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Show ? EIGHT-HOUR LAW 15 ADVOCATED BY IIS Commissioner of Immigration, Immigra-tion, Labor and Statistics Makes Report. SOME REFORMS URGED Recommends Better Protection Protec-tion to Certain Classes of Working People. Establishment of two free employment employ-ment bureaus under operation by the state, enactment of a law requiring prompt payment of discharged employees, em-ployees, extension of the eight-hour law to cover all employees subject to the dangers of work in mines, smelters and mills, and enactment of a law providing for inspection and regulation of smelters, smelt-ers, mills, factories and workshops, are among the chief recommendations made in the biennial report of H. T. Haines, commissioner of immigration, labor and statistics. The commissioner also recommends that the legislature appropriate $5000 for the publication of a brief pamphlet, which will contain a digest of the commissioner com-missioner Js 'biennial report, and which will contain just such information as would be wanted by prospective settlers set-tlers in Utah. He points out that the expense of publishing ana mailing out his complete report is too great, and considerable money might be saved the Btate through the compilation of a 300 or 400-page pamphlet which would meet all requirements. The commissioner notes that his department de-partment is maMng everv effort to advertise ad-vertise the resources of the Btate as widely as possible, and that pleasing results are being achieved. He oelieves that the expenditure of $5000 for advertising ad-vertising pamphlets would be money well spent. Fees Are Excessive. Mr. Haines recommends that one of the three employment bureaus advocated by him ,be located in Salt Lake and the other in Ogden. He declares that the cost in fees to the average laborer who gets a job through private employment bureaus is so excessive that it practically practi-cally eats up hiB wages. Hence the commissioner urges the necessity for the state operating at least two free bureaus, through which the laboring men may sccu:e work without paying out all they make. Tito commissioner says the manufacturing manufac-turing industries of the state are assuming as-suming such importance and providing labor lor so many workers, that the time is ripe for enactment of laws for the inspection and regulation of Bmelters, mills, factories, workshops and' other establishments where many laborers are employed and machinery used. He recommends rec-ommends that the next legislature pass a law providing for the inspection and regulation of smelters, mills, factories and workshops, to provide for the safety and health of personB working or visiting visit-ing such places. Mr. Haines recommends enactment of a law which will require employers to settle with employees who quit or are discharged, immediately after their relations are settled. Wants Prompt Pay. . He suggests that in case of discharged employees, the employers be required to pay them what is due within twenty-four twenty-four hours kf ter their discharge, and that in cases where employees quit of their own volition, the employer be required re-quired to pay them what is coming within forty-eight hours after they quit. Mr. Haines has found that many employees em-ployees have considerable difficulty in collecting their wageB when they quit or are dismissed, and frequently are required to wait several days for their pay, being forced in the meantime to spend for living expenses all they have, coming, then find themselves without funds to move to another job when they do get their pay. The commissioner expresses the belief that repair men and some other employees em-ployees in and around smelters, mills and workshops, are subject to the same dangers to which miners, smeltermen and moldmen are exposed, and he recommends rec-ommends that the eight-hour law providing pro-viding for these latter men be extended to the former. The general labor situation in Utah during the last biennium has been highly satisfactory, so far as employment is concerned, according to Mr. 'Haines. During the latter half of the period the demand for building trades men was greater than supply, says the report. Employment offices have never at any time been able to supply the demand for common labor and farm help. Wages Have Advanced. Wages for some sorts of construction work advanced from 25 to. 75 cents & a day, and some of the railroads increased in-creased the pav of section hands from $1.65 to $1.85 a day. Mine and mill men were in great demand, and during the biennium wages advanced 50 cents and more a day for both in Park City and Tintic districts and 35 cents in Bingham and at the Utah Copper Cop-per company mills at Magna. More than 13,000 men participated in these labor wage advanecs. Smeltermen also shared in increase from 25 to 45 cents a day. The report recounts that one strike occurred in Park City in November, 1915, affecting 500 miners and lasting about three weeks. The strike ended favorablv to the company, the report states. T"he report also snows a strike of electrical workers, which covered a period of three months, and ended without with-out the strikers gaining their object recognition of the union. Mr. Haines's report is not yet complete, com-plete, as a large portion of his statistics are yet to come in, but even in its unfinished un-finished state it is a monster compendium compen-dium of information relative to the state's resources, businesses, industries, development and its social and educational educa-tional advancement. Every possible subject upon which information might be desired will jbe covered in the continued con-tinued report. The report shows that the agricultural production of the- state during 1915 represented rep-resented a value of $19,113,100. |