based on the general experiences of persons in touch with girls either
inside or outside the factory, the extent of menstrual disorders
appears to be much slighter than is generally supposed. In most of
the non-textile industries reviewed, opportunities for sitting down
were fairly general, and here painful or excessive menstruation
was exceedingly rare. Nurses in charge of rest-rooms and surgeries
report that only a small proportion of girls are troubled in any way,
and those who make use of the rest-rooms during their periods are
always the same ones each month, so it may be presumed that these are
constitutionally delicate, and that the work is not responsible for
their disorder. Doctors declare that if the general health is good,
industrial work for a reasonable number of hours has no ill-effects,
but, on the contrary, the active movements involved are a positive
advantage. When, however, the hours worked are so long as to cause
extreme fatigue, excessive and painful menstruation frequently results.
Nurses and Welfare Workers notice that many girls of 14 have not
commenced their menstrual periods when they start work, and they point
out that the active life and the chance of good nourishment which
wage-earning ensures has a good effect in bringing on normal periods.
Some witnesses report that girls who have no opportunity of sitting
down suffer much pain during menstruation and get very fatigued, but
the evidence on this point was not unanimous.
Evidence from the textile industry is not so satisfactory. As was
pointed out when the provision of seats was under discussion, cotton
and worsted factories are lamentably behind other industries in this
respect, and as hours are uniformly 10 per day and the pressure of
work generally very considerable, it is not surprising that menstrual
disorders are reported more frequently than in non-textile trades. It
must also be remembered that the large majority of textile operatives
start work at 12 or 13 years of age, just at the onset of puberty,
while in other industries 14 is the general school-leaving age.
Many girls find the long hours of continued standing very tiring during
menstruation, and as these factors conduce to anaemia, failure of the
menses and dysmenorrhoea are more common than in other industries.
Most witnesses laid stress on the need for seats and rest-rooms in
textile factories as a means of preventing painful menstruation; in
many mills girls are not even allowed to snatch a few minutes' rest
by sitting on the waste-boxes or on straps slung between their looms,
and they frequently experience difficulty in getting permission to go
home when feeling unwell unless they can get a substitute. Two men
overlookers drew attention to the advantage which results when the
foremen and overlookers are married, as they are then more sympathetic
about periodical lost-time and are more willing to allow girls to go
home at the half-day.
But the doctors interviewed are unable to attribute any permanent
menstrual disorders or resultant injuries to these causes, and they are
inclined to believe that the active life of the mill is a help rather
than a hindrance to the menstrual function.
REALISATION OF THE NEEDS OF ADOLESCENTS
Any realisation of the particular problems and needs of adolescents
by attempts to fit work to their physical capacity is so rare that
the few cases where such provisions are made stand out in marked
contrast. In munition and other factories where Welfare Workers are in
charge, efforts are generally made to limit overtime and night work
to those over 18, but at the time the inquiry was made in Birmingham
and Coventry girls over 16 were in most cases expected to take their
turn at night work with the older workers, while in some factories,
after the first few weeks' probationary period is over, old and young
alike have to work on the alternate night and day shifts, although it
is now generally acknowledged that night work is more detrimental for
young than for adult workers. At one of the larger factories visited,
girls under 16 always stop work at 6 P.M. after a 9-3/4-hour day, while
those over 16 work another hour, and when overtime is being worked,
another two hours. At another factory all the girls under 18 were
engaged on light sedentary work for 42 hours per week, while the heavy
work on presses and capstan lathes was done by girls and women over
18 for 53 hours. In some works the majority of the younger workers
are on light work, such as "examining," and in others the foremen are
willing to transfer girls from work they find specially fatiguing,
on the recommendation of the Welfare Worker. This, however, is not
general, and few foremen exercise care in the selection of girls for
heavy processes. As one witness pointed out, girls are chosen for their
bright and intelligent appearance, with little attention to physical
capacity.
In the cotton industry the position is even worse. Girls entering
the mill at 12 as half-timers or at 13 for full time are expected to
conform in every way to factory life. Voluntary reduction of hours by
employers for younger workers is completely unknown, and instead of
suiting the work to the capacity of young workers, the girls have to
adapt themselves to the requirements of their work. As soon as a girl
has her own looms--at the present time weavers are on two looms at 13,
and frequently on four at 14 or 15--the manager expects her to produce
the average output every week, and the strain to do this is responsible
for much deterioration in health. The competition between weavers is
encouraged by overlookers and managers, and no effort is ever made to
teach girls to conserve their energies.
In the worsted industry the majority of the younger workers are
employed in the spinning rooms, first as doffers and then as spinners,
which one witness describes as the hardest process in the industry.
Few girls remain at spinning after they are 18, as the money earned
here seldom exceeds 18s. per week, but it is during the critical years
of adolescence that they are engaged on this exceedingly fatiguing
work, and no effort is made to reduce the burden of their employment.
In the clothing trade of Hebden Bridge the Trade Union officials report
that the younger workers are not subjected to heavy pressure of work,
and are able to take their ease at the workshops if they so desire,
the peculiar circumstances of the trade here preventing any attempt to
speed them up by threat of dismissal. In one or two factories learners
and young operatives work in a separate room in charge of women
overlookers, and in most cases these supervisors are careful about the
health of their charges and prevent them working at an excessive pace.
THE TRANSITION FROM SCHOOL TO FACTORY LIFE
In reviewing the effects of the transition from school to factory
life it must be remembered that the evidence from the non-textile
industries refers to girls who are over 14 years of age, while in the
textile towns the large majority of the children start work either as
half-timers at 12 or as full timers at 13. The general trend of the
evidence shows that the taking up of non-textile employment is attended
by a considerable falling-off in health. Most girls become thinner
and lose their colour and vitality during their first six months at
the factory, and those working long hours become "like machines, able
to keep on without breakdown, but lose all their normal interests."
This, however, appears to pass off after a time, and their health and
vitality return.
Some witnesses had noticed that the usual manifestations of lessened
vitality and anaemia were not so general as in pre-war days, and
this is naturally attributed to the better feeding and consideration
obtainable at the present time. My attention was drawn several times
to the desirability of increased care during the critical years of
early adolescence through an extension of the medical service under
the National Insurance Act to all industrially employed persons.
Some Welfare Workers found that constant attention was needed to
prevent a widespread deterioration in health during the first period
of employment, and their efforts were frequently hampered by lack of
facilities for medical attention.
Some witnesses, notably those from the Hebden Bridge clothing trade, as
well as from some of the miscellaneous trades investigated, state that
girls are put to easier and lighter work when they first leave school
and that they take their ease at it, so that no falling-off in health
accompanies the transition stage, but a deterioration in physique with
increased sickness shows itself at 16 or 17, when they begin to work at
a high pressure.
The special problem of half-time labour in the cotton and worsted
industries, dealing as it does with the employment of children as
distinct from adolescents, does not concern us here, so that we will
review only the taking up of full-time employment at 13. Where girls
come straight from 6 hours' work at school to the full working-day of
10 hours the change involves a considerable strain, even when, as
tenters and learners, they are not worked hard. Opinions vary as to
the stress of work during the first few months of employment, some
witnesses declaring that the children take their ease at first. This
may be the case when they are earning a time-wage as back-tenters in
the card room or as tenters in the weaving shed, provided they are
working for kindly, considerate persons, but where they are put on
piece-work the more general opinion is that the anxiety for earnings
is as strong an incentive to young as to adult workers, and that all
alike work at top speed. These witnesses lay stress on the inevitable
deterioration which sets in at this time, and they attribute it mainly
to the strain of factory life coming at the same time as the onset
of puberty. This opinion is reinforced by the examples often quoted
of girls who have not taken up industrial work until 15 or 16; these
soon settle down without any falling-off in health. The comparison
between girls who go to the mills at 13 and those who go to the
secondary schools is even more striking. In most of the cotton towns,
particularly in north-east Lancashire, the majority of the pupils at
the secondary schools are drawn from the same class and come from
the same type of homes as the girls who go to the mills, so that the
different circumstances of their lives after they leave the elementary
schools must be responsible for the differences in health and physique
which are so marked at this period.
Many witnesses were of the opinion that the certifying factory surgeons
are not careful enough in excluding girls from the factories, so
that many delicate girls work at the mills who might grow out of
their weakness in a more favourable environment. If the surgeons were
able to postpone admission to the factory for varying periods much
deterioration might be avoided.
SPECIAL PROBLEMS
_Girls in the Mule Rooms._--The shortage of boy labour in the spinning
branch of the cotton industry has led during recent years to a revival
of the old custom of employing women and girls in the mule rooms. In
strongly organised districts this means that girls are being engaged
as piecers in increasing numbers, while where Trade Union organisation
is weak, outside the great spinning areas, as in Wigan, they are
frequently acting as mule minders. As might be expected, the influence
of war conditions has been to intensify this shortage of boy labour and
to increase the number of female piecers, so that the Bolton Operative
Cotton Spinners' Association finds that no fewer than 1163 additional
girl piecers have been brought into the mule rooms in their district
since the outbreak of war, making a total of 3315. The increase will be
proportional in Oldham and district.
In this inquiry the evidence as to the effects of such work was drawn
entirely from non-medical sources, as it was impossible to get definite
medical experience of the problem. Consequently the conclusions are
more general than exact. Many employers and overlookers and some
Trade Union witnesses were firmly of the opinion that mule-room
work exerted no injurious influence on the health of girls, but it
must be noted that these witnesses were drawn entirely from Wigan
and Leigh, where the proximity of coal-mines with the attraction of
higher wages absorbs most of the available boy labour, so that the
shortage has been acute for some years, and the witnesses have got
so accustomed to the presence of girls in the mule rooms that they
can see nothing against it. All the more striking, therefore, is the
testimony of some overlookers in these districts who declared that the
work made girls thin, weak-chested, and anaemic. The temperature of
the mule room frequently exceeds 90°F. and girls and men work in very
scanty clothing, and the liability to colds on leaving the overheated
atmosphere is very marked. Girls are on their feet the whole day, with
no opportunity for rest, and by the end of the day they have walked
many miles. One witness said that girls get very tired, but that no
permanent ill-effects are noticed; but he advocated that rest-rooms be
provided in order to prevent undue fatigue. More than one mule-room
overlooker declared that no daughter of his should ever work in the
spinning room, and the opposition to such work was based on physical as
well as on moral grounds. One manager pointed out that "wiping down"
the mule is particularly "nasty work" for girls: every two hours or so
the little piecer has to run down the mule under the ends and clean
with both hands as she runs, and this has to be done with great speed,
as the spinners object to the mules being stopped for more than a
minute or so.
A small meeting of mule-room women workers, joint minders, and piecers
whom I interviewed were very resentful that their work should be
considered harmful, probably from fear of losing their employment, so
it was difficult to get any definite evidence. The only reform for
which they pressed dealt with the provision of cloak-rooms where men
and women work together. As mentioned above, the heat is so intense
that very little clothing is worn--men wear a pair of linen drawers
and a shirt, the women and girls frequently only a skirt and blouse;
and they dress and undress in sight of one another. The moral effects
of mule-room work are outside the scope of this investigation, but
attention must be drawn in passing to the undesirable position
occasioned by the heat, the scanty clothing, the attitudes necessary
for the work, and the subordination of women and girls to the male
minders in an unhealthy atmosphere. In Wigan, where women minders or
joiner-minders are the rule, these moral objections seldom occur.
Witnesses from mills that do not employ girls in mule-room work were
very insistent on the objectionable moral and physical effects of such
work, agreeing with Mr. James Haslam that it makes girls "sallow and
tired, crooked in limbs, bloodless and dyspeptic."[13]
_Speeding up._--We have already referred to the driving effect of
piece-work on simple automatic processes, but it is difficult to
deduce any definite conclusions from the evidence of the non-textile
industries. Thus some Welfare Workers and employers say that the girls
take full advantage of the liberty allowed them, and are frequently
to be seen wandering into other rooms and workshops for conversations
with their friends. This seems to contradict the view that anxiety to
earn a good wage causes excessive speeding up, but other witnesses find
that the incentive to increase output which piece-wages provide is
so strong that girls will not make use of rest-pauses when these are
allowed, and sometimes consequently become exceedingly nervous. The
pace is set by the quickest workers, and the effort to keep up is very
wearying to weaker and slower girls, who will not sit down or rest even
when seats are provided. Some interesting observations were made by the
director of a factory employing about a thousand female workers. He has
found that continuous piece-work on simple processes has a cramping
mental effect, so that the girls become perfect machines. Thus young
women who have been in the works for about six years will not face
the responsibility of an overlooker's position, and seem to have no
interests outside their output and their wages. On the other hand, a
small proportion of the workers do not work at top speed if they can
get a moderate wage which seems to supply their ordinary needs. Some
girls previously earning 16s. per week on piece-work are still getting
the same money, although they now get 3s. or 4s. war bonus, plus their
piece-earnings.
Speeding up of the machinery in the cotton industry has been very
marked during recent years. In each department unremitting attention is
necessary if even a moderate wage is desired. The standard of comfort
is higher in Lancashire than in any other industrial district, and a
good family income is considered essential. Consequently children and
young persons are just as keen on their output as adult workers. Some
witnesses pointed out that doffers and back-tenters and other beginners
who are paid a time-wage are saved from the excessive speeding up which
results from piece-wages, and that they get time to sit down and rest
in the intervals of doffing, etc. But any one who has watched the gang
of doffers passing from frame to frame in the ring spinning rooms of
the cotton industry or at fly or cap spinning in the worsted trade will
be inclined to disagree with this view; and indeed the textile master
at the technical schools of one of the West Riding worsted centres said
that doffing was done at top speed amid deafening noise, so that the
work was more fatiguing than any other occupation in the mill.
Weavers and winders suffer from increased speed as much as the card-
and spinning-room workers. Attention has been drawn to the spirit of
competition which managers and overlookers encourage between weaver and
weaver. Boys and girls, men and women, are indirectly set to emulate
each other. Some witnesses believe that women and girls work at higher
pressure than men and boys, and since the former invariably have
domestic work when the factory day is over, the strain is considerably
increased. At the present time girls are given responsible work before
they are equal for it. Teachers frequently find half-time scholars, who
have not been at the mill more than a couple of months, announcing
that they were working "for sick," that is, minding the looms for a
weaver who is away ill. Such girls will get two looms of their own
before they are on full time, and at 14 they have four looms under
their charge. It was no uncommon thing in north-east Lancashire to
find that girls have been working their mother's four looms for some
months while the mothers are minding the soldier father's six looms. In
some cases girls of 16 have six looms, and Sick Visitors report that
cases of heart trouble, anaemia, and general weakness are most common
at the present time amongst these girls; "the possible lasting effects
of this severe strain are terrible to contemplate." The Sick Visitors
of another Union say that the falling-off in health which is marked
in adolescent workers, shows itself most when the girl is put on to
three looms. Even in normal times girls mind three looms at 16, and
the strain is considerable. These witnesses believe that the average
girl should not be in charge of three looms until she is 18, and that
21 is soon enough for four looms. In this connection the evidence of
one large mill where the quality of the weaving is above the average
is particularly instructive. The manager reported that the standard
of health was extremely satisfactory, and he pointed out that girls
are not allowed to take three or four looms until they are strong and
capable enough to manage them, and he had found by experience that it
is seldom advisable to put them on the full number of looms until 17 or
18.
RECOMMENDATIONS
The greater part of the evidence considered in this report was based
on opinions derived from personal observations with very little
scientific and no statistical groundwork. The complete report leaves us
with a fairly accurate picture of the conditions under which a large
proportion of the adolescent workers of the country are employed, with
some general notions as to how these conditions react on their health
and physique. Exact conclusions as to the particular effects of the
conditions of labour cannot be obtained, as no records dealing with the
health of girls in factories are in existence. The impossibility of
securing scientific and reliable data was apparent at an early stage
of the inquiry, but it was felt that by reviewing the conditions of
adolescent labour and by noting general tendencies the way might be
cleared for further investigation on a more scientific basis.
It is now generally recognised that "fatigue has a larger share in the
promotion and permission of disease than any other causal condition,"
and as adolescents need a sufficient reserve of energy to maintain
growth as well as health, it is obvious that conditions of work
that exert no injurious effect on adults may be unduly fatiguing
for juvenile workers with their twofold need. Consequently the best
criterion for judging the effects of industry on the health of
adolescent girls will be based on observations as to the incidence of
fatigue with different industrial occupations.
The presence of fatigue among girl workers has been frequently noted
in the course of the investigation, but in every case the evidence
is deduced merely from the observations of those in contact with the
girls or from the testimony of the girls themselves. Physiological
research has conclusively proved that subjective sensations are not a
measure or even an early sign of fatigue, and that real or objective
fatigue is shown and is measurable only by the diminished capacity for
performing the act that caused it. Considerable attention has been
devoted to the subject of industrial fatigue during recent years, and
various tests for the detection of latent fatigue have been employed.
Measurement of the output of work gives the most direct test of fatigue
provided allowance is made for all variable factors except the worker's
changing capacity. In addition, the observation of certain secondary
symptoms supplies a useful index to the degree of fatigue which work
induces. Lack of co-ordination, one of the earliest manifestations of
nervous fatigue, results in increased accidents. The accident rate in
factories tends to be 25 to 55 per cent higher for boys and girls than
for men and women. In 1912 there were 4914 accidents to female young
persons in factories and workshops.[14] Much light might be thrown on
the presence of fatigue amongst industrially employed girls by records
of the accident rates in factories, corrected with reference to the
hours and conditions of labour and to the speed of work as shown by the
output curves.
Laboratory tests for the detection of accumulated fatigue have not
sufficiently justified the trouble they involve, but observations as
to complex reaction time with letter or colour tests, determination of
acuity of auditory and visual sensations, and records of the systolic
blood-pressure may be found to serve as an index to the incidence of
fatigue when other methods are not applicable.
There is no need to amplify these points. It only remains to suggest
that inquiry on such lines be applied to groups of adolescent workers
to discover the extent to which industrial fatigue may be under-mining
the health and physique of growing girls.
It was stated above that the absence of accurate data in the shape of
records of the health of industrially employed girls made it impossible
to arrive at any exact estimate of the effects of such work, but the
sickness returns of industrial Insurance Societies must have been
accumulating a vast mass of evidence as to the particular ailments and
diseases to which employed girls are especially liable, so that an
examination of these records may be extremely enlightening.