[Transcriber's note: Underscores have been used to indicate _italic_
fonts. Original spelling variants have not been standardized. In the
tables, _s._ or s. was used for Shillings; and _d._ or d. for Pence. "It
should also be noted that slight errors of a few farthings in the
additions have crept into the totals of some of the columns, but as they
do not affect the accuracy of the wage figures the Appendix has been
copied exactly as it was published." (Appendix VI.)]
WOMEN IN THE PRINTING TRADES:
A SOCIOLOGICAL STUDY.
EDITED BY
J. RAMSAY MACDONALD,
WITH A PREFACE BY PROFESSOR F. Y. EDGEWORTH.
INVESTIGATORS:
MRS. J. L. HAMMOND, MRS. H. OAKESHOTT, MISS A. BLACK, MISS A. HARRISON,
MISS IRWIN, and Others.
LONDON: P. S. KING & SON,
ORCHARD HOUSE, WESTMINSTER.
1904.
PREFACE.
My only qualification for writing this preface is the circumstance that,
as a representative of the Royal Economic Society, I attended the
meetings of the Committee appointed to direct and conduct the
investigations of which the results are summarised in the following
pages. From what I saw and heard at those meetings I received the
impression that the evidence here recorded was collected with great
diligence and sifted with great care. It seems to constitute a solid
contribution to a department of political economy which has perhaps not
received as much attention as it deserves.
Among the aspects of women's work on which some new light has been
thrown, is the question why women in return for the same or a not very
different amount of work should often receive very much less wages. It
is a question which not only in its bearing on social life is of the
highest practical importance, but also from a more abstract point of
view is of considerable theoretical interest, so far as it seems to
present the paradox of _entrepreneurs_ paying at very different rates
for factors of production which are not so different in efficiency.
The question as stated has some resemblance to the well-known demand for
an explanation which Charles II. preferred to the Royal Society: there
occurs the preliminary question whether the circumstance to be explained
exists. The alleged disproportion between the remuneration of men and
women is indeed sometimes only apparent, or at least appears to be
greater than it is really. Often, however, it is real and great where it
is not apparent.
On the one hand, in many cases in which at first sight women seem to be
doing the same work as men for less pay, it is found on careful inquiry,
that they are not doing the same work. "The same work nominally is not
always the same work actually," as the Editor reminds us (Chapter IV.
par. 1). "Men feeders, for instance, carry formes and do little things
about the machine which women do not do." In this and other ways men
afford to the employer a greater "net advantageousness," as Mr. Sidney
Webb puts it in his valuable study on the "Alleged Differences in the
Wages paid to Men and to Women for similar Work" (_Economic Journal_,
Vol. I. pp. 635 _et seq._). The examples of this phenomenon adduced by
Mr. Webb, and in the evidence before the Royal Commission on Labour, are
supplemented by these records. To instance one of the less obvious ways
in which a difference in net advantageousness makes itself felt,
employers say: "It does not pay to train women: they would leave us
before we got the same return for our trouble as we get from men." At
the same time it is to be noticed in many of these cases that though the
work of women is less efficient, it is not so inferior as their pay. For
instance, a Manchester employer "estimated that a woman was two-thirds
as valuable in a printer's and stationer's warehouse as a man, and she
was paid 15_s._ or 20_s._ to his 33_s._," (p. 47, note).
In other cases the difference between the remuneration of men and women
for similar work is not obvious because they work in different branches
of industry. For example, only five instances of women being employed as
lithographic artists are on record (Chapter IV. par. 1). Other branches
of the printing trade are as exclusively women's work. Such data afford
no direct and exact comparison between the remuneration of the two
classes in relation to the work done by them respectively. As Mr. Webb
concludes, the inferiority of women's wages cannot be gathered "from a
comparison of the rates for identical work, for few such cases exist,
but rather from a comparison of the standards of remuneration in men's
and women's occupations respectively." "Looked at in this light," he
continues, "it seems probable that women's work is usually less highly
paid than work of equivalent difficulty and productivity done by men."
As Mrs. Fawcett points out in an important supplement to Mr. Webb's
article (_Economic Journal_, Vol. II. p. 174), women are crowded into
classes of industry which are less remunerative than those open to men.
Recognising the fact of different remuneration for the same amount of
work, we have next to consider the causes. It is evident that the sort
of explanation offered by Adam Smith for difference of wages in
different employments will not avail much in the case with which we are
dealing. The lower remuneration of women is not brought about by way of
compensation for the greater "agreeableness" or other pleasurable
incident or perquisite of their tasks. Possibly we might refer to this
head, as well as to others, the circumstance that women having in
prospect the hopes of domestic life are likely to take less interest in
their trade than men do who cast in their lot for life, if this
difference in future prospects is attended with a difference in the
effort of attention given to work in the present. But doubtless the
explanation is to be found chiefly not in compensation produced by the
levelling action of competition, but in the absence of competition
between men and women--in the existence of monopoly whether natural or
artificial, to use Mill's distinction (_Political Economy_, Vol. II.
Chapter XIV.), together with custom and what Mill calls "the unintended
effect of general social regulations."
A natural monopoly is constituted by the superior strength of man, the
occasional exercise of which, as just noticed, entitles him to some
superiority of pay for work which at first sight may appear almost
identical with that of women. The experience recorded in the following
pages does not afford any expectation that this kind of superiority
tends to vanish. "There is an almost unanimous chorus of opinion that
women's work as compositors is so inferior to men's that it does not
pay in the long run" (Chapter IV.). Speaking of the physiological
differences between men and women in relation to their work, the Editor
concludes that "when all false emphasis and exaggeration have been
removed a considerable residuum of difference must remain."
Custom and the somewhat capricious sense of decorum counts for more than
might have been expected in restricting women to certain industries, and
accordingly, on the principle emphasised by Mrs. Fawcett, depressing
their wages. "I know my place, and I'm not going to take men's work from
them," said a female operative to an employer who wanted her to varnish
books (Chapter IV.). "Why, that is men's work, and we shouldn't think of
doing it," was the answer given by forewomen and others to the question
why they did not turn their hands to simple and easy processes which
were being done by men (Chapter V.).
Among artificial monopolies must be placed that which is constituted by
legislation. The Factory Laws, of which a lucid summary is given
(Chapter VI. § 1), impose certain conditions on the work of women which,
it may be supposed and has been asserted, place them at a sensible
disadvantage in their competition with men, who are free from those
restrictions. But the evidence now collected goes to prove that the
disadvantage occasioned to women in their competition with men by the
Factory Acts is not appreciable; thus confirming the conclusions
obtained by the Committee which the British Association appointed to
consider this very question (Report, 1903). The evidence of the large
majority of employers in the printing trade is in favour of the Acts;
the evidence of employees is almost unanimous. Of a hundred and three
employers "not half-a-dozen remembered dismissing women in consequence
of the new enactment" (Chapter VI. § 2). Of a hundred and three
employers, who expressed an opinion, twenty-six stated that in their
opinion legislation had not affected women's labour at all, sixty
considered it to have been beneficial, and seventeen looked on all
legislation as grandmotherly and ridiculous (p. 82). The opinion of the
employers is much influenced by the experience that "after overtime the
next day's work suffers." The still stronger feeling of the workers in
favour of the Factory Acts is partly based on the same fact: "Long
hours," said one, "don't do any good, for they mean that you work less
next day: if you work all night, then you are so tired that you have to
take a day off; you have gained nothing" (p. 86). Upon the whole the
moderate conclusion appears to be that "except in a few small houses the
employment of women as compositors has not been affected by the Factory
Acts" (p. 75). What little evidence there is to the contrary is
exhibited by the Editor with creditable candour (p. 80). It is admitted
that a "slight residuum of night work" may have been transferred to male
hands.
Trades unionism forms another species of "artificial monopoly," the
organisation of men in the printing trades being much stronger than that
of women. The difference is partly accounted for by the fact, already
noticed in other connections, that woman having an eye to marriage is
not equally wedded to her trade. Some frankly admit that "marriage is
sure to come along, and then they will work in factories and workshops
no longer" (p. 42). Whatever the cause, it appears from the Editor's
historical retrospect that women's unions have not flourished in the
trades under consideration. All attempts to organise women in the
printing trade proper, as distinguished from the bookbinding industry,
have failed. Even the Society of Women Employed in Bookbinding, though
organised by Mrs. Emma Paterson, seems to have had only a moderate
success. Thus the men unionists have had their way in arranging that
their standard wage should not be lowered by the influx of cheap labour
offered by women.
Some unions indeed admit women on equal terms with men, with less
advantage to the former than might have been expected. A regulation of
this sort adopted by the London Society of Compositors is followed by
the result that "it is practically impossible for any woman to join the
society" (p. 28). At Perth a few years ago, when women began to be
employed on general bookwork and setting up newspaper copy, the men's
union decided that the women must either be paid the same rates as the
men or be got rid of altogether (p. 46). One general result of such
_primâ facie_ equalitarian regulations is probably to promote that
crowding of women into less remunerative occupations which was above
noticed as a cardinal fact of the situation. It is for this reason
apparently that Mrs. Fawcett does not welcome the principle that
"women's wages should be the same as men's for the same work." "To
encourage women under all circumstances to claim the same wages as men
for the same work would be to exclude from work altogether all those
women who were industrially less efficient than men" (see the article by
Mrs. Fawcett referred to in the _Economic Journal_, Vol. III. p. 366,
and compare her article in that Journal, Vol. II. p. 174, already
cited).
Of course it may be argued that, in view of the circumstance that women
workers are often subsidised by men and of other incidents of family
life, to permit the unrestricted competition of men with women would
tend to lower the remuneration and degrade the character of labour as a
whole. Without expressing an opinion on this matter, seeking to explain
rather than to justify the cardinal fact that the industrial competition
between men and women is very imperfect, one may suggest that it is
favoured by another element of monopoly. The employer in a large
business has some of the powers proper to monopoly. As Professor
Marshall says (in a somewhat different connection) "a man who employs a
thousand others is in himself an absolutely rigid combination to the
extent of one thousand units in the labour market." This consideration
may render it easier to understand how it is possible for certain
employers to give effect to the dispositions which are attributed to
them in the following passages: "Conservative notions about women's
sphere, and chivalrous prejudices about protecting them, influence
certain employers in determining what work they _ought_ to do" (p. 52).
"A rigid sense of propriety based on a certain amount of good reason,
seems to determine many employers to separate male from female
departments" (p. 53).
A notice of this subject would be inadequate without reference to the
relation between the use of machinery and the competition of women
against men. In some cases the cheapness of women's work averts the
introduction of machinery. "One investigator whilst being taken over
certain large printing works was shown women folding one of the
illustrated 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" (p. 98). A well-known bookbinder said: "If women would take a
fair price for work done it would not be necessary to employ machinery."
In the Warrington newspaper offices the cheapness of women's labour
makes it unnecessary to introduce linotypes (pp. 46 and 98). On the
other hand, in the case of bookbinding, the employment of machinery
makes it possible for the less skilled and lower-paid women to do work
formerly done by men (p. 48). But the relations are not in general so
simple. Rather, as the Editor remarks, "what really happens is an
all-round shifting of the distribution of labour-power and skill, and a
rearrangement of the subdivision of labour" (p. 48). The cheerful
assumption proper to abstract economics, that labour displaced by the
introduction of machinery can turn to some other employment, is seldom,
it is to be feared, so perfectly realised as in the case of the
bookbinders below mentioned (p. 48, note): "There was much gloom among
the men when the rounding and backing machine came in, but though
profitable work was taken away from the 'rounders' and 'backers' they
had more 'lining up' and other work to do in consequence, so nobody was
turned off."
So far I have adverted to only one of the problems which are elucidated
by this investigation. A sense of proportion might require that I should
dwell on other topics of great interest such as home work and the work
of married women, the technique of the industries connected with
printing which the Editor has described minutely, and the statistics
relating to women's wages, in the treatment of which a master hand, that
of Mr. A. L. Bowley, may be recognised. But I must not go on like the
chairman who with a lengthy opening address detains an audience eager to
hear the principal speaker. I will only in conclusion express the hope
that the Committee which has obtained such useful results may be enabled
to prosecute further investigations with like diligence.
F. Y. EDGEWORTH.
CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTION xv
I.
I. THE TRADES DESCRIBED 1
II. WOMEN IN THE TRADES 17
III. WOMEN'S WORK AND ORGANISATION 24
IV. MEN AND WOMEN AS WORKERS 44
V. INDUSTRIAL TRAINING 55
VI. LEGISLATION 69
VII. WOMEN AND MACHINERY 94
VIII. HOME WORK 99
IX. MARRIED AND UNMARRIED 102
X. WAGES 113
II.--APPENDICES.
I. POINTS UPON WHICH ENQUIRIES WERE MADE 139
II. DESCRIPTIONS OF CERTAIN TYPICAL FIRMS 141
III. GENERAL GLASGOW REPORT 170
IV. WOMEN IN THE PRINTING TRADES IN BIRMINGHAM 179
V. TABLES OF INDIVIDUAL EARNINGS FOR CONSECUTIVE WEEKS
THROUGH LENGTHENED PERIODS 184
VI. MR. DUNNING'S STATEMENT OF WAGES, 1849 199
VII. TABLE SHOWING NUMBER OF MALES AND FEMALES ENGAGED
IN THESE TRADES AT VARIOUS AGES IN 1901 203
INDEX 205
INTRODUCTION.
The investigation upon which this book is based was undertaken by the
Women's Industrial Council; the Royal Statistical Society, the Royal
Economic Society, and the Hutchinson Trustees consenting to be
represented on the Committee responsible for the work. Upon this
Committee, the Women's Industrial Council was represented by Miss A.
Black, Miss C. Black, Mrs. Hammond, Mr. Stephen N. Fox, and Mr. J.
Ramsay Macdonald; the Royal Statistical Society by Mr. J. A. Baines; the
Royal Economic Society by Professor F. Y. Edgeworth, and the Hutchinson
Trustees by Mr. A. L. Bowley. Mrs. Hogg also represented the Women's
Industrial Council up to her death in 1900.
The Committee takes this opportunity of thanking the Hutchinson Trustees
for their liberal financial assistance, and of expressing its
appreciation of the services so carefully and enthusiastically performed
by the investigators, especially those of Mrs. Hammond, who is mainly
responsible for the work done in London; of Mrs. Oakeshott, who assisted
Mrs. Hammond; of Mrs. Muirhead, who supplied information about
Birmingham; of Miss Harrison, who investigated Bristol and the
South-West, and Leeds and district; and of Miss Irwin and Mr. Jones, who
were in charge of the Scottish enquiries. To the many employers, Trade
Union secretaries, and others who were so willing to give assistance to
the investigators, the Committee also desires to express its gratitude.
Whoever has had experience in collecting and sifting such evidence as is
dealt with in this investigation knows how difficult it is to arrive at
proper values and just conclusions. And women's trades seem to offer
special difficulties of this kind. There are no Trade Union conditions,
no general trade rules, no uniformity in apprenticeships, so far as the
woman worker is concerned, and the variations in conditions are most
striking, even between neighbouring employers drawing their supply of
labour from practically the same district, though perhaps not from the
same social strata. That difference in strata is in some cases a
predominating factor in women's employment, and it everywhere confuses
economic and industrial considerations. When to this irregularity of
conditions is added a reticence as to "one's personal affairs," due
partly to women's lack of the sense that their position is of public
interest, and also partly to an unwillingness shown by many employers to
disclose the facts of cheap labour, it can readily be seen that the
Committee had to exercise the greatest care in its work.
When the investigation was begun there was an idea that it should be the
commencement of an enquiry into women's labour in every trade of any
importance, but whether that will be carried on or not will now depend
on the reception of this volume and on what further financial assistance
is forthcoming. The group of trades selected for first treatment shows
neither an overwhelming preponderance of women nor a very marked
increase in the employment of women. But it illustrates in a specially
normal way the main problems of women's labour under ordinary modern
conditions. Upon one important point this group does not throw much
light. The employment of Women in the Printing Trades does not show to
any satisfactory extent the family influence of married and unmarried
women wage earners. What information the Committee was able to gather is
dealt with in its proper place, but careful enquiries will have to be
made in the highly-organised factory industries before that wealth of
fact can be obtained from which conclusions can be drawn, with details
properly filled in, regarding the influence of women's earnings upon
family incomes.
In other respects these trades have yielded most interesting
information. They illustrate the industrial mind and capacity of women
in the different aspects of training, rates of pay, competition with
men, influence of machinery, effect of legislation, and so on. These
subjects are dealt with under separate chapters, and though it has been
the chief aim of the Committee to present well-sifted and reliable
facts, it has stated some conclusions which are most obvious, and which
appear to be necessary, if bare figures and dry industrial data are to
carry any sociological enlightenment. The volume is therefore offered
not as a mere description of industrial organisation, but as a study in
sociology which indicates a path ahead as well as points out where we
stand at the moment.
Miss Clementina Black is responsible for the description of the Trades,
Mr. A. L. Bowley for the Chapter on Wages, and Mr. Stephen Fox for the
legal and historical part of that on Legislation. For the rest, the
Editor is responsible.
CHAPTER I.
_THE TRADES DESCRIBED._
The trades covered by this enquiry include a great number of processes,
some brief account of which is necessary if the succeeding chapters are
to be comprehensible. It will, perhaps, be the easiest way to follow the
stages by which paper is converted into books and to return afterwards
to such accessory matters as envelope making, relief stamping,
lithography, etc.
_Paper-making._--Paper-making is carried on mainly in the counties of
Kent, Lancashire, Buckingham, Yorkshire, Fife, Lanark, Aberdeen and
Midlothian, but mills are found scattered over the country where water
is favourable to the manufacture.[1] In London, there is one mill only,
and not more than thirteen women are employed in it. Of these the
majority are occupied in sorting esparto grass, and throwing it by means
of pitchforks into machines where the abundant dust is shaken out, and
from which the grass is carried on moving bands to the vats where it is
boiled into pulp. A few older married women are engaged in cutting rags,
removing buttons, etc.; but at the present day paper is but rarely made
from rags, and the rags so used are generally sorted and cut by
machinery. This is an instance in which machinery has undoubtedly
superseded the work of women; but, perhaps, few persons will regret
that an occupation so uninviting as the cutting up of old rags should be
undertaken rather by a machine than by a human being. With the later
processes in the manufacture of paper--the boiling, mixing, bleaching,
and refining--women have nothing to do; but a few women are employed in
"counting" the sheets of paper before they leave the mill.
[Footnote 1: _The Directory of Paper-makers_ for 1903 gives the
following number of paper mills as being situated in the following
counties:--Bucks, 16; Devon, 10; Durham, 9; Kent, 30; Lancashire, 44;
Yorkshire, 27; Edinburgh, 17; Lanark, 9; Stirling, 8; Fife, 7; Aberdeen,
5; Dublin, 6.]
The work of the women, who are time-workers at from 8_s._ to 10_s._ a
week, requires no training. The working day begins at 6 a.m., an earlier
hour than that of any other factory or shop dealt with in this enquiry.
The machinery is kept in constant action, double shifts of men being
employed, and when it becomes necessary to feed the machines with grass
at night men do the work performed in the day by women.
_Letter-press Printing._--The primary business of the "compositor" is to
"set-up type," _i.e._, to arrange the separate movable types in required
order for printing successive lines of words. These lines are then
arranged in frames called _chases_, each of which containing the types
is known as a _forme_; the _formes_ are "locked up," that is, made firm
by wooden or metal wedges called _quoins_, and are then carried to the
press for a proof impression. The printed page passes on in the shape of
proof to the "corrector," and from him to the author, and is then
returned in order that corresponding alterations may be made in the
placing of the type. Finally, when the whole corrected impression has
been printed off, comes the "distributing"--the removal of the types
from their places and re-sorting into the proper divisions in the
"case." Were books the only form of printed matter, this description
would cover the whole business of the compositor, but there are also
handbills and newspapers--to say nothing of lithographic printing, which
will be dealt with farther on. The printing of handbills, etc., and the
printing of newspapers, require, each in its own way, a high degree of
skill and experience, to which women, the vast majority of whom leave
the trade comparatively young, seldom attain.
In the provinces, however, a few women are engaged upon the printing of
weekly or bi-weekly newspapers; and in London, one establishment has
been visited in which women regularly do "jobbing" or "display
work"--terms which cover the printing of advertisements, posters,
handbills, etc.--while at least two other firms employ each one girl
upon such work. "None of the other workers," it is reported, "seem to
care to learn."
The difference between skilful and unskilful work in this department is
far greater than an uninitiated person might suppose; and the
attractiveness of a poster, advertisement or invitation card depends
very largely upon the way in which the type is spaced.
In all printing houses employing women compositors, setting up,
correcting, and distributing are done by women; in the Women's Printing
Society women regularly "impose," that is, divide up the long galleys of
type into pages and place the pages so that they may follow in proper
order when the sheet is folded, and in another firm a woman was found
who could impose; but as a general rule the "imposing" is the work of
the man or men employed to lock-up and carry about the heavy formes. No
instance has been found in which this latter work, which in some cases
is extremely heavy, is done by women.
_Bookbinding._--This trade covers at least two main divisions, and one
of these is minutely subdivided into a great variety of processes. The
first process is, in all cases, that of folding. All printed matter
occupying more than a single page has to be so folded as to bring the
pages into consecutive order, and this process is essentially the same
whether the printed sheet be that of a book, a pamphlet, a magazine, or
a newspaper. From the trade point of view, however, there is a
distinction between the folding of matter intended to be bound up in a
real book cover (book-folding) and matter which is not to be bound
(printers' folding). As a general rule--liable, however, to many
exceptions--book-folding is performed in a binder's shop and printers'
folding in a printing house, whence the names. But many printers now
have a regular binding department, and periodical or pamphlet work is on
the other hand often folded in the workshop of the publisher's binder.
The line of demarcation is therefore no very distinct one. Prospectus
work is _par excellence_ printers' folding, and so are such weekly
papers as are still folded by hand.
Book-folding is done by women, of whom in theory nearly all, and in
practice many, are regularly employed. The process is practically
identical in both cases. Printers' folding is carried on in large firms
chiefly by a regular staff; but in times of pressure "job hands" or
"grass hands" are called in; and in smaller workplaces job hands do the
whole of the work. Great sheets of matter, fresh from the press, are
distributed in thousands to the workers to be folded either by hand or
by machine. In the latter case, the woman merely feeds the machine,
taking care to lay the sheet in exactly the right place. In the former,
she becomes practically a machine herself, so monotonous is the
occupation. The sheet is folded once, twice, three, or even four times,
as the case may be, on a fixed plan, and sometimes has to be cut with a
long knife as well as folded. The various sheets of a book having been
folded, the process of _gathering_ follows. Each folder has received a
fixed number (probably a thousand) copies of the same sheet, and when
she has finished folding the gatherer places the sheets in piles of each
"signature," _e.g._ the index letter which one observes on the first
page of each sheet in a book, in regular order on a long table. She then
walks up and down the side of this table collecting one copy of each
sheet and so forming a complete book. The collection thus made passes
from the gatherer to the _collator_, who runs over it, noting by means
of the printer's "signature" that all the sheets are in order, and
placing her mark on the book, thereby becoming responsible for its
accuracy. In the case of illustrated books the process of _placing_
comes at this stage. The plates to be inserted are "fanned out"--_i.e._,
laid out in fan shape--each receives a narrow strip of paste at the back
and is placed next, and stuck to, its proper page. This placing is
sometimes done by the collator, sometimes by a separate hand. The whole
process of collating is often omitted in the case of pamphlets and small
work, and the sheets then pass straight from the folder to the stitcher
or sewer. Of _sewing_ or _stitching_ there are many varieties. The
threads of hand-sewn books generally pass through three bands of tape
kept taut by being attached at one end to the table at which the worker
sits and at the other to a horizontal bar above. Sometimes the book will
have been prepared by the sawing of grooves in the back to receive the
sewing. This sawing is done by men. Stitching machines vary greatly. The
simplest kind merely inserts the unpleasant "staple-binder" of wire that
is so large a factor in the rapid decomposition of cheap books. In these
machines, one variety of which uses thread and knots it, the pamphlet or
other work in hand is placed at a particular place in a kind of trough;
the operator presses a treadle and the wire is mechanically passed
through and pressed flat. Other machines of a more complicated sort will
sew with thread upon tapes. In this case one girl is required to
superintend and a younger assistant to cut apart the books which are
delivered by the machine fixed at intervals upon a long continuous tape.
Such machines are worked by power and set going by the pressure of a
treadle. Pamphlets or newspapers having neither "cover" nor "wrapper"
are now finished--unless, indeed, _inserts_ or _insets_ are to be placed
between the pages. These are those unattached advertisements which fall
out upon the reader's knee on a first opening, and thereby certainly
succeed in catching his attention, though not perhaps his approval.
Magazines or paper-covered books are sometimes "wrappered" by women, a
simple process consisting of glueing the back of each book and clapping
on the cover. Bound books have end-papers added to them by women, who
also paste down the projecting tapes to the fly-pages. At this stage the
book passes into the hands of men to be touched no more by women, except
perhaps in a few subsidiary processes. But since much debate has taken
place over the allotment to men and women of other parts of the work, it
becomes necessary to give a cursory glance at the further stages of a
book's progress.
On leaving the women's hands the book--now no longer a collection of
loose sheets but an entity--is placed in a machine to be "nipped," that
is, to have the back pressed; then the edges are cut smooth in a
"guillotine"; the back is glued upon muslin and rounded, and a groove is
made, by hand or machine, at each side of the back, so that the cover
may lie flat; this is called "backing," the covering boards and cloth
are cut out and pasted together; the design and lettering are stamped
upon them in the "blocking-room"; the books are "pasted down," that is,
are fixed into their covers by means of pasting down the end leaves, and
are "built up" in a large press. If the designs and lettering of the
cover are to be gilded, the gold-leaf is laid on by hand according to
the stamped-out pattern, which is then restamped, and any gold-leaf not
firmly adhering is rubbed off with an old stocking. The stocking is
burned in a crucible, and the precious remainder of the gold collected
again. "Gold laying-on" is done by women; and the workers engaged in
this task do nothing else. Much dexterity is needed, the gold-leaf
being apt to break or blow away at the slightest breath. One
investigator describes as "seeming almost marvellous" the skill with
which this difficult material is laid in exactly the right place by
means of a knife. Women also "open-up," _i.e._, look through the books
ready to be sent out to see that there are no flaws. Such is the
life-history of the ordinary book as it comes from the publisher, but
"publishers' binding" is not the only section of the binding trade, and
is indeed regarded by the workers as "decidedly inferior" to
"leather-work," which is emphatically distinguished as "bookbinding."
Leather-binding is employed mainly for rebinding. It forms, as may be
supposed, a comparatively small part of the whole trade, and is
practically confined to three large firms in the West End, a few small
places, and separate rooms in some general binding establishments. The
chief difference of method lies in the better fixing together of back
and cover, the "bound" book being laced into the cover, and in the
presence of a "head-band," at top and bottom of the back. Books to be
re-bound are picked to pieces by women and cleaned from glue, etc.,
re-folded, if necessary, collated, and after being rolled flat (by a
man) are sewn at a hand press. Repairs to torn pages or plates and the
removal of stains are also done by women. This last process demands
great care and skill, "foxed" pages requiring to be dipped into a
preparation of acid which destroys not only the objectionable stain but
also the body of the paper, so that the leaf has to be newly sized and
strengthened, and naturally needs very tender handling throughout this
whole course of treatment. The best head-bands, too, are made by women
by hand, but the head-bands of cheaper books--when they exist at
all--are machine-made. Head-band makers form a special and extremely
small class of workers.
A third branch of the trade is "vellum-binding," a name which covers the
binding of all ledgers, account books, and bank books, whether bound in
vellum or no. The workers engaged in this branch form a separate group,
are rarely found on the premises of regular bookbinders, and work
chiefly in a separate department in printing houses. The employments of
women in vellum-binding are much the same as in publishers' binding;
they fold and sew much in the usual manner, the only marked difference
arising in the case of large day-books, etc., which are elaborately
hand-sewn in frames, each section of the book having a separate guard of
linen.
It is difficult to draw lines of demarcation between the various workers
whose occupations have now been described. In large workplaces a worker
will probably be kept at one minute process; the folder will do nothing
but fold, the sewer will only sew, the collator only collate, and the
inserter only insert. Some forewomen, however, think it better to give
the women a change of employment. Gold layers-on and openers-up are
always entirely apart from folders and sewers, but collators begin with
folding and sewing, and in small houses sometimes combine one or both
these processes with collating.
The divisions of work between men and women are not made upon any
discernible principle of fitness, and except in the case of folding and
sewing, which have belonged to women from time immemorial, the various
processes began in the hands of men and have been gradually taken up by
women. This gradual encroachment has been generally resented and often
resisted by the men, and in May, 1893, an elaborate agreement was drawn
up by the Bookbinding Trade Section of the London Chamber of Commerce
representing the masters, and the secretaries of the men's unions
representing the men working in the trade. The women workers were not
represented or consulted. The agreement is as follows:--
LONDON SOCIETIES OF JOURNEYMEN BOOKBINDERS.
_London Consolidated Society; Bookbinders' and Machine Rulers'
Consolidated Union, London Branch; Society of Day-working
Bookbinders._
That this meeting of representatives of the Bookbinding Section of
the London Chamber of Commerce, with representatives of the
Journeymen Bookbinders' Trade Societies, deeming it desirable that
a definition of bookbinding should be agreed upon for the
delimitation of work to be paid for at recognised rates, hereby
agrees that the following divisions or sub-divisions of labour be
for the future recognised as the work of bookbinders or
apprentices, taking the book from the time of leaving the women
after sewing, except wrappering, which is unaffected by this
agreement:--
Forwarding, and the following sub-divisions of bookbinding:
Nipping, knocking down, or pressing.
Cutting books or magazines.
Colouring edges of books (where done indoors).
Cutting leather, except corners, and backs for flush work from
sheep and roan.
Cutting cloth.
Cutting hollows and linings.
Cutting boards.
Bevelling boards.
Case making.
Pasting down and building up.
Flush work throughout.
Finishing throughout.
Assistant finishing throughout.
Blocking throughout.
Circuit and box work. (Bible trade.)
PROVIDED:--That the representatives of the journeymen agree that
they will not make it a grievance if female or unskilled labour is
placed upon:--
The rolling, pressing before sewing, sawing up, or papering of
outboard work.
The laying on, washing up, or cleaning off of cloth work.
The varnishing of cloth or Bible work.
The paper mounts and pictures on cloth cases.
Taking work out of the press after pasting down, and opening up.
The carrying of loads of work about the workshop.
Further, that the representatives of the journeymen will not
object to the introduction of unskilled labour upon cloth cutting,
if the recognised rate of wages of 32_s._ per 48 hours be paid
after a probationary period of twelve months, in which the novice
may learn the work.
Owing to the difficulties of drafting a clause affecting the
laying on in such a manner as to lay down a line of demarcation
between cloth and leather work, it is hereby agreed to leave the
subject of laying on _in statu quo_, upon the understanding that
it shall not be the policy of the Trade Societies to interfere,
except in the case of innovations upon existing custom.[2]
This agreement not to be construed to the prejudice of the
existing holders of situations.
Adopted by the Bookbinding Trade Section of the London Chamber of
Commerce at its annual meeting on 7th May, 1893.
JOHN DIPROSE, _Chairman_.
Ratified by the executives of the hereunder-mentioned Societies on
May 30th, 1893, and signed on their behalf.
HENRY R. KING, _Secretary, London Consolidated Society_.
WILLIAM BOCKETT, _Secretary, Day Working Bookbinders' Society_.
THOMAS E. POWELL, _Secretary, Bookbinders and Machine Rulers'
Consolidated Union_ (_London Branch_).
[Footnote 2: This clause has been interpreted by the award given in
March, 1903, by Mr. C. J. Stewart, the arbitrator appointed by the Board
of Trade to settle a dispute in the trade regarding wages, hours,
apprentices and piece work. The 6th clause in that award is as
follows:--"That the right or practice existing with regard to female
labour employed on wrappering and for laying on gold in case work, cloth
or leather, or other material, in certain workshops in the trade, shall
be made to apply to all workshops in the trade, it being agreed by the
employers that no man exclusively employed in gold laying-on shall lose
his employment by reason of the employment of women on such work."]
Closely connected with vellum-binding are the processes of
machine-ruling, numbering, paging and perforating.
_Machine-ruling_ is the process by which lines are ruled for ledgers,
invoices, etc. The machine employed resembles a hand-loom in appearance,
and is in effect a framework in which pens are fixed at the required
distances. Ink is conveyed into these from a pad of thick flannel above,
and the page to be ruled lies on a broad band below. The re-inking of
the flannel is in some cases effected by means of a reservoir and tap
supplying a regulated flow, in others the ink is laid on from bowls of
red or blue colour by means of a brush. Machines worked by a handle
still survive in a few places, but as a general rule the machine is
driven by power and the operator merely superintends, correcting the
machine if it goes wrong, setting the pens and regulating the supply of
ink. The newest machines require the services of neither "feeders" nor
"wetters," and the simple old picturesque accessories, the cords, the
wooden frame, the bowls of colour, are disappearing. Women are employed
in some houses to feed the machines, which is purely mechanical work;
our investigators found four establishments in London in which women can
rise to the higher position of "minder," and one other in which they are
allowed to damp the flannel and partially "mind."
_Numbering_ is the process by which consecutive figures are stamped upon
cheques, bills, receipts, tickets, or other loose sheets. A machine
worked by hand is employed, the number types changing automatically. The
attention of the worker is required on three points only: the paper must
be placed so as to bring the number into the right position; the machine
must not be allowed to skip numbers at a jump--as it is inclined to do;
and whenever an additional figure becomes necessary, a certain change
must be made. The handle of the machine works up and down, and the
process is different from that of stamping, to be described later. There
are no power machines for numbering.
Numbering is said to try the eyes, and the working of a machine handle
is considered bad for girls who have any weakness of the chest.
_Paging_ is the process by which numbers are printed upon the pages of a
bound volume. As in numbering, a change has to be made at each "100";
and there is need of further care to avoid missing pages. Where these
are thin or interleaved with tissue paper omissions are very easily
made.
_Perforating_ is done by machines generally worked by power, but
sometimes by treadle, with one foot; and this treadle work was described
by a woman constantly employed at it as excessively hard work.
_Lithography._--The work of women and girls in lithography seems to be
confined to the feeding of machines. In London the introduction of
female labour is comparatively recent, dating from about six or seven
years ago, but in the provinces women have been employed for more than
thirty years. Employers are, for some reason or another, not very ready
to give information about this branch of work; but some of the
investigators engaged in this enquiry have succeeded in seeing the
process. A girl stands on a high platform putting sheets into the proper
place in the machine until she has completed the job. A long interval
may follow in which she may sew, knit or read. The noise of the machine
is incessant, and the work hard, monotonous and mechanical, but if done
under proper conditions not necessarily unhealthy. Many working-places
in London, however, where space is so valuable, are partly underground,
dark and ill-ventilated, and in these the ceaseless whirring noise and
the smell of the ink grow unendurably trying. Workers in such places are
rough and of low social standing. Most men working in the general
stationery trades, and some employers who do not employ women, condemn
the doing of this work by women, and since the women have superseded not
men but boys, the views of the workmen are not those of trade rivals.
Girls are said to be in various ways better workers than
boys--cleaner-handed, more careful and accurate, less disposed to meddle
with the machinery, and therefore less liable to accidents; above all,
quieter, more docile, and less apt to strike. The men employed in
lithography look favourably on the employment of girls, because no girl
attempts to rise into the higher grades and "pick up" the trade without
apprenticeship. Girls do not, and boys as feeders do, "constitute a
danger to the Society." Moreover, a trade that offers only so uncertain
a chance of rising is generally disapproved for a boy.
The objection to the employment for girls is that they work among
men--an objection which may be a very grave one indeed, or a
comparatively slight one, according to the character of the foreman and
the management of the workshop. It may be noted that respectable
working-class parents almost always consider this objection serious.
A few women are reported to be employed as lithographic artists, but no
one has been seen in the course of this enquiry.
Minor stationery trades are envelope-making, black bordering, plain and
relief stamping.
_Envelope-making_ has several subdivisions. The paper is first cut to
shape in machines worked by men, then passed to women to be "cemented,"
_i.e._, to be gummed upon the flaps, folded or "creased," and stuck
together. Finally the envelopes are packed by women.
Cementing and folding are reckoned distinct trades. One cementer
explained to an investigator, however, that she described herself as a
folder, "for people are so ignorant that if you say you are a cementer
they think you have something to do with the pavement." Cementing may be
done by hand or by machine, and the workers are not interchangeable. The
hand-worker spreads out the envelopes in the shape of a fan, and passes
her brush over all the flaps at once. The machine-cementer puts 500 or
1,000 envelopes into a small machine, which grips them and drips gum
upon their flaps. The worker extricates the envelopes one by one, and
spreads them out to dry. A more complex machine is being introduced
which performs the various processes for itself, requiring one girl to
feed and one to take-off.
The flaps being dry, the envelopes are taken in bundles to the
_folders_, who first "crease" them--that is, fold in the sides--then
"gum" them with a brush at the required points, and fasten them. This
process can also be performed by a machine, and the operator in that
case merely feeds the machine with the cemented paper, and the envelope
is delivered made.
The envelopes are then handed on to the "packers," who count them and
make them up into packets, and the packets into parcels.
Except the original cutting, still done by men, all these processes have
always been executed by women.
The trade of _black bordering_ is carried on by women who seldom or
never perform any other process. Black bordering is usually done by
hand. The worker spreads out a number of sheets, cards or envelopes, in
such a manner as to expose only a certain width of border, and over this
exposed portion she passes a brush. Of course, only two edges of each
sheet, etc., can be laid ready at one time, and each object has to be
"laid out" a second time after drying. "It is marvellous to see the
speed and dexterity with which the women do the 'laying-out.' They
gather up a large number of sheets, lay them on the board and fan them
out with a piece of wood used for the purpose, showing the most
astounding accuracy of eye in leaving just the right width exposed.
Sometimes the 'laying out' is done by a machine, and only the blacking
by hand." This trade--a steady one on the whole--has, unlike nearly all
the other stationery trades, been more prosperous owing to the South
African war--a grim little example of the way in which large public
events eddy away into undreamed of backwaters! Men now never do black
bordering, but are reported to have done so once. Machinery is now being
more widely introduced.
_Plain, Relief and Cameo Stamping._--Under these heads are included all
the various processes by which crests, monograms, addresses, etc., are
embossed upon notepaper, cards, programmes, or private Christmas cards.
The trade has increased enormously of late years, and a new process has
been introduced which renders it possible to employ the printing press.
This, however, is only worth while when the order to be executed is a
very large one; and most stamping is done by hand machines, a die being
fixed into the machine and impressed by tightly screwing down. The
machine is worked (like an ordinary copying press) by a horizontal bar,
having a ball at each end, and swung from right to left. The lighter
machines can be worked by one hand; the heavier require two, and are
found fatiguing. Some are so heavy that they can only be worked by men.
Practice is necessary in order to get the stamp in exactly the right
place, and, in relief or cameo work, in order to mix the colours, which
are rubbed on the die, to precisely the right thickness.
Plain stamping--the easiest process--is that in which letters, a coat of
arms, or a trade mark, are raised but not coloured; in relief stamping
the raised surface is coloured; and in cameo stamping (of which the
registered letter envelope is an example) a white device stands out from
a coloured background.
When two or more colours are employed considerable care, skill, and
patience are needed. This work, in two or more colours, is called
_illuminating_; in one branch of it--the highest--gold and silver are
employed on a coloured surface, and here women are not employed.
_Show-card Mounting._--Card mounting is a distinct trade, and is almost
entirely in female hands. Almanacs, advertisements, and texts for
hanging up, all belong to the province of the card mounter, whose main
business is to unite the picture and cardboard that arrive separately in
her workshop. The board is first cut either by a man at a cutting
machine--or "guillotine"--or occasionally by a girl at a rotary machine
adjustable to different gauges; then "lined," by having paper pasted
over the back and edges. Inferior work is not lined. Finally, the
picture or print is pasted on the card, the backs of three or four
pictures being pasted at once, and each in succession being applied to
its own card. Some means of hanging up is still needed, and various
methods are in use. Sometimes eyelets are inserted into a punched hole
by means of a small machine which a girl works by hand. Sometimes the
edge is bound with a strip of tin, having loops attached to it; in this
case the tin strips are cut by men, and applied by hand machines, again
worked by girls. Sometimes, as in the case of maps, charts, and large
diagrams, a wooden rod is fixed at the top, this fixing being done by
girls.
The trade is not, it will readily be perceived, one that demands great
skill, practice or intelligence, and the majority of the workers are
very young. Still, a certain degree of experience is necessary, since
the application of either too much or too little paste results in a
"blister," and blistered work is spoiled. One investigator was shown a
lot of 500 cards, the estimated value of which was 6_d._ each, no less
than 385 of which had thus been spoiled and rendered quite useless. The
workers stand at their work and report that it exhausts them. It used,
till about twenty-eight years ago, to be done by men; but the trade was
at that time a much smaller one. Night work, when considered necessary,
is still done by men.
A little laying-on of gold is done in connection with card mounting. The
process has been described already under bookbinding.
The Christmas card industry (which may be considered as a variety of
show-card mounting) serves to exemplify one of the anomalies of the
Factory Act. These cards may be sorted, packed, etc., to any hours of
the night, because mere packing is not regarded as manufacture; but if a
"bow of ribbon" is to be affixed to each card, the process becomes
"preparation for sale," and the regulations of the Act apply.[3]
[Footnote 3: Cf. pp. 76,77.]
_Typefounding._--Typefounding is a small, ancient and conservative trade
into which women have only crept during the last few years. In London
there are only about eight typefoundries proper, and in these labour is
elaborately subdivided, every workman performing but one process.
Recently, however, some large printing houses have begun to cast their
own type, and in these the few men employed perform all the processes,
or, to use their own term, "do the work through," thus, curiously
enough, reverting to an earlier stage in the development of the trade.
Women are employed in the large foundries, where they perform certain
subsidiary parts of the work. Each type when it comes from the machine
wherein it has been cast has a little superfluous bit of thin metal,
known as a "break" on its end or "foot." These bits are broken off by
girls, the "foot" of the type being pressed against a table and the
"break" snapped off. No great skill is required, but quickness only
comes with practice. The type is also "set-up"--_i.e._, put in rows in a
long stick or "galley"--by girls; here, again, nothing is needed beyond
a certain manual dexterity. Sometimes another stage, "rubbing,"
intervenes between the "breaking" and the "setting-up." Rubbing is
merely the smoothing off on a flat grindstone of any roughness that may
be left by the machine round the "face" end of the type. In one case, in
London, one or two women were once employed in rubbing, but none appear
to be so engaged at present, and the newer appliances have made rubbing
unnecessary. "Dressing," the final process through which the type
passes, is said to be in some places performed by women; but no such
instances have been found in London in the course of this investigation.
The dresser receives the lines or sticks of type, polishes the sides,
measures their length and breadth with a delicate spanner, "nicks" the
foot of each type, and finally "picks over" the type--that is, scans the
row of "faces" through a magnifying glass, and rejects any on which the
letters are not absolutely truly placed.
One large London firm, employing many girls, has a different process.
The types are cast in long lines and have to be divided, no breaking or
setting-up being required. As one of the workers said, "This is not a
trade; just any one can do it!"
Girls began to do "breaking" and "setting-up" in London about thirteen
years ago. There were then but thirteen so employed. During the last few
years their numbers have increased, and it is estimated that those now
employed number from 100 to 150. One firm is known to employ fifty and
another forty. They have superseded boys, and were mainly introduced
because boys were difficult to get. The chances of rising being small
for boys, they were disinclined to enter the trade. The chances for
girls are _nil_, but this consideration does not weigh much with girls
belonging to the class that supplies workers to typefounding. The female
workers are all young, and at present no married women seem to be
employed, a fact which may perhaps be due to the comparatively recent
entrance of women into the trade.
The occupation has a special feature of unhealthiness--the danger of
lead-poisoning; and the Factory Act, recognising this, prohibits women,
young persons or children, from taking a meal upon the premises where
typefounding is carried on. As in other lead industries, much depends on
the care and cleanliness of the worker. To eat with hands lead-blackened
by some hours of "breaking-off" is to run considerable risk of
lead-poisoning. It is suggested that girls, being more fastidious than
boys upon such points, may possibly suffer less frequently from the
dangers involved in the industry of typefounding.