Page:The Factory Controversy - Martineau (1855).djvu/52

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42
THE FACTORY CONTROVERSY.

with other masters that he may successfully oppose the law by the payment of a slight annual subscription. Application is made for it by the Association to all factory owners, at the rate of one shilling per nominal horse-power. This subscription will enable him to persist in doing wrong, and to take all the consequences, without any great harm to his pocket. Penalties are to be paid out of the funds of the Association. Should the struggle prove expensive, there is a provision made in the rules of the Association for the maintenance of funds to an unlimited amount; for, says the eighth rule, 'when the balance in the hands of the treasurer shall be less than the sum produced by a rate of sixpence per horse-power, the committee shall make a further call.'"

Actual Resolutions of the Association: —

1."That the powers given to the Inspectors by the 3rd clause of the Act of 1844: to take with them into factories, without Magistrates' orders, Constables and Peace-officers; and to examine factory workers secretly, on their employers' premises, should be repealed.

2."That the Chief Office of the Factory Inspectors in London ought to be immediately abolished, and in lieu thereof, a sufficient number of Inspectors ought to be appointed for each district, who shall reside within the district for which they severally act, and who shall report direct to the Secretary of State.

3."That being advised that but for this enactment the Inspector causing such actions to be brought would have been guilty of 'Maintenance;' and being further acquainted with cases where attempts have been made, on the part of the Inspector, to incite factory operatives to commence legal proceedings for damages against their employers, contrary to their own wishes, it is resolved that clauses 24 and 25 should be entirely repealed.

4. "That the 8th clause of the Factory Act of 1844, whereby the Inspector has power to appoint or dismiss a certifying surgeon, should be repealed, and that in lieu thereof such certifying surgeons should be appointed by the Magistrates acting in petty sessions for the district in which such surgeon resides, and for which he is to act: but that, on the application of the Inspector or any Factory Occupier (sufficient cause being shown), the Secretary of State shall have power to remove such surgeon. That clause 14 of the same Act, whereby power is given to the Inspector to annul the certificate of a surgeon previously given, ought to be repealed.

5.* * * "Provided always, that all horizontal, upright, or oblique