ON women's labour. 805 



(2) As to the effects of legislation regulating women's labour on other 

 ■workers, practically no information was forthcoming ; the new Saturday 

 rule is an instance of the limitation of men's hours being secured by legal 

 limitation of those of women and young persons. 



II. (1) No effect of the legislation on women's wages had been observed. 

 There was a general agreement that overtime was not economical. 



(2) In the hosiery trade at all points of the inquiry there came out the 

 fact that women were displacing men through the rise of new machinery. 

 In the boot trade it was alleged that women were, to a slight extent, 

 displacing men owing to falling Wages, although the tendency was 

 probably less marked because of the high wages in the hosiery trade for 

 women's work. 



(3) In none of these trades were the Factory and Workshop Acta 

 credited with having initiated any important changes in the use of 

 machinery or the division of labour. 



(4) There was a general consensus of opinion that shorter hours and 

 better sanitation enforced by legislation had been amongst the causes 

 tending to increase the efficiency of women workers. 



(5) Greater diversity of opinion existed as to the effect on their social 

 life. While considering that with the rise of the factory system there 

 had been a moral improvement, this was attributed by some to the 

 factory system itself, not to factory legislation. Again some of the bad 

 effects, consequent upon young women having more money and more 

 leisure, and being therefore too soon set free from parental control, might 

 also be attributable to the better organisation in the factory brought 

 about by machinery. One employer considered that the easier conditions 

 of female employment had a tendency to increase the employment of 

 married women in factories. 



On the whole employers complained very little of inconvenience 

 caused by the Factory and Workshop Acts beyond the initial difficulty 

 of adjusting arrangements to suit new regulations, and the labour 

 incurred in filling up forms and making lists. In some cases, increased 

 demands with regard to sanitation and guarding of machinery pressed 

 rather heavily on employers, and, in one case, the recent change in the 

 Saturday half-holiday was resented as being passed merely in the interest 

 of the football fraternity (although nominally a restriction of the labour 

 of women and young persons). 



VI. — Canning Town and Isle of Dogs. 

 [Abstracted from Miss Hadley's Eeport.] 



The difficulty of any investigation in these districts is very great • 

 the employees are on the wliole quite ignorant on the subject of the Acts 

 or their administration, and are also afraid to give information. Some 

 interviews were obtained with employees in bookbinding, • hat makinc^,^ 

 tailoring, sweet factories, laundries, <fec., and with other people well 

 acquainted with the districts concerned. The evidence is not very definite, 

 but the following statements seem to be correct. The hours in small 

 workshops have been reduced in recent years. In one laundry the hours 

 are now from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., instead of till 9 p.m. as last year, and in 



' In other districts in East London. 

 1902. 3c 



