Factory Inspection
the need of special factory legislation was first brought about by the fact that machinery, by reducing the need of labor, and throwing an increasing number of workers out of employment, created competition among the workers themselves (see FACTORIES AND FACTORY SYSTEM).
This created a continuous tendency toward reduced wages, long hours of employment and a disregard for sanitary conditions. Still more important, the elimination of the need of skilled workers brought women and children into the factories in competition with men.
It was one thing to pass legislation correcting these evils; it was quite another matter to enforce it. Thus, following all this labor legislation came the need of competent inspectors to see that the laws were being enforced. Gradually it has been realized that factory inspection had even a bigger function than that. The competent inspectors were those who not only saw that the letters of the laws were being enforced, but who could intelligently observe the results of their enforcements. Where certain legislation fails to correct the abuses it has set out to cure, the fact should first be made known through the reports of the inspectors. It is also the function of a competent inspector to indicate the cause of such failures, and recommend new laws which will correct the faults.
FACULTY After the first Factory Acts were passed in England, in 1802, the local judges appointed visitors. In 1833, the need of experts being felt, four special inspectors were appointed, their number being increased to nine in 1842. These have since been increased to hundreds, directed from the Home Office. tion, naturally, is carried on by the separate States, each of which has passed its own set of labor laws. Practically every State of the Union now carries on some form of factory inspection. Usually this is directed by a special department of labor, but in Massachusetts this function is under the jurisdiction of the police. In other States independent bureaus carry on factory inspection. Every year sees legislation passed to enlarge the jurisdiction of the factory inspection staffs. In 1919 Connecticut, New York, Missouri, and West Virginia enlarged their forces of inspectors. New Jersey, Washington, and North Dakota established special mine inspection bureaus. California empowered its industrial Welfare Commission to issue subpœnas and administer oaths, while Minnesota authorized its inspectors to enter the offices as well as the tors to enter the offices as well as the workrooms of the establishments they inspected. per