CHAPTER V._Women in the Printing Trades: A Sociological Study.

_INDUSTRIAL TRAINING._

1. THE TRAINING.

[Sidenote: How girls are taught.]

At the present moment such training as is given generally begins in the

workshops so soon as the girl has left school.[53] Girls are, in the

best houses, employed on the recommendation of workers already there.

Much of the work, such as folding, is merely a matter of mechanical

quickness and accuracy, and after a few weeks' practice the girl is as

useful as she is ever likely to have an opportunity to be. A great deal

of the work women do in stationery factories (such as stamping, black

bordering, numbering pages) is of a routine nature, and this work is

generally paid by the piece. For such departments, no premium is asked

as a rule.[54] Sometimes the beginner is paid a small wage--2_s._ 6_d._

or thereabouts--to encourage her at first. Sometimes she works a few

weeks for nothing.[55] Sometimes she has to pay a tuition fee to the

woman under whose charge she is put. Sometimes this woman gives her a

small sum as a gift in respect of the help she renders. Some firms make

the training period fairly long, in order that it may be impossible for

the lower class of girls to accept the conditions of employment.

By-and-by the learner is paid half of what she earns, and finally she is

put on regular piecework, her advancement depending on her nimbleness.

If she is in a large house she is only taught one process, but if quick,

and employed in a smaller house, she may be taught several. In almost

every instance she is put upon piecework as soon as possible after she

begins. In an overwhelming number of cases the beginners are simply

placed beside a regular hand, and pick up their skill by watching the

old hand and then turning and doing it themselves. The girl who "picked

up vellum-sewing and wire-stitching" whilst engaged as a folder, and

she who was transferred from tie-making to stitching and folding, are

types. The phrase "serving her time" survives, but the apprenticeship

which is indicated hardly now exists.

[Footnote 53: "A boy learns nothing after fifteen, a girl after

fourteen," is the way one employer puts it.]

[Footnote 54: Very few premiums are reported upon. In one case it was

said that £10 were asked as a premium in relief stamping, but the

informant admitted that the sum varied; in another well-known stationery

firm a premium of £2 is asked for, but is returned with 5 per cent.

interest at the end of three years. The premiums of £50 or £100 charged

by certain bookbinding teachers are of course quite special.]

[Footnote 55: LEADING LONDON HIGH-CLASS STATIONERY FIRM:--_Paging

Department._--Girls come for a few months for nothing, _i.e._ six

months, no premium. They go on getting quicker.

_Lithographic Department._

Girls come in and pick it up: show one another how to do it.

_Vellum-binding Department._

Girls come for three years and are paid 5_s._ per week.

LEADING EDUCATIONAL SUPPLY FIRM:

_Copybook and similar Work._

"Has several little girls running about on errands for a few shillings a

week, and if any of them seem promising they are helped on. Training

nothing like what it used to be; girls learn only one branch."

LARGE LONDON PRINTING FIRM:--_Vellum-sewing Department._

"Regular apprenticeship still the system here." Three years given as the

period for training and during this time no wages are paid. Girls come

straight from school.

_Folding, etc., Department._

"No regular apprenticeship. Girls come in and pick it up; if quick they

are taught other branches, like numbering, relief stamping, etc."

LONDON STATIONERY FIRM:

_Envelope Folding and Hand-cementing Department._

"Girls are put under an experienced party to whom they pay 10_s._ For

six weeks, they receive nothing. For next six weeks they receive half

earnings, then they are put on piecework."

_Black Bordering._

"A regular hand teaches and gets any benefit of the work during six

months in return for the time she wastes in teaching." This practice is

also adopted in some firms in envelope folding by hand.

LONDON PUBLISHING FIRM:

_Bookbinding Department._

"System of indenture has just been revived because it was found that

otherwise the firm had no hold over the girls, so that the quick ones as

soon as they had learnt went off elsewhere as full earners." Indenture

for two years.

An ex-forewoman in bookbinding, who knew the London trade well, stated

that much less trouble is taken with learners now than formerly. In her

own case she was apprenticed without indentures for two years, and

learned "all the branches right through," old work included.

Another forewoman in work stated she was in training for four years: two

years at bookbinding, one year at vellum work, and one year at

stationery.]

Of the firms about which we have information for bookwork and printers'

folding, seven require a three years' training; twenty, two years;

thirty-three, one and a half years; nineteen, one year; two, fifteen

months; and seven, periods under a year. Eleven firms have no settled

apprenticeship time, advancement depending entirely on the quickness of

the learner. In places where gold laying-on is done the same time is

usually served as for the other branches, _i.e._, from a few weeks to

three years. In the case of vellum work, seven firms require three

years; eight, two years; three, one and a half years; one, one and a

half to two years; two, six months; and eight, no settled time.

In some of these firms, however, a genuine attempt to teach apprentices

is made;[56] and in at least one large and well-known London house the

system of indenture has been revived, owing to the difficulty which was

experienced in retaining girls after they became competent. On the other

hand, several well-known firms have ceased to employ learners because

they are too troublesome, and depend upon women trained elsewhere. But

we have found that in only a very few cases is the beginner, whether an

apprentice or not, thoroughly taught every process of her trade. She is

generally put to one process and kept at it, so that the mechanical

dexterity she may acquire is in no sense genuine trade skill.[57] This

distinction between trade skill and mechanical dexterity in one process

must be kept in mind as a fundamental consideration in every problem

concerning the woman wage-earner.

[Footnote 56: Apprenticeship is still common in vellum-sewing where

skill and intelligence are required, and in places where women are doing

more than supplementary work, _e.g._ Edinburgh, a regular period of

training varying from two to four years is agreed upon. Apprenticeship

seems to be most common in Scotland. In London our investigation into

vellum work, printers' folding, and bookwork only discovered seven

indentured women apprentices, two of these being engaged in vellum work.

Curiously enough in paper-staining firms, although the processes are

practically unskilled, indentures are signed for two years; the girl

receives 4_s._ a week for the first year and a portion of her piece

earnings for the second year. At the end of two years she is a full

wage-earner and is paid by piece rates. What her earnings are it is

difficult to discover; 12_s._ 6_d._ was given as an average, but this is

probably too high. It is reported that she may make 6_d._ in less than

an hour when the colours are mixed and she is finishing a job, whereas

next day she will spend the whole morning before she earns her 6_d._]

[Footnote 57: _E.g._, one of the large stationery firms in London

reports regarding machine ruling: "Girls come in and feed the machinery,

and afterwards rise to wet the flannel. They never mind the machines,

_e.g._, arrange pens and so on." Another interesting note is, "Men

nearly always do illuminating, _e.g._, stamping crests, etc., in more

than one colour, on notepaper, as the process requires more skill than

women possess. If the women did it, the ladies would not like their

notepaper." An employer defended the employment of women on the grounds

of his own experience of one woman who "had been working at a secret

process for years, and there is no fear of the secret being betrayed as

she is without understanding or interest for the machine."]

The question of how much a girl learns during her time is a vital one.

Much depends on the forewoman. As one of the workers put it, "How much

you learn depends on the forelady, and whether she takes a fancy to you;

some girls will have a turn at everything, others only learn sewing or

folding. Dress makes a great difference; the poorer you are, the less

chance you have of getting on."

The obverse of this from the forewoman's point of view is that "girls if

quick are taught all branches, but with some girls it is all you can do

to teach them one." It seems the general opinion amongst all the older

hands that the "training is not what it used to be;" and, certainly, the

few instances we have come across of women who can do bookwork, vellum

work, and also stationery work, are amongst the older hands. The

complaint, however, that the trade was not properly taught, occurs in

the evidence given to the Commission of 1843, when it seemed to be one

of the principal grievances complained of. Masters, it was said by one

worker, often took girls, pretended to teach them, and discharged them

at the end of their time, when they had to go elsewhere to learn. Three

girls gave evidence that they were tricked into serving from three to

eight months for nothing, and came away no wiser. At another shop the

employer expatiated on the thoroughness of the training offered by him;

but seven of his journeywomen, aged nineteen, eighteen, seventeen, and

sixteen, declared indignantly that they had not learnt their business

thoroughly, and would never have gone to him if they had known his

methods. The truth apparently is that in 1843, as to-day, some firms

are better for apprentices than others, and that a generation ago a good

firm doing general work offered better opportunities for training than

good firms conducted under up-to-date conditions can now give.

The following table shows the changes that have been made in the

conditions of apprenticeship by certain leading London firms.

+----------------------------------------------------------------+

| TABLE SHOWING CHANGES IN PERIOD, ETC., OF TRAINING |

| IN PARTICULAR FIRMS IN LONDON.[58] |

+-------------------+---------+-------------+--------------------+

| | | and | during |

+-------------------+---------+-------------+--------------------+

| 1. STATIONER'S. |

+-------------------+---------+-------------+--------------------+

| 1867 Commission | 2 years | -- | -- |

+-------------------+---------+-------------+--------------------+

+-------------------+---------+-------------+--------------------+

| | | indentures | pay. |

+-------------------+---------+ +--------------------+

+-------------------+---------+-------------+--------------------+

| 2. STATIONER'S. |

+-------------------+---------+-------------+--------------------+

| | | no | year half pay. |

+-------------------+---------+ indentures +--------------------+

+-------------------+---------+ +--------------------+

+-------------------+---------+-------------+--------------------+

| 3. PUBLISHER'S. |

+-------------------+---------+-------------+--------------------+

| | | no | 6 months 2_s._ |

| | | indentures | 6_d._, |

+-------------------+---------+ +--------------------+

| | years | | 6_d._, |

+-------------------+---------+-------------+--------------------+

| 4. BOOKBINDER'S. |

+-------------------+---------+-------------+--------------------+

| | | no | months 3_s._, 18 |

+-------------------+---------+ +--------------------+

+-------------------+---------+-------------+--------------------+

| 5. PRINTER'S. |

+-------------------+---------+-------------+--------------------+

| | | no | 18 months half |

| | | indentures | pay. |

+-------------------+---------+ +--------------------+

| | | | pay. |

+-------------------+---------+-------------+--------------------+

| 6. STATIONER'S. |

+-------------------+---------+-------------+--------------------+

| | | no | pay, 12 months |

| | | | pay. |

+-------------------+---------+ +--------------------+

| | | | pay. |

+-------------------+---------+-------------+--------------------+

| 7. PUBLISHER'S. |

+-------------------+---------+-------------+--------------------+

| | | no | 2_s._ 6_d._ |

+-------------------+---------+ +--------------------+

+-------------------+---------+-------------+--------------------+

| 8. BOOKBINDER'S. |

+-------------------+---------+-------------+--------------------+

| 20 years ago | 1½ | No | 1 year 1_s._, |

+-------------------+---------+-------------+--------------------+

| | | no | 12 months 4_s._ |

+-------------------+---------+-------------+--------------------+

| 9. PUBLISHER'S. |

+-------------------+---------+-------------+--------------------+

| | | no | 9 months 1_s._ |

+-------------------+---------+ indentures +--------------------+

| | | | pay. |

+-------------------+---------+-------------+--------------------+

| 10. PRINTER'S. |

+-------------------+---------+-------------+--------------------+

| | | no | no pay. |

+-------------------+---------+ indentures +--------------------+

| | | | or 3_s._ |

+-------------------+---------+-------------+--------------------+

| 11. BOOKBINDER'S. |

+-------------------+---------+-------------+--------------------+

+-------------------+---------+ +--------------------+

| | years | | 6_d._, |

+-------------------+---------+-------------+--------------------+

[Footnote 58: This information was procured in 1901.]

The important point, however, is not so much the nominal length of

apprenticeship, but the fact that the work which an "apprentice" now

does is less educative than it was, and that wage-earning considerations

now enter at an earlier stage into the apprentice's thoughts.

[Sidenote: The learner as workwoman.]

The low wages paid to learners offer great temptations to employers to

set these extra cheap workgirls upon certain "fat" kinds of work. Some

kinds of work, _e.g._, gathering, have thus come to be regarded as

learners' perquisites, and in one extreme instance a worker made as much

money when a learner on half pay as she did subsequently on whole

pay.[59]

[Footnote 59: These figures from typical houses showing proportions of

learners and journeywomen are interesting:--

Workers. Learners.

A. 75 14

B. 87 19

C. 7 3

D. 8 3

E. 12 11

F. 26 20

These houses are engaged in various kinds of bookbinding and printing.]

In several cases we have been able to trace the exact amount gained by

the employer:--

1. A. in the last sixteen weeks of her half-pay period made £3 18_s._

6_d._, an average of 4_s._ 10¾ _d._ per week. For the next sixteen

weeks, when a full hand, her average was 9_s._ 8_d._

2. B. in twenty-three weeks before she became a full hand made £4 9_s._

10_d._, or an average of 3_s._ 10¾ _d._ per week. During the next

twenty-three weeks her average was 7_s._ 0½_d._, a few pence less than

double.

3. C. in fifty-one weeks made £15 5_s._ 4½_d._, practically 6_s._ per

week; if on full wage, her average would have been 11_s._ 11½_d._

4. D. in thirty-seven weeks made £10 19_s._ 5½_d._, practically 6_s._

per week; if on full wage her average would have been 11_s._ 10½_d._

5. E. in forty-seven weeks made £14 9_s._ 4½_d._, or 6_s._ 2_d._ per

week; if on full pay her average would have been 12_s._ 3¾ _d._

6. F. in forty-three weeks made £12 12_s._ 3_d._, 5_s._ 1½_d._ per week;

if on full pay her earnings would have been 11_s._ 8¾ _d._

It is obvious that when a worker is sufficiently expert to make an

average of 11_s._ or 12_s._ on full pay, it is a great temptation to

save on the bills by giving her as much work as possible at half-price.

The employer looks upon this profit as the return made to him for

teaching the girl, or, to speak more correctly, for allowing her to

pick up the trade in his shop. It really means that a heavy premium is

being paid in instalments. Possibly, when small fixed wages are paid,

the employer's profits are even higher, but in that case the learner has

not that temptation to sacrifice quality to quantity, and to be content

with "slapdash" work which is the inevitable consequence of a piecework

system worked under such conditions, and which is specially injurious to

the young hands.

[Sidenote: Compositors.]

The training given to women compositors varies very much. As is well

known, boys are apprenticed to this trade for seven years at wages which

usually begin at 8_s._ a week, and rise 2_s._ a year. In some cases,

however, a proportion of their piece-rate earning is given in addition.

When Miss Faithfull started the Victoria Press, girls were indentured

for four years, and paid a premium of ten guineas. During the first six

months they received nothing; for the remaining three and a half years

they were given two-third piece rates. By 1869, when Mr. Head was

running the business, this system had been changed. In an article in the

_Printers' Register_ for October 6th, 1869, we read that at the Victoria

Press, apprenticeship, "a relic of the ignorance and shortsightedness of

our forefathers, which is maintained in our own day chiefly by the

prejudices of Trades Unions, is entirely abolished. Girls begin to earn

at once," with the consequence that the work is much better. The Women's

Printing Society started with an apprenticeship of three or four years,

the wages rising from 2_s._ 6_d._ to 10_s._

At the present time the training varies in different houses, from one

where the girls are regularly indentured for four years, pay a premium

of £5, and receive 4_s._ for the first year and 5_s._, 6_s._, 7_s._ a

week in the ensuing years, to one where, with a premium of three

guineas, the training lasts for three months only, and the worker is put

on piecework after that period.

Two women compositors who had served for four years gave it as their

opinion that two years were sufficient to learn; during the remaining

years "you are expected to do as much as a full hand and get only half

wages."

It is obvious, however, that much depends on the amount of work taught,

and the complaint is reiterated over and over again that girls will only

learn the easy, plain work: "they want to make money at once."

[Sidenote: Women and technical classes.]

Enquiries were addressed to the Secretaries of Technical Education

Committees in every town in the kingdom where the printing and kindred

trades are of any importance, asking--

"1. Whether, in connection with your technical and other schools,

any provision is made for the training of women in the bookbinding

or in any of the printing or stationery trades;

"2. Whether the classes have been attended by any numbers of

women; and

"3. Whether you have received at any time from employers

statements showing the effect of such classes upon these trades?"

Seventeen replied that no provisions were made, six that the matter was

under consideration, but only in one case was it stated that classes had

been opened, and then the women had not taken advantage of them. The

London County Council Technical Education Board has had only one

application (to which it could not accede [60]) from a woman who desired

to attend bookbinding classes.

[Footnote 60: The woman was an amateur who had no connection with the

trade, and the Board refused admission on that ground. See this Board's

Special Report on Technical Instruction of Women.]

This shows that in these trades the school, so far as women are

concerned, has not yet been brought into contact with the workshop.

Nominally the classes are open to women actually engaged in the trade,

but women do not attend. This seems to be partly owing to the attitude

of the men, and partly owing to the lack of interest on the part of the

woman worker in the few facilities afforded to her by Technical

Education Committees.

The Home Arts and Crafts Association and kindred movements have taught

women amateurs bookbinding and leather work in a good many centres, but

this training has had no general industrial effect. The Association for

the Employment of Women has offered facilities for the training of women

in working the linotype, but it has met with but scanty response. "It is

work which needed more skill," said one employer, "than women

possessed."[61]

[Footnote 61: We have heard since this was written that women are

employed on linotype machines in a prosperous provincial newspaper and

general printing office.]

Here again we have had evidence of the most conclusive nature to show

that the work of women is special in its simplicity, and that the

craftswoman is hardly to be found anywhere. And they seem to have

accepted the position, and make no attempt to move out of it.[62]

[Footnote 62: This note is typical of a good many which occur in the

reports of the investigators. "There are two girls now on the

black-bordering machine whom the forewoman has offered to teach to place

out by hand, but they won't learn it; it is too much trouble."]

2. WHY WOMEN DO NOT TRAIN.

Some explanation is required for the fact that women have so little

ambition to become skilled, especially seeing that their lack of

technical knowledge and their willingness to remain at work which is

merely mechanical, _i.e._, folding, etc., explain their low wages,

casual employment, and careless organisation.

[Sidenote: Marriage as an industrial influence.]

The physiological differences between men and women have sociological

results. These differences have no doubt been exaggerated and emphasised

by traditions of propriety, and the change of opinion indicated

generally by the expression, "the woman movement," has done a great deal

to bring down those differences to their natural proportions and

relations. If certain claims of equality, such as women's suffrage, were

generally accepted, men and women might tend to occupy a much more equal

industrial status. But when all false emphasis and exaggeration have

been removed, a considerable residuum of difference must remain.

The special status of the married woman will no doubt survive all

readjustment of traditional modes of thought, and will tend to withdraw

her mind from the steady pursuit of industrial efficiency, because she

will never consider wage earning to be her special task in the world.

That has tempted her hitherto to steer off from the currents in the

mid-stream of industrial life, and float upon those that flow more

sluggishly by the margin. Hence she has entered industry, not with

expectations of long employment, but with hopes of a speedy release, and

she has therefore been in haste to earn money at once, and unwilling to

sink capital (either in time or money) in making herself efficient. She

is found in the more mechanical and more easily acquired branches of

work, and also in those which provide no future for men,[63] and her

willingness to take low wages has been her great protection against

competing machinery. She has preferred to remain incompetent. "Out of

twenty-six girls," is the report from the manager of a well-known firm

for high-class artistic bookbinding, "not one could he trust as a

forewoman."

[Footnote 63: An interesting illustration of this is afforded by the

recent employment of women in typefounding in London. London has not

been a place where women were much employed in this industry. For twenty

or thirty years girls have been employed in Edinburgh typefoundries, at

certain processes through which the type, when cast, has to go, but they

have been introduced only within the last year or two in London, to take

the place of boys who could not be got because the work offers no very

satisfactory prospects for them, and because the introduction of the

linotype and mono-type threatens the future of the typefounding

industry. _Cf._ Aberdeen, p. 47, Manchester and Birmingham, p. 50.]

[Sidenote: The lack of openings and ambition.]

Moreover, this enquiry has shown that there is but little chance for

women in these trades to improve themselves. Openings for responsible

employment are few, and the ambition of the woman is not stirred by the

possibility of material improvement as the reward of skill and industry.

When responsible places become vacant, it is sometimes difficult to get

women to consent to fill them. They seem to have little of that divine

discontent which is the mainspring of progress. "They never ask for a

rise as a man would, ... though after a time when they are useful, the

firm would be quite willing to give one." "He finds that girls want to

earn a certain wage. As a rule they will not take less, and they don't

trouble to earn more." A Manchester correspondent reports: "There is

very little chance of rising, and no particular desire for it, on the

part of the ordinary girl, whose main aspirations are otherwise

directed."

Reporting generally on her enquiries, an investigator writes: "The

progressive young woman, eager to show that she is man's equal and can

do man's work, seems to be a product of the middle classes. I never met

girls with ambitions of that sort among the employees I talked with. On

the other hand, I have met with cutting reproofs from forewomen and

others in the bookbinding houses when I tried, in my innocence, to find

out why they did not turn their hands to simple and easy processes which

were being done by men. 'Why, that is man's work, and we shouldn't think

of doing it!' is the usual answer given with a toss of the head and a

tone insinuating that there is a certain indelicacy in the question."

Another investigator reports: "In a paper-staining department an attempt

was once made to have a forewoman instead of a foreman over the girls,

but she was not successful in watching the colours and had to be

replaced by a man. The employer in consequence came to the conclusion

that such a feat was beyond a woman's power, and the workers themselves

are of the same opinion and scorn the idea of a forewoman."

[Sidenote: Sex reputation.]

Women in slowly increasing numbers seem to be settling down to a

thorough industrial training, but except when they start businesses of

their own, the general reputation of woman as workers, especially their

liability to marry and leave, must permanently handicap the most

efficient in search of employment.

Even the woman who has paid a premium of £50 or £100 for thorough

instruction in the art of bookbinding is warned that "a worker cannot be

taken on anywhere, but has to set up on her own account," and even then

she often does not enter the regular open competitive market, but

attaches certain customers to herself, owing to her special work.

The exceptional woman will always have to bear the burden of the average

woman.

The questions put to employers upon this point received very emphatic

replies: "It does not pay us to train women," they said in some form or

another; "We only want them for simple processes such as folding, and if

we tried to make them skilled in more complicated work they would leave

us before we got the same return for our trouble as we get from men."

[Sidenote: Physique, hours, etc.]

The low standard of women's living also diminishes their stamina and

strength, and though in the course of this enquiry we have not

discovered any very serious complaint that women were irregular at their

work owing to ill-health (a common complaint against women in offices),

yet the drawback has been mentioned.

Moreover, it must be noted that when a girl's work in the workshop is

finished she has often to go home to commence a new round of domestic

tasks from which a boy is exempted. This aggravates the seriousness of

her long hours of mechanical work as a wage-earner, and increases the

difficulties placed in her way should she desire to attend evening

technical classes. The directors of several educational institutions

and the teachers of technical classes for women have strongly urged this

point upon us.

We have to face the fact that, for various reasons, in modern industrial

society there is of necessity a tendency to specialise the work of men

and women and centre the one in the workshop and the other in the home,

and to incline women to take a place in industry second to their male

relations. Hence, in the workshop women have hitherto been adjuncts to

machines; they have taken up simple mechanical processes, and have shown

little interest in complete series of industrial operations. They have

picked up the arts, but have shunned the sciences. The factory and the

workshop have been to them the scenes of "meanwhile" employment.

[Sidenote: Gentility in trade.]

In such circumstances one is not surprised to find such considerations

as conventional gentility determining the branches of trade taken up by

the women. The printing trades generally do not attract the most genteel

girls, but there are grades within them. One informant says, "In

Manchester, up to 1870, to be a folder was looked upon as being next

door to being on the streets;" but now folders look down upon feeders.

"Folding and sewing girls look down on the machine girls tremendously,

and would not sit at the same table with them for anything." Perhaps the

manager who said in a shocked tone of voice that "The women never care

to talk of the Sunday's sermon" was hypercritical, but undoubtedly

certain sections of these trades are staffed by rather rough specimens

of women.

Then again, a folder, despised herself by those above her, is reported

to "look down upon the litho and bronzing girls. They are of the very

lowest class (she says), with hardly a shoe on their feet. They are on

quite a different floor and have nothing to do with the folders." Or

again, for reasons of gentility, girls prefer to become book-folders,

where the hours are longer and the pay lower, rather than to become

paper-bag makers. The distinction between these various sections is not

similar to that between skilled and unskilled labour. The simple

explanation is that amongst women engaged in industry convention is

particularly potent in determining what trades are desirable and proper

and what are not, so that when certain employments acquire a reputation

for gentility, the others will be filled by a goodly proportion of

unassorted girls, and will ultimately acquire characteristics which

appear to justify the feminine prejudices against them. It has been

suggested that these notions of gentility have, as a matter of fact, a

deeper significance, and that the favoured trades are the lighter ones.

To some extent this is true. The heavier employments are staffed by a

rougher class of women. But, as in the case of the Manchester folders

cited above, fashions change, and we must recognise that reputation for

gentility is a very important factor in determining the distribution of

character amongst the trades. This appears to be the main reason why

high wages do not always attract the better class of girls to certain

kinds of employment, and also why there is a reluctance on the part of

many self-respecting girls to enter a course of industrial training.