e operatives thus shut out,
standing before a factory, whose clock was a quarter of an hour slower
than the town clocks at night, and a quarter of an hour faster in the
morning. The Factory Report relates similar facts. In one factory the
clock was set back during working-hours, so that the operatives worked
overtime without extra pay; in another, a whole quarter of an hour
overtime was worked; in a third, there were two clocks, an ordinary one
and a machine clock, which registered the revolutions of the main shaft;
if the machinery went slowly, working-hours were measured by the machine
clock until the number of revolutions due in twelve hours was reached; if
work went well, so that the number was reached before the usual working-
hours were ended, the operatives were forced to toil on to the end of the
twelfth hour. The witness adds that he had known girls who had good
work, and who had worked overtime, who, nevertheless, betook themselves
to a life of prostitution rather than submit to this tyranny. {181a} To
return to the fines, Leach relates having repeatedly seen women in the
last period of pregnancy fined 6d. for the offence of sitting down a
moment to rest. Fines for bad work are wholly arbitrary; the goods are
examined in the wareroom, and the supervisor charges the fines upon a
list without even summoning the operative, who only learns that he has
been fined when the overlooker pays his wages, and the goods have perhaps
been sold, or certainly been placed beyond his reach. Leach has in his
possession such a fines list, ten feet long, and amounting to 35 pounds
17s. 10d. He relates that in the factory where this list was made, a new
supervisor was dismissed for fining too little, and so bringing in five
pounds too little weekly. {181b} And I repeat that I know Leach to be a
thoroughly trustworthy man incapable of a falsehood.

But the operative is his employer's slave in still other respects. If
his wife or daughter finds favour in the eyes of the master, a command, a
hint suffices, and she must place herself at his disposal. When the
employer wishes to supply with signatures a petition in favour of
bourgeois interests, he need only send it to his mill. If he wishes to
decide a Parliamentary election, he sends his enfranchised operatives in
rank and file to the polls, and they vote for the bourgeois candidate
whether they will or no. If he desires a majority in a public meeting,
he dismisses them hal