SHOP LABOUR.

Observer, Volume 7, Issue 226, 10 January 1885, Page 9

SHOP LABOUR.

The evils of prolonged labour in the unwholesome atmosphere prevalent in the majority of shops and retail establishments has been forcibly brought before the public by Lady John Manners in the current number of the National Review. Some few years since attention was directed to the subject, and a certain amount of good was effected, partly by means of the Earlyclosing Movement, and partly also by the agitation for seats for shop assistants, which have since been adopted in a small number of retail establishments. But, unfortunately, a large amount of evil remains unchanged. The majority of girls and young men who dispose of goods over the counter work far more than twelve hours a day, and are not unfrequently on duty from thirteen to seventeen hours daily, during the whole of which time, with perhaps the interval of a few minutes devoted to consximption of hastily-swallowed, and, consequently, inevitably ill-digested meals, they are exhausting their muscular strength by remaining on foot — sitting down, even for a few moments, being punished by fines which, however small at first, are increased on each subsequent occasion. Physiologically considered, the evils of the continuance of muscular exertion carried on day after day until complete exhaustion cannot be overrated. The whole of the vital energies are diverted to the limbs, the supply of blood to the other organs of the body is interfered with, digestion cannot go on satisfactorily, the brain becomes wearied, the heart irregular in action, and all. the important organs of the body suffer. In those cases in which this labor is continued in the unwholesome atmosphere of shops, in foul air engendered by gas burning, overcrowding, and dust, the evils are intensified to a very high degree. The result is that the health of the majority of shop assistants is far below the general average ; and, not to speak of those whose fate it may be to die, a very large number have their health undermined by the continuous labor ; this is more particularly the case with the girls, thousands»of whoua. are annually ruined in health ' by the long constrained labor of standing behind the counters of retail shops for the greater portion of the " twentyfour hours. The tiring effect of continued labor, even if not requiring strong muscular effort, must be familiar to all persons who have paid lengthened visits to the Koyal Acadarny or any other large picture exhibition. Five or six hours' inspection of paintings is always found as much as the most devoted art student can

endure. Let those who hare experienced the lassitude and weariness but imagine the result of doubling or nearly trebling the hours of exercise, and that in labour under conditions when no ' rest would be allowed, no sitting down at intervals on luxurious .settees, nor adjournment to the refreshment room ; and that this constrained labour should be carried on day after day, week after week, year after year, unto the bitter end. Then, they may perhaps form some faint idea of the hopeless, dreary life of a shop-girl in an establishment in which early and late hours are the rule. It may be asked, How are we to help in the removal of this evil ? The answer is ready. Everyone, without any exception, may help, even without the gift of a single penny or the sacrifice of the slightest comfort. If all persons would carry out the Christian precept of doing as they would be done by, there would, as far as shop hands are concerned, be no more prolonged hours of labour. It is an axiom in political economy that the demand creates the supply ; and it cannot be too strongly impressed on every member of the community that it is not so much the money-grubbing and selfish shopkeepers, who doom their hands to ceaseless labour and impaired health for the remainder of their natural lives, as the thoughtless but not guiltless people who persist in purchasing their goods in the evening, and who set their faces agair>st a weekly half -holiday, or one short day's work in the week. It not unfrequently happens that the desire of the shopkeepers in a provincial town is to close early ; but someone, more greedy than the rest, persists in keeping his shop open as usual. This, again, is the fault of the public, because they might readily, by abstaining from this shop altogether, demonstrate to the employer, in the only manner in which his feelings could be appealed to — namely, through his self-interest — that their sympathies were Avith the shop hands, and that they did not Avish the health of his employes to be sacrificed for their supposed convenience. In many of the largest establishments in London, early closing has become the rule, and, to judge by the extensions of the premises of these privately conducted stores, in which almost everything can be bought, from a cake of soap to the trousseau of a bride or the furniture of a palace, without any drawback to their continued prosperity. In the matter of seats for shopwomen, | the same satisfactory progress hardly appears to have been made. Lady John Manners informs us that Messrs Copeland and Lye, of Glasgow, have introduced American seats into their establishment, and have testified to the great improvement in the health of their female hands which has resulted from their so doing ; and that Mr Ewen, of Chester, has provided them for his hand for very many years, and that lie has never experienced any loss or inconvenience frrom their employment. Many firms in London now furnish them for the use of their assistants, and the exertions of one lady have caused them to be introduced into many of the shops in Dublin. Lady Manners states her belief that the hours of shop labour have gradually grown later. This assumption she founds on the fact that in 1800 it was considered worthy of notice that instances had occurred of shops being kept open after nine in the evening. But at present, as compared with more recent times, there has undoubtedly been a very considerable advance in the right direction as regards early closing. As the larger and more successful establishments close at an early hour, usually about seven o'clock, early closing has come to be known as a sign of the prosperity dependent on the sale of good articles at a moderate price and fair profit, consequently the smaller shops follow suit. Leaving the successful establishments of Regent-street and Oxfordstreet, and their prosperous competitors in Tottenham - court - road, it is necessary to go to the lower class establishments of bhoreditch and Islington and White chap el to witness in the most marked degree the evil effect of long hours and continuous labour in the over-heated and unwholesome atmosphere of crowded shops. Surely it cannot be necessary to do aught else but direct attention to the evil of the practice to cause the women of these districts to have some mercy for their suffering sisters, and not to doom them to long-continued suffering, and perhaps death itself, for the gratification of their caprice. It is no defence of such selfish action to say " The shop is open, and I may as well go ; it will make no difference." The numbers who support the shops that keep open late are composed of units, and each is as guilty as the others in destroying the health and happiness of the shopwomen.