in the public records of his office a written statement of the reasons therefor, shall decide that it is unnecessary for the health and welfare of the operatives.1

(e) The walls and ceilings of each workroom in a factory shall be limewashed or painted when, in the opinion of the factory inspector, it will be conducive to the health or cleanliness of the persons working therein.2

Penalty. For provision (c) above, $10 per day for each day of failure after said 20 days. For other provisions (a), (b), (d), (e), first offense, $20 to $50; second offense, $50 to $200, or imprisonment not more than 30 days, or both; third offense, not less than $250, or imprisonment not more than 60 days, or both.

The importance of certain of the points contained in these provisions may be emphasized: The first provision establishes an airspace standard—a minimum of 250 cubic feet in the day and a minimum of 400 cubic feet at night. The air-space standard, as has already been noted, is at best an unreliable guaranty of good ventilation, and this is especially the case when the minimum requirements are as low as in this law. The second provision requires not only that sufficient means of ventilation be maintained, but also that they be properly used. This distinction is of much importance. The aim of this requirement is elaborated upon by the third provision, which directs that all air impurities such as steam, gases, vapors, and dust, generated in the course of the work and which may be injurious to health, shall be so handled as to be rendered harmless. In the special case of dust arising from grinding processes, moreover, the law, as shown in the fourth provision above, specifically orders the use of exhaust fans. The fifth provision authorizes the inspection department to require limewashing or painting but does not make such limewashing or painting mandatory.

The enforcement of these several provisions is charged to the State factory inspection department. The discretion given the department in the matter of determining when conditions need correcting is very broad. The air-space requirement is specific. So also is the requirement that exhaust fans be provided for grindstones. In all other matters referred to by the law, as, for instance, the determination of when air impurities are "injurious to health," when means of ventilation are "proper and sufficient," when limewashing or painting is necessary the inspection department establishes its own rules.

1 Rev. Stat., 3d ed., p. 2102, sec. 81, as amended by ch. 366, Acts of 1906, and p. 2120, sec. 209, as amended by ch. 506, Acts of 1907 (22d An. Rept. Com. of Labor, pp. 912, 931).

2 Idem, sec. 84 and p. 2120, sec. 209, as amended by ch. 506, Acts of 1907 (22d An. Rept. Com. of Labor, pp. 914, 931).

Under the New York law, bakeries and confectionery establishments are to be regarded as factories, and thus subjected to all the legal provisions regarding ventilation and sanitation, as above quoted. In addition, bakeries and confectionery establishments are subjected to the following special regulations:1

(f) They shall be kept at all times in a clean and sanitary condition. If, on inspection, the commissioner of labor finds any bakery or confectionery to be so unclean, ill drained, or ill ventilated as to be unsanitary he may, after not less than 48 hours' notice in writing * * * , order the person found in charge thereof immediately to cease operating it until it be properly cleaned, drained, or ventilated. [If this order is not observed the commissioner may seal up the ovens, etc., such seal to be removed only by him.]

In considering the laws regarding ventilation it is of much importance to note that since the year 1907 the State of New York has had a medical inspector as an integral part of its regular inspection department. Much of the work of this officer has been the study of problems of ventilation, and in large part such a study means a search for proper and easily applied standards of ventilation.2

The general character of the New York law as it existed at the time of the field work of this investigation is clearly and pertinently considered in the following excerpt from the report of the State commissioner of labor: 3

The health provisions of the factory laws are both ill balanced and defective..

There is nothing in them that requires proper heating. This omission is supplied in some local ordinances, but elsewhere its want

is sometimes serious.

The

They do not require that proper drinking water be supplied. lack of it is a frequent cause of hardship and ill health in lower grade factories. Under section 94 the factory inspectors can require that a sufficient water supply for washing and toilets be provided in tenant factories and that water tanks in such buildings be kept clean; but their authority ends there.

They do not regulate "humidity." This is one of the most important subjects of regulation abroad. As it is an unknown subject to our inspectors it can not be aflirmed that it needs regulating here, but there is a fair presumption that it does.

There is nothing in them to require that workrooms shall be kept clean, except those special provisions that relate to bakeries, laundries, tenements, and certain kinds of shops in tenant factories, and section 84, which prescribes that walls and ceilings shall be painted and white

1 Rev. Stat., 3d ed., 1901, p. 2108, sec. 114, as amended by ch. 401, Acts of 1906 (22d. An. Rept. Com. of Labor, p. 921). There are several requirements regarding bakeries alone, but the above seems to be the only one including confectioneries also. 2 See report of medical inspector of factories in Annual Report of the Bureau of Factory Inspection, New York, 1908, p. 24.

3 Seventh Annual Report of the Commissioner of Labor, New York, 1907, pp. I 29 and I 30.

washed when required. The special provisions referred to cover the classes of workshops in which alone filth is at all common, but even in the better kinds of factories, left unregulated in this particular, injurious dust, waste, and dirty matter are often allowed to accumulate. Pressrooms, even of some of the most reputable newspapers, are very bad in this respect, and show high rates of mortality and sickness. The more complete codes of European countries deal with this subject fully and prescribe frequent wet cleanings. Our code needs similar provisions, and also some special regulation to counteract the evil results from spitting.

* *

Our law as to ventilation has been very imperfect. Section 85 limits the number of persons who may be employed in a workroom according to the cubic air space, but that is of little value unless. there also be sufficient ventilation. Section 86 requires that all workrooms shall have proper and sufficient means of ventilation, but until the amendment of this year it did not require that they be kept ventilated. Section 81 requires exhaust systems for metal-polishing wheels and other dust-producing machinery, but it is defective in not applying to machinery or processes creating injurious gases, fumes, heat, etc. Therefore section 86 was amended by chapter 490, Laws of 1907, to prescribe that workrooms shall be kept properly ventilated, and that "if excessive heat be created, or if steam, gases, vapors, dust, or other impurities that may be injurious to health be generated * the room must be ventilated in such a manner as to render them harmless so far as practicable." The provision of section 81 requiring exhaust fans upon all metalpolishing or grinding wheels without exception is too rigid, and both causes hardship and is often unenforceable. Exhaust fans with the necessary connections are very expensive, and should not be required where unnecessary or useless. Where one or two wheels only are used in uncrowded and especially well-ventilated rooms other and cheaper methods of keeping the dust away from the workmen are equally effective and should be permitted. And where the wheels. are in tool or machine shops for only occasional use, to require an exhaust fan is nothing but a vexatious handicap upon industry. Referring to the sanitary question involved in the use of such wheels, the English Departmental Report of 1907 on "Compensation for industrial diseases" says: "It must be understood that men whose employment is that of engineers, but who occasionally and for comparatively short periods use a grindstone to sharpen their tools or to file down a piece of metal to be fitted, can not be considered as especially liable to disease." In the very cases where the application of this provision is most useless it is hardest to enforce, for it then meets with reasonable opposition. And one of the worst consequences of such arbitrary provisions is that they reduce the total benefits of factory inspection by occupying the time of inspectors in forcing changes of no benefit to anyone.

CONDITIONS found.

CLEANLINESS OF WORKROOMS.

The workrooms of the 36 establishments visited are classified in the following table according to the degree of cleanliness existing therein.

CLEANLINESS OF WORKROOMS-NEW YORK.

SPITTING ON THE FLOOR AND THE PROVISION OF CUSPIDORS.

Habitual spitting on the floor by employees was done in 15 of the 36 establishments visited; in 19 there was a rule against such spitting; and in 18 cuspidors were provided.

The relation between spitting on the floor and the provision of cuspidors and the existence of rules against spitting is shown in the following table:

CONDITIONS AS TO SPITTING ON THE FLOOR-NEW YORK.

GENERAL VENTILATION AND THE REMOVAL OF DUST AND FUMES.

The two following tables show briefly the conditions found in the several visited establishments as regards the general subject of ventilation and the special topic of dust and fumes.

CONDITIONS AS TO DUST OR FUMES IN WORKROOMS-NEW YORK.

New Jersey legislation upon matters of ventilation and sanitation consists of four main provisions. These provisions require, respectively, "proper and sufficient" ventilation generally, the observance of an air-space standard, the use of mechanical devices for removing dust due to grinding, and, in certain classes of establishments, the limewashing of walls and ceilings."

1 The law here referred to is as in force at the beginning of 1909. The text of the laws in force Jan. 1, 1912, is given in the appendixes at the end of this volume.

2 By ch. 102, Acts of 1905 (22d An. Rept. Com. of Labor, pp. 869–871), bakeries and confectioneries are declared to be within the provisions applicable to factories, etc. Additional requirements as to ventilation and sanitation are made as follows: Drainage and plumbing shall be such as will conduce to a proper and healthful sanitary condition; there shall be air shafts, windows, or ventilating pipes sufficient to insure ventilation; shall at all times be kept in a clean and sanitary condition; the commissioner of labor may order a bakery closed at once if he finds it unclean, ill-drained, or ill-ventilated.

By a law enacted subsequent to the field work of this investigation the legislation regarding bakeries and confectioneries was elaborated and made to apply to all places used for the "production, manufacture, preparation, packing, storage, or distribution" of food or food products. Acts of 1909, ch. 231 (Bulletin of the Bureau of Labor, No. 85, pp. 679-681).

The tenement-house legislation of New Jersey does not refer specifically to ventilation and sanitary conditions. Acts of 1904, ch. 64, secs. 31 and 32 (22d An. Rept. Com. of Labor, pp. 864, 865).