., in tenements by more than
three persons not immediate members of the family, while the New
Jersey and Connecticut statutes content themselves with making
such manufacture by persons not members of the family subject to
inspection.

[Footnote 1: Massachusetts R.L., 106, secs. 56 to 60 inclusive.]

It is a curious commentary that the very dream of the social reformers
of only twenty years ago is so rudely dispelled by the march of
events; for in the late nineties it was the hope of the enthusiast,
particularly the student in electrical science, that the factory
system might in time be done away with, and by the use of power served
from long or short distance over wires to a man's own habitation,
all the industries of manufacture might be carried on in a man's own
home--just as used to be the case with the spinners and weavers of
olden time. Far from being a hope, it turns out that this breeds the
very worst conditions of all, and the most difficult to regulate by
law. For modern homes for the most part are not sanitary dwellings in
the country, but single floors or parts of floors in huge tenement
houses in great cities. It is probable to-day, therefore, that there
is a perfect reversal of opinion, and that the social reformer now
dreams of a world where no work is permitted in the home, other than
ordinary domestic avocations, but all is compelled to be done in
factories under the supervision of public authorities--a splendid
example of the dangers of hasty legislation; for had we carried into
law the eager desire of the reformers of only twenty years since, we
should, it appears, have been on a hopelessly wrong track.

It should be noted, however, that the reform of conditions is very
largely arrived at by a different path--that of the _building_ laws
in our cities. No more arbitrary rule exists to-day or was ever in
history than the despotic sway of a board or commission created under
modern police-power ideas. In everything else you have a right to a
hearing, if not an appeal to the common-law courts and a jury; but the
power of a building inspector is that of an Oriental despot. He can
order you summarily to do a thing, or do it himself; or destroy or
condemn your property; and you have no redress, nor compensation, nor
even a lawsuit to recover compensation. Therefore, if the sweat-shop
reformers may not constitutionally regulate the conditions and
business of sweating so far as they would like to go, they can