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160 ME7%rODS OF SOCIAL REFORM.
to refer to the point as explaining anomalies which would
otherwise seem to tend against the inferences to be drawn ooncerning
other matters. In this article I prefer to direct the
reader’s attention to one of the existing social evils, which is
unquestionably the cause of much of the infant mortality
alluded to : I mean tho employment of child-bearing women
away from home. This is, beyond doubt, the most important
question touching the relation of the State to labour which
remains unsolved.
It has long, indeed, been one of the most frequent and
urgent proposals of trade unionists that married women should
be “taken out of the mills.” The so-called labour advocates
are often B great deal nearer the truth than the general public
believe. I3ut then, unfortunately, they give reasons for their
opinions, and theso reasons will not always bear examination.
Thus, in favour of the summary exclusion of married women,
it is argued that the market is overstocked, and that if married
women were taken ant,, tho operation would realise a great
social and domestic bonefib, whilst ((much of the overplus
labour would be reduced.” This, however, is obviously bad
political economy. We cannot possibly increase the welfare
o€ the people by lessening labour, the source of wealth. No
workers, too, are more to be admired than some married
women, who, by indomitable industry and good management,
maintain a family of children and a husband too. Where the
husband is disabled by accident, illness, imprisonment, or
otherwise, or has deserted his family, the wife cannot but be
praised if sho attempts to take his place and save the children
from the Union. There will exist, again, many cases of
married women without children, or whose children are past
infancy, where the prohibition of employment would rest on
no Rpecial grounds, and mould be little short of tyrannous.
There is a reverse side of the question, which it is impossible
to overlook. AS pointed out by one of the factory
inspectom,* no small number of women managing households
and bringing np young children are, unfortunately, unmarried.
* A€r. Baker, Report, October, 1873, pp. 122-8.