[7] _I_, _Ia_ and 6, Resolutions of the Berlin Conference: "It is desirable that the inferior limit of age, at which children may be admitted to work underground in mines, be gradually raised to 14 years, as experience may prove the possibility of such a course; that for southern countries the limit may be 12 years, and that the employment underground of persons of the female sex be forbidden." CHAPTER III. SURVEY OF THE EXISTING CONDITIONS OF LABOUR PROTECTION. In the first chapter we learnt to recognise the special character of Labour Protection in the strict sense of the term. We must further learn what is its actual aim and scope. Labour Protection strictly so called, represents presumably the sum total of all those special measures of protection, which exist side by side with free self-help and mutual help, and with the ordinary state protection extended to all citizens, and to labourers among the rest. And such it really proves to be on examination of the present conditions and already observable tendencies of Labour Protection. We shall only arrive at a clear and exhaustive theory and policy of Labour Protection both as a whole and in detail by examining separately and collectively all the phenomena of Labour Protection. This will necessitate in the first place a comprehensive survey of the existing conditions of Labour Protection, and to this end a regular arrangement of the different forms which it takes. In sketching such a survey we have to make a threefold division of the subject; first, the _scope_ of Labour Protection, in the strict sense of the term; secondly, the various _legislative methods_ of Labour Protection; and thirdly, the _organisation_ of Labour Protection (as regards courts of administration, and their methods and course of procedure). In considering the scope of Labour Protection we have to examine the special measures adopted to meet the several dangers to which industrial wage-labour is exposed. The following survey shows the actual field of labour protective legislation, as well as the wider extension which it is sought to give thereto. I. SCOPE OF LABOUR PROTECTION. _A._ Protection against material dangers. 1. Protection of employment; and this of two kinds, viz.:-- (i.) Restriction of employment; (ii.) Prohibition of employment. _a._ Protection of working-time with regard to the maximum duration of labour: General maximum working-day. Factory maximum working-day (unrestricted in the case of adults--restricted in the case of "juvenile workers" and women). _b._ Protection of intervals of rest: Protection of daily intervals--of night-work--of holidays--Sundays and festivals. 2. Protection during work: Against dangers to life, health, and morals, and against neglect of teaching and instruction, incurred in course of work. 3. Protection in personal intercourse:--