FOURTEEN HOURS A DAY
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—In its issue of March 13th, the Times Educational Supplement begins its first leading article entitled "Young Workers' Hours," thus :—" The statement of the Home Secretary in the House of Commons that the Government is unable to hold out any hope of dealing this Session with the one-clause Bill on the employment of young persons . . . will cause general disappointment. The time necessary for passing this measure, which has the support of all parties in the House of Commons, would be brief, while the social evils for which it provides a remedy are widespread and intolerable."
It then gives the following facts from a Circular issued by the Committee on Wage-earning Children (Denison House, S.W.) : that there are boys of fifteen employed as van-boys working fourteen hours a day and fifteen on Saturdays, with no period set apart for meals ; that page boys are working in night clubs until 3 or 4 in the morning ; that boys of fifteen are engaged in flock work for sixty-five hours a week, in wood-bundling seventy hours a week ; and so on, a shameful tale of exploitation. Those who are interested should obtain the paper and read both the summary of the Circular and the admirable leading article on it. This method of manu- facturing Bolshevists ought quickly to be abolished.—I am,
Sir, &c., 462.
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