3rd. That between the age of 12 and 16 there are the fewest deaths;
4th. That there are a great many between 60 and 70.
The means proposed by Dr. Mauthner for obtaining a better physical and moral state are,
1st. Shortening the hours of labour;
2ndly. Interrupting the hours of labour by school instruction: on both which points there could be no discussion, since these are already provided for by the law.
With regard to the long working hours, which certainly appear very oppressive to the unemployed spectator, long habit has accustomed the workers to them, and they do not produce any perceptible injury, more especially as the people are paid in proportion to the time they are employed. It is to be remembered that there remain eight hours for rest, none of which are spent in going and coming to their homes, as is the case in other countries, as, for instance, in Mulhausen, where one-third of the workers live from one to two miles from the mill.
It is not during the hours of well-regulated and orderly employment that there is any danger of demoralization, but during the leisure hours. Villermé, in his valuable work on the Etat Physique et Morale des Ouvriers, states that the moral and physical deterioration of the manufacturing class in Rheims, where they only work from 10 to 12 hours, is most striking. The hours of work being ended, the people fill the taverns and the streets with prostitutes, whilst the workers from the numerous manufactories of Sedan, who work 15 hours, are sober, moral, and orderly. He mentions also that few manufactories employ so many robust hands as the spinning works at Sedan.
3dly. To employ more than one spinner to attend to a new spinning machine which turns a greater number of spindles.
It would in general be well to trust to the manufacturer the number of workers he should employ, as his interest compels him to use a requisite number of hands. In this particular case it ought to be stated that, owing to the progress of machinery, the spinner having 800 or 1000 spindles has less labour than formerly, when he had only 300 spindles to attend to.
4thly. That the children, and mill hands generally, should be kept in good order, by sick funds and savings’ banks.