SHORT-TIME AND THE RELAY SYSTEM.
THE last half-yearly report delivered by the Factory Inspectors to the Home Secretary, and just published, is strongly calculated to unsettle opinion again on the subject of the regulations as to the time of work in factories, if not to compel a change of enact- ments.
Mr. Leonard Homer, whose district includes the very head-
quarters of the Short-time party, and who i hunselt an savocate of restricted hours, ingenuously publishes the result of inquiries as to the state of opinion on the subject among the working classes. He took great pains to ascertain the true feeling of individuals ; and the evidence is remarkable. It seems that although a con- siderable majority of the working classes are in favour of short time, that opinion is by no means universal : about two-thirds were for it. Now, a distinction is to be drawn between a com- pulsory law desired by all, or all but an exceptional minority, to enforce a regulation which cannot be adopted voluntarily, and a law which impairs the liberty of the subject, obliging him to re- gulate his conduct according to the likes and notions of his neigh- bour. If three men desire a rule, which neither can safely set the example of beginning, it is no tyranny to decree the rule for them all: but if two desire to take leisure at the expense of dimi- nished wages, while the third prefers toil and profit, it is tyranny to tie him down to the tariff of the others. The law rests, there- fore, on a more questionable basis of public feeling than it was said to do.
But that questionable ground for the law cannot justify the laxities which are permitted in its administration. We find by the reports, that certain Magistrates, one of the Inspectors, and the Home Secretary, have concurred in frustrating the enact- ments of the Legislature. The case of the Magistrates is a very gross scandal. An information was laid against Messrs. Jones Brothers and Co., who were charged before the Magistrates at Chowbent with a violation of the act by employing relays of young persons and women: the Magistrates were three in including ncluding the occupier of a mill and a retired manufac-
turer: they dismissed the complaint, on the ground that the statute is loosely expressed,—in other words, on the ground that flaws in the verbal construction of the act open a door for its vio- lation. Another case against the same firm was carried before another bench at Tyldesley, no great distance off: the Chowbent Magistrates entered the court, specially to affirm their own judg- ment by constituting a majority; and therefore the Magistrates resident near Tylclesley thought it waste of time to enter into the case. Here, then, we see persons of the millowning class stretch- ing in favour of their own class the law which was intended to protect the working class.
Mr. Stuart, Inspector for Scotland and Ireland, explains with elaborate minuteness how he has abstained from pro- secuting manufacturers who have used relays : but he acts under the authority of Sir George Grey, who had directed, as a general rule, that informations should not be laid "against millowners for a breach of the letter of the act, as to the employment of young persons by relays, in cases in which there is no reason to believe that such young persons have been actually employed for a longer period than that sanctioned by law." Thus we find the Executive Minister taking upon himself to nullify the execution
of an act of Parliament. It is an awkward circumstance, that Sir George was an opponent of the act when it was under dis- cussion in Parliament ; and it is to be remembered that the hypo- thesis on which his direction proceeds was not unforeseen : it has all along been a moot question, whether relays can be permitted at all without a fraudulent evasion of the enactments which limit the hours of children, young persons, and women; and there is no doubt that Parliament passed the law on the negative conclusion.
These scandals ought not to continue, whatever may be said in favour of relays ; and that is much. Three of the Inspectors are for strict enforcement of the present law ; Mr. Stuart is for a re- laxation in favour of permitting relays; all ask for a law that shall establish uniformity in their practice,—a request equally sensible and decorous. To continue a law which is continually to be evaded, would be foolish, if not worse ; for it brings the law into contempt. Whatever the law is—especially one so recent, so openly and fully debated—it should be obeyed. But an amendment of the law itself appears to be by no means impracticable. It is evident that the prohibition of relays has two mischievous effects,--it prevents manufacturers from making the most profitable use of their machinery ; and it excludes numbers of the working classes from employment that would otherwise be open to them. It is admitted that the relays are not objectionable in themselves ; but it is asserted that they would become instru- ments for fraudulent evasion of the law : a particular employment is forbidden because the Legislature cannot devise checks upon fraud. Now before that was done, it should have been proved not difficult but impossible to devise checks ; which is not yet proved. On the contrary, the reports of the Inspectors con- tain materials for plans of the kind. And the onus pro bandi might be left to the millowners : they might be forbidden to employ re- lays, unless they could prove to the satisfaction of the Inspector, not only that they fulfilled the law with regard to the restrictions on time, but also that they did not combine with other millowners to evade the law by employing persons who had previously taken turn in the relays of other mills. That would make regular what is now effected by a very gross irregularity in Mr. Stuart's dis- trict under the directions of the Home Secretary.
Previous page
