A History of Public Health by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Medical, history, Public Health
ISBN: 9781421416014
Google: hpyeBgAAQBAJ
Publisher: JHU Press
Published: 2015-04-15T23:57:53.731263+00:00

WOMEN AND CHILDREN FIRST. Closely related to the movement for the betterment of urban health was the demand for amelioration of working conditions. Some of the evils found in the early factories were extremely long hours of work under wretched and unsanitary conditions, the general employment of the cheap labor of women and children, frequent accidents due to unprotected machines, and lack of ventilation and insufficient time for meals. Factory reform may be considered as beginning in England in 1802 with the enactment of the Health and Morals of Apprentices Act. This measure forbade night work for pauper apprentices in cotton and woolen factories, and in a strict sense it was not a Factory Act, but merely an extension of the Elizabethan Poor Law relating to parish apprentices. As the government was responsible for these children, it found itself compelled, when circumstances warranted, to regulate their working conditions. Additional measures were passed during the following decades. By 1831, night work for employees less than 21 years of age was prohibited, and the 69-hour week was extended to all workers younger than 18 years of age. It should be remembered that these measures applied only to cotton mills.

Not until 1833 was the first effective Factory Act passed, and then only as a by-product of the bitter conflict between the industrial and agricultural interests and the continuing agitation of the workers themselves. During the 1830s and 1840s, the movement for factory reform became part of the broader struggle between the two chief divisions of the British ruling group, the landowners and the manufacturers. At the same time, the factory workers linked their agitation for parliamentary reform with demands for shorter hours, better working conditions, and prohibition of child labor. The fight for a 10-hour day began, and after a savage political struggle, the Factory Act of 1833 was enacted. However, to the profound disappointment of the workers, only child labor was protected. Indeed, the commissioners who framed the act denounced the committees that were agitating for the 10-hour day on the ground that they “seem scarcely ever to have considered the law of supply and demand as applicable to the working classes.” They favored protective legislation for children but regarded it as unsound for adult women and men.

The act applied to all textile factories, excepting lace. It prohibited completely the employment of children younger than 9 years of age, and provided that children between 9 and 13 years were not to be employed longer than nine hours a day or 48 hours a week. For persons between 13 and 16, the working day was limited to 12 hours per day, 69 hours in a week. The cleaning of machinery while in motion was prohibited, and every factory owner was required to provide two hours schooling daily for all children employed in his plant. Finally, and this is most important, provision was made for enforcement of the law by appointing four inspectors. They were empowered to enter any factory at all times, call upon witnesses for information, and even to pass minor regulations whenever it seemed necessary.

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