Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 11.djvu/330

314 health, two particular hardships exist for the woman worker: the extreme length of the working-day and the requirement of night work. The former is the more widespread evil, and directly affects the larger number.

The industries of today differ most markedly from those of the past in the relentless speed which they require. This speed is acquired in various ways: by mechanical devices which "speed up" the individual machines; by increasing the number of machines attended by each worker; by the specialization which trains a worker to one detail of production year after year; and by other methods.

To trace this undeniable evolution of the different industries employing women does not fall within the scope of this article. That the increase in speed affects all manufacture has been considered at once a national distinction and a superiority. It is as marked in the lowest depths of sweat-shop labor as in the most advanced New England mills, where the eight looms per worker, normal a few years ago, have increased to twelve, fourteen, and even sixteen looms per worker.

One of the most conspicuous examples of trades which have vastly increased their output during the last few years and an example most pertinent to the discussion of women's employment—is the stitched-underwear trade. A brief description of this industry may illustrate the conditions under which a large and rapidly increasing class of young girls are employed. The machines have been so improved that they set twice as many stitches as they did five years ago, the best machines, driven by dynamo power, now setting 4,400 stitches a minute.

The result of speed so greatly increased tends inevitably to nervous exhaustion. Machines may be revolved more and