; and toward the end a few
pages of special comment on the hard lives of working-women as a whole.

The report for 1871 followed the same lines, giving more detail to each.
That for 1872 took up various phases of women's work,[21] with some of
the general conditions then existing. For the following year elaborate
tables of the cost of living were given, and are invaluable as matters
of reference; and in 1874 came a no less important contribution to
social science in the report on the "Homes of Working-People." Those of
working-women were of course included, but there was still no
description of many of the conditions known to hedge them about. Each
inquiry, however, turned attention more and more in this direction, and
emphasized the need of some work given exclusively to women workers.

In 1875 attention was directed to the health of working-women, and a
portion of the report was devoted to the special effects of certain
forms of employment upon the health of women,[22] the education of
children, the conditions of families, etc. That for 1876 discussed the
question of wives' earnings, and gave tables of what proportion they
made; and that for 1877 took up "Pauperism and Crime," in the growing
amount of which it was claimed by many that the worker had large share.

In 1878 large space was given to education and the work of the young,
for whom the half-time system was urged. The conjugal condition of wives
and mothers was also considered, and the bearing of their work upon the
home. The financial distress of the period had affected wages, and the
report for 1879 considered the effect of this, with the condition of
the "unemployed," the tramp question, and other phases of the problem.
With 1880 and the ending of the first decade of work in this direction
came a fuller report on the social life of workingmen and the divorces
in Massachusetts; 1881 made a plea for uniform hours, and 1882 was
devoted to wages, prices, and profits, and further details of the life
of operatives within their homes; and 1883 found reason again to go over
the question of wages and prices.

I have given this detail because, when one views the work of the bureau
as a whole, it will be seen that each year formed one step toward the
final result, which has been of most vital bearing upon all since
accomplished in the same direction for women. Until the appearance of
the report for 1884, on the "Working-Girls of Boston," there had been no
absolute