Indiana State University - Sycamore Yearbook (Terre Haute, IN)

Page 14 text:

10 stances of industry was that children who worked in the factories were not apprenticed, and were therefore not protected by the Fac- tory Act, since it applied only to apprentices. In 1815 Sir Robert Peel proposed an amended measure, which applied to both apprenticed and non-apprenticed children. In this n'iease ure he recommended that no child under the age of ten should be employed, and that the number of hours of labor should not exceed twelve and a half per day including time for education and meals. The proposal received a first reading, but nothing came of it. Not dis- couraged with the enormous Opposition'he en- countered, Peel proposed the appointment of a Committee of Enquiry, whose reports showed such exceedingly divergent opinions that it really accomplished nothing to advance factory legislation. The importance of the appoint- ment of this committee lies in the fact that it was the first parliamentary inquiry into the conditions of the factories. Although this inquiry was practically un- fruitful, nevertheless it afforded material to make further investigations. About this time Lord Stanley presented a petition from Elan- Chester asking Parliament to appoint a special commission of its own members to examine the conditions in the factories. On the following day Peel presented another propOsal in which he advocated that children working in the fac- tories should from nine to sixteen be under the protection of Parliament. After two readings the bill passed the House of Commons, but. the House of Lords agreed to postpone further consideration of the bill for that session. In the next session a new committee was ap- pointed, which resembled the one in 1816, but it proved that some action must be taken re- garding the cotton mills. Eventually in 1819 a new law was passed which required that no child under nine years of age could be em- ployed in cotton spinning, and that no persons under sixteen years of age could work more than twelve hours a day, one and one-half be- ing allowed for meals. One hour of extra work per day was allowed, if time had been THE NORMAL ADVANCE lost by the scarcity or excess of water. Here is an illustration of a defect in the law, in al- lowing overtime, which privilege was later so abused that employers strictly violated the law, extending the hours of overtime. The interior walls and the ceilings of the cotton factories were to be: lime-washed twice a year. This act was also to be placed where it might be con- spicuous, so that the public could read it. The outcome of the enactment of this law was that it retrograded factory legislation, because as it has already been stated the permission to re- cover lost time gave great facilities for evad- ing the law and then no provision was made for proper inspection. Still the law contained some important principles, and showed along .what lines legislation was to be carried on. After the passage of this law a few great and inliuential men as Sir J. C. Hobhouse, who introduced a bill reducing the hours of labor to eleven and a half per day, but was defeated; Lord Ashley, seventh Earl of Shaftesbury, and lVI. T. Sadler. All of these men were deep- ly interested in the condition of the paupers, who toiled wearily for many hours day after day, and still did not seem to make any pro- gress in this world. It was inevitable that some change had to come to relieve these poor people. The first act which was actually put in operation to some extent was the act of 1831 which prohibited night work to all persons be- tween nine and twenty-one year; of age, mak- ing the hours of labor for persons under eigh- teen twelve hours per day and nine on Satur- days. On the other hand, in order to recover lost time night work was permitted to persons above sixteen. Here again the law proved in- eflicient, since the inspectors could not deter- mine whether the factories were trying to make up lost time or were simply attempting to increase their output of manufactured prod- ucts. Competition greatly stimulated them to this action. Therefore since the condition of the people was not so, greatly improved, the agitation continued until something better was done. Finally an unexpected impulse came which

Page 13 text:

THE NORMALADVANCE 9 water could be most easily obtained. It was very expensive to bring operatives to these places, since they were generally brought from great distances. Therefore in order to reim- burse for this expenditure, the youths were bound by a system of apprenticeship to serve for a certain number of years. Here is where the system reached its maximum degree of wickedness, when children were sent away nominally to learn a trade, but in reality were placed under the dominance of their master, who enjoyed the freedom of dealing with them as he chose. The master provided shelter, clothing and food for his apprentices. Over- seers were appointed to superintend the mills and to extract as much labor as possible from the employes. The wages depended upon the amount of work done. Children were flogged, fettered, and tortured with the direst cruelty, and almost starved to death while at work since their time for meals was very limited. Some of the conditions were really appalling. Also the consequences that followed this shock- ing and horrifying situation were most la- mentable and disastrous. Children hated their slavery, therefore some of them abseonded. Through long years of hard labor and cruel treatment they became stunted, so that when their apprenticeship expired at the age of thir- teen or fifteen years, they were ignorant and admirably prepared for the world of Vice and misery, which evils existed chiefly in the towns. People were so ignorant and unconscious of their misery that whenever some philanthrop- ists proposed a change to alter their condition of living, they were strongly and systematical- ly opposed to it. Such was the condition of the working people in the latter part of the eighteenth and the first part of the nineteenth century before any laws were enacted. The factory agitation and the controversy between the supporters and opposers of fac- tory legislation continued until finally the first Factory Act was passed in 1802, which prin- cipally applied to apprentices in cotton and woolen mills. It was called the 4The Factory Health and Morals Act? This act provided lirst, that the master or mistress of a factory should observe the law. Secondly, all rooms in a factory were to be properly ventilated and to be lime-washed twice a year. The third section compelled employers to supply their apprentices with clothing; while the fourth limited the number of hours of work to twelve, not to commence before six in the morning nor to extend after nine at night. The fifth sec- tion provided for the instruction of appren- tices during the first four years of bondage in reading, writing, and arithmetic, by some proper person. Sundays they were to be taught the principles of the Christian religion, and were to attend Church at least once a month. The provisions of the act were to be enforced by two Visitors, appointed by ad- jacent justices of the peace, one of whom should be a justice and the other a member of the Church of England or of Scotland. The Vis- itors should have the power to require the em- ployer to call in medical assistance, in case dis- eases prevailed in his establishment. Finally copies of the act were to be affixed in conspicu- ous places. Thus we have some idea of the contents of the first F actory Act. Although it was rather faulty, establishing no limit of age on workers, nor requiring any proof of their fitness for employment, it nevertheless, was very important because it was the first act which attempted to restrain modern factory labor. Another way in which the law was diili- cult was the fact that it did not apply to free labor, but only to apprenticed labor. Abuses were common not only in cotton and woolen factories, but in all the rest of the industries. Also the factory Visitors were not recompensed and they very seldom attended to their duty. Therefore the law proved inoperative in prac- tice, and was gradually superseded by other laws, although it was not formally repealed until 1878. As soon as steam power was introduced, fac- tories were transferred into populous places, where coal could be carried more easily and where an unfailing supply of labor could be obtained. The result of'these changed circum-

Page 15 text:

THE NORMAL ADVANCE 11 made factory legislation a political issue. This was the agitation for parliamentary reform on the part of the democrats, who were supported by the factory masters. The agitators now played off factory reform against parliamen- tary reform, and they became so encouraged that they demanded nothing less than a ctTen Hours Billstl which was introduced by Sadler in 1832. Thereupon a special commission was appointed to consider the subjects and to ob- tain evidence from the factories. After an eX- amination of the witnesses, Sadlerts bill was again introduced by Lord Ashley. He pro- posed to abolish the work of children under nine in the factories, and that those under eighteen should not be allowed to work more than ten hours daily. The government should appoint inspectors to enforce these regulations and to provide some education for the chil- dren. The bill was passed. Trade was not ruined, as had been argued by the opposers to the law, but on the contrary flourished. The great j 0y and ease brought into many youthful lives did not cause the diminution in produc- tion. The act of 1838 did not remedy all the evils, although it was a great step toward advance- ment, and laid the fundamental basis of fac- tory legislation. The result of this act was the origin of the relay system by which employers arranged the legal hours of work at any time they chose so that the inspectors could not tell when they began or when they ended. Another defect was that there was no registration act, therefore the ages of children could not be as- certained and the certificate of any physician, founded on personal examination, was accepted as sufficient proof of age. Then again the re formers thought that the government- did not heartily approve of its own legislation, with regard to factories. Therefore the agitation was renewed with increased vigor, and the ttTen Hours Bill77 was reintroduced several times only to be suppressed. Nevertheless, it finally became law in 1847, while the Whigs were in oHice with Lord J ohn Russel as Prime Minister. This practically closed the struggle for a ten hour bill. This bill also contained a fatal defect. It did not provide the exact time when the ten hours were to be worked, from which resulted the immediate reintroduction of the relay system. In 1850 Lord Ashley brought the matter forward for debate and Sir Grey, the Home Secretary, proposed a com- promise to fix the hours of labor for protected persons from six in the morning till six in the evening in summer and from seven to seven in the winter. Work should cease at two olclock on Saturday. After a short and sharp con- test the measure containing these provisions became law. This law was one of the subse- quent enactments of the laws passed in 1844 and in 1847. One of the most important acts in the his- tory of factory legislation was the one of 1844. It was directed thoroughly and systematically against the defects which prevented the other laws from becoming effective. The hours of work for women and children were shortened, and they were to have eight half holidays each year, besides Christmas, Good F riday and the interval. on Saturdays. A provision was made for the regulations for recovering lost time. Surgeons were to be appointed to grant certi- ficates of age. Accidents were to be reported by the physician to the inspectors. Dangerous machinery was to be fenced. A notice was to be hung up in the factory, on which was writ- ten the name of the inspector, the hour of com- mencing and ceasing work, and the name of some public clock by which the hours of labor were to be regulated. A register was to be kept in which should be written the names of the persons employed, the dates of lime-wash- ing, and some other particulars. Children were also to be educated and the employer was held responsible for the school fees. This law was mainly confined to textile industries. Although this law did not settle troubles in that sphere, it was a Vigorous measure of reform. Other industries besides textile industries demanded reform. These demands were fol- lowed by the enactment of several laws, for in- stance, the Print Work Act, the Bleaching and