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In the early years of manufactures the working day sometimes extended to thirteen or fourteen hours. After the passage of the ten-hour law in England in 1847, the working classes in this country demanded a similar law. In 1853, the manufacturing companies in Lowell, Lawrence and Fall River voluntarily reduced the working day to eleven hours. In 1874, Massachusetts enacted a law prescribing a ten-hour day for all females and all males under eighteen years of age employed in textile factories. Similar laws have been passed elsewhere.