tRANSACflONS OP SECTION F. 653 



febolition of a system of employment and an under-employed cldss which are 

 exactly analogous to sweating and the sweated class. Whether the eftbrts 

 being made in London and elsewhere to establish labour exchanges succeed 

 now or fail, sooner or later, after little or much bitter experience of other 

 methods, the adoption of their imderlying principle will be forced upon society. 



3. Some recent Investigations in Home Work. 

 By Mrs. J. Ramsay Macdonald. 



Industries carried on in the homes of the workers are the most subject to the esvil 

 effects of competition. Recent investigations by the Women's Industrial Council, 

 Scottish Council for Women's Trades, ' Daily News' Committee, &c. Variety of 

 trades and of districts. What they show as regards : — 



1. Wages — .average of piece rates — irregularity of employment — deductions 

 for materials, &c. How out-relief acts to keep down standard of wages. 



2. Hours. 



3. Child labour. 



4. Sanitary conditions. 



Neglect of inspection of outworkers by local authorities, as shown by Home 

 Office return of June 25, 1906. 



Suggestions towards improved conditions. Licensing as proof of inspection 

 for sanitation and overcrowding. Education versus child labour and luiskilled 

 labour. Enforcement of Particulars clause. Truck Acts, and Fair Wages clause 

 in public contracts. Only palliative measures possible as long as the competitive 

 system of industry for private profit holds sway. 



WJUBNESDA Y, A UQ UST 8. 

 The following Papers were read :- — 



1. Economic Theory and Proposals for a Legal Minimum Wage, 

 By H. B. Lees Smith, M.A. 



Two lines of policy suggested : I. A minimum wage determined separately 

 for each of certain selected trades. II. A general minimum determined, by 

 physiological considerations, for all trades without distinction. 



I. Analysis of results of first proposal. 



Neglecting, for the moment, considerations arising from possible changes in 

 the efficiency of the wage-earners, the increased wage may come from three 

 sources : (1) A fall in the wages of the more highly paid labourers. Improba- 

 bility. (^2) An increase in the price of the commodity. Result: A certain 

 amount of labour and capital hitherto employed in production of commodity forced 

 to seek other employment even less remunerative. Inquiry into how much 

 labour and capital will be displaced. Analogy between effects of a minimum wage 

 and of the action of a trade-union which adopts device of restriction of numbers, 

 (o) A fall in profits. Ultimate results same as those following from an increase 

 in price of commodity. 



II. A general minimum imposed on all trades together. In this case labour 

 displaced from one trade has not resource of accepting lower wage in another. 

 Possibility of creating a class prevented by State from obtaining employment. 

 Hence discussion of a minimum wage leads to problem of an entirely different 

 character. 



Considerations arising from possible changes in efficiency of labour and 

 capital : — 



I. Argument that if the employers paid more, the labour would quickly be 

 worth more. Modifications due to fact that increase of wagos accompanied by 

 gfeater irregularity of employment. 



