Women Wage-Earners Part 15

Despair might easily be the outcome of a first glance at these conditions; but the stir at all points is a.s.surance of a better day to come.

Legislation can do much. The appointment of women inspectors, lately brought about for New York, is imperative at all points, since women will tell women the evils they would never mention to men. Law can also demand decent sanitary conditions, and affix a penalty for every violation. Beyond this, and the awakening of the public conscience as to what is owed the honest worker, little can be said. Enlightenment, a better chance at every point for the struggling ma.s.s,--that is the work for each and all of them, and for those who would aid the constant demand, and labor for justice in its largest sense and its most rigorous application. With justice on both sides, abuses die of pure inanition.

The tenement-house system, every evil that hedges about special trades, every wrong born of cupidity and ignorance, and all base features of trade at its worst, end once for all, and we see the end and aim of the social life, whether for employer or employed.

A generation ago Mazzini wrote:--

"The human soul, not the body, should be the starting-point of all our efforts, since the body without the soul is only a carca.s.s, whilst the soul, wherever it is found free and holy, is sure to mould for itself such a body as its wants and vocation require."

It is this soul-moulding that is given chiefly into the hands of women.

It is through them that the higher ideal of life, its purpose and its demands, is to be made known. No present scheme of general philanthropy can touch this need. It is growth in the human soul itself that will mean justice from the employer to each and every worker, and from the worker in equal measure to the employer; and this justice can be implanted in the child as certainly as many another virtue, into the knowledge and love of which we grow but slowly.

Never has deeper interest followed every movement for the understanding and bettering of conditions. Never was there stronger ground for hope that, in spite of the worst abuses existing, man's will is to join hands at last with natural evolution toward higher forms. Faith and hope alike find their a.s.surance in the increasing sense of the solidarity of human kind, and the spirit of brotherhood more and more discernible, which, as it grows, must end all oppression, conscious and unconscious. The old days of darkness are dying. Man knows at last that--

"Laying hands on another, To coin his labor and sweat, He goes in p.a.w.n to his victim For eternal years in debt;"

and in knowing it, the first step is taken in the new life wherein all are brothers; and the law of love, slowly as it may work, ends forever the long conflict between employer and employed.

FOOTNOTES:

[49] Transactions of the National a.s.sociation for the Promotion of Social Science, 1857, p. 554.

[50] July, 1893.

APPENDIX.

FACTORY INSPECTION LAW.

Pa.s.sED MAY 18, 1886; AMENDED MAY 25, 1887; AMENDED JUNE 15, 1889; AMENDED MAY 21, 1890; AMENDED MAY 18, 1892.

CHAPTER 409, LAWS OF 1886 (AS AMENDED BY CHAPTER 673, LAWS OF 1892).

An act to Regulate the Employment of Women and Children in Manufacturing Establishments, and to Provide for the Appointment of Inspectors to Enforce the Same.

_The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and a.s.sembly, do enact as follows_:

SECTION I. No person under eighteen years of age, and no woman under twenty-one years or age, employed in any manufacturing establishment, shall be required, permitted, or suffered to work therein more than sixty hours in any one week, or more than ten hours in any one day, unless for the purpose of making a shorter work-day on the last day of the week, nor more hours in any one week than will make an average of ten hours per day for the whole number of days in which such person or such woman shall so work during such week; and in no case shall any person under eighteen years of age, or any woman under twenty-one years of age, work in any such establishment after nine o'clock in the evening or before six o'clock in the morning of any day. Every person, firm, corporation, or company employing any person under eighteen years of age, or any woman under twenty-one years of age, in any manufacturing establishment, shall post and keep posted in a conspicuous place in every room where such help is employed, a printed notice stating the number of hours of labor per day required of such persons for each day of the week, and the number of hours of labor exacted or permitted to be performed by such persons shall not exceed the number of hours of labor so posted as being required. The time of beginning and ending the day's labor shall be the time stated in such notice; provided that such women under twenty-one and persons under eighteen years of age may begin after the time set for beginning, and stop before the time set in such notice for the stopping of the day's labor; but they shall not be permitted or required to perform any labor before the time stated on the notices as the time for beginning the day's labor, nor after the time stated upon the notices as the hour for ending the day's labor. The terms of the notice stating the hours of labor required shall not be changed after the beginning of labor on the first day of the week without the consent of the Factory Inspector, a.s.sistant Factory Inspector, or a Deputy Factory Inspector. When, in order to make a shorter work-day on the last day of the week, women under twenty-one and youths under eighteen years of age are to be required, permitted, or suffered to work more than ten hours in any one day, in a manufacturing establishment, it shall be the duty of the proprietor, agent, foreman, superintendent, or other person employing such persons, to notify the Factory Inspector, a.s.sistant Factory Inspector, or a Deputy Factory Inspector, in charge of the district, in writing, of such intention, stating the number of hours of labor per day which it is proposed to permit or require, and the date upon which the necessity for such lengthened day's labor shall cease, and also again forward such notification when it shall actually have ceased. A record of the amount of over-time so worked, and of the days upon which it was performed, with the names of the employees who were thus required or permitted to work more than ten hours in any one day, shall be kept in the office of the manufacturing establishment, and produced upon the demand of any officer appointed to enforce the provisions of this act.

-- 2. No child under fourteen years of age shall be employed in any manufacturing establishment within this State. It shall be the duty of every person employing children to keep a register, in which shall be recorded the name, birthplace, age and place of residence of every person employed by him under the age of sixteen years; and it shall be unlawful for any proprietor, agent, foreman, or other person in or connected with a manufacturing establishment to hire or employ any child under the age of sixteen years to work therein without there is first provided and placed on file in the orifice an affidavit made by the parent or guardian, stating the age, date, and place of birth of said child; if said child have no parent or guardian, then such affidavit shall be made by the child, which affidavit shall be kept on file by the employer, and which said register and affidavit shall be produced for inspection on demand made by the Inspector, a.s.sistant Inspector, or any of the deputies appointed under this act. There shall be posted conspicuously in every room where children under sixteen years of age are employed, a list of their names with their ages respectively. No child under the age of sixteen years shall be employed in any manufacturing establishment who cannot read and write simple sentences in the English language, except during the vacation of the public schools in the city or town where such minor lives. The Factory Inspector, a.s.sistant Inspector, and Deputy Inspectors shall have power to demand a certificate of physical fitness from some regular physician, in the case of children who may seem physically unable to perform the labor at which they may be employed, and shall have power to prohibit the employment of any minor that cannot obtain such a certificate.

-- 3. No person, firm, or corporation shall employ or permit any child under the age of fifteen years to have the care, custody, management of, or to operate any elevator, or shall employ or permit any person under the age of eighteen years to have the care, custody, management, or operation of any elevator running at a speed of over two hundred feet a minute.

-- 4. It shall be the duty of the owner, agent, or lessee of any manufacturing establishment where there is any elevator, hoisting-shaft, or well-hole, to cause the same to be properly and substantially inclosed or secured, if in the opinion of the Factory Inspector, or of the a.s.sistant Factory Inspector, or a Deputy Factory Inspector, unless disapproved by the Factory Inspector, it is necessary to protect the lives or limbs of those employed in such establishment. It shall also be the duty of the owner, agent, or lessee of each of such establishments to provide or cause to be provided, if, in the opinion of the Inspector, the safety of persons in or about the premises should require it, such proper trap or automatic doors, so fastened in or at all elevator ways as to form a substantial surface when closed, and so constructed as to open and close by action of the elevator in its pa.s.sage, either ascending or descending, but the requirements of this section shall not apply to pa.s.senger elevators that are closed on all sides. The Factory Inspector, a.s.sistant Factory Inspector, and Deputy Factory Inspectors may inspect the cables, gearing, or other apparatus of elevators in manufacturing establishments, and require that the same be kept in a safe condition.

-- 5. Proper and substantial hand-rails shall be provided on all stairways in manufacturing establishments, and where, in the opinion of the Factory Inspector, or of the a.s.sistant Factory Inspector, or Deputy Factory Inspector, unless disapproved by the Factory Inspector, it is necessary, the steps of said stairs in all such establishments shall be substantially covered with rubber, securely fastened thereon, for the better safety of persons employed in said establishments. The stairs shall be properly screened at the sides and bottom, and all doors leading in or to such factory shall be so constructed as to open outwardly where practicable, and shall be neither locked, bolted, nor fastened during working-hours.

-- 6. If, in the opinion of the Factory Inspector, or of the a.s.sistant Factory Inspector, or of a Deputy Factory Inspector, it is necessary to insure the safety of the persons employed in any manufacturing establishment, three or more stories in height, one or more fire-escapes, as may be deemed by the Factory Inspector as necessary and sufficient therefor, shall be provided on the outside of such establishment, connecting with each floor above the first, well fastened and secured and of sufficient strength, each of which fire-escapes shall have landings or balconies, not less than six feet in length and three feet in width, guarded by iron railings not less than three feet in height, and embracing at least two windows at each story and connecting with the interior by easily accessible and un.o.bstructed openings, and the balconies or landings shall be connected by iron stairs, not less than eighteen inches wide, the steps not to be less than six inches tread, placed at a proper slant, and protected by a well-secured hand-rail on both sides with a twelve-inch-wide drop-ladder from the lower platform reaching to the ground. Any other plan or style of fire-escape shall be sufficient, if approved by the Factory Inspector; but if not so approved, the Factory Inspector may notify the owner, proprietor, or lessee of such establishment or of the building in which such establishment is conducted, or the agent or superintendent or either of them, in writing, that any such other plan or style of fire-escape is not sufficient, and may, by an order in writing, served in like manner, require one or more fire-escapes, as he shall deem necessary and sufficient, to be provided for such establishment, at such locations and of such plan and style as shall be specified in such written order. Within twenty days after the service of such order, the number of fire-escapes required in such order for such establishment shall be provided therefor, each of which shall be either of the plan and style and in accordance with the specifications in said order required, or of the plan and style in this section above described and declared to be sufficient. The windows or doors to each fire-escape shall be of sufficient size, and be located as far as possible consistent with accessibility, from the stairways and elevator hatchways or openings, and the ladder thereof shall extend to the roof.

Stationary stairs or ladders shall be provided on the inside of such establishment from the upper story to the roof, as a means of escape in case of fire.

-- 7. It shall be the duty of the owner, agent, superintendent, or other person having charge of such manufacturing establishment, or of any floor or part thereof, to report in writing to the Factory Inspector all accidents or injury done to any person in such factory, within forty-eight hours of the time of the accident, stating as fully as possible the extent and cause of such injury, and the place where the injured person has been sent, with such other information relative thereto as may be required by the Factory Inspector. The Factory Inspector or a.s.sistant Factory Inspector and Deputy Factory Inspectors under the supervision of the Factory Inspector, are hereby authorized and empowered to fully investigate the causes of such accidents, and to require such precautions to be taken as will in their judgment prevent the recurrence of similar accidents.

-- 8. It shall be the duty of the owner of any manufacturing establishment, or his agents, superintendent, or other person in charge of the same, to furnish and supply, or cause to be furnished and supplied therein, in the discretion of the Factory Inspector, or of the a.s.sistant Factory Inspector, or of a Deputy Factory Inspector, unless disapproved by the Factory Inspector, where machinery is used, belt-shifters or other safe mechanical contrivances, for the purpose of throwing on or off belts or pulleys; and wherever possible machinery therein shall be provided with loose pulleys; all vats, pans, saws, planers, cogs, gearing, belting, shafting, set-screws, and machinery of every description therein shall be properly guarded, and no person shall remove or make ineffective any safeguard around or attached to any planer, saw, belting, shafting or other machinery, or around any vat or pan, while the same is in use, unless for the purpose of immediately making repairs thereto, and all such safeguards shall be promptly replaced. By attaching thereto a notice to that effect, the use of any machinery may be prohibited by the Factory Inspector, a.s.sistant Factory Inspector, or by a Deputy Factory Inspector, unless such notice is disapproved by the Factory Inspector, should such machinery be regarded as dangerous. Such notice must be signed by the Inspector who issues it, and shall only be removed after the required safeguards are provided, and the unsafe or dangerous machine shall not be used in the mean time.

Exhaust fans of sufficient power shall be provided for the purpose of carrying off dust from emery wheels and grindstones, and dust-creating machinery therein. No person under eighteen years of age and no woman under twenty-one years of age shall be allowed to clean machinery while in motion.

-- 9. A suitable and proper washroom and water-closets shall be provided in each manufacturing establishment, and such water-closets shall be properly screened and ventilated, and be kept at all times in a clean condition; and if women or girls are employed in any such establishment, the water-closets used by them shall have separate approaches and be separate and apart from those used by men. All water-closets shall be kept free of obscene writing and marking. A dressing-room shall be provided for women and girls, when required by the Factory Inspector, in any manufacturing establishment in which women and girls are employed.

-- 10. Not less than sixty minutes shall be allowed for the noonday meal in any manufacturing establishment in this State. The Factory Inspector, the a.s.sistant Factory Inspector, or any Deputy Factory Inspector shall have power to issue written permits in special cases, allowing shorter meal-time at noon, and such permit must be conspicuously posted in the main entrance of the establishment, and such permit may be revoked at any time the Factory Inspector deems necessary, and shall only be given where good cause can be shown.

-- 11. The walls and ceilings of each workroom in every manufacturing establishment shall be lime-washed or painted, when in the opinion of the Factory Inspector, a.s.sistant Factory Inspector, or of a Deputy Factory Inspector, unless disapproved of by the Factory Inspector, it shall be conducive to the health or cleanliness of the persons working therein.

-- 12. Any officer of the Factory Inspection Department, or other competent person designated for such purpose by the Factory Inspector, shall inspect any building used as a workshop or manufacturing establishment or anything attached thereto, located therein or connected therewith, outside of the cities of New York and Brooklyn, which has been represented to be unsafe or dangerous to life or limb. If it appears upon such inspection that the building or anything attached thereto, located therein or connected therewith is unsafe or dangerous to life or limb, the Factory Inspector shall order the same to be removed or rendered safe and secure; and if such notification be not complied with within a reasonable time, he shall prosecute whoever may be responsible for such delinquency.

-- 13. No room or rooms, apartment or apartments, in any tenement or dwelling-house, shall be used for the manufacture of coats, vests, trousers, knee-pants, overalls, cloaks, furs, fur-tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs, fur-garments, shirts, purses, feathers, artificial flowers, or cigars, excepting by the immediate members of the family living therein. No person, firm, or corporation shall hire or employ any person to work in any one room or rooms, apartment or apartments, in any tenement or dwelling-house, or building in the rear of a tenement or dwelling-house, at making in whole or in part any coats, vests, trousers, knee-pants, fur, fur-tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs, fur-garments, shirts, purses, feathers, artificial flowers, or cigars, without first obtaining a written permit from the Factory Inspector, a.s.sistant Factory Inspector, or a Deputy Factory Inspector, which permit may be revoked at any time the health of the community or of those employed therein may require it, and which permit shall not be granted until an inspection of such premises is made by the Factory Inspector, a.s.sistant Factory Inspector, or a Deputy Factory Inspector, and the maximum number of persons allowed to be employed therein shall be stated in such permit. Such permit shall be framed and posted in a conspicuous place in the room or in one of the rooms to which it relates.

-- 14. Not less than two hundred and fifty cubic feet of air s.p.a.ce shall be allowed for each person in any workroom where persons are employed during the hours between six o'clock in the morning and six o'clock in the evening, and not less than four hundred cubic feet of air s.p.a.ce shall be provided for each person in any workroom where persons are employed between six o'clock in the evening and six o'clock in the morning. By a written permit the Factory Inspector, a.s.sistant Factory Inspector, or a Deputy Factory Inspector, with the consent of the Factory Inspector, may allow persons to be employed in a room where there are less than four hundred cubic feet of air s.p.a.ce for each person employed between six o'clock in the evening and six o'clock in the morning, provided such room is lighted by electricity at all times during such hours while persons are employed therein. There shall be sufficient means of ventilation provided in each workroom of every manufacturing establishment; and the Factory Inspector, a.s.sistant Factory Inspector, and Deputy Factory Inspectors, under the direction of the Factory Inspector, shall notify the owner, agent, or lessee, in writing, to provide, or cause to be provided, ample and proper means of ventilating such workroom, and shall prosecute such owner, agent, or lessee, if such notification be not complied with within twenty days of the service of such notice.

-- 15. Upon the expiration of the term of office of the present Factory Inspector, and upon the expiration of the term of office of each of his successors, the Governor shall, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, appoint a Factory Inspector; and upon the expiration of the term of office of the present a.s.sistant Factory Inspector, and upon the expiration of the term of office of each of his successors, the Governor shall, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, appoint an a.s.sistant Factory Inspector. Each Factory Inspector and a.s.sistant Factory Inspector shall hold over and continue in office, after the expiration of his term of office, until his successor shall be appointed and qualified. The Factory Inspector is hereby authorized to appoint from time to time not exceeding sixteen persons to be Deputy Factory Inspectors, not more than eight of whom shall be women; and he shall have power to remove the same at any time. The term of office of the Factory Inspector and of the a.s.sistant Factory Inspector shall be three years each. Annual salaries shall be paid in equal monthly instalments, as follows: To the Factory Inspector, three thousand dollars; to the a.s.sistant Factory Inspector, two thousand five hundred dollars; to each Deputy Factory Inspector, one thousand two hundred dollars. All necessary travelling and other expenses incurred by the Factory Inspector, a.s.sistant Factory Inspector, and the Deputy Factory Inspectors in the discharge of their duties shall be paid monthly by the Treasurer upon the warrant of the Comptroller, issued upon proper vouchers therefor. A sub-office may be opened in the city of New York at an expense of not more than one thousand five hundred dollars a year.

The reasonable necessary travelling and other expenses of the Deputy Factory Inspectors while engaged in the performance of their duties shall be paid upon vouchers approved by the Factory Inspector and audited by the Comptroller.

-- 16. It shall be the duty of the Factory Inspector, and the a.s.sistant Factory Inspector, and of each of the Deputy Factory Inspectors under the supervision and direction of the Factory Inspector, to cause this act to be enforced, and to cause all violators of this act to be prosecuted; and for that purpose they and each of them are hereby empowered to visit and inspect at all reasonable hours, and as often as shall be practicable and necessary, all manufacturing establishments in this State. It shall be unlawful for any person to interfere with, obstruct, or hinder, by force or otherwise, any officer appointed to enforce the provisions of this act, while in the performance of his or her duties, or to refuse to properly answer questions asked by such officer with reference to any of the provisions hereof. The Factory Inspector may divide the State into districts, and a.s.sign one or more Deputy Factory Inspectors to each district, and transfer them from one district to another as the best interests of the State may, in his judgment, require. Any Deputy Factory Inspector may be appointed to act as Clerk in the main office of the Factory Inspector, which shall be furnished in the Capitol, and set apart for the use of the Factory Inspector. The a.s.sistant Factory Inspector and Deputy Factory Inspectors shall make reports to the Factory Inspector from time to time, as may be required by the Factory Inspector, and the Factory Inspector shall make an annual report to the Legislature during the month of January of each year. The Factory Inspector, a.s.sistant Factory Inspector, and each Deputy Factory Inspector shall have the same powers as a Notary Public to administer oaths and take affidavits in matters connected with the enforcement of the provisions of this act.

-- 17. The District Attorney of any county of this State is hereby authorized, upon the request of the Factory Inspector, a.s.sistant Factory Inspector, or of a Deputy Factory Inspector, or of any other person of full age, to commence and prosecute to termination before any Recorder, Police Justice, or court of record, in the name of the people of the State, actions or proceedings against any person or persons reported to him to have violated the provisions of this act.

-- 18. The words "manufacturing establishment," wherever used in this act, shall be construed to mean any mill, factory, or workshop, where one or more persons are employed at labor.

-- 19. A copy of this act shall be conspicuously posted and kept posted in each workroom of every manufacturing establishment in this State.

-- 20. Any person who violates or omits to comply with any of the provisions of this act, or who suffers or permits any child to be employed in violation of its provisions, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction shall be punished by a fine of not less than twenty nor more than fifty dollars for the first offence, and not more than one hundred dollars for the second offence, or imprisonment for not more than ten days, and for the third offence a fine of not less than two hundred and fifty dollars, and not more than thirty days'

imprisonment.

-- 21. All acts and parts of acts inconsistent with the provisions of this act are hereby repealed.

-- 22. This act shall take effect immediately.

AUTHORITIES CONSULTED IN PREPARING THIS BOOK.