REAL   ESTATE







BUILDERS





AND







NEW YORK, JUNE 14, 1913





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A REVIEW OF THE NEW FACTORY  LAWS





Property Owners and Business Proprietors May be Arrested for Violations, but Factory
Operatives Are  Immune—Some  of  the  Fire  Commissioner's Powers  Taken Away.





DURING tlie last session ot the Leg¬
islature thirty bills were introduced
at the instance of the Wagner Factory
Investigating Commission, of which only
five failed to become laws. .\ number
of these measures relate exclusively to
rural industries, such as the canning of
fruits and vegetables, but several others
make radical changes in the law govern¬
ing the employment of women and chil¬
dren in industrial and mercantile estab¬
lishments, the plain purpose of which is
to promote the safety, health and com¬
fort of the operatives, especially those
who may have been the helpless victims
of rapacious employers.

All for Employees.

The striking peculiarity of all this fac¬
tory legislation is that, while it bristles
with demands and restrictions upon
property owners and business proprie¬
tors (for disregard of which they may be
punished criminally), factory workers
remain substantially immune from statu¬
tory exactions and criminal prosecutions.
They may refuse, with impunity, to heed
fire alarm signals or to participate in
fire drills.

No punishment is provided for med¬
dlers who tamper with fire extinguishers
or for employees who carelessly or wil¬
fully throw inflammable materials upon
floors, instead of depositing them in
refuse receptacles. Indeed, employees
may disregard every provision of the
laws relating to the general safety and
well-being of their fellows—including all
sanitary regulations and fire precautions
of every description—without risking
fine or imprisonment. The only excep¬
tion to this general condition is that
smoking in a factory is punishable as
a misdemeanor, whatever the status of
the offender may be.

A  State Board of Factory  Control.

From a governmental standpoint, the
most important of the new laws are
Chapters 145 and 695 of the Laws of
1913. The first of these provides for a
thorough reorganization of the State De¬
partment of Labor and a widely ramify-
in.g extension of its jurisdiction, which is
achieved, in the main, by the creation
therein of an inquisitorial and legislative
body—the Industrial Board. This board
is to consist of the Commissioner of
Labor and four associate members, who
are to be appointed by the Governor,
subject to  the approval of the Senate.

The Legislature has conferred upon
the new body the broadest and most
sweeping powers concerning the con¬
struction of factory buildings and the
regulation of industries therein, includ¬
ing the authority to enact what may be
termed industrial ordinances, that are to
have the force of law. Violations of
provisions of the industrial code, or of
the regulations or orders of the  board,





are declared to be misdemeanors and
are to be punishable as are offenses
against the labor law itself.

Powers  of the  Industrial  Board.

.\n idea of the scope of the legislative
jurisdiction, which has been delegated
to this new arm of the Labor Depart¬
ment, may be gathered from the follow¬
ing quotation from the new law:

"§ 51.    The board shall have power

*    *    *

4. To make, alter, amend or repeal
rules and regulations for guarding
against and minimizing fire hazards,
personal injuries and disease, with re¬
spect to

(a)   The construction, alteration,
equipment and maintenance of fac¬
tories, factory buildings, mercantile
establishments and other places to
which this chapter is applicable, in¬
cluding the conversion of structures
into factories and factory buildings;

(b)   The arrangement and the guard¬
ing of the machinery and the storing
and keeping of property and articles
in factories, factory buildings and mer¬
cantile establishments;

(c)  The places where and the meth¬
ods and operations by which trades
and occupations may be conducted
and the conduct of employers, em¬
ployees, and other persons in and
about factories, factory buildings and
mercantile establishments; * * *"
Fire Commissioner Loses Powers.
By  the  other  measure   (Chapter 695),

which amends the Fire Prevention Law,
the Fire Commissioner, after October 1,
1913, will be stripped of the more impor¬
tant of his powers and duties in respect
of factories and factory buildings, in¬
cluding particularly his control of the
means of egress therefrom.

-Apparently, the new statute expressly
excepts factories from the jurisdiction
of the commissioner to require the reme¬
dying of dangerous conditions existing in
such places, in violation of any law or
ordinance respecting fires or the preven¬
tion of fires. Doubtless it was the in¬
tention of the draftsmen of the statute
merely to relieve the Fire Commissioner
of control of the means and adeauacy
of exit from factories; for Section 774 of
the Charter, as amended by the new act.
provides: "The Fire Commissioner shall
enforce all laws and ordinances and the
rules and the regulations of the Indus¬
trial Board of the Department of Labor
in respect of d) the prevention of fires."
But this general authority concerning
the control of fire perils in factories
seems to be curtailed by an amendment
of the following section of the Charter,
which was efifected by the same act,
namely:

"§ 775. Powers of the CFIre) Com¬
missioner. The commissioner is em¬
powered  to    *   *    *





"2.  Order, in writing, the remedying
of any condition found to exist in, on
or     about     any     building     structure,
*    *    *    place    or    premises,    except
tenement houses, and except factories
as defined by  the labor law, in viola¬
tion of any law or ordinance in respect
to fires or to the prevention of fires,
except the tenement house law."
Under   the   circumstances,   it   is   more
than likely that local jurisdiction of fire
conditions in factories has been reduced
to the control of fire alarm installations,
fire   e.xtinguishing   equipments   and   fire
drills.    This  seems  to  be  a   relapse  to
the   condition   of   divided   responsibility
for   the   protection   of   factory   workers
against fire perils, which is generally be¬
lieved  to  have  made possible  the  Asch
Building disaster.

"Home Rule" Sacrificed.

So, too, the jurisdiction of the local
Board of Health is seriously encroached
upon by a number of laws providing
amendments to the labor law concerning
the lighting, ventilating, plumbing, clean¬
liness and general sanitary conditions of
factories, including bakeries. Another
of the laws makes drastic changes in
the regulations concerning industries
carried on in tenement houses, and pos¬
sibly conflicts, in some degree, with the
tenement house law and the general
jurisdiction of the Tenement House De¬
partment.
Wholesale Transference of Functions.

Whether or not the wholesale trans¬
fers of functions from local officers and
boards to a new State body and to the
Commissioner of Labor, attempted by
the new factory laws, properly harmon¬
ize with the "home rule" provisions of
the Constitution remains to be deter¬
mined by the courts. However this may
be, many of the new amendments to
the labor law seem to be repugnant to
the spirit, if not to the letter, of the
so-called "home rule law" (Chapter 247,
Laws of 1913). the avowed purpose of
which is to give to the cities of the
State a larger measure of control of
their purely local affairs and interests.
The apparent conflict of these new
statutes will not add to the security of
factory workers, any more than it will
promote the interest of taxpayers and
business proprietors.

The Cost.

The financial demands the new factory
acts will make upon property owners and
manufacturers will be numerous and. in
some instances, burdensome. They will
bear more severely, however, upon those
who may hereafter erect factory build¬
ings. The original bill of the Factory
Commission, relating to the construction
and the allowable number of occupants
of factory buildings, would have been
utterly   ruinous   to   the   owners   of   loft