174
THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
women and 7,076 girls under sixteen years of age. The tabu- lated statement below shows how this number is distributed through the various provinces :
Number of establishments
Employes
Province
Women
Girls
Men
Boys
British Columbia
Manitoba
New Brunswick
Nova Scotia
770
1,031
5.429
10,496
32.151
2.679
23.037
375
I.33I
541
4.750
6,566
32,835
1.309
22,898
50
157 31
568
625 2.482
192 3,018
3
9.615
3.279
19.513
25.734
123.527
5.766
84.936
994
404 102
1,844 2,040
7.872
Prince Edward Island
Quebec
Territories
643
6.537 34
Canada
75.968
70,280
7,076
273.424
19,476
Note.' — Boys and girls are youths from fourteen to sixteen years of age ; men and women all over that age.
This table shows that about one-quarter of the employes in the whole country are women and girls, and it is the legislation for this large and important class, numbering 77,356, that we shall now proceed to examine. We may first take up the four original provinces, beginning at the east and with the oldest one.
The story of protective legislation in Nova Scotia is soon told. There is none. But this does not necessarily imply a sluggish state of public morals ; it is the result of a comparatively small manufacturing industrj', with a correspondingly small call for female labor. Yet, surely, 7,191 women and girls are worth governmental care. The number in itself is small, but when we remember that each one represents a present or a future home, it grows in importance.
In the province the ten-hour day, or sixty hours per week, is the rule generally adhered to by employers ; but the fixing of time rests wholly with them. No gross abuse of this power appears, and troubles between employer and employed have rarely occurred. The factories are not large, and are located in small towns where public sentiment would not permit the imposi- tion of inhuman tasks.
