60 BIENNIAL REPORT OF DEPARTMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 



With the inspectors in the Louisville office drafted for clerical 

 work and statistical tabulation and compilation their inspectorial 

 effectiveness is naturally diminished. Even with the inspectors' part 

 time assistance the department finds it difficult and often impossible 

 to answer all the demands made upon it for tabulated information. 

 With a proper staff of workers trained to supply such information the 

 public would be afforded a valuable service. 



The Labor Department is limited by statute to two female and two 

 male inspectors, one clerk and an executive officer who is the Chief 

 Labor Inspector. 



The Chief Labor Inspector and the Deputy Labor Inspectors are 

 selected by means of a competitive written and oral examination and 

 must meet with qualifications set up by law. This is the only state 

 department in which candidates for positions are selected by means of 

 the civil service method of competitive examinations. 



The present staff was appointed from among a group of appli- 

 cants who passed the highest test at the examination held in June. 

 1928, at Frankfort. 



The examining board consists of Dean F. Paul Anderson, of the 

 College on Engineering, University of Kentucky; Frank Dugan, State 

 Sanitary Engineer, State Board of Health, and Newton Bright, Com- 

 missioner of Agriculture, Labor and Statistics. 



The salaries paid Deputy Labor Inspectors is set by law at $1,600 

 per annum which comes to $133.00 a month. Such compensation in 

 view of the high qualifications demanded and the services performed 

 is wholly inadequate. 



The entire personnel of the department devotes full time to the 

 duties of the department. 



The work of the department requires constant alertness and study 

 of changing labor and industrial conditions, laws, court decisions and 

 procedure as well as close observation and competent inspection of 

 factories and workshops. 



The department inspectors are required to meet and discuss all of 

 the foregoing and other intricate problems with factory managers, 

 employers and heads of large corporations. They are also required 

 to make public talks when occasion demands. 



Section 6, Chapter 68 of the Acts of 1924 sets out the duties of the 

 department in the following language. 



"The Department of Labor shall through its Inspectors visit 

 places of employment for the purpose of investigation of the condi- 

 tion of employment affecting the life, health, safety of employes, 

 the administration and enforcement of all laws of the State regu- 

 lating the employment of labor, and the collection of statistics 

 pertaining thereto." 



It can be. plainly seen from the above mentioned duties set out by 

 the present law, that the law is entirely too ambiguous and vague, that 



