Though the protection of children and women is the strongest motive force in this legislative action, many of these measures interfere directly or indirectly with adult male labour--e.g.

the limit on the factory hours of women and children practically limits the factory day for men, where the latter work with women or children.

The clauses of recent Factory Acts requiring the "fencing of machinery" and other precautions, apply to men as well as to children and women.

The Truck Act and Employers' Liability Act apply to male adult labour.
Sec.2.Theory of this Legislation .-- Under such legislation as the foregoing it is evident that the theory that a worker should be free to sell his labour as he likes has given way before the following considerations-- (1) That this supposed "freedom to work as one likes" often means only a freedom to work as another person likes, whether that other person be a parent, as in the case of children, or an employer, as in the case of adult workers.
(2) That a worker in a modern industrial community is not a detached unit, whose contract to work only concerns himself and his employer.

The fellow-workers in the same trade and society at large have a distinct and recognizable interest in the conditions of the work of one another.
A, by keeping his shop open on Sundays, or for long hours on week-days, is able to compel B, C, D, and all the rest of his trade competitors to do the same.