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Secretary, at the Fabian Office, 3 Clement's Inn, London, W.C.

FABIANISM AND THE EMPIRE: A Manifesto.
Edited by BERNARD SHAW. 1s. post free.

FABIAN ESSAYS IN SOCIALISM. (35th Thousand.)
Paper cover, 1/-; plain cloth, 2/-, post free from the Secretary.
FABIAN TRACTS and LEAFLETS.

Tracts, each 16 to 52 pp., price 1d., or 9d. per doz., unless otherwise stated. Leaflets, 4 pp. each, price 1d. for six copies, 1s. per 100, or 8/6 per 1000. The Set of 85, 3s.; post free 3/5. Bound in Buckram, 4/6; post free for 5s. Boxes for set, 1s., post free 1s. 3d.

I.-On General Socialism in its various aspects.

TRACTS.-107. Socialism for Millionaires. By BERNARD SHAW. 79. A Word of Remembrance and Caution to the Rich. By JOHN WOOLMAN. 78. Socialism and the Teaching of Christ. By Dr. JOHN CLIFFORD. 87. The same in Welsh. 42. Christian Socialism. By Rev. S.D. HEADLAM. 75. Labor in the Longest Reign. By SIDNEY WEBB. 72. The Moral Aspects of Socialism. By SIDNEY BALL. 69. Difficulties of Individualism. By SIDNEY WEBB. 51. Socialism: True and False. By S. WEBB. 45. The Impossibilities of Anarchism. By Bernard SHAW (price 2d.). 15. English Progress towards Social Democracy. By S. WEBB. 7. Capital and Land. 5. Facts for Socialsts (8th edn. revised 1899.) LEAFLETS-13. What Socialism Is. 1. Why are the Many Poor? 38. The same in Welsh. II.-On Application of Socialism to Particular Problems. TRACTS. 112. Life in the Laundry. 110. Problems of Indian Poverty. By S. S. THORBURN, 106. The Education Muddle and the Way Out. 98. State Railways for Ireland. 88. The Growth of Monopoly in English Industry. By H. W. MACROSTY. 86. Municipal Drink Traffic. 85. Liquor Licensing at Home and Abroad. By E. R. PEASE. 84. Economics of Direct Employment. 83. State Arbitration and the Living Wage. 80. Shoplife and its Reform. 74. The State and its Functions in New Zealand. 73. Case for State Pensions in Old Age. By G. TURNER. 67. Women and the Factory Acts. By Mrs. WEBB. 50. Sweating: its Cause and Remedy. 48. Eight Hours by Law. 23. Case for an Eight Hours Bill. 47. The Unemployed. By J. BURNS, M.P. LEAFLETS.-89. Old Age Pensions at Work. 19. What the Farm Laborer Wants. 104. How Trade Unions benefit Workmen.

III. On Local Government Powers: How to use them,

TRACTS.-III. Reform of Reformatories and Industrial Schools. By H. T.

HOLMES. 109. Cottage Plans and Common Sense. By RAYMOND UNWIN. 105. Five Years' Fruits of the Parish Councils Act. 103. Overcrowding in London and its Remedy. By W. C. STEADMAN, L.C.C. 101. The House Famine and How to Relieve it. 52 pp. 76. Houses for the People. 100. Metropolitan Borough Councils: their powers and duties. 99. Local Government in Ireland. 82. Workmen's Compensation Act: what it means and how to make use of it. 77. Municipalization of Tramways. 62. Parish and District Councils. 61. The London County Council. 55. The Workers' School Board Program. 54. The Humanizing of the Poor Law. By J. F. OAKESHOTT. LEAFLETS.-81. Municipal Water. 68. The Tenant's Sanitary Catechism. 71. Same for London. 63. Parish Council Cottages and how to get them. 58. Allotments and how to get them. FABIAN MUNICIPAL PROGRAM, FIRST SERIES. London's Heritage in the City Guilds. Municipalization of the Gas Supply. Municipal Tramways. The Scandal of London's Markets. A Labor Policy for Public Authorities. SECOND SERIES (Nos. 90 to 97). Municipalization of the Milk Supply. Municipal Pawnshops. Municipal Slaughterhouses. Women as Councillors. Municipal Bakeries. Municipal Hospitals. Municipal Fire Insurance. Municipal Steamboats. Each Series in a red cover for 1d. (9d. per doz.); separate leaflets, 1/- per 100. IV.-On Books.

29. What to Read on social and economic subjects. 4th edition, enlarged and re-arranged. 6d. net.

V.-On General Politics and Fabian Policy.

108. Twentieth Century Politics. By SIDNEY WEBB. 70. Report or Fabian Policy. 41. The Fabian Society: its Early History. By BERNARD SHAW. VI. Question Leaflets, containing Questions for Candidate's for the following bodies:-20, Poor Law Guardians. 24, Parliament, 25, School Boards. 26, Londen County Council. 27, Town Councils. 28, County Councils, Rural. 56, Parish Councils. 57, Rural District Councils. 59, Urban District Councils. 102, Metropolitan Borough Councils. BOOK BOXES lent to Societies, Clubs, Trade Unions, for 6s. a year, Printed by G. Standring, 7 Finsbury St., London, E.C., and published by the 3 Clement's Inn, Strand, London, W.C.

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LIFE IN THE LAUNDRY.

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THE FABIAN SOCIETY, 3 CLEMENT'S INN, STRAND, W.C.

JULY 1902.

LIFE IN THE LAUNDRY.

THE laundry industry has during the last few years undergone a remarkable and rapid economic development. Formerly a purely domestic industry, organized upon the economic principle of one woman one wash-tub, it is now a typical, modern, machine "business," characterized by aggregation of workers in one building under one head, subdivision of labor and the use of labor-saving machinery. All over the country, but more particularly in London, there has been a rapid multiplication of large laundry companies and syndicates, "certain of which own as many as a dozen or more fine, well equipped steam-laundries, filled with the latest ingenious inventions in labor-saving machinery, and organized into 'departments,' in which the division of labor is at least as marked a feature as in the majority of non-textile factories. In such cases a single shirt will pass through seven or eight different machines in the process of ironing alone. In place of the elderly married woman or widow 'washer,' we find skilled engineers in charge of a shedful of machinery still called the wash-house, while scores of girls and young women from thirteen upwards 'tend' the various kinds of ironing machines with exactly the same precision and routine as those in any other factory. Even in those departments where machinery is not required, for instance, the sorters with their staff of 'markers," the dryers who fill and empty with almost automatic regularity the series of drying-closets through which hot air is driven by propulsion fans, the labor is organized and regulated as in an ordinary factory."

This economic revolution has taken place during the past eight or ten years. According to the Census Report for the County of London, 1901 (Cd. 875-1902), the number of men and lads engaged in laundry and washing service was 3,175, of whom 1,309 worked at home; the number of women and girls was 47,362, of whom 10,408 worked at home; of the males 723 and 16,223 of the females were under 20 years of age. The steam laundries on the register in the London district for 1901 were 216, and the hand laundries 578.

Insanitary Conditions.

This rapid development of laundry work from a hand to a machine industry has been accompanied by many of the evils which have attended the same process in other trades. Some of the most important are those which are inseparable from the use of premises unsuited to the uses of the industry. The enterprising laundry proprietor, alive to the profit-making possibilities of machinery, is not disposed to wait until he possesses suitable premises before beginning

* Annual Report of H.M. Chief Inspector of Factories, 1900, p. 382.

business as the proprietor of a steam laundry, and so long as sanitary conditions are a minor consideration an ordinary dwelling-house can be made to serve his purpose. Side by side with the large laundry factories described above, where the structural conditions are as regards sanitation on the whole fairly satisfactory, there is a very much larger class of laundries consisting of ordinary dwelling-houses more or less badly adapted for the purpose.

"It is no uncommon thing to find a row of houses in separate occupation, the back yards of each of which is roofed in and packed with laundry machinery, all driven by an engine installed at one end of the row.'

"The rapid growth of the small laundry factory is a striking feature. It seems to be due partly to the increased cheapness of certain parts of machinery, and largely to the fact that the wage bill is thereby so much lessened."

It is simply amazing to see the lightheartedness with which an engine, gas or steam, is introduced into what one might call the domestic circle, for in noting unguarded machinery in the house-factory laundry I have always in my mind not only the workers, but the children of the occupier, whom I have so often found watching in a fascinated way the movements of the machines."†

"The prime mover for gas or steam engine is found in a badly lighted basement and in charge of a man who knows little or nothing of the dangers or management of machinery; the fencing of the fly-wheel is in many cases inadequate, a wash-tub often serving the purpose; other dangerous parts are equally disregarded, and it is difficult to persuade the owner that accidents may occur even with a low power."‡

All occupations have their special conditions prejudicial to the health of the workers employed therein, and it is one of the tasks of factory legislation to remove as far as possible the evil effects of such conditions.

The chief unhealthy conditions of the laundry industry are:1. Wetness of the washing room floors.

2. The presence of steam in the washing room, and also, though to a lesser extent, in the ironing room.

3. Heated and vitiated atmosphere of the ironing room. To counteract these conditions it is essential

(a) That the floor of the washing room should consist of a properly laid impermeable material, provided with adequate means of drainage; and (b) that the washing and ironing room should be properly ventilated.

These, however, are precisely the features that are most conspicuous by their absence from many of the converted back yards and sculleries in which the clothes of most of us are washed, where the the laundress works with her head bathed in steam and her feet in water.

"The badly arranged floors in even large wash-houses are a constant source of discomfort and probably ill-health to the workers. The Act requires that they should be drained in such a manner as to allow the water to run off freely,' but makes no provision that it should be drained off on the spot where it is discharged."

"It is not all uncommon, therefore, to find that the yellow and foul water from the row of tanks or washing machines at one end of the wash-house flows all across the floor and over the feet of the workers before eventually reaching the drain. In one

* Annual Report H. M. Chief Inspector of Factories, 1900, p. 380.

† Annual Report of the Principal Lady Inspector of Factories, 1901, p. 178.
Annual Report H. M. Chief Inspector of Factories, 1900, p. 380.

laundry where a cataract of dirty water was discharged over the feet in this manner every twelve or eighteen minutes from certain patent washing machines, the occupier triumphantly pointed out that it 'flowed quite freely to the drain on the other side of the shed."*

But bad as the conditions in the smaller laundry factories often are, the state of things is much worse in those factories which have not developed beyond the "workshop" stage. This will appear from the following quotation from the Annual Report of H. M. Principal Lady Inspector of Factories for 1899 (p. 257):—

THE WASH-HOUSE.-" Very often on entering the wash-house the whole place is so pervaded with steam that I cannot see the workers. A great deal of this steam comes from the coppers, of which there are generally two or three. The provision of hoods would to a great extent remedy matters, but in the greater number of cases these are conspicuous by their absence."

THE IRONING ROOM.-" As the provision in force in factory laundries, viz., that all stoves for heating irons shall be sufficiently separated from the ironing room, does not apply to the workshop laundry, it is only where the temperature is unreasonably high that any steps can be taken to remedy the matter. The heat of the ironing room is largely owing to the fact that very few laundries possess drying rooms. except in summer, most of the drying is done overhead in the ironing room. This leads to inadequate ventilation, for most laundry proprietors consider shut windows an indispensable condition of drying indoors.

Thus,

"What with the unscreened stove, the damp clothes overhead, the tightly closed windows streaming with moisture, caused by want of ventilation, the room crowded with the legal quantity of women, perspiring, sneezing, and coughing, a small ironing laundry room is not in working hours a very attractive place. But at dinner time it is less attractive still. The uninitiated would naturally imagine that during the women's absence for meals the windows and doors would be thrown up and the rooms thoroughly aired. Experience unfortunately proves that this is seldom the case. Frequent dinner-time inspections have taught me what to expect. At dinner-time the ironing room becomes a furnace. The stove is heated to the greatest extent, and the windows and doors are particularly tightly closed, and drying proceeds under conditions alleged to be advantageous from the laundress's point of view, but frequently

not so.

The small hand laundries, especially those in the Soho district of London, receive special attention in the Annual Report of the Principal Lady Inspector of Factories for 1900 (p. 385):

The owners of many of these laundries are or French or Italian origin. They invest their small capital in the rent of a house or part of one, sub-let the upper rooms, and devote the lower to their trade. They appear to start with the impression that any house is good enough for a laundry, given a fair supply of water, and show no consideration whatever for the health of their workers or the number of hours they are employed. The front room on the ground floor, originally intended for a shop. forms in most cases the principal ironing room. The wash-house is placed in the basement room, more often like a cellar than a room. In one, the worst of any, it was not more than six feet in height, and ventilated only by the door leading up to the house. The place was black with accumulated dirt. The floor was covered with water. A gas-jet in one corner gave the only light. A copper in another corner poured out steam for which there was no means of escape, and which was so thick as to hide the two workers almost completely from view. The temperature was so hign that the perspiration streamed off their faces. This was, of course, an exceptional case, but one having many points in common with others which have hitherto escapesi the attention of the proper authorities. Laundries of the kind described above may be exempted from inspection if it can be proved that not more than two personis besides members of the same family are employed."

* Annual Report H. M. Chief Inspector of Factories, 1900, p. 385. Section 8 of the 1901 Factory Act will probably be found useful in preventing the existence of the state of things described above.

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