The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-01-23
NEW ERA IN
 FACTORY INSPECTION
Cooperation For Safety Rapid- Iy Taking Place of ..Polic-
 ing'' Idea.


 That we have entered upon a new era in factory inspection, character izcd by co-operation between employ and employee to secure safefy, health and comfort in the places of endowment is the statement of Sec retary John B. Andrews of the sAmeJsi-. can Association for Labor Legislation in an illustrated bulletin on the ad- m1nsstration of labor laws just Issued from the Association's Eeaduuarters at New York.
 -.The old idea of labor law enforce rnent, of policing state,'' declares Dr. Andrews mo longer commands respect Almost ne7half of the in dustrfal w orkfng population of the country is now offered a new form of; protection exemplifled by the indus trial boards or commissions estab- Iished within the last three years in California; Massachusetts New York. Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Under this new system the Industry itself makes the laws for its own shop ,<overnn1ent- Employers and ern- ployees, with the aid of impartial ex- perts, are learning through self-ex- pression the importance and practi- cability of the now popular motto Safety First The factory inspec> tors. armed with simple rules drawn from sthe experience and skill of in slssstrys are growing more confident and likewise more respected because more helpful. fs
 ssIf may be expected that within i the next five years the legislatures of all the more important Industrial states Will cease to concern themselves much with specific labor 1egislation- The work of formulating detailed reg uIations is being turned over to ad-s lninistrative commission much better fitted to. develop scientific standards for the Bxotectf0ni Of the work eEs-', The business of factory inspection, states another section of the bulletin. instead of being based on fear, force or favor, should become a co-opera- tive educational effort on the part of the employers, the em mpleyees, and the experts provided by the state.
 Surprising diversity is shown in present methods of labor law enforce ment- Six states have no provision at all for enforcement of factory laws or collection of labor statistics. In the remaining. states, no fewer than thirty-one titles are found for offices doing practically the same kind of work The number of state and lo- cal bodies concerned with labor law enforcement varies -frodn fifteen in Massachusetts to only one in Wyo- ming,
 operation with. the heads of the state labor bureaus. shows the jlfrisdiction of each bureau the number of it's staff, their quaIidcatiOnss terms and SaAHr1eSr the annual 1fappropr1auonE Tor the department, and the penalties for interfering with inspectors The lar gese labor department is that of New York with a staff of sA3 persons and an appropriatien of s6e1,220; the smallest occurs in Florida, where there is only one inspector with an appropriation in the neighborhood of $9, GOO.
 A directory giving the names of all state labor departments, comnlissions administering Workm enssi comp ton Iawss and mznim u1ns wage com missions, with the names and atI-sl dresses of their chief officers, con venfentIy arranged for ready refer ence, completes the compact and in feresffng volume. The Illustrations are a. chart graphically nlustrating the organization of typical state la bnr commission. and a three-color map. showing the legal requir ements for fhe position of factory Inspector in the United States.