Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1900-09-14
Inspectors At WORK
Labor Commissioner Finds Sanitary
Conditions Of Factories in
Iowa Bad.
Other R Reforms WILDE Recommended
and Some Enforced inspection
Half Done.
Dairy Inspector at Work Will I'm.
prove Iowa Butter by Encour-
aging Cleanliness.

Special to Times Republican.
SDes Moines, Sept. &c. F. Wenner-
strum, state labor conlmi ssloner, has
made about half the inspections Of fac
tories which he will have to make this
year. AS a rule, he says, the proprie-
ltors and managers of manufacturing
establishments and other employers OF
labor are very willing to submit to in
| ispectton, and most of them have
promptly made the changes recon-
mended by the commissioner, or have at
least faithfully promised to do so. In
some cases objection has been made and
1 the employer has declared that there
twas too much law and even questioned
the authorityo Of the commissioner. but
in the end all these men promised to do
las they were requested without resort
to legal process.
Our main trouble said Commission
er Wennerstrum, SIS with the sanitary
conditions, lack of fire escapes, open ell
evator shafts. exposed set screws and
belts and cogs turning inward. The
sanitary conditions are in many in
/ stances bad. Wholly insufficient toilet
lrooms are provided, many Of them in an
extremely filthy condition. We have
/ demanded that these shall be done
away with and that decent accomno-
dations shall be provided, and we are
/ going to see that these demands are
met. Places of this character will be
visited again after the proprietors
have had reasonable time in which to
|remedy the evil. This is an evil which
must be cured. 1t is the worst of all.
sIIf an employe is injured by reason of
defective machinery or lack of due care
Ion the part Of the employer, the ems
ploye may recover damages. but with
foul sanitary conditions, bad ventila-.
4 tion. overheated working rooms and
4 disease breeding closets. there is no re-.
course for the victim. He is slowly i'm
4 loculated with disease and at last It
Ioyercomes him. But It would be diff
TIcult to prove that his employer was re-
4 sponslble for it,stho there might be
J ever so little doubt Of the fact.
y Fire escapes are comparatively
q scarce but more are being put In. Ele-
ivator shafts are open and full OF dan
S ger and We are seeing that they are
guarded. One of the most dangerous
Il things about the Iowa factories is the
!. set screw. you know. is a little wedge or
. lscrew that holds wheel onto shaft.
Il ! When the shaft is revolving very rapid
!; sly this is not perceptible and very often
: lit catches in a workman's sleeve or in
j his clothing somewhere and a terrible
81 accident occurs. Then if it is on the
! floor any one is liable to get caught in
Tit and sustain frightful injuries Sew
"A had ,,f iS !,
i CURED recently. Exposed cogs should
!. always turn outward. because they are
: much less dangerous
Another problem which we must
. meet, and the sooner the better, is that
9 Eofschild la Dor. There is no law in Iowa
!. against5 it except that children under /:
> siyears of age can not be employed in q
i mine. We find employed in many fac
) tories children under 16 years of age
!. who ought to be in school In some
: places the children of employees are
e given employment in the factory at the
e request of their fathers. l find many
e employers who would prefer not to hav'
Il children in the factory who would lik,
II to see the system abolished. This thins
z Ought to be taken hold of by the peopl,
tbefcre it gets strong foothold. Itw:l
d lbe easier to do 1t now than to wait unit
\ a system of child labor has been finall.
q Established.
\ "a great many new industries hav'
} 1lsprung up all over the state within TIL
Ipast year and there is hardly a tow
that does not offer some inducement t.
manufacturing industries to locat
o there. We are in correspondence Will
a number of such places which offe
/, particularly good opportunities to per
U sons desiring to engage in manufactur
e ing. We are not engaged in the pro
K noting business. but we will be Yer.
. glad to give information to any per
/ son, firm or company that would like I
y secure a good location. We can pu
S them in communication with reliabl
,f men by whom they will be honestl
). treated.
Z I'VE hope to be able to present tf1i
year the most complete report that 1a
lever gone out of this Office. To do thi
we must have from the individua
= working people replies to the question
= which were sent out about six week
= ago. / am told there is some hesitanc
y tabout replying to these questions tIr1
h the fear that the replies may be pub
JIlishedfor or may be shown to some one t
q the detriment of the persons giving tn
- information. This is very great mis-
= take None of these replies are eve
shown to any one. They are strictl
Iconfidential. If we did not have sens
: enough to treat them as confidentia
= the law steps in and says they shall no
\ be shown to any one. The Information
!, Ihey contain is tabulated and the indi
% vidual is entirely lost sight Of. Z
- FAX Viva o 3s
q The state board Of examiners 70
mine inspectors is now conducting ex
aminations of mine superintendents an
pit foremen as required by the last leg
is !slature Examinations have alread
y been held in Des Moines. Abba and Os
II kaloosa. One is being held in Center
lie lville this week and Boone comes next
It An examination for the whole state wi
l. be held in Des Moines in November an
N the last one will be in Ottunlwa in De
j. cember. The examiners are Prcfesso
10 Floyd Davis Of Des Moines. James
Stout OF Des Moines. Alexander Oar
Is gayel OF Centerville, John Ovens 9
ofI IBeacon and John ~. Lewis Of HitenAs
e.,The board has issued 26a certificate'