The Difficulties of a Factory Inspector, by the Honorable Edgar T. Davies, Chief Factory Inspector of Illinois

"During my administration, as chief inspector, I have secured the conviction of every glass company in the state, from Galena to Cairo; and had prosecuted and convicted the Illinois Glass Company only the day before Mrs. Van der Vaart's visit to Alton. Our inspectors had gone to Edwardsville, the county seat of Madison County, to prosecute the company; they believed they could there secure a trial along less partial lines than in Alton, the town in which the glass company in question is located. I have the court records of that trial in my hand now; $620 is the penalty imposed upon them for not complying with the child labor law. And this conviction, if you please, in the face of the fact that the Alton Glass Company is not only evasive, but constantly on the lookout. The whole town seems to be with them. The truant officer seems to be in sympathy with them; the school census was taken in the spring and the superintendent of schools never got it until many months afterward, when it was valueless, because it had been held up by the City Council."

"It is reported that if you, a stranger, walk into the town and should resemble an inspector, the glass companies know it. Should an inspector pass a saloon or any of the stores, someone telephones; if you stop at the hotel the glass company's officials know you are there. This glass company's plant covers many acres; it is claimed to be the largest glass company in the world; they have a complete telephone system. This great piece of territory is all fenced in with a huge fence surmounted with barbed wire; two gates for the inspector to get in and lots of holes for the kids to get out."

"Do you people know or realize what it means to go up against the glass companies of Illinois? Do you realize what it is to have millions of dollars invested in glass companies in the state, and to have to go up against the combined forces controlled by them? There is not a glass company in the State of Illinois, not one of them, that I have not convicted."

"When I went into service in Illinois, as chief factory inspector, the first year of my administration the Illinois Glass Company had three hundred and seventy-seven children employed many of whom were under fourteen years of age, and there were many hundreds of children employed in the glass companies throughout the state. Is the Illinois child labor law enforced in the glass companies of Illinois? Let us see. What is the condition today: Instead of three hundred and seventy-seven children employed by the Illinois Glass Company, many of whom were under fourteen, there are now eighty children employed; all holding certificates showing them to be between fourteen and sixteen years of age; there may be some on false certificates who are under fourteen."