The following table shows the relation between spitting on the floor and the provision of cuspidors and rules against spitting:

CONDITIONS AS TO SPITTING ON THE FLOOR-MICHIGAN.

GENERAL VENTILATION AND THE REMOVAL OF DUST AND FUMES.

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

CONDITIONS AS TO VENTILATION-MICHIGAN.

CONDITIONS AS TO DUST OR FUMES IN WORKROOMS-MICHIGAN.

WISCONSIN.

SUMMARY OF LEGISLATION.1

The legislation of Wisconsin regarding ventilation and sanitation may be conveniently considered in three divisions, according as it relates to business establishments generally, to cigar factories, or to bakery and confectionery establishments."

The legal provisions relating to business establishments generally are six in number:

(a) No person or corporation shall employ and put to work in any factory, workshop, or other place where labor is performed, or in any part of any such place, a larger number of persons than can be kept at work there without doing violence to the laws of health. The local board of health shall have power to determine any question arising under this provision, and its written determination shall be conclusive upon all parties to any action or proceeding under the same.

Penalty. Not more than $25 for each offense, and each day's

negligence or failure after a conviction to be a separate offense. (b) If in any of the aforesaid places [i. e., factory, mill, workshop, mercantile establishment, or other building where 8 or more persons are employed] any process is carried on by which dust or fumes is caused, which may be inhaled by the persons employed therein, or if the air should become exhausted or impure, there shall be provided a fan or such other mechanical device as will substantially carry away all such dust or fumes or other impurities.*

Penalty.-$10 to $100.

(c) All persons, companies, or corporations operating any factory or workshop where grinding machines or grinding wheels, emery wheels or emery belts of any description * * * either solid emery, leather, leather covered, felt, canvas, linen, paper, cotton, or wheels or belts rolled or coated with emery or corundum, or cotton wheels used as buffs, shall, when deemed necessary by the factory inspector, assistant factory inspector, or any officer of the bureau of labor, provide such wheels or belts with blower or similar apparatus, which shall be placed over, beside, or under such wheels or belts in such manner as to protect the person or persons using the same from the particles of the dust produced and caused thereby, and to carry away the dust arising from or thrown off by such wheels or belts while in operation, directly to the outside of the building or to some receptacle placed so as to receive and confine such dust: Provided, That grinding machines upon which water is used

* * *

and

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 For special legislation regarding tenement shops, see Ann. Stat. of 1898, Supp. of 1906, Acts of 1907, secs. 1636-71 to 1636-77 (22d An. Rept. Com. of Labor, pp. 14191422).

3 Ann. Stat. of 1898, Supp. of 1906, Acts of 1907, sec. 1636j (22d An. Rept. Com. of Labor, p. 1410).

* Idem, secs. 1636-33 and 1636-35 (22d An. Rept. Com. of Labor, p. 1415).

other wheels used for tool grinding be exempt from the provisions of this act.

[Here follows a detailed description of the character of fans, blowers, suction pipes, etc., required, but appliances in use at the time of the passage of this act, and which have proven satisfactory, need not be changed.]1

Penalty.-$25 to $100.

(d) All of the aforesaid places [i. e., factory, mill, workshop, mercantile or mechanical establishment or other building where 8 or more persons are employed] shall be kept clean and free from effluvia arising from any drain, privy, or nuisance, and shall be ventilated and kept in a sanitary condition.

(e) The commissioner of labor or any factory inspector may require such changes or additions to be made in any of the aforesaid places as will promote the best measures of sanitation.

Penalty.-$10 to $100.2

(f) Water-closets

* * * shall be properly

lated and at all times kept in a clean and good sanitary condition. Penalty.-$10 to $100.3

Reviewing these provisions, it will be observed that the subject of ventilation and pure air is covered in considerable detail. The first provision forbids overcrowding; the second requires exhaust fans where there are any manufacturing processes causing dust, fumes, or other air impurities; the third provides that, where deemed necessary by the factory inspector, grinding machines and grinding wheels of any description shall have dust-removing appliances, the precise character of which is prescribed by law; the fourth, in general terms, requires workrooms to be ventilated and kept free from effluvia due to bad drainage; the sixth is a special requirement that waterclosets shall be ventilated; and the fifth is a broad authorization given the factory inspection department to order any "changes or additions" that will, in its opinion, promote the best measures of sanitation, the word sanitation being here used probably in a broad sense to include matters of ventilation also.

The law, however, erects no standards by which good and bad conditions of ventilation may be judged. Except as the first provision, regarding overcrowding, directs otherwise, this duty is apparently left to the factory inspection department, which at the time of the field work of this investigation had provided itself with no general administrative standards in this matter. The provision regarding

1 Ann. Stat. of 1898, Supp. of 1906, Acts of 1907, secs. 1636–39 to 1636–46 (22d An. Rept. Com. of Labor, pp. 1416, 1417).

2 Idem, secs. 1636–34 and 1636–35 (22d An. Rept. Com. of Labor, p. 1415).

3 Idem, secs. 1636-31 and 1636-35 (22d An. Rept. Com. of Labor, pp. 1415).

overcrowding [provision (a)] is peculiar in that it directs that the local boards of health shall have the final determination. The law forbids the crowding of employees beyond the point where "the laws of health" are violated. The factory inspection department is charged with the enforcement of the law, but the local board of health is to decide in cases of dispute when "the laws of health" are being violated. The several local boards are apparently free to give different interpretations to similar conditions.

As regards matters of general sanitation and cleanliness, as distinguished from those concerning pure air, the law, as presented in the above-quoted legal provisions, requires that factories, workshops, etc., shall be "kept clean" and "in a sanitary condition" [provision (d)]; that water-closets especially shall be kept "in a clean and good sanitary condition" [provision (ƒ)], and vests the factory inspection department with a broad authority to order any "changes or additions" that, in its opinion, will "promote the best measures of sanitation" [provision (e)]. These directions do not specify exact conditions or exact remedies, but it would seem that under their combined authority the inspection department would have sufficient power to insist upon reasonably high standards of cleanliness.

The commissioner of labor, in an interview, stated that the law regarding overcrowding gives much trouble. There are no standards. The inspectors decide individual cases according to their individual judgments, the decisions being subject to reversal by the local boards of health. In one case of apparently serious overcrowding the board of health ruled against the factory-inspection department.

He also stated that the injuriousness of dust and fumes is also an extremely difficult matter for the inspectors to deal with. Usually an inspector determines a case "according as he thinks the dust and fumes would be, or would not be, clearly harmful to himself or to the average person." No apparatus is used to detect, test, or measure the injuriousness of fumes or dust, and in test cases the harmfulness of particular substances is difficult to prove.

Cigar factories and bakery and confectionery establishments are subject to special regulations regarding ventilation and sanitation. These regulations are designed primarily to insure purity of product, but their secondary effect upon the health and comfort of employees is of much importance. In reproducing here the regulations referred to, a few provisions which have no bearing upon this latter aspect of the subject are omitted.

The legal provisions applicable to cigar factories are as follows:1 (a) No shop or place wherein cigars are manufactured shall be located below the ground floor.

1 Ann. Stat. of 1898, Supp. of 1906, Acts of 1907, secs. 1636-101 to 1636-109 (22d An. Rept. Com. of Labor, p. 1424).

(b) Each employee in any shop or place wherein cigars are manufactured, shall, while actually employed, be allowed to use 20 square feet of surface space, unobstructed to the ceiling.

(c) Every room wherein cigars are manufactured shall contain at least 700 cubic feet of air space. It shall in every part be not less than 8 feet in height, from floor to ceiling, every window shall have not less than 12 square feet in superficial area, and the entire area of window surface shall be not less than 12 per cent of the floor space of such room.

(d) Every room in which cigars are manufactured while work is carried on shall be so ventilated that the air shall not become impure and injurious to the health of the persons employed therein, and it shall wherever necessary, by the means of air shafts or other ventilation, be so changed as to render harmless all gases, dust, and other impurities generated in the process of manufacturing cigars. All windows are to be kept open for 30 minutes before working hours and for 30 minutes after working hours.

(e) Every such shop or place in which 1 or more persons are employed and every such factory in which 5 or more persons are employed, shall be kept clean. The dust must be removed from work tables and floors once every day, the floors scrubbed at least once a week and 1 cuspidor provided for every 2 employees.

Penalty. First offense, $10 to $25; second offense, $25 to $50. The legal provisions regarding bakery and confectionery establishments are in such very considerable detail that they are given here only in summary form:1

Bakery and confectionery establishments:

(a) Shall be well drained and all plumbing therein shall be constructed in accordance with well-established sanitary principles and of good workmanship.

(b) Shall be light, airy, and dry.

(c) The air * * * shall at all times be kept pure and free from harmful odors and noxious gases.

(d) Floors and side walls so constructed as to exclude rats, mice, and other vermin, * * * be free from moisture and kept in a good state of repair. Said floors shall have a smooth surface and be impermeable, and may be constructed of wood, cement, or tile laid in cement.

(e) No floor shall be constructed in a room * where the floor of said room is more than 8 feet below the level of the street, sidewalk, or adjacent ground. [The meaning of this is apparently that no establishment in existence at time of passage of this law shall have a floor more than 8 feet below ground. See requirement (m) as regards establishments built after passage of this law.] (f) Walls and ceiling * shall be whitewashed at least as often as once in 6 months.

* *

(g) And the floors, utensils, and furniture used for the delivery of

* *

*

and wagons

* food products shall at all times

be kept in a sanitary, clean condition.

1 Ann. Stat. of 1898, Supp. of 1906, Acts of 1907, secs. 1636-61 to 1636-67 (22d An. Rept. Com. of Labor, pp. 1417–1419).