into home conditions, and where necessary feeding out of voluntary or special funds and the strengthening of family resources. Thirdly, parents should be punished for repeatedly sending children to school in a verminous condition.

Fourthly, if the sanitary condition of bakehouses and factories is important that of Schools is not less important. The means and maintenance of effectual ventilation and sanitation should be enforced.

Lastly, the elements of temperance and personal and domestic hygiene should be taught and practised in all elementary schools and training colleges.

CHAPTER XI.

THE CHARTER OF THE FACTORY WORKER.

"The regulation of factories by law rests on the broad principle that it is the right and duty of the State to restrict the freedom of individual action in the interests of the community. The history of factory legislation presents a gradual scheme of protection for workers beginning with those least able to protect themselves and going on to others, at the same time increasing in stringency and particularity. It is also the history of a conflict waged between humanitarian impulses and commercial interests. The chief motive power which has pushed forward fresh measures and eventually secured their enactment has been sympathy with those to be protected."-ARTHUR SHADWELL, M.D., Industrial Efficiency (1906), vol. ii., pp. 1-4.

THE eighteenth century in England was a wonderful time. It was wonderful for many reasons, but not least in that of industrial revolution. To begin with, the population doubled and wealth advanced even more rapidly. On every side came new inventions and discoveries. The thermometer, chronometer, and lightning conductor; the spinning-jenny and spinningmachine, the " mule" and power loom; new roads and Brindley's canals; iron smelting and coal

mining; and greatest of all, perhaps, the steam engine these were among the new forces which changed the face of England, which enabled her to withstand and survive during the terrible years of her struggle with Napoleon and her loss of America, and began for her the mighty career which has made her the workshop of the world and the greatest manufacturing country of which human history has record. And all this progress was helped by the temper of the time, by the larger sympathy of man with man, by the idea of the nation not as the property of kings and rulers, but as a great living society, complex in its various relations, but with its parts inter-dependent upon each other-ideas which came partly from Burke and the Pitts, partly from the turn of events, and partly too from the religious revival and the new philanthropy. And so it came to pass that men left the fields and the cultivation of the land to earn their living in the new factories and workshops, they left the south for the north, and the country for the towns, and England became a manufacturing nation in place of an agricultural one.

The Factory System.

For

No doubt the change led to wealth and made for Great Britain a place in the markets of the world. But if the increase of wealth was enormous its distribution was partial, and the means by which it was obtained left much to be desired. these great changes brought with them their own evils, not the least of which were the hardships of an uncontrolled factory system. Men, women, and children laboured under the most appalling conditions of filth, overcrowding, insanitation and danger. The hours were excessively long, the

work often a heavy strain, and discipline and morality alike were wanting. It was such conditions which compelled Sir Robert Peel in 1802 to pass an Act for "the preservation of the health and morals of apprentices and others." As time passed, this was followed by other legislation which merely tinkered with the tremendous questions at issue, including an Act to fix the working age of children at nine years, and the working week for them at seventy-two hours. At last, in 1833, as a result of Lord Ashley's labours, came a Royal Commission to inquire into the hours of labour. This Commission, however, reported that any reduction would be a restriction which would so diminish production as to put the country at the mercy of foreign competition. Though little was done, an indirect result was an Act for the employment of children in factories on the part-time system, so that they might get some daily education. In 1861 came Lord Shaftesbury's Commission of Inquiry into the whole question of factory control and sanitation,* and from that originated a number of measures which were eventually consolidated in the Factory Act of 1878. This was amended in 1883, 1891, and 1895, and now all have been consolidated in the great Factory and Workshop Act of 1901, the charter of the rights and liberties of the English worker.† The Factory Act.

There are two things which may be said at once respecting this statute. First, as the people were

*See also Papers relating to the Sanitary State of the People of England, 1858.

† See also Industrial Efficiency, by Arthur Shadwell, M.D. (Longmans and Co., 1906). vols. i. and ii.; and Oliver's Dangerous Trades (1902), pp. 24-62.

responsible in large measure for the making of it, so they are mainly responsible for its proper enforcement; and secondly, it is a statute which covers all factories and workshops of whatever kind, large or small, which to-day number not less than 100,000 factories and 150,000 workshops, giving employment to some five million workpeople.* We must now therefore consider some of the requirements of this great measure, and for convenience they may be divided into four groups (a) the sanitary and safety clauses, (b) the home workers' clauses, (c) the hours of labour clauses, and (d) protection in special trades. †

(a)-Sanitary and Safety Clauses.

These sections of the Act deal with cleanliness, overcrowding, ventilation, sanitary conveniences, special provisions for bakehouses and laundries, and means of escape from fire. All factories and workshops must be kept clean and free from effluvia and other nuisance, and floors must be dry. Nor must these places be so overcrowded as to be dangerous or injurious to the health of the workers. The standard of 250 cubic feet of air space for each worker has been laid down; but this must be

*Factories include places where machinery not driven by hand is used in the process, and a few special trades whether power is used or not; Workshops are places where one or more persons are working for gain in making or adapting any article whatsoever. If the persons are all of one family and the place is within a private house, it is a domestic workshop. In factories the supervising authority is the Home Office, with few exceptions; in workshops, sanitation etc., comes under the local sanitary authority.

†The best book on this subject is The Law relating to Factories and Workshops. By Abraham and Davies. (Eyre and Spottiswoode), 1902.