of gas, dust, etc., must be neutralized by the inventions for this
purpose, so that operatives may not be harmed thereby. Any manufacturer
allowing machinery to remain unprotected is to be prosecuted; and there
are minute regulations forbidding any child or young person to clean or
walk between the fixed and traversing part of any self-acting machine
while in motion. At least two hours must be allowed for meals, nor are
these to be taken in any room where manufacturing is going on.

For this country such provisions were long delayed, nor have we even now
the necessary regulations as to the protection of machinery. In the
early days, though many mills were built by men who sought honestly to
provide their employees with as many alleviations as the nature of the
work admitted, many more were absolutely blind to anything but their own
interest. With the disabilities resulting we are to deal at another
point. It is sufficient to say here, that the struggle for
factory-workers became more and more severe, and has remained so to the
present day.

The increase of women workers in this field had been steady. In 1865
women operatives in the factories of Massachusetts were 32,239, or
nineteen per cent of men operatives. In 1875 they were 83,207, or
twenty-six per cent; and the increase since that date has been in like
proportion. From the time of their first employment in mills the
increase has been on themselves over three hundred per cent. In
Massachusetts mills women and children are from two thirds to five
sixths of all employed, and the proportion in all the manufacturing
portions of New England is nearly the same.

In judging the factory system as a whole, it is necessary to glance at
the conditions of home work preceding it. These are given in full detail