What is the main idea of this passage?
O Factory workers are degraded at work and home
on a daily basis.
O Factory workers do not understand how to
improve weir conditions.
Society needs to work to help factory workers
improve their living conditions.
Flora Tristan was a women's rights advocate from
France. This is an excerpt from her journal about life in
Manchester
Most workers lack clothing, bed, furniture, fuel,
wholesome food - even potatoes! They spend from
twelve to fourteen hours each day shut up in low-
ceilinged rooms where with every breath of foul air they
absorb fibers of cotton, wool or flax, or particles of
copper, lead or iron. They live suspended between an
insufficiency of food and an excess of strong drink; they
are all wizened, sickly and emaciated, their bodies thin
and frail, their limbs feeble, their complexions pale, their
eyes dead. If you visit a factory, it is easy to see that the
comfort and welfare of the workers have never entered
the builder's head.
O God! Can progress be bought only at the cost of men's
lives?
- Flora Tristan, 1842
O With the help of reforms, cities would be wonderful
places to live and work.
5) Intro
Done