“We express the firm hope that the faithful exposure of the evils that we have been called upon to unveil, will have the effect of leading capitalists to lend greater attention to the conditions under which work is done, which furnishes the merchandise they demand.  When legislation has attained the limit beyond which it can no longer be useful, the amelioration of the condition of workers can result only from the increasing moral sense of those who employ them.”

This conclusion, it may be added, is in full accord with that given in the Encyclical of Pope Leo XIII., as well as with that of our most serious workers at home; our own government examination into the sweating-system, now embodied in a Congressional Report accessible to all, being simply confirmation of every point made in that for England.  As a summary of many working conditions in London, I add part of a report made by an indefatigable student of social conditions, Margaret Harkness, associated now with Mr. Charles Booth, and as able an observer as her cousin and co-worker, Miss Beatrice Potter, whose report on the sweating-system makes part of Mr. Booth’s first volume:[30]—­

“I have, for the last six months, been attempting to find out something about the hours and wages of girls who work at various trades in the city.  Had I known how difficult the task would be, I should probably never have attempted it.  Last time I heard of Mr. Besant he was sitting in his office, overwhelmed with figures and facts.  He said then that he did not expect to publish anything about the work of girls and women in the United Kingdom under a year or eighteen months.  I do not wonder at it.  Apart from the method of his inquiry, I know how exceedingly difficult it is to arrive at the truth; the tact and patience it needs to make such investigations.  Employees and employers take very different views of the same circumstances; one must listen to both, and then split the difference.

“There are at the present time absolutely no figures to go upon if one wishes to learn something about the hours and wages of girls who follow certain occupations in the city.  The factory inspectors (admirable men, but very much overworked) come, with the most naive delight, to visit any person who has information to give about the people over whose interests they are supposed to watch with fatherly interest.  Clergymen shake their heads, or refer one to homes and charities.  One has to find out the truth for one’s self.  Both employers and employees must be visited.  Even then one must wait days and weeks to inspire them with confidence, for thus alone can one obtain a thorough knowledge of things as they really are, and arrive at facts unbiassed by prejudice.

“So far I have found that there are, at least, two hundred trades at which girls work in the city.  Some employ hundreds of hands, and some only fifty or sixty.  Printers give