Pursuant to the requirements of the statute creating this branch of the State Government and acts supplemental thereto, I have the honor to submit herewith the Thirty-second report of the Department of Labor and Printing for the State of North Carolina covering the biennial period 1919-1920.

As is also permitted, it is desired to submit, for your consideration, and for the information of the General Assembly, some suggestions that the Department feels should be presented and acted upon by our lawmaking body.

Industrial Standards.

North Carolina has become one of the leading manufacturing states of the Union and one of the most delinquent in providing and maintaining industrial standards for the protection of the worker. The preservation of life is a bounden duty of the State and failure to meet the obligation is little short of a crime. The Department, therefore, desires to emphasize the importance of providing adequate industrial safety standards and means for enforcing the same as a safeguard against the loss of life and limb in the operation of machinery and in the mechanical construction and equipment of industrial plants.

The State as Peacemaker

The biennial period covered by this report has witnessed a greater number of strikes and lockouts than has been experienced during the past decade in this State. Industrial disturbances, occasionally arising from minor differences between employers and employees, frequently assume proportions which disturb the peace and prosperity of hundreds of innocent persons and the commonwealth, naturally, should manifest a vital interest in all such disputes. There is a remedy for this condition and the problem must be solved. The theory that "all things will adjust themselves and that right and justice will finally prevail," does not justify postponement of the consideration of the subject. If the loss and suffering could be confined to parties actually concerned in disputes there might be some reason for further procrastination. But where the peace and well being of an entire community is involved the right and duty of the state to enter the contoversy, in the role of peacemaker, can scarcely be questioned. Some method of adjusting all disputes arising between employers and employees, which would assure justice to both parties concerned, should be provided by our lawmaking body at the approaching session. Immediate attention to existing ills will make adjustment of them less difficult than any plan of delay and probably obviate the application of vigorous measures later on. "A stitch in time, saves nine."

Workmen's Compensation.

We have scarcely begun our labor legislation along the line of giving security to labor in its job. One step in that direction would be the enactment of a workmen's compensation law based upon the principle of right and justice to wage-earners and those who employ them. Under present statutory conditions, when an accident occurs, in nine cases out of ten, the victim is thrown upon his own resources. With a workable compensation law, properly enforced, no matter who is to blame in the matter of an accident, the laborer would be protected during the period of disability. The employer would insure himself against accidents by the introduction of devises to prevent them. He would face a new kind of taxation, a species which it would be lawful for him to evade, for he could evade the tax on accidents by preventing the accidents. His claim agent would be converted into a safety expert, whose services would prove more profitable in investing money in safeguards rather than in securing releases from injured employees due oftentimes to defective machinery. Workmen's compensation introduces the idea not of making the employer a petty criminal, but simply making him a taxpayer and giving him the option of getting rid of his tax by getting rid of accidents. he would put in safety departments and create safety committees to search out and install the most effective safeguards obtainable . Forty-two states have provided workmen's compensation laws. Why not North Carolina?

Boiler Inspection.

Numerous deaths occur every year from the use of defective boilers, especially in the logging industry, and a remedy for this wanton loss of life ought to be provided. The Department earnestly recommends the enactment of a state boiler inspection law requiring the inspection semiannually of all steam boilers in industrial establishments and logging camps by a state boiler inspector; except boilers insepcted and insured by surety companies, or those inspected by authority of municipal codes, as steam plants located within city limits and licensed on the recommendation of experienced engineers. State inspection, and a requirement that at least one licensed engineer be employed in every plant, located outside the limits of cities and towns where local inspection is not enforced, would undoubtedly prevent many accidents, and materially reduce the loss of life and property in the State.

State System of Employment.

Since October 1, 1919, the United States Employment Service, operating in this State, has been conducted under the direction and supervision of the Commissioner of Labor and Printing, who provided office quarters and was served as Federal director for North Carolina without additional compensation. Funds were provided by the Government for clerical assistance and during the period from October 1, 1919, to the present time, between five and six thousand applicants for positions and jobs have been placed in situations satisfactory to them. Through the means of local financial assistance, the Service maintained offices in Asheville, Charlotte and Wilmington for almost a year. Since the employment office was established in this Department more than 20,000 returned soldiers have been communicated with in regard to employment and nearly 4,000 placed. It was through these communications that hundreds of disabled soldiers were located and reported to the Federal Board of Vocational Education which placed them in proper training. The Employment Service seeks to serve all classes of employers and all classes of employees and the need for a well organized system of employment in North Carolina was never more apparent than it is today. It brings the jobless man and the manless job together in a systematic way and provides means for the equitable distribution of labor throughout the territory over which it operates. The Federal Government has already expended the liberal sum of $45,000 in instituting and maintaining the service in this commonwealth, without a single dollar of financial assistance from the State itself. It has been demonstrated elsewhere that state control of employment agencies is the most effective way to properly regulate them and prevent impositions upon all parties concerned. It is, therefore, recommended that a state system of employment be added to the numerous agencies now in existence for the mutual benefit of our progressive citizenship.

Child Labor Law

The General Assembly of 1919 advanced a step forward by passage of an act which materially strenghtens the child labor laws previously enacted. It does not, however, conform to the provisions of the federal statute regulating the employment of children and state officials are playing "second fiddle" to government inspectors in the investigation of industrial conditions in North Carolina. It is perfectly apparent to this Department that the General Assembly would perform an act of wisdom in the framing and enactment of a child labor law which more nearly meets the needs of the present day.

Eight Hour Day

It is the opinion of this Department that the eight-hour day should apply to adult as well as to child labor. "Man's powers, like his general nature, are limited and beyond these limits he cannot go. His strength is developed and increased by use and exercise, but only on conditions of due intermission and proper rest. How many and how long the intervals of rest should be must depend on the nature of the work, on circumstances of time and place, and on the health and strength of the workman. The severity of physical labor, the dangers attending it, and work where great mental energy must be expended demands that the best possible conditions surround it, both as to hours of labor and compensation therefor; for the unanswerable reason that the expectancy in such employments is in the nature of things restricted to a short period of years in active operation of such pursuits."

In Conclusion.

North Carolina has done very little, through legislation, during its year of statehood towards the amelioration of the conditions of the working man and these suggestions are submitted in the interest of common justice, with the hope that relief by legal compulsion will follow.