192 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



Cheapness means low wages and misery. This is a grave social 

 question. You have already seen something of the operatives of 

 Macclesfield. 



In a paper read by Dr. Fan* before the statistical society, he says, 

 " In England, twenty-six children out of every hundred die under 

 five years of age ; in the best districts, eighteen ; in the town districts, 

 thirty -six perish. 



Listen to the report of the factory inspectors of England two years 

 ago: 



" That there is a waste of inflmt life in our manufacturing districts 

 is unhappily too true. Children of tender years do not receive all 

 the mother's care and that nutriment which they require, while the 

 mother is absent at the factory ; the children suffer in health, and 

 doubtless many 'sink under the system ; but in no place is there such 

 an enormous mortality as ev^en the reduced amount at Mulhouse ; and 

 even if such an institution as that established at Mulhouse were pro- 

 posed in the manufacturing districts of this country, there is so much 

 independence and self-reliance that it would neither be popular nor 

 acceptable. 



"■ But the evil effects of the employment of the mother in the factory 

 tell much more upon the healfli and stamina of the infants after lier 

 return to her employment. They are frequently put nnder the care 

 of a woman who takes charge of several, the infants being left with 

 her in the morning, and fetched away at night upon the mother's 

 return from work. Sometimes the mother feeds the child in the 

 middle of the day, if the distance is not too great from the factory ; 

 but during the absence of the mother, the child is generally kept 

 quiet by some syrup or cordial prepared expressly, and of which large 

 quantities are prepared and sold in the manufacturing towns. 



" The cause of this is that women can earn more in a factory than 

 at any other occupation. A young woman before marriage spends 

 what she earns, and after marriage, her husband, if a factory worker, 

 can not earn sufficient to sup})ly the place of her former wages; and 

 the pleasure of spending being as great as ever, the woman continues 

 her work in the factory, and follows her spendthrift habits. 



" The factory system which has grown up in our manufacturing 

 towns requires a treatment adapted to its necessities ; and the rearing 

 of the children of women employed in factories is a part of that sys- 

 tem which demands thorough investigation and remedy. So long as 

 female labor is so much in request in the manufacturing districts, so 



