?3.r// DANGEROUS TRADES BY Mrs. CHARLES MALLET. PRICE ONE PENNY. ^on&on: Printed bv BURT & SONS, 58, Porchester Road, Bayswater, W. DANGEROUS TRADES FOR WOMEN The great awakening and enlightening of the national conscience which has taken place during the last few years is slowly teaching to a selfish society the wisdom as well as the duty of co-operation and combination. Day by day the eyes of many are beginning, though dimly, even through the blinding haze created by the furious race for wealth—to discern -that the idea of the brotherhood of man is in truth no mere poet’s dream nor impossible Utopia, but that the interests of the whole community are identical and that there is no policy so short-sighted, so unprofitable, as a selfish policy ; they are beginning to perceive that the physical and mental sufferings of the workers actually endanger the commercial prosperity of the community, and that the wealth of a country consists not in the profit of monopolists, but as a matter of actual fact in the complete efficiency of the workers ; that, in short, .a nation’s health is its wealth. From this it follows that as -soon as the dangerous conditions existing in certain industries are realised, the workers must in the interests of the whole .community be immediately and absolutely protected against them, for Sir J. Simon, Medical Adviser to the Privy Council, .declared long since, that it is practically impossible for work¬ people to insist upon that, which is in truth, their first sanitary right—the right that whatever work their employer gives them to do shall, as far as depends upon him, be at his cost, divested of all needlessly unwholesome circumstances. Discomfort and evils are incident to every condition of life and the dangers resulting from overwork and overcrowding are sadly common to all our industries—and all trades have their attendant risks. But the one duty of employers is plain—to aim at the com¬ plete protection of the worker who, helpless in face of the need for bread for those who are dearer to him than life, is entirely at his employer’s mercy. It was not until the year 1892, when Dr. Arlidge, who had resided for thirty years in the Potteries, battling against dust and poison, published his exhaustive survey of the dangers incident to certain occupations, that this question was at all * 31597 4 brought before the public at large. In spite of the fact that Dr. Oliver had pressed upon the notice of the British Associa¬ tion the deadly perils attending work in the White Lead- Factories, the attention of the public had never been directed to the dangers attending certain trades and occupations. If we look for a moment at one of the largest and oldest established trades, one of the most necessary to the existence of a civilised community—the Linen Trade—we find bronchitis,, pneumonia, severe rheumatism, much more than usually prevalent, in consequence of the frequent wet feet and wet clothes of the workers engaged in dealing with the flax, which has to be left to soak in stagnant water. In the Preparing and Carding Departments however the mischief is even more serious, for there the dust, which is inhaled, is so fine and of such an irritating character that according to Dr. Arlidge, in the vast majority of instances it produces lung-disease; so that a woman who starts carding at 17 or 18 usually begins to break up at thirty. The chemical labourers— such for instance as are employed in the works of the United Alkali Company and who are picked from the very strongest and most splendidly built men to be found—do not live as a rule to be forty-eight. Glass Blowers, who are exposed to more than tropical heat, when still under forty years of age are pale and thin, prema¬ turely old and worn out, and suffer from headache, giddiness,, great prostration, and occasional blindness. It is amply proved that “ only by a compulsory reduction of hours can adequate relief be obtained for the chemical- workers.” Plumbers and painters suffer from a high death rate which is mainly determined by their liability to lead¬ poisoning. And we know that printers, tailors, shop assistants, bakers, and bookbinders, often work in so close and vitiated an atmosphere that their health is impaired and their lives are- shortened. Another dangerous industry is the Trade of Fur Cape Making, which is carried on by women in private’workshops. The characteristics of this trade are—the existence of an offensive smell, prejudicial to health, arising from the skin of the animals used in the trade—and also the constant presence in the atmosphere of an irritating fluff, which invades the nostrils and air-passages, and hinders respiration. Again, Artificial Flower Makers suffer much from the strain upon their organs of sight caused by the making of white flowers at night by gaslight. Chronic inflamed eyelids are 5 -common with them, as a consequence of using the dry coloured dust which surrounds them while they work. And the life is so trying that before they reach the age of forty they are prematurely old and worn out. Again in the China Trade, the dust is extremely injurious to the health of the china scourers and towers. This dust consists of extremely tiny particles of flint, the jagged -edges of which injure the lungs. The towers, whose business it is to put a fine surface on the revolving plate by means of sand paper, are exposed to the constant play of the clay dust. “ It is rare to find a woman who has worked for any time either .as a tower or china scourer who is free from respiratory troubles.” The scourers, who are always women, and are the rougher, more ignorant and reckless of their sex, have to brush and beat off the dust from the china ware after its removal from the saggars. Statistics tell us that the percentage of deaths in phthisis and respiratory diseases among all classes of male workers in the Potteries is three times as great as among all other adult male workers. Speaking of the Potter’s trade, Dr. Arlidge writes thus :— Si All who deal with the clay suffer more or less. Potter’s dust does not kill suddenly, but settles, year after year, a little more firmly into the lungs, until at length a case of plaster is formed. Breathing becomes more and more difficult and depressed, and finally ceases.” Dust is a very deadly agent ; its ravages are found to be more destructive to the health and life of workpeople than any other agency except impure air or carbonic acid gas, which kills in a few hours. Dust is of various kinds. We have— 1. Steel and Stone Dust, which surrounds the Sheffield cutlers, and invades their lungs as they grind and polish knives and other steel implements. 2. Clay Dust, which suffocates the Potter. 3. Alkali Dust, from which the Powder Packers suffer horribly, the biting lime dust causing their teeth to rot away. Moreover, “ the dense wraps over the nose and mouth, which the men are compelled to wear, almost completely prevent breathing, and it is only by practice the men can carry on sufficient respiration to sustain life.” And yet most of these risks and dangers, in themselves so grave, sink into comparative insignificance when we consider the terrible conditions which obtain in two of our industries— in the manufacture of White Lead and in that of Phosphorus 6 Matches, in both of which trades women are largely or princi¬ pally employed. In the White Lead trade, pre-eminent in its fatal effects upon the workers, dust is a constant factor in their lives, and they are continually exposed to the influence of the deadly saturnine poisoning. That lead is highly poisonous is no new discovery. Its effects were well-known to the Ancients. Galen condemned the use of leaden pipes. The Roman Emperor, Caesar Augustus, forbade its use for the manu¬ facture of the conduits by which drinking water was to be conducted to the city. Cattle, grazing in the neigh¬ bourhood of lead-smelting furnaces, dogs who have lapped water trickling from lead works, suffer severely from lead¬ poisoning Thrushes in some parts of Germany that have fed upon the berries of mountain ash trees near lead forges, become paralysed, fall and die, the berries being covered with small invisible particles of oxide of lead. Grass and drinking water in the neighbourhood of lead forges become impregnated with the poison. Some women in France, who a few years ago had washed the clothes of their husbands (workers in lead factories), suffered severely from lead poison. It is a noteworthy fact that women, in conse¬ quence of certain physiological characteristics, are exceptionally susceptible to the contamination of lead. Dr. Oliver writes—■ “ Both as regards the acute and the chronic cases of lead poisoning, women are much more quickly brought under its influence than men.” It is mostly women of the very poorest and roughest class who offer themselves to work in the White Lead Factory. ‘‘The widow who has a family to support, the wife of a drunken husband, the girl whose character will not bear scrutiny ”—* these are the applicants for employment. Poor and of im¬ paired vitality, badly nourished, and careless of personal cleanliness, their constitutions are ill-fitted to cope with the poison, and they readily succumb to it. “This industry repre¬ sents for women very much what the Dockers’ industry is to men.” Girls of a higher class are, however, frequently tempted by the good wages, and enter the works in complete ignorance of the peril which they incur. In the white lead factories the roughest and most danger¬ ous part of the work is done by women, as it needs less muscular strength than work which is far less perilous. This will readily be understood by a glance at the process of White Lead Making; the deadly white carbonate being 7 manufactured from the ordinary Blue Lead. When brought into the factory the pigs of lead are first melted and moulded into small cakes by the male or female workers. Loads of these cakes are carried on their heads by girls to the stack or blue beds, which consist of small earthenware pots filled with acetic acid, and piled up above each other. Upon the pots are placed lead cakes, which are thickly sur¬ rounded with tan ; a plank is laid along the top of these, on which is placed another row of pots filled with acid, again covered by cakes of lead, and surrounded with tan, then again a plank and more pots until the bed is built up to a height of 30 feet. Five women work together in a gang at these Blue Beds, and the day’s task for a gang is to carry from the melting pot to the stack 7 or 9 piles, each containing 12-cwt. of lead ; to carry up the pots ; to fill them with acetic acid ; to carry up and spread the tan, and to build up the stack. One woman stays in the stack to arrange it; the others hand up the pots from one to the other. After the stack is complete it is closed, and the chemical process, which is to go on for three months, begins. The tan begins to ferment, and the acid volatilised by the heat, nibbles away at the lead, and converts it into acetate of lead, which is gradually transformed into carbonate or white lead. When the process is complete it is the women’s duty to empty the stack. The cakes have to be grubbed up from their three months’ bedding by hand, so that the white carbonate of lead gets under the finger nails. The cakes of white lead are then carried away by the women, and taken to be ground, which process, because of the great danger attending it, is carried on under water. The dishes of lead are then carried by the women to the stoves and left there for a fortnight to dry. The stoves are built up to much the same height as are the stacks or blue beds. As the dishes of damp lead are handed up from one woman to another the “women are frequently splashed with the deadly compound.” But it is in the next and final process—the re¬ moval of the dry carbonate of lead from the stoves that the most imminent peril is incurred. Clad in sack over-alls outside their gowns, their heads encased in mufflers, and their mouths covered with woollen respirators,—and very fully conscious of their peril—these poor women rush at the stoves and drag out 8 the dishes “ as if they were saving treasures from a burning house,” carrying one on the head and one under each arm, whilst the dust flies in clouds round the unhappy victims. It is evident that they are extremely ill-equipped for such furious exertions. Their hands and arms, which should be left free, are hampered by the clothes they wear, and their breathing hindered by the futile woollen pad through which the dust is even drawn into the mouth and air passages. And the over¬ heating, caused by this rough work, increases their danger, for in consequence of the violent perspiration, much of the lead dust is absorbed through the skin into the system But these regulations about clothing are compulsory, being strictly en¬ joined by the Home Office. A young healthy well-developed girl, tempted by the high wages, will sometimes seek employment in a White Lead Factory. Here after a varying degree of exposure she becomes anaemic. It may be that her gums show a very faint blue line, or perchance her teeth and gums are perfectly sound, and no blue line is discernible. Coincidently with the anaemia she has been getting thinner, but so gradually as scarcely to impress itself upon her or her friends. Sickness, however ensues, and headaches growing in intensity are developed. These are frequently at¬ tended by obscuration of vision or temporary blindness. Such a girl passes into what appears to her friends and medical adviser as ordinary listeria. This gradually deepens without warning, until she is suddenly seized with a convulsion, beginning in one half of the face, then involving the arm, next the leg of the same side of the body, until the convulsion, violent and purely epileptic form in character, becomes universal. This is attended by loss of consciousness, out of which she passes into a series of convulsions, gradually increasing in severity, in one of which she dies—or consciousness, partial or perfect, is regained, either, it may be for a few minutes, a few hours, or days, dur¬ ing which violent headache is complained of, or she is delirious and excited, as in acute mania, or dull and sullen as in melancholia, and requires to be roused, when she is found wandering, and her speech is somewhat imperfect. Without further warning, save that the pulse which had become soft, with nearly the normal number of beats, all at once becomes low and hard, she is suddenly seized with another convulsion, in which she dies, or passes into a state of coma from which she never rallies. In another case the convulsions will gradually subside, the headache disappears, and the patient recovers, only to find that she has completely lost her eyesight, a loss that may be temporary or permanent.” 9 “Girls under 18 are forbidden to engage in the trade, but as no Baptismal Certificate of applicants is required—girls of 17 and even younger frequently enter the works.” Charlotte Rafferty, a fine well-grown young woman with a splendid constitution—who had never had a day’s illness in her life— became a white lead worker. Convulsions seized her at the foot of the ladder in the works. Dr. Oliver examined her, found the blue line along her gums, which shows that the system is under the influence of the lead. He knew that the convulsions would shortly return. They did so and she died. Her parents afterwards testified that when she returned from her day’s work in the factory her clothes were like “a poke of flour.” They were totally unaware of the regulation prohibiting girls under 18 from entering the works. Mary Ann Toler—a girl of 17 who had never had a fit in Ter life—three times became ill and had to leave off work in the Factory. Before she was 19 she showed symptoms of lead¬ poisoning—had fits—frothed at the mouth and died. The length of time during which girls may work with impunity varies. In one acute case, which terminated fatally, the girl had worked only ten days. In another, colic, with agonising pain, occurred after seven days’ exposure to lead. “The women who charge the stoves are very frequently affected with wrist-drop or paralysis. At first, weakness of the hands sets in, then sudden paralysis, of the fingers.” Mary A., an unusually vigorous woman, was able to work in the Lead Factory for twenty years , having colic once only during that time. Her eight children all died in early infancy from convulsions. One morning, whilst brushing her hair, this woman suddenly lost all power in both her wrists; on examination the pupils of her eyes were found to be unequal. “ Even in works where there is constant and careful inspec¬ tion, the high wages sometimes tempt the women to deceive both doctor and employer.” A woman who has been suspended on account of health for three months, will apply under a false name at another factory in the district, and will, perhaps, obtain employment. Eliza H., aged 25, after five months at lead works, was seized with colic, she entered another factory (after being re¬ fused at the first one) and worked on uninterruptedly for two years. Then the former symptoms returned, she was seized with convulsions and died in two days of acute lead poisoning. But the process of White Lead Making is, perhaps, most fatal to the unborn generation. 10 We may quote tne words of Mr. Vaughan Nash :—The children of the white lead worker enter the world, as a rule, only to die from the convulsions of lead-poisoning—they are either born prematurely, or die within the first year. These facts have been brought before the country from time to time. Professor Oliver has appealed to the British Association to do something on behalf of these unfortunate people ; but the Home Office still continues its inadequate precautions, and its inspec¬ tion of the lead-poisoned. What, we may ask, is the good of scheduling a trade as dangerous, and drawing up special rules, if this sort of thing is to be the outcome of it ? If Mr. Asquith is going to tackle this question of unhealthy trades seriously, it will be unnecessary to press these points upon him. The duty of drying up such poison springs as these carbonate of lead works, the evil effects of which are only begun when the fatal white powder sets off on its journey to the potteries, the house painter, and the artist, seems too clear to be disputed. Various substitutes are in the market, and the Home Office should at once investigate their merits with a view to enforcing a safe process.”— Vaughan Nash, Fortnightly Review t Feb., i 8 93 - Some of my readers may enquire, What is the necessity for using this terrible material ? Raw white lead is at present used to produce the glaze which glistens upon our cups and saucers, our china ornaments, and our majolica ware. In the process known as ground-laying, which is used to produce the colours in majolica ware, the women dust the colour powder on to an oiled surface, and “sitting with their heads close to the powder, of course easily inhale it.” The story of Mrs. Podmore illustrates this. Mrs. Podmore said she had been working on the dust and oil ground-laying when she was taken ill. A big order had to be finished ; she and two other women had been busy dusting the colour on for three or four days. She continues :—“Just before dinner I said to the women, ‘ Why, I feel fine and sleepy,’ and they said they did too. So we just wrapped our shawls round us, and we lay down in the shop. As we didn’t wake up, the employer sent us home in cabs I woke up three days later, and the other two died.” “Mrs. Podmore has never been able to work since, and will never recover.” White lead is largely used in enamelling and japanning, indeed it has always been thought indispensable to this manufacture. Cases of lead poisoning are of almost daily occurence in one or other of the factories about Bilston, 11 Dudley, and Wolverhampton, where the principal industry seems to be that of preparing enamel advertisements. Dr. Ballenden, the excellent doctor at Sedgley, who is con- stantI y , attendin g cases of lead poisoning, is understood to athrm that he has never come across a girl employed in sheet enamelling who does not show the blue line on the gums “ which indicates the presence of lead in the system.” The writer of a letter to the Daily Chronicle tells us that the Sedgley girls have been so often down lately with lead poisoning, that this seems to be regarded as almost an every¬ day occurence. The work of the women in the enamelling factories is to lay a stencil over the body colour, which has been dried, and then to brush off the dust, and to leave the ground colour showing through. As has been explained, it is this dealing with the dust which is so highly dangerous. The local In¬ spector in this neighbourhood assures us that one at least of these firms in which cases of lead poisoning occur had done all in its power to protect the girls. Soap, towels, nail brushes, water in abundance, and a drink specially calculated to counter- act the effects of lead, have been supplied, also muzzles for the protection of mouth and nostrils; and yet Harriet A. Walters : died a few weeks ago at the age of 17, in the firm of Orme, 1 ^vans & Co -> to which reference has just been made. Here : she had been employed as an enamelled ware brusher. She persisted in the deadly work because father and brother were both out of employment, and concealed her illness and her 1 sufferings from her parents, walking six miles a day in all weathers, in order to earn 7/- or 8/- per week. Her'case is 1 typical of many others who share her heroism and her sufferings. There is no hush wages in these cases, as in those of the match girls, as the women who are sent home ill are never able ; to return to the work. i . The g irls themselves say that they breathe the lead into ,their system with every respiration, and that the overalls which they wear to protect them are full of the colour inside as well las outside ! R. M., now working in a lead foundry, worked only a few months but had two illnesses. Her mother says she has never recovered it. i . And to quote only one more case where so many might be given. N. M. first began to work three years ago at the age P T 5 - Strong when she began work, has felt ill ever since, has peen away three times very ill. She states that all the girls 12 suffer constantly in their health, but go on working until the can work no longer. As has been well said, “ A town or district which is give over to some staple trade is wont to regard the industry as sort of fetish which must not be interfered with. The eartl the air, the sunshine and the health of the inhabitants are lai under contribution to this staple trade, and local governmeni with its health committees, and sanitary inspectors, and media officers, become annexed without knowing it to the Commerce interests of the district.” It is for such reasons as these tha thoroughly efficient independent outside inspection is immed ately called for. Hitherto no such efficient Inspection ha been provided for, nor is it possible for a Chief Inspector c Factories to be an expert in a dozen different trades, t be Physician, Engineer, Chemist, Sanitarian, etc. Ho far could a Government Inspector deal with such a trad as that of the United Alkali Company, a corporation < enormous wealth and influence, having a staff of chemical an mechanical experts of flrst-rate ability and unique experience i the pay of the manufacturers ? Is it possible for outside criticism to have any influenc or how can the Inspector oppose his opinion, or get his viev and the proposed regulations imposed upon these manufacture] unless he too have the support and guidance of a Committee < Independent Experts responsible only to the Home Offic as supreme authority? The regulations which have been in ue since 1883, inadequate and futile as for the most part they ai •—(for the special Act is confessed a failure)—were really force upon the Home Office by pressure from the various Boards < Guardians, who complained that they were unable to relies the many sufferers who fell upon the rates in consequence » the temporary or permanent loss of health caused by lea< poisoning. And now, for nearly a year the operatives ha^ been asking when the next Rules, framed for their relief, a} coming from the Home Office. And there is as yet no answt to their despairing enquiry. One drastic remedy could be at once applied :—To pr< hibit absolutely the use of raw white lead, and thus to save tl health and life of thousands of workers. The lead before beir used should be fired, or changed from a carbonate into silicate and rendered insoluble by burning, and thus compar; tively harmless. “ As long as the dangerous process remain the compulsory provisions of a dispensary and free muzzL avails little.” 13 Another simple remedy, which has already been put into practice by Mr. Campbell, of the Campbell Tile Works, xlasgow, ought also to be universally adopted. By an ingeni¬ us arrangement currents of air are turned upon the article /hich is in process of making and the operative can be abso¬ lutely kept free from contact with the dust. The duty of drying up such poison springs as these ✓arbonate of Lead Works, the evil effects of which are only egun when the fatal white powder sets off on its journey to le potteries, the house painter, and the artist, seems too clear d be disputed.” Already the British Co-operative Society (the Democracy 3tting us an example of true Brotherhood) have recently de- .rmined to purchase only from those firms who use non- oisonous glazes, and already some manufacturers have adapted aemselves to the wants of their customers. Is it possible that fen-to-do consumers will not lift a finger to help in such a ire necessity whilst workmen are using their influence to save re r The Physician at the white lead works is a salaried servant f the employer When a woman is ill she comes to him and e recommends her dismissal. If as many as 70 per cent of |ie workers in a factory are, as Dr. Oliver estimates, likely to [2 at one time under the influence of the lead, it is not, perhaps, nnatural to suppose that their assurances of being in perfect .ealth may sometimes be too readily accepted by the Doctor ho examines them ! “ When the malady is really set up the ^ S l yS r Mr * r V ^ han Nash, “ informs the employer, id then before further mischief occurs, the woman or le man is bundled off the works, perhaps to die in a few hours to live permanently crippled. Another worker is then called to share the same fate later on.”! The periodical inspection of the women workers needs to i far more thorough and searching than it is at present. We have spoken of some firms where much has been one in the way of using precautions to obviate the risk of ;)isomng from dust and lead, but it is much to be feared that many cases the employers, the heads of firms, are uncon- ious of, or indifferent as to, the manner in which profit is oduced, so long as it comes regularly, and that they leave e details of the work to subordinates, who, looking upon pro¬ as the first consideration, are too apt to share the ignorant relessness of the masters, and to rest satisfied with the per- nctory carrying out of a few compulsory ineffectual regula- 14 tions. The regulations themselves have been framed upon the recommendations of the manufacturers, or of doctors, or chemical experts in the pay of the manufacturers. It is imperatively necessary, in the interest of the health and life of the workers, that in framing the regulations which control this industry the Home Secretary should be advised by an indepen¬ dent consultative committee of experts, who should fearlessly insist upon the putting in force of such measures as are abso¬ lutely necessary to the well-being of the men and women em¬ ployed, the first and most stringent of which should be the total prohibition of the use of raw white lead, since the workers are unable to protect themselves. As has been well said :— “It would be as reasonable to urge combination upon the patients in a hospital ward, as it would be to rely upon trade unionism in some of the trades where the injurious conditions are sapping the spirit as well as the constitution of those employed.” Scarcely less perilous than work in the White Lead Factories is the making of Phosphorus Matches. Probably but few people are aware of the conditions under which this industry is carried on or realise that in their endeavours to save an occasional penny they are dooming numbers of their fellow creatures to agonising sufferings and to death by slow torture ; still less do they realise the urgency of this question. The peril is steadily growing, for the sale of Phosphorus Matches is increasing, and that of the Swedish Safety Matches proportionately diminishing. The cheapest kind of matches (those bought by the very poor for id. per dozen boxes) are tipped with the common white phosphorus, a substance which is prepared from powdered bone ash by mixing it with sulphuric acid. This dangerous substance, even when kept under water, gives off deadly fumes, and nothing can protect the workers who handle it and those who work in the room with it from their influence. The women who use it begin after a time to suffer from toothache. They think lightly of it, perhaps have some decayed teeth extracted, and go on with their work. The pain however continues and increases—first the jaw and then the whole face swells up, and the sight on this side of the face is often affected. The pain is agonising. I have heard it described by a sufferer as a “ gnawing and tearing ” pain; it is in fact the pain of .cancer. The jaw gradually becomes green, then black, and it 15 begins t° discharge ; and now the odour of the wound becomes offensive to those who share a room with the sufferer. Death ensues after much suffering, and both before anrl , t e r dea t h the jaw is seen, if examined’in a dark rooS to b2 dight and phosphorescent! ’ e And all this agony is endured simply in order that wax 'estas and other common matches may be sold at street corners for an abnormally low price! * t et .f sweating nTrlf 6 ^ moved by the account published ^sweating. Is not this sweating in an intensely aggravated The Firm, or Firms, in East London, which employ these oor women, by their act on prove that they recognise the gravity f the circumstances. As soon as a sufferer from Phosfy law .obliged to suspend her employment, one of the largest and est-known firms allows her through the doctor who is § in thdr Tiployment — and whom alone she is permitted to consult- i a week, until she recovers or dies. But as only palliative 'fertn a 7t g h h ni p g t u m ^ dlClneS are g iven ~'which are quite in- fectual to check the disease, in which surgical treatment is in Th t o < s a e SeS h mpera - tlVe L y - r t quired ’ the medical treatment afforded In the Match Factory of the Salvation Army, at Old Ford 1 w£ e , PhosS„ Engl " d Safe,y 4h«/p&ph 0 „„,'‘ e,er -* but Ltl hl + S if a p“ UCh , le ?l inflammable substance, and in order at matches tipped with it should ignite quickly it is necessary osphoras h qq?e sf a u° ating ° f the amorphous L P .,“ A 1 he Safety Matches which ignite only on the my Factory manufactured in the Salvation my factory. By the purchase and use of Darkest England >d andT ° n y ma y 1 substantial help be given to a thoroughly )d and deserving industry, which has a hard up-hill batt e TtedMpffafi 6 ^advantage of:startingwith a P n extreme!^ ited capital, and the competition of larger and possiblv less upulous establishments, and also towards the saving of some iiMefatt,"’ ' ,0m C ™‘ and fronrTa The Manager of this Factory, who is a man of rare ffnty, simplicity and kindness, and who cordially welcomes tors ha S been offered twice his present salary if he w 0 “ld -rt his factory and work elsewhere, but he will not do so He is deeply convinced that the only way to get the real truthinto the hands of the Home Secretary is by a Departmental Commission of Enquiry, for which also Professor Watson Smith earnestly pleads. From him also we learn that the Inspectors in Switzerland reported in 1891 that (in spite of the newest improvements) the only possibility of abolishing phosphorus-necrosis lay in the com¬ plete abolition of the use of white phosphorus; and yet in England not only is the use of white phosphorus not forbidden, but it is even increasingly employed in the manufacture of matches. It is difficult to obtain access to the poor sufferers from phosphorus-necrosis, as their relatives will not run the risk of losing the allowance which they receive by admitting critical visitors. But the country is becoming day by day more fully alive to the importance and urgency of this great question of the deadly and injurious trades. Day by day the Home Secretary is evincing his anxious solicitude for the well-being of the workers whose fate lies in his hands. It is of the most vital importance that he should receive full and accurate information upon this momentous question, and it is the first duty of those Associations for Moral and Social Reform, which exist under the name of Women’s Liberal Associations, to create an en¬ lightened public opinion upon this subject. For the first duty of a Liberal (that is of a free man or woman) is to fight the battle of freedom for those who are in mental or physical bond¬ age, and who are unable to fight it for themselves. Tothe Women’s Liberal Associations of Great Britain there¬ fore I would commend the study of this urgent and terrible question, with the firm conviction that if they will indeed do their part in creating a sound public opinion upon it, it will not be long before those terrible conditions from which so many of our workers are suffering, will be redressed and removed, and the poisoning by White Lead or White: Phosphorus will become altogether unknown. ^Copies may be obtained of the Secretary of the Women’s Liberal Federation,. 23, Queen Anne’s Gate, S.W. Price 5/- per 100.