be performed if the force of inspectors in the sweating districts was doubled.

ENFORCING THE LAW.

The policy and rules of conduct laid down by the Department in its treatment of the law when the affairs of the bureau were first entrusted to our care have been faithfully adhered to, and with the very best possible results to all concerned. Since taking

charge of the Department there has not been a single legal contest engaged in by any person, firm, corporation or company testing any law or any section of any of the laws referred to the Department for enforcement. During the past two years only twenty cases of prosecutions were instituted by the Department for failure to obey any order with which it was the duty of the Department to seek a compliance. Of these cases, eighteen were for violations of the Bakeshop Law and two for violation of the Factory Law.

The inspectors have been thorough, careful and painstaking in the discharge of their exacting duties. Employers and owners of property better understand the needs and requirements of the law and it is now almost a daily occurrence to find letters of request in our mail from owners of factory property asking for the presence of an officer of the Department at their plant to aid by suggestion or advice contemplated changes, so that the same may be made in compliance with the law and all of its requirements fulfilled. In the construction of new factory buildings, plans and specifications have been sent to us in order that we might see the proposed arrangement of stairs, elevators, fire escapes, etc., before the same were accepted, and inviting advice and suggestions relative thereto. As an evidence of the thoroughness of the work of the