ABSTRACT
In her address from the Chair, Lady Knightley, after explaining the objects of the Society, drew attention to the " grandmotherly legislation " so characteristic of the present day, and to the great danger in a country like ours, where women so greatly outnumber men, lest such legislation should interfere with the employment of women. "The tendency," she said, "of any legislation which places a restriction on the labour of women is always to drive them out of well-paid employment into less well paid, and, having done so, to make those occupations still less well-paid than they were before." Many of those who promote this restrictive legislation are not aware of the ulterior motives which actuate others who urge it on. Trade Unions, though by no means entirely evil, do not ma.ke for freedom, and one of their objects is to restrict the labour of women, as they contend that such ill-paid work tends to reduce men's wages. But working women, and she had herself heard their views, were, on the contrary, thoroughly in sympathy with the objects of the Society, and anxious to have no measure passed which would hamper them in earning a living. There is a Bill now before the House-and though there is very little chance of it passing this year, it behoves us to be on the watchwhich would take from the Sanitary and hand over to the Factory Inspectors the inspection of the homes of home-workers, and enforce the production of a certificate stating that the place is proper for home-work. These conditions would be inconvenient to the employers, and many of the rules as to hours, &c., would interfere with the liberty of the workers-the liberty we all value. What should we feel like if forbidden to work between 11 and 12 o'clock at night if we
chose to do so? The fear of infection from work done in the homes has induced many to support this Bill, but investigation shows that the sanitary authorities do their work so well that this danger scarcely exists, and it would be a great pity to remove this work from their hands and place it in those of the Factory Inspectors.
