Women in the Printing Trades Part 25

QUALIFICATIONS.--I should judge that strength was required for all three departments, as girls are standing all day. Only tall girls are taken in the varnis.h.i.+ng room; short ones would be no good for moving about the racks. The head said that no great intelligence was wanted for any department, but a good deal of "perseverance" for card mounting and paper colouring. If girls are careless at card mounting they spoil the whole thing.

DANGERS.--The only machinery was the varnis.h.i.+ng machine, and the firm had never had any accident with it, and there seemed no reason why there should be any. If girls are careless they are dismissed. The employer considered the Compensation Act to be very unfair: "If a girl slips on your iron staircase because her shoelace was undone, you have to pay her."

HOURS.--The hours worked are from 9 a.m. to 7.30 p.m., with one hour for dinner and half an hour for tea; on Sat.u.r.days from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. On a board a notice was put up stating that work begins as follows: 9 a.m.

for women, 8 a.m. for boys, 7 a.m. for men.

PROSPECTS.--There is 1 girl in the _varnis.h.i.+ng_ department who gets "a trifle more than the others," owing to her skill. In _card mounting_ there are no prospects. A foreman manages the _paper colouring_ department, so that there is no chance of the women becoming forewomen.

The firm once tried a forewoman, but she was not a success. She could not match the colours properly, etc. Mr. ---- and the robust worker seemed to think such a thing beyond a woman's power (especially the latter, who scorned the idea of a forewoman).

ORGANISATION.--The head did not know if there was a Union or not. "They do not give us any trouble."

MARRIED AND UNMARRIED.--Only 1 or 2 married women were employed by the firm, and they were confined to the colouring department. One married woman had been there fourteen years.

LEGISLATION.--My informant did not consider that legislation had injured the woman worker at all, but had benefited her by lessening her hours of labour. Legislation was very hard on him, however, especially in the paper colouring and varnis.h.i.+ng work. "A customer comes in with some work at 1 o'clock on a Sat.u.r.day. You say you cannot do it till Monday.

'Well,' he says, 'I shall get it done elsewhere.' People working at home are found to do it, and as they have not got the machinery or appliances it means that they work at it all Sunday, and make their little children of nine or ten work too, whereas the grown women may not work an hour longer in factories." Mr. ---- evidently feels bitterly about this. It would not pay to keep men on this kind of work. He would like more than thirty days a year exemption for overtime. Besides, the girls would often like to make a few s.h.i.+llings extra overtime. This was corroborated by the paper-staining girl.

MEN AND WOMEN.--In the head's youth men used to do all the card mounting; women were introduced for it about twenty-eight years ago.

They were brought in because the men drank so and kept away from work.

Men used to do paper colouring and varnis.h.i.+ng, too, and were replaced by women for the same reason. The Unions gave no trouble about this.

No women were employed in book-edge gilding by this firm. Mr. ---- and an old man employee said that some people got their wives to help lay-on the gold and so on, but it did not come to much.

MACHINERY.--_Paper colouring and enamelling_ machinery has diminished women's work _considerably_. The head used to have 45 women at it--two whole floors--and now only has 11. It is done by machinery elsewhere. A certain amount is still done by hand, and must always be, as it is not worth while putting anything under five reams on a machine.

_Varnis.h.i.+ng._--The head invented the present machines because the women kept away so. There used to be many more women in the trade.

_Card Mounting._--No machines are employed for this. Girls can feed the rotary cutting machine, but it is generally done by a man.

HOME WORK.--No work is sent out from here. A good deal of paper colouring and of varnis.h.i.+ng is done by people in their own homes (see under "Legislation").

FAMILY INCOME.--Very little information on this subject could be had here. One girl in the varnis.h.i.+ng room was pointed out to me, dressed in black, whose father had recently died. She was the eldest of eleven, and was "keen on picking up an extra s.h.i.+lling or two."

GENERAL.--The whole place was dirty, and there was hardly a vacant inch to squeeze past in. Mr. ----, however, did not seem a bad sort of man; the girls did not seem in the least in awe of him. All the girls looked of the regular factory girl type, sloppy and dirty, and with their hair in curlers or curl papers.

Mrs. ----, the paper stainer, who came down to talk to me, seemed a friendly, rough-and-ready, low-cla.s.s woman. Her mother worked in the trade, and when she herself was a baby her cradle was rocked on the colouring board, and "many is the night" that she sat up all night as a child helping her mother at home. She seemed to have thriven on it, and to be immensely proud of her industrial career.

11. _Bookbinding Firm, West End. London. Employee's Evidence._

WORK.--Trade in the West End is quite different to that in City firms.

This employee picked to pieces and sewed.

REGULARITY.--Hers was not a seasonal trade. She was busy all the year round, but in January and July there was a special press, owing to the number of magazine volumes then being bound.

HOURS.--She worked 48 per week, the length of the ordinary day being from 8.30 a.m. to 6 p.m.

PROSPECTS.--She had never known anyone who rose to be a forewoman, but supposed some did rise. Girls from West End shops could not be City forewomen because they knew nothing about machines, and in all advertis.e.m.e.nts for forewomen knowledge of sewing machines was put as a necessary qualification.

GENERAL.--I asked why their hours were so much shorter than dressmakers, and have come to the conclusion that it was because the men had got an eight-hours' day. She said this cla.s.s of workers in City shops is lower than in these West End places, and yet in the City workplaces the best industrial training is given.

12. _Bookbinding Firm in London. Employee's Evidence._

WORK.--Works at a large place about five minutes' walk away (not the same place where she learned). There are four rooms of women. N. M.

works in a room on the third floor, where there are 80 women under two forewomen, sisters. In this room folding, st.i.tching, gathering and sewing (hand) is done.

In the fourth room there are 12 girls doing machine sewing.

The two lower floor rooms each have about 10 or 12 girls. In one of them laying-on of gold is done.

She herself does st.i.tching, folding and gathering, hardly ever sewing.

REGULARITY.--Orders are very slack sometimes, especially just now (August). There had been a great deal of sitting idle, and they had only been making 6_s._ or 7_s._ per week. They did not like to go "out to gra.s.s" for fear of losing work if it should chance to come in. It was difficult to get off for a holiday. Sometimes they were told at 1 p.m.

that they could go home.

HEALTH.--_Gold laying-on_ was unhealthy. The dust got on the chest.

_Folding_ and _Sewing_ were very tiring, because "you are sitting in one position all day." _Gathering_ is the most pleasant, because you walk about and get a little exercise that way.

PROSPECTS.--There is not much chance of rising. The forewoman and under-forewoman are sisters, and stay on and on. If one of them were to give up, her successor would be taken from the time workers. The piece workers might rise to be time workers, if they cared.

13. _Bookbinding Firm in London. Employee's Evidence._

WORK.--This informant was engaged at gold laying-on exclusively, but was originally a folder and sewer.

REGULARITY.--In this firm it is a seasonal trade, and slack sometimes as well. She left M. because of slackness.

HEALTH.--It is not very healthy. Layers-on cannot have the windows open because of the draught blowing the gold about, also the gas used for "blocking" overheats the rooms. Girls sometimes faint three or four times a day, and get anaemic. After working overtime at ----'s would often stagger in the streets. "You have to drink a lot of tea to keep you up."

HOURS.--48 a week is about the normal working time, from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., with one hour for dinner and half an hour for tea, as at M., and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Sat.u.r.days; or else from 8.30 a.m. to 6 p.m., as at N., with one hour for dinner, and 8.30 a.m. to 12 noon on Sat.u.r.days. She preferred 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., because then she got a tea half-hour. "One got so faint going on till 6.30 p.m. from 2 p.m."

At O. there was a great deal of overtime; not at M.

PROSPECTS.--She could have been a sort of forewoman at sixteen over 6 other girls at P., but an older hand persuaded her not to; and being ignorant of the ways of the world she agreed not to, and then the older hand became forewoman herself! That was her only chance of promotion.

14. J., _Bookbinding Firm in London. Employee's Evidence and Visit to Works_.

WORK.--Folding, numbering, perforating, sewing. The regular staff do all, but the firm take in job hands for folding only, when busy.

REGULARITY.--The regular hands are kept on all the year round.

HOURS.--The hours worked average 54 a week, from 8.30 a.m. to 7.30 p.m.

My informant said they were "obliged by the Factory Act[96] to have half an hour for lunch from 11 a.m. to 11.30 a.m., but they did not take more than a quarter of an hour, or else they ate whilst working;" dinner from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m., and tea from 5 p.m. to 5.30 p.m. On Sat.u.r.days the hours are 8.30 a.m. to 2 p.m., with 11 a.m. to 11.30 a.m. for lunch.

[Footnote 96: This, of course, is incorrect.]

PROSPECTS.--The girls may rise to forewomen. One who had just risen quickly to that position was going off to be married.