354 REPORT — 1903. 



We have had access to the official employers' returns in 1902 iot the 

 West London District laundries, which district registers 303 steam 

 laundries. In these about one-sixtli of the female workers are young 

 persons under 18 years of age, while the average number of persons 

 employed is 24|.'* The average number in factory laundries through the 

 kingdom is probably rathei' higher, for in London alone are to be found 

 the rows of small dwelling-houses converted into steam laundries by a 

 common source of power. ' At one time it was only in a few large steam 

 laundries that machinery was to be met with, now it is no uncommon 

 thing to find a row of houses in separate occupation, the back yard of each of 

 which is roofed in and packed with machinery, all driven by an engine 

 installed at one end of the row,' - Nearly half of all the steam laundries in 

 the kingdom are within London and its outlying borders. In this con- 

 nection it is of interest to note that in the only European country which 

 has a complete industrial census, and which has, to a certain extent, 

 developed the laundry industry with the aid of steam power, in Belgium, 

 the aiverage number of persons employed in a steam laundry is 27. 



Turning now to the earliest generalisations of an authoritative or 

 official kind on the conditions of the laundry trade, in view of proposals 

 to regulate^ we find important evidence given to the Commissioners of 

 1875-76 on the Factory Acts by the manager of the Civil Service 

 Cooperative Laundry, London. There we find, twenty years before 

 legislation touched laundry women's labour, an outline of the earlier 

 stages of the change of the laundry industry into the factory system, and 

 can see the almost complete revolution that was about to be accomplished 

 independently of legislation. The witness spoke from his own experience 

 and from visits to all the large steam laundries in London, Kingston, Man- 

 chester, Stockport, and Scarborough. He stated that the trade was 'in a 

 transition stage from a little cottage industry, owing to the necessities of 

 this huge London, into more and more of a factory system,' economy of 

 labour was being sought, ' washing women are being rapidly superseded 

 by machines ' ; the economy of labour could only be effected ' in the washing, 

 not in the ironing ' processes. ' Girls are scarcely employed at all in 

 laundries, we have only two under eighteen, and not one under thirteen.' 

 Speaking generally, it is not common to employ girls young. The largest 

 laundries would not employ more than 70 hands, and he mentioned 

 instances of 40, 50, and GO employes. Skilled labour was most needed for 

 the ironing processes, and the supply generally was insufficient during 

 the season. Many women would not take to the work partly because of 

 its hard nature, partly because of the ' social stigma ' attaching to it. 

 London bricklayers' labourers' wives supplied a very large proportion of 

 the labour. In 1892, in Miss Collet's Report to the Labour Commission, 

 we find witnesses, laundry proprietors, giving a similar account of the 

 source of supply of labour (e.g., ' nearly all his laundresses were married 

 or had children to support. The husbands were generally bricklayers' 

 labourers. . . In the busy season in summer, when Avomen were most 

 wanted and there were fewest of them, they made things worse for the 

 laundries by going fruit-picking and pea-picking '). We find on the other 

 hand indication in Miss Collets report of a growth of employment of 

 young workers in steam laundries in the ' hottest parts.' The proportion 



' Seventeen laundries in the West London district employ over seventy workers 

 and seven employ over 100 workers. 



- Annual lleiioH of the Chief TiiS2>CLdur, 1900, jj. 382. 



