References, indeed, are often handed around like passports among Russian revolutionists.
Many of these unpleasant facts were brought to light in the course of the investigation made by the Intermunicipal Committee on Household Research.

The result of their report was a model employment agency law, passed by the New York State Legislature, providing for a strict licensing system, rigid forms of contract, regulation of fees, and inspection by special officers of the Bureau of Licenses.

The law applies only to cities of the first class, and unfortunately has never been very well enforced.

Perhaps it has not been possible to enforce it.
In all the cities examined by the Intermunicipal Committee on Household Research the investigators found the majority of employment agencies in close connection with the homes of the agents.

In New York, of three hundred and thirteen offices visited, one hundred and twenty were in tenements, one hundred and seven in apartment houses, thirty-nine in residences and only forty-nine in business buildings.