ABSTRACT
It is satisfactory to know that the law is not so rigid as it seems; but to the ordinary reader the most natural interpretation would assuredly seem that which we believe to be the ordinary one, viz., that working women must be turned out of the room in which they work, while they eat. The passage runs thus :-" A child, young person, or woman shall not, during any part of the times allowed for'meals in the factory or workshop, be employed in the factory or workshop, or allowed to remain in a room in which a manufacturing process or handicraft is there being carried on"""- Factory Act of 1878, § 17 (2). On comparison with the more stringent regulations laid'down for dangerous trades, one perceives that the intention is as the Lady Inspector indicates; but a law which applies to multitudes surely should be worded in such a way that it can be readily understood. Since our last issue we have been told of girls -who, for--want of any better place when turned out of their work rooms, frequent neighbouring public houses, and frequently come back the worse for their visit-and this -in obedience to th~ supposed requirements of an obscurely worded Statute: The Lady Inspectors have a large task before them to educate the public to a truer understanding of myst~ rious clauses that should b~ mac;l8 plain as.daylig~t.
