From the evidence received it seems probable that only a small
proportion, and these perhaps the more delicate, are troubled by
prolonged standing, but attention may be drawn to the evidence of one
large factory where 50 per cent of all new workers leave before the
end of six months, and of these 30 per cent declare that they find the
standing so fatiguing that they cannot remain at the work.
In most of the processes of the cotton and worsted industries chances
of resting are exceedingly rare. Girls carrying laps[10] from the
blowing-room to the cards, can-tenters and drawing-frame minders in the
card-room, and winders and weavers, seldom, if ever, get an opportunity
to sit down. Girls on the slubber, intermediate, and roving frames, and
those in the ring-room of the cotton trade and the spinning-rooms of
the worsted industry, are in a better position in that a few minutes'
rest is sometimes possible, and some managers and overlookers believe
that these girls are less tired and show a better sickness record than
the former group. Even where the nature of the work allows occasional
periods of rest, seats are scarcely ever provided, so that the girls
seldom sit down unless the waste-boxes or the skips are in a suitable
position so that they can see down their frames to note if the work is
proceeding all right. Many of the witnesses stated complacently that
the girls soon got used to the prolonged standing, but doctors noted
that prolapsed wombs were not uncommon in young women between 20 and
30, though some felt that the number of cases were not sufficient to
warrant any conclusions. Sick Visitors also reported that prolapse
was not unusual, and that most girls found the long hours of standing
very fatiguing. Cases of prolapse are sometimes reported amongst young
married women who have not worked after marriage and who have had every
care after child-birth, which seems to point to an adverse influence
exerted during adolescence. Sometimes girls complain bitterly of the
lack of opportunity for even a few minutes' rest, and the Sick Visitors
say that conditions of work which do not allow a girl to snatch even a
short respite during a 10-hour day do not give her a chance to get over
any constitutional delicacy. As a general rule, however, the girls make
no complaints, but older women find the continued standing very tiring,
and many witnesses believe that this is due to the cumulative strain
of long years, while some declare that the anaemia prevalent among
young textile workers is largely due to the weakened condition brought
about by long hours of standing.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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