Eleventh-The number, condition, and nature of the employment of the inmates of the State Prisons, county jails, and reformatory institutions, and to what extent their employment comes in competition with the labor of mechanics, artisans, and laborers outside of these institutions.

Twelfth-All such other information in relation to labor as the Commissioner may deem essential to further the object sought to be obtained by this statute, together with such strictures on the condition of labor and the probable future of the same as he may deem good and salutary to insert in his biennial reports.

SEC. 4. It shall be the duty of all officers of State departments, and the Assessors of the various counties of the State, to furnish, upon the written request of the Commissioner, all the information in their power necessary to assist in carrying out the objects of this Act; and all printing required by the Bureau in the discharge of its duty shall be performed by the State Printing Department, and at least three thousand (3,000) copies of the printed report shall be furnished the Commissioner for free distribution to the public.

SEC, 5. Any person who willfully impedes or prevents the Commissioner, or his deputy, in the full and free performance of his or their duty, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction of the same shall be fined not less than ten (10) nor more than fifty (50) dollars, or imprisoned not less than seven (7) nor more than thirty (30) days in the county jail, or both.

SEC. 6. The office of the Bureau shall be open for business from nine (9) o'clock A. M. until five (5) o'clock P. M. every day except non-judicial days, and the officers thereof shall give to all persons requesting it all needed information which they may possess. SEC. 7. (As amended, Stats. of Cal., 1889, p. 6.) The Commissioner shall have power to send for persons and papers whenever in his opinion it is necessary, and he may examine witnesses under oath, being hereby qualified to administer the same in the performance of his duty, and the testimony so taken must be filed and preserved in the office of said Commissioner. He shall have free access to all places and works of labor, and any principal, owner, operator, manager, or lessee of any mine, factory, workshop, warehouse, manufacturing or mercantile establishment, or any agent or employé of such principal, owner, operator, manager, or lessee who shall refuse to said Commissioner, or his duly authorized representative, admission therein, or who shall, when requested by him, willfully neglect or refuse to furnish to him any statistics or information pertaining to his lawful duties, which may be in the possession or under the control of said principal, owner, operator, lessee, manager, or agent thereof, shall be punished by a fine of not less than fifty nor more than two hundred dollars.

SEC. 8. (As amended, Stats. of Cal., 1889, p. 7.) No use shall be made in the reports of the Bureau of the names of individuals, firms, or corporations supplying the information called for by this Act, such information being deemed confidential, and not for the purpose of disclosing any person's affairs; and any agent or employé of said Bureau violating this provision shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall be punished by a fine not to exceed five hundred dollars or by imprisonment in the county jail not to exceed six months.

SEC. 9. (As amended, Stats. of Cal., 1889, p. 7.) The Commissioner shall appoint a deputy, who shall have the same powers as the said Commissioner, and such agents or assistants, not exceeding three, as he may from time to time require, at such a rate of wages as he may prescribe, but said rate must not exceed four dollars per day and actual traveling expenses for each person while employed; he shall procure rooms necessary for offices, at a rent not to exceed fifty dollars per month.

SEC. 10. (As amended, Stats. of Cal., 1889, p. 7.) The salary of the Commissioner shall be three thousand dollars per annum, and the salary of the Deputy Commissioner shall be eighteen hundred dollars per annum, to be audited by the Controller and paid by the State Treasurer, in the same manner as other State officers; there shall also be allowed a sum not to exceed forty-five hundred dollars per annum for the salaries of agents or assistants, for traveling expenses, and for other contingent expenses of the Bureau.

SEC. 12. (As amended, Stats. of Cal., 1901, p. 12.) Whenever complaint is made to the Commissioner that the scaffolding, or the slings, hangers, blocks, pulleys, stays, braces, ladders, irons, or ropes of any swinging or stationary scaffolding used in the

construction, alteration, repairing, painting, cleaning, or painting of a building are unsafe or liable to prove dangerous to the life or limb of any person, such Commissioner shall immediately cause an inspection to be made of such scaffolding, or the slings, hangers, blocks, pulleys, stays, braces, ladders, iron, or other parts connected therewith. If after examination such scaffolding or any such parts is found dangerous to life or limb, the Commissioner shall prohibit the use thereof, and require the same to be altered and reconstructed so as to avoid such danger. The Commissioner, Deputy Commissioner, or agent or assistant making the examination shall attach a certificate to the scaffolding, or the slings, hangers, irons, ropes, or other parts thereof, examined by him, stating that he has made such examination and that he found it safe or unsafe as the case may be. If he declared it unsafe, he shall at once, in writing, notify the person responsible for its erection of the fact and warn him against the use thereof. Such notice may be served personally upon the person responsible for its erection or by conspicuously affixing it to the scaffolding or the part thereof declared to be unsafe. After such notice has been so served or affixed the person responsible therefor shall immediately remove such scaffolding or part thereof and alter or strengthen it in such a manner as to render it safe, in the discretion of the officer who has examined it or of his superiors. The Commissioner, his deputy, and any duly authorized representative whose duty it is to examine or test any scaffolding or part thereof as required by this section, shall have free access, at all reasonable hours, to any building or premises containing them or where they may be in use. All swinging and stationary scaffolding shall be so constructed as to bear four times the maximum weight required to be dependent therefrom and placed thereon, when in use, and not more than four men shall be allowed on any swinging scaffolding at one time.

This Act shall take effect immediately.

Stats. of Cal., 1889, p. 3.

An Act to provide for the proper sanitary condition of factories and workshops, and the preservation of the health of the employes.

[Approved February 6, 1889.]

The People of the State of California, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows: SECTION 1. Every factory, workshop, mercantile or other establishment, in which five or more persons are employed, shall be kept in a cleanly state and free from the effluvia arising from any drain, privy, or other nuisance, and shall be provided, within reasonable access, with a sufficient number of water-closets or privies for the use of the persons employed therein. Whenever the persons employed as aforesaid are of different sexes, a sufficient number of separate and distinct water-closets or privies shall be provided for the use of each sex, which shall be plainly so designated, and no person shall be allowed to use any water-closet or privy assigned to persons of the other sex. SEC. 2. Every factory or workshop in which five or more persons are employed shall be so ventilated while work is carried on therein that the air shall not become so exhausted as to be injurious to the health of the persons employed therein, and shall also be so ventilated as to render harmless, as far as practicable, all the gases, vapors, dust, or other impurities generated in the course of the manufacturing process or handicraft carried on therein, that may be injurious to health.

SEC. 3. No basement, cellar, underground apartment, or other place which the Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics shall condemn as unhealthy and unsuitable, shall be used as a workshop, factory, or place of business in which any person or persons shall be employed.

SEC. 4. (As amended, Stats. of Cal., 1901, p. 571.) In any factory, workshop, or other establishment where a work or process is carried on by which dust, filaments, or injurious gases are generated or produced, that are liable to be inhaled by persons employed therein, the person, firm, or corporation by whose authority the said work or process is carried on shall cause to be provided and used in said factory, workshop, or establishment an exhaust fan or blower, with pipes and hoods extending therefrom to each wheel or other apparatus used to grind, polish, or buff metals. The said fan or blower, and the said pipes and hoods, all to be properly fitted and adjusted, and of power and dimensions sufficient to effectually prevent the dust and filaments produced by the

abovesaid metal-polishing, metal-grinding, or metal-buffing from escaping into the atmosphere of the room or rooms of said factory, workshop, or establishment where persons are employed.

SEC. 5. (As amended, Stats. of Cal., 1903, p. 14.) Every person, firm, or corporation employing females in any manufacturing, mechanical, or mercantile establishment shall provide suitable seats for the use of the females so employed, and shall provide such seats to the number of at least one third the number of females so employed; and shall permit the use of such seats by them when they are not necessarily engaged in the active duties for which they are employed.

SEC. 6. (As amended, Stats. of Cal., 1901, p. 572.) Any person or corporation violating any of the provisions of this Act is guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall be punished by a fine of not less than fifty dollars nor more than three hundred dollars, or by imprisonment in the county jail for not less than thirty days nor more than ninety days, or by both such fine and imprisonment, for each offense. SEC. 7. It shall be the duty of the Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics to enforce the provisions of this Act. SEC. 8. This Act shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage.

WOMEN AND CHILDREN WAGE-WORKERS.

The facts on which this report is based were gathered in September, 1904, in a canvass of San Francisco and Oakland. It is evident that any generalizations based on such limited data must be tentative ones. They are valuable chiefly because they suggest lines that might be profitably followed in more exhaustive future investigations.

With so brief a time at our command, the necessity of confining ourselves to a few important points fully covered by State laws was obvious. The schedule of questions covered the following subjects:

1. The total number and the percentages of women and children employed in different industries.

2. The hours of labor. The violations of the law prohibiting the employment of minors under 18 years for "more than nine hours in one day" or for more than fifty-four hours in one week.

3. The ages of the children employed. The violations of the childlabor and compulsory education laws.

4. The sanitary condition of the workrooms and toilets.

5. The extent to which seats are provided for women employés. In the course of the canvass about two hundred and twenty-five visits were made to over two hundred different manufacturing and mercantile establishments. Of these, twenty-three are run by the proprietor and his family, and are excluded from the tabulation. Where a large number of children are employed, it is difficult to secure complete information about the ages. In compiling the statistics, we have been obliged to omit a number of the largest manufactories, because of incomplete data.

We were able to get information on all the points from one hundred and fifty-three establishments. With but few exceptions, the information was obtained from the managers or superintendents of the business. In the exceptional cases where there were reasons for doubting the correctness of the information given, lack of time prevented verification of the statistics.

Number and Hours of Labor of Women and Minors from 153 Establishments in San Francisco and Vicinity.

*These are the hours of the girls serving in the stores.

The fruit canneries and some of the largest manufacturing establishments employing children were omitted from this tabulation, because of incomplete returns about the number of employés and hours of employment.

1. PERCENTAGES OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN EMPLOYED.

Owing to the limited extent of this investigation, and the absence of complete records of past investigations, it is impossible to reach any conclusions about the relative increase or decrease in the number of women and children employed in different industries. The United States Census shows an increase for the State of California, but we have no data for determining among what industries this increase is distributed.

2. HOURS OF LABOR.

The lowest average number of hours to the week was found in the dry-goods stores. All the larger stores have reduced their time within the fifty-four-hour limit set by law. Two San Francisco stores, with a payroll of 586, only require forty-eight hours' work, and 1,120 of the employés tabulated work fifty and one half or fifty-one hours per week; thus, 1,706, or 92 per cent of the 1,852 employés reported in dry-goods stores, are working from three to six hours a week less than the legal limit.

The hours of labor in the large department stores in San Francisco are slightly longer than those of the dry-goods houses, averaging fiftytwo hours a week. One store, employing 480 people, only requires forty-eight hours per week, and in the other two the time conforms to

the fifty-four-hour limit required for the large number of minors employed as cash girls and boys and wrappers. In one large department store visited in Oakland, a large number of minors were working beyond the limit allowed by law. Many millinery stores are open until late Saturday night, thus going beyond the fifty-four-hour limit. The minors under 18 years are generally employed as apprentices. With one exception, these were excused from returning Saturday night. In this case, the proprietress readily agreed to give the girls who returned for night work shorter hours during the week, thus bringing the time within the legal limit. Cases of the violation of the law were also found in drug stores, candy stores, and bakeries. The worst instances were in butcher shops, where young boys work as much as nine hours over the legal limit.

With the possible exception of those employed in domestic service, no other women wage-earners have such long hours as those who serve as clerks in candy stores and bakeries. The bakeries often open as early as five o'clock in the morning, and the candy and ice-cream trade is brisk until midnight, while both classes of stores are open all day Sunday. Where there are a number of clerks, it is possible to arrange shorter hours, but in the smaller stores the girls were often found working twelve or fifteen hours a day. They were allowed every other Sunday, every third Sunday, or no Sunday at all off. The carelessness of the consumers is largely responsible for the Sunday work in the bakeries, as many of them are under union rules which do not allow any fresh bread or cake to be baked on Sunday. A little thoughtfulness on the part of housewives would do away with the need of Sunday opening. Another reason for the oppressive conditions in these trades is the fact that they seem to be just emerging from, or are in competition with, the domestic stage of development. Within a few blocks on one street, we found eleven bakery, delicatessen, and candy stores which were run by the proprietor and his family, who lived in the rooms back of the store and were ready for customers at all hours of the day and night. A like devotion to business seems to be expected of the few clerks employed. Obviously the hours of those serving in the neighboring stores competing with these domestic industries would tend to be equally long.

None of the manufacturing establishments visited required more than fifty-four hours a week, and some fell below this limit, bringing the average time down to fifty-three hours a week.

3. THE AGE LIMIT OF CHILDREN EMPLOYED.

The provisions of the law restricting the employment of children under certain ages are much more difficult to enforce than those limiting the hours of work. The law requires age certificates, registration and posting of names, addresses, ages, and hours of labor of all chil