In the cotton industry the position is even worse. Girls entering the mill at 12 as half-timers or at 13 for full time are expected to conform in every way to factory life. Voluntary reduction of hours by employers for younger workers is completely unknown, and instead of suiting the work to the capacity of young workers, the girls have to adapt themselves to the requirements of their work. As soon as a girl has her own looms--at the present time weavers are on two looms at 13, and frequently on four at 14 or 15--the manager expects her to produce the average output every week, and the strain to do this is responsible for much deterioration in health. The competition between weavers is encouraged by overlookers and managers, and no effort is ever made to teach girls to conserve their energies. In the worsted industry the majority of the younger workers are employed in the spinning rooms, first as doffers and then as spinners, which one witness describes as the hardest process in the industry. Few girls remain at spinning after they are 18, as the money earned here seldom exceeds 18s. per week, but it is during the critical years of adolescence that they are engaged on this exceedingly fatiguing work, and no effort is made to reduce the burden of their employment. In the clothing trade of Hebden Bridge the Trade Union officials report that the younger workers are not subjected to heavy pressure of work, and are able to take their ease at the workshops if they so desire, the peculiar circumstances of the trade here preventing any attempt to speed them up by threat of dismissal. In one or two factories learners and young operatives work in a separate room in charge of women overlookers, and in most cases these supervisors are careful about the health of their charges and prevent them working at an excessive pace. THE TRANSITION FROM SCHOOL TO FACTORY LIFE In reviewing the effects of the transition from school to factory life it must be remembered that the evidence from the non-textile industries refers to girls who are over 14 years of age, while in the textile towns the large majority of the children start work either as half-timers at 12 or as full timers at 13. The general trend of the evidence shows that the taking up of non-textile employment is attended by a considerable falling-off in health. Most girls become thinner and lose their colour and vitality during their first six months at the factory, and those working long hours become "like machines, able to keep on without breakdown, but lose all their normal interests." This, however, appears to pass off after a time, and their health and vitality return.