Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 5.djvu/188

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THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

women and 7,076 girls under sixteen years of age. The tabu- lated statement below shows how this number is distributed through the various provinces :

Number of establishments

Employes

Province

Women

Girls

Men

Boys

British Columbia

Manitoba

New Brunswick

Nova Scotia

770

1,031

5.429

10,496

32.151

2.679

23.037

375

I.33I

541

4.750

6,566

32,835

1.309

22,898

50

157 31

568

625 2.482

192 3,018

3

9.615

3.279

19.513

25.734

123.527

5.766

84.936

994

404 102

1,844 2,040

7.872

Prince Edward Island

Quebec

Territories

643

6.537 34

Canada

75.968

70,280

7,076

273.424

19,476

Note.' — Boys and girls are youths from fourteen to sixteen years of age ; men and women all over that age.

This table shows that about one-quarter of the employes in the whole country are women and girls, and it is the legislation for this large and important class, numbering 77,356, that we shall now proceed to examine. We may first take up the four original provinces, beginning at the east and with the oldest one.

The story of protective legislation in Nova Scotia is soon told. There is none. But this does not necessarily imply a sluggish state of public morals ; it is the result of a comparatively small manufacturing industrj', with a correspondingly small call for female labor. Yet, surely, 7,191 women and girls are worth governmental care. The number in itself is small, but when we remember that each one represents a present or a future home, it grows in importance.

In the province the ten-hour day, or sixty hours per week, is the rule generally adhered to by employers ; but the fixing of time rests wholly with them. No gross abuse of this power appears, and troubles between employer and employed have rarely occurred. The factories are not large, and are located in small towns where public sentiment would not permit the imposi- tion of inhuman tasks.