dency is
to destroy family life and ties and domestic habits, and ultimately
the home.

B. Factory employments are injurious to health.

C. The factory system is productive of intemperance, unthrift, and
poverty.

D. It feeds prostitution, and swells the criminal list.

E. It tends to intellectual degeneracy.

Under "A" there is small defence to be made. The employment of married
women is fruitful of evil, and the proportion of these in Massachusetts
is 23.8 per cent. Wherever this per cent is high, infant mortality is
very great, being 23.5 per cent for Massachusetts and 19 per cent for
Connecticut and New Hampshire. The "Labor Bureau Reports" for New Jersey
treat the subject in detail, and are strongly opposed to the employment
of mothers of young children outside the home; and the conclusion is the
same at other points.

In the matter of general injury to health, under "B," it is stated that
many factories are far better ventilated and lighted than the homes of
the operatives. Ignorant employees cannot be impressed with the need of
care on these points, and the air in their homes is foul and productive
of disease. A cotton-mill is often better ventilated than a court-room
or a lecture-room. A well-built factory allows not less than six
hundred cubic feet of air space to a person, thirty to sixty cubic feet
a minute being required. Ranke, in his "Elements of Physiology," makes
it thirty-five a minute.

The homes of operatives have steadily improved in character; and
wherever there is an intelligent class of operatives, regulations are
obeyed, and sanitary conditions are fair and often perfect, while the
tendency is toward more and more care in every respect. Operatives'
homes are often better guarded against sanitary evils than those of
farmers or the ordinary laborer.

Under "C" it is shown conclusively that the factory has diminished
intemperance,--Reybaud's "History of the Factory Movement" giving full
statistics on this point, as well as in regard to the growth of banks
and benefit societies. The standard of living is higher here, but there
are countless evidences of thrift and a general rise in condition.

In the matter of prostitution, under "D," it is shown that but eight per
cent of this class come from the factory, twenty-nine per cent being
from domestic service. In Lynn, Mass., a town chosen for illustration
because of the large percentage of factory operatives,