Page:The Economic Journal Volume 1.djvu/428

 406 TH] ECONOMIC JOURXAL part of it. On the other hand, the Local Government, which has also power to suspend certain provisions of the Act, may extend the defi- nition of 'factory,' by declaration in the Gazette, to premises employ- ing less than fifty, but not less than twenty hands simultaneously. The main provisions of the Act are (1) for all operatives, the require- ment of half an hour's rest every day at noon, and the prohibition of all Sunday labour, except in repairing, or in the case of an employ/ who has had or will have a holiday for a whole day on one of the three days immediately preceding or succeeding the Sunday, or in the event of the Local Government excluding a particular factory froan the operation of this section of the Act on the ground that the work performed in it necessitates continuous production for technical reasons, or supplies the public with articles of prime necessity which must be made every day, or cannot by its nature be carried on except at stated periods, or at times dependent on the irregular action of natural forces; (2) for women, prohibition of night work except under the shift system, and of all work under any system for more than eleven hours in any one day, and the requirement of an interval or intervals of rest, amounting altogether to an hour and a half when the woman is employed the full eleven hours, and shorter in proportion when she is employed shorter; and (3) for children, prohibition of all work to children under nine, of certain kinds of dangerous work, of all-night work, and of more day work than seven hours in any one day to children under fourteen, and the requirement of half an hour's rest for every child employed six hours in the day. Night work is work between eight in the evening and five in the morning. Breakers of the Act are punishable by fine up to 200 rupees, and the burden of proof is thrown on the factory occupier. The Local Government may, sub- ject to the control of the Governor-General, make rules for the fencing of machinery, the water supp!y, ventilation, and inspection o! fac- tories, and direct factory occupaers to keep a register of the chaldren they employ. The Act has manifest defects, and strong representations are being made both from the side of English manufacturers and of philanthropists, against allowing women and children to work longer in India than in England, where, it is contended, the heat of the climate really requires them to work a shorter time. The Factory Inspectors' Report just issued contains several things worth noting. Mr. Lakeman gives an account of the success of the foreign Jews in the heavy shoe trade of the east-end of London in suppressing the sweating system in their trade by their own combina- tion, and apparently, he says, without any outside support. It is the impossible that happens. In the light shoe trade, which is in English hands, nothing has occurred; but the foreigners in the heavy trade .. the pauper immigrants we hear so much against have thrown off the yoke. They were stimulated to action by the recent discussions of the