INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS OF HEALTH 393 



through the demands of workers themselves, and partly through 

 experiments by forward-looking employers and managers who 

 discovered that it was really more profitable to shorten hours, 

 to clean up workshops, to have better light and ventilation, to 

 insure enough food for workers, and so on. In more recent times 

 children have been receiving an ever-increasing amount of pro- 

 tection from the state, because it began to be recognized that 

 unless children get a certain amount of education, and unless 

 their health is protected during their growing years, they will 

 grow up to be poor citizens as well as poor workers and poor 

 parents. There are important physiological and mental differ- 

 ences between men and women. It is found, for example, that 

 work in industries in which there is lead dust or lead vapors has 

 a distinct effect upon women that interferes with their becoming 

 healthy mothers. In other industries the mere fact of fatigue 

 may affect prospective mothers more than it does other women 

 or men. Many students of the subject long ago came to the 

 conclusion that it is necessary to restrict the work of women in 

 industry. The health of children is so important to the state 

 that we cannot allow it to be jeopardized by the unwholesome 

 work of mothers and prospective mothers and home-makers. 

 This, however, should not influence women's political rights, for 

 example, or the opportunity to enter the professions or to 

 manage business. 



293. Occupational diseases. The growth of industry has meant 

 an increasing division of labor. This has meant increasing spe- 

 cialization. As a consequence each one of us becomes obliged 

 to overemphasize by repetition a small number of activities. 

 One person does a great deal of walking in his daily work; 

 another sits in one place most of the time. One uses his arms 

 in large movements nearly all day long ; another moves hardly 

 more than his fingers. This one uses his eyes to the exclusion 

 of other sense organs, while that one uses the tips of his fingers 

 all day long to pass on the quality of furs or textiles. As a re- 

 sult many workers become unevenly developed or acquire spe- 

 cial marks of their trade. There is curvature of the spine from 



