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"With regard to the question of under-letting or sub-contracting,
this, of course, varies more in certain trades and districts than in
others, and as a result of inquiry I should say in a general way
that it may be taken that a reduction of from 20 per cent. to
30 per cent. is made in many instances by the person originally
receiving the work from the factory proprietor and who then of
course divides it up amongst his outworkers at the lower prices.
"I may mention one case in which I have had an opportunity
of examining certain figures and payments and in which I find
that the middle man or contractor paid to the outworkers, to
whom he sub-let the work, about 1s. 6d. out of every 2s. 6d. he
received from the factory proprietors. In other words he sweated
this particular work about 40 per cent.
"With regard to the question as to how the workers generally
are affected, it is undoubtedly a fact that in many instances the
man is found without employment, and he and his family
dependent upon the earnings of his wife or other females of the
family who are outworkers. It is impossible to say with any
exactitude to what extent this phase of the question affects the
labour market generally. I should say personally that irregular
employment acts as a most demoralising factor, and I have in
fact met several cases where the man appears to be quite content
to rest at home and live upon the earnings of his wife, although a
few years back such a man was a regular and steady worker.
"Whether the prohibition of all outwork would have any
beneficial effect on the labour market as a whole is, of course, a
matter of conjecture, but in many cases there would undoubtedly
be hardship to individuals.
"With regard to the question o??? what alteration of the law
is necessary, one feels considerable diffidence in offering any
suggestions in what is confessedly a difficult and intricate matter.
It is, of course, very easy to say that all home or outwork shall be
abolished, and that it shall be illegal for any factory proprietor to
continue to give out work to be done outside his factory or
workshop; it is also equally easy to say that outwork shall be
continued only under some such system of certification as is
anticipated in the Homework Regulation Bill presented in