t
of subsistence, and that temptation of every order waits upon them. At
the best the wage falls far below that of men, even when both engage in
the same work. The present movement toward organization is the first
step toward a general bettering of all trades and their wage; and for
fullest details of this, and work in connection with the admirable
Bourse du Travail, one of its most important features of working life
to-day in Paris, the reader must turn to the reports themselves,
beginning with the first one, issued in 1887-88.[37] The same facts may
be said to form the story of labor in Belgium, in Switzerland, in Italy,
and at all points where women or children are at work, whether in
factory or mine or workshop. For Belgium the situation is summed up in a
very important and minute report of the government inquiry commission
into the labor of women and children,--the first made in 1867 and
followed by one in 1874, the latest having been made in 1891.[38]

A comprehensive law, promulgated Nov. 2, 1892, and regulating the labor
of women and children in factories and mines, was amended in May, 1893,
by the addition of very specific regulations as to all employments
affecting health and morals. The Presidential decree consists of two
parts,--the first dealing with the employment of women and children in
connection with machinery when in motion, or in which the dangerous
parts are not fully protected, in glass-blowing and in carrying weights.
The second part of the decree consists of three tables, of which A
enumerates certain industries, chiefly the manufacture of acids, dyes,
chemicals, etc., also manures and glass, crystal, and metal polishing,
in which female and child labor are prohibited; B those in which
children under eighteen must not work, chiefly the manufacture of
explosives; and C, a large variety of other industries in which female
and child labor is only allowed conditionally. The great majority of
these are industries involving special risk through the disengagement of
dust-particles or vapors; while a few are ranked as dangerous, owing to
risk of fire and the contraction of special diseases, etc.

Belgium, French in feeling and in methods, has known some of the worst
abuses discoverable on continental soil, thousands of women and children
in her mines having toiled from twelve to sixteen hours a day, with
often no Sunday rest, for a wage at bare subsistence point. In
"Germinal," Zola, who spent months ob