Hard Times Then and Now

"Surely there never was such fragile china-ware as that of which the
millers of Coketown were made. Handle them never so lightly, and they
fell to pieces with such ease that you might suspect them of having
been flawed before. They were ruined, when they were required to send
labouring children to school; they were ruined when inspectors were
appointed to look into their works; they were ruined, when such
inspectors considered it doubtful whether they were quite justified in
chopping people up with their machinery; they were utterly undone, when
it was hinted that perhaps they need not always make quite so much
smoke."

Charles Dickens, Hard Times