It was descriptive
rather than statistical, and necessarily so. Methods were still a matter
of question and experiment. The public had small interest in the
project, and it was essential to outline, not only the work to be done,
but the reasons for its need.
Naturally, then, the volume touched upon many abuses,--children in
factories, and the factory system as a whole; the homes of workers, and
their needs in sanitary and other directions; and toward the end a few
pages of special comment on the hard lives of working-women as a whole.
The report for 1871 followed the same lines, giving more detail to each.
That for 1872 took up various phases of women's work,[21] with some of
the general conditions then existing. For the following year elaborate
tables of the cost of living were given, and are invaluable as matters
of reference; and in 1874 came a no less important contribution to
social science in the report on the "Homes of Working-People." Those of
working-women were of course included, but there was still no
description of many of the conditions known to hedge them about. Each
inquiry, however, turned attention more and more in this direction, and
emphasized the need of some work given exclusively to women workers.
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