Diseases of occupation from the legislative, social, and medical points of view / by Thomas Oliver.

  • Oliver, Thomas, Sir, 1853-1942.
Date:
[1908]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Diseases of occupation from the legislative, social, and medical points of view / by Thomas Oliver. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    the matter, and thus became the pioneer of industrial legisla- tion. Since then decade after decade has witnessed a succes- sion of Factory Acts and Labour Laws based upon experience and necessity. It might have been expected that at the end of a century of experience and progress industrial evolution would have reached such a degree of excellence and attained to such a standard of hygienic perfection that little more would require to be done. Not so, however, for the subject is endless. Each succeeding decade brings its own problems for solution, and each new invention imposes its own special trials upon producers. Child labour was fostered by parental greed and poverty, and was encouraged by employers. Although Great Britain has, practically speaking, abolished the iniquity, child labour still lingers in several of our home industries, and is not unknown in other countries. It is only within the last quarter of a century (1886), for example, that the first Factory Act was passed in the State of New York. There, as here, factory legislation began with child labour and female labour questions, and the compelling agents were the working men’s trades unions and philanthropic societies. The reproach is sometimes levelled at trades unions that their interference with children’s and women’s labour has not been altogether disinterested, since by raising the age for commencing work they have diminished the numbers of children employed, and by checking female labour they have kept up the standard of wages and given more work to men. In the United States there is a greater tendency to bring labour questions within the range of politics than in Great Britain. Organised labour and capital have more power there than here. By the Factory Act of 1886 no child was allowed to work in New York State under thirteen years of age; since then the minimum age has been raised to four- teen. The drawbacks to child labour are that children are deprived of leisure and freedom in the open air, and are sub- jected to a monotonous life when they ought to have variety. The physical effects are those of degeneracy, as seen in stunted growth and impaired nutrition, while of the moral effects illiteracy and its consequences are the more imme- diately apparent.