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Untitled Article
iu ^ ittocetft , Tbe factory , where the eyaUGO i * in operation on the largest acule in my district , ia at the cotton works of Mestrt . Fiolfcy & Co . * ot Deanston , Dear Doune , in Perthshire , This factory it on a greut scale , the water-power being equal to 300 horse * , and 800 persons being employed , of whom 4 U aie under eighteen year * Of Ug £ . Mr . Smith , the able and enlightened resident partner of the establishment , is a zealous advocate for the limitation of the hoars of
the Children , and for the enforcement of their attendance on school , and immediatel y upon the Act corning into operation , he adopted the relay ajritem . Fie has now 106 children under eleven years of age working upon that plan , and attending school fur at least two hours a day for six days out of the seven in each week . I visited the works on the 18 th of June , and converged with Mr . Smith and with two of his overseers , in order to ascertain how the plan was working after a four month * ' trial . The account I received was , that at first there
was gome awkwardness , but that the difficulties were overcome , and the p lan was going on smoothly , without inconvenience of any sort to the business of the factory /'—p . 11 , ibid . The following is from his Report for 1835 .
c < In my Second Report , I have noticed that the relay system continued to work well Bt the extensive cotton-mills of Messrs . Jaofes Finlay & Co ., at Deanston . There , the proprietors have specially directed their attention to that system , in order to give it a fair trial ; but , in other instances , where it has been partially tried , without any properly arranged plan , with the master not only taking little or no charge of it , but on the contrary , suffering the dislike of it on the part of the adult 9 pinners , who employ the children , to counteract it in every way ; it is not surprising that it should have been represented to me as unsuccessful and even impracticable . "—p . 2 , ibid . 1835 .
We reckon these two extracts sufficient to prove that neither the plan of working by relays , nor of regular education for the factory children is impracticdble , and the last part of our quotation helps us to some of the causes which nave led to their being" called so . It is quite plain that an extensive change ,
such as is aimed at by the Factory Bill , cannot be effected without giving considerable trouble , and probably occasioning , at first , some loss to the master manufacturers . It is equally plain that the operatives must have more difficulty in directing the work of two sets of children than of one . Parents also
will dislike to find the wages of their children reduced m amount , which must necessarily happeu ; accordingly we find objections raised to the system of relays by each of these classes . The unwillingness with which the parents forfjgo tke earnings of their children is so strong , that it has been ( bund Bcarcely possible to ascertain the real ages of the 4 i JQU&g
hands , " so many are the frauds practised to make them appear older than they really are ; and the most painful instances of want of feeling for their sufferings on the part of parents * re meutioned in tlie Reports : —
Untitled Article
Tkt Factory BiU . i # 6
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1836, page 455, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2659/page/63/
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