Thus it is that, after a whole century of experiment in factory legislation — of experi ment so demonstrably successful that it has con verted the statesmen and the economists of the entire civilized world — the United • Kingdom still contains districts, classes and industries in which there prevail the precise evils from which the cotton operatives of Lancashire and the coal miners of Northumberland suffered a century ago. The so-called "sweated" trades, to which factory legislation has not yet been effectively applied, remain as they were described by the select committee of the House of Lords in 1890, regions of °earnings barely sufficient to sustain existence; hours of labor such as to make the lives of the workers periods of almost ceaseless toil; sanitary conditions injurious to the health of the persons employed and dangerous to the public.° What those who believe in factory legislation demand, and what the second century of such legislation may bring to us, is the con scious application of the policy of the national minimum to every branch of industrial employ ment; the explicit formulation of this policy in a systematic code, applicable, with only the nec essary technical variations, to every trade in every part of the Kingdom, and to every worker in such trade, of whatever age or sex; the de liberate prescription, in the interest of the whole community, of the conditions of employment, whether sanitation or hours, education or sub sistence, below which no individual can be per mitted to be employed; and the vigilant enforce ment of this minute universal code by the joint activities of the central departments and local governing authorities, each acting, through its highly organized inspectorate, as a check, not only upon all who break the law, but also upon any who should neglect their own part of its enforcement.
Bibliography.— The best vision of the ad ministration of the Factory Acts in the United Kingdom is afforded by the 'Annual Report' of the Chief Inspector of Factories and Work shops, and the corresponding one of the Chief Inspector of Mines. For the history and the ory, consult 'Robert Owen,' by F. Podmore (1906) ; 'A History of Factory Legislation,' by B. L. Hutchins and Amy Harrison (1903) (with a good bibliography) ; 'Principles of Legislation,' by J. R. Commons and J. B. Asidrews (1915) ; 'The Prevention of Desti tution,' by Sidney and Beatrice Webb (1911); 'Towards Social Democracy,' by Sidney Webb (1916) ; 'The Case for the Factory Acts,' ed ited by Mrs. Sidney Webb (1901) ; 'Socialism and National Minimum,' by the same (1909) ; 'Dangerous Trades,' edited by Dr. T. Oliver (1902), and 'Occupations,' by the same (1915) ' • 'Foreign Labor Laws,' by W. F. Willoughby, (Bulletin of Department of Labor, 1899) ; Democracy,' by Sidney and Beatrice Webb (1911) ; 'English Public Health Admin istration,' by B. A. Bannington (1915) ; 'The Factory System and the Factory Acts,' by R. W. Cooke Taylor, Jr. (1894) ; 'First Report of the House of Lords Committee on the Sweating System' (1890) ; Englische Fabrik-inspec tion,' by Ott Weyer (1888) ; 'Life of the Sev enth Earl of Shaftesbury,' by E. Hodder, (1886) ; 'History of the Factory Movement,' by °Alfred° (S. Kydd) (1857) ; 'Second Report of the Children's Commission' (1843); 'Obser vations on the Manufacturing System,' by Robert Owen (1815).