THE HALF-TIMER

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 133, 6 June 1914, Page 16

THE HALF-TIMER

" NOT ALL GOOD, NOT ALL BAD " A FACTORY WOMAN'S TALE. In an endeavour to present both sides of the half-timer question, a Bradford working woman writes to the Times urging that side of the question that does not appeal to the advocates of the abolition altogether of the half-timer. The half-timer is a child that works some time of the day in a factory, and some time of the day is spent in schqol. Parents with children with the appetites of men are often hard put to it to keep hungry growing boys at school in England up to, say, fourteen or fifteen years of age, although admitting that it is better for the child to do so. The Bradford working woman's case is plainly put, and at least commands a respectful hearing. " When I began my working life (she writes), the agq limit was ten for halftimers — nowadays it is twelve — and altogether I worked nearly twenty years in _ the. same factory. Contrary to the opinions expressed by some people, my health never suffered as a result of ; the half-time system, and I was never at home for more than » few days during the whole of my factory life. Again, I never had any trouble to pass the required "standard" at school, and I certainly cannot remember to have fallen asleep over my lessons, or even to have felt inclined to do so. When I was a half-timer, employed as a ' piecer ' in the spinning room of a worsted factory, the work could "scarcely be described as hard, though it was mechanical and monotonous. Of late years, however, I know thatthe hustling craze has invaded every textile factory, machinery has been speeded up to an almost incredible extent, with the result that both halftime and full-time children suffer accordingly. - In the factory where I was employed for so many years there were quite 100 half-timers, and I would like to pdint out one or two acts which the opponents of the half-time system have a knacky of ignoring. It has grown into a fashion nowadays to blame the factory system in general, and the half-time system in particular, for every evil under the sun from which' we as a nation are suffering. Physical deterioration, love_ of undue excitement and amusement, immorality of every kind, have all, at one time or the other, been blamed upon the half-time system. Well, when I worked in the factory I was certainly acquainted with many halt- timers who were perhaps not all they should have been, but they did not learn all their bad habits in the factory. ' GENERAL CHARGES. " With regard to the charge that halftimers fall asleep over their lessons through weariness, in these days, at any rate, the parents arc often far more to blame for such a state of affairs than the half-time system. When children are in the morning "turn" at the factory they are obliged to be at their work by 6.30 a.m., and, naturally, they ought to be in bed early. However, no such thing happens. In these progressive days parents almost invariably allow their children to sit up until their own bed hour; the children have just what they fancy for supper, not what is most suitable, and usually— at least by many social reformers — the half-time system has to bear the blame for the result. When I was a half-timer I did know of instances where children were- sent to work when their parents could well have afforded to keep them full time at school; but Ihese instances, it needs to be borne in mind, were quite the exceptions, not by any means the rule. To speak generally, the half-time children belong to parents of the unskilled labour class, where every shilling earned makes a difference at the week-end, or the parents are themselves factory operatives. "Again, the state of the Bradford streets on Sunday evenings — the spectacle of boys and girls parading in an aimless fashion— has olten been attributed to the half-time system by over-zealous reformers, or at any rate to the factory system in general. However, one thing needs explaining : the streets of Leeds are not better than the Bradford streets on Sunday evenings, and there arc no half-timers in Leeds. Then, too, towns in other parts of England, where the factory system is not, and never has been, in existence, suffer from the same thing. I am well aware that the halftime system is not ideal; no one with an ordinary share of common-sense would say it was ; but I have always maintained that the half-time system is far and away to be preferred to either street trading or home industries for children. A GREATER EVIL. "Social reformers fieem to -be concentrating their efforts to abolish the halftime system, which in, Yorkshire and Lancashire only affects rather over 34,000 children ; bbust s you hear very little about the abolition of street trading and home industries. Up to a. year or so ago there were a, large number of children employed in Le«ds as street traders and other miscellaneous occupations. They were of all ages, there were no restrictions o& io the number of hours worked, and very small wage* were paid them. Yet, one evening last winter I heard a lady declare that Bradford was ■one of the 'black spots' an the industrial world, eimply because it had 5000 children employed as half-timers, not one of whom is under 12 years of a.ge, and not/ one of whom can be worked for more than 28 hours per week. "At a recent sitting of the Departmental Committee which enquired _ into the earnings of women employed in the linen and cotton embroidery trade in Belfast, evidence was given that children often return from school at 4 o'clock and Avork until 11 at night. When asked by a member of the Select Committee on i Homework the age at which children in his district begaji to card hooks and eyes and buttons, the inspector of factoties in the Birmingliam district replied, "At three years." Miss Rose Square, one of the senior lady inspectors, said, "At five years," when asked the same question with regard to the child lace finishers at Nottingham. In London at six and seven years of age homeworkers' children are busy with boot boxes, ma-teh boxes, paper bags, and other trivialities. "Between, these little captives, whom very poor mothers must force to work else they would starve, and the factory half-timers is an intermediate class, children of school age employed for wages outside school hours. A Blue-book published mi 1899 dealing with these children wa.s described by Sir John Gorst, the then Minister of Education, as a, 'painful and Bickening document.' According f o the report no fewer than 300,000 children were in attendance at school and also in paid employment, and in many cases the hours of work were excessive. It is in this report that an account is given of four sistefS) aged eight, nine, ten, and twelve, who, in addition to attending school, were employed in wood-chopping from 44 to 50 hours jjer week. "If the hours of work in textile factories could be still further shortened, more holidays allowed, and the school work specially fitted for their requirements, I fail to understand why an ordinary healthy boy or girl should take any ,harm from working half-time for., one your jo « factory. As fur »a I can «oe, <5 jkii&-tait'jy»£>B»js»tt a -absiißiisd^f

morrow, it will be far harder for a child of 13 to leave school and be cent to work full time in the factory than, if ho had had a year as half-timer in. which to get used to it. To abolish the- half-time system in textile factories and to leave the strect-irading and home industries as they are at present seems to me Bimply absurd, and at. any rate I am euro of ont; thing— the parents themselves should be allowed a voice in tho matter before tho hplf-timo system is finally abol- • ished."' I