FACTORY INSPECTION, the need of special factory legislation was first brought about by the fact that machin ery, by reducing the need of labor, and throwing an increasing number of work. ers out of employment, created compe tition among the workers themselves (see FACTORIES AND FACTORY SYSTEM). This created a continuous tendency to ward reduced wages, long hours of em ployment and a disregard for sanitary conditions. Still more important, the elimination of the need of skilled work ers brought women and children into the factories in competition with men.
It was one thing to pass legislation correcting these evils; it was quite an other matter to enforce it. Thus, fol lowing all this labor legislation came the need of competent inspectors to see that the laws were being enforced. Grad ually 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.
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.
In the United States factory inspec tion, naturally, is carried on by the separate States, each of which has passed its own set of labor laws. Prac tically every State of the Union now carries on some form of factory inspec tion. Usually this is directed by a spe cial department of labor, but in Massa chusetts this function is under the juris diction 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 Con necticut, New York, Missouri, and West Virginia enlarged their forces of inspec tors. New Jersey, Washington, and North Dakota established special mine inspection bureaus. California empow ered its industrial Welfare Commission to issue subpoenas and administer oaths, while Minnesota authorized its inspec tors to enter the offices as well as the workrooms of the establishments they inspected.