=Labour of Married Women.=--There are other sacrifices demanded of the women who work in the textile trades besides those which can be directly connected with their work. I am aware that many of the workers themselves do not look upon their employment in this light. An abundant demand for labour in which women can participate is generally regarded as a great boon; but against the advantages must be set the drawbacks--the comparative break-up of home life and the habitual neglect of children. The problem is a grave one, and opinions are conflicting, but most people agree that something should be done at any rate to arrest the terrible infant mortality, which is to be found in all the centres which give widespread employment for married women. It is urged that it is impossible to legislate for comfortable homes, and that the direct prohibition of the labour of those whose homes should be their first charge is also impossible, but that yet some improvement is necessary, and can, by more moderate measures, be secured. We certainly cannot afford--the manufacturers themselves cannot afford--to have generation after generation sapped of its strength, and thrown upon life unfitted for its tasks. And much also may be said as to the doubtful economy of the mother’s supplementary wage. It may sometimes be the means of adding to the family income, but cases have come under my notice in which the weekly payments made for looking after the home and children, the extra expenses involved in mending and in washing and in the preparation of food, outweigh the gain in wages. Then again the payments for doctors and medicine are higher in families where the mother works at the mill, and the children are left to themselves, than in those where the children are constantly under a mother’s care. If in addition to this we remember the tendency of women’s labour to pull down the general standard of remuneration, it is apparent that we must not hasten to accept the conclusion that the prohibition of the labour of married women, either partially or entirely, would mean the impoverishment of the family.