Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-07-28
ENGLISH FACT DRIES
Inspectors Report Shows Very
Bad Condition.
THE EDUCATIONAL BILL
Batersea Rise House and Macaulay to
Be Saved From Razing.
MOTOR BUSES INCREASING
Memorial for James Whistler-Miss
Garnet Daniels to Be Married to
Alfred Noyes of England.

Special Correspondence Of The Star
LONDON July II. 1907.
The annual report of the chief inspector
OF factories and workshops just made read
in parts almost as had the official re-
port on the Chicago packers plants. Not
quite so full of horror, but of It's kind
peculiarly bad for England. where employ
ment IS not on the same scale as America
and where working conditions are usually
better because smaller and less affected by
hustle and rush. The report states that
there are over go. 900 workshops under in
spection now. employing nearly 5000 OoO
persons. Four hundred thousand children
are employed in these factories and work
shops, an increase of $1,000 in the year.
There were 112.o10 accidents. an increase of
II per cent. and an increase of per cent
was shown in fatal accidents.
The most unfortunate feature of insani-
tation is that it is most often met with in
food manufacture. There is always a good
deal of jungle in this blue book. Mention
Is frequently made of the conditions of
sausage manufacture. In one town in Lam
cashire one room. ten or twelve yards by
four, contained a sly in which pigs We're
kept and killed. All the subsequent opera
tons Of sausage making were carried on
in the same room.
A jam factory visited had walls splashed
shoulder high with stale jam which the
manufacturer suggested bad properties en-
abling it TO fulfill the function of lime
wash. Many jam factories and bakehouses
were found to he cleaner than formerly but
in some nclghborhoods in South London
THE practice of hanging up the family
washing in the bakehouses is becoming
more apparent and In one case every avail
able spot was covered in this way"
places. In one case from the weaving shed
in the cotton cloth district over ten cart
loads of dirt were removed from the shed
floor between two visits of an inspector
revelations disclosed In the report show
the existence of Il disgusting state of Things
In certain factories where the two sexes
are empioyed. Common deCency is fla
GRAVITY outraged. and it is a wonder that
the employees tolerate the conditions.
Human Interest in Reports.
There is much OF great human Interest in
the reports of the lady inspectors. The
aversion to the domestic life which pos
sesses many married women whose early
life was spent amid the hustle of the fac
tory is noted. Il would rather be at work
a hundred times than at home. l get lost
al home was the pathetic wall OF one
woman. the mother of several children. II
do not reed to work, but 1 do not like stay
ing at home said another married woman
She was suffering from lead poisoning. She
acknowledged that her husband earned
good wages, and that there was no need
whatever for her to go to the factory but
she felt compelled to do so.
One woman Inspector who has made spe-
cial inquiries regarding the employment Of
married women reports:
I'm nearly all the towns i visited, from a
quiet cathedral town to a large manufac-
turing city. / obtained the same Informal
tion, namely. that the employment of mar
ried women is rapidly on the Increase and
that II UGH of the work formerly done by
men is now done by women at e. lower
wage. The unemployment Of the husband
tdr'sirg either from disinclina ton to work
or the impossibility of Obtaining work.
nc icc;cd and delicate children and dirty
AL iN-kept homes are the natural con-
comitants of the employment of married
women"
The statements regarding the children
are perhaps worse than any other phase of
the report In the lace district about Not
tin2ham little halt-time children employed
IN drawing lace have to be exempt from
school lessons on account of the pitiful
condition of their eyes. In Dundee the in
Spector reports:
When they are in the mills in the
morning they have no opportunity TO have
dinner until after school closes for the
day. Narrow-chesteI children sat on back
less benches. y narrow, steep stair led TO
the school rooms, ard there was no sort
OF playground, nor any time to use 1t If
there had been. Defective eyesight pre-
vented a certain proportion from seeing
what was written on the blackboard.
woman inspector draws an equally
sad picture of the half-time children OF the
Irish flax mills.
The head teacher in one of the half-time
schools remarked to me that these children
seemed always tired. that during the
recreation period they preferred sitting
Gown III the playground to running about
These children were understood, round
SIoullercd and delicate in appearance"
Another inspector reports:
Little Girls Employed.
Il found about forty little girls twenty
one OF whom were half-timers, employed
in labelling reels OF sewing silk and skeins
and balls OF embroidery silks All these
We're licking and mostcning the adhesive
labels by the mouth. The usual quantity
OF labels moistened in this way by eacn
girl Is about thirty gross q day-s0me do
more The elder girls. aged fourteen OIL