MODERN SLAVERY.
A WORD FOR OUR SHOP-ASSISTANTS.
That we, as a nation, are not lovers of change for the sake of change, can hardly be disputed; indeed, our conservatism in minor matters may justify the reflection cast upon us by our neighbours. But although we may be willing to continue patronising forms and institutions that may justly be considered antiquated and effete, yet it is nevertheless a fact that once get the public ear, and the cry of the oppressed will never be raised in vain, even though redress involves uprooting of old-established customs. Opposition to sudden and violent changes there may be; but the familiar instance of our factory laws shows that there is help for the poorest and weakest, let the need for help once be made known. But, unhappily, those who most need assistance are just those least able to plead their own cause, either from ignorance or from fear of the consequences of complaint. Such was the case with the children, who needed an outsider’s voice to raise their ‘cry;’ and with those women-labourers, the story of whose underground toils and miseries needed but to be heard, to awake indignant protest against the whole system which could produce such results. In the latter case, so sweeping was the reform, that the recurrence of the evil is impossible; and though the working of the Factory and Workshop Act may not be altogether perfect, it affords a considerable measure of protection to the helpless, and stands as a wholesome check between oppressor and oppressed.
By the Factory Act, not only are factories proper placed under government inspection, but all proprietors of workshops or workrooms are liable to the salutary visit of the inspector, whose duty it is to see that the terms of the Act are complied with; that is, that the ‘hands’ work only a certain specified number of hours; and that due regard is paid to ventilation and sanitary precautions. But the inspector’s boundary is the workshop or workroom, and beyond this he is powerless to interfere; although on his way to his department he frequently passes by large numbers of those who need supervision and protection fully as much as those on whose behalf his visit is paid, yet who, as the law now stands, are utterly and hopelessly in the power of employers, who are free if they will to work their victims to death with impunity.
Not, of course, that all employers are deaf to the claims of humanity and think only of their own gain; on the contrary, many large establishments are remarkable for the attention given to the comfort of employees, who work only a fair number of hours, are well housed, and treated generally with consideration. But even in such cases, the restrictions and regulations are purely voluntary, and it is quite conceivable that a change of proprietorship might involve a complete reversion of the order of things; and as a fact, the vastly larger part of retail business is carried on in a manner that makes the position of the shop-assistant practically one of cruel slavery. Not that the work is in itself laborious; though, as it involves of necessity an unusual amount of standing, it is not suited to the naturally feeble or delicate. The assistant’s chief hardships centre round the abnormal length of his working-day, a day so protracted that none but the strongest can bear the strain. The standing itself becomes very much a matter of habit to the robust, provided the hours are reasonable, and that sufficient time is allowed for meals to enable the worker to get a real rest at least twice during a day of twelve hours, in addition to a regular weekly half-holiday. The assistant’s working hours should number about sixty per week, certainly not a low percentage; but, as matters now stand, it is no exaggeration to say that a very large majority of shop-assistants work from eighty to ninety hours a week, out of which, in many cases, no regular meal-times are allowed, food being hastily eaten, and work resumed as soon as the too hasty meal is finished. Nominally, indeed, there are stated times for meals in most establishments, in the better classes of which the assistants enjoy the meal in comfort; but in too many cases the unfortunate assistant has to accommodate his appetite to suit the tide of customers.
Thirteen or fourteen hours daily, with scarcely a break, would be considered hard work, were it carried on under the invigorating influence of fresh air, or were the work of a varied or partly sedentary nature; but when, in addition to the length of hours, there is the weary monotony of standing, the pain of which increases with every hour of violence to nature, and the fact that, in the large majority of cases, the air breathed is vitiated and impure, it needs but a little foresight to predict that a few years of such slavery will put an end to the working-power of its victims.
Let any impartial observer take note of the ages of shop-assistants—especially in poor, crowded neighbourhoods—and he can hardly fail to be struck by the fact that the very large majority are young, and that the apprentice-age predominates. Indeed, it is not the least sad part of the picture that the crushing influence of habitual overwork is brought to bear most heavily upon the young man or woman, hardly more than boy or girl, who begins the new career full of the illusions of youth, and finds, long before the years of apprenticeship are over, that the capital of health and strength is either entirely gone or fast declining. Cases have come within our own experience in which the rosy cheeks and exuberant spirits of fifteen or sixteen have at nineteen or twenty given way to the pale face and languid, artificial smile habitual to the overworked, who, in spite of pain and weariness, are forced to keep up the semblance of cheerfulness. In one instance, the gradual lowering of tone caused such a susceptibility to disease, that an ordinary cold was sufficient to extinguish the feeble flame of life; and in other cases, tendencies to special ailments have arisen, distinctly traceable to the overtaxing of immature strength.
This personal experience is fully corroborated by many who have taken sufficient interest in the question to study the causes and effects of a system involving such a large amount of avoidable suffering to an important section of society. To take but one instance. The Rev. J. S. Webber, chaplain of University College Hospital, writing to the President of the Shop Hours’ Labour League, says: ‘I have noticed the result of long hours amongst the assistants employed at the smaller houses of business—have met with many a young girl, broken down in health, with the brain weakened. Instead of getting a walk after business, or enjoying some other healthy recreation, they have resorted to stimulants in the shape of intoxicating drinks, to keep up, as they fancy, the poor fragile frame. We find in our Sunday schools that the poor teachers who are assistants in shops cannot get to school on Sunday morning. This also applies to church. The shop-assistant is at a terrible disadvantage compared with the mechanic. Many of the former cannot leave business until nine or ten every evening, and twelve o’clock on Saturday, with body and mind so exhausted, whatever educational advantages might offer, they are too exhausted to do anything but rest.’ This testimony from a man of large experience touches upon two or three of the incidental but by no means slight effects of overwork. Sunday, to the aching body and weary brain of the shop-assistant, whose Saturday, instead of being a half-holiday, is the crowning point to a week of toil, may bring with it something of physical refreshment; it certainly has little chance of affording that quiet time for reflection and spiritual exercise essential to the development of noble life.
Again, as to innocent recreation—the health-giving walk, stimulating game, and harmless musical entertainment, are as entirely beyond the reach of the shop-assistant as are the educational advantages offered by public lecture, picture-gallery, or library. His, or her, life is, in fact, an example of the ‘all work and no play’ which in the nature of things produces ‘a dull boy’—or girl. And with whatever ability or education the shop career is begun, it is a pretty sure thing that the mind will become so stupefied with the burden of physical weariness, that the inclination towards self-culture will quickly vanish, and the overworked assistant sinks into a state of apathy, which, especially in the case of the male assistant, reduces him to the dead-level of hopeless existence; and not only is his present life a burden, but the ordinary castle-building of the young man has very limited play in his case; for every dream of future bliss is checked by the reflection that should he dare to face poverty and found for himself a home, his services will very probably be at a discount, the married assistant standing a worse chance of employment than the single.
Who shall wonder if, under such circumstances, the young man or woman is not always proof against the temptations of those more than doubtful pleasures which present the only substitute for natural and rational enjoyments?
What is the medical voice on this question of overwork, need hardly be said. Whenever a doctor writes or speaks on the subject, he is sure to give unequivocal testimony as to the premature failure of health amongst shop-assistants in general, and especially amongst growing boys and girls, whose immature frames cannot, without injury, be made to habitually violate every physiological law. And yet, in face of all this, the market is so overstocked with volunteers for slavery, that the master has matters completely in his own hands, and is perfectly safe in defying rebellion, sure that were the whole of his assistants to leave to-day, their places could with ease be filled to-morrow.
Much of this over-supply is due to ignorance on the part of parents and guardians, who, finding a ‘genteel’ employment for the boy or girl, do not stop to inquire what goes on behind the curtain of gentility. And by the time his apprenticeship is over, the assistant is not at an age to mark out for himself a new career, and is bound to make the best of a bad bargain. Not only so, but one of the special drawbacks to shop-labour is the fact that if the employee offends his employer in any way, even to such matters as attending a meeting or taking in a paper that is disapproved of, he is liable to dismissal without a reason and without a character; so that virtually the shop-assistant gives into his employer’s hands the absolute control of his time, his health, and his character; and whatever may be the results of that surrender, escape or redress is equally unattainable.
Again, we repeat that many employers refrain from taking advantage of their power; but nevertheless the fact remains, that a master who, through thoughtlessness or greed, overworks, under-pays, badly houses and badly feeds his employees, or dismisses them without a character, is at perfect liberty to do so, and is in no danger of being called to account for his actions!
The Early Closing Association has done something towards procuring at least an amelioration of the shop-assistant’s condition, by seeking to establish a universal half-holiday. It works on the persuasive line, and in some parts of London and in many provincial towns has succeeded in securing this boon of half a day’s rest; but persuasion alone will never be able to treat with an evil so widespread; for, as long as the early closing is purely voluntary, so long it will be in the power of any one man to compel a whole neighbourhood to refuse or abolish the half-holiday. If his shop is open when others are closed, he will to a certainty obtain customers; and this is an advantage his neighbours dare not allow him; therefore, they must follow suit and keep open at his pleasure.
In this one-man power lies the secret of the present abnormal length of hours; for it is a matter of experience that as long as shops are open, so long customers will continue to come; and hence competition has suggested lengthening of hours with a view to checkmating neighbours. Yet no method of doing business ever brought with it more disadvantage, for less gain. The public is certainly no better off than if shopping had to be got through in reasonable time; and beyond dispute, the shopkeeping class is not only no better, but very much worse off for this tyranny of custom, which compels even the unwilling employer to keep his assistants at work far beyond the ordinary limits of labour. And so deep-seated and established has the slavery become, that there remains nothing for it but an appeal to the State to interfere with an extension of the Factory and Workshop Act; and although we are by no means of those who believe in ‘grandmotherly legislation,’ this is a case, if ever there was one, in which the strong hand of the law alone can lift a whole section of society out of the misery in which it now lies, and from which, unaided, it can never escape. An extension of the Factory Act, although it would of necessity leave the shop-assistant’s hours longer than those of most workers, would at least protect him from unlimited labour, and would insure his work being carried on under fairly healthy conditions.
The grumbling section of the public would doubtless raise many objections to a shopping day of only twelve hours; but we confidently prophesy that a year’s probation would show the new order of things to be no hardship to the purchaser; and as regards employers, although, doubtless, many will make great capital out of the grievance of coercion, the more sensible and far-sighted will recognise the fact that on this question at least the interests of employer and employed are identical. Once insure that all shops shall be limited to the same number of hours, and there need be no anxiety as to loss of business. The consumer’s wants must be met, and if he has only a limited (and reasonable) number of hours in which to do his shopping, he will have no choice but to adapt his habits to the new order of things.
Hardship, of course, it would be if the law were limited to certain neighbourhoods, or if clashing trades were not all under the same restriction; but as long as there was one uniform code for all, the only difference to the shopkeeper would be greater personal leisure without loss of business. To those heads of large establishments to whom reference has already been made, this may seem a trifling matter; but many and many a small shopkeeper will rejoice, fully as much as his assistants, in freedom from the excessive toil which makes his life as much a slavery as theirs, and from which he is equally powerless to escape.
Under the name of the ‘Shop Hours’ Labour League,’ a scheme has been set on foot having for its object the presentation to parliament of such a bill as has been suggested; and the interest of every individual member of society is earnestly invited, in the hope of creating a public conscience on a question affecting thousands of workers, whose services are essential to the comfort of the community. The President of the League, Thomas Sutherst, Esq., barrister-at-law, has compiled a shilling volume on the subject, which, under the somewhat sensational title of Death and Disease behind the Counter, contains a large amount of sober fact, and can scarcely fail to awaken strong feeling in the mind of every reader who takes an interest in the welfare of his fellows. The League needs help, not in money, but in personal effort and influence; and Mr Sutherst (3 Dr Johnson’s Buildings, London), whose work is purely a labour of love, is ready to give information, or to suggest methods by which help may be rendered to a cause which thoroughly deserves the heartiest support.