HOURS OF LABOR. On this subject several States in the South and in the Rocky Mountain district have no legislation whatever, and that of the other States in the same regions is rather meagre, as eompared with the comprehensive laws of the North Atlantic States and those of the North-Central division. Rules for the hours of minors and women arc general, while there are few restrictions upon those of adult nudes.
Most of the States prohibit the labor of chil dren in factories, workshops, and mines before a certain age is reached. This is in some States ten years, but twelve and fourteen years are more frequent. , Limitations of the hours of labor per day and per week for minors who have not reached the age of eighteen, or sometimes as inneh as twenty-one sears, are frequent. This limit is usually ten hours per day, though in Pennsylvania it may he twelve. The latter State preseribes, however, that the work shall not ex ceed sixty hours per week, and other States with a ten-hour day provide that the weekly work shall he less than sixty hours ( fifty-five in Ohio and New Jersey. fifty-eight in Massachusetts). Some of the States impose further restrictions. For children under sixteen, whose attainments do not reach certain standards. hours must gen erally he so adjusted as to permit of school attendance for a portion of the year, or to per mit attendance at night schools.
Several of the States which regulate the labor of minors as above stated make no restrictions upon the labor of adult NVOIllell. 111 others, how ever, such labor is subject to the same rules as that of minors. Absolute prohibition of woman's labor in mines exists in several of the States.
Much less frequent is the effort to restrict the number of hours of adult males. Wyoming has a constitutional provision providing for an eight hour day in the mines, and Utah and Missouri have statutory regulations to the same effect. On the other hand, several States, either by con stitutional provision or statute. prescribe an
eight-hour day for those employed in the public service or working under contractors for public labor. Legislation fixing the hours of labor in the absence of contract provides generally for an eight-hour day, but ten hours also occurs.
or WycEs. Laws fixing the inter vals at which wages shall be paid have been enacted in several States, but they are of doubt ful validity. More frequent is the attempt to prescribe that all payments shall be made in money, by declaring illegal payments in store orders and the like. Corporations arc especially enjoined from establishing company stores or having an interest in such concerns.
PrarrEcrioN OF 11EALTII, ETC. Laws designed to protect the workmen against accident or dis ease arc especially applicable to labor in inclosed places, in workshops and factories, and in re cent legislation in so-called sweatshops. Among other things, such laws aim to require adopiate fire-escapes, outward-opening doors, guards for dangerous machinery, elevators, belting, etc., con nection of rooms where machinery is used with engine-rooms by tubes or bells. Other laws pro vide that machinery shall not be cleaned IA In le in motion, and frequently that women and minors below a certain age shall not lie employed in cleaning machinery; that a certain number of cubic feet of air-spaee for each person employed shall be provided; that fans and other con trivances shall be used to rid the air of noxious vapors and dust. Similar in character is the legislation in regard to sweatshop production i.e. the manufacture of goods, particularly cloth ing, in iNvellings and tenements—which aims to restriet the production of goods in unsanitary surroundings. These laws either place such pro duction under the general factory law, or seek to prevent overcrowding by restricting such labor to members of the family living in the dwelling, or requiring a license for all persons engaged in such production.