Women in the Printing Trades Part 13

Paper is coloured or enamelled, as a rule, in the mill where it is made, and the processes are carried out by machinery.

This trade, then, affords a definite instance of the replacement of women's work by machinery, handwork being now a rare survival. In one firm where forty-five women were formerly employed twelve now work. The process of colouring by hand is very simple. The sheet of paper to be coloured is placed in front of the woman who wets it over with the required colour by means of a long thin brush like a whitewash brush, which she dips into a bowl. She then takes another round brush, about 10 ins. in diameter, and brushes over the whole surface, so that the colour shall lie quite evenly. The process is now complete, and the sheet of paper is taken up and hung on a line to dry. Enamelling is done in precisely the same way, enamel, instead of colour, being applied.

These hand processes apparently survive in the case of small quant.i.ties of paper which it is not worth while to colour or enamel by machine.

Those who have seen the process cannot regret the abolition of hand labour. The work is rough and dirty; the workers and the walls are all splashed over with the colour, the result being picturesque, but not healthy. When dry powder or dust is used in the process, meals may not be taken on the premises. The work does not attract a high grade of workers; they are of the job-hand type, friendly, rough and ready, and by no means tidy or "genteel."

Paper colouring and enamelling was once a man's trade but women replaced men for the same reason that machinery has now replaced women, _i.e._, cheapness.

Machine ruling has also been slightly affected. One of the investigators reports of an Edinburgh factory: "In this factory I was shown a ruling machine which was provided with an automatic feeder, in the form of two indiarubber wheels, which drew each sheet of paper into the machine with great exactness. The machine, after ruling one side, turned the paper and ruled the other without any adjustment by hand being necessary.

After being set, this machine required only the occasional supervision of one man operative. It was estimated that its output equalled that of twelve persons on the old machines, whilst on some work of a simple kind which was merely to be run through, it might replace the work of thirty."

[Sidenote: Cheap labour and mechanical appliances.]

In these circ.u.mstances it is hardly to be expected that much evidence could have been collected leading to very definite conclusions regarding how far the cheapness of women's labour r.e.t.a.r.ded the introduction of machinery, and the efficient organisation of these industries.

With the large up-to-date employers, the fact that women's labour is cheap counts for little in face of the fact that machinery is rapid, and enables them on a small area and with a productive capital charge, to turn out large volumes of produce. "When we see a good machine," said one of these employers, "we try it, and we do not think of the cheapness or dearness of the labour it may displace." But with small employers, and with those producing for a lower cla.s.s or special market, considerations of wages do enter greatly into calculations of the utility of a new machine, and to some slight extent the cheapness of women's labour has r.e.t.a.r.ded the application of machinery in these trades. One investigator states of a large West End stationer:--"Undoubtedly he would put up steam folding and stamping machines if women's labour were not so cheap." A printer who prints some of the best-known weekly papers and reviews is reported to have said:--"Taking it broadly, the cheapness of men's or women's work undoubtedly tends to r.e.t.a.r.d the introduction of machinery."

But the most striking proof of the connection between cheap labour and handwork is given by one investigator who, whilst being taken over certain large printing works was shown women folding one of the ill.u.s.trated weekly papers. Folding machines were standing idle in the department, and she was told that these were used by the men when folding had to be done at times when the Factory Law prohibited women's labour.[81] Another employer stated that he had introduced folding machines as a consequence of the legal restrictions placed upon women's labour, whilst another well-known bookbinder said:--"If women would take a fair price for work done it would not be necessary to employ machinery."

[Footnote 81: _Cf._ pp 80, 81, etc.]

A large printer of magazines reports: "The saving in cost, and therefore the inducement to put in machinery, is much less if higher wages are paid for men doing the work." The scarcity of women's labour, we are told, induced a Manchester printing firm to adopt folding machines; whilst, on the other hand, the cheapness of women's labour has kept linotypes out of Warrington composing rooms.

CHAPTER VIII.

_HOME WORK._

[Sidenote: Census figures.]

The table of occupations compiled from the census of 1901 for the first time indicates the number of home workers. For these trades the figures for women are as follows:

+----------------+----------------------------------+-----------+ _Census ENGLAND AND WALES. 1901._ +------------+------------+--------+-----------+ Unmarried. Married or Total. Total for Widowed. Scotland. +----------------+------------+------------+--------+-----------+ Paper 9 10 19 0 manufacture +----------------+------------+------------+--------+-----------+ Paper 1 1 2 1 stainers +----------------+------------+------------+--------+-----------+ Stationery 37 25 62 0 manufacture +----------------+------------+------------+--------+-----------+ Envelope 27 42 69 4 makers +----------------+------------+------------+--------+-----------+ Paper box (a) 524 1,153 1,677 36 and paper bag makers +----------------+------------+------------+--------+-----------+ Other workers 54 52 106 2 in paper, etc. +----------------+------------+------------+--------+-----------+ Printers 73 46 119 2 [? folders] +----------------+------------+------------+--------+-----------+ Lithographers, 18 12 30 0 copper and steel plate printers +----------------+------------+------------+--------+-----------+ Bookbinders 129 145 274 9 +----------------+------------+------------+--------+-----------+ Typecutter 0 1 1 0 +----------------+------------+------------+--------+-----------+ (a) Paper box making was not investigated.

It is always difficult to trace out the home worker, and the information we obtained was collected through communication with School Board officers, Charity Organisation Society secretaries, district nurses, sanitary inspectors, and workpeople. The groups of trades investigated are mainly factory and workshop trades, and are becoming more so. Home work is not so prevalent in them as it used to be, and it is now somewhat difficult to trace its effects in its present decayed importance.

[Sidenote: Home work drawbacks.]

There used to be a good deal of home work in these trades, but the growth of large firms and the introduction of machinery[82] have discouraged it.[83] The material is very heavy and sometimes costly, and has to be carefully handled. It is therefore difficult to move from workshop to dwelling-place; and when handled in kitchens or other living rooms it runs a great risk of being stained and spoiled. The home workers find some of their own material, _e.g._, paste and brushes for bag making, and they save light and rent for employers; but, on the other hand, they are apt "to send back their work with the mark of teacups upon it," or spoiled in some other way, and it is difficult to get them to return it punctually. So in these trades, home work really does not pay.

[Footnote 82: This seems to be specially the case in the provinces.]

[Footnote 83: One of the home workers (also workshop worker) visited said, "Home work is given less and less and is difficult to get now.

Only three work at it--old hands--and they are going to stop it altogether, perhaps." Another investigator reports of machine-ruling in Scotland: "Two elderly women who worked a paper-ruling machine in their kitchen. They had been at the work for thirty years, having been taught by their father, and have carried on the business since his death. The father had a good business, and they can make their living by it, but say the work has sadly fallen off. They get enough orders to keep them going, and when very busy employ a girl occasionally to help them. 'It is useless to try to compete with the new machines they have nowadays.

What used to be given to us at 2_s._ 6_d._, can now be turned out by the machines for 1_s._ 6_d._ We couldn't afford to do it at those rates.'"

_Cf._ Appendix V.]

The Trade Unions prohibit home work when they are able to detect it.

There is, generally, a healthy feeling opposed to this method of employment, and firms deny practising it.

[Sidenote: Home work processes.]

Home work is now mainly confined to book and paper folding, sewing printed matter, black bordering and folding envelopes, making paper bags, and designing and painting Christmas cards which is done at home not so much because employers encourage it, but because it is undertaken by a cla.s.s of women indisposed to enter a workshop. The folding is mostly of cheap printed matter like popular almanacs and other street literature. Also, a good deal of folding thin paper Bibles and prayer books is done at home.

Some paper staining is also done in living rooms by workpeople, but the practice is less common than it was. "One paper colourer, a married woman, whom we saw, told us that her mother worked at the trade before her at home, and when she herself was a baby her cradle was rocked on the colouring board. 'Many was the night' that she sat up as a child helping her mother to do the work. She certainly throve on it and seemed immensely proud of her industrial career."

[Sidenote: The home worker.]

What home work is still done is given mainly to women employed in the workshop during the day, and is therefore illegal.[84] In addition, women who have married whilst working in certain firms, or widows of men who have been workmen in these trades, keep up old connections by occasional--if not systematic--home work. But as it hardly pays the employer to avail himself regularly of domestic workers, the work now done at home is chiefly given out to meet a temporary pressure of demand, and would practically disappear if these exceptional pressures did not take place.

[Footnote 84: The wording of the section (31 (2)) of the Act, however, makes it difficult to enforce.]

[Sidenote: Paper-bag making.]

The making of paper bags is, of this group of trades, most extensively and systematically practised as a home industry. This is particularly the case in the neighbourhood of busy street markets, such as are found in South London. The work is mostly done by married women of a rough cla.s.s, as a supplement to their husbands' wages.[85] Reporting upon one such worker an investigator says: "Mrs. ---- is one of nine daughters, and seven are paper-bag makers. All her cousins, aunts and relations-in-law have taken it up.... A niece of hers was consumptive and could not earn her living, but she was fond of dress. Mrs. ---- taught her paper-bag making and she soon earned 8_s._ or 9_s._ a week."

The profit which yielded this income is stated to be 6_d._ or 7_d._ per thousand bags. Many women who occasionally work at paper-bag making only do so to earn a particular sum of money of which they are in need--say 10_s._ When that is earned they cease work. Such is the casual nature of the employment and the disorganised state of the labour employed in it.

[Footnote 85: "In nearly all the cases that Mrs. ---- (an employing bag maker in the Borough) knows there are bad husbands. Mrs. ---- is in the trade herself to supplement her husband's earnings because she has nine children and he cannot earn enough to keep them in comfort."]

[Sidenote: The homes.]

The practically unanimous report of the investigators is that these home workers' home conditions are of the very worst. "A very squalid and evil-smelling slum:" "Very poor and miserable house shared by others,"

are typical descriptions of the dwellings to which the home work investigations led us.

CHAPTER IX.

_THE MARRIED AND THE UNMARRIED._

The investigators tried to obtain information bearing upon the interesting and important question of the influence of the married and the unmarried woman worker on industry, on the home, and on the family income. But the difficulty of following up statements and testing their accuracy has been so great and some of the factors in the problem so elusive under the conditions of the trades investigated, that conclusions are stated with considerable reserve.

The custom in the trades under review undoubtedly is that married women should not work in them; and, as a rule, only widowhood, or a bad or sickly husband, or a slack time, brings a woman back to them after marriage.[86] Sometimes, however, she comes back, because it is too dull at home.[87] This is more generally the case in the provinces than in London, where certain job departments, especially certain kinds of folding, are filled by rather a rough cla.s.s of women, amongst whom the proportion of married is exceptionally high. Throughout the reports sent in, it is most interesting to note how strongly the sense of feminine respectability opposes their fellow workwomen working after marriage, "unless they have been unfortunate in their husbands."[88]

[Footnote 86: For statistics see Appendix VII.]

[Footnote 87: A woman worker says, "They come back after they have married, because a girl who has been accustomed to make 18_s._ for herself is not comfortable when she marries a man on 2 a week who is accustomed to have that for himself, so she comes back to make extra money."]

[Footnote 88: So also it is interesting to note the lingering shadow of chivalry in this connection. "Mr. ----," said one of the girls, "never will take married women, but then he is always _such_ a gentleman."]

The average age of the women regularly employed is low,[89] because as a rule girls leave at marriage. The investigators generally report that the age in workrooms appears to be mainly between eighteen and twenty-three. The report that "Four girls here out of thirty or forty are over eighteen" (Leeds bookbinder's), is typical of many others. This fact alone has an enormous influence on women's wages and makes it necessary to be very careful in drawing conclusions under the headings dealt with in this chapter.

[Footnote 89: A manager of a provincial printing establishment estimated that twelve years was the maximum workshop life of average girls.]