Death and disease behind the counter / by Thomas Sutherst.

  • Sutherst, Thomas.
Date:
1884
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Death and disease behind the counter / by Thomas Sutherst. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    children, young men and women, and adults, who are the active agents of distribution. Several causes which are dealt with hereafter have resulted in the time occupied in the majority of the transactions between buyers and sellers being unduly and unnecessarily prolonged. No appreciable advan- tage seems to accrue from this to any of the parties concerned, but, on the contrary, the majority of distributors are physically, mentally, and morally deteriorated. At this moment vast numbers of assistants of both sexes are being robbed of health, robust constitutions are being broken down, disease and infirmities of all kinds are being sown broadcast behind the counter, and death is daily carrying off the victims of long hours and overwork. This it is to which I am anxious to direct the attention of the public in general and the House of Commons in particular for the purpose of reducing the hours of shop labour within reasonable limits, and protecting the health and general interests of all concerned. Fortunately in the majority of instances the interests of retail traders and their assistants are, so far as regards curtailing the hours of labour, identical, and my aim is not to create dissension but to unite them for their mutual protection against a pernicious system, and for the general promotion of the principles of health, justice, and humanity. Questions relating to the health of those who labour in different departments of industry have, from time to time, been forced upon the attention of the public, not because outsiders have been directly affected, but for the reason that it is of vital importance to the commonwealth that the physical vigour of every class should be fully maintained. The several classes where labour grievances have been redressed succeeded in obtaining public attention and support by publishing to the world the nature and grounds of their complaints, and it is to be hoped that so long as improper inequalities and anomalies exist, some one will always be found willing to trumpet them forth to mankind. The distributing classes now, in turn, seek a share of the attention of the public, and it is my privilege to endeavour to unfold a substantial grievance from which they have long and patiently suffered. The respectability, intelligence, and social weight of the shopkeeping community entitle them to the ear and sympathy of the public in the ventilation of their grievances and the assertion of their rights. The assistants have exhibited the greatest forbearance under