The problem of the adolescent at work is a very complex one; not only the economic, but also the educational, physiological, and biological reactions of industrial work have to be considered. The present work does not attempt anything like a comprehensive discussion of the subject; it is merely a small contribution to existing knowledge of the facts in regard to one section only: the physiological effects of industrial work on growing girls.

The young, it is often said, are the nation's capital. If by this we merely mean that they are the force by which the material goods of the future will be produced, our view of life is inadequate and rather brutal, but if the words are given a higher and more spiritual sense they become full of significance. Youth is the future: from among the young of to-day the parents, citizens, leaders, prophets, artists of the next generation will arise. Work at this age should be considered not only for the shillings it will immediately produce, but partly for its effects on the worker's productive power later on, partly for its effects on character, physique, mind. Dr. Stanley Hall says of modern industry: "Not only have the forms of labour been radically changed within a generation or two, but the basal activities that shaped the body of primitive man have been suddenly swept away by the new methods of modern industry.... Work is rigidly bound to fixed hours, uniform standards, stints and piece-products, and instead of a finished article, each individual now achieves a part of a single process, and knows little of those that precede or follow. Machinery has relieved the large basal muscles and laid more stress upon fine and exact movements that involve nerve strain.... Personal interest in, and the old native sense of responsibility for results, ownership and use of the finished products, which have been the inspiration and soul of work in the past, are in more and more fields gone."[1] The conditions of much work undoubtedly tend to become mechanical, deadening, and soul-destroying.

A strong impression seems to haunt the minds of some who are intimately in touch with working-class conditions that adolescent labour is excessive in amount, and that the resulting fatigue may be cumulative in its effects and injurious to the continuance of the race. Thus in 1904 Miss Anderson and her colleagues of the Factory Department, being invited to report on the subject of married women's work, found themselves impelled to the consideration of the previous life-conditions of the women, and stated: "It is the employment of women from girlhood, all through married life and through child-bearing that impresses itself on the mind. It is useless for any not familiar with the conditions of mill life to pronounce any opinion ... they have no conception of the stress and strain."[2]

More recently Mr. Arthur Greenwood in a pamphlet (The Schoolchild in Industry, published by the Workers' Educational Association, Manchester, 1914) states that the fatigue and prolonged standing characteristic of some factory industries produce serious disease in girls and young women, "and, in the opinion of many doctors, sterility." The same impression may be found occasionally among Sick Visitors and the like, who work among these women. Whether there is a scientific basis for the belief it is impossible to say; there is not at present sufficient information.

The investigation embodied in the present volume was undertaken in the hope that it would yield some information as to the vitally important subject of the biological effects of early employment, or, in other words, the reaction on the woman and her offspring of industrial employment in the adolescent years. No statistical data have, however, been obtained on this point; probably none such could be obtained within the limits of a small inquiry directed and financed by private persons. Even in regard to the effects of industrial work on the health of girls, without special regard to ulterior effects, there is at present very little scientific information.

I welcome Miss Collier's report, therefore, as a pioneer effort; it is limited in scope and matter by the nature of the undertaking, but I know that she has spared no pains in collecting her facts, and has set them out without prejudice or bias. Her experience has suggested to us the desirability of a form of inquiry which is probably beyond the resources of most private inquirers, but might well be undertaken either by a Government department or by some public fund for sociological research. Some years ago, statistics of the anthropometrical measurements of school children in certain districts were published.[3] These figures were obtained from elementary school records in rural and industrial districts, and the results were valuable and instructive. Such a survey of young people, aged 14 to 18, might usefully include not only those in industry, but also those attending secondary schools, who in certain districts belong to much the same social grade, and often come from the same families. Thus the material for a valid comparison would be available, and the results, under scientific medical guidance, might be of first-rate social importance. Possibly also some light might be thrown upon the subject by investigating the previous occupational histories, from the onset of puberty onwards, of patients in maternity hospitals, and tabulating the results with the nature of the confinement, whether normal, difficult, or complicated.

In conclusion, Miss Collier and I wish here to offer our best thanks to the many friends who kindly allowed themselves to be interviewed, and gave the help and information necessary for carrying out the inquiry.