air in most rooms of factories is impregnated not in-
frequently lay the foundation of distressing and fatal
diseases. When inhaled, they are a source of great
pulmonary irritation, which, if it continues long, induces
a species of chronic bronchitis, which, not rarely, de-
generates into tubercular consumption. . . .
" IV. The fourth cause of the ill-health which prevails
among the manufacturing population may be traced to
the injurious influence which the weakened and vitiated
constitution of the women has upon their children. 2 They
are often employed in factories some years after their
marriage, and during this pregnancy, and up to the very
period of their confinement, which all who have attended
1 It is, however, important to mention that cotton mills are
materially improved of late years in most of these particulars, and
that in some mills they exist in a much less degree than others, which
shows them not to be essential and inherent.
2 It is a curious circumstance, and one which amply merits
attentive consideration, that the fecundity of females employed in
manufactories seems to be considerably diminished by their occupa-
tion and habits ; for not only are their families generally smaller
than those of agricultural labourers, but their children are born at
more distant intervals. Thus the average interval which elapses
between the birth of each child in the former case is two years and
one month, as we have found upon minute enquiry, while, in
country districts, we believe, it seldom exceeds eighteen months.
The causes of these facts we have at present no space to enlarge
upon.
APPENDIX 277
to the physiology of the subject know must send their
offspring into the world with a debilitated and unhealthy
frame which the circumstances of their infancy are ill-
calculated to remove ; and hence, when these children
begin to work themselves they are prepared at once to
succumb to the evil influences by which they are
surrounded."
At page 27. " We hope we shall not greatly offend the
prejudices either of political economists or practical trades-
men when we state our firm conviction, that a reduction
in the hours of labour is most important to the health of
the manufacturing population, and absolutely necessary to
any general and material amelioration in their moral and
intellectual condition. ... It will be urged in opposition
that all legislative interference in commercial concerns
is, prima facie, objectionable, and involves the admission
of a dangerous and impolitic principle. That legislative
interference is in itself an evil we deeply feel and readily
admit ; but it is an evil like many others which necessity
and policy may justify, and which humanity and justice
may imperiously demand. Legislative interference is
objectionable only where it is injudicious or uncalled for.
It will also be objected, and with more sound reason, that
a reduction of the hours of labour would cause a corre-
sponding reduction in the quantity produced, and con-
sequently in the wages of the workmen ; and would also
diminish our power of competing with other manufacturing
nations in foreign market, and thus, by permanently in-
juring our trade, would be productive of greater evils to
the labouring classes than those we are endeavouring to
remove. This objection, though very reasonable, we think
is considerably overstated. That ' a reduction of the
hours of labour would cause a corresponding reduction in
the quantity produced' we entirely deny. What would
be the actual loss consequent upon a reduction of the
hours it is impossible to state with any certainty, but it is
probable that if factories were to work ten hours instead
of twelve the loss in the quantity produced would not be
one-sixth, but only about one-twelfth, and in Mule Spinning
278 APPENDIX
perhaps scarcely even so much. We know that in some
cases when the mills only worked four days in the week,
they have often produced five days' quantity, and the
men earned five days' wages. That this would be the case
to a considerable extent every one must be aware ; as all
men will be able to work much harder for ten hours than
they can for twelve. The objection above mentioned we
consider to be much over-stated ; and we are convinced
that the loss incurred would only amount to a part of the
reduction. And we think that all loss to the masters might
be prevented, and the necessity of a real reduction of wages
obviated, were all duties on raw materials, and those taxes
which greatly raise the price of provisions, abolished by
the legislature. It is principally the shackles and draw-
backs to which the Cotton Manufacture is subjected which
renders it so difficult, and as some think so impracticable,
to adopt a measure without which all extensive and general
Plans for improving and regenerating our manufacturing
poor must approach the limits of impossibility. At present
(in the cotton trade at least, which is already restricted by
law) the hours of work generally extend from half-past five
or six in the morning till half-past seven or eight at night,
with about two hours' intermission, making in all about
twelve hours of clear labour. This we would reduce to
ten hours (if such a measure should be rendered practicable
and safe by a removal of all taxes on manufactures and
provisions) ; and we again express our conviction, after
regarding the subject in every possible point of view, that
till this measure is adopted all plans and exertions for
ameliorating the moral and domestic condition of the
manufacturing labourer can only obtain a very partial
and temporary sphere of operation. We say this with
confidence, because in every project of the kind which we
have been enabled to form, in every attempt for this
purpose which our personal acquaintance and habitual
intercourse with the people could suggest, we have been
met and defeated by the long hours (absorbing in fact the
whole of the efficient day) which the operative is com-
pelled to remain at his employment. When he returns
APPENDIX 279
home at night, the sensorial power is worn out with intense
fatigue ; he has no energy left to exert in any useful object,
or any domestic duty ; he is fit only for sleep or sensual
indulgence, the only alternatives of employment which
his leisure knows ; he has no moral elasticity to enable
him to resist the seductions of appetite or sloth, no heart
for regulating his household, superintending his family
concerns, or enforcing economy in his domestic arrange-
ments ; no power or capability of exertion to rise above
his circumstances or better his condition. He has no time
to be wise, no leisure to be good ; he is sunken, debilitated,
depressed, emasculated, unnerved for effort, incapable of
virtue, unfit for everything but the regular, hopeless,
desponding, degrading variety of laborious vegetation or
shameless intemperance. Relieve him in this particular,
shorten his hours of labour, and he will find himself possessed
of sufficient leisure to make it an object with him to spend
that leisure well ; he will not be so thoroughly enervated
with his day's employment ; he will not feel so imperious
a necessity for stimulating liquors ; he will examine more
closely, and regulate more carefully, his domestic arrange-
ments, and what is more than all, he will become a soil
which the religious philanthropist may have some chance
of labouring with advantage. We do not say that a reduc-
tion in the hours of labour would do everything ; but we
are sure that little can be done without it."
Arthur Arnold. Cotton Famine. 1864.
(Describing factory work.) Page 56. "In these days
of automaton machinery there are many moments in every
hour when the varied and immense production of a cotton
factory would continue though 95 per cent of the hands
were suddenly withdrawn. The work is exciting but not
laborious. It quickens the eye and the action of the brain
to watch a thousand threads, being obliged to dart upon
and repair any that break, lest even a singfe spindle should
be idle ; and it strengthens the brain to do this with bodily
labour which is exercising but not exhausting. It polishes
280 APPENDIX
the mental faculties to work in continued contact with
hundreds of others, in a discipline necessarily so severe and
regular as that of a cotton factory. The bodily system
becomes feverishly quickened by thus working in a high
and moist temperature. Even the rattle of the machinery
contributes to preserve the brain of the operative from that
emptiness which so fatally contracts its power."
THE SURAT WEAVER'S SONG
From Edwin Waugh's Factory Folk, p. 238.
By Samuel Lay cock.
Confound it ! aw ne'er wur so woven afore ;
My back's welly broken, mi fingers are sore ;
Aw've bin stannin' an' workin' among this Surat
Till aw'm very neer gettin' as blint as a bat.
Aw wish aw wur fur eneagh off, eawt o' th' road,
For o' weaving this rubbitch aw'm gettin' reet sto'd ;
Aw've nowt i' this world to lie deawn on but straw,
For aw've nobbut eight shillen' this fortnit to draw.
Oh dear ! if yon Yankees could nobbut just see
Heaw they're clemmin' an' starvin' poor weavers like me,
Aw think they'd soon settle their bother an' strive
To send us some cotton to keep us alive.
There's theawsan's o' folk, jist i' th' best o' their days,
Wi' traces of want plainly sin i' their face ;
An' a future afore 'em as dreary as dark,
For when th' cotton gets done we's be o' eawt o' wark.
We've bin patient an' quiet as long as we con ;
Th' bits of things we had by us are welly o' gone ;
Mi clogs an' mi shoon are both gitten worn eawt,
An mi halliday cloaths are o' gawn " up th' speawt " !
Mony a toime i' mi days aw've sin things lookin' feaw
But never as awkard as what they are neaw ;
If there is'nt some help for us factory folk soon,
Aw'm sure 'at we's o' be knock'd reet eawt o' tune.
APPENDIX 281
Darwen Weavers. Report, March 1911, The Driving Evil.
During the last few months we have experienced a
decided improvement in the demand for cotton goods, and
which has naturally provided fuller employment for those
employed in the weaving branch. We regret, however, to
state that this improvement has brought with it that curse
of our industry the driving evil. We still have a number
of employers who resort to any artifice in order to exact
the last ounce of effort out of their work-people. Very
little regard appears to be paid to the possibility that the
health of the operatives may be endangered by the process ;
nor is much consideration given to the difficulties that they
have to contend with in the shape of inferior material in
the loom and the higher standard of quality demanded in
the warehouse. Indeed the only thing that seems to be
of any importance is the average, and woe be to the unlucky
individuals whose earnings fall below it. The weak and
the strong are set in competition one with another, with
the inevitable result that the weaker or less efficient work-
people resort to such practices as working during the meal-
hour, etc., in their efforts to keep up the unequal race,
whilst on the top of all is the dread of what may happen
after making up time. When the earnings of an over-
looker's set fall below the amount required by the manage-
ment, pressure is brought to bear on the over-looker, and
in turn they (sic) are expected to put more pressure on the
weaver to increase the output. The methods of speeding-
up the weaver are varied. Sometimes a hint is conveyed
by a distinctive mark on their wage-tickets, in other cases
the weavers are spoken to about their earnings, not always
in the best manner or in the choicest language. This is
far from being an ideal state of things for young persons or
persons of a sensitive nature to be employed in, and has
in the past been responsible for some of the tragedies that
are a blot on the record of the cotton industry. We think
it is high time that a number of employers should give this
matter their careful consideration, and look upon their work-
282 APPENDIX
people as human beings and not as mere machines to be
worked at the utmost speed. We hope that an early
improvement will be made at some of the local concerns,
otherwise there is every probability of serious trouble.
EXTRACTS FROM REPORTS OF THE PRINCIPAL LADY IN-
SPECTOR OF FACTORIES, AND SOME OF HER COLLEAGUES,
ILLUSTRATING THE PRESENT POSITION OF THE WOMAN
WORKER. 1
i. Women and Girls show more Courage in voicing
their Needs.
While we can see a great number and variety of deplor-
able contraventions of the actual requirements and spirit
of the law and an amount of apparently preventable
suffering and overstrain and injury to life, limb, and health
that is grievous to dwell upon (except for action in the way
of removal), we can see also, most clearly, signs of improve-
ment and the promise of much more. The promise lies
in the fact that the movement to secure better conditions
is not confined to any one class or group. The women and
girls at last begin to press their claims for a better life than
the one they have, not only by increasing appeals to In-
spectors to put the law in motion, but also by criticism of
the limitations of the law and by signs of fresh courage
in organising and voicing their needs to the employers.
Employers are initiating reforms not only as outstanding
individuals and firms, but are beginning to do so at last
by associated action and effort. Without these two
responsive sides of the movement the best efforts of social
reformers and legislators would end but poorly. As
strikingly illustrating the need of betterment, I would
point not only to the instances of excessively long hours
inside and outside the factories, insanitary conditions ;
lack of seats, mess - rooms ; accidents and unf enced
machinery ; employment of young workers in operating
and clothing dangerous machines ; in excessively heavy
1 The extracts are slightly compressed in transcription.
APPENDIX 283
weight carrying, but behind, and through, and over all,
to the undermining influence for the real health of the
nation in the grinding methods of payment and deductions
from payment of women and girls. Even of industrial
poisoning Miss Whitlock says : " Poverty with its attendant
worry and lack of nourishment appeared to be a predispos-
ing cause in many cases, and the youth of many of the
workers affected was noticeable," and when a woman
heavily laden and worn asks, "Is it right I should have
to do this kind of work and only have 8s. a week ? " the
Inspector can only listen and report. The sinister instances
of use of homework after the legal factory day to reduce
piece rates, of new deductions covering cost of employers'
contributions under the Insurance Act, of old-standing
large non-payments for work done to punish small un-
punctualities in arrival at the factory, and of fine added
to entire loss of a hardly-earned week's wage for alleged
damage, are only outstanding illustrations of an extensive
pressure on women's wages that prevents them from
developing their full natural vitality. In every direction
the testimony of the Inspectors to the value of the spirit
of the industrial girl or woman is the same. Of a girl of
seventeen, partially scalped, Miss Martindale says : " Her
pluck and bravery were noteworthy, in fact these qualities
show themselves in a remarkable degree in working girls
when they meet a severe physical shock " ; of another,
whose hand had to be amputated after vain attempts to
save it, she says that the girl mastered her disappointment,
and in two or three days after the operation began to
practise writing with her left hand, and in a month had
become almost as proficient in writing as with the right
hand. The value they attach to inspection is obvious
from what follows in this report, and is shrewdly summed
up in a remark overheard by a Senior Lady Inspector in a
northern mill : " Yon's a Lady Inspector, nay, but it's
time we had one."
284 APPENDIX
2. A Factory Worker's Letter.
Miss Slocock. The complaints outside the Acts received
during the year have been interesting, and they often
indicate in a remarkable way the workers' needs and the
omissions of present legislation. Irish workers express
themselves graphically and exceedingly well in writing,
and the following letter is a typical one : " Dear Madam,
I am sure you will think it presumption on the part of a
factory worker to write to you however as pen and paper
refuses nothing I venture to write you this annonamos
letter. When you come to inspect a factory, does it ever
strike you to look around and see if any of these weary
women and girls have a seat to sit down on. I am a winder
myself I have worked in a great many factories for the last
30 years one looks on their workshop just like their home
why should we be denied a seat I suppose you think our
work very light so it is we have no extra heavy lifts we have
mettle cups that I suppose they would be 2 Ib. weight or
more we are pushing these up continually the whole thing
is tedious just look around you and you will see some winders
have not so much as a lean for their backs. I hope Dear
Lady you see to this. You would never think of putting
a servant to work in a kitchen without a chair in it, she
would not stick it, the winders are an uncomplaining lot
if you asked them would they like to be provided with seats
they would smile and say they were all right, it would look
to them like making complaints behind backs but don't
ask us but think about us and do something for us and our
children will rise up and call you blessed. I hold that rest
is essential to Good Health."
3. Lighting.
Principal. An increasing number of complaints is
received with regard to defective natural lighting and badly
adjusted or otherwise defective artificial lighting. The In-
spectors do what they can to secure improvements, though,
APPENDIX 285
as the matter is outside the Factory Act, in general no con-
travention notice or other official action is as yet practicable.
Two bad cases concerning women compositors in different
parts of the kingdom are specially reported ; in both
artificial lighting was required during the greater part of
the day, and in only one of these instances is a remedy
being supplied by removal to better premises. In the other
case, when the women learned that lighting is still outside
the Factory Act so far as their case is concerned, they
exclaimed to the Senior Lady Inspector, Miss Squire, " but
this is the most important thing of all to us."
Miss Squire. Badly adjusted light which hurts the
eyes was found in boot factories, where out of nine visited
in one town four had the sewing-machine rooms provided
with ordinary fish-tail burners on a jointed bracket at
every machine these, unshaded, were on a level with the
workers' eyes and close to the face. The girls complained
that the light was poor and had a smarting effect upon the
eyes. The adaptation of artificial lighting to the require-
ments of the work receives in general very little attention,
but I find that a desire for some guidance in the matter is
growing among employers and managers. One difficulty
is that of procuring any shade for the large metal filament
electric lamps now so largely used. The glare of these in
the eyes of machine operatives in all classes of factories is a
troublesome accompaniment of the work, and one finds
much makeshift screening by workers where such individual
effort is permitted.
4. Sanitary Accommodation.
Principal. It is impossible to modify in any general way
the adverse description of the existing state of matters as
regards actual provision of sanitary conveniences for women
and girls in factory industries which I found it necessary to
give in last Annual Report, and to that statement I must
refer again and again until there is real and complete reform.
The women Inspectors have nearly doubled their efforts to
raise the standard somewhat in factories, and notices about
286 APPENDIX
them to local sanitary authorities have risen from 538 in
1912 to 1029 in 1913, in addition to 146 notices with regard
to workshops. Direct contravention notices to occupiers
numbered 249, while complaints from workers numbered
170, some of them being very strong in regard to the un-
suitability of the conveniences provided. The one im-
portant area in which a decided improvement is reported
is the potteries area, where members of this branch have
been steadily at work for many years, but on the whole the
Midlands and the Lancashire Divisions have still most work
to be done in this direction, for in the former Miss Martindale
reports that 381 of the notices to sanitary authorities
touched this one matter, and in the latter Miss Tracey
reports similarly 308 notices.
Miss Tracey. The outstanding defect of all others in
this north-west division is the sanitary accommodation
provided for women. It is impossible to describe in a
public paper how low the standard has been and still is,
in many places, where in other respects the conditions are
not only not noticeably bad, but are quite good. . . .
Absence of doors and screens, uncleanliness and insanitary
conditions can all be remedied by the sanitary authority,
and in the large towns at any rate notices of these matters
have received prompt attention, but there still remains
the question of unsuit ability of position. Many examples
might be given. In a waterproof factory four or five girls
were employed in an " overflow " workroom of a larger
factory, and worked in an upper room ; in the lower room
about a dozen men and youths were at work. To reach
the sanitary convenience it is necessary for the girls to walk
across the men's room and through a narrow space between
rows of machines at which the men are sitting, and the wall
at the far end of which the sanitary convenience is situated.
. . . There is no doubt that glass panels in doors, commoner
still, no doors, no bolts, no provision for privacy is all
calculated to " prevent waste of time," and it is a pathetic
comment on employment that there should be this improper
supervision and control of decent and respectable women.
That they do sometimes stay longer than is actually
APPENDIX 287
necessary in these places is of course a fact well known to
me, but to my thinking it only shows how great the strain
is on women and girls that they should desire rest so
obtained. When one thinks of the perpetual striving,
the work which must never slacken, the noise which never
ceases and of the legs which are weary with constant stand-
ing, of the heads which ache, because the noise is so great
no voice can be heard above the din, one can understand
that to sit on the floor for a few moments' talk, as I have
often seen, is a rest which under even such horrid circum-
stances is better than nothing. Proper conveniences and
the supervision of a nice woman would do away with all
the drawbacks which employers foresee in complying with
the standard laid down in the Order of the Secretary of
State so long ago as 1903.
5. Fire Escapes.
Miss Tracey. In one factory I visited to see an escape
recently put up at the instance of the local authority, and
I found quite a good iron staircase and platform. This
was reached by a window which had been made to open
in such a way that it completely blocked the staircase and
gave but a tiny space even on the platform, and the aid of
the local officer was again invoked. Miss Stevenson reports
that in the newer cotton mills a proper outside iron stair-
case with a handrail is to be found, but the construction of
the older fire escapes shows a great lack of common sense.
In the first place, the narrow, almost perpendicular ladder
without a handrail is peculiarly unsuited for the use of
women. The openings from the platform to the ladders
are exceedingly small, and the exit window is generally
3 to 4 feet above the floor level, no steps or footholds being
provided. To increase the difficulty the exit window is
sometimes made to swing out across the platform, cutting
off access to the downward ladder. In two cases the ladder,
and in one case a horizontal iron pipe also, ran right across
the window, rendering egress impossible except to the
288 APPENDIX
slender. In both cases the next window was free from
obstruction.
Miss Taylor. Sometimes as many as 100 persons are
employed on each floor of a high building, so that if the
outside staircase had to be used those in the upper floors
would, as they descended, meet the occupants of the lower