and the object of the regulations in factory acts is to create the greatest degree of efficiency and productiveness in every working unit. To employ children below the natural and normal age of creative ability, or to work them beyond the limits of their physical endurance, is to impair the commercial value of their efforts, and to incur a debt with nature that neither the child nor the community may be able to liquidate in after years. UNIFORM SYSTEMS OF CHILD LABOR STATISTICS BY HON. JOHN WILLIAMS, New York State Commissioner of Labor, Albany, N. Y. Not long ago I heard a speaker say that one of the distinguishing features in the history of social progress in the twentieth century would be the place given to the consideration of the rights of children. Whether or not such prophecy will be fulfilled we cannot tell. But I feel that I am absolutely safe in saying that with respect to the conservation of the secular interests of our children, the history of the century will not record a single backward step. The intensity of the movement of which this Conference is but a manifestation, is a positive guarantee that in our country the exploitation of child labor is doomed. The trend is irresistible and the future is full of promise. The emancipation of the child will be accomplished. However, as we follow the account given of the conflict between the representatives of this social movement and those who represent the employers of children, we realize that the battle is not yet won. When we come to examine the statutes of our several states we find that the subject of child labor has been sadly neglected in many of them. This fact is a stain upon our civilization and is sufficient justification for the existence of the National Child Labor Committee. The treasure expended in the maintenance of intensive work along this line will in the future bring incalculable returns. The enactment of laws to restrict and to regulate the employment of children, and the creation of state agencies to enforce such laws, are two of the principal objects undertaken by Child Labor Committees. And when that is done, there arises the necessity of observing the enforcement of those laws, their effect upon the problem; the need of amendment and improvement in order to meet new conditions must be carefully considered-in short, every step must be taken deliberately and with a set purpose. In order that every dollar expended and every ounce of energy applied be made to yield a maximum return, I conceive it to be the duty of all who in any way have to do with the campaign so to arrange their work as to dovetail with the effort of others, so that there shall be no waste. I would apply this obligation to every agency, official and unofficial. Two-thirds of the states have provided for some degree or method of factory inspection, and one of the chief duties of a factory inspector is the enforcement of child labor laws in the manufacturing establishments within his jurisdiction. The proper exercise of this governmental function is important, in the first place, to the men, women and children whose immediate employment is affected thereby. So far as the individual interest of each such employee is concerned, it is immaterial, if the administration of the factory law be effective, whether or not the outside world knows anything about the work done. The record of the inspector's activity is of no moment to them if the conditions of their employment are properly regulated as provided by law. But the work of a factory inspector is important in a broader sense than that. It sustains a direct relation to the progress of society. Recognizing this fact, laws creating the office of factory inspector provide that such official shall preserve and present annually to some higher authority a record or report of his official acts. These reports are printed and distributed, and through them those who are sufficiently interested can gain some idea of the services rendered. The factory inspector is the only government agent, who, during the years intervening between federal or state census, has authority to enter our manufacturing places and obtain certain information, which, when properly collated, is of great practical value as a means to determine the development and growth of industry. That the value of his reports is determined by the methods employed to present the facts will be readily admitted. If the scheme of the report is clumsy and unscientific, its value is impaired, for in this age when everything moves so rapidly, neither the student, the social worker, nor the statesman can afford the time to dig information, valuable in itself, which is hidden under a mass of ill-arranged material, and no factory inspector should permit himself to follow a plan of reports that produces discouragement and despair in the mind of the seeker after knowledge. There is no phase of the factory inspector's work concerning which it is more important that precise information be available than the facts relating to the administration of laws regulating child labor, and it is to the methods employed, or that should be em ployed, to record those facts that I shall devote the remainder of my time. It has been my privilege-somewhat painful in a few casesto examine the reports of state factory inspectors with a view of securing such information as I thought such reports should contain, as would enable me to gauge the problem from a national standpoint. But, as many of you know, I was doomed to disappointment. Some factory inspectors have contented themselves with a brief textual reference to the subject, and have left us completely in the dark as to the extent of the problem within their jurisdiction. Others have given us apparently complete data, but the arrangement thereof is so ill-adapted to the purposes for which we read the reports as to be almost worthless. For obvious reasons, however, I cannot undertake any sort of a comparative statement of the methods employed by the several departments of inspection in presenting the facts of child labor. I shall present my own ideas of the manner in which a factory inspector should give to the world in condensed and intelligible form the record of the manufacturers of his state in respect to the employment of children. To begin with, let me say that I speak now as a factory inspector-as an officer whose primary duty is to enforce enactments for the protection of factory workers. I am not a statistician, but when I come to prepare my report I find that I need to use numbers— I want to convey clearly and briefly certain information regarding my work which is of sufficient importance to be preserved; so, perforce of circumstances, I must employ the methods of the man who speaks not in words but in numerals. If I do not adopt this plan, I must leave out much that is of value or string out my report to inordinate lengths. In either case it would be practically valueless. My desire is to present the facts so simply and so clearly that the most ordinary mind can grasp their significance. This can be done in regard to child labor statistics which are gathered, or should be gathered, by the factory inspectors of the country. Every inspector who is neglecting entirely the statistics of factories is falling far short of his opportunities. The social value of statistics covering the following group of related facts can be quite fully appreciated by those who make a study of industrial conditions and progress: Number of establishments inspected. Number of employees at time of inspection. Number of adult males. Number of adult females (over sixteen). Number of male minors (sixteen to eighteen). Number of girls (fourteen to sixteen). Number of children under fourteen. It is regrettable that in a few states the factory inspector's report is devoid of any statistical statement. Such reports have scarcely any value whatsoever. The text may be well written, but the absence of statistical grouping of basic facts makes us feel that the fine descriptive text is like a house built without a foundation— we do not know when it may tumble about our ears. To secure the statistical information above mentioned is a simple problem for the members of our field staff. It is incorporated in the report for each factory and sent to the main office. The work of tabulation can be done thereafter, and may be confined to comparatively simple tables, or, if scientific statisticians are available, more minute and elaborate tables might be worked out. No valid excuse can be given by those inspectors, who, year after year, inflict upon the public the unsatisfactory task of reading a mass of generalties which are unsupported by figures showing the facts supposedly described. I imagine that I hear someone say it is quite easy for the Commissioner of Labor of New York to urge that factory inspectors devote more time to the preparation of statistical tables for their reports, for he has a corps of trained statisticians to perform such service for his bureau of factory inspection, while the factory inspectors in other states are denied the services of even one person experienced in statistical work. It is probably true that no other state department of factory inspection is so fortunate as that of the state of New York. We have an excellent bureau of statistics; yet not all of the statistical tables which appear in the report of our bureau of factory inspection are prepared by the bureau of statistics. I want to state now that, in my opinion, no factory inspector can escape the charge that because his reports do not contain intelligible statistical information, they are deficient in value and interest, by saying that his appropriations would not permit the hiring of persons to prepare such tables. Any person who is intelligent enough to be a factory inspector-who plans and |