_LEGISLATION._
FACTORY LEGISLATION INCOMPLETE: Its intention--Sanitary and
General Provisions--Causes of Inefficiency--Factory Acts a
Compromise--Experts Required--Cubic Space Requirements--REFORMS
NEEDED: HEALTH--Medical Examinations--Hygienic
Regulations--Employment of Mothers--Need for Statistics--HOURS
OF LABOUR: Abolition of Legal Overtime--Prevalence of
Overtime--Overtime Unnecessary--Taking Work Home--REGULATION
OF OUTWORK--CHILD LABOUR--EXTENSION OF THE FACTORY ACT
DESIRABLE--Laundresses--Nailmakers--Local and Imperial
Authority--THE TRUCK ACT--Conclusion.
=Factory Legislation Incomplete.=--There is an idea abroad, which is
quite unwarranted, that our body of factory legislation is more or less
final in its character, and that it has, in fact, accomplished the
purpose for which it was intended by its authors. The provisions of the
Factory Acts range themselves for the most part under three heads. They
deal either with educational matters, with the regulation of the hours
of labour, or with sanitary conditions. It needs no argument to show
that great progress in public opinion has been taking place in respect
of these three points. The Public Health Act is sufficient evidence of
the progressing standard of health in surroundings and conditions; the
Education Act is certainly not of a final kind, and on no question has
public feeling developed more rapidly of recent years than on that of
the adaptation of the hours of labour to human capacity and health. If,
on the one hand, the standard by which we are to test the effectiveness
of such legislative provisions as come under these heads is much higher
than it was a few years luck; on the other hand, it must be remembered
that industrial conditions are not a hard and fixed quantity, that they
vary with the progress of invention, the incidence of competition, the
creation or alteration of tariff frontiers, and many other causes.
The knowledge of chemical methods alone has introduced revolutionary
changes into many industries, so that regulations which were drawn
up ten years ago to meet a given state of things may be out of place
or inoperative now. The Factory Acts, for instance, were designed in
large part to protect women and children from the exhausting effects
of prolonged toil, the idea at the root of the measures being the same
great principle which underlies our whole system of public health.
But when the agitation for the ten hours’ day culminated in the
Factory Act the question, after all, was not settled. It was within
the bounds of possibility that such mechanical contrivances could be
devised as to make the period of legalised toil quite as harmful to
the operatives, or, indeed, more so, than the longer day. The question
whether intense toil concentrated into a relatively short period, is
more or less trying to the human frame than if the same toil were
dispersed over a relatively longer period, cannot be settled off-hand.
But the fact undoubtedly remains, as I have shewn in the chapter on
textile industries, that machinery has been speeded up to a point which
is immensely in excess of that which prevailed when the hours were
longer. At the present time, therefore, the strain upon the attention
and the wear and tear of the nervous system are greatly in excess of
former times, and the worker must be “on the stretch” the whole time to
attend properly to the work. The illustration will serve to show how
the factors governing the industrial situation shift from time to time,
and act and react on one another, and that if factory legislation and
administration are to be really effective they must keep pace with the
times and adapt themselves to changing conditions.
The fact that so large a number of additions and modifications have
been made in our factory legislation since 1802, when the first
intervention of the State on behalf of factory children took place,
shews that some attempt at least has been made to grapple with this
part of the question. It may suffice for our immediate purpose to note
the clear intention and spirit of British factory legislation; viz.,
the protection of those who are unable to help themselves in the matter
of securing humane conditions of labour. Thus, the State does not allow
children to work all their time in a factory until they are thirteen
years of age, and not then unless they have attained to a standard of
school proficiency, which is fixed by the Secretary of State; nor does
it allow half-timers to begin work until they are eleven. Then again,
no child or young person of either sex under sixteen years of age is
allowed to enter a factory without obtaining a certificate from the
certifying surgeon as to his or her fitness for the work. If a fatal
accident happens in a workshop, or a serious or fatal accident in a
factory, the certifying surgeon has to give in his report on the case.
Then again, night-work is absolutely forbidden for women and children.
But the State contemplates much more than this. It provides that
workmen as well as women and children shall secure conditions such as
are not prejudicial to their health and well-being. There are clauses
in the Factory Acts--permissive, it is true, for the most part--bearing
upon the efficient ventilation of factories and workshops, and
providing for the installation of fans in certain cases; for the
purifying of the atmosphere where noxious, poisonous, or offensive
matter or injurious dusts are given off in the process of work; and for
a certain allowance of space and air. Anyone who goes through the Acts
carefully can have no doubt that the protection originally accorded
to women and children has now in certain important respects been
recognised by the State as a claim to be enforced on behalf of every
class of workmen. Nor must we forget, in estimating the functions of
the State in relation to labour, that the Factory Acts form one of an
entire class of legislation which is based on the principle that human
life and health are the direct care of the organised community, and can
under no circumstances become, whether by hire or sale or any other
form of contract, the property of the employing class. Thus the Mines
Regulation Act forbids the employment of women underground, and fixes
the age of twelve as that in which boys may go below ground; whilst
it formulates a complete and most elaborate code of precautionary
measures in the interests of the workmen. The Employers’ Liability
Act belongs to the same category, for it throws upon the employer in
a large number of cases the responsibility for injury done to his
workpeople in the course of their employment.[18] It is clear then
that the State is committed to a principle the maintenance of which
involves responsibilities of the profoundest importance, and for the
carrying out of which in their entirety not only vigilance and a highly
organised staff of trained inspectors are necessary, but close and
scientific acquaintance with various forms of industry, and with the
physiological effects of these various forms upon life and health--in
a word, administrative experience of an extremely high order. And this
brings us to an inquiry as to the administrative efficiency as well as
the legislative symmetry of these great industrial measures.
[18] The Bill recently rejected by the House of Lords contained
a clause enabling workpeople to claim compensation from
employers who had omitted to take reasonable precautions for
securing healthy conditions, in the event of such neglect
injuring their health.
=Reasons for Inefficiency.=--But notwithstanding such admirable
intentions on the part of the State many abuses still thrive amongst
women workers, excessive hours are frequently worked, and hundreds and
thousands of women break down every year or become prematurely old
from overwork, or from the very unhealthy conditions which the Factory
Acts are designed to put an end to. In spite of certifying surgeons
and the code of public health enjoined by the Acts the children who
enter our factories turn out totally unfitted for the strain, and
grow up into half-developed beings or fall victims to some form of
industrial disease. To some the criticism may suggest itself that
these things cannot be cured by Act of Parliament or by encroaching on
the liberty of the individual. However, as modern States have agreed
that the protection of human life is one of the first reasons of their
existence, and as common-sense, to say nothing of humanity, does not
see much to regret in the limitation of the liberty of one class to
inflict grave hardships upon another, such an objection will not take
us much further. Moreover, there is a sufficient explanation of the
comparative breakdown of good intentions without laying the blame
upon Acts of Parliament. The gap between intention and performance,
which is presumably to be found in most of our institutions as well
as in individuals, is in truth not lacking in our protective labour
regulations, and the vaguer the intention the greater the gap. And it
would not be fair to lay the blame for the failure in giving substance
to the Acts altogether upon those who administer them.
=Factory Acts a Compromise.=--The Factory Acts are of the nature of a
compromise between two different social schools. The vague phraseology,
the lack of a definite standard, the readiness to grant exceptions to
certain trades, and, under certain conditions, the large discretion
left in the hands both of the Secretary of State and the Inspectors
of Factories, these are amongst the signs of the contending elements
among which the Acts represent a compromise. Where, as in the case
of the textile trades, a definite working day is laid down and
overtime is absolutely prohibited, the administration of the Acts is
a comparatively simple matter. The factory inspector and the factory
clock between them are a match for the employer who is disposed to
let his machinery run beyond the legal limit. On the other hand,
where the emphatic “shall” which applies to the textile trades is
changed into “may,” where overtime is permitted on account of a press
of orders, or of season requirements, or the perishable nature of
certain commodities, the standard of administration must inevitably
become relaxed like the Acts themselves. Several instances, somewhat
too technical perhaps to be given here, might be produced in which
the Acts have been so drafted as to place the staff of inspectors in
an almost impossible position. Thus they are supposed in a general
way to see that factories and workshops are properly ventilated, and
that conditions of health are favourable. When overtime is worked each
person is supposed to have an allowance of 400 cubic feet of space,
and the inspector is expected to be the judge of what is healthy or
injurious in various processes of manufacture. These surely are cases
in which a feeble and uninformed intention, rather than defective
executive measures, must be held responsible for lack of results. It is
obviously unreasonable to throw the responsibility upon an inspector
of introducing a variety of highly-technical hygienic appliances
into buildings which have been designed and erected without regard
to health, and in which plant and machinery have been laid down with
a single eye to production--just as unreasonable in fact as to try
to preserve a town from typhoid fever by taking precautions after a
defective drainage system has been completed instead of before.
=Experts Required.=--Again, a staff of experts is necessary for
carrying out the public health side of such an Act as this, and yet the
Home Secretary, with no experts to consult, is expected to preside as
a minister of industrial health over the welfare of the vast mass of
the working population, whilst duties are thrown upon the inspectors
which could only be efficiently discharged with the help of expert
sanitarians, engineers, architects, chemists, and medical men. The
requirement of 400 cubic feet of space is an instance of the official
brain working in a vacuum, and here again the administrative side is
not to be blamed. How is a factory inspector to see that every person
who works overtime gets his 400 feet? How can he calculate? Is he to
set his calculation against that of the manufacturer who is anxious
to keep all his hands working extra hours, and who assures him that,
after making due deduction for bench room, machinery, and the like,
each person will enjoy his allotted share? Assuming that it is a
physical possibility for the inspector with his measuring apparatus
to get round to every place of work where overtime is carried on, to
keep a record of all the alterations made in the workshop and the
number of persons occupied and so forth, is it to be supposed that
the inspector will carry out what is presumably the intention of the
law, namely, that each person shall have 400 feet of air to breathe--a
very different thing from 400 feet of space, inasmuch as furnaces and
gases breathe air just as much as human beings, whilst nearly every
trade sets up conditions which tend to pollute or deteriorate it to
some extent? Let us bear in mind that the life and health of multitudes
of people hang upon the distinction between a clear and definite
regulation which is framed to be carried out and a vague and misty one
which may represent a principle and an intention, but cannot be reduced
to practice in its clouded shape, and we shall understand the vital
importance of a clear, straightforward, and definite regulation.
=Reforms Needed.=--Our answer then to the question, “How is it that,
in spite of Factory Acts, things are still so bad to-day for many of
the most defenceless workers?” is, that the State has not troubled to
understand where the shoe pinches, and that in its eagerness to concede
something to supposed trading interests it has allowed confusion and
licence to interfere with the working of those humane enactments. I
therefore propose to examine briefly the various points which call
urgently for immediate reform.
(1) _In respect of Health._ (_a_) _Periodical medical examination_ in
trades where women and children are largely employed. The Certifying
Surgeon--who by the way ought to be employed directly by the State
and not by the manufacturers--at present only examines the children
and young persons before they begin work in the factory, and has no
jurisdiction over workshops except upon the special order of the
Secretary of State. His duties should be extended to workshops, and
periodical examination should be made of the women, children, and young
persons--especially of the two latter classes--where ground exists for
supposing that the conditions of any trade are injurious to health. A
body of experience should be brought together as to the special effects
of given industries upon health with a view to such improvements
and modifications being made in mechanical and other manufacturing
processes as to minimise injurious effects.
(_b_) _Definite Hygienic Regulations._ Each industry in which
injurious processes are carried on should be subjected to periodical
investigation by experts, working in conjunction with the Certifying
Surgeons and factory inspectors, whose duty it should be to recommend
such improvements as are feasible with a view to the protection of
health. Steps have already been taken under Section 8 of the Factory
Act, 1891, for drawing up special rules for injurious trades, but in
view of the constant changes which take place in manufacture, it seems
highly desirable that there should be a regular staff of experts in
connection with the Home Office, so that the Factory Department could
be in touch with such industrial changes and inventions as take place
from time to time. Another very necessary step seems to lie in the
direction of some system of licensing buildings erected for industrial
purposes, so that a proper survey by sanitary and architectural experts
may be made, and any necessary structural alterations carried out
before the work is begun. Just as the Education Department now lays
down definite hygienic regulations to be observed in the construction
of schools, so the Factory Department, in connection perhaps with the
local authorities, should seek to enforce a standard of healthiness.
(2) _The Employment of Mothers._ As the law stands at present, the
only regulation with regard to the employment of mothers is one which
forbids their employment in factories and workshops within a month
after the birth of a child. This was one of the recommendations made
by the Berlin Conference. In the opinion of Dr. Tatham, for many years
the medical officer of health for Manchester, and now head of the
Statistical Department in the office of the Registrar-General, as well
as of many other medical men who have studied this question for years
on the spot, this period is far too short in regard both to the health
of the mother and the welfare of the child--two points which it is
practically impossible to separate in considering this question.
Whilst it may be urged on the one hand that any further intervention
on the part of the State must proceed with the utmost caution in view
of the extent to which married women are employed, it is impossible to
regard with anything but feelings of alarm and even of consternation
such statistics on this matter as are already available, and it would
seem in the highest degree desirable that either a Select Committee
of the House of Commons, or a Departmental Committee representing the
Home Office and the Local Government Board, should without delay extend
and consolidate the researches which have been made, with a view to
furnishing in the most reliable manner data upon which any further
enactments may be laid down. That there will have to be a further and
considerable extension of the period referred to, and that in certain
occupations which are shewn to be peculiarly prejudicial to the health
of women the prohibition of their labour may be held to be necessary in
the public interest, are facts which no one acquainted with the growth
of public sentiment can fail to observe.
(3) _Regulation of Hours of Labour._ (_a_) _The Abolition of Legalised
Overtime._ Allusion has already been made to the grievous defect which
has gradually crept into and tended largely to destroy the efficiency
of the Factory Acts. Evidence given before the Labour Commission,
and furnished on many occasions in the annual report of the Chief
Inspector of Factories by Her Majesty’s factory inspectors, proves
conclusively that in the first place such overtime is injurious; in
the second place, that it is often totally unnecessary; and, in the
third place, that it is impossible to keep an effective check on the
period during which work is performed. The character of that section
of the Act which enables overtime to be worked may be judged from
the following extract: “Where it is proved to the satisfaction of
a Secretary of State that in any class of non-textile factories or
workshops or parts thereof, it is necessary by reason of the material
which is the subject of the manufacturing process or handicraft therein
being liable to be spoiled by the weather, or by reason of press of
work arising at certain recurring seasons of the year, or by reason
of the liability of the business to a sudden press of orders arising
from unforeseen events, to employ young persons and women in manner
authorised by this exception, and that such employment will not injure
the health of the young persons and women affected thereby, he may,
by order made under part of this Act, extend this exception to such
factories or workshops, or parts thereof.” Employers are thus permitted
to work women and young persons--and a child of thirteen bearing her
school certificate ranks as a “young person”--for forty-eight days in
any twelve months for fourteen hours a day exclusive of meal times, in
flax scutch mills, brick and tile making, parts of rope works carried
on in the open air, Turkey-red dyeing and glue making (overtime being
permissible in these cases because of considerations of weather),
letterpress printing, bookbinding, lithographic printing, Christmas
present making, firewood cutting, almanac making, ærated water making,
and playing-card making (these trades being licensed because “press of
work arises at certain recurring seasons of the year”), the making-up
of any article of wearing apparel and furniture hangings, artificial
flower making, fancy box making, biscuit making and job dyeing, and the
extensive class of workers who are employed in warehouses in polishing,
cleaning, wrapping, or packing up goods. The State itself also asks to
be exempted from its own laws, and we find that, by an order gazetted
September 16, 1889, the milling, perforating, and gumming of postage
and inland revenue stamps are made the subject of legalised overtime.
But the forty-eight days which are set as the limit in these cases
are doubled in respect to that category of trades which deals with
perishable articles, so that in processes connected with preserving
fruit or fish and the making of condensed milk, women are actually
allowed by the law to work for ninety-six days in the course of any
twelve months for fourteen hours a day.
The only objections that can be urged to putting factories in general
upon the same footing as those in the textile trades are the arguments
which were adduced against the principle of State regulation of the
hours of labour. If the textile trades can be conducted without
overtime--trades which are dominated by changes of fashion and season
just as much as any other trades--is it not absurd on the face of it
to allow printers, pork-pie makers, and a host of other manufacturers
whose business is supposed to be affected by liability to sudden
pressure of orders and by season demands to remain untouched by the
Act? Granted that excessively long hours are necessary for certain
periods in the case of operations that have to be conducted out of
doors, or such operations as fish curing and the like, the way to meet
the difficulty is not by over-taxing the strength of those employed,
but by working double or, if necessary, treble shifts. It cannot be
too strongly urged that these exceptions are entirely contrary to
the spirit of factory legislation, which is based upon the doctrine
that trade must adapt itself to what is necessary for the workers in
regard to their health and requirements as human beings, and that it
is entirely opposed to the theory that human beings must adapt their
standard of health and leisure to the conveniences and exigencies
of trade. Whether the maximum hours of labour fixed for the textile
trades, _viz._, fifty-six per week, are not too many is another
question. In the opinion of the operatives themselves forty-eight
hours are long enough, and the textile trades are promoting a bill to
give legislative force to their belief. It has been shewn in previous
chapters that the intensity of work has greatly increased, and that
the demands made upon the strength and endurance of the workers are
probably more severe than was the case before the passing of the
Acts. It must not be forgotten that a law which has been made by the
national legislature in such a matter as this imposes a responsibility
of the very gravest kind upon the nation. In other trades the hours of
labour are now, generally speaking, shorter than those in the textile
trades. London builders, taking the year round, do not work more than
an average of forty-eight hours a week, engineers work fifty-two and
a half, and so do boiler-makers and iron-founders. This is not the
place for a detailed treatment of the demand for a shorter day, but
the fact cannot be overlooked--a fact which was insisted upon in the
fifth chapter--that as motive power and machinery replace manual work
so the claim for longer periods of rest and leisure grows stronger.
There is a danger lest society in its intense pre-occupation with
the multiplication of commodities should take up a false position
simply by forgetting this fact. But if the arguments in favour of a
general reduction of the hours of labour are strong anywhere, they are
peculiarly strong in the case of women, for in a vast number of cases a
woman, when she leaves her daily work, has to begin a second spell of
work at home.
(_b_) _Continuation of Work at Home after Factory Hours._--This is
a practice which is openly encouraged by some manufacturers, and
more or less secretly by others. It is a common sight, for instance,
in Belfast, to see women returning home from the handkerchief or
other works in which they have been employed during the whole day,
with bundles of work to make up at night, so that the worker has to
stitch often till midnight, or later, in order to take the finished
bundle back the next morning. In London, too, this practice obtains.
Obviously, if such an infringement of the spirit of the Act is
allowed, the factory regulation becomes worthless in respect of hours.
(4) _The Regulation of Outwork._--By a clause in the Act of 1891 the
Home Secretary was empowered to schedule certain trades in which work
was given out by a middleman or manufacturer--either to contractors
or to workpeople direct--to be done off the premises; to enforce the
keeping of a register giving the names and addresses of such persons,
so as to enable the factory inspector or the sanitary authority to
investigate the conditions under which the work was being done. The
Home Secretary has made an order which brings the clothing trades, the
cabinet trade, and the electro-plating industry under this provision,
and energetic steps have been taken to trace the work thus given out.
Obviously, however, such a task involves a large staff of inspectors;
and in cases where the duty devolves upon the sanitary authority the
expense suddenly thrown upon the ratepayers to provide an adequate
staff, added to other considerations, has led to practically nothing
being done, so that the order remains inoperative. It is unquestionably
desirable that the person who gives out the work should be made
responsible for the sanitary and other conditions under which it is
performed, a provision which would act as a deterrent to a practice
which is admittedly full of hardships for the workers and of risks for
the consumers. As to the latter consideration, the whole question of
the administration of the workshops part of the Factory Acts by the
local authorities will have to be revised. As things are at present,
there is no power of compelling them to do the work, whilst the
division of authority which exists between the Factory Department and
the local sanitary authority is very far from tending to the efficient
carrying out of the measures laid down. The great thing is, however,
that the principle of throwing the responsibility for the conditions of
labour upon the person who practically employs such labour--whether by
means of the sweating system or not--should be recognised, and a first
step in this direction has undoubtedly been taken by the registration
order referred to.
(5) _Child Labour._--Both the educational and physiological experts who
have given attention to this question are agreed that two things should
be done. The system of half-time, under which a child spends half the
week in the factory and half in the school, is a double evil to the
half-timer, as both education and health suffer from the process. In
the opinion of many competent observers the system of half-time should
be abolished. So long, however, as it is permitted to continue, the
age of eleven which was fixed under the new Act is undoubtedly too
low, taking the general level of European nations as a standard, for,
after all, the work in school is to the average child as hard as work
in the factory, and it is too much to demand of young children the
double strain entailed by mental, nervous, and physical causes which is
involved in the school and factory _régime_. The age of thirteen, at
which the child passes into the “young person” stage--to use the legal
expression--and obtains the privilege of working full time, may be
warranted in certain trades, but it is highly desirable that the field
of occupation should be differentiated, and that occupations such as
the textile trades, which involve special strain upon the physique of
growing children, should be regulated by a scale of age.
(6) _Extension of the Factory Acts._--The Acts should be extended so
as to cover the case of laundresses, who ought never to have been left
out. The sanitary conditions under which vast numbers of these women
work are extremely bad, the hours of work are excessively long and far
above the standard set by the Factory Acts, and in steam laundries
there is a quantity of machinery used without any safeguards being
adopted for proper fencing, so that accidents are very frequent. The
arguments used for keeping laundries outside the Acts are, that it is
a more or less domestic industry, that any limitation would fall very
severely on the small employer, and that the nature of the trade is
such as to necessitate long working hours during the latter part of the
week, when most of the work is done. Against this, however, we must set
the facts that no attempt has really been made to organize the work,
which could as well be spread over a longer period as crowded into a
few days each week; that individual employers have successfully done
so; that for the protection of the women as well as of the public,
sanitary supervision is most essential; and, finally, that the health
and safety of those employed are severely compromised by the conditions
under which work is done at present.
(7) _Co-ordination of Local and Imperial Authority._--Reference has
been made to the difficulties which arise in the dual control exercised
by the Factory Department and the local sanitary authority, which
latter body is responsible for the sanitary conditions of workshops,
subject to a final reference to the Factory Department. Experience in
past years has proved that when it has been sought in the same way to
devolve upon the local authorities these important powers, general
neglect has been shown by a large number of districts, so much so
indeed, that after a trial it was found necessary for the Factory
Department to resume the work of inspection. This portion of the Act
has in fact been tossed backwards and forwards with results that can
scarcely be called satisfactory. It remains to be seen whether some
plan cannot be adopted by which the local authorities can be utilised
without the provisions of the Act being allowed to lapse--a plan which
should be checked by head-quarters either at the Local Government Board
or the Home Office, or by an executive Labour Department of the future,
so that a given standard of efficiency may be secured. There remain
certain administrative reforms which will no doubt be carried out as
time goes on. Already large additions have been made to the existing
staff of factory inspectors.[19]
Whilst much of the work is of a more or less routine and simple
character, and can be discharged best by those who are acquainted
with the technicalities and methods of the trade, there are certain
departments which call for the highest scientific skill, for full
statistical information, as well as for unceasing vigilance. A word
or two must be added as to the penalties which are inflicted under
the Acts. The scale suggested by the Acts is very low, and the
magistrates often inflict a merely nominal penalty, so that employers
who infringe the Acts have little to fear except from the annoyance
caused by proceedings being taken against them. This is a thoroughly
unsatisfactory state of things.
(8) _The Truck Act._--For the protection of women workers an amendment
to the Truck Act is sorely needed; the system of arbitrary fines and
deductions, to which reference has already been made, is an unmitigated
evil, and tends more than any other condition of labour to degrade the
workers, and hold them in bondage.
[19] The appointment of Departmental Committees, consisting of
scientific specialists and factory inspectors, shews that the
Home Office is alive to the necessity of improving the quality
of factory inspection in the case of injurious trades.
=Conclusion.=--During the next few years we are likely to see great
changes, for the agitation which has taken place in the labour world
in recent times is not of a spasmodic kind. It is the outcome of years
of struggle and suffering and thought, and of many defeats on the part
of the workers. For them the Factory Acts are of quite incalculable
importance. They stand for industrial health, for the safeguard of the
worker’s leisure and standard of life, for the civic principle in the
affairs of the labour market and the workshop. They stand, too, for the
ratification by the State of the will of the people as expressed by
their common voice and common organisations. It is not true to say that
they spare them the trouble of doing something which they might equally
well do for themselves. The Acts give a statutory validity to what the
workers have already decided upon in times past. They secure the ground
already won, so that the workers may go forward, and on that ground
raise their standard of living higher; so that the manufacturers may
put their houses in order, introducing better management and mechanical
methods; so that the standard of living and the standard of general
efficiency may advance together. Under the guiding intelligence of the
nation these great human enactments, which have been a godsend to the
people of this country in the past, will become ever more fruitful
as higher civic ideals and a deeper conception of human welfare and
industry take the place of the conceptions which have prevailed during
the transition period from which we are now emerging.
INDEX
A
Art, Difficulties in the pursuit of, 30.
Army Clothing Factory, 74.
Assistant Mistresses, in High Schools, 9.
Salaries of, 10.
in Elementary Schools, 16.
B
Ballet, The, 33.
Belfast Mill-workers, Deaths of, 127.
Board Schools, Salaries in, 14.
Compared with Voluntary Schools, 16.
Bookbinders’ Union, 71.
C
Carpet manufacture, 107.
Certifying surgeon, Duties of, 152, 158.
Child labour, 105, 122.
in cotton trade, Dr. Tarrop’s report on, 123.
Age limit too low, 165.
Chromo lithography, 37.
Cigar-makers Union, 74.
Success of, 80.
Civil Service, 41.
Pensions in, 42.
Women _versus_ men in, 42.
The Post-office, 42.
Complaints against women, 46.
Clerks, National Union of, 64.
Clerkships, Ordinary, 40.
in shipping firms, 41.
in Civil Service, 41.
Commerce, Subordinate position of women in, 47.
French and American women in, 48.
Consumers’ League, 89.
Cotton manufacture, 95 _et seq._
Injurious processes in, 121.
Child labour in, 122.
Combination in, 90, 95.
Crafts, Artistic, 36.
Chromo-lithography, 37.
Hostility of workmen in, 37.
Crape trade, wages in, 106.
D
Dentistry suitable for women, 26.
Deterioration of population, 148.
Directory of Women’s Trades Unions, 90.
Domestic Subjects, 17.
Demand for instruction in, 17.
Lack of common standard, 18.
Opening for women, 18.
Compared with University training, 19.
Dressmakers’, Milliners’, and Mantle-makers’ Union, 73.
Dust, defined, 120.
in shoddy mills, 130.
in potteries, 131.
in white lead, 132.
Respirators against, 139.
E
Elementary Schools, 14.
Salaries of Certificated Mistresses in, 14.
Other salaries, 15.
Salaries under the London School Board, 16.
Elementary _versus_ Secondary Schools, 16.
Training Colleges for, 17.
Employment of women, Blue Book on, 65, 85 _et passim_.
Experts required in factory inspection, 156.
F
Factory Acts, 150.
Insufficiency of, 152.
Reforms needed in, 157.
Extension of, desirable, 166.
Factory Department, 167.
Farr, Dr., tables of Infant Mortality, 146.
Fiction, 3.
Its remuneration, 4.
Fines, 85.
in shops, 51.
in textile trades, 100.
in the linen trade, 109.
Foreign competition, 88.
G
Gassing in silk manufacture, 130.
Governesses’ salaries, 8.
compared with High Schools, 10.
Greenhow’s, Dr., report on potteries, 132.
H
Half-timers, 165.
Handicrafts, Position of women in, 35.
Health, Economic importance of, 119.
Causes of ill-health, 120.
In various trades, 119 _et seq._
High Schools, 9.
Homework in, 10.
Salaries, 9.
Report on salaries, 11.
Agreements, 12.
Church Schools, 12.
Fees, 13.
Home-work, 87.
after factory hours, 163.
Regulation of, 164.
Hosiery trade, 107.
Union, Amalgamated, 80.
Hospital for Women, New, 24.
I
India, Medical women in, 25.
Native students, 25.
Infant mortality, 140 _et seq._
in Preston, Leicester, and Blackburn, 141.
Causes of, 144.
Dr. Tatham’s evidence, 145.
Dr. Farr’s tables, 146.
Recent statistics, 147.
Employment of mothers, 160.
J
Jex-Blake, Dr., _Medical Women_, 23.
Opinion on medicine as a career for women, 24.
Journalism, 6.
Income attainable, 7.
L
Lace trade, 107.
Lancashire and Yorkshire contrasted, 97.
_Lancet, The_, on seats for shop assistants, 56.
Laundries, Extension of Factory Acts to, 166.
Law, 21.
Miss Orme’s summary, 21.
Conveyancing, 22.
Openings in India, 22.
Lead, White, viii., 133 _et seq._
in other manufactures, 137.
Linen trade, 108.
Dr. Purdon’s report on, 124.
Deaths in, 127.
Combination attempted, 82, 109.
Dr. Whitaker’s report, 129.
Literature, 3.
Liverpool Tailoresses’ Union, 75, 87.
London School Board, 16.
Lucifer match trade, 137.
M
Machinery, and women’s labour, 110, 113.
Dangerous, 103.
in laundries, 166.
Married women’s labour, 103.
Relation to infant mortality, 145.
Regulation of, 160.
Martineau, Harriet, 3.
Match girls’ strike, 77.
Medicine, 23.
Appointments available, 24.
in India, 25.
Men’s Unions, Attitude of, 10, 37, 85, 117.
Midwifery, present status of, 27.
Midwives’ Institute, 27.
Mines Regulation Act, 153.
Miscellaneous trades, 110.
Mixed Unions, 80.
in Lancashire, 96.
List of, 90.
Mortality, in linen mills, 129.
Infant, 141 _et seq._
Age periods, 143.
Mothers, Employment of, vii., 160.
Music, 30.
N
Nailmakers, 75.
National Union of Teachers, 16.
Necrosis in lucifer match trade, 137.
Night-work forbidden, 152.
Northern Counties Weavers’ Association, 80.
Nurses’ salaries, 29.
Nursing, conditions of work, 28.
Mistaken notions as to, 28.
Private, 30.
Co-operative, 30.
O
Outwork, Regulation of, 164.
Overtime, 160.
Regulations as to, 161.
Abolition of, desirable, 162.
Oxford Working Women’s Society, 75.
P
Painting, 32.
Black and white drawings, 32.
Philanthropy, Remunerative employment connected with, 20.
Settlements, 21.
Paterson, Emma, 67.
Death of, 76.
Pit-brow women, xii., 86.
Phthisis among linen workers, 129.
Pharmacy, 26.
Pocket money, Working for, 88.
Post-office, The, 42.
Number of women employed in, 42.
Clerkships, 43.
Sorterships, 45.
Telegraph learnerships, 45.
Counter-women, 46.
Complaints against counter-women, 46.
Potteries, 131.
White lead in, 137.
Pouce, The, 124.
Preachers, Women, 20.
Purdon’s, Dr., report on linen trade, 124.
R
Religion, Remunerative employment connected with, 20.
Routine clerical work, 39.
Royalties on music, 32.
S
Sanitation, in shops, 57.
in textile trades, 101.
Ventilation, 138.
Shirt and Collar Makers’ Union, 72.
Shoddy fever, 130.
Shop work, Labour Commission Report on, 65.
Shop Hours Regulation Act, 64.
Shop Assistants, 49.
Their grievances, 50.
Wages compared with men’s, 50.
Fines, 51.
Bonuses, 52.
Agreements, 52.
Dismissal, Miss Collet on, note p. 52.
Long hours, 53.
Regulation of hours, 53.
Standing, 56.
_The Lancet_ on seats, 56.
Insanitary conditions, 57.
“Living in,” 58.
Sundays, 59.
Personal narratives, 60.
Combination among, 63.
Silk manufacture, 106.
Health in, 130.
Stage, The, 32.
Prospects of, 33.
Touring companies, 33.
Remuneration, 33.
Pantomime performers, 34.
Difficulty of progress, 34.
The ballet, 34.
Salaries of dancers, 35.
Supervision, Abuses of, 99.
Sweating system, 77, 112.
T
Tarrop, Dr., report on the cotton trade, 123.
Tatham, Dr., evidence on infant mortality, 145.
Teaching, 7.
Private, 8.
in High Schools, 9 _et seq._
Domestic subjects, 17.
Higher teaching posts, 19.
Headships, 19.
Lectureships, 20.
Textile trades, 93.
Lancashire and Yorkshire contrasted, 95.
Other centres, 106.
Overtime forbidden in, 162.
Trade as a career, 48.
The aristocracy in, 48.
Trades Congress, Liverpool, 72.
Women delegates to, 72.
Trades Councils assist women, 78, 81, 86.
Trade Unions, Women’s, 66.
Origin of, 67.
Provincial, 72.
in 1882, 74.
Mixed, in provinces, 80.
Methods of forming, 81.
Difficulties of, 83.
Results, 86.
Directory of, 90.
in Lancashire, 97.
Training, Necessity for, 37.
Truck Act, 168.
Type-writing, 39.
in America, 40.
with Shorthand, 40.
U
Union of Shop Assistants, National, 64.
United Shop Assistants’ Union, 64.
Upholstresses’ Union, 73.
V
Ventilation, 138.
Objections of workers to, 139.
W
Wages, Sketch of Women’s, 113.
Women’s lower than men’s, 42, 50, 97.
Reasons for difference, 112.
Difference artificially kept up, 117.
Results, ix.
Warehouses, Conditions of life in, 63.
Wages, 63.
Combination in, 64.
Whitaker’s, Dr., report on linen mills, 129.
Women Factory Inspectors, 74 and note.
Women’s Protective and Provident League, 69.
Women’s Trades Union Association, 79.
Women’s Trades Union League, 81.
Women’s Trades Unions reviewed, 76.
Women’s Union Journal, 76.
Writers’ Club, 5.
Y
Yorkshire and Lancashire contrasted, 97.