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

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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

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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

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12 Dyeing Acts, and the Blakehouse Act. After this a royal commission was appointed in 1861, whose reports revealed the necessity of making laws to overcome the evils and abuses which existed in the trade of letter-press printing, book binding, brick and tile making straw plaiting, silk weaving, hosiery and lace mak- ing in manufacturing articles of wearing ap- parel, paper staining and fashion cutting. When these unfavorable reports were made known a bill was introduced to protect these laborers which became law in 1864. This law was a death blow to the conventional notion of. factory legislation, and included not only tex- tile industries but a great many others, such as paper manufacturing, glass, tobacco7 lettere press printing, etc. It did not change the age of protected persons, nor the normal hours of labor, nor the mode of administration hitherto found effective. The chief purpose of the law was to extend the protection of the State to other industries besides textile. Thus far no provisions had been made for domestic occupations, small handicrafts, and all forms of manual labor carried on in work places, where less than fifty persons were ein- plot'yed. After a long consideration the Work- shop Regulation Act was passed. This act was to be enforced through the local authori- ties in the several districts where the work- shops were situated. There were other pro- Visions in the law, which differed from those in previous laws. The interaction of the two statutes that is the 4tFactory Act,7 and the g4Workshop Regulation Act? caused great dis- content among the laborers and the inspectors. Finally in 1871 a Factory and Workshop Act was enacted by which the enforcement of the Workshop Regulation Act was transferred from the local bodies to the inspectors of fac- tories. In this way the workshops were also brought under government control. Ever since the act of 1844 had been passed, THE NORMAL ADVANCE a great agitation of adult labor was prevailing. The question under debate was whether adult labor should be controlled by the government or not, and whether there should be a sex dis- tinction. The subject was greatly debated upon, but was left for the future to decide. The next act of importance was the one of 1878 which consolidated and amended the eX- isting acts, so that the discrepancies prevailing among them would be removed, the minor in- dustries relieved from the pressure of legisla- tion, and the independence of. adult labor would be more secure. It was called the Fae- tory Consolidation Act. The act of 1891 con- sisted of sanitary provisions7 safety, special rules and requirements, period of employment, holidays, condition of employment and other miscellaneous provisions. In 1895 another one was passed which protected those working in the laundries7 while in 1900 Sir Matthew White Ridley introduced a bill with regard to dangerous trades, especially diseases of occupa- tions, which became law. Thus we have enum- erated some of the later and recent acts per- taining to factories. A retrospect of the history of factory legis- lation will give us a more concise idea of the subject. First, the industrial revolution con- stituted the origin of the labor agitation or rather the labor agitation grew out of the in- dustrial revolution. Capital became concen- trated in the hands of the capitalists, factories were constructed, women and children were employed almost more than men, and here the horrible evils of the factory system began. At first acts were passed protecting only laborers in textile industries, chiefly apprentices. Grad- ually governmental control were extended to other industries. There were a great many minor acts passed which have not been men- tioned, but the more important ones will suliice to comprehend the factory acts.