and. Continental countries, however,
universally legislate as to hours of labor even of adult women, there
being no constitutional principle protecting their personal liberty
in that particular, although in Belgium and Great Britain the laws do
not, as a rule, apply to adult male labor. The hours are generally
eleven or twelve, instead of eight or nine as in England or the United
States. There is elaborate special regulation of times and conditions
in labor in railways, laundries, bakeries, etc. The English law
generally divides persons, according to their age, into three classes,
adults, young persons (from fourteen to eighteen), or children, and
the system is most elaborate. Generally no children under the age of
eleven may be employed at all.

Sanitary and social regulations are far more intelligent than ours.
Generally, the employment of women in factories within four weeks
after childbirth is forbidden; and in Switzerland it is forbidden to
employ pregnant women in certain occupations dangerous to the health
of posterity. The German Civil Code declares that "A married woman has
both the right and the obligation of keeping house. She is obliged to
attend to all domestic labor and the affairs of her husband in so
far as such labor or occupation is usual according to her social
condition. She is supreme within her sphere, or at least has power to
act or bind her husband in domestic matters, and he cannot limit her
powers without a divorce. He may, however, annul any contract made by
her for her personal labor with a third party."[1]

[Footnote 1: _Ibid_., p. 53.] [Footnote 2: _Ibid_., p. 77.]

The anti-truck and weekly-payment laws exist in all countries.
Europe generally, particularly Great Britain and the Roman Catholic
countries, are handicapped by an infinity of holidays. In Roman
Catholic countries they are generally single days, saints' days, etc.,
scattered throughout the year, but in Great Britain no skilled laborer
will work at all for some weeks at a time.

The English law against intimidation is the model of the New York
statute and most others. It defines in great detail what intimidation
is--substantially, that it is violence or threats, the persistently
following, the hiding of tools, etc. or the watching or besetting the
house or place of business--and menaces, as well as actual violence,
are recognized as unlawful and punishable by imprisonment, in Germany,
Italy, Sweden, and other countries. Germa