The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1888-05-19 00:00:00

DUTCH WORKMEN.

A Royal Commission, composed of seven members.
one of whom was a working carpenter, was appointed
In Holland about two years ago to inquire into the
condition of the working classes in that country. The
Commission sat for about 18 months, and their
preliminary report has lately been published. The
report states that in Amsterdam the bakers work
from 14 to 16 hours a day, in some cases for 26 hours
at a stretch, this excessive labour being due to the
competition of the large bread factories which have
recently been opened and in which the labour is from
12 to 14 hours. There are 5000 working tailors,
nearly all of whom work in their own homes, only
one merchant tailor having shops in which the
sewing machines are driven by steam and
give employment to 200 women and girls. Foreign
competition is very great in the tailoring trade,
and the Dutch tailors have to work very hard during
the season, which lasts only three months. The work-
men employed in diamond cutting—of whom there
are 5000, nearly all Jews—at Amsterdam are the bett
paid, as they earn from 725. to 80s. and 88s. a week,
working 12 hours at a stretch. In the factories
for making bread, vinegar, sugar, &c., in the breweries,
sugar refineries, and steam mills, work is carried on
both by day and night, there being, of course, two
sets of workmen, though when a man belonging to
one set is ill or absent his place is taken by a man of
the other set, who is thus obliged to work for 24 hours
at a stretch. The Royal Commission, while admitting
the difficulty of obtaining accurate information in all
cases, states that, as a rule, adults work from 13 to
14 hours a day, and that out of 11,156 workmen in
the province of Lemburg, which is taken
as a typical case, 7011 were men, 240
married women, 733 unmarried women, 365
girls between 16 and 18, 614 girls between 12
and 16, and 2193 boys under 18, 39 per cent. of the
total number being minors. A law passed in 1874
prohibits the employment of children under 12, but
the Commission reports that it is not very strictly
enforced, and, moreover, that children are made to
work almost as long as adults. Nor does public in-
atruction appear, despite the law passed in 1874, to
have made much progress, for in Amsterdam alone
4606 children did not attend any school at the begin-
ning of last year, while the mean average of persons
unable to read or write in Holland is 10 per cent., as
against about 2 per cent. in Germany. The Commis-
sion states that the rate of wages may be taken
at 2d. an hour for men, lid. for women, and id.
for children in the linen trade; while bakers
earn 2d., papermakers 21d., sugar refiners 3d.,
painters and compositors 31d., for certain
painters 6d., and engravers Bd. per hour. For
ordinary workmen 3d. an hour may be taken as
maximum, which is 2s. 6d. a day, or 15s. a week,
supposing the man to work 10 full hours. There are
a good many mutual relief societies in Holland,
especially in the factories, and the employers them-
selves subscribe in several cases. A Dutchman, work-
ing 12 hours a day produces much less and is not
nearly so well paid as an Englishman working fewer
hours. The Commission concluded its report by re-
commending the Government: (1) To provide for
the inspection of factories; (2) to execute more
strictly the law relating to infant labour; (3) to
prohibit women and children working by night or on
Sunday; (4) to make periods of rest for both of them
compulsory; (5) to prohibit women working for at
least a month after their confinement. The Dutch
Government has introduced a bill which, in some
respects, goes beyond, but in others does not come up
to the recommendations made by this Commission.