Nor have the young
persons engaged in the dressmaking and millinery business remained
uninfluenced amidst the general improvement. Finding that a strenuous
effort was in progress to promote their physical and moral welfare,
and that increased industry on their part would be rewarded by
diminished hours of work, the assistants have become more attentive,
the workrooms are better managed, and both parties, relieved from a
system which was oppressive to all and really beneficial to none, have
recognized the fundamental truth, that in no industrial pursuit is
there any real incompatibility between the interests, rightfully
interpreted, of the employer and the employed. Although not generally
known, evils scarcely less serious than those formerly prevalent in
the metropolis were not uncommon in the manufacturing towns and
fashionable watering-places. It is obviously impracticable to
ascertain to what extent the efforts of the association have been
attended with success in the provinces; but a rule has been
established that in no instance shall the cooperation of the office,
in providing assistants, be extended to any establishment in which the
hours of work are known to exceed those laid down by the association.
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