498 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
were not in order at the end of that time, as well as the affidavits, suit was brought. The uniformity of this procedure depends, of course, upon the skill and conscientiousness of the deputies, and this naturally varies somewhat. That the work of the staff as a whole was efficient is shown by the fact that about two hundred employers paid costs, or fines and costs, during the first eight months of the present year, for some 350 violations of the various provisions of the statute.
A small fine, uniformly imposed, seems to be the best means of enforcing statutory provisions, and reducing the number of violations ; and it is, perhaps, not an improvement that the low- est fine has been raised from $3 to $10. In many cases the annoyance of arrest and giving bond under a quasi-criminal charge is far more severe punishment than the payment of the fine, though it is surprising to see how eagerly rich employers plead for the remission of fines of $3 and $10.
The child-labor law is supplemented by two measures of importance to working children, both enacted by the last legis- lature, one requiring the placing of blowers upon metal- polishing machines, and the other providing that fire escapes must be placed wherever twenty-five persons are employed above the first story of any building.
These two measures were enacted without the direct initiative of the department which had concentrated its efforts upon the passage of the child-labor law. The former is due to the efforts of the Metal- Polishers' Union, the latter to the underwriters, who had paid heavy premiums upon losses of life by fire, and insisted upon some measures of facility for the firemen in sky-scrapers and other extra-hazardous places. This law, too, incidentally benefits the children, some of the worst catastrophes, of which there have been many in the last three years, occurring in build- ings in which children and young girls were employed, without either fire drill, or fire walls, or any available outside fire escape.
There are still many steps which must be taken before it can be claimed for Illinois that we are giving to the rising generation of the working class the advantages to which the wealth and
