Karl Marx

The Condition in British Factory Industry

From the English.

[“New-York Daily Tribune” No. 5584 of 15 March 1859]

London, 25 February 1859

After the factory inspectors of England, Scotland and Ireland have published their regular half-yearly reports on their respective districts, ending 31 October 1858, I give you my usual abstract of these highly important industrial bulletins. The joint report is this time compressed into a few lines and merely states that everywhere, with the sole exception of Scotland, the encroachments of the manufacturers with regard to the legally prescribed hours of labour for young persons and women, particularly as concerns the time allotted for their meals, are rapidly increasing. The inspectors therefore consider it their duty to urge that these evasions of the law be prevented by a supplementary act.

“The inadequacies of the Factory Acts,” they say, “which make it extremely difficult for the inspectors and sub-inspectors to detect and convict the violators of the law and to do justice to the unquestionable intentions of the legislature in the very important questions of limiting the hours of labour and securing adequate opportunities for the workers for rest and meals in the course of the day, render some alterations of the law necessary. Had Parliament suspected that such evasions could be practised, it would undoubtedly have guarded against them by appropriate provisions.”

Now, having conscientiously studied the stormy parliamentary debates out of which the present Factory Acts emerged, the factory inspectors must allow me to diverge from their conclusion and to persist in the opinion that the Factory Acts were formulated with the express intention of affording every possible opportunity for evasion and circumvention. The sharp antagonism between the landed gentry and the factory lords which brought forth these laws was mitigated by the common hatred which the two ruling classes feel for what they call “the common people.” At the same time, I gladly take the opportunity to express my esteem for those British factory inspectors who, in the face of the all-powerful class interests, have taken up the protection of the oppressed masses with a moral courage, an unwavering energy and an intellectual superiority for which, in these times of the worship of Mammon, one will not find many parallels.

The first report comes from Mr Leonard Horner, whose district comprises the industrial centre of England, the whole of Lancashire, parts of Cheshire, Derbyshire, the West Riding of Yorkshire, the North Riding and the four northern counties of England. Since the Factory Acts are still the object of undiminished opposition on the part of the factory lords and a parliamentary campaign for their repeal is waged almost every year, Mr Horner begins with a speech in defence of the legislation which frees children and women from the absolute dominion of the merciless laws of free trade. The official economists declared that factory legislation contradicted all sound principles and would in the sequel inevitably prove harmful to industry. In answer to the first objection, Mr Horner states:

“Since in all factories a very large amount of fixed capital is invested in buildings and machinery, the greater the number of hours during which this machinery can be kept at work, the greater will be the profit; and there would certainly be no legislation interfering if this work could be carried on in a manner not injurious to human beings. But when it became apparent that, for the purpose of extracting greater profit from capital, children, young persons of both sexes and women were employed by day and often also by night for so long that this was incompatible with their health, their morals, the education of the children, domestic comfort and every normal enjoyment of life, the simplest moral principles demanded that the legislature put an end to so great an evil.”

In other words, Mr Horner expresses that, in the present state of society, in the opinion of the economists and the classes whose theoretical mouthpiece they are, a principle can appear “sound” which not only runs counter to all laws of human conscience but even eats like a cancer into the life of an entire generation. As regards the retarding influence which the Factory Acts supposedly exercise on the further development of industry, Mr Horner confronts these declamations with facts. The report demanded by the House of Commons of 19 March 1835 contained the following data on the number of factories and the number of persons employed in them in his present district:

| | Factories | persons employed |
|---|---|---|
| Cotton 132,898 |
| Woollen and worsted 8,738 |
| Flax 5,546 |
| Silk 5,445 |
| | 1,078 | 152,627 |

In the report to the House of Commons of February 1857 the following state of things is given:

| | Factories | persons employed |
|---|---|---|
| Cotton | 1,335 | 271,423 |
| Woollen and worsted 18,909 |
| Flax 6,738 |
| Silk 10,583 |
| | 1,811 | 307,653 |

From these tables it is evident that in 22 years the number of cotton factories has almost doubled, while the number of persons employed therein has more than doubled. In the woollen and worsted factories the considerable fall in the number of factories accompanied by a simultaneous increase of the number of persons employed in them to more than double shows the concentration of capital and the destruction of the smaller factories by the larger ones, taking place on a large scale. The same process, though on a smaller scale, can be observed in the flax factories. As regards the silk factories, their number has doubled and the number of persons employed in them almost likewise.

“But,” Mr Horner observes, “the increase in the actual number of factories is not the only measure of progress, for the great improvements made in machinery of every kind have considerably increased their productive capabilities.”

It is particularly important in this connection that a stimulus for these improvements, particularly as regards the greater speed of the machinery in a given time, was evidently given by the legal restrictions on the hours of labour.

“These improvements,” says Mr Horner, “and the fact that the workers were thereby enabled to labour with greater zeal, had the result that — as I have been repeatedly assured — as much work was performed in a shorter time as previously during longer hours of labour.”

Since business conditions have recently improved, the wilful and well-calculated violations of the regulations limiting the hours of labour and of those fixing the minimum age of the workers and the school attendance of children from eight to thirteen years, who according to law are to work only half-time, are multiplying in Mr Horner’s district. I quote from the report:

“Those factory owners succumb to the temptation of increased profit in whose moral code disobedience to an Act of Parliament constitutes no crime and who calculate that the amount of the fine they have to pay upon detection makes up only a very small part of the profit they obtain by disregarding the legal restrictions.”

In order to understand this trite complaint, which we encounter in all the other reports, it must be taken into account that firstly the magistrates are for the most part manufacturers or their relatives, that secondly the penalties imposed by the law are very trifling, and that finally young persons and women are only regarded as working “unless the contrary is proved.” In this connection Mr Horner states:

“Nothing is easier for a fraudulent factory owner than to prove the contrary. He need only stop his steam engine as soon as the inspector appears, and then all work ceases, but the inspector must, for every information laid, prove that the person named in the complaint was actually found at work. As soon as the illegal work begins, and this is at six different times of the day, since the main part of the daily work is composed of small partial performances, a lookout is posted who at the approach of an inspector immediately gives a signal to stop the machinery and to remove the people from the factory.”

Convincing evidence can indeed only be obtained by those sub-inspectors who overcome the repugnance natural to gentlemen and resort to measures similar to those employed by a police detective.

Since the inspector as well as his sub-inspectors are quickly known everywhere in their respective districts, they are thereby soon rendered incapable of discovering those who violate the law with particular skill, and the sole recourse remaining to them is to call in their colleagues from neighbouring districts, who can escape the attention of the scouts posted by the factory owners at the various railway stations because they are mistakenly taken for foreign merchants wishing to make purchases.

The following bulletin of the wounded and dead of the half-yearly industrial campaign in Mr Horner’s district certainly provides the students of military science with a remarkable subject; they will see from it that the regular tributes of human limbs, hands, arms, bones, feet, heads, and faces which are offered up to modern industry surpass in extent many battles renowned as most murderous.

Accidents caused by machinery

| Nature of injury | Adults | | Young persons | | Children | | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | M. | F. | M. | F. | M. | F. | M. | F. |
| Fatal – 1 – 1 |
| Amputation of right hand or right arm – – | – | – – |
| Amputation of left hand or left arm – 1 – 1 |
| Amputation of part of the right hand 19 14 4 37 |
| Amputation of part of the left hand 14 12 3 29 |
| Fractures of limb and trunk bones 4 4 3 11 |
| Fractures of hand or foot 27 19 9 55 |
| Head and face injuries 16 13 1 30 |
| Lacerations, contusions and other injuries not enumerated above 97 138 35 270 |
| Total 177 202 55 434 |

Accidents not caused by machinery

| Nature of injury | Adults | | Young persons | | Children | | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | M. | F. | M. | F. | M. | F. | M. | F. |
| Fatal 1 | – | – | – | – 1 |
| Head and face injuries – – | – | – – |
| Lacerations, contusions and other injuries not enumerated above 2 2 | – 7
| Total 3 2 | – 13

The second report, drawn up by Sir John Kincaid, relates to the whole of Scotland, where, he asserts, the laws regulating the employment of women, young persons and children in factories continue to be strictly observed. This does not, however, apply to the education laws, since a favourite method of the Scottish factory masters appears to be that of having school certificates issued for the children working for them by institutions specially created for the purpose, which, however, the children do not attend at all or, if the children do attend them, can teach them nothing. It may suffice to cite two instances. In 1858 Sir John Kincaid, accompanied by Mr. Sub-Inspector Campbell, visited two schools from which the children employed in several Glasgow print works obtain their certificates. I quote from the report:

“The first school was that of Mrs. Ann Killin in Smith’ Court, Bridgeton. When we arrived, there were no children in the schoolroom, and when we asked Mrs. Killin to spell her name, she made a blunder straight away, beginning with the letter C, but immediately correcting herself she said her name began with K. On inspecting her signature in the school certificate books, however, I noticed that she spelled her name in various ways, while the handwriting left no doubt as to her incapacity to teach. She also admitted herself that she could not keep the register. The second school we visited was that of William Logue in Landressey Street, Calton, whose certificates I also regarded it as my duty to declare invalid. The schoolroom was about 15 feet long and 10 feet wide, and in it we counted seventy-five children, who were squeaking out something unintelligible with the utmost vocal effort. I asked the schoolmaster to show me some of the children, and I saw from the way he surveyed the crowd that he had no idea whether these children were present or not.”

In fact, the education clauses of the Factory Acts require that the children bring certificates of school attendance, but not that they must have learned anything.

In Scotland, the number of accidents caused by machinery amounted to 237, of which 58 occurred among men and 179 among women; by contrast, there were only 10 accidents not caused by machinery. The number of cases in which amputations were required has increased, as has the number of those who suffered minor accidents; the difference, however, is explained by the larger number of workers employed in the second half of 1858. There was only one fatal accident. According to the reports of the sub-inspectors from the western districts of Scotland, several cotton factories that ceased work in 1857 have not yet resumed operations, and the industry for the manufacture of fashionable printed fabrics was slack throughout the entire year. According to the latest reports Sir John Kincaid received from the eastern district, several factories in Dundee and Arbroath were shut down as a result of the recent bankruptcies and other causes, and in several others which are nominally in full operation a large part of the machinery stands idle; this state of affairs is to be ascribed to a great extent to overproduction, the decline in the usual supplies of flax from the Baltic countries, and the consequent high prices of the raw material. The number of persons normally employed in the factories is declining, and among the owners of flax spinning mills there are indeed efforts to reduce the hours of labour to forty-four per week as long as the depression lasts. In the districts of woollen production, particularly in tweed production, a branch of industry that is growing with every day, a strong revival was, on the other hand, recorded, for example in Hawick, Galashiels, Selkirk, etc. All branches of industry were working fully, with the exception of hand-weaving, which is steadily declining further as a result of the increase in the number of power looms and will soon be entirely discontinued.

Sir John Kincaid provides the following tabular statement of the changes that took place in the principal branches of Scottish industry over a period of 20 years, between 1835 and 1857:

| Factories | | Number of workers | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| | | m. | f. | total |
| Cotton, all kinds 159 | 10,529 | 22,051 | 32,580 |
| 152 | 7,609 | 27,089 | 34,698 |
| Wool 90 | 1,712 | 1,293 | 3,503 |
| 196 | 4,942 | 4,338 | 9,280 |
| Flax 170 | 3,392 | 10,017 | 13,409 |
| 168 | 8,331 | 23,391 | 31,722 |

I reserve a summary of the two other reports for a later article, because the report of Mr. Robert Baker in particular contains materials that are of interest to industrialists of every country.