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162
In Acton at the census of 1901, there were 2488 women employed
in the laundries of the district. The number has considerably
increased since then. There are at the present time 93 factory
laundries registered and 230 workshop laundries. In addition, about
300 women are employed as homeworkers. It is probably no
exaggeration to state that 3500 women are employed in the laundry
industry alone, and of these about 1500 are married women or widows.
From enquiries made, it may be stated that one third of the
married women in the S.W. ward are employed in laundry work.
These women are occupied in this employment, not from choice, but
from necessity, but as a result it follows that a large number of
infants are artificially fed, often on tinned milks deficient in fat or on
preparations of various foods.
In South Acton a Creche has been established since January
1908 which will accommodate about 24 children. It is too soon to
fully estimate the value of the institution, but within a few weeks of
its establishment, children had to be refused because all the beds
were occupied.
In the S.W. ward alone, there are about 200 babies under 12
months of age placed out with neighbours during the day, and the
conditions under which they are cared for is extremely unsatisfactory.
Children placed in these circumstances cannot tail to show
signs of their faulty upbringing when they reach school age, and it
was found that a higher percentage of children attending South
Acton Schools suffered from rickets than in any of the oiher schools
of the district.
The ill-effects due to the employment of the mothers does not
end with those attending the Infants' Departments. As so many of
the women work in the laundries it follows that many of the school
children do not obtain a proper meal in the middle of the day,
either because the mothers do not come home, or because they have
not time or energy to prepare a meal. The children are often given
coppers to buy food which they spend on attractive but unwholesome
material, and thus acquire a habit of passing over wholesome
food which is not tasty.
In this district poverty, and to a minor degree married female