298 REroRT— 1902. 



thinks the effect also very important with regard to men's labour. I 

 cannot say that anything I have heard or seen here gives me the impres- 

 sion that at the present time wages in factories are at all affected one way 

 or other by the Acts. While attributing the greatest importance to the 

 early Factory Acts, which set limits to the exploitation of labour, and 

 thus, by restricting hours, indirectly helped to raise the standard of life 

 and wages and to promote labour-saving machinery, it is impossible to 

 blink the fact that at the present day the legal regulation of hours is out 

 of date as far as factories are concerned, and therefore does not much help 

 or hinder industrial development. Things, however, are sometimes very 

 nicely balanced, and it is very likely that if tlie nine hours' day had been 

 enacted in 187-i and 1878, instead of being gradually introduced by 

 custom, some of the laljorious hand presses might have disappeared by 

 this time. A similar effect would doubtless be produced Ijy a rise of 

 women's wages. It seems to be agreed that women's wages have risen ; 

 I can only say they seem to me very low. There is often an extra clever 

 girl or two who earn particularly good wages, which are mentioned as 

 showing things are fairly good for women. But one strongly suspects 

 that these cases are exceptional : nine, ten, or eleven shillings is probably 

 the average, and the nice pleasant-looking girls one often sees doing ill- 

 paid work are said by those who know to be living at home, and only 

 partially supported by their earnings.^ 



It should be mentioned here that some persons most intimately 

 acquainted with the Birmingham womeii do not consider that a further 

 reduction of hours would be morally desirable. I was told both by a 

 clergyman at work in the poorest district and by the lady health visitors, 

 ' The hours of work are no grievance here ' — in one case, ' There ought to 

 be a law to make them work enough ! ' — and it seems a pretty general 

 conviction among observers of this class that the women are better at 

 work than at play. I record this observation without comment. 



It is found that the 'particulars' clause of 1900 is of great benefit 

 in the pen trade. Payment is made at so much per ' lot,' and the lot is 

 said to have contained an indefinite and varying number of pens, while 

 the women did not know even the nominal number. Now a statement 

 of the number of gross to each lot is hung up in the rooms, and the only 

 trouble is in connection with the counting or weighing the work.'^ 



In the development of safeguards on machineiy the law is much 

 more evidently and actually at work. I was several times shown 

 appliances for reducing the risk to hands and fingers, carrying off dust, 

 and so forth, and employers seem conscious that it is not only their 

 •luty but their interest to be forward in the matter. IVIore than one 

 (possibly with a mistaken impression that the inquirer might have some 

 sort of official sanction) adopted an apologetic tone as to some of his 



' It would be a cui-ious question for study whether the Factory Acts may not 

 really have had some effect in lowering- the money wages of women in so far as, bj' 

 improving the health and decency of the factory, they cause larger numbers of respect- 

 able girls to be attracted to the work. In Birmingham there seems some tendency 

 among girls to segregate themselves in the same factory into ' non-compeiing groups. 

 the distinctions between which are determined b}' the pleasantness or supposed 

 gentility of work rather than by money wages. Ho long ago as 1857 Mr. Wright 

 noticed that the warehouse girls were worse paid, and yet considered more respect- 

 able than the workshop hands {Soo. Sci. Trans., 1857, p. 538). 



- See Miss Squire's Kepovt in the Annual Heport of the Chief Inspector of 

 Faetories and Worhshojifi for the ijear 1900 (Cd. 608), pp. 400-2. 



