Books to Consult—Gould: Housing of the Working People (U. S. Labor Dept.). Manning: Villages for Working Men and Working-Men's Homes. R. W. DeForest and others: The Tenement-House Problem. F. C. Moore: How To Build a Home.
Discuss the subject of the model towns. How satisfactory do the tenants find the system of leases and regulations? Show pictures of the Garden Cities of England and the model tenements of Berlin. Take up the merits of building-and-loan associations and buying homes on the instalment plan. Shall we employ an architect for the small home, or are published plans practical?
III—FACTORIES AND WORKSHOPS
1. The Industrial Age—The introduction of labor-saving machinery in England in the eighteenth century. Enormous development in the present day. General effect on the laboring class.
2. The Factory System and Human Life—Overcrowding, and lack of air and light. Unprotected machinery. Danger of fire. Inadequate fire-escapes and exits. Bad sanitation. The sweat-shop. Monotony of tasks and overlong hours of work. The labor of women. Child labor.
3. Model Conditions in Factory Life—The building: air, light, sanitation, space, protection. The eight-hour day: a living wage. Insurance against accident, old age, and death. The lunch-room. The factory doctor.
4. Local Ideals—Conferences with employees. The cultivation of social sentiment in the employing class. Beautifying the factory grounds. Associations among employees: recreation, social, mutual benefit. Holidays and Sundays. The children in factory homes.
Books to Consult—Clarke: Effects of the Factory System. Spahr: America's Working People. Wright: The Factory System as an Element in Social Life.
At this meeting there should be a presentation of the fine conditions existing in certain great manufactories and publishing-plants where the employers and the employed are working for the same high ends; pictures may be shown of gardens, recreation-grounds, lunch-rooms and the like; abundant material may be found in various magazine articles. The question of old-age pensions should be discussed. A practical outcome of this meeting may be the appointing of a permanent committee to better local conditions.