of law in toilet accommodations. On the other hand, they considered it reasonable to recommend improvements in toilet accommodations in 31 of these factories. On the whole subject of sanitation and comfort they found only 7 clear violations of the present law in 112 establishments visited, but 215 recommendations were made for reasonable improvements in these same plants.

In some factories the toilets were clean and adequate in number and in conformity with the law; others were not provided with doors or any kind of screening. In addition to this, five, six, and sometimes eight connected toilets were found provided with a single automatic flushing device which operated every 15 or 18 minutes. The toilets in one factory were dark and unventilated, although outside ventilation had been ordered five months earlier by the industrial inspector. Many of the toilets in other establishments. were found to have no outside ventilation, with partitions which did not reach to the ceiling, so that the only ventilation was through the work room.

In some shops the girls were required to take care of the cleaning themselves; in some others a man was supposed to do this work. In one establishment where there were five toilets in a row without doors in front of them, the cleaning was done by a man. Women's toilets were sometimes found adjoining the men's toilets and separated from them by a partition which did not reach to the ceiling.

In one plant working on a munitions contract, it was found that the toilet accommodations were so inadequate that only one installation was provided for 128 girls. In another establishment, a women's toilet with only eight seats was used by 600 women all summer. This condition was a direct violation of the law, which provided that one toilet shall be provided for every 25 women, and an additional one for every fraction thereof above 10.

WASHING FACILITIES AND DRINKING WATER.

The standard for washing facilities and drinking water has been recommended by the Women in Industry Service of the United States Department of Labor as follows:

Washing facilities with hot and cold water, soap, and individual towels should be provided in sufficient number and in accessible locations to make washing before meals and at the close of workday convenient. Drinking water should be cool and accessible, with individual drinking cups or bubble fountains provided.

In Indianapolis the investigators considered the washing facilities inadequate in 42 out of 112 establishments visited. Provisions for drinking water were unsatisfactory in 24 of them.

One tin basin was all that was provided for eight girls in one establishment. When the investigator visited it early in the day, the water, which was all that could be obtained for that day, was already soapy and dirty. No towels were supplied. In another establishment, where food products were prepared and packed, 45 women were employed in one room trimming meat. Their washing accommodations consisted of one basin, no soap or towels, and no hot water. In several food factories, no soap or towels were provided for the girls. In one bakery which employed 32 girls— who handled all the cakes made in that establishment-only one

sink was provided for washing, no soap at all was supplied, and the girls had to wipe their hands on a dirty roller towel, which was changed only once a week.

An uncorked earthen molasses jug filled every morning with a dirty glass in front of it, supplied all the drinking water in one establishment. In another establishment drinking water was supplied from a wooden bucket. The supervisor of women in this plant said that she thought the bucket was kept covered by a piece of wood and that each girl had her own glass. A faucet with a tin cup was the extent of the drinking accommodations in several factories. In a big establishment where food products were canned, tin cups were found chained to the wall beside large water tanks in several workrooms.

The Indiana law covered such conditions as these merely by saying that "a suitable and proper washroom" shall be provided. Here again is ample evidence of the great need for a definite code on this subject and increased machinery for its enforcement.

DRESSING ROOMS, LUNCH ROOMS, AND REST ROOMS.

The Indiana law requires that "a dressing room shall be provided for women and girls, when required by the chief inspector." The standard which is advocated by the Woman in Industry Service of the United States Department of Labor, is that "Dressing rooms shall be provided adjacent to washing facilities, making possible change of clothing outside the workrooms. Rest rooms should be provided."

Recommendations for improvements in dressing rooms were made in 50 of the 112 establishments visited, and for improvements in, or installation of, rest rooms and lunch rooms in 33 plants. In a cord factory the girls in one department hung their wraps on nails in the sewing room. The lint from the waste material in the spinning room blew over the partition and settled on the wraps. Nails on the walls of the toilet room on the second floor were used by the girls on that floor. In many factories the girls hung their outdoor clothing on the walls of the workshops. In others, racks were provided for their clothes in the toilet rooms. As the toilets were often not screened or ventilated, this arrangement was most unsatisfactory. One girl said she liked to hang her wraps in the workroom because she could "keep her eye on them better." Individual lockers with keys have been installed in some establishments.

In one establishment where 25 girls were employed running lathes and doing other machine work there was no lunch room or rest room and the girls were obliged to eat their midday meal in the machine shop. In a printing office which employed 35 girls the only accommodation that was offered for lunch was a gas burner in one corner of the workroom where the girls could heat their own coffee. In another establishment which employed women, the sole equipment of the lunch room, which was the only place the girls could use for resting or eating, was a few chairs with legs or backs broken, which were also used as racks for outdoor wraps, sufficient hooks not being provided elsewhere. In an automobile-tire factory, 300 girls ate their lunch at the work tables, as no lunch room or rest room was provided. To rest during the noon hour they stretched

themselves out on the pads of booked rubber in the workroom. In one laundry visited tired girls were allowed to lie on the tables in the workroom during the lunch period.

The women in some of these establishments were working 10 hours or more every day except Saturday and Sunday. They needed some place where they could rest during the noon hour and where they could get a nourishing lunch or eat in pleasant surroundings the meal which they had brought with them, and they needed a dressing room where they could change their working clothes for outdoor apparel.

One manager of a large mill in Indianapolis had recently installed an attractive cafeteria with space for dancing, and, on the floor below, shower baths and individual lockers for his women employees. He said to one of the inspectors that he expected his cafeteria to cost him several thousand dollars a year over his receipts from it, but that he believed that it paid through increased efficiency of his workers and the decreased labor turnover.

POSTURE AT WORK.

One of the methods of relieving fatigue of women workers and of improving their general health and efficiency is to provide seats for their use while at work. It is generally accepted that continuous standing is particularly injurious to women, yet the Indiana law contains no real provision on this subject except in the child-labor law, which states that girls under the age of 18 years shall not be employed in any capacity where such employment compels them to stand continuously. The factory-inspection law has a clause which requires that "the employer of such women and girls shall provide a suitable seat for the use of each female employee, placed conveniently where she works, and shall permit the use of the same when she is not necessarily engaged in the active duties for which she is employed." The last clause permits employment in which continuous standing is the practice. Girls are standing all day in the work of inspection and finishing in many factories throughout the State, when an intelligently adjusted seat would permit them to vary their position occasionally from standing to sitting. Girls in one establishment working on lathes where the operation took several minutes were not provided with seats because the machines had been put too close together to make room for a chair or stool.

Even in processes in which the women sit at work, it is a common thing in factories throughout the State to see them sitting not on "suitable" seats but on old boxes with wooden slats nailed to them to serve as backs. An elderly woman in a food-products canning company peeled onions all day. Her only seat was a pile of onions which she had heaped up to give herself some support. For those women who are doing their work seated on boxes and other insufficient support, it is clearly within the provision of the law in Indiana to require that they be provided with suitable seats.

PRECAUTIONS AGAINST ACCIDENTS.

Statistics of accidents to women in industrial establishments in Indiana in 1917 and 1918, prepared by the secretary of the State industrial board of Indiana, showed 502 accidents in 1918 as com

pared with 404 in 1917, or an increase of over 24 per cent. It was stated that part of the increase was due to injuries to hands and fingers in the operation of punch presses in the metal trades, in which the number of women increased during the war. These reports of accidents were received by the board in connection with the administration of the State compensation law, requiring payment of compensation for disability lasting longer than seven days. Doubtless less serious accidents are often not reported.

The Indiana law provides for "adequate" guards for machinery, and in many factories the law has been conscientiously followed, but the number of serious accidents reported, and minor ones probably not reported, show the need of greater care to insure safety, especially through a larger force of inspectors. Girls were found working at emery wheels polishing metal parts in a shower of sparks and emery dust from which they were not protected either by hoods for the wheels or gloves and goggles for themselves. Girls who were daily turning out hundreds of small metal cones from large punch presses, working at great speed, placed the cones under the presses with their fingers. In several shops it was noticed that there was no protective device on these machines to prevent the release of the press while the operator's fingers were under it. That such protection can be given was shown in other machine shops where automatic protective devices had been installed, reducing accidents to a minimum. Unprotected belts and pulleys were another great source of accident in the factories in Indiana. In one shop at the side of an aisle not more than 3 feet wide, was a totally unprotected belt running very fast. In another factory, the belts operating the machines on each side of a narrow aisle met at an angle not more than seven feet above the center of the aisle. A person walking down this aisle had to keep directly in the middle to avoid hitting the belt on one side or the other.

In a machine shop a young girl was operating a lathe which sent a shower of hot steel shavings all around her. She wore no goggles to protect her eyes, nor had there been any attempt to place a shield around the lathe to catch those dangerous particles. In one factory a girl was interviewed who said she had been working all the time on an emery wheel at what she called "amber filing." There is a little hood over the emery wheel," she said, "but the dust is awful. Most of the emery wheels you pour water on or something, but not this kind. It was just dry dust. It does not make me feel bad, but I am a sight by night, hair and face covered with black dust." It is a well-recognized fact that breathing emery dust is very harmful to the lungs and is likely to result in tuberculosis or other respiratory diseases. This machine could have been fitted with a proper ventilating hood, which would have removed the chief dangers.

THE NEED FOR NEW LEGISLATION.

The facts revealed even in this brief inquiry show that without State action women workers are subjected to the fatigue of long hours, which are clearly detrimental to their health and efficiency. Without clearer definitions of standards of comfort, safety, and sanitation in the workrooms, working conditions are often allowed to exist which are below a wholesome or decent minimum. Most important of all