ployed fourteen hours a day and seven days a week in many instances. In 1919, the legislature transferred the jurisdiction over all mercantile establishments in the state from the local boards of health to the State Department of Labor, bringing forty-nine cities with a population of 1,500,000 under the bureau of inspection for the administration of the law. This was the logical step toward better enforcement which had been advocated for years, but, with the corps of inspectors only slightly enlarged, hopeful results could scarcely be anticipated. Tables showing the results of inspection of mercantile establishments by the bureau of inspection of the Department of Labor are presented each year, as they are for factories, in the annual reports of the industrial commissioner. They are interesting but necessarily incomplete from the point of view of a correct picture of the extent of enforcement of the mercantile law, and will not be included for the same reasons that similar data for factories were not included above. In summary, then, it appears that the general trend toward a shorter working day in America, as in other countries, has probably been a surer force toward the reduction of the hours of women in mercantile establishments, as in factories, than the enforcement of any specific laws. In keeping with the trend, the larger and more progressive establishments of New York State have not only reduced the daily hours of work, but have established the custom of an all-day-closing on Saturdays during the months of June, July, and August. Four reasons were given by the bureau of inspection for the perceptible decrease in the number of discovered violations of the law in 1920, namely: careful supervision, more wide-spread organization of the workers, the marked shortage of labor, and the increasing number of humane employers many of whom have instituted the eight-hour day." 1 Annual Report of the Industrial Commission, 1919, p. 34. * Annual Report of the Industrial Commission, 1920, p. 26. An additional cause may have been that, in 1920, drug stores were obliged to observe mercantile closing hours according to law. Drug stores had grown to be fairly strong competitors in the range of articles they offered for sale, and the Industrial Commission had contended that they were enough like department stores to be regulated by the mercantile law. This view was sustained by a lower court and now it was affirmed by the New York court of appeals.1 1. Messengers The Industrial Commission in 1919 reported little trouble in administering the act of 1918 forbidding the employment as messengers of females under twenty-one years of age. The companies who had employed this class of young women readily complied with the law. So far as discovered in this study, no data have been collected on the experience of the commission in applying the hour-regulations to the work of adult women; nor has the success of regulating the working time of young male messengers been announced. 2. Elevators The statute relating to the hours of females on elevators in factories and mercantile establishments was reported enforced in 1920, the year following the enactment." There was said to be little difficulty in securing the coöperation of owners and managers of property in which these elevators. were operated. HOURS OF LABOR-NIGHT WORK Night work restrictions for adult women in factories, also introduced by the act of 1899, were openly violated. 1 People v. L. K. Liggett, 227 N. Y. 617 (1920). Annual Report of the Industrial Commission, 1920, pp. 17, 28-29. Commissioner Sherman in his report for 1906, announced that, while "extraordinary efforts" had been made to enforce the ten-hour regulation, no serious attempt had been made to enforce the night work rule until that year!1 He explained that there were over 25,000 employees whose time had to be watched and regulated for the enforcement of this feature of the law, a task physically impossible with an inspection force of about fifty. An interesting issue arose in connection with this act. The commissioner in 1905 admitted a fear of testing the possibility of prohibiting the night work of adult women because of its being bound up with the same regulation for male and female minors, and in case of an adverse decision by the courts, "both prohibitions might be held to fall together." 2 A recommendation was made, therefore, and urged for passage by the legislature, that "a separate prohibition of night work for women under 21 be enacted, so that if the general prohibition should be declared unconstitutional because of its application to women over 21, the separate prohibition as to minors would remain unaffected." * But the advice was not followed and the commissioner's fear was confirmed. Beginning with the annulment of the act in the court of special sessions of the City of New York, first division, the highest state court in 1908 held that adult women were not wards of the state" and declared the act to be void, therefore, on the grounds of interference with the freedom of the individual to contract. While the appeal was pending, discussion of this issue was heated. It was held by some that a prohibition against night work for women under the age of twenty-one only could not be enforced because inspectors could not recognize 1 Op. cit., 1906, p. I. 61. Op. cit., 1905, p. 30. 3 Op. cit., 1906, p. I. 59. the age of twenty-one. The commissioner returned the suggestion that, while it would not be impossible to know the age "absolutely," it could be known about as well as for male minors under eighteen, and it would at least prevent the employment of "large gangs of young women."1 It was added that were it not for the administrative reason of facilitating the regulation of day work, there was no present need in New York State for prohibiting adult women from working at night. Further elucidation of this argument may be recalled by turning back to page 237 of this study. It was suggested in connection with the form of the statute, that attention be given to the English “Factory and Workshop Act," a more flexible code of over twenty pages, which is "successfully enforced and has produced good results," while our law is "academically disposed of in ten lines of section 77 of the Labor Law." 2 During the eight-year interim between the 1908 annulment of this act and the 1915 affirmance of the later prohibition of women's work at night, the inspectors were substantially relieved of the attempt to enforce this type of law. Since 1915, there is practically no available information concerning the degree of its enforcement. The official tables that show violations of the hour law give no clue to the degree of infringement upon the law at night. Mercantile and Other Establishments The night work prohibition in New York mercantile establishments, as well as the regulation of hours by day, applied only to boys and girls until 1913. The difficulties of administration of the act were not slight however. If inspectors discovered males fourteen to sixteen years of age or females sixteen to twenty-one at work after ten o'clock, the violation was fairly easy to prove. But all sorts of subterfuges were used by employers in defense-that the young workers refused to go home even though their work was over, or that they were waiting for mother or older brother to come for them. The inspector had actually to see the employee selling merchandise to supply himself with the necessary grounds for a violation charge. To lighten the task of administration, the recommendation of the commissioner of labor in 1910 was renewed to amend the statute to read that no female between sixteen and twentyone years be allowed to work more than six days or sixty hours a week, and that the period in which such female may work on all days other than Saturday be shortened; that notices be posted stating the regulations. It is not clear why this recommendation was made to apply to females only, for there was as much difficulty in enforcing the law as it applied to young males as to females, if not more. There is no record of the degree of enforcement of the night work prohibition for women. As for factories, the statistics of the Department of Labor do not show separate tabulations for day and night hours. The chief mercantile inspector reported, in 1917, that in spite of many prosecutions, and numerous letters of warning to proprietors, the night work prohibition in his jurisdiction was giving considerable trouble and being constantly evaded." 1. Restaurants The inclusion, in 1917, of restaurants within the mercantile law added about 8,000 establishments to those already under the supervision of the inspection bureau. A number of serious drawbacks have greatly reduced the 1 Annual Report of the Commissioner of Labor, 1911, p. 168. Annual Report of the Industrial Commissioner, 1917, p. 62. 'Annual Report of the Industrial Commission, 1917, p. 62. |