According to the first of the reports issued only one corporation in the state had its sinks properly trapped, and fever was epidemic. The factories almost invariably were fire-traps, wooden structures with low ceilings, no escapes, and often with heavy wire screens _nailed_ over the windows. The laws governing child labor were generally ignored. And all this was only about twenty years ago. Many improvements have been made since then, but they have been made too often in the face of the open or badly concealed opposition of the average manufacturer, rarely with his sympathetic coöperation. When men refuse coöperation with laws which concern the health and happiness of those whose labor makes their wealth possible, it is because of a stunted social sense. There are other shocking proofs of this defective development in the average Rhode Island textile manufacturer than his attitude toward humane legislation. One of them is the housing of operatives. Stories of foul, neglected tenements in Rhode Island factory towns, drawn from recent investigation, could be multiplied. They are another of the many good reasons why the textile manufacturer finds it hard to hold labor together. They are another of the many proofs of their unwillingness to pass on to their working-men the protection granted in the name of labor. Take them to task for housing conditions and the general attitude is one of indignation at what they call an invasion of their individual freedom. Why should they build houses for their operatives unless it pays to do so? Why should they protect their operatives from grasping landlords? And if the landlord can make more from a poor tenement than a well kept one, whose business is it? It is _his_ property. Again these mill owners practically take no responsibility for accidents. They are insured against the claims the injured may make. _All that they do is to render first aid._ After that the man or woman must look after himself unless fortunate enough to get free hospital treatment. If he gets an indemnity, he must either settle with the insurance company or go to court, where he is almost certain to fair badly. For instance, here are cases taken at random from the records for the September, 1905, session of the Providence County Courts. One is of a girl, “incapable of speaking the language,” who in 1901 lost a hand from unprotected gears and cog wheels, five years later nonsuited with _costs to plaintiff_! Here is a boy _under_ fourteen who after two weeks in a mill was ordered to clean the iron cylinder of a carding machine and lost his hand. Four years later he was awarded $1100 and $12.58 costs. Here is a case of a young Polish girl new to the mills who in cleaning a loom while it was in operation lost parts of two fingers. She did not know it was unsafe or forbidden. She saw others doing it. The court promptly gave the company costs! One might go on for pages with these cruel wrongs.