that a normal working-day shall not exceed eleven hours, reduced on Saturdays and public holidays to ten.  Power is reserved for prolonging the working-day in certain circumstances.  Except in cases of absolute necessity Sunday labor is prohibited, and in establishments where uninterrupted labor is required, each working hand must have one free Sunday out of two.  Women cannot under any circumstances be employed in night or Sunday labor.  Italy has not legislated for adults, but has made regulations for child labor.  Sweden is in the same position.  Spain and Portugal have done nothing.  The general rule in the latter country, applying to old and young, is to work from sunrise to sunset, an hour and a half being allowed for meals.  In the Netherlands a law was recently promulgated to prevent excessive and dangerous work by grown-up women and young persons.  In Turkey the working-day lasts from sunrise to sunset, with certain intervals for repose and refreshment.  In Russia, where there are no laws affecting the hours of adult labor, the normal working-day in industrial establishments averages twelve hours, though it is often extended to fourteen and even sixteen.”

FOOTNOTES: 

[31] Histoire des Classes Ouvriers en France depuis 1789 jusqu’a nos Jours, par E. Levasseur.

[32] L’Ouvriere, par Jules Simon.

[33] Prisoners of Poverty, p. 118.

[34] Le Travail des Femmes au XIX.  Siecle, par Paul Leroy-Beaulieu.

[35] L’Ouvriere, p. 158.

[36] Le Travail des Femmes aux XIX.  Siecle.

[37] Annuaire de la Bourse du Travail.  Volumes from 1887 to 1892 inclusive.

[38] Rapport sur l’Enquete faite au nom de l’Academie Royale de Medecine de Belgique, par la commission chargee d’etudier la question de l’emploi des femmes dans les travaux souterrain des mines, Bruxelles, 1868.

Documents nouveaux relatifs au travail des femmes et des enfants, dans les manufactures, les mines, etc, etc.  Bruxelles, 1874.

CHAPTER IX.

GENERAL CONDITIONS AMONG WAGE-EARNING WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES.

The summary already made of the work of bureaus of labor and their bearing upon women wage-earners includes some points belonging under this head which it still seemed advisable to leave where they stand.  The work of the Massachusetts Bureau gave the keynote, followed by all successors, and thus required full outlining; and it is from that, as well as successors, that general conditions are to be determined.  A brief summary of such facts as each State has investigated and reported upon will be given, with the final showing of the latest and most general report,—­that from the United States Bureau of Labor for 1889.