332 SMALL INDUSTRIES AND 



Moreover, everyone knows to what extent 

 the labour of children and girls is resorted to, 

 even in the most prosperous factories even in 

 this country which stands foremost in industrial 

 development. Some figures relative to this 

 subject were given hi the preceding chapter. 

 And this fact is not an accident which might 

 be easily removed, as Maurice Block a great 

 admirer, of course, of the factory system 

 tries to represent it.* The low wages paid to 

 children and youths are now one of the neces- 

 sary elements in the cheapness of the factory 

 produced textiles, and, consequently, of the 

 very competition of the factory with the petty 

 trades. I have mentioned besides, whilst speak- 

 ing of France, what are the effects of " concen- 

 trated " industries upon village life ; and in 

 Thun's work, and in many others as well, one 

 may find enough of ghastly instances of what 

 are the effects of accumulations of girls in the 

 factories. To idealise the modern factory, in 

 order to depreciate the so-called " mediaeval " 

 forms of the small industries, is consequently 

 to say the least as unreasonable as to idealise 

 the latter and try to bring mankind back to 

 isolated home-spinning and home-weaving in 

 every peasant house. 



* Les Progres de la Science 6conomique depuis Adam Smith, 

 Paris, 1890, t. i., pp. 460, 461. 



