The Factory System of the Early Nineteen

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The Factory System of the Early Nineteenth

Century

by William H. Hutt

The early British factory system may be said to have been the most obvious

feature of the Industrial Revolution. Forecasting as it did the trend of subsequent

industrial development, udgments passed upon it !ill largely determine the attitude

ta"en !ith regard to the modern industrial system.

There is reason to believe that the form that factory development abroad assumed !as

due, in no small degree, to imitation, direct or indirect, in #reat Britain, and factory

legislation the !orld over !as framed on the British model. There are still parts of the

!orld !here industrial conditions seem to resemble those !hich e$isted here a century

ago, and a recent article on conditions in %hina reads, in parts, e$actly li"e a quotation

from one of the history boo"s !hich describe the early &nglish system.'()*ne suspects

that the similarity is partly due to the author having read these modern history boo"s, but

a more or less parallel situation undoubtedly e$ists.

In the course of another line of inquiry, the !riter of this essay !as led to study a

selection of the voluminous parliamentary reports and other literature of the early

nineteenth century hearing on labor conditions. He !as struc" !ith the fact that the

impressions he obtained from these publications !ere very different from those !hich

certain modern !or"s on the early factory system had given him, namely,A History of

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Factory Legislationby Hutchins and Harrison and The Town LabourerandLord

Shaftesburyby +.. and Barbara Hammond. -s these !or"s are practically the standard

modern !or"s, he felt that a critical e$amination of the main evidence and more

important discussions of the subect !as necessary. This essay is the result of an attempt

at such an e$amination.

erhaps an e$planation of the point of vie! of the authorities ust referred to can be found

in the !eight they attach to the evidence given before !hat has come to be "no!n as

/0adler1s %ommittee,/ in (234.'4)The report of this committee gives us a dreary picture

of cruelty, misery, disease, and deformity among the factory children, and this picture is

generally accepted as authentic. The Hammonds refer to the report as /a classical

document./ They continue5 /It is one of the main sources of our "no!ledge of the

conditions of factory life at the time. Its pages bring before the reader in the vivid form of

dialogue the "ind of life that !as led by the victims of the ne! system./ '3)Hutchins and

Harrison regard it as /one of the most valuable collections of evidence on industrial

conditions that !e possess./'6)

What do !e "no! of this committee7 0adler !as ma"ing desperate efforts to get his /Ten

Hours1 Bill/ through arliament. When it came up for second reading, the House decided

that a committee should be set up to investigate the story of gross brutalities in the

factories, !hich he had described at great length and !ith much eloquence. 0adler

himself presided, and it !as agreed, for reasons of economy and convenience, that he

should call his !itnesses first, after !hich the opponents of the bill should put their case.

He e$ercised the greatest energy to get his case complete by the end of the session, and

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statements./'?)-nother, though more sober, opponent of the factory system describes the

position thus5 /The !hole affair assumed at this time the character of a political party

question, the Tories for the greater part still smarting under their defeat on the reform

question, and endeavouring !ith delight to bring to the surface everything li"ely to

damage, in the eyes of the public, the industrial middle class./'(@)

%an !e !onder that the manufacturers !ere furious at 0adler1s maneuver and at their

demand for a further inquiry7 -ll Hutchins and Harrison tell us about this is that,

although the manufacturers1 interests /had been !ell represented upon it '0adler1s

%ommittee), they !ere discontented !ith the results, and no! pressed for a further

enquiry on the spot./'(()Ar. 0later says that the manufacturers1 anger !as /at the unusual

action of the %ommittee in ta"ing evidence from the sufferers themselves./'(4)Why this

consistent unfairness to the manufacturers7

In the reports issued by the subsequent commission'(3)!e can find effective ans!ers to

nearly all the charges made before the committee, but fe! !riters mention this for the

most part they proceed as though the stories brought before the committee !ere

confirmed.'(6)We can udge of the difference in the character of the evidence by

noticing that R.H. #reg, a fierce critic of 0adler1s %ommittee, could nevertheless refer to

the evidence published by the Factory %ommission as /an official and authenticated mass

of evidence to !hich all must bo!./ In particular, the charge of systematic cruelties to

children !as sho!n to have been entirely !ithout foundation, and !e do not thin" that

any careful student reading these reports could doubt that such deliberate cruelties as did

e$ist !ere practiced on the children by the operatives themselves, against the !ill and

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against the "no!ledge of the masters. The masters !ere, on the !hole, as many of their

opponents admitted, /men of humanity./

In spite of the mass of material !hich !e have, it is difficult for us to obtain a clear

picture of the physical and moral condition of the factory children. - good deal, perhaps

the most valuable part, of our information comes from the evidence of medical men, but

neither the Hammonds nor Hutchins and Harrison ma"e any attempt to assess the value

of their evidence. It is not an easy thing to do, even !hen !e believe the doctors to have

been free from a particular bias. There are t!o main difficulties. First, the state of mind

of many of those !ho set out to observe the state of health of a particular group of people

suggests le malade imaginaire second, the condition of medical "no!ledge !as such

that medical opinionsCas opposed to observationsD are valueless. /Bleeding/ !as still the

favorite remedy for most complaints.'(9)The doctors !ere, ho!ever, at least deliberate

observers, and, !hile their e$periences are illuminating, their abstract theoriesdo not

help us at all. *ne !ould almost thin" that the Hammonds and Hutchins and Harrison

hold the reverse. They both accept the medical evidence given before eel1s %ommittee in

(2(:,'(:)!hich !as favorable to the reformers1 case, but reect as biased that given

before the ords1 %ommittee'(=)t!o years later, !hich !as favorable to the

manufacturers1 case.

et us compare the medical evidence contained in the reports of these t!o committees.

The nine doctors called before eel1s %ommittee gave practically nothing but a mass of

abstract opinions. 0i$ of them confessed to "no!ing nothing !hatever of /manufactories/

e$cept by hearsay one had "no!n a factory /as a very young man/ one confessed to

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being a personal friend of Eathaniel #ould and the other C>inder WoodD, although a

friendly !itness, largely contradicted the evidence of the rest. They !ere questioned in

the follo!ing style5 /0upposing that children at an early age87/ They replied by giving

their opinion as to !hat !ould happen Cor should happenD under those conditions, never

having actually observed children under those circumstances.

Eo! let us consider the ords1 %ommittee of (2(2. The Hammonds see" to

discredit it by observing that it /discovered doctors of standing ready to s!ear that

factory life !as most !holesome for children, and that it !as doubtful !hether it !ould

hurt them to !or" t!enty;three hours out of the t!enty;four./'(2)They add nothing to

this, so !e must ta"e it as intended to convey their impression. Hutchins and Harrison

say5 /0ome of the medical evidence before the ords1 %ommittee suggests that at least

one or t!o of the doctors summoned !ere literally suborned by the masters, so

e$traordinary !ere their shifts and evasions to escape ans!ering the questions put to

them./'(?)There is little to ustify either of these observations. The doctors called had, in

this case, practical e$perience of /manufactories/ and had observedchildren employed in

them, and their evidence, generally, suggested that, !hatever the hours factory children

!ere actually !or"ing at that period, they !ere at least as healthy as children not

employed in factories. The only /shifts and evasions/ that !e find !ere merely attempts,

under severe cross;e$amination by 0areant ell, !ho had been briefed for the purpose, to

avoid e$pressing abstract opinions not based upon actual observation. *ne doctor C&.

HulmeD !as as"ed5 /ou, as a medical man, then, can form no opinion, independent of

evidence, as to the number of hours that a child might, or might not be employed, that

!ould or !ould not be inurious to his health7/ The ans!er !as, /I can1t./ Is this a shifty

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or evasive reply7 -gain and again before this committee !e come across the declaration

that a speculative opinion, or one founded on abstract grounds only, as to the number of

hours a child could !or" !ithout harm !as impossible. To illustrate the futility of

attempting to determine a theoretical limit by mere speculation, Hulme replied as

follo!s5 /If there !ere such an e$travagant thing to ta"e place, and it should appear that

the person !as not inured by having stood t!enty;three hours, I should then say it !as

not inconsistent !ith the health of the person so employed./ - comparison of this passage

!ith the Hammonds1 description of the incident, quoted above, may help us to appreciate

their scientific attitude.'4@)-s Hulme e$plained5 /

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e$ertion,/'43)but he !as unable to represent the health of the operatives !ho had been

through it as in any !ay !orse than that of most other classes of the community, even of

the more !ealthy classes. He !as hardly less indignant over the schools !hich the

children of the !ell;to;do !ere forced to attend than he !as over factories. It is surprising

that the relevance of his evidence has not been more !idely realied. Hutchins and

Harrison give one quotation from his boo" but entirely ignore his general conclusions.

'46)

The contribution of #as"ell'49)Calso a medical manD is valuable for the same reason as

that of Thac"rah, namely, that he !as an avo!ed antagonist of the factory system. '4:)

His !or" is !ell "no!n, but it appears to have e$ercised so little influence on most

discussions of this subect that some e$amination of his opinions seems desirable here.

He gave no support to the vie! that the coming of the factories had coincided

!ith the economic degradation of the !or"ers. *n the contrary, he !as quite clear that,

apart from the effect on the hand;loom !eavers, it had resulted in abundant material

progress and that the !ages of cotton operatives, /!ith proper economy and forethought,

!ould enable them to live comfortably, nay, in comparative lu$ury./'4=)It !as the moral

degradation of the !or"er that !orried #as"ell. He condemned factories for the vice

!hich he thought they had been instrumental in producing through causing the operatives

to lose their /independence./'42)%hildren !ere forced to spend their most

impressionable years amid surroundings of the utmost immorality and degradation, and

he painted a truly appalling picture.

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It seems to the !riter a fact of the deepest significance that, in spite of #as"ell holding

these opinions, and in spite of his regarding factory labor in general as /singularly

unfitted for children,/ he could not bring himself to advocate the abolition of child labor.

/The employment of children in manufactories,/ he !rote, /ought not to be loo"ed upon

as an evil, till the present moral and domestic habits of the population are completely re;

organised. 0o long as home education is not found for them, and they are left to live as

savages, they are to some e$tent better situated !hen engaged in light labour, and the

labour generally is light !hich falls to their share./'4?)It !as the home life of children,

prior to their factory days, !hich primarily led to such physical degeneracy as there !as,

and #as"ell emphasied this vie!. /This condition, it must be constantly borne in mind,

has nothing to do !ith labour as yet the child has undergone none./'3@)

%an !e decide ho! far the appalling immorality !hich #as"ell believed to e$ist in his

day !as due to the ne! industrial regime7 He undoubtedly very much e$aggerated the

e$tent of the vice and degradation !hich e$isted. - oor a! %ommission some years

before had painted a very gloomy picture, and he seems to have accepted quite

uncritically the charges made by opponents of the system.'3()-bout (23@ a !hole crop

of literature bemoaning the morals of the people had burst forth, and it may, perhaps, be

enlightening for us to e$amine an essay, dated (23(, !hich, although published

anonymously, seems to have influenced and perhaps inspired many of the subsequent

!riters in a li"e vein.'34)It !as entitledAn En"uiry into the State of the #anufacturing

opulation. Eot only !as #as"ell influenced by it, but Ar. +.. >ay1s essay on The #oral

and hysical $ondition of the %or&ing $lassesC(234D !as indebted to it, and a number

of other contemporary !or"s quoted from it. Hence !e can fairly assume that the

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follo!ing compliment to a foreign po!er e$presses a point of vie! not uncommon in

those days among the educated classes.

0pain, the most ignorant, degraded, and uncommercial of all countries pretending to

civilisation is, in respect of crimes against property, three times less vicious than France,

and more than seven times less vicious than &ngland. This fact is a fearful one and spea"s

volumes. 0pain ran"s cannibalism among her list of crimes, but robbery is rare! and petty

theft still rarer.

The factories !ere blamed for this. The !eight that can be attached to such opinions can

be udged by a further quotation from the same essay in !hich tea drin"ing is condemned

as a sign of demoraliationG

/Jnder any circumstances !e should deprecate the too liberal use of !ea" tea, as

e$tremely debilitating to the stomach but the practice is fatal to the constitution of all

hard !or"ing men 8 it affords a temporary relief at the e$pense of a subsequent reaction,

!hich, in its turn, calls for another and stronger stimulus./ This led to the mi$ing of gin

in the tea, a practice !hich prevailed /to an inconceivable e$tent among our

manufacturing population./ This is no attempt to ridicule by a carefully chosen passage

from a cran". The opinion !as common. Ar. +.. >ay C!ho later became famous as 0ir

+ames >ay;0huttle!orthD said e$actly the same thing in almost the same !ords the

follo!ing year.'33)

It is but one case of the "ind of argument !hich !e constantly find, intended to prove that

moral degradation had resulted from the factories and illustrated by e$amples !hich

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could quite easily suggest to us economic andsocial advance. Thac"rah lamented the fact

that children !ere no longer contented !ith /plain food/ but must have /dainties./'36)

The Reverend #.0. Bull deplored the tendency of girls to buy pretty clothes /ready;

made/ from shops instead of ma"ing them themselves, as this practice unfitted them to

become /the mothers of children./'39)#as"ell sa! decadence in tobacco. /Hundreds of

men may be daily seen inhaling the fumes of this e$traordinary plant./'3:)He also sa!

moral decline in the gro!th of !or"men1s combinations. The men !ere no longer

/respectful and attentive/ to their /superiors./'3=)

The factory o!ners1 most usual reply to the charge of immorality against the factory

operatives !as to the effect that, insofar as there !as any truth in such a charge, the cause

could be found in irreligion. But this !ay of thin"ing !as general in all camps. #as"ell

lamented the frequent absence of a belief /of a state of future re!ards and punishments.

8 Thus deprived of the most ennobling characteristic of the human mind, !hat !onder

can be felt that it is a !ild !aste7/'32)

*f the specific causes suggested for such decadence as there appeared to be, there are t!o

!hich seem to havesomeplausibility. The first is the high earnings of the operatives

!hich led to intemperance. Both Thac"rah and #as"ell treat this as a$iomatic. /The

poc"et;boo" ma"ers have high !ages and are not compelled to "eep hours. Hence they

are often very dissipated./'3?)/The high !ages allo!ed in some departments, induce

drun"enness and improvidence./'6@)/Higher !ages, moreover, very often, if not

generally, lead men to intemperance./'6()

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The second suggestion, !hich seems to have some measure of truth, is that moral

degradation !as due to the flood of Irish immigrants !ho came over to ta"e the place of

those children !ho !ere forced out of industry by the Factory -cts. The children1s

!ages, seldom more than from four to five shillings a !ee", !ere, nevertheless, a big

inducement to a race as poor as the Irish. &ngels believed that the continued e$pansion of

&nglish industry could never have occurred had there not been this reserve at hand.'64)

They !ere described as /an uncivilised race,/ and it may be that their inferior social

tradition reacted upon the rest of the population. -s they replacedchildren, the effect

upon !ages !as probably not very great. Family earnings must have suffered,

particularly !here the displaced children could not get !or" in the mines or agriculture.

Aobb1s suggestion that the influ$ of Irish had the effect of depressing !ages /to a brutally

lo! level/'63)is certainly not borne out by the available statistics.'66)

The most impressive of the condemnations of the early factory system is the charge that it

produced deformities and stunted gro!th in children. It is said that *astler had noticed

for many years the prevalence of deformity and lameness among factory operatives but

that the causes !ere un"no!n to him. *ne day a friend informed him /to his horror/ that

these deformities !ere due to their lives in factories. He !as /deeply impressed !ith all

he had heard,/ and the very ne$t morning he sat do!n and !rote his celebrated letter to

theLeeds #ercuryon /or"shire 0lavery./'69)But !e find that there !as a general and

!idespread prevalence of deformities at that time,'6:)and they seemed to be quite

independent of the occupation pursued. There is ample confirmation of this opinion in the

evidence from many sources contained in the reports issued by the Factory %ommission

in (233 and (236.'6=)That the contrary impression gained credence seems to have been

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entirely due to the energetic propaganda of -shley, *astler, 0adler, and their supporters.

If there !as a slightly larger proportion of deformity or puniness among the factory

children, this might be accounted for by bearing in mind the frequent statement that

children !ho !ere insufficiently strong for other employments !ere sent to the cotton

factories because of the lightness of the !or" there.'62)

William %oo"e Taylor tells of a cripple, deformed from birth, !ho !as /e$hibited as a

"ind of sho! in the hail of a benevolent nobleman,/ a spectacle that !as repeated night

after night to impress upon the fashionable !orld of ondon the belief that this unhappy

!retch !as a fair specimen of the inurious results produced by factory labor.'6?)He !as

also paid to go on tour for this purpose. ater, he offered his services to the

manufacturers, to e$pose the methods of the party that had originally engaged him, an

offer !hich !as /unfortunately refused./'9@)

The propagandists had an e$cellent social medium in !hich to carry on their !or". There

never !as an age more fond of sic"ly sentiment. It !as the age of

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displayed itself, not equivocally, in the late arliamentary crusade against the

factories./'94)The children !ere thought of as slaves, and the advantage of the

considerable !ages !hich they brought to their families !as not put into the balance

neither !as there any attempt to compare them to the poor of other sections of the

community. This attitude goaded William %oo"e Taylor into the deepest irony. eople

entered, or imagined that they entered, a mill and sa! the little factory hands engaged in

monotonous routine and they thought /ho! much more delightful !ould have been the

gambol of the free limbs on the hillside the sight of the green mead !ith its spangles of

buttercups and daisies the song of the bird and the humming of the bee8 'but) !e have

seen children perishing from sheer hunger in the mud hovel, or in the ditch by the

!ayside./'93)%ompared to the factory !or"ers, the agricultural laborers lived in abect

poverty, and the !or" to !hich country children !ere put !as far more e$hausting than

factory labor.'96)It !as, ho!ever, /rarely !itnessed by casual spectators e$cept during

fine !eather./'99)ord 0haftesbury, as"ed by Thorold Rogers !hy he had not sought to

e$tend protective legislation to children in the fields !hen he "ne! that their !or" /!as

to the full as physically inurious/ as premature labor in the factories, replied that it !as a

question of practical politics, and that, if he had sought the emancipation of all, he !ould

have obtained the support of no party at all.'9:)

The mill o!ners !ere, if anything, apathetic to!ard the anti;factory propaganda. William

%oo"e Taylor says that they !ere persuaded that the calumnies !hich !ere circulated

!ould never have been credited, but that their silence in trusting to the common sense of

their countrymen !as ta"en for a confession of guilt.'9=)

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0ome of the e$aggerations die hard.'92)For instance, the Harmnonds t!ice repeat

Fielden1s statement that he had found from actual e$periment that the factory child

!al"ed t!enty miles a day in the course of his !or" in the mill.'9?)Fielden never

e$plained this e$periment. He said that he !ould not /go into minute details/ of his

calculation because he !ould be /obliged to use terms that the ordinary reader !ould not

understand./':@)ossibly he thought his estimate moderate, as %ondy tried to sho! that

altogether they !al"ed about thirty miles in a dayG -s a matter of fact R.H. #reg did

ma"e detailed calculations and set them forth clearly. The average distance a piecer could

cover in a day he sho!ed to he not more than eight miles.':()

et us try to ta"e a balanced and detached vie! of conditions in those days, at the same

time passing udgments only in the light of contemporary standards. The salient fact, and

one !hich most !riters fail to stress, is that, insofar as the !or"ing people then had a

/choice of alternative benefits,/ they chose the conditions !hich the reformers

condemned. Eot only did higher !ages cause them to prefer factory !or" to other

occupations, but, as some of the reformers admitted, !hen one factory reduced its hours,

it !ould tend to lose its operatives as they !ould transfer their services to establishments

!here they could earn more. The support of the artisan class for the Factory -cts could

be obtained only by persuading them that as a result they !ould get the same or more

money for less !or". It !as believed that technical considerations made it impossible for

children1s hours to be reduced !ithout a corresponding reduction being conceded to

adults, and the /Ten Hours1

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as an even stronger motive in the support of the Factory -cts, particularly !hen the idea

of !or"ing children in shifts developed.

We can ignore the platitude that the child, at least, !as not a free agent. There !ere t!o

lines of argument. *n one side, /-gainst none do children more need protection than

against their o!n parents/ and, on the other, /The parent is the only natural and efficient

guardian of the child./ We shall not attempt to value the implications involved in these

ideas, but the second one is significant. The human emotions from !hich parental

affections spring !ere no different then from !hat they are today, and it is to the different

social and economic medium in !hich they !ere e$pressed that !e must loo" for the

cause of apparent callousness and cruelty.

It is hard to believe that rich philanthropists felt more strongly than parents about the

!elfare of their children. rotection against the effects of drun"enness may, perhaps,

have been needed, but, in general, upper;class support for legal restrictions on child labor

!as based upon a complete lac" of understanding of the difficulties !ith !hich the

!or"ing masses had to contend.

Jntil the development of the industrial system had caused a general rise in material

prosperity, such restrictions could only have added misery. Eo careful attempt to estimate

the sufferings of children !ho !ere driven from employment by the various Factory -cts

is "no!n to the !riter. Their condition !as described by some of the first factory

inspectors appointed in (233, but the evil !as soon lost sight of in the general prosperity

follo!ing.':4)

(:

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There !ould have beensomefall in hours and some elimination of child labor follo!ing

increasing real !ages, legislation or no legislation.':3)Both are e$pressions of a demand

for leisure, and leisure is only demanded after the more primary of human !ants are

amply satisfied.

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eliminated through the competition of larger and more up;to;date establishments. The

effect of the -ct of (233 !as actually to set up a countertendency, for !or" !as inclined

to drift to !or"shops and the smaller factories !hich !ere more easily able to evade its

provisions.

The chief obstacle to amelioration appears to have been apathythe apathy of ignorance

rather than the cupidity of manufacturers.

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child can acquire de$terity much more easily than an adult, but such s"ill acquired in

childhood is not easily lost.

0ome critics seem to imagine that, !hen they have e$ploded 0enior1s /last;hour theory,/

they have proved that no reduction of output follo!ed shorter hours. We get vague

theories about /the economy of short hours./ 0horter hours !ere not obtained !ithout

sacrifice they may be said to have been purchased by the !or"ers in their acceptance of

diminished !ages and by the community in lo!er productivity. The fact that these results

are not easily discernible arises entirely from the general increase of !ealth !hich

continued through the century and !hich made possible and itself caused the demand for

the leisure !hich the artisan class eventually possessed. Hutchins and Harrison ma"e the

common assumption that the reductions of hours !ere actually a main cause of the

greater productivity !hich follo!ed. They do not realie, apparently, that this is

inconsistent !ith their argument that manufacturers !ere prevented from reducing hours

of their o!n accord, because the force of competition gave an unfair advantage to those

!ho did not ma"e reductions. Ho! far there is any truth in the theory of the economy of

short hours !ill depend entirely upon the particular process concerned in some cases

output !ill be reduced proportionately, in others, less than proportionately, !ith

curtailments of the !or"ing day.

The t!o main conclusions suggested by this discussion are, first, that there has been a

general tendency to e$aggerate the /evils/ !hich characteried the factory system before

the abandonment of laisse faire and, second, that factory legislation !as not essential to

the ultimatedisappearance of those /evils./ %onditions !hich modern standards !ould

(?

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condemn !ere then common to the community as a !hole, and legislation not only

brought !ith it other disadvantages, not readily apparent in the comple$ changes of the

time, but also served to obscure and hamper more natural and desirable remedies.

William Harold Hutt C(2??K(?22D !as born in ondon to !or"ing;class parents. Heearned a Bachelor of %ommerce degree from the ondon 0chool of &conomics in (?46,

after !hich he spent four years !or"ing for publisher 0ir &rnest Benn. Benn !as so

impressed !ith /The Factory 0ystem of the &arly Eineteenth %entury/ Hutt1s firstpublished article that he promoted Hutt to manage The Individualist Boo"shop, td.

Written in (?49, this essay !as published inEconomicain (?4: and became more !idely

"no!n !hen F.-. Haye" included it in $apitalism and the HistoriansC(?96D.

Notes

'()/abour %onditions in %hina,/'nternational Labour Review, Aecember, (?46.

'4)Report of Select $ommittee on Factory $hildren(s Labour, (23(K34.

'3)+.. and Barbara Hammond,Lord ShaftesburyCondon5 %onstable, (?43D, p. (:.

'6)B.. Hutchins and -. Harrison,A History of Factory LegislationCondon, (?@3D, p.

36.

'9)R.H. #reg, The Factory )uestionCondon5 -. %obbett, (23=D.

':)0ee speech of Wilson atten in House of %ommons CHansard, LMII, =? '(233)D.

'=)Fielden made use of the same device in The $urse of the Factory SystemC(23:D. It isimprobable, even in the early days of the factory system, !hen !or";house apprentices

made up the greater part of child labor, that the picture of horror !hich 0adler and

Fielden dre! could have been in the least typical. &ven Robert *!en admitted that, !henhe purchased his mill in (=??, the apprentice children !ere /!ell fed and clothed and

lodged, and, to a superficial observer, healthy in their countenance7/ CReport of Select

$ommittee on the State of the $hildren Employed in the #anafactories of the *nited+ingdom'(2(:) '/eel1s %ommittee/)D.

'2)-nd there !ere only three called, although the inquiry practically resolved itself into

one on cotton factoriesG

'?)Friedrich &ngels, $ondition of the %or&ing $lasses in ,-..Condon, (2?4D, p. (=@.

4@

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'(@)&. von lener, &nglish Factory egislation Condon, (2=3D, p. (@.

'(()Hutchins and Harrison, op. cit., p. 39.

'(4)#ilbert 0later, The #a&ing of #odern EnglandCondon5 %onstable, (?(3D, p. (44.

'(3)First and Second Reports of the $ommission on the Employment of $hildren in

FactoriesC(233D and the Supplementary ReportC(236D.

'(6)Wing did argue definitely that these reports abundantly confirmed the evidence

given before 0adler1s %ommittee CEvils of the Factory System'ondon, (23=(, p. $i$D. H.

de B. %ibbins devotes three pages of his'ndustry in Englandto a discussion of theevidence given before this committee but says nothing about the commission !hich

follo!ed. His account of the factory system seems to have been based almost entirely

upon an uncritical acceptance of the violently partisan !ritings of Whately %oo"e Taylor

and 0amuel >ydd.

'(9)There !ere speculations among some doctors as to the purifying qualities of smo"e,

gas, emanations, etc. Chilip %as"ell, The #anufacturing opulation of England

'ondon, (233), p. 4:9D.

'(:)*p. cit.

'(=)0eeLords( Sessional apers, (2(2, Mol. IL.

'(2)Hammond and Hammond,Lord Shaftesbury, p. (( see also The Town Labourer

Condon and Ee! or"5 ongmans, #reen N %o., (?(=D, p. (:=.

'(?)*p. cit., p. 4:.

'4@)erhaps they have relied upon the mangled version in Whately %oo"e Taylor1s

#odern Factory SystemCondon, (2?(D.

'4()Lord(s Sessional apers, (2(2, IL, 44.

'44)Effects of the rincipal Arts, etc., p. 444.

'43)Ibid., p. 69.

'46)They refer to Ar. Turner Thac"rah as /Ar. Thac"rah Turner,/ an error !hich is

repeated in the Inde$. -pparently they never noticed this mista"e, for it persisted in thesecond edition of their history, published after an interval of eight years.

'49)*p. cit.

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'4:)It !as thought desirable in an argument amounting to a defense of the early factory

system to quote chiefly from the evidence of opponents, but the most telling arguments in

its favor are to be found in the !ritings of interested parties, Baines, Ar. Jre, and R.H.#reg. There is so voluminous a mass of material from the various commissions and

committees that it !ould be possible to ma"e out a case for almost any contention by a

udicious selection of passages from them but, read critically, they are enlightening.

'4=)*p. cit., p. 4(:.

'42)/oss of independence/ is a vague, much;used, and much;abused phrase. *ne of the

main social results of the factory regime seems to have been the evolution of the idea of a

!age contract, replacing the former idea of servitude. In the Second Report of the

Factory $ommissionC(236D !e notice the !ords /independence,/ or /independent,/ used

over and over again, by employer !itnesses living in all parts of the country Cover five

hundred put in evidenceD, as being the most obvious ones to use in describing the attitude

of the operatives. The !ords !ere generally used in reply to a question about intimidation

by the masters.

'4?)#as"ell, op. cit., p. 4@?.

'3@)Ibid., p. (?2. It is interesting to note that #as"ell did not share the common belief

that factory life stunted the intellectual faculties he believed it had the reverse effect. Healso denied the frequently made charge that the temperature and the composition of the

atmosphere in !hich children !or"ed !as inurious to their health.

'3()The commissioner, Tufnell, reported that /the !hole current of testimony goes to

prove that the charges made against cotton factories on the ground of immorality are

calumnies/ C0upplementary Report, ((4 '(236)D.

'34)The author !as R.H. #reg, !ho, although a prolific essayist, never claimed this

early effort, and it is inde$ed under /&nquiry/ in the British

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'6@)Ibid., p. (((.

'6()Thac"rah, before 0adler1s %ommittee.

'64)&ngels, op. cit., p. ?@.

'63)ydd,History of the Factory #ovementCondon, (29=D, I, ?:K?2.

'6:)-ndre! %ombe,rinciples of hysiologyC4d ed ondon, (236D. %ombe blamed the

practice of s!addling and bandaging infants more than anything else for the presence ofdeformities Cp. (9?D.

'6=)*ne of the commissioners C%o!ellD, to test the charge that factory children !ere

stunted, too" the trouble to ascertain their ages and then measure and !eigh them. Their

average height !as found to be identical !ith that of nonfactory children. Their average!eight !as slightly less. %o!ell attributed this to the relative lightness of their !or".

'62)0ee evidence before the ord1s %ommittee, 0essional apers, (2(2, Mol. IL.

'6?)William %oo"e Taylor, The Factory SystemCondon, (266D, pp. =( and =4.

'9@)Robert Blincoe, !hose#emoirshad so strong an influence, may have lent his name

to a more or less true story but, in spite of his supposed sufferings, he lived to old ageand !as described by 0amuel >ydd as being, in (29=, /a comparatively prosperous man./

'9()&venLord Shaftesbury/declined an offer to guide him through the principal

spinning establishments as gratuitous and unnecessary/ CWilliam %oo"e Taylor, op. cit.,

p. ((D, and 0ir Robert eel, a factory o!ner, !as, according to -ndre! Jre, but littleconversant !ith the nature and condition of the cotton trade Chilosophy of #anufactures

'3d ed. ondon, (2:(), p. :D.

'94)Jre, op. cit., p. 4==.

'93)William %oo"e Taylor, op. cit., pp. 43 and 46.

'96)Weeding, stone;pic"ing, potato;planting, etc.

'99)William %oo"e Taylor, op. cit., p. 4:.

'9:)Thorold Rogers, The Economic 'nterpretation of HistoryCondon, (222D, p. 399.

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'9=)*p. cit., p. ((.

'92)The gro!th of a vested interest in a class of state;employed factory inspectors seems

to have helped to "eep in the limelight the supposed honors of unregulated industry. -comparison of the !ritings of Whately %oo"e Taylor Ca factory inspectorD !ith those of

his father, William %oo"e Taylor, certainly suggests this. %ompare Herbert 0pencer1sprophetic remar"s on the /pressing desire for careers,/ in upper;and middleclass families

and its encouragement to legislative control CThe #an versus the State'R..-. ed.ondon, (226), p. 42D.

'9?)The Town Labourer, p. (92, andLord Shaftesbury, p. 66. This charge could only

apply to those children engaged upon a particular process, /piecing./ The Hammonds donot trouble to ma"e this clear.

':@)*p. cit.

':()R.H. #reg, op. cit.

':4)#as"ell admitted a short time after the Factories Regulation -ct had been passed

that, in causing large numbers of children to be turned adrift, it had only /increased theevils it !as intended to remedy, and must, of necessity be repealed/ CArtisans and#achinery, p.:=D.

':3)The elimination of child labor !as, in part, due to technical changes. The

development of steam po!er led to the use of larger machines less suitable for children to!or" !ith. 0trangely enough, among the banners carried in the processions of the /Ten

Hours1