1 Prosecutions. The department is seldom required to resort to prosecutions to enforce orders for safeguarding. Most of the prosecutions are in connection with child and women workers. It has never been the policy of the department to rush to the courts. On the contrary, every persuasive method is exhausted before prosecution is resorted to. Some people are called on seven or eight times before a warrant is asked for. This takes both time and money but we have always felt that it was better to prove the justice and reasonableness of the law's requirements than to secure compliance for fear of the law. The number prosecuted and the nature of the complaint is shown in the following summary: Children employed without certificate. Children employed excessive hours.. Children employed under 14 years of age. Children employed at night work. Failure to guard machinery. Failure to guard elevator. Failure to clean toilet.. Keeping doors of factory locked during working hours. Employing women excessive hours. Failure to post schedule of hours. Failure to send children to school. Operating employment agency without a license. Children under 10 years of age selling on streets. Permitting minors to frequent bowling alley. Dependent and neglected children (in juvenile court) Total 3 76212222102 18 12 3 10 75 In the child labor cases 7 were fined, in 7 cases sentence was suspended and 2 dismissed. For violating factory laws, 3 were fined and 4 given suspended sentences. For working women excessive hours and not posting schedules, 11 were fined, 6 received suspended sentences, and 3 were dismissed for lack of evidence. One restaurant owner was proscuted a second time in a year and fined $50 for the second offense. In the truancy cases 6 were fined and 6 received suspended sentences. Of the two men who operated employment agencies without a license, one was fined $100 and the other $2. In the welfare cases two owners of a bowling alley were fined $25 each, one girl was committed to the training school for girls at Sauk Center, two children were sent to the state school at Owatonna, guardians were appointed for seven children and six children were placed on probation. The total fines and costs collected amounted to $585.61. Fifty-four of the prosecutions were instigated by the Bureau of Women and Children, and they also gave assistance in gathering evidence and testifying for police women and probation officers. Complaints Referred to Other Departments. In pursuing their work throughout the state the inspectors frequently find conditions existing for which the factory laws offer no adequate remedy, but which can be reached by laws under the jurisdiction of some other state or a city department. They are reported to those departments and assistance rendered them in correcting abuses. In this manner, in addition to the matters referred to the railroad and warehouse commission, mentioned in the report on railroad inspections, a number of matters were referred to the state fire marshal, the state hotel inspector, the state board of health, the local health and building departments and to the local fire marshals. It is with pleasure that we report that in all cases the departments responded with prompt action and have in turn referred like communications to us. Orders Issued. A perusal of the orders issued by the factory inspection department and the Bureau of Women and Children will give a clearer idea of the large amount and the great good of the work done by the department generally than can be explained in a summary of the inspections made. Many other suggestions are made orally and carried out, some required by the laws and others which are not, but which experience has proven to add greatly to the safety and comfort of the employes and consequently to their efficiency. We present herewith a summary of the written orders issued during the two years by both bureaus. ORDERS ISSUED BY THE BUREAU OF FACTORY INSPECTION AND THE BUREAU OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN. TO SAFEGUARD MACHINERY. To guard belts, shafting, pulleys and cables. To guard protruding set screws, keys and bolts. To guard gears, sprockets and chains, To guard couplings and clutches. To place guards around engines and flywheels. To guard emery wheels 3,531 2,293 1,877 583 314 605 To reduce speed of emery wheels. 30 To guard motors, dynamos and electrical apparatus. 178 62 To repair, replace or extend guards. To provide rubber matting, gloves and protectors. 66 35 24 8 130 10,573 To post danger warning notices. Total PLATFORMS, STAIRS AND PASSAGEWAYS. To provide hand rails on stairs.. 593 To provide guard rails around platforms, balconies, open pits, bins and scaffolds. 346 To provide substantial platforms, ladders and scaffolds. To repair floors and walls of buildings.. To provide better light in aisles, passageways and buildings To provide toe-boards on overhead platforms. 107 To provide new hoisting, counterweight or operating cables To provide additional means of egress. To provide receptacles for waste and remove fire hazards. 23 21 182 829 To provide wire glass in windows and doors leading onto or under fire escapes and balconies. To provide "Save All" automatic fire escape or knotted rope* Total *Issued in grain elevator where workmen are seldom in cupola. CORN SHREDDERS AND CORN HUSKERS. To place guard on rolls.. To guard chains, gears and pulleys. To extend shut-off lever and foot-board to safe distance 31 To comply with laws regulating hours of labor for women... To replace bad and missing blocks in switches, frogs and guard rails on railroads.. 310 462 To remove dangerous obstructions in railroad yards. 14 176 ORDERS ISSUED IN MANUAL TRAINING DEPARTMENTS OF SCHOOLS. To guard belts, pulleys, shafting and cables. To guard engines and fly wheels. To guard circular saws To guard band saws To guard emery wheels To guard machines (miscellaneous) To guard motors, dynamos, etc. To guard exposed gears To guard protruding set screws. To repair tools To provide better light around machine. 40 7 To provide rubber matting around electrical apparatus. To post danger warning sign.. To provide hand rails on stairs and platforms. To provide stairs and platforms. 2 To provide exhaust system for dust creating machinery 1 Total Grand total 190 16,120 WAGES OF LABOR-GAS PLANTS. One of the municipalities of Minnesota requested this department to make a study of the wages and hours of labor in the gas industry of Minnesota for the guidance of the managers of such plants. In compliance with the request this department secured reports from 16 public plants and 16 private plants and herewith publish the data found in these reports. Table I is a summary of the wages paid in each of the groups of plants and in the entire 32 plants. It shows that the wages in the public plants are higher than in the private plants. There are larger percentages of the private employers in the lower paid groups than of the public employes. The private plants have a larger number of employes in the $2 to $2.49 a day group than in any other, but the municipal plants have their largest number in the $2.50 to $2.99 group. Eighty-eight per cent of the private employes, but only 80.6 per cent of the public, earn less than $3.33 a day; while 6.10 per cent of the public but only 1.55 per cent of the private men earn over $4.50 per day. The hours of labor are likewise shorter, on the average, in the municipal than in the private plants. Table 2 shows that a little over 72 per cent of the public and 65 per cent of the private workmen have an eighthour day; while 18 per cent of the public and 16 per cent of the private have a nine-hour day. The weekly hours (Table 3) show practically the same differences between the two groups as the daily hours (Table 2). TABLE 1. WAGES IN PUBLIC AND PRIVATE GAS PLANTS (Males and Females) |