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 in historical and economical treatises, notably in Lecky’s “History of the Eighteenth Century,” and in Dr. Kay’s “Moral and Physical Condition of the Working Classes.”  A list of the more important authorities on the subject will be found in the general bibliography at the end.

The conditions that prevailed in other countries were less strenuous with us, but the same objections to the domestic system held good at many points.  In weaving, the looms occupied large part of the family living space, and overcrowding and all its evils were inevitable.  Drunkenness was more common, as well as the stealing of materials by dishonest workers.  Time was lost in going for material and in returning it, and only half as much was accomplished.  Homes were uncared for and often filthy, and the work was done in half-lighted, airless rooms.

These conditions are often reproduced in part even to-day in buildings not adapted to their present use; but as a whole it is certain that the homes of factory-workers are cleaner, that regulation has proved beneficial, that light and air are furnished in better measure, and that overcrowding has become impossible.  This applies only to textile manufactures, where machines must have room.

In an admirable chapter on the “Factory System,” prepared by Colonel Carroll D. Wright for the Tenth Census of the United States, he takes up in detail the objections urged against it.  These are as follows:—­

A. The factory system necessitates the employment of women and children to an injurious extent, and consequently its tendency is to destroy family life and ties and domestic habits, and ultimately the home.

     B. Factory employments are injurious to health.

     C. The factory system is productive of intemperance, unthrift, and
     poverty.

     D. It feeds prostitution, and swells the criminal list.

     E. It tends to intellectual degeneracy.

Under “A” there is small defence to be made.  The employment of married women is fruitful of evil, and the proportion of these in Massachusetts is 23.8 per cent.  Wherever this per cent is high, infant mortality is very great, being 23.5 per cent for Massachusetts and 19 per cent for Connecticut and New Hampshire.  The “Labor Bureau Reports” for New Jersey treat the subject in detail, and are strongly opposed to the employment of mothers of young children outside the home; and the conclusion is the same at other points.