Nor is it only in the matter of wages that the Trade Unions have been able to do so much for the women operatives of Lancashire. There is abundant evidence to shew that public opinion has been brought to bear by them upon the administration of the Factory Acts, and that a standard of factory administration has been brought about through their agency that could not possibly have been attained without it. Then again in the matter of fines, with which I deal more fully later on, the Unions have made themselves felt. Whilst fining is still far too prevalent in the cotton factories it is less prevalent and arbitrary than in the woollen and worsted trades. =Supervision.=--But perhaps the question which touches women most closely is the nature of the supervision to which they are subjected. Unhappily this has sometimes been of the lowest kind. Not only have bullying expedients been used for the purpose of “driving” the workpeople--for instance, by exposing the names of those who had fallen below the standard of the labour driver in the shed--but immoral conduct has had to be submitted to. However, the Unions have taken a firm attitude in this latter respect, and indeed two strikes have recently taken place, one at Oldham and one at Nelson, with the result that in each case the obnoxious overlooker was removed. In the Nelson case the evidence was submitted to arbitrators, clergymen of the neighbourhood, who, in giving their judgment, placed it on record that the offences of which the man had been judged guilty “are not uncommon among men who have the oversight of the female operatives in other mills, and as ministers of religion we most earnestly appeal to the employers of labour practically to recognise their duty in this matter, and seriously consider how essential it is to the happiness and well-being of those under their charge, as well as to their credit, to make the moral conduct of their workpeople the subject of nearer concern and of greater importance.” It is satisfactory to note that this award has created an improvement in the behaviour of overlookers generally, and has attracted the attention of employers.