The incidents referred to in the report of the State Mine Inspector makes it plain that it is not safe to assume that a mine that could not be referred to today as one generating explosive gas can be permanently regarded as exempt from that danger and therefore not provided with morning examination before the men are permitted to go to work. It is further true that there are other conditions, such as the accidental opening of a ventilating door through the air concussion caused by coal shots or blasts and its remaining open throughout the night, as suggested in the Inspector's report, which would make an early morning examination desirable. The operators of the coal mines of Michigan can very much better afford to perform a service for safety that may seem to them in great part unnecessary than to permit the possibility of a disaster that would cause loss of life and destruction of property.

If necessary it will be urged that an amendment shall be made to the law referring to the morning examination of mines. But the superintendents of the various mines have been notified that such an examination will be expected and it is hoped that further effort or action in that direction will not be necessary. Recent sorrowful experience relating to coal mines in other states very forcibly suggests to Michigan coal mine operators that mines that cannot be operated with the ordinary degree of safety that forethought and preparation should provide had better not be operated at all.

The dampness of the Michigan coal mines, especially at the face of the coal veins when mined, makes it apparently impossible that there could be a dust explosion at any of the mines in this state such as have recently occurred in other states. But there are conditions in the mines here which have been continually causing loss of life and serious accidents. It is believed that some part of this loss can be prevented, and it should be. The requirement of more care on the part of the miner with reference to the possibility of falling slate or rock, and the recognition of the superintendents and mine operators that their responsibility in that direction is greater than heretofore recognized, will render important assistance in that direction. The willingness of the miner to "take a chance" under conditions where sometimes the chance is not even an equal one should not be permitted. The very thoroughly demonstrated fact that proper coal mine regulation can and has greatly reduced the precentage of mine fatalities gives encouragement to and good reason for genuine cooperation in that direction on the part of the state mine inspection service and the operators of mines and the superintendents and mine employes.

GYPSUM MINE CONDITIONS.

There is a group of six or seven gypsum mines and mills in the vicinity of Grand Rapids, the marketable product of which is calcined plaster, wall plaster, land plaster and several by-products. These mines are being worked at a depth of from seventy-five to one hundred ten feet and have been in operation from six to fifteen years.

When the Michigan Labor Department was first established it was assumed that these mines were included in the list of industries to be inspected and from which such statistics should be collected and reported as were included in the state requirement in that direction.

Later, however, an amendment was made to the law the purpose of which was to specifically omit these gypsum mines and salt mines and the iron and copper mines from state inspection and state investigation. From time to time efforts have been made by the State Mine Inspector to secure information from these mines, and in response to such efforts he has been told that the gypsum mines were exempt from state supervision and state authority. A special effort to secure the facts relating to a serious accident in one of the mines, several years age, resulted in a similar denial and a failure to give any information.

Within recent months, however, the State Mine Inspector has visited these gypsum mines and through written permission obtained from the owners and other official representatives, some of them residing in Chicago and elsewhere outside the state, was permitted to go down into the mines and inspect them. He found conditions there such as would not be permitted in the coal mines of the state. Owing to the fact that the operators did not regard their industries as being under state observation and state inspection very little attention had been given in the direction of complying with the mining laws of Michigan. Some of the safeguards ordinarily required and provided in connection with underground operations were missing and the State Mine Inspector reported that there was very little precaution exercised to protect men's lives. For instance the cages which men were permitted to use for hoisting them out of the shaft had no covers or hoods to protect them from falling objects. Some of the safety clutches were in bad order and some shafts were being operated without any code of signals, depending even in case of emergency on the man at the pit bottom shouting "Hoist Away." With the exception of the plant of the Michigan Gypsum Company hoppers or tipples were constructed of wood and in the case of several of the mines no escape shafts were provided for the men to get out of the mine in case of emergency. If one of the mine shafts should burn the men in the mine would undoubtedly be suffocated from the effects of the smoke of the burning wood.

While it is true that ventilating fans were provided at some of the mines, investigation revealed the fact that there was no circulation of air in the mine two hundred feet from the head of the entries working. As to one of the mines it is reported that there is but one opening for the men to get to their work or to come from it and that is by descending and climbing an iron ladder. This ladder is in the quarter shaft. It is recommended by the Mine Inspector that an escapement shaft should be required for this mine to enable the men to get out in case of emergency.

As to the gypsum mines as a whole a number of recommendations have been made by the Mine Inspector and through personal communication these suggestions and recommendations have been conveyed to the owners of the gypsum mines. Under the present status of affairs, however, it is not certain to what extent the operators of these mines will recognize the authority of the Commissioner of Labor or the state in the matter of demanding changes and requiring provisions for the safety and comfort of the men that work in their mines. It should be said, however, that communications have been received from the owners of two or three of the gypsum mines promising that attention would be immediately given to conditions that were found to be wrong and that

they would see to it that as soon as possible arrangements were made to further provide for the safety of their employes and for proper ventilating conditions.

These gypsum mines, as well as all other underground operations in Michigan, including the iron mines, the copper mines and the salt mines and fire clay and shale operations, as well as the coal mines, should be subject to investigation under the direction of the Commissioner of Labor. It should further be provided that where conditions are found to be dangerous and unsafe and where the ventilation is such as to lead to constant discomfort and to the periodical sickness of underground workers there should be authority given to promptly require adequate provision for safety and the immediate correction of wrong conditions.

STATE FREE EMPLOYMENT BUREAUS.

Recognition of the fact that labor is one of the most perishable products offered for sale in any market, and that failure on the part of he who wishes to sell and he who desires to buy to promptly accomplish their related purpose and to exchange their commodities and their values necessarily means loss to both parties, led to the establishment of employment bureaus and employment agencies. Further recognition of the direct interest of society as a whole and of communities and the state in prevention of loss through lack of market facilities for labor brought about the establishment of State Free Employment Bureaus.

The establishment of such Bureaus in Michigan was accomplished through legislation enacted in 1905, through an act authorizing and providing for the establishment of Free Employment Bureaus in the cities of Detroit and Grand Rapids. In 1907 further provision was made through legislative enactment for the establishment of State Employment Bureaus at Saginaw, Kalamazoo and Jackson, and all of these several state agencies for the bringing together of the seekers for employment and those in need of temporary or permanent labor are now in the midst of increasingly successful operation.

At the last regular session of the legislature, 1911, the Commissioner of Labor was authorized to establish five more Free Employment Bureaus, at Battle Creek, Bay City, Flint, Muskegon and Traverse City. But because of the fact that no funds were provided to meet the expense required in connection with the operation of such additional bureaus their establishment and operation was not entered upon. After consultation with the Attorney General it was thought best by the Commissioner of Labor to continue the several lines of department work then in operation and for which during the previous year a greater expenditure had been found necessary than the limit of funds provided by the state for Labor Department purposes. It would have been necessary to have discontinued some other line of department work in order to have provided for the establishment and operation of the five new Employment Bureaus for which legislative authority had been given.

Through reference to their operation elsewhere made in this report, and through the figures provided as to their work of the past year, it will be noted that the service performed by the State Free Employment Bureaus during the year has been more largely increased than through any single year since their establishment. Especially is this true of

the Free Employment Bureaus at Detroit and Grand Rapids, and it is further true that the Employment Bureaus at Kalamazoo, Saginaw and Jackson are showing results that could hardly have been expected of them when their establishment was provided for.

Further recognition as to the success of the Michigan Employment Bureaus than is made possible through their reports may be gained through the fact that the total number of positions secured through the five State Free Employment offices of Massachusetts for the year ending November 30th, was 21,158, and that number exceeded by about 1,000 the last former aggregate of such results for the five offices of that state, while the total number of positions secured through the five employment offices in Michigan for the year ending November 29th, 1911, was 46,957. The number of positions secured through the Detroit Free Employment Bureau alone exceeded by more than 8,000 the total number of positions secured through the several state employment offices of Massachusetts, which includes the city of Boston.

The fact that during the comparatively few years of their establishment employment has been secured for 151,637 men and 59,086 women, a total of 210,723 gives some proportionate idea of the value to the state of its Free Employment offices. More than a fair degree of the success attained through the Michigan Employment Bureaus has been due to the aggressive efforts of the superintendents of the several offices and to the painstaking loyalty of their assistants. It is a comparatively new service with little in the way of precedent or experience to guide its operation, and it is therefore the more true that the unusual success of such work in Michigan as compared with Massachusetts and Illinois and other states, usually the leaders in such lines, is especially creditable to those in Michigan who have had to do with the Free Employment Bureau service and who are now directing it.

It has been questioned as to whether or not private employment agencies were serving a sufficiently useful purpose to compensate for the charges they made of seekers for employment, in view of the fact that such service as they do render could probably be as well provided for through State Free Employment Bureaus. It could be urged that the concentration thus brought about would add to the convenience of the public at large and would lessen the burden which such private agencies must necessarily put upon the employers of labor and upon those who utilize them for the seeking of employment. In a former report of this department private employment agencies were referred to as "those which prey upon the unfortunate in their time of need," and an appeal was recently made through a reputable Detroit publication urging that an official campaign be waged "against the employment agencies which are run on a Shylock basis." "The unemployed," it was stated, “suffer grievously through the mismanagement of some of these places of business." But whether or not it may seem best to proceed to the extent heretofore suggested through a Michigan Labor Department report and to prohibit the existence of private employment agencies, it does seem desirable from every point of view that these agencies should be conducted under state supervision and subject to state license.

It was recently declared of Illinois that while it was the second state in the union to open and maintain Free Employment offices, it stands

alone in its very successful plan of regulating the conduct of private employment agencies. An annual state license fee of $200.00 is required of private employment agencies in Illinois, and the duty of seeing to it that the manager of no office operated for private profit shall be allowed to collect a fee without rendering an equivalent in service is entrusted to state authority. It is evidently because of the peculiar temptations relating to employment agency service where payment is required that the exercise of state control is utilized to throw about the private agency certain safeguards and to enforce regulations designed to prevent the commission of fraudulent practices. It has been recently stated of the Illinois system of supervision that it is now impossible for any one of the private employment agencies of that state to violate the law without being detected and prosecuted, or to take and keep money from any applicant without literally complying with the letter and spirit of the employment contract.

While it would appear that the license fee required in Illinois would be somewhat excessive as a requirement in Michigan, there can be found no good reason why state supervision should not extend to all employment agencies. It is certain that good results in this state would come from some such provision to those most likely to be imposed upon in the absence of all regulation and all forms of restraining and corrective supervision.

STATE HOTEL INSPECTION.

Through some recent years the subject of official hotel inspection has been more or less informally discussed in Michigan and since the subjects relating to sanitation, to pure food, to cleanliness and to ventilation have become more prominent as matters of public concern and public inquiry general desire and demand has become more insistent that the inspection of hotels should be provided for and that requirements should be made of their proprietors and managers in accordance with state and municipal laws and ordinances especially applicable to hotels and their service.

At the last annual meeting of the Grand Council of Michigan of the order of United Commercial Travelers of America a committee was appointed for the purpose of securing legislation through which hotel inspection would be provided for in Michigan, of which John A. Hach, Jr., was made chairman. Through the efforts of Mr. Hach and his committee this subject was called to your Excellency's attention and through your direction the State Labor Department, the Dairy and Food Department, and the State Board of Health, have cooperated to the extent of vesting in a representative of the state the powers and duties of three departments through which the authority is fully given him to perform efficient hotel inspection.

Attention has been called to the fact that Minnesota and perhaps some other states have established hotel inspection departments and have provided through special enactment for hotel inspection service. Review of the Minnesota law, however, discloses the fact that all of its requirements in the direction for safety for patrons and hotel employers and as to regulations for the convenience and comfort of guests are more fully provided for through the duties now shared by the Michigan Labor