Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 5.djvu/194

 l8o THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

be awake to the fact that it is easier to prevent abuses than to rectify them ; easier to protect strong women than to care for wrecked ones ; easier to guard the mothers of the next genera- tion than to provide homes for deformed and imbecile children a few years hence.

Where the evils connected with female labor are not great, it seems to the provinces a needless expense to provide for factory inspection. Expenses could be limited by placing the work in the hands of local authorities, who could report to a central office. But the appointment of inspectors is not enough. There must be wotnen inspectors where there are women employes. The greatest trials and hardships of a factory woman's life can be told only to one of her own sex. Everywhere the importance — the necessity — of women inspectors should be insisted upon. This is being recognized by all thinking people. The leading women in Canada discussed the matter at a meeting of the National Council several years ago, and on their records stands the following resolution: "That the National Council do recom- mend all local councils to unite in a petition for the appointment of women inspectors for factories and workshops." And their appointment is looked upon with favor by men. In his report for 1896 the president of the Board of Inspectors of Industrial Establishments for Quebec, in commenting upon the appoint- ment of the two women inspectors in his province, says: "We have but to congratulate the government on this experiment, by which it manifests all the interest it takes in the wives and daughters of workingmen, and the protection it wishes to give them."

It is to be hoped that at no distant date all the provinces of Canada will take steps to regulate the employment of women in the factories. All operatives would thereby be the gainers. Improved conditions for women mean a like improvement for men. No country at any time has attempted to regulate the labor of adult men in factories, as protective legislation has always centered around the weaker classes — the women and the children — but in every case the men have gained by these class enactments. The strength of a nation lies in its workers,