In a Worsted Factory.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLI, Issue 9, 26 August 1908, Page 61

In a Worsted Factory.

By A FACTORY GIRI*. All textile factory workers are allowed so many regular holidays per year —holidays which cannot be altered to suit the whims of individual employers, but are strictly specified by Act of Parliament. I have never found that the work connected with worsted factories is particularly fiard or particularly unhealthy. The combing department is perhaps the most injurious to women, owing to the intense heat, but no special complaint can be made of other departments. One of the chief drawbacks to modern factory life is its monotony. When I have been standing in the middle of a large weaving-shed, watching the weavers at their work, 1 have often thought how applicable to the scene was a sentence which, when first I read it, made a deep impression on my mind: “The perfection of mechanism, human and metallic.” Just as the machinery is always droning. and whirring, and grinding; just as the shuttle Hies through the warp, always in the same groove, and just as the wheels of the loom turn round and round without, variation, so is the life of the factory worker. Day follows day. The same faces are seen, the same routine of work is gone through, backwards and forwards from the home to the factory, the same hours for meals, the same circle of never-ending daily duties, and then to bed. This kind of treadmill existence, this “mechanical pacing .to and fro,” goes on year after year, until one is often tempted to kick against the prieks just by way of a change. Small wonder that gossip and even scandal are looked upon as recreation. • THE MORALS OF A FACTORY. At different times I have both heard and read a great deal about the immorality practised in factories. As far as my own experience goes, I have never thought that there is a greater tendency to immorality among factory workers than among any other class of workers. For instance I have been told over and over again that the vices of drinking and gambling are becoming very common among women factory workers. That these vices do exist in most factories among men and boys I have not the slightest doubt; but I have known very few women who gambled and not many habitual drunkards. DEPEND LARGELY ON THE EMPLOYER. Now. the morality of a factory depends largely upon the character of the employer, and also upon the individual character of the managers and overlookers. Of course, it naturally follows that where the masters are upright, clean-living men. the morality of their factories is necessarily higher than whore the employers set a-low standard. Nevertheless, it cannot be denied that the temptations of factory life are many and varied. THE TEMPTAI’ION OF FACTORY ’ LIFE. There is the temptation that leads so many promising girls astray—the love of admiration and fine clothes. There is also the morbid craving after pleasure and excitement which, in time, makes a girl frequent the dancing saloons and other objectionable places of amusement. As far as I am concerned, I cannot say that I have ever regretted the circumstances which compelled mo to earn my living as a factory worker. I always found the work fairlv congenial, and I soon learned that the three graces ■ —faith, hope, and charity—can be found in a nourishing condition, oven in the somewhat unsuitable soil of factory life and work.