with those found in existence by the
respective bureaus of labor at the time when their investigations were
made. Private and public investigation made before their organization
had brought to light in Connecticut, and at many points in New England,
gross abuses both in child labor and that of woman and girl workers. It
is sufficient, however, for our purpose to refer the reader to the
mention of these contained in the first report of the Massachusetts
Bureau of Labor, as well as to Dr. Richard T. Ely's "History of the
Labor Movement in America," and to pass at once to the facts contained
in the fifteenth report from Massachusetts.

The ventilation of factories and of workrooms in general is one of the
first points considered. Naturally, facts of this order would be found
in the testimony only of the more intelligent. Where factories are new
and built expressly for their own purposes, ventilation is considered,
and in many is excellent. But in smaller ones and in many industries the
structures used were not intended for this purpose. Closely built
buildings shut off both light and air, which must come wholly from
above, thus preventing circulation, and producing an effect both
depressing and wearing. The agents in a number of cases found employees
packed "like sardines in a box;" thirty-five persons, for example, in a
small attic without ventilation of any kind. Some were in very
low-studded rooms, with no ventilation save from windows, causing bad
draughts and much sickness, and others in basements where dampness was
added to cold and bad air.

In many cases the nature of the trade compelled closed windows, and no
provision was made for ventilation in any other way. In one case girls
were working in "little pens all shelved over, without sufficient light
or air, windows not being open, for fear of cooling wax thread used on
sewing-machines."[41]

For a large proportion of the workrooms visited or reported upon was a
condition ranging from dirty to filthy. In some where men and women were
employed together in tailoring, the report reads: "Their shop is filthy
and unfit to work in. There are no conveniences for women; and men and
women use the same closets, wash-basins, and drinking-cups, etc."[42] In
another a water-closet in the centre of the room filled it with a
sickening stench; yet forty hands were at work here, and there are many
cases in which the location of these closets and the neglect of proper
disinfectan