Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-12-06
INSPECTOR OF FACTORIES.
Inspector simmons First Annual Report Made Public.

Report Made Public.
 William $. Simmons, state inspector of factories has presented his first an, nual report to the governor. During the five months that he has aerved, Mir Simmons has inspected 2oo buildings and factories which employ 42,OS9 per sons or about one-third of our manufac' turing population. Of these places, 1ss were found in excellent condition, and 127 had faults which need to be reme- died. In all 2O6 changes were ordered The report says:
 The greater portion of my time has been devoted to ascertalnlng what safe guards were needed to prevent the oc- currence of accidents. The inspections thus far made indicate that there Is much unprotected machinery i'll use III the manufactories of the state. About seventy five per cent of all the changes ordered or suggested were for the pur- pose of preventing ac cidents tc opera tlves.
 Careful attention has been given to all 'the,s..evators and hoistways which were found in use in the buildings and places which have been inspected, In general, it has been found that operatives have been ordered not to clean machinery while it is in motion, but 1t IS too often the case that these orders are dlsregard- ed for the purpose of gaming tune. Many of the accidents which occur are the results of this disobedience on the part of operatives. .. There are no statistics of accidents which have occurred among factory op- eratives in this state in the past years, and no means of knowing their number or the e1tent of the injuries suffered. There is nothing in the law which re- quires an investigation of accidents. This work has been taken up, however, and an account of the same will appear in the next report of this office. Our rank in population as compared in other states was 2S. The standing of Connecticut in industrial matters at that time is shown by the following figures:- In number of manufacturing establish.
 ments It In value of products In capital In per centage of persons employed
 in manufactories. The whole number of operatives wa, 112,915. The capital invested was S12O, 4SO,275; the annual wages paid S43, 5O1 ,51S; the materials used were valued at $102, ,769, ,341, and the value of tht products was S1S5, 5,6S0,211. There were more than 200 specified industries.
 It seems probable that the approach
 
 has been made during the past ter years. Probably more than one-half O the people of the state who have occu pations are now employed ill thes' manufactures.
 The places where half of the work ing population of the state spend nearl, half of their lives should be kept at al times in good sanitary condition. I'm is not only duty from moral point o view, but necessity economically the best results cf work are to be ex pected.
 And it is equally true that when peo pie are expected to spend half their live amid moving machinery the opportu nity for accident there should be re duced to the minimum.
 The condition of many closets in tn factories of the state is shameful, ant the inspector calls attention to the fact He has made fire escapes the object o his notice though not required by law and he wisely recommends that he b. given authority in such matters.