ployed in the number of plants reporting and that there were $8,884,573.27 paid in wages. This one industry alone shows the magnitude of West Virginia as a growing industrial state. The two factory inspectors visited and inspected 849 plants employing 67,300 people for the year 1917. Not quite so many plants were inspectod in the year 1918, as the report was closed on November 15, leaving a month and a half in the year which is to be included in the next report, and also for about six weeks the inspectors were prevented from continuing their work by the influenza epidemic. In 1918 the plants inspected employed over 80,000 people. As an instance of the varied details with which the inspectors must be familiar, there were two hundred and fifty orders issued by them during their inspections in 1917, relating to sanitation. The present year shows a hundred and twenty-two sanitation orders issued, indicating that a compliance with orders is not neglected. During the two years the inspectors found one hundred and fourteen children working without the proper permits and ordered them dismissed from the factories until they could comply with the Child Labor Law and secure permits from the proper authorities empowered to issue same.

With the increase in the number of industries it is plain to be seen that our inspection force is inadequate. There are points where the inspectors do not have time to cover, and which should receive the me inspection as the mills and factories on the main lines of our railroads. All are familiar with the lumber industry of the state, and the immense saw mills located on our mountain sides with an apparently unending supply of timber over the vast aera above. The inadequancy of the inspection force prevents a visit to these localities and the plants are therefore neglected. As plants are visited and orders issued, the inspectors are at a loss to know whether their orders have been carried out, and often a year elapses before inspections of the plants where the orders were issued are again made. Thus they are unable to follow up and see that their instructions are complied with at once, without neglecting some of the territory assigned them. The manufacturers have shown a most hearty inclination to cooperate with the Bureau, and in very few instances do the orders issued by the inspectors fail to be carried out in their entirety.

While we have a state law which provides that seats shall be placed for female employees in every manufacturing, mechanical, mercantile and other establishments in this state wherein women are employed, our inspection force can only see that this law is carried out in the factories and workshops, as their inspections do not reach the mercantile establishments where a vast majority of women workers are employed. Violations of the Child Labor Law are neither detected, for such violations often occur in mercantile establishments, without the knowledge of any fficial whose duties are to see that certain laws are obeyed. While these and laws of minor importance are among the labor laws of the state, and their enforcement in charge of the Commissioner of Labor, there should be at least four inspectors, one of which should be a woman, the latter to look after mercantile establishments and especially those factories in which women are employed.

Since April 6, 1917, the time of the entrance of the United States into the great war, there has been a very considerable addition of employees in the factories. The Government seeing the great possibilities of the state as a manufacturing center, and aware of its great coal and gas resources, took advantage of conditions and established within the state numerous plants for the production of war material. This necessarily added additional burdens to the inspection force and to the Bureau of Labor as well. A number of these Government plants have been erected for permanency, and they will naturally come under the supervision of the Bureau in times of peace as well as war, for hundreds of our citizens will comprise the army of employees. A number of privately owned plants were converted into war plants during the period covered by this report. Additions have been made, and the number of employees increased, all adding to the ordinary task of inspection, but the Bureau has endeavored to cope with this situation commensurate with the inspection force.

The Bureau here desires to record its appreciation f the employees of factories, of the cooperation that has been extended to it by employers and employees of the manufacturing establishments, and this has been especially true of the two great organizations in this state that represent capital and labor.

On September 30-October 1, 1918, a conference of state labor officials was held in Washington under the auspices of the War Labor Policies Board, and the two factory inspectors represented West Virginia at this conference. The result of this gathering was the adoption of a policy whereby all the labor standards which had been established by law, should be maintained as far as practical during the war.

Manufacturing Statistics.

While under the heading of factory inspection we dwelt upon one of the state's great industries, yet there are others which must not be overlooked, particularly the great iron and steel industry, lumber products, chemical manufacturing establishments and potteries. Your attention is directed to the statistics shown in another part of this report. The capital invested in buildings, grounds and machinery is indicative of the fact that the industries are being established for permanency. You will note that the large growth in the number of establishments are those which require great heating facilities through coal or gas, and we can here assure the future establishment of industries of this character by the knowledge that the surface of our great coal output has barely been scratched, and the gas industry is in its infancy. West Virginia is no longer a country overlooked, for not a few manufacturers are profiting by the knowledge of our resources, and either moving into the state from other states where necessities are only obtainable under difficulties and far from the source of these requisites, or else they are adopting our state as the place to enter the industrial world. To keep pace with the rapid growth in the industrial life of the state, shipping facilities by railroad and waterways are bending every energy to meet the demands.

As new industries are established and others are moving in, the citizenship is naturally on the increase as well. Skilled, as well as unskilled mechanics, are becoming residents of this state with great rapidity.

Men

of families are establishing their permanent residence in our cities and towns, and are becoming a welcome asset to our industries population. At the outbreak of the war the Bureau of Labor was called upon to furnish a census of industries available for the manufacture of munitions and other war material. Through various sources, and especially with the assistance of the secretaries of the commerce bodies of the State, a report in detail was submitted which showed that there were 337 plants that could be put on a war basis in a very short space of time and these 337 plants showed a total number of employees of 53,801. Many of these industries became war working plants in whole or in part and in many instances articles were manufactured which were used as a part of the construction of some necessary product, the manufacture of which did not necessarily interfere with the regular output of the establishment.

Women in Industry.

Each year shows an increase of the number of women entering industrial life in our State, but this has been only in comparison with the number of men employed. The factory inspectors' reports do not show that there has been any astonishing growth in the number of women employed in these industries as a result of the war. In 1917, in the 849 plants inspected, there was a total of 8,199 female employees; in 1918, with 83 less inspections, there was found nearly 9,000 female employees. Women have released the man-power of our State in the mercantile establishments and offices to a greater extent than in the factories and workshops. Manufacturies employing women will increase along with others to be established and it will surely become necessary to enact certain legislation, as has every State where women compose a great part of the industrial throng, for the protection of women in industry. It is evident that these conditions will have to be met and the duties pertaining to the welfare of women workers will devolve upon the labor department. It would not be amiss to consider legislation along these important lines at an early date.

Child Labor.

The problem of child labor is one which has been given much thought and attention by the bureau during the last biennial period. During the year 1917 the inspectors discovered children in thirty-one factories working without the necessary permits and were ordered to secure the said permits before they could continue work. In September, 1917, the Federal Child Labor Law became effective (which has since been declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of the United States). The Commissioner of Labor was designated by the Child Labor Division of the United States Department of Labor as the authority in West Virginia to enforce this law, his jurisdiction covering the entire State. Eighty-three factories were found employing children in violation of the law and

these children were immediately instructed to secure permits before they could continue working. Not all of these violations last noted were of the Federal law. These figures do not indicate that children had to leave school to any great extent on account of the war. Again we are positive that our lack of inspection force has prevented the detection of violations in many cases of our child labor law. The child labor law of the State refers to factories, mills, workshops and manufacturing establishments, yet there should be included in this law mercantile establishments and street trades. Regardless of where a child works he is absenting himself from school, which is one of the most vital conditions with which the future must deal. There are numerous plants where a child's health may be impaired, either through long and excessive hours of labor, by contact with the products of the plant or by night work, and in suggesting new legislation along these lines I consider it well to mention these things in connection with the urgent need of a revision of our present child labor law.

Construction of Buildings.

The Bureau of Labor receives many inquiries about regulations concerning the construction of buildings to be used as factories for the manufacture of some product. These inquiries particularly request information and instructions as to sanitation and boiler regulations. In the absence of laws pertaining to construction work and boiler regulations the bureau can only supply a limited amount of information, urging that due regard be given to the elimination of all hazards. There is a tendency on the part of all construction engineers to comply with any regulations the State might adopt. Boiler regulations and inspections, are invited rather than being opposed. The same applies, to the operation of hoisting machinery. While our factory inspectors, in their issuance of orders, demand that fire escapes be placed on buildings where workmen are above the second story, they do so under the law which provides for the safety and comfort of employees and we regret to say that these orders have met with some opposition, particularly by owners of buildings who rent them for manufacturing purposes. Occupational diseases must be watched, but we are glad to say that West Virginia has not been a great sufferer as has some of the Eastern States. Sanitation and sanitary conditions are the best safeguards that can be thrown about a factory where any disease might arise from a workman's occupation.

Free Employment Bureau.

The appropriation by the last Legislature for the maintenance of the Free Employment Bureau has been and is being used in an advantageous manner. During 1917 labor agents from other States infested West Virginia and induced large numbers of workmen, especially about the coal mines, to leave the State and take up work in their particular section. We have instances where these labor agents have paid fares for whole families to travel many hundred miles, so desperate were they in their

efforts to secure the largest possible number of workmen. An opinion relating to labor agencies was asked of the Attorney General and he submitted the following:

Hon. SAMUEL B. MONTGOMERY,

CHARLESTON, W. Va., June 28, 1917.

Commissioner of Labor, Charleston, W. Va.

DEAR SIR: I have your letter of the 27th instant, in which you state that it has come to the notice of the Bureau of Labor that men are being employed within this State to induce laborers, especially miners, to be transported out of the State for employment in another State. You desire an opinion from this office as to whether or not, in case a person takes out a license in one county to conduct the business of a labor agency and sends agents into another county for the purpose of inducing laborers to leave the State, he would be required to take out a license in each county in which such agents operate.

Section 2, Chapter 32, Code 1916, provides that no person without a State license therefor shall carry on the business of a labor agency. Section 109 of the same chapter extends the ordinary meaning of the term "labor agency" by providing as follows:

"Any person or corporation who hires or contracts with labor ers, male or female, to be employed by persons other than himself, and to be transported out of the State for employment in another State, shall be deemed a labor agency within the meaning of this clause."

It seems reasonably clear to me that in view of the clause above quoted the Legislature intended that in whatever county a person or corporation hired or contracted with laborers to be employed by persons other than himself and to be transported out of the State for employment in another State, such person would be considered as conducting a labor agency whether a regular office were maintained there or not. The fact that an office is maintained, clerical work and correspondence done in one county and a license tax paid therein does not render same any more a labor agency than the operation of agents sent from such office to another county where an office is not maintained when such agents contract with or hire laborers in the manner above set forth.

I am therefore of the opinion that where a person who has taken out a license in one county to conduct the business of a labor agency for the purpose of inducing laborers to leave the State, such person or agents should be required to pay a license tax in each county in which such laborers are contracted with or hired.

[SIGNED]

Very truly yours,"

E. T. ENGLAND, Attorney General. By CHAS. RITCHIE, Assistant.

Two men were employed by the bureau for the purpose of stopping the activities of these labor agents unless they complied with the statutes pertaining thereto. The men who were induced to leave the State and did take up work in other States later returned to West Virginia and stated that conditions were far better within this State than the places where they had been sent. These returning workmen, giving their experiences to their brother workmen, proved to be the best method of stopping the activities of these labor agents. There is a great shifting of labor which was expected at the close of the war, but the bureau is endeavoring to hold men in the State to meet local demands, for we feel and endeavor to convince these workmen that conditions in West Virginia are as good as may be found in other localities throughout the country.