dwellings of our workpeople: the neglect in which they live brings evils
with it which makes their misery unbearable, indeed almost fatal. Their
poverty, by the negligence and demoralization which produces it, becomes
almost destructive. In their dark cellars, in their cellar-like rooms,
the air is never changed; it is perfectly poisonous. The walls are
covered with filth. If a bed is ever found, it is always filthy, and
made up of foul and rotten straw. It is covered with a coarse and dirty
rag, the colour or material of which can hardly be distinguished; it is
a miserable threadbare coverlet. The dirty and worm-eaten pieces of
furniture and utensils are thrown about without any order; the closed
windows scarcely allow any light to pass through their smoky panes, many
of which are stuffed with paper, and (it will hardly be credited) they
not unfrequently nail the window fast in order that it may run no risk
of being broken in the opening and shutting of it. The floors of their
houses are dirtier than the rest of the house, covered with ordure,
ashes, rotten straw, and all that has been brought in from the filthy
streets outside; it is a receptacle for every kind of vermin. The air is
no longer fit to breathe; one feels in these abodes stunned with an
overpowering and horrible stench, a smell of excrement, filth of every
kind, and of human beings. And the inhabitant of these abodes, in what
state is he? His clothes are in rags, and tossed on. His hair has never
known a comb, and is covered with the material with which he is working;
and his skin, though filthy, is yet distinguishable on his face, but on
the other part of his body, concealed by his rags, there are
accumulations of every kind. Nothing is so fearfully dirty as the old
and wrinkled of these demoralised creatures. Their abdomens distended,
their limbs distorted, their backs bent forward, their legs twisted,
their necks scarred and full of swellings, their fingers festered, their
joints swollen and weak, and, lastly, these unfortunate creatures are
tormented, we may say eaten up, with vermin of all kinds.”
These descriptions were given by M. de Chambert, Boglli, Brigaudet,
Kulman, and Themistocles Lestibuwers. I shall be excused for having
given this long and disgusting extract, as it shows clearly what was the
state and the evils which could call forth those general and loud
complaints, and which made it a duty for government to take the matter
into consideration. The whole picture is too wretched to be brought into
the most distant comparison with the condition of the poorest of our
workpeople, who are in general well fed and decently clothed, and show
in the furniture of their cleanly-kept houses the fruits of their small
earnings. They, together with their children, enjoy excellent health,
and in general deserve the character of being a sober, industrious,
orderly, tractable, and attached class. But a large population of
workpeople, living entirely on the daily labour of their hands, wanting
many things in external circumstances which, to the eye accustomed to
luxury and abundance, are considered indispensable, under the continual
pressure of strict regulations and continuous labour, is not a very
enviable picture to the superficial observer, and often gives occasion
to many unfounded lamentations and ill-timed apprehensions, if not to
one-sided measures, which are, however, powerless against the stern
necessity of supporting thousands of human beings, which are disturbing
when they shake the established order of things, and are destructive
when they make a happy and quiet class of workpeople discontented with
their lot.
The cotton-works in Lower Austria, which are almost all situated within
a circle of a few miles around Vienna, employ about 10,000 hands, for
whose accommodation solid and roomy dwellings have been erected for the
most part at the same time as the works were established.
Most of the mills have not only a considerable number of dwellings for
the married workers, but large, separate sleeping-rooms for the
unmarried of both sexes, which are provided with beds, and lighted and
warmed at the expense of the mill. When the larger and older mills were
built, there was erected for the boys and girls a so-called children’s
house, in which, at that time, the children were provided at the expense
of the mill with food, clothes, and instruction, and who were bound by
certain regulations issued by the government, and were placed under the
inspection of the respective clergyman and physician of the district.
After the works were extended, they found they were obliged to give up
these institutions; and they now drew the requisite number of hands,
partly from the descendants of their own people, and partly from the
children of the country people, who, in the course of time, becoming
informed as to the condition of the children in the factories, send
their own children after they are too big for home employment and to go
to school, to work in the mills for a certain number of years; after
which, however, they generally return to their agricultural labour. On
the confines of Hungary, on a Sunday evening, hundreds of young, robust,
and healthy workpeople, carrying with them the provisions for the week,
may be seen coming to the mill, whence, on the Saturday evening, they
may be seen going in merry groups carrying their wages back to their own
homes. For these, and all who do not live with their parents, decent and
proper rooms are provided, sometimes in that which used to be the
children’s house, or in other places equally under inspection.
The employment in cotton mills, and more especially of the children,
requires attention, and a certain quickness or sleight of hand more than
any bodily exertion. The whole of the hands are employed in roomy and
light apartments, which in summer are well ventilated, and in winter
warmed with great regularity, and there is nothing in the material, nor
in the processes of the manufacture, which can be injurious to the
health. The hours of work, which are generally from four to five in the
morning to seven or eight in the evening, are interrupted by three
meal-times; and on Saturday the mill is closed from three to four hours
earlier. The weekly wages of boys and girls are from 3 to 5 florins, and
those of the adults from 6 to 18, besides a house free; and it is not
only sufficient for their wants, but gives them also the means of laying
by a little saving, examples of which are not unfrequent.
Under these circumstances the health is not, and cannot be, anything
else than extremely good; the large number of old who are still robust
and in employment, the experience and evidence of all the physicians who
practise amongst the mill population, the result of the reports of the
district physician, but above all, the healthy state they were in during
several epidemics, and also the small proportion of deaths as seen in
the parish register, all afford the most striking evidence of the fact
of their healthiness. Every noxious circumstance must undoubtedly bear
with it the traces of its evil; street riots, mobs of workpeople, and
excesses of all kinds, breaches of the law and criminal acts, numerous
and open concubinage, large numbers of illegitimate children (in many
manufacturing towns amounting to one-fourth of the whole births), and,
lastly, the large numbers of entirely destitute and disabled workpeople
who seek for assistance from the parish and from all charities; these
are the melancholy signs which mark in England and France the state of
the manufacturing population.
In the course of 40 years, during which the Austrian manufactures have
arisen so near to the capital, and have been well watched by the police,
such moral and physical deterioration of so large a population could not
have escaped notice; but I ask where are those incontrovertible signs
which an hospital or a workhouse more frequently attended or applied to
by the mill population than by any other poor class of the community
would be? where are those prevailing diseases? where is the increased
mortality? and, lastly, where are the traces of moral and mental
degradation? Certainly it would be unjust to throw the stone at those
who have linked with the unavoidable demands of business circumstances
which might be measured by the scale of a more fortunate and independent
existence.
Dr. Mauthner states, “that the weakness of the body and constitution of
the children employed in the great cotton-works in the neighbourhood is
very striking.
“1st. That the race of men employed in those establishments is much less
robust than that of the peasantry of the neighbouring villages.
“2nd. That bauchscropheln and scrophuleuse consumption are not uncommon;
that inflammatory diseases are very rare.
“3rd. That premature old age and early death is the common fate.”
Even supposing that since the establishment of the spinning-works there
could have been created a peculiar race of people, still the supposition
could not prove more than that the constitution of the workers had been
modified by their employment and their mode of living, since experience
shows that the duration of life is not shorter than that of the other
working classes.
2dly. That the above-mentioned diseases principally affect children of
the earliest age, the former about the fifth year, the last about the
seventh year; and that it is to be premised that the children who never
work in the mill before their ninth year, come sometimes with the
disease already developed upon them. The children of the mill hands are,
indeed, less attacked by this disease than the children of the poor
agricultural labourer, because they are generally better housed and
clothed than these. That inflammatory diseases seldom appear is no sign
of a weak constitution, since, on the one hand, these seldom appear
amongst children; and, on the other hand, they do show themselves
amongst the adults, whenever there are external influences and inducing
circumstances to produce them; and all the physicians practising in the
cotton-works agree in stating that, with the exception of rheumatic
affections, there are no peculiar forms of disease amongst the
cotton-spinning population.
3rdly. As to the statement of premature old age and early deaths, it is
one which is contradicted by all the experience of half a century. The
registers of deaths made by the clergymen of the parishes give the most
exact information as to the proportion of deaths. The results of these
are,
1st. That the number of deaths, especially amongst the manufacturing
people, is proportionally less than amongst the agricultural labourers;
2nd. That, as amongst other classes, the deaths are the most numerous of
children under two years;
3rd. That between the age of 12 and 16 there are the fewest deaths;
4th. That there are a great many between 60 and 70.
The means proposed by Dr. Mauthner for obtaining a better physical and
moral state are,
1st. Shortening the hours of labour;
2ndly. Interrupting the hours of labour by school instruction: on both
which points there could be no discussion, since these are already
provided for by the law.
With regard to the long working hours, which certainly appear very
oppressive to the unemployed spectator, long habit has accustomed the
workers to them, and they do not produce any perceptible injury, more
especially as the people are paid in proportion to the time they are
employed. It is to be remembered that there remain eight hours for rest,
none of which are spent in going and coming to their homes, as is the
case in other countries, as, for instance, in Mulhausen, where one-third
of the workers live from one to two miles from the mill.
It is not during the hours of well-regulated and orderly employment that
there is any danger of demoralization, but during the leisure hours.
Villermé, in his valuable work on the _Etat Physique et Morale des
Ouvriers_, states that the moral and physical deterioration of the
manufacturing class in Rheims, where they only work from 10 to 12 hours,
is most striking. The hours of work being ended, the people fill the
taverns and the streets with prostitutes, whilst the workers from the
numerous manufactories of Sedan, who work 15 hours, are sober, moral,
and orderly. He mentions also that few manufactories employ so many
robust hands as the spinning works at Sedan.
3dly. To employ more than one spinner to attend to a new spinning
machine which turns a greater number of spindles.
It would in general be well to trust to the manufacturer the number of
workers he should employ, as his interest compels him to use a requisite
number of hands. In this particular case it ought to be stated that,
owing to the progress of machinery, the spinner having 800 or 1000
spindles has less labour than formerly, when he had only 300 spindles to
attend to.
4thly. That the children, and mill hands generally, should be kept in
good order, by sick funds and savings’ banks.
In most works there is established a kind of sick fund, to which each
hand contributes weekly from 1 to 2 _kr._ for every guilder they earn;
or there are voluntary contributions to those who are invalided; or,
lastly, when they receive medical advice gratis, they have this fund to
expend in medicines. If this fund is sufficient to assist the sick, it
is not enough to support those in old age, and they must of necessity
depend on that help which they are entitled to as being the fathers of
families; and indeed every country mill can count many families amongst
the workers in which an aged father or mother is supported by their
children.
The formation of regulations, binding on all and applicable to all
cases, as to the employment of children in mills, together with all
other regulations which affect the internal arrangements of a
manufactory, is incontestibly attended with many difficulties, and
indeed one might say with insuperable obstacles. French legislation has
employed itself three years with this object. The law has appeared, and
we have read it in our public journals. In the leading principles it
does not seem to contain anything but what has been in practice in
Austria for many years, though of our proceedings in regard to minute
details may be said what the minister of finance prognosticated in the
Chamber of Peers on the 31st May, 1837, when he said, “At different
times government has felt the necessity of a similar law. It has
occupied itself with it, and made every inquiry on the subject, but the
law itself presents extreme difficulties: many countries have attempted
one; England has even passed a law on this subject, but it is not
observed.”
The interests of the children, it is repeated, have been protected by
the regulations issued by the government of Lower Austria, the last of
which were issued on July 16, 1839. For the moral and mental development
of the labourer in general there is only one great panacea: this lies in
the extension of trade, in the security and steadiness of employment,
and in the power of the labourer to maintain himself and his children
comfortably and respectably with the work of his own hands.
It is to be hoped that our manufacturers will progress in the gradual
and prudent course which is equally removed from stupid and blind
adherence to old things, as from the spirit of hasty imitation and the
headlong pursuit of novelties. We shall then not have to fear the
creation of a dissolute and depraved class of workpeople, as we see in
other countries. For the rest, trust to the wise care of our
government—trust to the sound sense and excellent disposition of our
labourers—and, above all, trust something to the humanity and to the
opinions of the manufacturers of Austria themselves.
_Remarks on the Cotton Manufactory in Schwadorf._
There is here, under the superintendence of the master of the works, a
sick-fund for the workpeople, to which every man, woman, and child
together must contribute 1½ _xr._ kreutzer for every guilder they
receive in wages; for this they obtain not only for themselves, but also
for the members of their families who do not come to the mill (such as
the little children and the mothers), gratuitous medical advice and
medicines; and, further, the _men_, when they are prevented from coming
to the mill by sickness, receive a 12–kreutzer per day.
The number of hands is on an average 170 men, 220 women and adult girls,
and 100 children; total, 550 individuals.
The amount of contribution to the relief-fund was, in
1839 f.380·4 per day 62 _xr._
1840 f.410·56 per day 67 _xr._
Though on an average from five to six men of the 170 employed are
prevented from coming to their work, yet of these there are _four_ who
have received support from the fund, on account of the infirmities of
age and incurable diseases, for many years; so that, on an average,
there is only from one to two who are prevented from coming to their
work by sickness.[62] A part of the above-mentioned 550 mill hands live
in the adjacent district; these, when they cannot come to the medical
man belonging to the factory, are attended by the surgeon of the
district; but then, on the other hand, there must be set against these
the members of the families who do not work at the mill, as
above-mentioned, and which are about equal in number. Indeed, the number
of those coming for medical advice of the factory physician, and to
which the following tables relate, may be from 600 to 700. The total
population of Schwadorf is about 1700, of which, on an average of the
last 10 years, according to the parish register, 62 died annually. Of
these, according to the register kept by the factory physician, only 13,
on an average, were from the mill population; at least, as it appears in
the last seven years, during which the present physician has attended.
Attended. Died.
1834 1211 23 (N.B. Cholera.)
1835 852 10
1836 653 15
1837 540 14
1838 394 12
1839 298 6
1840 345 10
———— ——
4293 90
———— ——
Average 617 13
A Special View of the state of Sickness in the years 1839, 1840.
┌─────────────┬─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Diseases. │ Treated. │
├─────────────┼────────────────────────────┬────────────────────────────┤
│ │ 1839. │ 1840. │
├─────────────┼────┬──────┬─────────┬──────┼────┬──────┬─────────┬──────┤
│ │Men.│Women.│Children.│Total.│Men.│Women.│Children.│Total.│
├─────────────┼────┼──────┼─────────┼──────┼────┼──────┼─────────┼──────┤
│Inflammation │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
│ and │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
│ consumption│ 10│ 17│ 10│ 37│ 35│ 19│ 10│ 64│
│Nervous fever│ 19│ 4│ │ 23│ 8│ 9│ │ 17│
│Diseases of │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
│ the first │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
│ class │ 23│ 25│ 7│ 55│ 34│ 18│ 19│ 71│
│Chronic │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
│ disease of │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
│ the skin │ 15│ 11│ 5│ 31│ 12│ 9│ 14│ 35│
│Bleeding and │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
│ other │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
│ cleansings │ 5│ 16│ 3│ 24│ 3│ 13│ │ 16│
│Swelling of │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
│ the │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
│ scutiformed│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
│ glandule │ │ 10│ │ 10│ │ 6│ │ 6│
│Consumption │ │ 2│ │ 2│ │ 2│ │ 2│
│Spasms or │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
│ convulsions│ │ 15│ 6│ 21│ 1│ 10│ 10│ 21│
│Green │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
│ sickness │ │ 20│ │ 20│ │ 30│ │ 30│
│Rheumatism │ 5│ 7│ │ 12│ 4│ 6│ │ 10│
│Worms │ 3│ 2│ 22│ 27│ │ 3│ 20│ 23│
│Water in the │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
│ head │ │ │ 4│ 4│ │ │ 14│ 14│
│Scrofula │ │ │ 2│ 2│ │ │ 3│ 3│
│Sundries │ 5│ 11│ 2│ 18│ │ 20│ │ 20│
├─────────────┼────┼──────┼─────────┼──────┼────┼──────┼─────────┼──────┤
│ Total │ 83│ 143│ 70│ 298│ 100│ 145│ 100│ 345│
└─────────────┴────┴──────┴─────────┴──────┴────┴──────┴─────────┴──────┘
┌─────────────┬─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Diseases. │ Deaths. │
├─────────────┼────────────────────────────┬────────────────────────────┤
│ │ 1839. │ 1840. │
├─────────────┼────┬──────┬─────────┬──────┼────┬──────┬─────────┬──────┤
│ │Men.│Women.│Children.│Total.│Men.│Women.│Children.│Total.│
├─────────────┼────┼──────┼─────────┼──────┼────┼──────┼─────────┼──────┤
│Inflammation │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
│ and │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
│ consumption│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
│Nervous fever│ │ │ │ │ 1│ │ │ 1│
│Diseases of │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
│ the first │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
│ class │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
│Chronic │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
│ disease of │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
│ the skin │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
│Bleeding and │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
│ other │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
│ cleansings │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
│Swelling of │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
│ the │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
│ scutiformed│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
│ glandule │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
│Consumption │ │ 2│ 1│ 3│ │ 2│ 1│ 3│
│Spasms or │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
│ convulsions│ 1│ │ 1│ 2│ │ │ 2│ 2│
│Green │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
│ sickness │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
│Rheumatism │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
│Worms │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
│Water in the │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
│ head │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 3│ 3│
│Scrofula │ │ │ 1│ 1│ │ │ 1│ 1│
│Sundries │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
├─────────────┼────┼──────┼─────────┼──────┼────┼──────┼─────────┼──────┤
│ Total │ 1│ 2│ 3│ 6│ 1│ 2│ 7│ 10│
└─────────────┴────┴──────┴─────────┴──────┴────┴──────┴─────────┴──────┘
Although the number of deaths only includes those who lived in the
village of Schwadorf itself, yet under the “treated” are included also
all those from the neighbourhood whose illness was not too great to
prevent them coming to Schwadorf for medical advice. It further ought to
be remarked upon the apparently large number of cases of sickness, that
as the people have medical advice and medicine gratis, that they come
for it on the slightest illness, and the more so as not only the master
of the works but also the physician encourages them as much as possible
to do so, convinced that in most cases, by timely aid, more serious
illnesses are prevented. Lastly, it is to be understood that these
memoranda or notices have not been made for any special object, but only
for our own information.
_Remarks on the Factories in Neunkirchen._
1. _Screw Works._ There exists in connexion with this mill a sick-fund,
in which, however, the hands dwelling out of Neunkirchen do not
participate. Those who live in Neunkirchen pay to this fund weekly 1
_xr._ for every guilder they earn as wages. They receive for this
medical advice and medicine gratis; and if they cannot come to work, the
following relief, namely, (those under Wr. Wf. fl. 4½ weekly wages have
nothing)
From fl. 4½ to 6 daily 20 _xr._ W. W.
6 to 9 daily 24 _xr._ W. W.
Over 9 daily 30 _xr._ W. W.
Those Croatians who live in their houses do not receive any quota from
the sick-fund, but are, of course, attended. As to those who are out of
the district, they also receive medical advice gratis, if they can come
to the factory physician, even though they do not contribute to the
sick-fund. Only few have families, but these also, in case of sickness,
receive medical assistance.
The number of hands varies considerably from 200 to 300; on an average
about 250; of these may be,
Men and adults 180
Women 20
Children from 13 to 17 years 50
The total contribution to the relief-fund was, in the
Year 1839, W. W. fl. 190·48, or 31 _x._ per day.
1840, W. W. fl. 250·50, or 41 _x._ per day.
Also on an average one or two individuals could not work on account of
illness.
To both the spinning works of Herrn von Eltz and Herrn Roulet there is
attached a sick-fund, the exact rules of which I am not acquainted with.
In the print-works of Dubois, Dupasquier, and Co., the printers have a
sick-fund amongst themselves, out of which the hands in work assist
those who are unable to work, according to the circumstances. Since the
hands in the screw-works are not, like the spinners, a steady, fixed
class of workers, but a more fluctuating class, since it often happens
that members of the same family are employed in different factories, and
it is difficult to separate into heads the number of individuals who
have received medical aid; the annexed table for 1840 will give a
tolerably correct view of the state of sickness in the various works,
only with regard however to the numbers working, leaving the other
members of the family out of consideration. It is to be observed here,
that the physician by whom these statements have been drawn up is
appointed exclusively to the screw-works and the two spinning
manufactories. The hands from the print-works go also to other
physicians, of whom there are several in Neunkirchen; hence is explained
the apparently small number of persons from the print-works who have
received medical aid from him.
Screw works of Spinning works of Print works of Von
Brevillier and Co. Frid. Eltz and Dubois,
Carl Roulet Dupasquier, and
together. Co.
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
About 180 men 160 men 180 men
20 women 200 women 90 women
50 children 150 children 90 children
——— ——— ———
250 persons. 510 persons. 360 persons.
In 1840,
having
received
medical
treatment:
Catarrh 14 30 8
Rheumatism. 88 40 20
Gastric 12 25 4
Intermittent 5 16 3
fever
Nervous fever 3 10 3
Inflammations 16 36 10
Various 17 36 8
diseases
Scrofula 0 8 0
Accidents 7 12 4
——— ——— ———
92 213 60
Deaths in the screw works 1 man, tubercles in the lungs.
Deaths in the screw works 1 man, inflammation of the lungs.
Deaths in the spinning works 1 man, tubercles in the lungs.
Deaths in the print works 1 man, apoplexy.
Deaths in the print works 1 man, fatal accident.
—
5 men.
A Tabular View of the Deaths in the various Spinning Manufactories, as a
means of comparing them with the Deaths occurring in the rest of the
Population, taken from the Registers of Deaths in the under-mentioned
Parishes.