Miss Meiklejohn, for example, has been struck with the need for more attention to be given to posture in the hosiery industry where numbers of young persons are employed on hand knitting frames. She says, "here careful attention is required to adjust the height of the machine to the worker and to teach the young person economy of movement. Some workers appear to work easily and smoothly, while the movements of others are jerky and exaggerated."

Although in some factories special stands have been provided to bring the work to the right level for the operator, in others scant attention has been given to such an obvious necessity, and one jam factory is cited where workers pouring jam into pots had their work placed in trays on the floor, so that they were obliged to stoop continually and subsequently raise the trays to trolleys.

Medical Examination.-Although the Factory Act requires that young persons under 16 years employed in a factory must be certified within the first 7 days of employment as fit for work, some employers go further and on engagement of all young persons a thorough examination is made by the Works Doctor, and a special report for the firm's benefit is made by him. If the health of the young worker is found unsatisfactory, examination is made at frequent intervals and the parents are notified of any defects. Miss Anderson mentions a works in which a special arrangement is in force with the Certifying Surgeon, by which he examines all young persons yearly for 3 years (14-17 years). Record cards are kept, and the development of the young person is noted and watched by the nurse. Dental clinics are gradually being established and in some cases compulsory examination of the teeth of young persons is made on engagement, followed by free treatment up to the age of 18 years. is to be hoped that care of eyesight may soon receive similar attention, as often boys and girls are found engaged on fine work, but no steps are taken to ensure that eye-strain is not taking place.

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Physical Exercise.-The reports from all the Divisions show that the value of outdoor games and exercise is becoming more and more realised as beneficial to the health of the young persons. Nearly all the large factories in which there is any form of welfare organisations run sports and games clubs, and often rent grounds in the neighbourhood for the purpose.

Miss Taylor reports "the sports side of welfare seems for the most part to be in a healthy and flourishing condition. The boys, who for years have had their cricket and football clubs, are beginning to find rivals in the girls who want part of the sports ground for their hockey and tennis club. Now that the elementary schools give more attention to games on the girls' side, the girl of 14 enters a factory with an interest in sports.'

Dancing, physical drill and gymnastic classes, when organised, are well attended, and the liking for swimming is being fostered

by some factories, especially by those situated in districts where there are no, or insufficient, public baths. One factory in the South-Eastern Division runs seaside camps, which the young persons are encouraged to attend.

Fortunately the physical condition of girls is more and more receiving attention, and they are being encouraged to take their share in outdoor exercise instead of spending all their free time in home duties.

EFFECT OF INDUSTRY ON LIFE AND LIMB.

Although young persons are not subjected to any extent in industry to special risks in connexion with dangerous trades, they are liable in many works to risk of accident, as is shown by the fact that in 1926 17,517 accidents were reported as occurring to boys, including 51 deaths, and 5,757 to girls, including 6 deaths.

As it had been noted that a considerable number of accidents to boys and girls occurred in certain industries-textiles, woodworking, cabinet making, letterpress printing, and food trades— the Inspectors were instructed to enquire into how far young persons employed in these industries were trained in the use of machinery and the methods adopted for such training. The notices of accidents occurring to young persons in these trades formed a suitable basis on which to start the enquiry, which was put into the hands of the women Deputy Superintending Inspectors. The investigations showed that a certain number were due to the lack of proper training of young persons for their work, whilst a larger number were due to dangerous practices arising from general ignorance of the functions and operations of machinery. To combat accidents, proper training of the girl or boy in the work to be performed on particular machines, explanations regarding the general functions and dangers of machinery, warning as to the care which should be exercised when in contact with it, and constant supervision of the young person are all needed. The inquiries showed that definite training systems are seldom in operation. The usual method of training in any process is to set the worker to watch a skilled person for a time and afterwards to perform the process under the supervision of that person. Whether the training is efficient or not depends, of course, largely upon the individual instructor who may or may not have the power of explaining the process and of distinguishing between good methods and bad. In a well-organised factory the manager or foreman sees that suitable persons are selected as instructors and that boys and girls of 14 on entering industry are put to work the least dangerous machines. Indeed, some of the more careful firms do not employ young persons on any dangerous machines, while others train them gradually by arranging for them to spend only an hour or so twice a day on the machine for the first few weeks until they become proficient. In less well-organised works it is very much

a matter of chance whether a boy or girl is well instructed or the reverse, and whether the young person is competent to take charge of the particular machine allotted to him. It was found, for example, in a woodworking factory that a boy of 15 had met with an accident on a planing machine. Enquiry elicited the information that he had worked the machine for 7 months and was looked upon as a skilled workman. In this factory most of the machines were worked by young boys and the most senior person in the workroom was the foreman, aged 20 years. A glaring case of want of training was discovered when investigating an accident on a power press to a boy of 14 years. It was found that this boy was set to work a power press on the first day of employment with no previous factory experience, and that in the next 2 weeks he was put on 7 different kinds of presses. From his own statements it was clear that he understood neither the dangers nor the safeguards at these machines.

It is evident that there is ample scope for better instruction, and that the young persons on entering industry are entitled to systematic training in the use of the machines on which they are to be employed, for it is probable that some of them do not know the difference between the guard and the machine, or at any rate, do not understand the purpose of the guards until they are instructed. Where this ignorance is coupled with the instinct to explore and the lack of prudence which is natural to youth, it is surprising that more accidents to young persons do not occur. It is perhaps largely due to this desire "to know," coupled with the lack of experience, that explanation regarding the general functions and dangers of machinery, as distinct from training on a particular machine, is imperative, if the number of accidents is to be reduced.

Miss Keely has dealt with this side of the question as follows:

Many accidents are due to dangerous practices in which the injured persons show that their lack of experience and undeveloped foresight natural to youth have not been adequately corrected by any thorough general training in the functions and dangers of parts of machinery. Many of these were due to almost mechanical actions, such as snatching after a "crooked lay" on a platen machine, or a falling tin on a labelling machine or conveyor, resulting in trapping of the hand in the machine or gears. Even when a young person has been told definitely to let spoilt work go, the warning has often not gone home sufficiently to act as a deterrent when the emergency suddenly arises.

Other accidents were due to actions which appear to adult minds to be so rash that the people in authority have never imagined that it would be necessary to issue specific warnings against them. It seems to be vitally necessary that learners should not only be taught how to work their own machines, but also carefully warned of the danger of tampering in any way with any part of that or any other machinery which they do not understand. Probably the root cause is the restricted character of most of the training given to young people in industry. It is in only a few industries that boys and girls are taught to be skilled workers. In other cases they are taught only what the employer requires them to do. With this limited training they cannot be expected to acquire sufficient understanding of machinery to be able to judge what is safe and what is dangerous. The young worker who stands by a machine with a hand resting on a guard and the finger tips turned under the edge of the flange, probably has no idea that there is gearing inside.

Many similar cases could be cited where accidents to young persons would not have occurred if only they had understood the functions of the machinery around them. Fuller and more interesting instruction about machinery in general would give them better judgment as to what is safe or dangerous, and would lessen the temptation to move a guard or open a cover so as to see how the machine works. In time undoubtedly occupiers will follow the example set in a large boot factory where young persons are taken on in batches and have a short course on the history of the trade. This is followed by instruction on the various machines by the foremen, the instruction not being confined to the particular kind of machine which the worker is going to use. Instruction, coupled with the development of a strong general atmosphere of "Safety First," should be found in every factory in which young persons are employed.

In addition to training on a particular machine and instruction in the general functions of machinery, there must be constant supervision of young persons when at work on or amongst machinery, and special care on the part of the adult worker to set a good example in safety practices. That this is often lacking is evident when reports on accidents are studied.

If proper supervision had been exercised, a boy of 14 years, who had been employed for two weeks on a Gauntlett carding machine, would not have lost his arm. He either discovered, or was told by another boy (the accounts were contradictory), that it was quicker to work with the front guard turned back. The danger of working without the guard had not been properly explained and no supervision had been exercised over the employment of this young boy on a dangerous machine. His arm was drawn in and so severely injured that amputation was necessary. An accident to a girl of 16 in a blanket factory was caused by her copying the example of the weavers in a dangerous habit practised by them of marking the position of the first stripe on the warp by taking some of the dirty lubricant from the gears on one finger and smearing a line on the warp. This learner went to help another worker at a loom which had more complicated gears than her own. She put her finger on them to obtain the lubricant and three finger tips were drawn in and smashed. Really satisfactory supervision will note, for example, whether a young person is liable to "accident proneness and is therefore unsuitable for work on a dangerous machine, whether the young person is too much inclined to take risks and therefore unsuitable to work for example on a hydro guarded by a cover which can be lifted while the inside cage is running, or whether the young person has sufficient presence of mind to be fit to be entrusted with a hoist. Young persons cannot make these decisions themselves and are entitled to the supervision which will decide for them as well as remind them of the care which they must exercise in their work. They should not be required to learn the dangers of machinery by dearly bought experience. At times, however, there is great

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laxity in supervision. Miss McWilliam found a girl of 18 in a press shop going round with a spanner altering the heights of fixed guards of presses at which younger girls were at work in order "to make it easier for them to feed." On another occasion she found a boy of 17 using an 18 in. circular saw for ripping without either a top guard or a riving knife, and the manager said in the boy's presence that he never used such things himself as he considered them an added danger.

EFFECT OF INDUSTRY ON THE MIND OF THE YOUNG PERSON.

Repetition Work.—It cannot be denied that repetition work is increasing rapidly, owing to improved machinery, in practically all trades. There is, however, a wide diversity of opinion as to the effect of repetition work on the individual. Miss MacLeod who has enquired somewhat carefully into the matter has summarised the question thus:

The effect of repetition work on the mind is the subject of a good deal of difference of opinion amongst Welfare Supervisors. At one very large factory the view is held that with the shortened hours and the opportunities for amusement in the evening the average boy or girl does not suffer in the least from the monotonous nature of the occupation. In other cases Welfare Workers consider repetition work as very detrimental in its effects and regard it as one of their most important tasks to secure change of work for such boys and girls. Perhaps the "happy medium" is shown by a Welfare Supervisor of much experience who maintains that the evils of repetition work can be greatly lessened by the careful advising and watching of the young people concerned. In her present factory (a large printing works) repetition work involving no change of process has been eliminated as far as possible, but there is one department (sorting cards) in which no change is possible. The work is extremely monotonous and is done by young girls. She foundas had been her experience in other factories where girls were doing monotonous work that these girls spent their dinner hour and all "off" times in doing very beautiful crochet. They found seats in a corner, got themselves into the same stooping posture in which they do their card sorting and became absorbed in their crochet. They never joined the other girls in games or talk. In order to get these girls out of the atmosphere of monotony which their work appeared to make them desire to perpetuate, she started dancing in the dinner hour and persuaded these girls to join in it. They are now never seen with their crochet, and the forewoman not long afterwards informed the Supervisor that the girls had been working much better since they had taken to dancing in the dinner hour.

Undoubtedly much can be done by changing, as often as possible, the repetition work on which the young person is engaged, and by arranging that the girl and boy employed on monotonous work get a thorough change of atmosphere when they are not at the factory. Repetition work leads too often to a blind alley occupation, and to avert this some employers have tried by educational means to develop the mind of the girl and boy whose work involves repeat movements.

Educational Schemes.-The reports from all the Divisions deal with interesting examples of educational facilities of all kinds, which show that education in industry is gradually being considered to be of the first importance.

These educational schemes divide themselves into vocational and general instruction.