matic machinery; in others the action is greater, and so it goes along until by numerous and easy gradations it merges into the employments requiring the exercise of great muscular power. So much has been written on high medical authority relating to the manner in which health is affected by sedentary labor, that practically nothing new can be said on the subject; its leading and unquestioned results are: General stagnation of physical development; general torpidity of natural functions; reduction of lung capacity, and abbreviated respiration.

It is a demonstrated fact that the ratio of tuberculosis as compared with other diseases among wage-workers, is greatest where the amount of exertion is least, and lowest where it is greatest, the intermediate degrees showing an intermediate ratio. Work requiring unusual physical strength, such as is performed by stone-cutters, masons, and steel construction men, is not prejudicial to health and longevity by reason of any circumstance peculiarly relating to them. Indeed, being performed in the open air these and other outdoor occupations are practically free from the incidental circumstances which lead to pulmonary troubles, and their mortality ratio is much smaller than that of the comparatively unlaborious trades carried on indoors. In fact the experience is that trades requiring strong or even moderate physical exertion are far less unhealthful than those calling for little or no bodily effort, a proposition in harmony with natural law, which requires a reasonable exercise of the muscular system as an indispensable pre-requisite to good health.

The air of workshops has a direct relation to the nature of the occupations carried on, and the taints with which it is burdened may be regarded as incidental to the calling; its quality, however, is largely affected by the size of the building and the ventilation provided for in its construction. The incidental contaminations which are, however, susceptible of modification by the exercise of proper precautions, are the heated acid-laden vapors, noxious fumes, gases and dust, as in chemicals works, plating rooms, polishing and buffing shops, foundries, laundries, tanneries, potteries and textile mills. In fact, whatever the substance or material handled may be, particles thereof or some more or less noxious odors peculiar to the same, are always present in the air of even the most modern factories, equipped though they may be, with every known preventative and remedial device.

The wages to be earned is generally the chief consideration which governs a young person, either man or woman, in the choice of an occupation for upon them depends the possibility of living comfortably and acquiring the requisites for a healthy and enjoyable life. Low wages mean poor living accommodations, insufficient food, with infirm health, shortened days, and all other distressing consequences of poverty. Unfortunately on the other hand, the advantages which should follow sufficient earnings are often nullified by ignorance and improvident habits.

Steadiness or unsteadiness of employment is another element that powerfully affects the morale of workmen. Occupations that call for technical skill and steady work are those in which workmen generally receive the highest wages and are treated with the greatest degree of consideration. On the contrary in the numerous occupations known as season trades, such for instance as brick-making, fruit and vegetable canning, and in a somewhat less

degree, stone-cutting, mason work, painting, carpentering and other of the building trades, a period of active operation often with overtime and intense application to work, is followed by another equally long perhaps, during which nothing is earned, and the strictest economy is required to sustain life until the busy season returns. There is therefore a period of intense labor with an abundance of good food at one time, and enervating idleness without enough of even the common necessaries of life at another. No argument is required to prove that the health of workers who follow occupations of this character must suffer directly and indirectly from such fluctuations.

The influence exercised by capital on the well-being of workers is most favorable in factory industries calling for a large outlay for buildings and machinery. Insufficient capital means inability to compete with those who have enough except on the basis of smaller profits, which in turn, prevents the installation of machinery and appliances suitable to the trade carried on. The work of such firms is usually done in old and ill-built factory buildings that are defective in general arrangement and without sufficient space for healthy work. Employers so situated may realize quite as fully as do their wealthier competitors the wisdom of promoting efficiency by giving their workmen the advantage of modern machinery and a place to work, in which they are surrounded by as near to perfect sanitary conditions as possible, but want of sufficient capital ties their hands, and to remain in the trade at all, they must be satisfied with profits distinctly inferior to those produced by the best equipped plants; and, generally speaking, their employes must be content with lower wages and in many instances, irregular employment.

The location of a factory cannot fail to exercise an influence on the health of those employed in it. The physical features and sanitary qualities of the works are bound to be practically the same as those of the district in which they are placed, and as its workpeople as a rule find it most convenient and economical to live near it, they are, as a matter of course, subject to the same sanitary conditions as other residents of the place. Therefore to get a fairly correct understanding of the effect on health of the work pursued, an accurate analysis of the general health conditions of the place, and of the people not employed in the factory in question, should be made in order to determine how far the diseases met with are chargeable to the general district conditions, and how far to circumstances peculiar to the trade. Failure to consider and give due weight to both these factors accounts for the widely divergent opinions expressed by different writers on trade dis

eases.

There is abundant evidence to prove that workmen employed in factories more or less distant from the congested centres of population, suffer less from sickness and have a lower rate of mortality than those engaged at the same trade in factories within the cities. The reasons for this are obvious. Factory buildings, because of the comparative inexpensiveness of land, are generally much more commodious, and, as a rule, constructed with due regard for the neutralization so far as possible, of the ill health producing factors peculiar to the character of the industry, in which, with the wider knowledge of hygienic law that now prevails, a fair approximatior

to the desired results is usually attained. The workmen too, have much better homes in suburban localities, a six or seven room cottage with a garden for cultivation or recreation being as a rule, obtainable for a lower rental than would be required for a few cheerless rooms in a large city tenement. That a change from a crowded centre of population to the comparatively natural and uncontaminated environment of the country is of vast physical and moral advantage to the workmen, and that the improvement thereby brought about in his capacity as a producer, reacts to the advantage of his employer is shown by the steady movement of factories from the congested districts of our overgrown cities to places where the desire to erect large, commodious, well-ventilated plants suitable to the peculiar interrelated operations of the business, together with healthful homes for operatives and their families, is not confronted by the prohibitive cost of land.

A marked influence is exerted on the consequences of employment by the sanitary habits of workingmen themselves, and these in turn, are almost irresistably influenced by the environment in which they work and the wages they are capable of earning. In ill constructed factory buildings of the old type, the toilet arrangements are usually crude and unsanitary, individual inclination regulates the extent of the midday and evening wash-up, and also the conveniences provided for that purpose, which at best can consist of nothing more than a wooden bucket, that in time, becomes so coated with grease and other sedimentary matter as to make its use rather productive of contamination than cleanliness; this with a very infrequently laundried towel, usually constitutes the entire outfit. The clothing removed during working hours which is generally hung in an exposed position upon the factory wall, is resumed at quitting time without the formality of brushing, and at least some part of the dust accumulated upon the various articles in the course of the day is thus transferred from the workshop to the home. A sentiment of individual and collective indifference to sanitary conditions naturally grows up under such circumstances, and the habit contracted during working hours of disregarding the rules of health, is quite likely to manifest itself elsewhere and at other times.

As pointed out above, the question of wages earned, is a very important factor in modifying the consequences of labor, for on it depends the quality and quantity of food the recipient is able to procure, the locality in which he resides, and the health preserving necessities of life with which it is possible to equip his home. The ill-nourished man having a poorly equipped home-and both conditions are almost universally found to go together, is much more susceptible to the disease producing contingencies of an occupation than one who is comfortably housed and well fed, and when attacked by sickness is less able than his more fortunate brethren to make a successful struggle for restoration to health. This being so, the direct relation existing between wages and physical vigor will be readily recognized. In fact a sympathetic observer cannot fail to perceive the amount of sickness and misery prevailing in employments that are productive of only the bare necessities of animal existence.

It is a subject for congratulation that so many employers in our own state and elsewhere, perceiving the evils attendant upon these conditions,

are making earnest efforts for their correction and have already accomplished much toward rendering factory environment as free from all menace to health as the character of the industry carried on will allow. State and municipal building laws have done much toward bringing these changes about, but by far the greater part of the improvement may justly be attributed to a popular sense of equity and fairness which is more or less faithfully reflected in all enactment of like character.

Of the hundreds of large industrial plants attracted to our state during recent years by low priced lands and perfect transportation facilities, practically all are constructed with a view to providing the most perfect possible protection for the health and comfort of the workers. Employers have in many instances gone far beyond the requirements of law or even public sentiment in these respects, and establishments under their control present a most surprising demonstration of what can be accomplished where "the will and the way" are combined, toward divesting factory life of not alone many of the most serious physical evils once regarded as without remedy, but also imparting to it many features of a social and educational character that should exert an improving influence on the lives of workpeople who fortunately enjoyed such advantages.

Several years ago the results of a study by this Bureau of these superiorly organized establishments in New Jersey, were exhibited in the form of illustrations, charts, and descriptive text, in the sociolological department of the St. Louis Exposition, and the admirable arrangements there portrayed for protecting the health, and strengthening the sense of self-respect among employes, attracted world-wide attention. Copies of a descriptive pamphlet relating to the subject published by the state, were sent on request to many of the large industrial centres of our own and other countries. Since then leading publications-literary and sociological, together with conservative associations for the elevation of labor like the Civic Federation of America, have taken up the discussion of improved factory conditions, and the Bureau is rightfully entitled to the satisfaction of knowing that its work on these humane lines has been the means wherever known, of proving the material and moral value of the policy described, and also extending the sphere of its application.

A brief review of the measures adopted in one or two progressively managed plants, for the protection of the health of employes and the promotion of contentment among them, will serve to show what may be accomplished by interest in the welfare of employes, good business sense, and a knowledge of the laws of modern sanitation and hygiene in combination with sufficient capital to carry out the plans of the management.

The Sherwin-Williams Co., manufacturers of paints and varnish, operates ten plants in as many towns of the United States; one of these is located in the city of Newark on the banks of the Passaic River; the bulidings are large, modern structures of brick in the construction of which every feature required for perfect ventilation and sanitation was incorporated. In this model factory, order and cleanliness is the basis of all measures for the welfare of employes. In giving primacy to these, the ground that the first requisite of good health is to take care of it in the proper place; that is to say, where it may be most subject to the danger of impairment.

In these works, cleanliness extends not only to the floors and machinery of the workshops, but to the employes as well, and in order to insure its thorough observance, the factory is provided with a large number of lavatories and shower baths, and a plentiful supply of clean towels is furnished from the company's own steam laundry.

Employes are encouraged in every way to use the shower-baths freely, but in the dry-cooler department, in order to guard against lead poisoning, the frequent use of the baths is compulsory. As a further safeguard, each employe is provided with an entire change of clothing every day. As a result of this caution, the average man who before could not work in the drycooler department with safety to his health for more than one month, can now remain in it as long as he cares to, or is wanted by the management. Where in the past at least one out of every two men were affected by the lead, there is now not more than one in twenty injured by it, and almost always only those suffer who do not make proper use of the system. Recognizing the importance of proper nourishment in the maintenance of good health and the promotion of efficiency, a part of the factory building is set apart and used exclusively as a lunch-room and kitchen. Either a soup or a stew with tea and coffee are served free every day, while the balance of a well-selected bill-of-fare is served at cost prices. The employes bring their own lunches and are served with the free hot dishes, or they may order their entire meal, and get a good one, for an average of eight or ten cents. Whenever night work is necessary during the busy season, special dinners are served for all employes at the expense of the firm.

Much more space than can be afforded for the purpose would be required to give an understandable outline of the features maintained by this company and its employes; there is a benefit society that takes care of the sick and buries the dead, the funds for the maintenance of which were furnished by the company, until, from the growth of membership it came to be on a self-sustaining basis. Rest rooms are provided for female employes where they can lie down at noon or receive attention in case of illness; a club room for men, furnished with a piano, game tables and good reading matter; supplementing these there is an annual banquet and outing for all employes and their families, the expenses of which are paid by the company.

Thanksgiving Day has been observed for many years by presenting each employe with a basket containing a turkey and cranberries, proportioned in size to the number of his family, and no deduction of pay is ever made on account of this or any other holiday.

One of the best results of the betterment work carried on by this company is the desire of employes to remain in its service. Among them are many of the rank and file who have been in the service more than twenty-five

years.

The company has made it a custom to present everyone who has been with it in any capacity for that length of time with a gold watch and chain. This is not given as a reward for faithful service, but rather as a badge of honor.

That the system briefly outlined above has now been in successful operation for upwards of twenty-five years is the best possible proof of its having met with an appreciative and loyal support from the employes, for whose