The New Student's Reference Work/Factory and Factory-Legislation

Factory and Factory-Legislation. It is not easy to set a date for the origin of factories. In England factories for wool were established in the reign of Edward III. But the nineteenth century was the great period of the rise of factories. This rise was the result of many new mechanical inventions, chief among which were those of Hargreave, Arkwright, Cartwright and Crompton. The factory-system of industry greatly increased the amount of production per man, but in bringing together great numbers of men, women and children it paved the way for the replacement of the old personal interest between master and workman by a mere cash-bond. Overwork and sweating became common practices. In England and America the first laws about factories dealt with the abuse of child and pauper-labor and with the lack of sanitary care within the factories, which became a fertile source of disease. The factory-system came later in America than in England. The English factories jealously guarded the secrets of their machinery. But in 1790 a factory for water-frame spinning was built in Rhode Island; and in 1803 the first cotton mill in America was built in Massachusetts. The growth of factories in America has continued with extraordinary rapidity.

The first modern factory-legislation in England was the law of Sir Robert Peel in 1802, dealing with the labor of children and paupers. A great number of acts followed, dealing with these and other problems. (See Child-Labor Acts.) In the United States, Massachusetts took the lead in labor-legislation; and the laws of the other states tend to be based on this code. But Australia and New Zealand have gone far beyond either England or America in limiting the hours of labor, the age of employees, the lowness of the wage that may be offered and the strife that is apt to occur from time to time between employers and employed, leading to wasteful strikes. But there are laws in the United States regulating the labor of women and children, sanitary matters, the soundness and safety of machinery, payment of wages, hours of labor (limited in Massachusetts to 58 hours a week for young people), hours of meals, licenses, etc.