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certain
tile-field
at
Mosley,
e.g.,
a
young
woman,
24
years
of
age,
was
in
the
habit
of
making
2,000
tiles
a
day,
with
the
assistance
of
2
little
girls,
who
carried
the
clay
for
her,
and
stacked
the
tiles.
These
girls
carried
daily
10
tons
up
the
slippery
sides
of
the
clay
pits,
from
a
depth
of
30
feet,
and
then
for
a
distance
of
210
feet.
\"It
is
impossible
for
a
child
to
pass
through
the
purgatory
of
a
tile-field
without
great
moral
degradation...
the
low
language,
which
they
are
accustomed
to
hear
from
their
tenderest
years,the
filthy,
indecent,
and
shameless
habits,
amidst
which,
unknowing,
and
half
wild,
they
grow
up,
make
them
in
after-life
lawless,
abandoned,dissolute....
A
frightful
source
of
demoralisation
is
the
mode
of
living.
Each
moulder,
who
is
always
a
skilled
labourer,
and
the
chief
of
a
group,
supplies
his
7
subordinates
with
board
and
lodging
in
his
cottage.
Whether
members
of
his
family
or
not,
the
men,
boys,
and
girls
all
sleep
in
the
cottage,
which
contains
generally
two,
exceptionally
3
rooms,
all
on
the
ground
floor,
and
badly
ventilated.
These
people
are
so
exhausted
after
the
day's
hard
work,that
neither
the
rules
of
health,
of
cleanliness,nor
of
decency
are
in
the
least
observed.
Many
of
these
cottages
are
models
of
untidiness,
dirt,and
dust....
The
greatest
evil
of
the
system
that
employs
young
girls
on
this
sort
of
work,
consists
in
this,
that,
as
a
rule,
it
chains
them
fast
from
childhood
for
the
whole
of
their
after-life
to
the
most
abandoned
rabble.
They
become
rough,
foul
mouthed
boys,
before
Nature
has
taught
them
that
they
are
women.
Clothed
in
a
few
dirty
rags,the
legs
naked
far
above
the
knees,
hair
and
face
besmeared
with
dirt,
they
learn
to
treat
all
feelings
of
decency
and
of
shame
with
contempt.
During
meal-times
they
lie
at
full
length
in
the
fields,
or
watch
the
boys
bathing
in
a
neighbouring
canal.Their
heavy
day's
work
at
length
completed,
they
put
on
better
clothes,
and
accompany
the
men
to
the
public
houses.\"
That
excessive
insobriety
is
prevalent
from
childhood
upwards
among
the
whole
of
this
class,
is
only
natural.
\"The
worst
is
that
the
brickmakers
despair
of
themselves.
You
might
as
well,
said
one
of
the
better
kind
to
a
chaplain
of
Southallfield,
try
to
raise
and
improve
the
devil
as
a
brickie,
sir!\"175
As
to
the
manner,
in
which
capital
effects
an
economy
in
the
requisites
of
labour,
in
modern
Manufacture
(in
which
I
include
all
workshops
of
larger
size,
except
factories
proper),
official
and
most
ample
material
bearing
on
it
is
to
be
found
in
the
Public
Health
Reports
IV.
(1863)
and
VI.
(1864).
The
description
of
the
workshops,
more
especially
those
of
the
London
printers
and
tailors,
surpasses
the
most
loathsome
phantasies
of
our
romance
writers.
The
effect
on
the
health
of
the
workpeople
is
self-evident.Dr.
Simon,
the
chief
medical
officer
of
the
Privy
Council
and
the
official
editor
of
the
\"Public
Health
Reports,\"
says:
\"In
my
fourth
Report
(1863)
I
showed,
how
it
is
practically
impossible
for
the
workpeople
to
insist
upon
that
which
is
their
first
sanitary
right,
viz.,
the
right
that,
no
matter
what
the
work
for
which
their
employer
brings
them
together,
the
labour,
so
far
as
it
depends
upon
him,
should
be
freed
from
all
avoidably
unwholesome
conditions.
I
pointed
out,
that
while
the
workpeople
are
practically
incapable
of
doing
themselves
this
sanitary
justice,
they
are
unable
to
obtain
any
effective
support
from
the
paid
administrations
of
the
sanitary
police....
The
life
of
myriads
of
workmen
and
workwomen
is
now
uselessly
tortured
and
shortened
by
the
never-ending
physical
suffering
that
their
mere
occupation
begets.\"176
In
illustration
of
the
way
in
which
the
workrooms
influence
the
state
of
health
Dr.
Simon
gives
the
following
table
of
mortality.177
D.
Modern
Domestic
Industry
I
now
come
to
the
so-called
domestic
industry.In
order
to
get
an
idea
of
the
horrors
of
this
sphere,in
which
capital
conducts
its
exploitation
in
the
background
of
modern
mechanical
industry,
one
must
go
to
the
apparently
quite
idyllic
trade
of
nail
making,178carried
on
in
a
few
remote
villages
of
England.
In
this
place,
however,
it
will
be
enough
to
give
a
few
examples
from
those
branches
of
the
lace
making
and
straw-plaiting
industries
that
are
not
yet
carried
on
by
the
aid
of
machinery,
and
that
as
yet
do
not
compete
with
branches
carried
on
in
factories
or
in
manufactories.
Of
the
150,000
persons
employed
in
England
in
the
production
of
lace,
about
10,000
fall
under
the
authority
of
the
Factory
Act,
1861.
Almost
the
whole
of
the
remaining
140,000
are
women,
young
persons,and
children
of
both
sexes,
the
male
sex,
however,being
weakly
represented.
The
state
of
health
of
this
cheap
material
for
exploitation
will
be
seen
from
the
following
table,
computed
by
Dr.
Trueman,
physician
to
the
Nottingham
General
Dispensary.
Out
of
686
female
patients
who
were
lace-makers,
most
of
them
between
the
ages
of
17
and
24,
the
number
of
consumptive
ones
were:
This
progress
in
the
rate
of
consumption
ought
to
suffice
for
the
most
optimist
of
progressists,
and
for
the
biggest
hawker
of
lies
among
the
Free-trade
bagmen
of
Germany.
The
Factory
Act
of
1861
regulates
the
actual
making
of
the
lace,
so
far
as
it
is
done
by
machinery,
and
this
is
the
rule
in
England.
The
branches
that
we
are
now
about
to
examine,
solely
with
regard
to
those
of
the
workpeople
who
work
at
home,
and
not
those
who
work
in
manufactories
or
warehouses,
fall
into
two
divisions,
viz.
(1),
finishing;
(2),
mending.
The
former
gives
the
finishing
touches
to
the
machine-made
lace,and
includes
numerous
sub-divisions.
The
lace
finishing
is
done
either
in
what
are
called\"mistresses'
houses,\"
or
by
women
in
their
own
houses,
with
or
without
the
help
of
their
children.The
women
who
keep
the
\"mistresses'
houses\"
are
themselves
poor.
The
workroom
is
in
a
private
house.The
mistresses
take
orders
from
manufacturers,
or
from
warehousemen,
and
employ
as
many
women,girls,
and
young
children
as
the
size
of
their
rooms
and
the
fluctuating
demand
of
the
business
will
allow.The
number
of
the
workwomen
employed
in
these
workrooms
varies
from
20
to
40
in
some,
and
from
10
to
20
in
others.
The
average
age
at
which
the
children
commence
work
is
six
years,
but
in
many
cases
it
is
below
five.
The
usual
working-hours
are
from
8
in
the
morning
till
eight
in
the
evening,
with
1
hours
for
meals,
which
are
taken
at
irregular
intervals,
and
often
in
the
foul
workrooms.
When
business
is
brisk,
the
labour
frequently
lasts
from
8
or
even
6
o'clock
in
the
morning
till
10,
11,
or
12
o'clock
at
night.
In
English
barracks
the
regulation
space
allotted
to
each
soldier
is
500-600
cubic
feet,
and
in
the
military
hospitals
1,200
cubic
feet.
But
in
those
finishing
sties
there
are
but
67
to
100
cubic
feet
to
each
person.
At
the
same
time
the
oxygen
of
the
air
is
consumed
by
gas-lights.
In
order
to
keep
the
lace
clean,
and
although
the
floor
is
tiled
or
gagged,
the
children
are
often
compelled,
even
in
winter,
to
pull
off
their
shoes.
\"It
is
not
at
all
uncommon
in
Nottingham
to
find
14
to
20
children
huddled
together
in
a
small
room,
of,
perhaps,
not
more
than
12
feet
square,and
employed
for
15
hours
out
of
the
24,
at
work
that
of
itself
is
exhausting,
from
its
weariness
and
monotony,
and
is
besides
carried
on
under
every
possible
unwholesome
condition....
Even
the
very
youngest
children
work
with
a
strained
attention
and
a
rapidity
that
is
astonishing,
hardly
ever
giving
their
fingers
rest
or
glowering
their
motion.
If
a
question
be
asked
them,
they
never
raise
their
eyes
from
their
work
from
fear
of
losing
a
single
moment.\"
The
\"long
stick\"
is
used
by
the
mistresses
as
a
stimulant
more
and
more
as
the
working
hours
are
prolonged.
\"The
children
gradually
tire
and
become
as
restless
as
birds
towards
the
end
of
their
long
detention
at
an
occupation
that
is
monotonous,eye-straining,
and
exhausting
from
the
uniformity
in
the
posture
of
the
body.
Their
work
is
like
slavery.\"
180
When
women
and
their
children
work
at
home,which
now-a-days
means
in
a
hired
room,
often
in
a
garret,
the
state
of
things
is,
if
possible,
still
worse.This
sort
of
work
is
given
out
within
a
circle
of
80
miles
radius
from
Nottingham.
On
leaving
the
warehouses
at
9
or
10
o'clock
at
night,
the
children
are
often
given
a
bundle
of
lace
to
take
home
with
them
and
finish.
The
Pharisee
of
a
capitalist
represented
by
one
of
his
servants,
accompanies
this
action,
of
course,with
the
unctuous
phrase:
\"That's
for
mother,\"
yet
he
knows
well
enough
that
the
poor
children
must
sit
up
and
help.181
Pillow
lace-making
is
chiefly
carried
on
in
England
in
two
agricultural
districts;
one,
the
Honiton
lace
district,
extending
from
20
to
30
miles
along
the
south
coast
of
Devonshire,
and
including
a
few
places
in
North
Devon;
the
other
comprising
a
great
part
of
the
counties
of
Buckingham,
Bedford,
and
Northampton,and
also
the
adjoining
portions
of
Oxfordshire
and
Huntingdonshire.
The
cottages
of
the
agricultural
labourers
are
the
places
where
the
work
is
usually
carried
on.
Many
manufacturers
employ
upwards
of
3,000
of
these
lace-makers,
who
are
chiefly
children
and
young
persons
of
the
female
sex
exclusively.
The
state
of
things
described
as
incidental
to
lace
finishing
is
here
repeated,
save
that
instead
of
the
\"mistresses'houses,\"
we
find
what
are
called
\"lace-schools,\"
kept
by
poor
women
in
their
cottages.
From
their
fifth
year
and
often
earlier,
until
their
twelfth
or
fifteenth
year,the
children
work
in
these
schools;
during
the
first
year
the
very
young
ones
work
from
four
to
eight
hours,and
later
on,
from
six
in
the
morning
till
eight
and
ten
o'clock
at
night.
\"The
rooms
are
generally
the
ordinary
living
rooms
of
small
cottages,
the
chimney
stopped
up
to
keep
out
draughts,
the
inmates
kept
warm
by
their
own
animal
heat
alone,
and
this
frequently
in
winter.
In
other
cases,
these
so-called
school
rooms
are
like
small
store-rooms
without
fire
places....
The
over-crowding
in
these
dens
and
the
consequent
vitiation
of
the
air
are
often
extreme.Added
to
this
is
the
injurious
effect
of
drains,privies,
decomposing
substances,
and
other
filth
usual
in
the
purlieus
of
the
smaller
cottages.\"
With
regard
to
space:
\"In
one
lace-school
18
girls
and
a
mistress,
35
cubic
feet
to
each
person;
in
another,where
the
smell
was
unbearable,
18
persons
and
24
cubic
feet
per
head.
In
this
industry
are
to
be
found
employed
children
of
2
and
2
years.\"182
Where
lace-making
ends
in
the
counties
of
Buckingham
and
Bedford,
straw-plaiting
begins,
and
extends
over
a
large
part
of
Hertfordshire
and
the
westerly
and
northerly
parts
of
Essex.
In
1861,
there
were
40,043
persons
employed
in
straw-plaiting
and
straw-hat
making;
of
these
3,815
were
males
of
all
ages,
the
rest
females,
of
whom
14,913,
including
about
7,000
children,
were
under
20
years
of
age.In
the
place
of
the
lace-schools
we
find
here
the\"straw-plait
schools.\"
The
children
commence
their
instruction
in
straw-plaiting
generally
in
their
4th,often
between
their
3rd
and
4th
year.
Education,
of
course,
they
get
none.
The
children
themselves
call
the
elementary
schools,
\"natural
schools,\"
to
distinguish
them
from
these
blood-sucking
institutions,
in
which
they
are
kept
at
work
simply
to
get
through
the
task,generally
30
yards
daily,
prescribed
by
their
half
starved
mothers.
These
same
mothers
often
make
them
work
at
home,
after
school
is
over,
till
10,
11,
and
12
o'clock
at
night.
The
straw
cuts
their
mouths,
with
which
they
constantly
moisten
it,
and
their
fingers.
Dr.Ballard
gives
it
as
the
general
opinion
of
the
whole
body
of
medical
officers
in
London,
that
300
cubic
feet
is
the
minimum
space
proper
for
each
person
in
a
bedroom
or
workroom.
But
in
the
straw-plait
schools
space
is
more
sparingly
allotted
than
in
the
lace
schools,
\"12
2\/3,
17,
18
and
below
22
cubic
feet
for
each
person.\"
\"The
smaller
of
these
numbers,
says
one
of
the
commissioners,
Mr.
White,
represents
less
space
than
the
half
of
what
a
child
would
occupy
if
packed
in
a
box
measuring
3
feet
in
each
direction.\"
Thus
do
the
children
enjoy
life
till
the
age
of
12
or
14.
The
wretched
half-starved
parents
think
of
nothing
but
getting
as
much
as
possible
out
of
their
children.The
latter,
as
soon
as
they
are
grown
up,
do
not
care
a
farthing,
and
naturally
so,
for
their
parents,
and
leave
them.
\"It
is
no
wonder
that
ignorance
and
vice
abound
in
a
population
so
brought
up....
Their
morality
is
at
the
lowest
ebb,...
a
great
number
of
the
women
have
illegitimate
children,
and
that
at
such
an
immature
age
that
even
those
most
conversant
with
criminal
statistics
are
astounded.\"183
And
the
native
land
of
these
model
families
is
the
pattern
Christian
country
for
Europe;
so
says
at
least
Count
Montalembert,
certainly
a
competent
authority
on
Christianity!
Wages
in
the
above
industries,
miserable
as
they
are
(the
maximum
wages
of
a
child
in
the
straw-plait
schools
rising
in
rare
cases
to
3
shillings),
are
reduced
far
below
their
nominal
amount
by
the
prevalence
of
the
truck
system
everywhere,
but
especially
in
the
lace
districts.184
E.
Passage
of
Modern
Manufacture,
and
Domestic
Industry
into
Modern
Mechanical
Industry.
The
Hastening
of
this
Revolution
by
the
Application
of
the
Factory
Acts
to
those
Industries
The
cheapening
of
labour-power,
by
sheer
abuse
of
the
labour
of
women
and
children,
by
sheer
robbery
of
every
normal
condition
requisite
for
working
and
living,
and
by
the
sheer
brutality
of
overwork
and
night-work,
meets
at
last
with
natural
obstacles
that
cannot
be
overstepped.
So
also,
when
based
on
these
methods,
do
the
cheapening
of
commodities
and
capitalist
exploitation
in
general.
So
soon
as
this
point
is
at
last
reached
–
and
it
takes
many
years
–
the
hour
has
struck
for
the
introduction
of
machinery,
and
for
the
thenceforth
rapid
conversion
of
the
scattered
domestic
industries
and
also
of
manufactures
into
factory
industries.
An
example,
on
the
most
colossal
scale,
of
this
movement
is
afforded
by
the
production
of
wearing
apparel.
This
industry,
according
to
the
classification
of
the
Children's
Employment
Commission,
comprises
straw-hat
makers,
ladies'-hat
makers,
cap-makers,tailors,
milliners
and
dressmakers,
shirt-makers,corset-makers,
glove-makers,
shoemakers,
besides
many
minor
branches,
such
as
the
making
of
neck-ties,collars,
&c.
In
1861,
the
number
of
females
employed
in
these
industries,
in
England
and
Wales,
amounted
to
586,299,
of
these
115,242
at
the
least
were
under
20,
and
16,650.
under
15
years
of
age.
The
number
of
these
workwomen
in
the
United
Kingdom
in
1861,
was
750,334.
The
number
of
males
employed
in
England
and
Wales,
in
hat-making,
shoemaking,
glove-making
and
tailoring
was
437,969;
of
these
14,964
under
15
years,
89,285
between
15
and
20,
and
333,117
over
20
years.
Many
of
the
smaller
branches
are
not
included
in
these
figures.
But
take
the
figures
as
they
stand;
we
then
have
for
England
and
Wales
alone,
according
to
the
census
of
1861,
a
total
of
1,024,277
persons,
about
as
many
as
are
absorbed
by
agriculture
and
cattle
breeding.
We
begin
to
understand
what
becomes
of
the
immense
quantities
of
goods
conjured
up
by
the
magic
of
machinery,
and
of
the
enormous
masses
of
workpeople,
which
that
machinery
sets
free.
The
production
of
wearing
apparel
is
carried
on
partly
in
manufactories
in
whose
workrooms
there
is
but
a
reproduction
of
that
division
of
labour,the
membra
disjecta
of
which
were
found
ready
to
hand;
partly
by
small
master-handicraftsmen;
these,however,
do
not,
as
formerly,
work
for
individual
consumers,
but
for
manufactories
and
warehouses,and
to
such
an
extent
that
often
whole
towns
and
stretches
of
country
carry
on
certain
branches,
such
as
shoemaking,
as
a
speciality;
finally,
on
a
very
great
scale
by
the
so-called
domestic
workers,
who
form
an
external
department
of
the
manufactories,
warehouses,
and
even
of
the
workshops
of
the
smaller
masters.185
The
raw
material,
&c.,
is
supplied
by
mechanical
industry,
the
mass
of
cheap
human
material
(taillable
à
merci
et
miséricorde)
is
composed
of
the
individuals\"liberated\"
by
mechanical
industry
and
improved
agriculture.
The
manufactures
of
this
class
owed
their
origin
chiefly
to
the
capitalist's
need
of
having
at
hand
an
army
ready
equipped
to
meet
any
increase
of
demand.186These
manufactures,
nevertheless,
allowed
the
scattered
handicrafts
and
domestic
industries
to
continue
to
exist
as
a
broad
foundation.
The
great
production
of
surplus-value
in
these
branches
of
labour,
and
the
progressive
cheapening
of
their
articles,were
and
are
chiefly
due
to
the
minimum
wages
paid,no
more
than
requisite
for
a
miserable
vegetation,
and
to
the
extension
of
working-time
up
to
the
maximum
endurable
by
the
human
organism.
It
was
in
fact
by
the
cheapness
of
the
human
sweat
and
the
human
blood,which
were
converted
into
commodities,
that
the
markets
were
constantly
being
extended,
and
continue
daily
to
be
extended;
more
especially
was
this
the
case
with
England's
colonial
markets,
where,
besides,English
tastes
and
habits
prevail.
At
last
the
critical
point
was
reached.
The
basis
of
the
old
method,sheer
brutality
in
the
exploitation
of
the
workpeople,accompanied
more
or
less
by
a
systematic
division
of
labour,
no
longer
sufficed
for
the
extending
markets
and
for
the
still
more
rapidly
extending
competition
of
the
capitalists.
The
hour
struck
for
the
advent
of
machinery.
The
decisively
revolutionary
machine,
the
machine
which
attacks
in
an
equal
degree
the
whole
of
the
numberless
branches
of
this
sphere
of
production,dressmaking,
tailoring,
shoemaking,
sewing,
hat
making,
and
many
others,
is
the
sewing-machine.
Its
immediate
effect
on
the
workpeople
is
like
that
of
all
machinery,
which,
since
the
rise
of
modern
industry,
has
seized
upon
new
branches
of
trade.Children
of
too
tender
an
age
are
sent
adrift.
The
wage
of
the
machine
hands
rises
compared
with
that
of
the
house-workers,
many
of
whom
belong
to
the
poorest
of
the
poor.
That
of
the
better
situated
handicraftsman,
with
whom
the
machine
competes,sinks.
The
new
machine
hands
are
exclusively
girls
and
young
women.
With
the
help
of
mechanical
force,
they
destroy
the
monopoly
that
male
labour
had
of
the
heavier
work,
and
they
drive
off
from
the
lighter
work
numbers
of
old
women
and
very
young
children.
The
overpowering
competition
crushes
the
weakest
of
the
manual
labourers.
The
fearful
increase
in
death
from
starvation
during
the
last
10
years
in
London
runs
parallel
with
the
extension
of
machine
sewing.187The
new
workwomen
turn
the
machines
by
hand
and
foot,
or
by
hand
alone,
sometimes
sitting,sometimes
standing,
according
to
the
weight,
size,
and
special
make
of
the
machine,
and
expend
a
great
deal
of
labour-power.
Their
occupation
is
unwholesome,owing
to
the
long
hours,
although
in
most
cases
they
are
not
so
long
as
under
the
old
system.
Wherever
the
sewing-machine
locates
itself
in
narrow
and
already
over-crowded
workrooms,
it
adds
to
the
unwholesome
influences.
\"The
effect,\"
says
Mr.
Lord,
\"on
entering
low-ceiled
workrooms
in
which
30
to
40
machine
hands
are
working
is
unbearable....
The
heat,
partly
due
to
the
gas
stoves
used
for
warming
the
irons,
is
horrible....Even
when
moderate
hours
of
work,
i.e.,
from
8
in
the
morning
till
6
in
the
evening,
prevail
in
such
places,yet
3
or
4
persons
fall
into
a
swoon
regularly
every
day.\"188
The
revolution
in
the
industrial
methods
which
is
the
necessary
result
of
the
revolution
in
the
instruments
of
production,
is
effected
by
a
medley
of
transition
forms.
These
forms
vary
according
to
the
extent
to
which
the
sewing-machine
has
become
prevalent
in
one
branch,
of
industry
or
the
other,
to
the
time
during
which
it
has
been
in
operation,
to
the
previous
condition
of
the
workpeople,
to
the
preponderance
of
manufacture,
of
handicrafts
or
of
domestic
industry,to
the
rent
of
the
workrooms,189&c.
In
dressmaking,for
instance,
where
the
labour
for
the
most
part
was
already
organised,
chiefly
by
simple
co-operation,
the
sewing-machine
at
first
formed
merely
a
new
factor
in
that
manufacturing
industry.
In
tailoring,
shirtmaking,shoemaking,
&c.,
all
the
forms
are
intermingled.
Here
the
factory
system
proper.
There
middlemen
receive
the
raw
material
from
the
capitalist
en
chef,
and
group
around
their
sewing-machines,
in
\"chambers\"and
\"garrets,\"
from
10
to
50
or
more
workwomen.Finally,
as
is
always
the
case
with
machinery
when
not
organised
into
a
system,
and
when
it
can
also
be
used
in
dwarfish
proportions,
handicraftsman
and
domestic
workers,
along
with
their
families,
or
with
a
little
extra
labour
from
without,
make
use
of
their
own
sewing-machines.190The
system
actually
prevalent
in
England
is,
that
the
capitalist
concentrates
a
large
number
of
machines
on
his
premises,
and
then
distributes
the
produce
of
those
machines
for
further
manipulation
amongst
the
domestic
workers.191The
variety
of
the
transition
forms,
however,
does
not
conceal
the
tendency
to
conversion
into
the
factory
system
proper.
This
tendency
is
nurtured
by
the
very
nature
of
the
sewing-machine,
the
manifold
uses
of
which
push
on
the
concentration,
under
one
roof,
and
one
management,
of
previously
separated
branches
of
a
trade.
It
is
also
favoured
by
the
circumstance
that
preparatory
needlework,
and
certain
other
operations,are
most
conveniently
done
on
the
premises
where
the
machine
is
at
work;
as
well
as
by
the
inevitable
expropriation
of
the
hand
sewers,
and
of
the
domestic
workers
who
work
with
their
own
machines.
This
fate
has
already
in
part
overtaken
them.
The
constantly
increasing
amount
of
capital
invested
in
sewing
machines,192gives
the
spur
to
the
production
of,
andgluts
the
markets
with,
machine-made
articles,
thereby
giving
the
signal
to
the
domestic
workers
for
the
sale
of
their
machines.
The
overproduction
of
sewing
machines
themselves,
causes
their
producers,
in
bad
want
of
a
sale,
to
let
them
out
for
so
much
a
week,
thus
crushing
by
their
deadly
competition
the
small
owners
of
machines.193Constant
changes
in
the
constructionof
the
machines,
and
their
ever-increasing
cheapness,depreciate
day
by
day
the
older
makes,
and
allow
of
their
being
sold
in
great
numbers,
at
absurd
prices,
to
large
capitalists,
who
alone
can
thus
employ
them
at
a
profit.
Finally,
the
substitution
of
the
steam-engine
for
man
gives
in
this,
as
in
all
similar
revolutions,
the
finishing
blow.
At
first,
the
use
of
steam
power
meets
with
mere
technical
difficulties,
such
as
unsteadiness
in
the
machines,
difficulty
in
controlling
their
speed,rapid
wear
and
tear
of
the
lighter
machines,
&c.,
all
of
which
are
soon
overcome
by
experience.194If,
on
the
one
hand,
the
concentration
of
many
machines
in
large
manufactories
leads
to
the
use
of
steam
power,
on
the
other
hand,
the
competition
of
steam
with
human
muscles
hastens
on
the
concentration
of
workpeople
and
machines
in
large
factories.
Thus
England
is
at
present
experiencing,
not
only
in
the
colossal
industry
of
making
wearing
apparel,
but
in
most
of
the
other
trades
mentioned
above,
the
conversion
of
manufacture,
of
handicrafts,
and
of
domestic
work
into
the
factory
system,
after
each
of
those
forms
of
production,
totally
changed
and
disorganised
under
the
influence
of
modern
industry,
has
long
ago
reproduced,
and
even
overdone,
all
the
horrors
of
the
factory
system,
without
participating
in
any
of
the
elements
of
social
progress
it
contains.195
This
industrial
revolution
which
takes
place
spontaneously,
is
artificially
helped
on
by
the
extension
of
the
Factory
Acts
to
all
industries
in
which
women,young
persons
and
children
are
employed.
The
compulsory
regulation
of
the
working
day
as
regards
its
length,
pauses,
beginning
and
end,
the
system
of
relays
of
children,
the
exclusion
of
all
children
under
a
certain
age,
&c.,
necessitate
on
the
one
hand
more
machinery196and
the
substitution
of
steam
as
a
motive
power
in
the
place
of
muscles.197On
the
other
hand,in
order
to
make
up
for
the
loss
of
time,
an
expansion
occurs
of
the
means
of
production
used
in
common,of
the
furnaces,
buildings,
&c.,
in
one
word,
greater
concentration
of
the
means
of
production
and
a
correspondingly
greater
concourse
of
workpeople.The
chief
objection,
repeatedly
and
passionately
urged
on
behalf
of
each
manufacture
threatened
with
the
Factory
Act,
is
in
fact
this,
that
in
order
to
continue
the
business
on
the
old
scale
a
greater
outlay
of
capital
will
be
necessary.
But
as
regards
labour
in
the
so
called
domestic
industries
and
the
intermediate
forms
between
them
and
Manufacture,
so
soon
as
limits
are
put
to
the
working
day
and
to
the
employment
of
children,
those
industries
go
to
the
wall.
Unlimited
exploitation
of
cheap
labour-power
is
the
sole
foundation
of
their
power
to
compete.
One
of
the
essential
conditions
for
the
existence
of
the
factory
system,
especially
when
the
length
of
the
working
day
is
fixed,
is
certainty
in
the
result,
i.e.,the
production
in
a
given
time
of
a
given
quantity
of
commodities,
or
of
a
given
useful
effect.
The
statutory
pauses
in
the
working
day,
moreover,
imply
the
assumption
that
periodical
and
sudden
cessation
of
the
work
does
no
harm
to
the
article
undergoing
the
process
of
production.
This
certainty
in
the
result,and
this
possibility
of
interrupting
the
work
are,
of
course,
easier
to
be
attained
in
the
purely
mechanical
industries
than
in
those
in
which
chemical
and
physical
processes
play
a
part;
as,
for
instance,
in
the
earthenware
trade,
in
bleaching,
dyeing,
baking,
and
in
most
of
the
metal
industries.
Wherever
there
is
a
workingday
without
restriction
as
to
length,
wherever
there
is
night-work
and
unrestricted
waste
of
human
life,
there
the
slightest
obstacle
presented
by
the
nature
of
the
work
to
a
change
for
the
better
is
soon
looked
upon
as
an
everlasting
barrier
erected
by
Nature.No
poison
kills
vermin
with
more
certainty
than
the
Factory
Act
removes
such
everlasting
barriers.
No
one
made
a
greater
outcry
over
\"impossibilities\"
than
our
friends
the
earthenware
manufacturers.
In
1864,however,
they
were
brought
under
the
Act,
and
within
sixteen
months
every
\"impossibility\"
had
vanished.
\"The
improved
method,\"
called
forth
by
the
Act,
\"of
making
slip
by
pressure
instead
of
by
evaporation,
the
newly-constructed
stoves
for
drying
the
ware
in
its
green
state,
&c.,
are
each
events
of
great
importance
in
the
pottery
art,
and
mark
an
advance
which
the
preceding
century
could
not
rival....
It
has
even
considerably
reduced
the
temperature
of
the
stoves
themselves
with
a
considerable
saving
of
fuel,
and
with
a
readier
effect
on
the
ware.\"198
In
spite
of
every
prophecy,
the
cost-price
of
earthenware
did
not
rise,
but
the
quantity
produced
did,
and
to
such
an
extent
that
the
export
for
the
twelve
months,
ending
December,
1865,
exceeded
in
value
by
￡138,628
the
average
of
the
preceding
three
years.
In
the
manufacture
of
matches
it
was
thought
to
be
an
indispensable
requirement,
that
boys,
even
while
bolting
their
dinner,
should
go
on
dipping
the
matches
in
melted
phosphorus,
the
poisonous
vapour
from
which
rose
into
their
faces.
The
Factory
Act
(1864)
made
the
saving
of
time
a
necessity,
and
so
forced
into
existence
a
dipping
machine,
the
vapour
from
which
could
not
come
in
contact
with
the
workers.199So,
at
the
present
time,
in
those
branches
of
the
lace
manufacture
not
yet
subject
to
the
Factory
Act,
it
is
maintained
that
the
meal-times
cannot
be
regular
owing
to
the
different
periods
required
by
the
various
kinds
of
lace
for
drying,
which
periods
vary
from
three
minutes
up
to
an
hour
and
more.
To
this
the
Children's
Employment
Commissioners
answer:
\"The
circumstances
of
this
case
are
precisely
analogous
to
that
of
the
paper-stainers,
dealt
with
in
our
first
report.
Some
of
the
principal
manufacturers
in
the
trade
urged
that
in
consequence
of
the
nature
of
the
materials
used,and
their
various
processes,
they
would
be
unable,without
serious
loss,
to
stop
for
meal-times
at
any
given
moment.
But
it
was
seen
from
the
evidence
that,
by
due
care
and
previous
arrangement,
the
apprehended
difficulty
would
be
got
over;
and
accordingly,
by
clause
6
of
section
6
of
the
Factory
Acts
Extension
Act,
passed
during
this
Session
of
Parliament,
an
interval
of
eighteen
months
is
given
to
them
from
the
passing
of
the
Act
before
they
are
required
to
conform
to
the
meal
hours,
specified
by
the
Factory
Acts.\"200
Hardly
had
the
Act
been
passed
when
our
friends
the
manufacturers
found
out:
\"The
inconveniences
we
expected
to
arise
from
the
introduction
of
the
Factory
Acts
into
our
branch
of
manufacture,
I
am
happy
to
say,
have
not
arisen.
We
do
not
find
the
production
at
all
interfered
with;
in
short,
we
produce
more
in
the
same
time.\"201
It
is
evident
that
the
English
legislature,
which
certainly
no
one
will
venture
to
reproach
with
being
overdosed
with
genius,
has
been
led
by
experience
to
the
conclusion
that
a
simple
compulsory
law
is
sufficient
to
enact
away
all
the
so-called
impediments,opposed
by
the
nature
of
the
process,
to
the
restriction
and
regulation
of
the
working
day.
Hence,
on
the
introduction
of
the
Factory
Act
into
a
given
industry,a
period
varying
from
six
to
eighteen
months
is
fixed
within
which
it
is
incumbent
on
the
manufacturers
to
remove
all
technical
impediments
to
the
working
of
the
Act.
Mirabeau's
\"Impossible!
ne
me
dites
jamais
ce
bête
de
mot!\"
is
particularly
applicable
to
modern
technology.
But
though
the
Factory
Acts
thus
artificially
ripen
the
material
elements
necessary
for
the
conversion
of
the
manufacturing
system
into
the
factory
system,
yet
at
the
same
time,
owing
to
the
necessity
they
impose
for
greater
outlay
of
capital,they
hasten
on
the
decline
of
the
small
masters,
and
the
concentration
of
capital.202
Besides
the
purely
technical
impediments
that
are
removable
by
technical
means,
the
irregular
habits
of
the
workpeople
themselves
obstruct
the
regulation
of
the
hours
of
labour.
This
is
especially
the
case
where
piece-wage
predominates,
and
where
loss
of
time
in
one
part
of
the
day
or
week
can
be
made
good
by
subsequent
over-time,
or
by
night-work,
a
process
which
brutalises
the
adult
workman,
and
ruins
his
wife
and
children.203Although
this
absence
of
regularity
in
the
expenditure
of
labour-power
is
a
natural
and
rude
reaction
against
the
tedium
of
monotonous
drudgery,it
originates,
also,
to
a
much
greater
degree
from
anarchy
in
production,
anarchy
that
in
its
turn
pre
supposes
unbridled
exploitation
of
labour-power
by
the
capitalist.
Besides
the
general
periodic
changes
of
the
industrial
cycle,
and
the
special
fluctuations
in
the
markets
to
which
each
industry
is
subject,
we
may
also
reckon
what
is
called
\"the
season,\"
dependent
either
on
the
periodicity
of
favourable
seasons
of
the
year
for
navigation;
or
on
fashion,
and
the
sudden
placing
of
large
orders
that
have
to
be
executed
in
the
shortest
possible
time.
The
habit
of
giving
such
orders
becomes
more
frequent
with
the
extension
of
railways
and
telegraphs.
\"The
extension
of
the
railway
system
throughout
the
country
has
tended
very
much
to
encourage
giving
short
notice.
Purchasers
now
come
up
from
Glasgow,
Manchester,
and
Edinburgh
once
every
fortnight
or
so
to
the
wholesale
city
warehouses
which
we
supply,
and
give
small
orders
requiring
immediate
execution,
instead
of
buying
from
stock
as
they
used
to
do.
Years
ago
we
were
always
able
to
work
in
the
slack
times,
so
as
to
meet
demand
of
the
next
season,
but
now
no
one
can
say
beforehand
what
will
be
the
demand
then.\"204
In
those
factories
and
manufactories
that
are
not
yet
subject
to
the
Factory
Acts,
the
most
fearful
over
work
prevails
periodically
during
what
is
called
the
season,
in
consequence
of
sudden
orders.
In
the
outside
department
of
the
factory,
of
the
manufactory,and
of
the
warehouse,
the
so-called
domestic
workers,whose
employment
is
at
the
best
irregular,
are
entirely
dependent
for
their
raw
material
and
their
orders
on
the
caprice
of
the
capitalist,
who,
in
this
industry,is
not
hampered
by
any
regard
for
depreciation
of
his
buildings
and
machinery,
and
risks
nothing
by
a
stoppage
of
work,
but
the
skin
of
the
worker
himself.Here
then
he
sets
himself
systematically
to
work
to
form
an
industrial
reserve
force
that
shall
be
ready
at
a
moment's
notice;
during
one
part
of
the
year
he
decimates
this
force
by
the
most
inhuman
toil,
during
the
other
part,
he
lets
it
starve
for
want
of
work.
\"The
employers
avail
themselves
of
the
habitual
irregularity
in
the
homework,
when
any
extra
work
is
wanted
at
a
push,
so
that
the
work
goes
on
till
11,
and
12
p.m.
or
2
a.m.,
or
as
the
usual
phrase
is,\"all
hours,\"
and
that
in
localities
where
\"the
stench
is
enough
to
knock
you
down,
you
go
to
the
door,perhaps,
and
open
it,
but
shudder
to
go
further.\"205
\"They
are
curious
men,\"
said
one
of
the
witnesses,a
shoemaker,
speaking
of
the
masters,
\"they
think
it
does
a
boy
no
harm
to
work
too
hard
for
half
the
year,
if
he
is
nearly
idle
for
the
other
half.\"206
In
the
same
way
as
technical
impediments,
so,
too,those
\"usages
which
have
grown
with
the
growth
of
trade\"
were
and
still
are
proclaimed
by
interested
capitalists
as
obstacles
due
to
the
nature
of
the
work.This
was
a
favourite
cry
of
the
cotton
lords
at
the
time
they
were
first
threatened
with
the
Factory
Acts.Although
their
industry
more
than
any
other
depends
on
navigation,
yet
experience
has
given
them
the
lie.Since
then,
every
pretended
obstruction
to
business
has
been
treated
by
the
Factory
inspectors
as
a
mere
sham.207The
thoroughly
conscientious
investigations
of
the
Children's
Employment
Commission
prove
that
the
effect
of
the
regulation
of
the
hours
of
work,in
some
industries,
was
to
spread
the
mass
of
labour
previously
employed
more
evenly
over
the
whole
year208that
this
regulation
was
the
first
rational
bridle
on
the
murderous,
meaningless
caprices
of
fashion,209caprices
that
consort
so
badly
with
the
system
of
modern
industry;
that
the
development
of
ocean
navigation
and
of
the
means
of
communication
generally,
has
swept
away
the
technical
basis
on
which
season-work
was
really
supported,
210and
that
all
other
so-called
unconquerable
difficulties
vanish
before
larger
buildings,
additional
machinery,increase
in
the
number
of
workpeople
employed,211and
the
alterations
caused
by
all
these
in
the
mode
of
conducting
the
wholesale
trade.212But
for
all
that,capital
never
becomes
reconciled
to
such
changes
–and
this
is
admitted
over
and
over
again
by
its
own
representatives
–
except
\"under
the
pressure
of
a
General
Act
of
Parliament\"213for
the
compulsory
regulation
of
the
hours
of
labour.
Section
9:
The
Factory
Acts.
Sanitary
and
Educational
Clauses
of
the
Same.Their
General
Extension
in
England
Factory
legislation,
that
first
conscious
and
methodical
reaction
of
society
against
the
spontaneously
developed
form
of
the
process
of
production,
is,
as
we
have
seen,just
as
much
the
necessary
product
of
modern
industry
as
cotton
yarn,
self-actors,
and
the
electric
telegraph.Before
passing
to
the
consideration
of
the
extension
of
that
legislation
in
England,
we
shall
shortly
notice
certain
clauses
contained
in
the
Factory
Acts,
and
not
relating
to
the
hours
of
work.
Apart
from
their
wording,
which
makes
it
easy
for
the
capitalist
to
evade
them,
the
sanitary
clauses
are
extremely
meagre,
and,
in
fact,
limited
to
provisions
for
whitewashing
the
walls,
for
insuring
cleanliness
in
some
other
matters,
for
ventilation,
and
for
protection
against
dangerous
machinery.
In
the
third
book
we
shall
return
again
to
the
fanatical
opposition
of
the
masters
to
those
clauses
which
imposed
upon
them
a
slight
expenditure
on
appliances
for
protecting
the
limbs
of
their
workpeople,
an
opposition
that
throws
a
fresh
and
glaring
light
on
the
Free-trade
dogma,according
to
which,
in
a
society
with
conflicting
interests,
each
individual
necessarily
furthers
the
common
weal
by
seeking
nothing
but
his
own
personal
advantage!
One
example
is
enough.
The
reader
knows
that
during
the
last
20
years,
the
flax
industry
has
very
much
extended,
and
that,
with
that
extension,
the
number
of
scutching
mills
in
Ireland
has
increased.In
1864
there
were
in
that
country
1,800
of
these
mills.
Regularly
in
autumn
and
winter
women
and\"young
persons,\"
the
wives,
sons,
and
daughters
of
the
neighbouring
small
farmers,
a
class
of
people
totally
unaccustomed
to
machinery,
are
taken
from
field
labour
to
feed
the
rollers
of
the
scutching
mills
with
flax.
The
accidents,
both
as
regards
number
and
kind,are
wholly
unexampled
in
the
history
of
machinery.In
one
scutching
mill,
at
Kildinan,
near
Cork,
there
occurred
between
1852
and
1856,
six
fatal
accidents
and
sixty
mutilations;
every
one
of
which
might
have
been
prevented
by
the
simplest
appliances,
at
the
cost
of
a
few
shillings.
Dr.
W.
White,
the
certifying
surgeon
for
factories
at
Downpatrick,
states
in
his
official
report,
dated
the
15th
December,
1865:
精選分類
