Naturally, then, the volume touched upon many abuses,—­children in factories, and the factory system as a whole; the homes of workers, and their needs in sanitary and other directions; and toward the end a few pages of special comment on the hard lives of working-women as a whole.

The report for 1871 followed the same lines, giving more detail to each.  That for 1872 took up various phases of women’s work,[21] with some of the general conditions then existing.  For the following year elaborate tables of the cost of living were given, and are invaluable as matters of reference; and in 1874 came a no less important contribution to social science in the report on the “Homes of Working-People.”  Those of working-women were of course included, but there was still no description of many of the conditions known to hedge them about.  Each inquiry, however, turned attention more and more in this direction, and emphasized the need of some work given exclusively to women workers.

In 1875 attention was directed to the health of working-women, and a portion of the report was devoted to the special effects of certain forms of employment upon the health of women,[22] the education of children, the conditions of families, etc.  That for 1876 discussed the question of wives’ earnings, and gave tables of what proportion they made; and that for 1877 took up “Pauperism and Crime,” in the growing amount of which it was claimed by many that the worker had large share.

In 1878 large space was given to education and the work of the young, for whom the half-time system was urged.  The conjugal condition of wives and mothers was also considered, and the bearing of their work upon the home.  The financial distress of the period had affected wages, and the report for 1879 considered the effect of this, with the condition of the “unemployed,” the tramp question, and other phases of the problem.  With 1880 and the ending of the first decade of work in this direction came a fuller report on the social life of workingmen and the divorces in Massachusetts; 1881 made a plea for uniform hours, and 1882 was devoted to wages, prices, and profits, and further details of the life of operatives within their homes; and 1883 found reason again to go over the question of wages and prices.

I have given this detail because, when one views the work of the bureau as a whole, it will be seen that each year formed one step toward the final result, which has been of most vital bearing upon all since accomplished in the same direction for women.  Until the appearance of the report for 1884, on the “Working-Girls of Boston,” there had been no absolute and authoritative knowledge as to their lives, their earnings, and their status as a whole.  Their numbers were equally unknown, nor was there interest in their condition, save here and there among special students of social science.  On the other hand there was a popular impression that the ranks of prostitution were recruited from the manufactory, and that a certain stigma necessarily rested upon the factory-worker and indeed upon working-girls as a class.