Equally serious is the absence of any system of medical advice or treatment for the cases in which physical defect or disease has been notified. For these and other reasons it is highly desirable that the factory medical service, so far as it relates to juveniles, should be absorbed in the School Medical Service, which for nearly ten years has been doing such good work in the detection and to some extent the treatment of pathological conditions among school children. This body is far better placed than the certifying surgeons, as the whole of the elementary school population passes under its hands. Medical inspection could then become a condition of all employment, instead of, as at present, factory employment merely, and suitable arrangements could be made without much difficulty for medical care and treatment where necessary. It would be likely, also, that the school doctors would take a more enlightened view of factory conditions and the needs of adolescence than the certifying surgeons, and would have the Education Authority at their backs in urging the importance of healthful conditions on the employer in the factory.[5]
The Industrial Conditions needed for the Young.—In regard to girls the importance of adapting conditions of work to the needs of the immature woman is a matter of thought and care, of details intelligently combined into a coherent whole. Given suitable arrangements it need by no means be assumed that the factory is inherently injurious to women and girls. Several persons whose views have been included in the following report even thought that factory life was beneficial in some respects. Dr. Louis Starr also says: "While there is no question of the evils of child-labour, more of the young suffer from too little than too much use of the muscles. Where harm comes the blame should not be put upon the mere work, but upon the unhealthy surroundings, bad work-rooms, long hours, great monotony, over-specialisation and excessive use of the accessory and neglect of the fundamental muscles."[6]
The principle of economic individualism has been definitely thrown over by all but a few invincible doctrinaires, and it is coming to be recognised that the shoe must fit the human foot and not the foot be cut down to suit the shoe. We are beginning, greatly daring, to foresee a time when directors of industry will be required to revise their schemes of management or even to construct new ones, not merely to avoid injury to workers, but with the view of promoting their healthy mental and physical development. Hours of work must be considerably shortened for young workers, rest pauses must be introduced to minimise fatigue, time must be allowed for physical exercise, education, and recreation, and the whole surroundings of work modified with a regard for the personality of the workers. The question of speed is of special importance in regard to young girls. In America, where speed and strain have been and still are extreme, it is beginning to be recognised by the most enlightened employers that it is useless to urge the human organisation beyond the power of endurance. In some cases speeds have been reduced to get the best results.[7]
Detailed study is necessary in order to adapt the work to the capabilities of the workers. In Miss Collier's reports several interesting notes will be found on the desirability of picking strong girls for certain kinds of work: on the need of seats, and specially of the right kind of seats, and other points. When a new Factory Act comes under consideration, as we hope it may after the war, the needs of youthful workers will be the point that most urgently requires emphasis and re-statement, and I venture to hope that the then Home Secretary will take account of Miss Collier's investigation.
The war has shown us the extraordinary elasticity of productive power in modern times. In response to an urgent national need, material production has been stretched to a point that would have been incredible a few years ago. This is surely an indication that—apart from the present need for enormous quantities of war-material—production can satisfy the bodily wants of men and yield a surplus for the higher needs of civilised communities without excessive toil, certainly without overtaxing the young and immature. Further, much evidence collected both before and during the war indicates that overwork is relatively unproductive compared with work for reasonable hours. All this shows that we can, if we wish, decide to be the master of the machine and not its slave. The knowledge and the power are there: let not the will be lacking.
[INVESTIGATION]
Little attention has been given until quite recent times to the effects of industrial work on the health and physique of adolescent girls. Child labour has been the subject of much discussion, and medical investigations have shown the detrimental influence exerted by wage-earning employment on the plastic organism of the growing child. It is recognised that with children bodily work often produces a greater degree of fatigue both mental and physical than does mental work of equal duration. The various legal restrictions limiting the hours and controlling the conditions of the labour of children, although inadequate in extent and sometimes only permissive in character, are evidence of a realisation that the well-being of the child is of more importance than its immediate commercial utility. This recognition of the necessity of guarding against overstrain during the critical early years does not, however, extend to the period of adolescence. The restrictions of the hours of work and the conditions of employment of young persons of both sexes differ but slightly from those applying to adult women. This failure to appreciate the special problems of adolescence is the more remarkable in that medical evidence has shown that young children grow and develop despite great hardships, while adolescence is more dependent upon favouring conditions in the environment, disturbances of which more easily retard development and effectively injure the still growing body. "In late adolescence contrasted with earlier life there is more variation in growth, much greater liability to retrogression, and increased susceptibility to outside influences, unfavourable surroundings, and conditions more readily causing arrest of growth and preventing perfect maturity."[8]
In the evidence before the Physical Deterioration Committee in 1904, Dr. Eichholz[9] emphasised the need of close attention to the physical condition of young girls who take up industrial work between the ages of 14 and 18, for the conditions under which they work, rest, and eat doubtless account for the rapid falling off in physique which so frequently accompanies the transition from school to work. And the summary of that Committee states: "The period of adolescence is responsible for much waste of human material and for the entrance upon maturity of permanently damaged and ineffective persons of both sexes. The plasticity of the human organisation, the power it possesses of yielding rapidly towards degenerative or recuperative influences appears to terminate at 18."