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THE FABIAN SOCIETY, 3 CLEMENT'S INN, STRAND, W.C.

JULY 1902.

Jury 190

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L2SFIZ

LIFE IN THE

LAUNDRY.

THE laundry industry has during the last few years undergone a remarkable and rapid economic development. Formerly a purely domestic industry, organized upon the economic principle of one woman one wash-tub, it is now a typical, modern, machine "business," characterized by aggregation of workers in one building under one head, subdivision of labor and the use of labor-saving machinery. All over the country, but more particularly in London, there has been a rapid multiplication of large laundry companies and syndicates, "certain of which own as many as a dozen or more fine, well equipped steam-laundries, filled with the latest ingenious inventions in labor-saving machinery, and organized into 'departments,' in which the division of labor is at least as marked a feature as in the majority of non-textile factories. In such cases a single shirt will pass through seven or eight different machines in the process of ironing alone. In place of the elderly married woman or widow 'washer,' we find skilled engineers in charge of a shedful of machinery still called the wash-house, while scores of girls and young women from thirteen upwards 'tend' the various kinds of ironing machines with exactly the same precision and routine as those in any other factory. Even in those departments where machinery is not required, for instance, the sorters with their staff of 'markers," the dryers who fill and empty with almost automatic regularity the series of drying-closets through which hot air is driven by propulsion fans, the labor is organized and regulated as in an ordinary factory."*

This economic revolution has taken place during the past eight or ten years. According to the Census Report for the County of London, 1901 (Cd. 875-1902), the number of men and lads engaged in laundry and washing service was 3,175, of whom 1,309 worked at home; the number of women and girls was 47,362, of whom 10,408 worked at home; of the males 723 and 16,223 of the females were under 20 years of age. The steam laundries on the register in the London district for 1901 were 216, and the hand laundries 578.

Insanitary Conditions.

This rapid development of laundry work from a hand to a machine industry has been accompanied by many of the evils which have attended the same process in other trades. Some of the most important are those which are inseparable from the use of premises unsuited to the uses of the industry. The enterprising laundry proprietor, alive to the profit-making possibilities of machinery, is not disposed to wait until he possesses suitable premises before beginning

business as the proprietor of a steam laundry, and so long as sanitary conditions are a minor consideration an ordinary dwelling-house can be made to serve his purpose. Side by side with the large laundry factories described above, where the structural conditions are as regards sanitation on the whole fairly satisfactory, there is a very much larger class of laundries consisting of ordinary dwelling-houses more or less badly adapted for the purpose.

"It is no uncommon thing to find a row of houses in separate occupation, the back yards of each of which is roofed in and packed with laundry machinery, all driven by an engine installed at one end of the row."*

"The rapid growth of the small laundry factory is a striking feature. It seems to be due partly to the increased cheapness of certain parts of machinery, and largely to the fact that the wage bill is thereby so much lessened.'

"It is simply amazing to see the lightheartedness with which an engine, gas or steam, is introduced into what one might call the domestic circle, for in noting unguarded machinery in the house-factory laundry I have always in my mind not only the workers, but the children of the occupier, whom I have so often found watching in a fascinated way the movements of the machines."†

"The prime mover for gas or steam engine is found in a badly lighted basement and in charge of a man who knows little or nothing of the dangers or management of machinery; the fencing of the fly-wheel is in many cases inadequate, a wash-tub often serving the purpose; other dangerous parts are equally disregarded, and it is difficult to persuade the owner that accidents may occur even with a low power."‡

All occupations have their special conditions prejudicial to the health of the workers employed therein, and it is one of the tasks of factory legislation to remove as far as possible the evil effects of such conditions.

The chief unhealthy conditions of the laundry industry are:-
I. Wetness of the washing room floors.

2. The presence of steam in the washing room, and also, though to a lesser extent, in the ironing room.

3. Heated and vitiated atmosphere of the ironing room. Το counteract these conditions it is essential

(a) That the floor of the washing room should consist of a properly laid impermeable material, provided with adequate means of drainage; and (b) that the washing and ironing room should be properly ventilated.

These, however, are precisely the features that are most conspicuous by their absence from many of the converted back yards and sculleries in which the clothes of most of us are washed, where the the laundress works with her head bathed in steam and her feet in water.

"The badly arranged floors in even large wash-houses are a constant source of discomfort and probably ill-health to the workers. The Act requires that they should be 'drained in such a manner as to allow the water to run off freely,' but makes no provision that it should be drained off on the spot where it is discharged."

"It is not all uncommon, therefore, to find that the yellow and foul water from the row of tanks or washing machines at one end of the wash-house flows all across the floor and over the feet of the workers before eventually reaching the drain. In one

* Annual Report H. M. Chief Inspector of Factories, 1900, p. 380.
† Annual Report of the Principal Lady Inspector of Factories, 1901, p. 178.
Annual Report H. M. Chief Inspector of Factories, 1900, p. 380.

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laundry where a cataract of dirty water was discharged over the feet in this manner every twelve or eighteen minutes from certain patent washing machines, the occupier triumphantly pointed out that it 'flowed quite freely' to the drain on the other side of the shed."*

But bad as the conditions in the smaller laundry factories often are, the state of things is much worse in those factories which have not developed beyond the "workshop" stage. This will appear from the following quotation from the Annual Report of H. M. Principal Lady Inspector of Factories for 1899 (p. 257)::

THE WASH-HOUSE." Very often on entering the wash-house the whole place is so pervaded with steam that I cannot see the workers. A great deal of this steam comes from the coppers, of which there are generally two or three. The provision of hoods would to a great extent remedy matters, but in the greater number of cases these are conspicuous by their absence."

THE IRONING ROOM.-"As the provision in force in factory laundries, viz., that all stoves for heating irons shall be sufficiently separated from the ironing room, does not apply to the workshop laundry, it is only where the temperature is unreasonably high that any steps can be taken to remedy the matter. The heat of the ironing room is largely owing to the fact that very few laundries possess drying rooms. except in summer, most of the drying is done overhead in the ironing room. leads to inadequate ventilation, for most laundry proprietors consider shut windows an indispensable condition of drying indoors.

Thus,
This

"What with the unscreened stove, the damp clothes overhead, the tightly closed windows streaming with moisture, caused by want of ventilation, the room crowded with the legal quantity of women, perspiring, sneezing, and coughing, a small ironing laundry room is not in working hours a very attractive place. But at dinner time it is less attractive still. The uninitiated would naturally imagine that during the women's absence for meals the windows and doors would be thrown up and the rooms thoroughly aired. Experience unfortunately proves that this is seldom the case. Frequent dinner-time inspections have taught me what to expect. At dinner-time the ironing room becomes a furnace. The stove is heated to the greatest extent, and the windows and doors are particularly tightly closed, and drying proceeds under conditions alleged to be advantageous from the laundress's point of view, but frequently

not so.

The small hand laundries, especially those in the Soho district of London, receive special attention in the Annual Report of the Principal Lady Inspector of Factories for 1900 (p. 385):—

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The owners of many of these laundries are or French or Italian origin. They invest their small capital in the rent of a house or part of one, sub-let the upper rooms, and devote the lower to their trade. They appear to start with the impression that any house is good enough for a laundry, given a fair supply of water, and show no consideration whatever for the health of their workers or the number of hours they are employed. The front room on the ground floor, originally intended for a shop, forms in most cases the principal ironing room. The wash-house is placed in the basement room, more often like a cellar than a room. In one, the worst of any, it was not more than six feet in height, and ventilated only by the door leading up to the house. The place was black with accumulated dirt. The floor was covered with water. A gas-jet in one corner gave the only light. A copper in another corner poured out steam for which there was no means of escape, and which was so thick as to hide the two workers almost completely from view. The temperature was so high that the perspiration streamed off their faces. This was, of course, an exceptional case, but one having many points in common with others which have hitherto escaped the attention of the proper authorities. Laundries of the kind described above may be exempted from inspection if it can be proved that not more than two persons besides members of the same family are employed."

* Annual Report H. M. Chief Inspector of Factories, 1900, p. 385. Section 8 of the 1901 Factory Act will probably be found useful in preventing the existence of the

The special importance of good sanitary conditions in laundries it once apparent when it is borne in mind that, as the law affords y imperfect protection to the laundry woman in the matter of urs of labor, the laundry is occupied for long periods. The Factory t of 1901 left this subject untouched, and the following provisions the 1895 Act form the sole protective enactments against excess: hours of labor :—

"(1) In every laundry carried on by way of trade, or for the rposes of gain, the following provisions shall apply :

"(a) The period of employment, exclusive of meal hours and
absence from work, shall not exceed for women fourteen,
for young persons twelve hours, and for children ten
hours in any consecutive twenty-four hours; nor a total
for women and young persons of sixty hours, and for
children of thirty hours in any one week, in addition to
such overtime as may be allowed in the case of women.
“(b) A woman, young person or child must not be employed
continuously for more than five hours without an interval
of at least half an hour for a meal.
"(c) Women, young persons and children employed in the
laundry shall have allowed to them the same holidays
as are allowed to women, young persons and children
employed in a factory or workshop under this Act.

"(e) The notice to be affixed in the laundry shall specify the period of employment and the times for meals, but the period and times so specified may be varied before the beginning of employment on any day.

"(2) Women employed in laundries may work overtime, subject o the following conditions, namely:

"(a) A woman must not work more than fourteen hours in any day; and

"(b) The overtime worked must not exceed two hours in any day; and

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"(c) Overtime must not be worked on more than three days in any week, or more than thirty days in any year; and "(d) The requirements of section 50 of this Act with respect to notices must be observed.' [That is to say, the employer must give seven days' notice of his intention to work overtime to the Inspector and to the employees.] Compare these provisions with those which obtain in the case of Factories and Workshops. There the work begins and ends at a definite stated time; definite and simultaneous times for meals are prescribed; overtime is prohibited altogether for young persons (ie., persons under eighteen),* and is only allowed for women under ex

By section 51 of the 1901 Act overtime is allowed for young persons and children in exceptional industries, e.g., bleaching and dyeing works. But not more than thirty minutes overtime can be worked per day, and the total number of hours" worked must not be "above the number otherwise allowed under this Act."

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