniences, attacks the
physical body also. We might well compare an unemployment de
pression to an influenza epidemic. Health officials agree that the
influenza germ causes more deaths than any other germ known to
medical science, and yet influenza directly takes but few lives. Its
sinister influence is felt in its weakening and demoralizing effect
upon the system, which renders the body incapable of successfully
combating other diseases.
I was amazed some weeks ago to hear a prominent industrialist
of our city say regarding unemployment, nothing can be done
about it, it can only be corrected by the law of supply and demand.”
I certainly do not agree with this statement. We do not treat an
influenza epidemic in that way. On the contrary we immediately
attack it with all the vigor at our command. The best scientific
minds are called upon to cope with such an affliction and we do not
cease fighting with the passing of an immediate epidemic. No, in
deed, we continue through scientific research to endeavor to isolate
the influenza germ and to discover means for counteracting its effect.
In this way we attempt to avoid a recurrence or at least to modify its
seriousness. We do not say of influenza “ nothing can be done about
it, it will eliminate itself with the coming of hot summer weather,”
although this seems to me quite as logical as waiting for the “ law
of supply and demand ” to terminate an epidemic of unemployment.
In this country we are extremely proud of what we term our
“ Yankee ingenuity,” and I believe quite justly so. It is this in
genuity and our widespread system of public education which has
made it possible for our American workman to produce twice as
much as an Englishman, 7 times as much as a Frenchman, and 25
times as much as a Chinaman. Then why, I ask you, should we
hesitate, at least to attempt to apply some of this boasted ingenuity
to a solution of our problem of unemployment ?
A National Problem
This problem of unemployment directly or indirectly affects every
one and is therefore an individual problem. It is also distinctly a
AGE AND EMPLOYABILITY-— B. C. SEIPLE
117
local problem but, in my estimation, it is primarily more a national
problem. Certainly no community can adequately cope with a gen
eral problem of unemployment. Each community hesitates to ad
vertise its predicament. Therefore it is necessary for the Federal
Government vigorously, scientifically, and consistently to study our
problem of employment and unemployment in order that we may
fully understand the problem itself. So far, nothing has been done
in this direction and probably no action will be seriously undertaken
by our Federal Government until sufficient pressure is brought to
bear from our local communities, to which our Senators and Con
gressmen look for instruction.
We have no right to say, “ nothing can be done about i t 55 until we
have really tried. Certainly prosperity for the few at the expense
of the many can not long maintain and when money which would
ordinarily be used in the consumption of product is directed out of
the hands of the masses and into the hands of those who already have
all that they could possibly consume, we are heading toward indus
trial depression. Such was the outcome of rabid speculation in the
stock market for the past few years, which resulted in the crisis of
last November.
Our problem, possibly, is not so much “ overproduction ” as “under
consumption.” There are millions of people in this country who
can think of many conveniences which they should like to purchase
were they financially in a position to do so. As long as this is true
we can not overproduce. Our task is to provide ways and means to
satisfy the desire for increased consumption. For the past 20 years
we have been increasing production facilities without giving due
attention to increasing our consumption ability so as to keep pace.
It now seems time to direct our engineering minds toward increasing
consumption.
It would not be surprising if within the next five years a new term
becomes common in industry, that of “ profit engineering.” Such
engineers would endeavor to determine how much of the profits of
industry it is wise and really profitable to withdraw and how much
of this profit it would be better to return to the consuming classes
who, through their increased purchasing power, would thus be enabled
to maintain production.
The Federal Government in years past has not hesitated to ap
propriate large sums of money to drive the boll weevil from the
cotton belt, to stamp out the hog cholera in Iow~a and Illinois, and to
eliminate the Spanish fly from the wheat regions. More recently
Federal funds have been spent freely to stop your car and mine on
the public highway^ to see if we were transporting a few ears of
sweet corn which might thus give spread to the corn borer. Surely
if Federal funds are available for such worthy but less general pur
poses, they should be available to protect the prosperity, happiness,
and the actual lives of our citizens who are periodically afflicted with
unemployment.
A National Employment Board
Some months ago, through my personal knowledge of the terrors
of unemployment as seen in the course of my daily work, I made
bold to offer a Member of Congress from my State, a plan for a na
tional employment board whose general function would be “ to an
118
17TH ANNUAL MEETING OF A. G. O. I.
ticipate and prevent extreme peaks of unemployment.” In this plan
I outlined 10 specific functions which I thought would form a nu
cleus providing plenty of necessary work warranting the continuous
operation of such a board. This plan is receiving some really serious
attention and may yet be of some help in forming a real Federal
program.
For 50 years or more this Nation suffered from repeated financial
panics and these panics seemed uncontrollable under our State bankReserve Board we have been able to prevent further panics. If such
a board has been successful in our financial difficulties isn’t it possible
ing regulations. However, with the establishment of the Federal
that a similar board could do likewise regarding our unemployment
depressions ?
Conclusions
In concluding this address, I wish to thank you collectively and
individually for the attention you have given. It has been at some
personal sacrifice that I have been able to be with you this morn
ing. However, I am amply repaid in noting your very evident inter
est in what I will repeat again is the most serious economic, social,
and moral problem confronting society at this time. I sincerely hope
that you have been sufficiently interested to want to return to your
several States and Provinces and spread the program of education
which is so necessary if we are to cope successfully with this problem.
The first and most important task before us is to break through
the general feeling of apathy on this subject and to emphasize the
need of individual responsibility. Individual effort is required. We
must convince people in our respective communities that they can
not meet their obligations in this connection, or more than salve their
consciences, by throwing a few pennies or even a few dollars in the
general direction of a community fund for the relief of their unem
ployed neighbors. Should we continue to do only this, we will be
fooling no one but ourselves, and we must not be surprised if the
general reaction is not pleasant. We still have an obligation as
man to man and the common fellowship of man must not be forgot
ten. The golden rule is still the best rule; we are “ our brother’s
keeper.”
Labor Camps
By
R
u ssell
J.
E l d k id g e ,
State Director of Employment of New Jersey
A labor camp is supposedly predicated on a shortage of local
labor, necessitating importation from centers with an over
supply. Too often it is found that distasteful work or below-par
wage rates are the motivating factor of labor-camp concessions by
employers. Rates 20 per cent below local standards are common
there.. To the concessionaire the profit lies primarily in the price
charged for board and lodging, not to speak of the sales of commis
sary merchandise and the profit on transportation by automobile
truck, assessed at railroad rates. The control of employment oppor
tunities is only incidental to this profit but is a necessary preliminary,
as the employer is interested primarily in a full and cheap labor sup
ply and the commissary agent in a boarding-house profit. No agent
LABOR CAMPS----RUSSELL J. ELDRIDGE
119
would consent to operate unless his charges were guaranteed by deduc
tion from the first wages earned.
A laborer or a mechanic signing up for a camp shipment custom
arily signs an agreement that from his first wages there shall be
deducted the fee of the employment agency, the cost of transporta
tion, the cost of board and lodging, and any purchases he may make
at the camp store. Frequently he posts his meager baggage as
security for the charges of the first pay period.
What does he face when he signs up? He takes the statement of
the employment agents at face value and puts himself in their hands.
He is shipped 50 or 150 miles into strange territory. He has no
funds to return to civilization and no prospect of any until he has
worked two weeks, when he receives the balance of his wages after
deducting a fee, usually $3 to $10, transportation costing $2 to $11,
board of $9 or $10, and cost of incidentals. He has no recourse but
to go out with the gang for two weeks, but almost invariably he de
cides on pay day that he will move on.
In discussions of the advisability of including all labor camps under
the employment agency law supervision, the idea has been presented
that camp operation results in a low turnover because this is necessary
to maintain the boarding-house income, whereas the straight fee
employment agency presumably can profit by a high turnover with
repeated fees. My experience has been that labor camp turnover is
very much greater than industrial turnover. Actual contact with
camp conditions induces the belief that it is so profitable to shave the
corners on expense of cleanliness, of adequate food supply, housing,
and sanitation, that it is cheaper to permit men to leave rapidly than
to induce them to stay under decent conditions. In other words, a
frequent change of personnel is less likely to produce complaint to
competent authority regarding physical conditions, and of course
each new shipment permits a new fee and profit on private trans
portation facilities.
There is keen competition for labor-camp concessions. It is the
most profitable phase of employment-agency activity. Conditions
in it approach the evil affecting the hotel and restaurant industry—
graft in the control of jobs. Commissary agents have told me that
in the past the profits were great, but that now employed repre
sentatives demand so large a price on the pay roll as to imperil
profits. It is felt that it is because of the great profits that employers
no longer erect camp structures and provide kitchen and sleeping
equipment but demand that the agents supply all these. It is said
that depreciation of equipment approaches 75 per cent per year and
the percentage of profit is declining. You can be sure that with such
pressure the laborer is not exactly benefited but must still pay all
that the traffic will bear.
It has been generally agreed that the old padrone system is injurious.
The average commissary camp comes so close to the padrone system
that one wonders why such camps are not more generally covered by
employment-agency laws, with adequate supervision of both the
employment feature and the living conditions.
In New Jersey the law confers the commissary privilege in return
for the promise to provide or supply help. This control of employ
ment regardless of the source of profit is deemed sufficient to warrant
14886°—30------ 9
120
17 T H ANNUAL MEETING OF A. G. O. I.
State regulation. It has been almost the universal experience that
the average man can not be trusted to act as his brother’s keeper; at
least not when dollars and cents are concerned and when he is in
unmolested control. This applies to prison camps, padrones in the
fields and farms, and construction camps within almost a stone’s
throw of our great cities.
Unconcern and a more ugly feature—graft—have in many cases
prevented full application of the humanitarian viewpoint or even the
minimum of existing health codes. Too often health bodies are
more interested in strictly professional subjects and have failed to
build proper safeguards around mass housing. It is my confirmed
belief that labor departments, primarily, face the responsibility of
regulating camp conditions and protecting the interests of transient
workers just as they have been compelled to come to the front in
agitation to protect migrant child workers, although in the latter
case education and health conditions are certainly as seriously
involved as are working conditions. In this I am more than con
firmed by the thought of the worker involved who invariably looks
to the labor department for protection while on the job; and in the
case of the isolated camps the control of job conditions extends to
the living and all other details. Anyone living in and working out
of a camp is under autocratic authority if there is no intervention.
Evils of the Labor Camp
My first experience with a labor camp resulted from several appeals
to our wage claim division by men who had been brought 125 miles
from home and, after working two weeks, had only a few dollars
offered to them as balance of wages. Investigation disclosed condi
tions typical of unrestrained camp operation. The railroad fare for
that distance was $7, but the worker was charged $11. An old barn
having but one door was used to accommodate 90 men. Double
deck iron cots were used and the bedding was apparently never
disturbed, as the stench was terrible. With only one exit, no electric
lights, and the unregulated crowding of cots, any fire outbreak
would have been a holocaust. No wash or laundry house was pro
vided, and the kitchen was in the open, having a makeshift roof and
no sides. The pump was near by, and the whole arrangement was
in a deep hollow, receiving all the drainage from a near-by road.
The dining room was in the basement of the bam and was the only
room provided with screening. Toilet facilities were entirely lacking.
In this case the State board of health insisted that, as it had an in
sufficient force of inspectors, the local board had the duty of enforc
ing the State code. There was no local board to amount to anything,
and the State code covered only pollution of potable water and pro
tection of privies from flies. We insisted that the camp authorities
obtain an employment-agency license, reduce the transportation
charge, and apply our lay idea of housing and sanitary requirements.
Another typical camp was found to consist of two frame dwelling
houses of four and five rooms, respectively. One, used as the bunk
house, where a family of five probably had lived, now housed 26 men,
with double cots for 40. A typical bedroom 8 by 8 feet with an 8foot ceiling, gave a total of 512 cubic feet. Four double bunks per
mitted 44 cubic feet per sleeper. (The tenement-house law sets a
LABOR CAMPS----RUSSELL J, ELDRIDGE
121
minimum of 400 cubic feet and the factory law the same.) The one
stairway to the second floor, with kerosene lamps and no pails of
water or extinguishers, could scarcely be considered adequate fire
protection. There were no washhouse or laundry facilities except
a galvanized tub over an open wood fire in the yard. The outdoor
toilets or latrines were in violation of State health codes as to fly
protection, water-tight vaults, and proximity to drinking supplies.
The other house contained the kitchen, store room, dining room, and
quarters for the camp flunkies. While clean, a compliment to the
cook rather than to the proprietor, the ice chest was the small one of
the original family of five and could not possibly preserve the perish
able food for this group of 26 for two days, much less the period of
one week required for a visit of the proprietors’ supply truck from
the home center 200 miles away.
The local community seldom gains anything from a labor camp.
The citizens are deprived of employment possibilities, although these
are usually below par as to wages. The local merchants sell no food
or supplies to the camp proprietor and no luxuries to the residents of
the camp, for the commissary store takes care of such luxuries and
clothing as a profitable side line. Only the bootlegger and possibly
the employer profit. New York State reports instances in which
two drinks per day were charged to each man whether he used them
or not. Whether the employer really profits in many cases is a de
batable question, as cheap and rapidly changing labor is usually very
expensive labor.
These remarks result mainly from experience with railroad, high
way, and general construction labor camps. The approximately 45
camps, with from 50 to 150 men in each, handle possibly 3,000 men
in a season; but with the semimonthly turnover this number is greatly
increased by the end of the season. In the camps of the canneries
and the berry and farm regions most of the evils of the construction
camp may exist, for the same reasons. In New York and Pennsyl
vania the inspection by the commissioner of housing for workers of
any kind supplied to the employer, whether a commissary agent is
involved or not, is permitted. In Pennsylvania there is a definite
code of physical requirements for the commissary camp. California
has developed such a control, and, significantly, it is the labor depart
ment in each case which has accepted supervision or, if you please,
leadership and responsibility. Investigation of the food in camps
apparently has not been embraced in these codes.
The labor camp is closely analogous to the traveling circus in the
cost to the community and the trail of evils left behind. We tax the
circus the most heavily of all businesses for the privilege of operating.
Why should we not tax— and control— the labor camp? Like the
circus it takes from the community and gives little or nothing in
return. Possible thefts, disease epidemics, moral delinquencies, and
loss of local trade can be expected from the unregulated labor camp
just as much as from any circus or carnival.
Problems of Regulation and Control
Regulation apparently should embrace all the customary features
of the employment agency, plus supervision of cost and quality of
board and lodging. The control of employment by the camp imme
122
17TH ANNUAL MEETING OF A. G. 0. I.
diately introduces all the possibilities of evil charged to the unscru
pulous employment agent, which is almost synonymous with the
unregulated employment agent. To license from the employment
standpoint is to introduce the labor department as the only public
agency represented, and in public opinion delinquencies as to health,
sanitation, food, and drink would be laid at the door of that depart
ment. In self-defense it apparently behooves the labor department
to regulate all the features of such a camp. In New Jersey we have
been forced to prepare a code of housing and sanitation going beyond
even our State health code. In this we are supported by the co
operation of at least two of our trunk-line railroads, which have
taken over the management of their labor camps. They report that
they are able to provide better food and bedding and greater clean
liness by an increase of 100 per cent in camp assistants and medical
examination of these men. They report they have greatly reduced
the previous labor turnover and are able to operate at better than a
cost basis.
Our problem has been complicated because of the location of the
employment agency or labor source outside the State. While our
law defines an agency fee as one from either the employee or the
employer— and in the latter case it may be simply the profitable
privilege of boarding-house monopoly in return for the supplying of
help— still, many chains of commissaries contend that a license as an
agency in another State exempts them from license— and control—
in our State. The license fee is nominal, usually $25, so that control
or regulation is manifestly the objective. We have been compelled
to amend our law so as to make the definition of fee include the fur
nishing of food, supplies, tools, or shelter in connection with the
promise to provide help to the employer, regardless of where the
help is obtained.
Some States have no laws authorizing the control of employment
agencies either locally or by the State, the latter being the more desir
able. Many pay no attention to labor camps. Again, the shipment of
labor by an agency licensed in only one State presents so many evils
impossible of control at the point of employment in another, where
the complaint develops, that a revision of laws seems essential to
place responsibility on the agency, not only for labor camps, but for
any shipment outside the State, most shipments being to vacation
and recreational centers in the East and agricultural and construction
and railroad work in both the West and the East.
As to living and housing conditions made mandatory on workers
because they are bound to their employment, whether furnished by
the employer or a third party motivated by gain there or on employ
ment, it seems ironical that labor departments should so fully safe
guard the factory worker as to building construction, fire, toilets,
sanitation, respiratory conditions, wash rooms, etc., and pay no
attention to the fate of the worker taken to isolated sections to work
and deprived of the freedom of choice as to where and how he shall
spend the greater part of each 24 hours. Labor-camp regulation
appears to be a grave responsibility but a sadly neglected one in many
States.
A State apparently can not control shipments of labor unless the
fee or promise of employment, or the physical location of the agency,
can be legally proven to be in the territory of that State. Yet a
BUSINESS SESSION
123
worker, hundreds of miles from home, can be and often is the victim,
at the point of destination, of gross misrepresentation or of plain
change of the employer’s plans which leaves him stranded or desti
tute. A serious moral danger is present in the large movements of
females to resort locations, where business often is below expectations
and jobs evaporate or are terminated before the promised period.
The remedy of a Federal licensing scheme to regulate all labor
shipments across State lines is suggested. Tins license could be
predicated on agreement to conform to agency or camp codes within
the State of destination. Raising of the standard of agency laws
and of camp codes could be accomplished by the grant of existing or
future Federal funds for State public employment work only to the
States conforming to minimum standards provided by a Federal code
as to both employment-agency and labor-camp regulation. It is
probably as constitutional for the Federal Government to regulate
interstate traffic in labor as it is traffic in goods, but undoubtedly the
Federal Government could not come into a State and regulate living
or employment conditions. On the other hand, no State could project
its jurisdiction beyond its borders, so that development of Federal
supervision appears necessary to prevent exploitation of thousands of
our workers annually, while State action is imperative to protect the
camp dweller who lives and sleeps customarily in as close proximity
to his fellow man as he did in the trenches in France— 3 feet from the
man who sleeps above him in the double-deck bunk and 2 feet or less
from the two men in the bunk across the aisle.
BUSINESS SESSION
Miss Maud Swett, President Association of Governmental Officials in
Industry, Presiding
Miss Peterson made a motion to the effect that wide distribution
be given Mr. Seiple’s paper on “ Old age and employability ” and
that Mr. Stewart be appointed a committee of one to consider ways
and means of carrying out this motion.
The motion was carried.
Report of Committee on Officers’ Reports (F. J. Plant, chairman).
The committee on officers’ reports has examined the accounts of the associa
tion as presented by Miss Louise Schutz, the secretary-treasurer, which are in
accordance with the constitution, and which we beg to report have been found
correct.
The committee desires to commend the secretary-treasurer for the publicity
given the association and for her efforts in endeavoring to secure the affiliation
of nonmember States and Provinces. The committee is pleased to note that the
International Labor Office is now contributing to the funds of the association
and that some of the member States have voluntarily increased their fees.
The president, Miss Maud Swett, in her opening address to the convention
spoke of the difficulty in preparing convention programs, owing to the lack of
funds not permitting the members of the executive committee to meet and
confer. Your committee has taken cognizance of this statement of the president
and we feel that an endeavor should be made to add to the revenue of the
association.' Without making any recommendation we feel that the matter of
increasing the affiliation fees should be seriously considered, with a view to
increasing our income to at least $1,000 a year.
124
17 T H ANNUAL MEETING OB' A. G. 0 . I.
The committee also desires to commend the earnest and persistent work of
the president and the secretary-treasurer on behalf of this association.
Report of Committee on Constitution (E . Leroy Sweetser, chairman).
The committee has carefully considered the statement prepared by the sec
retary to the effect that the minimum expenses o f the Association of Govern
mental Officials in Industry each year seem to total about $800. The com
mittee then considered the advisability of trying to increase the budget of the
association to $1,000 a year in order that certain legitimate expenses which the
association is not now able to meet, i. e., traveling expenses of board members
to executive board meetings in connection with arrangement of program; more
adequate pay for stenographic service and other expenses which may be ex
pected to arise as the association grows, might be met.
The only plan which could be followed whereby the budget of the associa
tion could be increased would be by increasing the dues, or possibly by pro
viding for a registration fee. Attention was called to the fact that the Inter
national Association of Industrial Accident Boards and Commissions dues for
active membership is $50 a year. After carefully considering the question
from every angle it is the opinion of the committee that it would be unwise to
increase dues at this time.
We wish to present for consideration another suggested change in the con
stitution.
After considerable discussion the following changes in the consti
tution were favorably acted upon.
A r t ic l e
IX
S e c t i o n 1. Program.—The program committee shall consist of the president,
the secretary-treasurer, and the head of the department of the State or Province
within which the convention is to be held, and they shaU prepare and publish
the convention programs o f the association.
A r t ic l e
III
Sec. 3. Associate membership.—Any individual, organization, or corporation
interested in and working along the lines of the object of this association may
become an associate member of this association by the unanimous vote of the
executive board.
A r t i c l e VI
Sec. 2. The annual fee o f associate members shall be $2.
Report of Committee on Resolutions.
I. Resolved, That the association extend its sincere thanks to the De
partment of Agriculture, Labor, and Statistics of Kentucky, Hon. Newton
Bright, commissioner, and Hon. Edward F. Seiller, chief labor inspector, for
the numerous courtesies and attentions accorded the delegates in convention
at Louisville.
II. Resolved, That the association express its appreciation to Hon. W il
liam B. Harrison, mayor of Louisville, the press, the Brown Hotel, and all
others who have contributed to the pleasure and comfort of the delegates.
III. Resolved, That the association views with approval the passage by the
United States Senate of the three unemployment measures—for better em
ployment statistics, better employment offices, and more intelligent advance
BUSINESS SESSION
125
planning o f public works—and trusts this program o f cooperation with the
States will promptly be put into full effect and that the service will be put
under civil service.
IV. Resolved, The association extends its sympathy to the commissioner,
Hon. Newton Bright, in his illness and regrets his inability on that account
to be with us personally during our meetings. We have had constant re
minders of his effective and careful preparations for our convenience and
pleasure during our stay in Louisville. The association hopes for the speedy
recovery of Mr. Bright and his restoration to active duty.
V. Resolved, 1. That the Association of Governmental Officials in Industry
of the United States and Canada indorse the principle of collection and pub
lication of employment and pay-roll figures by industries.
2. That in order to secure comparability o f figures such collection and pub
lication be on the same general lines as those now followed by the United
States Bureau of Labor Statistics and by a number of the leading industrial
States.
3. That in order to avoid duplication all States collecting such reports co
operate with the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics on the same basis
as now in effect between that bureau and the nine States now cooperating
with the Federal bureau.
These resolutions were adopted.
Place of Next Meeting.
By unanimous vote of the organization. Boston was selected as the
place for the next convention. ~
Election of Officers.
The following officers were elected for the ensuing year:
President—James H. H. BaUantyne, deputy minister department o f labor,
Toronto, Ontario.
First vice president—W. A. Rooksbery, commissioner bureau of labor and
statistics, Little Rock, Ark.
Second vice president.—E. Leroy Sweetser, commissioner department of labor
and industries, Boston, Mass.
Third vice president— Eugene B. Patton, director bureau of statistics and
information, department of labor, New York, N. Y.
Fourth vice president—T. E. Whitaker, industrial commissioner, Atlanta, Ga.
Fifth vice president.— Maud Swett, field director woman and child labor, in
dustrial commission, Milwaukee, Wis.
Secretary-treasurer.— Louise E. Schutz, superintendent division of women and
children, industrial commission, St. Paul, Minn.
[Convention adjourned.]
HONORARY LIFE MEMBERS
G e o r g e P. H a m h r e c h t , Wisconsin.
F r a n k E. W o o d , Louisiana.
L i n n a B b e s e t t e , Illinois.
Dr. C. B.
Connellet,
Pennsylvania.
J o h n H. H a l l , Jr., Virginia.
H e r m a n W i t t e r , Ohio.
J o h n S. B. D a v i e , N e w Hampshire.
R. H. L a n s b u b g h , Pennsylvania.
A l i c e M c F a r l a n d , Kansas.
H. M. S t a n l e y , Georgia.
American Representative, International Labor Office.
A. L. U r i c k , Iowa.
Dr. A n d r e w F. M c B r i d e , New Jersey.
Appendix A.—Association of Governmental Officials in Industry
Representation on Safety Code Projects
The Association of Governmental Officials in Industry has representation on
the following 21 safety code projects, 10 of which have been completed and
approved by the American Standards Association.
A 9—Building exits.
Representative, John Campbell, department of labor and industry, Har
risburg, Pa.
Approved as American tentative standard in 1929. This is a standing com
mittee with revisions always under way.
A 10— Construction work.
Representative, W. C. Muehlstein.
Sectional committee being organized.
A 11—Factory lighting.
Representative, Chas. H. Weeks, department of labor, Trenton, N. J.
A 12—Floor and wall openings.
Representative, Edward J. Pierce, department of labor, New York, N. Y.
Code finished.
A 17—Elevators.
Representative, John P. Meade, department of labor and industry, Boston,
Mass.
American standard, revision under way.
A 22— Walk-way surfaces.
Representatives, John Campbell, department of labor and industry, Harris,
burg, Pa.; Harry E. Mackenzie, department of labor and factory inspection,
Hartford, Conn.
Draft has been submitted to sectional committee.
B 8—Foundries.
Representative, Edward J. Pierce, department of labor, New York, N. Y.
American tentative standard. Decision made to undertake revision.
B 9—Refrigeration.
Representative, M. H. Christopherson, New York State insurance fund, New
York, N. Y .; alternate, F. A. Groepler.
Draft in hands of sectional committee.
B 20— Conveyors and conveying machinery.
Representative, John P. Meade, department of labor and industry, Boston,
Mass.
Six subcommittees at work and two drafts in hands of sectional committee.
B 24—Forging.
Representatives, John Roach, department of labor, Trenton, N. J., and John
P. Meade, department of labor and industry, Boston, Mass.
American recommended practice. No revision contemplated at present.
B 28—Rubber mills and calenders.
Representative, E. Leroy Sweetser, department of labor and industries, Boston,
Mass.
American recommended practice. No revision contemplated at present.
B SO— Cranes, derricks, and hoists.
Representative, Eugene B. Patton, department o f labor, New York, N. Y.
Subcommittees at work on drafts.
C 2—National electrical safety code (Pts. I and II I) .
Representative, vacant.
American standard committee inactive.
126
APPENDIX A— SAFETY CODE PROJECTS
127
K 18— Colors for gas mask canisters.
Representative, John Roach, department of labor, Trenton, N. J.
American recommended practice. Approved in 1930.
L 1— Textiles.
Representative, John Campbell, department of labor and industry, Harris^
burg, Pa.
American tentative standard. Approved in 1929.
X 2—Protection of heads and eyes.
Representative, John P. Meade, department of labor and industry, Boston,
Mass.
American standard. No revisions contemplated at this time.
Z 4—Industrial sanitation.
Representative, Thomas C. Eipper, department of labor, New York, N. Y.
Draft under consideration.
Z 5—Ventilation.
Representative, Thomas 0. Eipper, department of labor, New York, N. Y.
Committee inactive.
Z 9—Exhaust systems.
Representative, John Roach, department of labor, Trenton, N. J.
Subcommittees being organized.
Z 12—Prevention of dust explosion.
Representative, W. J. Burke, department of labor, New York, N. Y.
Z 12a—1927; Z 12b—1927, reapproved in 1930; Z 12c— 1927; Z 12d—1928;
Z 12e—1928.
Z IS—Amusement parks.
Representative, Thomas C. Eipper, department of labor, New York, N. Y.
Sectional committee work under way.
Z 16—Accident statistics.
Representative, John H. Hall, jr., department of labor and industry, Rich
mond, Va.
Subcommittees at work.
Appendix B.—List of Persons Who Attended the Seventeenth
Annual Convention of the Association of Governmental Officials
in Industry
Alabama
Buth Scandrett, child welfare department, Montgomery.
Arkansas
W. A. Rooksbery, commissioner bureau of labor and statistics, Little Hock.
E. I. McKinley, deputy commissioner bureau of labor and statistics, Little Rock.
Delaware
C. W. Dickey, Wilmington.
District of Columbia
Ethelbert Stewart, commissioner Bureau of Labor Statistics, Washington.
Charles E. Baldwin, assistant commissioner Bureau of Labor Statistics, Wash
ington.
Mary Anderson, director Women’s Bureau, Washington.
Agnes Peterson, assistant director Women’s Bureau, Washington.
Leifur Magnusson, American representative International Labor Office, Wash
ington.
E. N. Matthews, director industrial division Children’s Bureau, Washington.
Georgia
T. E. Whitaker, industrial commissioner, industrial commission, Atlanta.
Indiana
Jessie Gremelspacher, director department of women and children, Indianapolis.
James Reagin, chief inspector department of factories, industrial board, Indian
apolis.
Harvey McMillan, industrial board, Indianapolis.
F. N. Humphreys, inspector industrial board, Indianapolis.
Helen Shepard, reporter industrial board, Indianapolis.
L. A. Krebs, Indianapolis.
Clarence A. Baker, inspector industrial board, Indianapolis.
Bert Robinson, Indianapolis.
George N. Collins, inspector industrial board, Indianapolis.
John B. Dickson, inspector industrial board, Indianapolis.
L. A. Barth, inspector industrial board, Indianapolis.
Elmer L. Zocum, inspector industrial board, Indianapolis.
Kansas
Daisy Gulick, director of women’s work, department o f labor and industry,
Topeka.
Kentucky
R. P. Halleck, president consumers’ league, Louisville.
Alfred N. Hobart, Family Service Organization, Louisville.
Jeon Noll, Family Service Organization, Louisville.
Lucy G. Sheppard, Family Service Organization, Louisville.
Jessie F. Scott, Family Service Organization, Louisville.
Gladys Davis, Louisville.
Harriet L. Agnes, Louisville.
Ella R. Robinson, Louisville.
Louis E. Hosek, department of labor, Louisville.
Elizabeth Lyon, assistant commissioner of agriculture, Louisville.
Edward F. Seiller, chief labor inspector, Louisville.
128
APPENDIX B— LIST OF PERSONS ATTENDING
129
Geo. A. Wilson, superintendent public employment service, Louisville.
James M. Hunt, inspector labor department, Covington.
John T. Murphy, Covington.
John Schneider, Federation o f Labor, Louisville.
John W. Rogers, deputy labor inspector, Louisville.
Louie Brown, deputy labor inspector, Lexington.
Hallie B. Williams, deputy labor inspector, Henderson.
Massachusetts
E. Leroy Sweetser, commissioner department o f labor and industries, Boston.
Minnesota
Henry McColl, chairman industrial commission, St. Paul.
Louise E. Schutz, superintendent division of women and children, industrial
commission, St. Paul.
New Jersey
Charles R. Blunt, commissioner department o f labor, Trenton.
John Roach, assistant commissioner department of labor, Trenton.
Isabelle M. Summers, director bureau o f women and children, Trenton.
New York
James L. Gernon, director bureau of inspection, department of labor, New York.
Eugene B. Patton, director bureau of statistics and information, department of
labor, New York.
Frieda S. Miller, director bureau of women in industry, department of labor,
New York.
John B. Andrews, American Association for Labor Legislation, New York.
P. G. Agnew, secretary American Standards Association, New York.
Cyril Ainsworth, American Standards Association, New York.
Alfred N. Briggs, American Association for Labor Legislation, New York.
North Dakota
Joseph Kitchen, commissioner department o f agriculture and labor, Bismarck.
Alice Angus, secretary minimum wage commission, Bismarck,
Ohio
Thomas C. Devine, chief division o f factory inspection, department of industrial
relations, Columbus.
B. C. Seiple, commissioner of employment, city o f Cleveland, Cleveland.
Ontario
F. J. Plant, chief of labor intelligence branch, department of labor, Ottawa.
James Ballantyne, deputy minister department o f labor, Ontario.
Pennsylvania
Harry D. Immel, director bureau of inspection, department of labor and in
dustry, Harrisburg.
Paul Douglas, acting director Swarthmore unemployment study, Swarthmore
College, Swarthmore.
Beatrice McConnell, assistant director bureau of women and children, depart
ment of labor and industry, Harrisburg.
Tennessee
James M. Southall, commissioner department o f labor, Nashville.
M. F. Nicholson, chief inspector division of factory inspection, department of
labor, Nashville.
West Virginia
Howard S. Jarrett, commissioner bureau o f labor, Charleston.
Jack Smith, inspector.
Wisconsin
Maud Swett, field director, woman and child labor department, Milwaukee.
LIST OF BULLETINS OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS
The following is a list of all bulletins of the Bureau of Labor Statistics published since
July, 1912, except that in the case of bulletins giving the results of periodic surveys of the
bureau only the latest bulletin on any one subject is here listed.
A complete list of the reports and bulletins issued prior to July, 1912, as well as the bulle
tins published since that date, will be furnished on application. Bulletins marked thus (*)
are out of print.
Conciliation and Arbitration (including: strikes and lockouts).
♦No. 124. Conciliation and arbitration in the building trades o f Greater New York.
[1913.]
#
♦No. 133. Report o f the industrial council o f the British Board o f Trade on its in
quiry into industrial agreements. [1913.]
No. 139. Michigan copper district strike. [1914.]
♦No. 144. Industrial court o f the cloak, suit, and skirt industry o f New York City.
[1914.]
•No. 145. Conciliation, arbitration, and sanitation in the dress and waist industry o f
New York City. [1914.]
♦No. 191. Collective bargaining in the anthracite-coal industry. [1916.]
♦No. 198. Collective agreements in the men’s clothing industry. [1916.]
No. 233. Operation o f the industrial disputes investigation act o f Canada. [1918.]
No. 255. Joint industrial councils in Great Britain. [1919.]
No. 283. H istory o f the Shipbuilding Labor Adjustm ent Board, 1917 to 1919.
No. 287. National W ar Labor Board : H istory o f its form ation, activities, etc. [1921.]
♦No. 303. Use o f Federal power in settlement o f railway labor disputes. [1922.]
No. 341. Trade agreement in the silk-ribbon industry o f New York City.
[1923.]
No. 402. Collective bargaining by actors.
[1926.]
No. 468. Trade agreements, 1927.
No. 481. Joint industrial control in the book and jo b printing industry.
[1928.]
Cooperation.
No. 313. Consumers’ cooperative societies in the United States in 1920.
No. 314. Cooperative credit societies (credit unions) in America and in foreign
countries. [1922.]
No. 437. Cooperative movement in the United States in 1925 (other than agri
cultural).
Employment and Unemployment.
♦No. 109. Statistics o f unemployment and the work o f employment offices in the
United States. [1913.]
No. 172. Unemployment in New York City, N. Y. [1915.]
♦No. 183. Regularity o f employment in the women’ s ready-to-wear garment industries.
[1915.]
#
♦No. 195. Unemployment in the United States. [1916.]
No. 196. Proceedings o f the Employment Managers* Conference held at Minneapolis,
Minn., January 19 and 20, 1916.
♦No. 202. Proceedings o f the conference o f Employment Managers’ A ssociation o f
Boston, Mass., held May 10, 1916.
No. 206. The British system o f labor exchanges. [1916.]
♦No. 227. Proceedings o f the Employment Managers* Conference, Philadelphia, Pa.,
April 2 and 3, 1917.
No. 235. Employment system o f the Lake Carriers* Association.
[1918.]
♦No. 241. Public employment offices in the United States. [1918.]
No. 247. Proceedings o f Employment Managers’ Conference, Rochester, N. Y., May
9-11, 1918.
♦No. 310. Industrial unem ploym ent: A statistical study o f its extent and causes.
[1922.]
No. 409. Unemployment in Columbus, Ohio, 1921 to 1925.
No. 520. Social and econom ic character o f unemployment in Philadelphia, April, 1929.
(I)
Foreign Labor Laws.
♦No. 142. Administration o f labor laws and factory inspection in certain European
countries.
[1914.]
No. 494. Labor legislation o f Uruguay. [1929.]
No. 510. Labor legislation o f Argentina. [1930.]
No. 529. Workmen’s compensation legislation o f Latin American countries.
[1930.]
(In press.)
Housing.
♦No. 158. Government aid to home owning and housing o f working people in foreign
countries. [1914.]
No. 263. Housing by employers in the United States. [1920.]
No. 295. Building operations in representative cities in 1920.
No. 524. Building permits in the principal cities o f the United States in [1921 to ]
1929.
Industrial Accidents and Hygiene.
♦No. 104. Lead poisoning in potteries, tile works, and porcelain enameled sanitary
ware factories. [1912.]
No. 120. Hygiene o f painters’ trade.
[1913.]
♦No. 127. Danger to workers from dust and fumes, and methods o f protection.
[1913.]
♦No. 141. Lead poisoning in the smelting and refining o f lead. [1914.]
♦No. 157. Industrial accident statistics.
[1915.]
♦No. 165. Lead poisoning in the m anufacture o f storage batteries. [1914.]
♦No. 179. Industrial poisons used in the rubber industry. [1915.]
No. 188. Report o f British departmental committee on the danger in the use o f lead
in the painting o f buildings. [1916.]
♦No. 201. Report o f the committee on statistics and compensation insurance cost of
the International Association o f Industrial Accident Boards and Com
missions. [1916.]
♦No. 209. Hygiene o f the printing trades. [1917.]
♦No. 219. Industrial poisons used or produced in the manufacture o f explosives.
[1917.]
No. 221. Hours, fatigue, and health in British munition factories. [1917.]
No. 230. Industrial efficiency and fatigue in British munition factories.
[1917.]
♦No. 231. M ortality from respiratory diseases in dusty trades (inorganic dusts).
[1918.]
♦No. 234. Safety movement in the iron and steel industry, 1907 to 1917.
No. 236. Effects o f the air hammer on the hands o f stonecutters. [1918.]
No. 249. Industrial health and efficiency. Final report o f British Health o f Muni
tions W orkers’ Committee. [1919.]
No. 251. Preventable death in the cotton-manufacturing industry. [1919.]
No. 256. Accidents and accident prevention in machine building. [1919.]
No. 267. Anthrax as an occupational disease. [1920.]
No. 276. Standardization o f industrial accident statistics. [1920.]
No. 280. Industrial poisoning in making coal-tar dyes and dye intermediates. [1921.]
♦No. 291. Carbon-monoxide poisoning. [1921.]
No. 293. The problem o f dust phthisis in the granite-stone industry. [1922.]
No. 298. Causes and prevention o f accidents in the iron and steel industry, 19101919.
No. 306. Occupational hazards and diagnostic s ig n s : A guide to impairments to be
looked for in hazardous occupations. [1922.J
No. 392. Survey o f hygienic conditions in the printing trades. [1925.]
No. 405. Phosphorous necrosis in the manufacture o f fireworks and in the prepara
tion o f phosphorus. [1926.]
No. 427. Health survey o f the printing trades, 1922 to 1925.
No. 428. Proceedings o f the Industrial Accident Prevention Conference, held at
W ashington, D. C., July 14-16, 1926.
No. 460. A new test for industrial lead poisoning. [1928.]
No. 466. Settlement for accidents to American seamen. [1928.]
No. 488. Deaths from lead poisoning, 1925-1927.
No. 490. Statistics o f industrial accidents in the United States to the end o f 1927.
No. 507. Causes o f death by occupation. [1929.]
Industrial Relations and Labor Conditions.
No. 237. Industrial unrest in Great Britain. [1917.]
No. 340. Chinese migrations, with special reference to labor conditions. [1923s]
No, 349. Industrial relations in the West Coast lumber industry. [1923.]
Industrial Relations and Labor Conditions— Continued.
No.
No.
No.
No.
No.
361.
380.
283.
384.
399.
Labor relations in the Fairmont (W . Va.) bituminous-coal field. [1924.]
Postwar labor conditions in Germany. [1925.]
Works council movement in Germany. [1925.]
Labor conditions in the shoe industry in Massachusetts, 1920-1924.
Labor relations in the lace and laee-curtain industries in the United States.
[1925.]
Labor Laws of the United States (Including decisions of .courts relating to labor).
No. 211. Labor laws and their administration in the Pacific States. [1917.]
No. 229. Wage-payment legislation in the United States. [1917.]
No. 285. Minimum wage laws o f the United S ta tes: Construction and operation.
[1921].
No. 321. Labor laws that have been declared unconstitutional. [1922.]
No. 322. Kansas Court o f Industrial Relations. [1923.]
No. 343. Laws providing for bureaus o f labor statistics, etc. [1923.]
No. 370. Labor laws o f the United States, with decisions o f courts relating thereto.
[1925.]
No. 408. Laws relating to payment o f wages. [1926.]
No. 517. Decisions o f courts and opinions affecting labor, 1927-1928.
No. 528. Labor legislation o f 1929. (In press.)
Proceedings of Annual Conventions of the Association of Governmental Labor Officials of the
United States and Canada. (Name changed in 1928 to Association of Governmental Officials
in Industry of the United States and Canada.)
No. 266.
No. 307.
No. 323.
♦No. 352.
♦No. 389.
♦No. 411.
No. 429.
♦No. 455.
No. 480.
No. 508.
Seventh, Seattle, Wash., July 12-15, 1920.
Eighth, New Orleans, L a.; May 2 -6 , 1921.
Ninth, Harrisburg, Pa., May 22-26, 1922.
Tenth, Richmond, Va., May 1 -4 , 1923.
Eleventh, Chicago, 111., May 19-23, 1924.
Twelfth, Salt Lake City, Utah, August 13-15, 1925.
Thirteenth, Columbus, Ohio, June 7-10, 1926.
Fourteenth, Paterson, N. J., May 31 to June 3, 1927.
Fifteenth, New Orleans, La., May 21-24, 1928.
Sixteenth, Toronto, Canada, June 4 -7 , 1929.
Proceedings of Annual Meetings of the International Association of Industrial Accident Boards
and Commissions.
No. 210.
No. 248.
No. 264.
♦No. 273.
No. 281.
No. 304.
No. 333.
♦No. 359.
No. 385.
No. 395.
No. 406.
No. 432.
♦No. 456.
No. 485.
No. 511.
Third, Columbus, Ohio, A pril 25-28, 1916.
Fourth, Boston, Mass., August 21—25, 1917.
Fifth, Madison, W is., September 24-27, 1918.
Sixth, Toronto, Canada, September 23-26, 1919.
Seventh, San Francisco, Calif., September 20-24, 1920.
Eighth, Chicago, 111., September 19-23, 1921.
Ninth, Baltimore, Md., October 9-13, 1922.
Tenth, St. Paul, Minn., September 24-26, 1923.
Eleventh, Halifax, Nova Scotia, August 26-28, 1924.
Index to proceedings, 1914-1924.
Twelfth, Salt Lake City, Utah, August 17-20, 1925.
Thirteenth, H artford, Conn., September 14-17, 1926.
Fourteenth, Atlanta, Ga., September 27-29, 1927.
Fifteenth, Paterson, N. J., September 11-14, 1928.
Sixteenth, Buffalo, N. Y., October 8-11, 1929.
Proceedings of Annual Meetings of the International Association of Public Employment
Services.
No. 192. First, Chicago, December 19 and 20, 19 13; second, Indianapolis, September
24 and 25, 19 14; third, Detroit, July 1 and 2, 1915.
No. 220. Fourth, Buffalo, N. Y., July 20 and 21, 1916.
No. 311. Ninth, Buffalo, N. Y., September 7 -9 , 1921.
No. 337. Tenth, W ashington, D. C., September 11-33, 1922.
No. 355. Eleventh, Toronto, Canada, September 4 -7 , 1923.
No. 400. Twelfth, Chicago, 111., May 19-23, 1924.
No. 414. Thirteenth, Rochester, N. Y., September 15-17, 1925.
No. 478. Fifteenth, D etroit, Mich., October 25-28, 1927.
No. 501. Sixteenth, Cleveland, Ohio, September 18-21, 1928.
(m)
Productivity of Labor.
No. 326. Productivity costs in the common-brick industry. [1924.]
No. 360. Time and labor costs in m anufacturing 100 pairs o f shoes, 1923.
No. 407. Labor cost o f production and wages and hours o f labor in the paper box-board
industry. [1926. ]
No. 412. Wages, hours, and productivity in the pottery industry, 1925.
No. 441. Productivity o f labor in the glass industry. [1927.]
No. 474. Productivity o f labor in merchant blast furnaces.
[1928.]
No. 475. Productivity o f labor in newspaper printing.
[1929.]
Retail Prices and Cost of Living.
♦No.
♦No.
♦No.
No.
No.
No.
No.
121.
130.
164.
170.
357.
369.
495.
Sugar prices, from refiner to consumer.
[1913.}
W heat and flour prices, from farmer to consumer. [1913.]
Butter prices, from producer to consumer.
[1914.]
Foreign food prices as affected by the war. [1915.]
Cost o f living in the United States. [1924.]
The use o f cost-of-living figures in wage adjustments. [1925.]
Retail prices, 1899 to 1928.
Safety Codes.
♦No. 331.
No. 336.
No. 350.
♦No. 351.
No. 375.
No. 382.
No. 410.
No. 430.
No. 433.
No. 447.
No. 451.
No. 463.
No. 509.
No. 512.
No. 519.
No. 527.
Code o f lig h tin g : Factories, mills, and other work places.
Safety code for the protection o f industrial workers in foundries.
Rules for governing the approval o f headlighting devices for m otor vehicles.
Safety code for the construction, care, and use o f ladders.
Safety code for laundry machinery and operations.
Code o f lighting school buildings.
Safety code for paper and pulp mills.
Safety code for power presses and foot and hand presses.
Safety codes for the prevention o f dust explosions.
Safety code for rubber mills and calenders.
Safety code for forging and hot-metal stamping.
Safety code for mechanical power-transmission apparatus— first revision.
Textile safety code.
Code for identification o f gas-mask canisters.
Safety code for woodworking plants, as revised 1930.
Safety code for the use, care, and protection o f abrasive wheels.
Vocational and Workers* Education.
♦No. 159. Short-unit courses for wage earners, and a factory school experiment.
[1915.]
♦No. 162. Vocational education survey o f Richmond, Va. [1915.]
♦No. 199. Vocational education survey o f Minneapolis, Minn. [1917.]
No. 271. Adult working-class education in Great Britain and the United States.
[1920.]
No. 459. Apprenticeship in building construction. [1928.]
Wages and Hours of Labor.
♦No. 146. Wages and regularity o f employment and standardization o f piece rates in
the dress and waist industry o f New York City. [1914.]
♦No. 147. Wages and regularity o f employment in the cloak, suit, and skirt industry.
[1914.]
No. 161. W ages and hours o f labor in the clothing and cigar industries, 1911 to
1913.
No. 163. Wages and hours o f labor in the building and repairing of steam railroad
cars, 1907 to 1913.
♦No. 190. Wages and hours o f labor in the cotton, woolen, and silk industries, 1!>07
to 1914.
No. 204. Street-railway employment in the United States. [1917.]
No. 225. Wages and hours o f labor in the lumber, millwork, and furniture industries,
1915.
No. 265. Industrial survey in selected industries in the United States, 1919.
No. 297. Wages and hours o f labor in the petroleum industry, 1920.
No. 356. Productivity costs in the common-brick industry. [1924.]
No. 358. Wages and hours o f labor in the automobile-tire industry, 1923.
No. 360. Time and labor costs in m anufacturing 100 pairs o f shoes, 1923.
(IV)
Wagres and Honrs of Labor— Continued.
No. 365. W ages and hours o f labor in the paper and pulp industry, 1923.
No. 394. W ages and hours o f labor in metalliferous mines, 1924.
No. 407. Labor costs o f production and wages and hours o f labor in the paper boxboard industry. [1926.]
No. 412. Wages, hours, and productivity in the pottery industry, 1925.
No. 416. Hours and earnings in anthracite and bituminous coal mining, 1922 and
1924.
No. 472. W ages and hours o f labor in the slaughtering and meat-packing industry,
1927.
No. 476. Union scales o f wages and hours o f labor, 1927. [Supplement to Bulletin
457.]
No. 484. W ages and hours o f labor o f common street laborers, 1928.
No. 487. Wages and hours o f labor in woolen and worsted goods manufacturing,
1910 to 1928.
No. 492. W ages and hours o f labor in cotton-goods manufacturing, 1910 to 1928.
No. 497. W ages and hours o f labor in the lumber industry in the United States, 1928.
No. 498. Wages and hours o f labor in the boot and shoe industry, 1910 to 1928.
No. 499. History o f wages in the United States from colonial times to 1928.
No. 502. Wages and hours o f labor in the motor-vehicle industry, 1928.
No. 503. Wages and hours o f labor in the men's clothing industry, 1911 to 1928.
No. 504. Wages and hours o f labor in the hosiery and underwear industries, 1907
to 1928.
No. 513. Wages and hours o f labor in the Iron and steel industry, 1929.
No. 514. Pennsylvania Railroad wage data. From Report o f Joint Fact Finding
Committee in wage negotiations in 1927.
No. 515. Union scales o f wages, May 15, 1929.
No. 516. Hours and earnings in bituminous coal mining, 1929.
No. 522. W ages and hours o f labor in foundries and machine shops, 1929.
No. 523. W ages and hours in the m anufacture o f airplanes and aircra ft engines,
1929. (In press.)
No. 525. W ages and hours o f labor in the Portland cement industry, 1929. (In
press.)
No. 526. Wages and hours o f labor in the furniture industry, 1910 to 1929. (In
press.)
Welfare Woifc.
♦No. 123. Em ployer's welfare work.
[1913.] ’
No. 222. W elfare work in British munitions factories. [1917.]
♦No. 250. Welfare work for employees in industrial establishments in the United
States. [1919.]
No. 458. Health and recreation activities in industrial establishments, 1926.
Wholesale Prices.
No. 284. Index number o f wholesale prices in the United States and foreign countries.
[1921.]
No. 453. Revised index numbers o f wholesale prices, 1923 to July, 1927.
No. *521. W holesale prices, 1929.
Women and Children in Industry.
No. 116. Hours, earnings, and duration o f employment o f wage-earning women in se
lected industries in the D istrict o f Columbia. [1913.]
♦No. 117. Prohibition o f night work o f young persons. [1913.]
♦No. 118. Ten-hour maximum working-day fo r women and young persons. [1913.]
No. 119. W orking hours o f women in the pea canneries o f W isconsin. [1913.]
♦No. 122. Employment o f women in power laundries in Milwaukee. [1913.]
♦No. 160. Hours, earnings, and conditions o f labor o f women in Indiana m ercantile
establishments and garment factories. [1914.]
♦No. 167. Minimum-wage legislation in the United States and foreign countries.
[1915.]
♦No. 175. Summary o f the report on conditions o f women and child wage earners
in the United States. [1915.]
♦No. 176. Effect o f minimum-wage determinations in Oregon. [1915.]
♦No. 180. The boot and shoe industry in Massachusetts as a vocation fo r women.
[1915.]
14886°—30---- 10
(V)
Women and Children In Industry— Continued.
•No. 182. Unemployment among women in department and other retail stores o f
B oston, Mass. [1916.]
No. 193. Dressmaking as a trade for women in Massachusetts. [1916.]
No. 215. Industrial experience o f trade-school girls in Massachusetts. [1917.]
♦No. 217. Effect o f workmen’s compensation laws in diminishing the necessity o f
industrial employment o f women and children. [1918.]
♦No. 228. Employment o f women and juveniles in Great Britain during the war.
[1917.]
No. 253. Women in the lead industries. [1919.]
Workmen’s Insurance and Compensation (including laws relating thereto)*
♦No.
♦No.
No.
No.
♦No.
♦No.
101.
102.
103.
107.
155.
212.
♦No. 243.
No. 301.
No. 312.
No. 379.
No. 477.
No. 496.
Care o f tuberculous wage earners in Germany. [1912.]
British national insurance act, 1911.
Sickness and accident insurance law in Switzerland. [1912.]
Law relating to insurance o f salaried employees in Germany. [1913,]
Compensation for accidents to employees o f the United States. [1914.]
Proceedings o f the conference on social insurance called by the International
Association o f Industrial A ccident Boards and Commissions, W ashington,
D. C., December 5 -9 , 1916.
Workmen’s compensation legislation in the United States and foreign coun
tries, 1917 and 1918.
Comparison o f workmen’s compensation insurance and adm inistration.
[1922.]
National health insurance in Great Britain, 1911 to 1921.
Comparison o f workmen’s compensation laws o f the United States as o f
January 1, 1925.
Public-service retirement systems, United States and Europe. [1929.]
W orkmen’ s compensation legislation o f the United States and Canada as o f
January, 1929. (W ith text o f legislation enacted in 1927 and 1928.)
Miscellaneous series.
♦No. 174. Subject index o f the publications o f the United States Bureau o f Labor
Statistics up to May 1, 1915.
No. 208. Profit sharing in the United States. [1916.]
No. 242. Food situation in central Europe, 1917.
No. 254. International labor legislation and the society o f nations. 11919.]
No. 268. H istorical survey o f international action affecting labor. [1920.]
No. 282. Mutual relief associations among Government employees in W ashington,
D. C. [1921.]
No. 319. The Bureau o f Labor S ta tistics: Its history, activities, and organization.
[1922.]
No. 326. Methods o f procuring and computing statistical inform ation o f the Bureau
o f Labor Statistics.
[1923.]
No. 342. International Seamen's Union o f A m erica: A study o f its history and prob
lems. [1923.]
No. 346. Humanity in government. [1923.]
No. 372. Convict labor in 1923.
No. 386. Cost o f American almshouses. [1925.]
No. 398. Growth o f legal-aid work in the United States. [1926.]
No. 401. Fam ily allowances in foreign countries. [1926.]
No. 461. Labor organizations in Chile. [1928.]
No. 462. Park recreation areas in the United States. [1928.]
No. 465. Beneficial activities o f American trade-unions. [1928.]
No. 479. Activities and functions o f a State department o f labor.
[1928.]
No. 483. Conditions in the shoe industry in Haverhill, Mass., 1928.
No. 489. Care o f aged persons in the United States. [1929.]
No. 491. Handbook o f labor sta tistics: 1929 edition.
No. 505. Directory o f homes for the aged in the United States. [1929.]
No. 506. Handbook o f American trade-unions: 1929 edition.
No. 518. Personnel ifesearch ag en cies: 1930 edition.
(TO
@FedFRASER