The State’s Powerless Labor Inspector

Mrs. Blanche H. Mason, deputy state labor commissioner, is in the city on an inspection tour of this section and will remain in Everett and vicinity for about two weeks. Mrs. Mason has been pretty well over the state since she assumed office last spring, and has investigated conditions surrounding working women and children. She reports that some employers have given her every possible aid by providing sanitary conditions and otherwise complying with the law, while others have made no attempt whatever to make working conditions easier for women and children. It will be remembered that Mrs. Mason was somewhat severely criticised some time ago for failure to commence criminal proceedings in cases where the law had been plainly violated. This criticism is somewhat undeserved, we find, after looking up the law in the matter. It appears the deputy labor commissioner has absolutely no power to prosecute offenders against the law. All that the deputy can do is to investigate any reported law violation coming to her notice and file her report of same with her superior, the state labor commissioner. It is then up to him to prosecute. It is apparent that the law is very lame on that point. A deputy labor commissioner, while under supervision of his or her superior, is still an officer of the state and as such is brought into constant contact with reported law violations. It would seem that some disciplinary power should rest with the deputy in the case. A weak-kneed commissioner under the existing arrangements can make the entire work of his deputies a howling farce.