The Plymouth tribune. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1901-1911, 1904-06-30
REFORM MEASURES
Enacted by General Assembly During
Past Decade.
DISCUSSED BY PRESIDENT PERKINS

Indiana Has Attained Reputation for
the Enforcement of the Labor Laws
Upon the Statute Books of the State
Politics Has Played No Part in
Affairs of Factory Inspection De-
partment.
Reference has before been made in
The columns of this paper to the many
labor reform measures enacted in In
diana during the last nine years of
Re-, -licar supremacy in legislative af-
fairs. An article contributed by Mr..
Edgar A. Perkins, president of the
Indiana Federation of Labor, to the In
dianapolis Star, furnishes. additional
evidence to show what has been accom-
plished along this line since the aces
sion of the Republican party to respon-
sibility in Indiana in 1895, and this
evidence is strengthened by the fact
that President Perkins Is Democrat.
He says:
The report of the Department of
Inspection, just issued by Inspector
McAbee, shows the strides that have
been made in the last few years in the
curtailment of child labor In this state.
While this feature of industrial life is
not all that it should be, 1t is at pres
ent SO much better than it was few
years ago that the advocates of legisla-
ton for the retarding of child labor
have hope that the future will see
more accomplished than has the past.
The present inspection department,
although hampered by littleness Of ap-
preparation and in the number of dep
uties, has done much to bring the state
forward in Its reputation for the class
| Of labor laws that prevail.
A Reputation for Enforcement
Indiana, while 1t has not SO many
laws In the interest of labor as have
some of the Eastern states, has a name
| for the enforcement of those that are
on the books second to none. The
inspection force at the present con-
sists of one inspector and five depu-
ties, who are expected to attend to all
| the work that comes under the depart
ment. At the last session of the legis-
lature an effort to have the force in
creased was defeated.
Compared with the forces employed
In other states, the inspection force
employed In this state is small and the
amount Oh money expended in its main
tenance is not to be compared with
that of many others. Yet, in the num-
Der of Inspections to be made and the
territory to be covered, there is not
such great difference.
II is contended by those who have
been instrumental in bringing the law
to its present point that unless there
Is some means of compelling an i'm
partial enforcement of the factory laws
an injustice would be done, and espe.
oially would this be SO in SO far as
child labor was concerned. 1t was
largely Tor this reason that an increase
in the inspector force has been advo-
Gated.
tits pointed out that this state has
become one Of the big manufacturing
II
sure to cost more for the enforcement
of factory laws from year to year.
10 Now Five Years Old.
The inspection department has now
been in existence a little over five
years, having been created by the leg
islature of 1897, during the term Of
Governor Mount, who appointed D. H.
McAbee, the present inspector. The
first force consisted Of Mr.. McAbee
and one assistant, who was expected
to do the Office work and keep up his
end of the outside work. The law
at that time was not materially diff
ferent from the present one, and the
inspection department did not accom-
plish in its first two years as much
as it's friends had hoped for. 1t did.
however, demonstrate the necessity
for it's existence, and at the following
session of the legislature not much op-
position was encountered in the effort
to increase the efficiency of the depart
ment.
Again, at the following session, an
increase was secured, but many of the
members of the last legislature were of
the opinion that the end had been
reached. And, strange to say, the op-
position did not come from the rurel
districts, but from the representatives
from the cities. The matter, however,
will not be dropped, and an effort will
be made between now and the next
session of the legislature to create
public sentiment in favor of further
increasing the efficiency Of this depart
ment
Results of the Law.
Through its efforts many children
have been taken out of the factories,
the sanitary conditions have been won
derfully improved. accidents have been
reduced and in connection with the
truant authorities hundreds Of children
have been placed in school that would
otherwise have been denied the bepe-
Ats Of education.
The law is originally the effort of the
trade union movement in this state.
Such legislation was among the first
asked by the State Federation of La
Dor, but It was not until the early '90's
that a systematic effort was made to
secure its passage.
In the spring of 1892 the secretary
of the Indianapolis Central Labor Uu-
ion secured copies of the New York,
Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, fac
tory acts and out of these original
Indiana act was drafted The late Cap
1o