FACTOBIES 86 FACTORY INSPECTION production is carried on is another ele- ment of economy, since the minutest operation becomes the work of an entire department of the plant by itself. An- other illustration of the efficiency of the factory system is seen in the killing and dressing of meats by the large packing houses of this country. Where the kill- ing was formerly done by the independ- ent small butcher, one man could kill and dress only a very few pigs or beeves in one day. Under the factory system thousands are killed and dressed by a correspondingly small number of men, 3ach motion involved being performed ivith lightning speed by one man. It was in England and Scotland, ivhere machinery was first applied to manufacturing, that factories were first established. But the system followed very soon after in this country, es- pecially in New England, where the many small streams and the rivers fur- nished hydraulic power for the machin- ery. The first factory in which the en- tire series of processes involved in mak- ing finished cotton cloth out of the raw material were carried on under one roof was put into operation in Waltham, Mass., in 1814. Similar textile mills were soon established all over New Eng- land and, after the Civil War, were in- troduced in the South, with Northern capital. The chief result of the factory system of industry has been the tremendous cheapening of the cost of production. As an instance, in the days of handi- crafts industry, in England, woolen goods were cheaper than cotton, because wool was a home product and cotton must be imported from abroad. So little was the amount of goods which could be produced under this system that the scarcity of wool as compared to cotton had no influence in raising the cost. The cheapening of the cost of pro- duction as a social gain, however, has been more than offset by the evils which the factory system has worked on the Vv^orking classes. First of all, the large majority of skilled artisans were thrown out of employment. Unskilled la^or was found quite as suitable as killed, and, furthermore, in the manu- facture of a given commodity much greater quantities could be produced by one-tenth as many workers, the machin- ery doing most of the actual work. Then it was found that women and children could serve quite as well as men in at- tending the machinery, and large num- bers of men were left out of employment. Added to this, the workers could now only find employment under the roofs of the masters, who owned the machines and the factories, and so they came un- der their personal autocratic control. With this came a gradual reduction of wages, also brought about by the keen competition for work among the workers themselves, a natural result from the fact that only a portion of them were needed to work in the factories. Thus there was a tendency to lower wages to a point where they could only sustain the lives of the cheapest workers, the women and children, and the hours of labor were extended to the limits of human endurance. These inhuman tendencies were first checked by legislation, known as the fa- mous Factory Acts, which first of all shortened the hours of labor (see Eight- Hour Day). Afterward, both in Eng- land and this country, came legislation indicating minimum wages for women and children, and, in rarer instances, for men as well. Another, and even stronger, check on the evils of factory labor has been the gradual growth in power of labor or- ganizations. The organized workers, through their economic organizations, have brought such pressure to bear on the manufacturers that gradually condi- tions have been improved. FACTORY INSPECTION, the need of special factory legislation was first brought about by the fact that machin- ery, by reducing the need of labor, and throwing an increasing number of work' ers out of employment, created compe- tition among the workers themselves (see Factories and Factory System). This created a continuous tendency to- ward reduced wages, long hours of em- ployment and a disregard for sanitary conditions. Still more important, the elimination of the need of skilled work- ers brought women and children into the factories in competition with men. It was one thing to pass legislation correcting these evils; it was quite an- other matter to enforce it. Thus, fol- lowing all this labor legislation came the need of competent inspectors to see that the laws were being enforced. Grad- ually it has been realized that factory inspection had even a bigger function than that. The competent inspectors were those who not only saw that the letters of the laws were being enforced, but who could intelligently observe the results of their enforcements. Where certain legislation fails to correct the abuses it has set out to cure, the fact should first be made known through the reports of the inspectors. It is also the function of a competent inspector to indicate the cause of such failures, and recommend new laws which will correct the faults.
