ABSTRACT
In this period there was much-increased interference by the State in the most basic of economic relationships—that between employer and workman. In 1897, Joseph Chamberlain passed his Workmen’s Compensation Act, which made employers liable to pay compensation for most accidents sustained by employees at work. A.V. Dicey (1835–1922) saw this interference with freedom of contract as a decisive turning-point on the road to full collectivism (24a). While this seems now an extreme interpretation, it is true that the State was interfering much more than before to protect the weak from exploitation by the strong. The ‘sweated’ industries were subject to scrutiny in 1908 (24d) and by the Trade Boards Act, 1909, machinery was established to negotiate minimum wages for 200,000 workers in tailoring, box-making and lace-making. 140,000 of these were women. The Act followed sustained pressure from the National Anti-Sweating League, formed in 1906. The Spectator argued that it was self-defeating, since it would only increase unemployment. It did, however, acknowledge that its views were unfashionable in an increasingly collectivist climate (24e). The 1911 Shops Act, introduced by C. F.G. Masterman (1874–1927) protected shop workers from excessive hours, by establishing a 60-hour week and half-day holidays.
