The Weston Democrat

Children in Factories.

An eminent Englishman of science reports, after careful investigation, that the physical stamina of the children employed in factories is steadily deteriorating. This is attributed less to the hard labor these poor little creatures have to undergo than to the wretched habits of the factory operatives. Too early marriages, slovenliness, intemperance, want of proper open air exercise, and the excessive use of tobacco, are noted, as main causes of the deterioration. Whatever the causes, the fact is an alarming one. It is a serious question whether children should be allowed to engage in exhausting factory labor at all—whether the devotion to this hard work from an early period is not in itself a prominent cause of the bad habits observed. But, if children are to be so employed, there is no doubt that their hours of labor should be limited, and a further duty is cast on the mill owners. This is, to so look after the habits of their operatives that the children may have a chance of entering upon their cheerless life work with tolerable good constitutions. In Germany parents are not allowed to derive any income from the labor of their children until they have had a thoroughly good schooling, and have grown well-nigh to manhood and womanhood; the consequence is, that Germany contains both the healthiest and most efficient race of laboring young men and women in the world. The English law is as yet notoriously deficient in protecting the health and condition of the children of the manufacturing districts; and unless more vigorous reforms are made, the prospect is that factory labor will become more weak and more scarce, while the bill for parish relief will become a heavy burden to the taxpayers and a discouragement to the philanthropist.