[84] The wording of the section (31 (2)) of the Act, however, makes it difficult to enforce.
Paper-bag making.
The making of paper bags is, of this group of trades, most extensively and systematically practised as a home industry. This is particularly the case in the neighbourhood of busy street markets, such as are found in South London. The work is mostly done by married women of a rough class, as a supplement to their husbands' wages.[85] Reporting upon one such worker an investigator says: "Mrs. —— is one of nine daughters, and seven are paper-bag makers. All her cousins, aunts and relations-in-law have taken it up.... A niece of hers was consumptive and could not earn her living, but she was fond of dress. Mrs. —— taught her paper-bag making and she soon earned 8s. or 9s. a week." The profit which yielded this income is stated to be 6d. or 7d. per thousand bags. Many women who occasionally work at paper-bag making only do so to earn a particular sum of money of which they are in need—say 10s. When that is earned they cease work. Such is the casual nature of the employment and the disorganised state of the labour employed in it.
[85] "In nearly all the cases that Mrs. —— (an employing bag maker in the Borough) knows there are bad husbands. Mrs. —— is in the trade herself to supplement her husband's earnings because she has nine children and he cannot earn enough to keep them in comfort."
The homes.
The practically unanimous report of the investigators is that these home workers' home conditions are of the very worst. "A very squalid and evil-smelling slum," "Very poor and miserable house shared by others," are typical descriptions of the dwellings to which the home work investigations led us.
[CHAPTER IX.] THE MARRIED AND THE UNMARRIED.
The investigators tried to obtain information bearing upon the interesting and important question of the influence of the married and the unmarried woman worker on industry, on the home, and on the family income. But the difficulty of following up statements and testing their accuracy has been so great and some of the factors in the problem so elusive under the conditions of the trades investigated, that conclusions are stated with considerable reserve.