The government protection was without doubt necessary to improve the lot of the laborer from being taken advantage of by industries; for them to work in safe environments, have fair and reasonable wages, working hours, and compensation. Many industrial jobs were known to be dangerous. Without the accountability of the government, workers risked their lives in hostile working environments. Nothing would be done to protect the workers from these evils unless the government was willing to step in and pass laws to protect the workers and enforce them. In many cases laborers did not have a set of working hours, or compensation for injury in their job. They could be taken advantage of because their bosses had absolute power over them. The laws passed to guard women and children workers are completely justifiable, because women worked just as hard as men in dangerous and tough working environments, and children were made to work in positions not adequate for their anatomy, and logically needed to be protected also.
The Massachusetts first annual report of its labor statistics bureau said “There is a peril to life and limb from unguarded machinery, and peril to health from lack of ventilation, and insufficiency of means of escape in case of fire, in many establishments…. These evils can only be prevented by detailed enactment.” Massachusetts hoped to pass the Factory Inspection Legislation which would protect workers by demanding factories have machine guarding, direction, elevator safety and adequate ventilation (U.S Department of Labor). But this legislation took years to pass, meanwhile detailed reports from the The Factory Inspector a journal that provided published accounts of industrial accidents. The journal report violent accounts of workers dying due to unprotected machinery. Four men died by being engulfed in streams of hot metal. Many
