296 REPORT— 1902. 



III. — Bejmrt on BirmingJt,am. By Miss B. L, Hutchins. 



In the course of rather more than a three weeks' visit to Birmingham 

 twenty-two factories have been visited, six workshops, and several factory 

 women and girls in their own homes. Three of the manufacturers seen 

 declined to show the works, but consented to answer a few questions. 

 The majority of works seen were devoted to the manufacture of brass, 

 jewellery, and other metal wares ; the workshops visited were tailors' and 

 button-makers'. Interviews were obtained with Mi\ Knyvett (H.M. 

 inspector of factories), with Mr. Parker (inspector of nuisances), and Mr. 

 Iveasey (inspector of workshops) ; also with four trade-union secretaries, 

 two doctors (one a lady), and with one or two persons interested in the 

 condition of working women. The questions put usually fell under the 

 heads of employment, hours, and wages. The interviews obtained may 

 perhaps be considered fairly representative and characteristic of the 

 typical metal industries of Birmingham in which women are employed ; 

 but it is probable that so short and inadequate a study gives far too 

 favourable an impression of industrial conditions generally. A stranger 

 paying a visit of only a few weeks' duration is hospitably shown whatever 

 is best, and I was warned more than once that I should not see the 

 worst. It is obviously very difficult, if not impossible, in that space of 

 time to become acquainted with the lower walks of industry, the small 

 masters, and the sweated tailors and dressmakers. I was told that very 

 black spots exist, in which no attention is paid to sanitary regulations and 

 the hours worked are unduly and misei'ably long. Bj' the kindness of the 

 inspector of workshops and one of the health visitors I was able to pay 

 a cursory visit to a few workshops. 



Questions as to employment were intended to elicit information as to 

 Query II. (2) of scheme. The evidence on the whole is, with one im- 

 portant exception, practically unanimous that the legal limitation of the 

 hours of labour is no bar to the employment of women. Questions as to 

 competition between men and women were invariably taken by the 

 answerer to mean, not the encroachment of men on Avomen's work, but of 

 women on men's. The influence of women's competition in lowering the 

 wages of men is felt to be a real and present danger to the standard of life 

 of whole classes. But the idea that a man's legal freedom to work un- 

 limited hours can cause a restriction of the woman's field of eaiployment 

 is entirely unfamiliar to the industrial world, and a direct question on 

 this head usually elicits a flicker of amusement. Birmingham manufac- 

 turers do not as a rule worry about being restricted by law to work 

 between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m., because custom, trade-union pressure, or 

 their own ideas of profitable working usually restrict them between 8 a.m, 

 and 6 or 7 p.m., and the influence of legislation in shortening hours (at 

 any rate in metal industries on a large scale) is interesting chiefly from 

 its historical significance. There can be no doubt that the hours of work 

 were formerly much longer, and that the Factory Acts, after being 

 bitterly opposed by the manufacturers, taught them a valuable practical 

 lesson of the bad economy of excessive work. Mr. Baker has recorded 

 a case of a Birmingham firm of button makers who in 1866 ' became 

 so dissatisfied with the conditions and mode of life of their workpeople 

 that they voluntai'ily applied the provisions of the Factory Act for textiles 



* Report of Factory Tns2)ector, 1870, sv. p. 44. 



