_THE TEXTILE TRADES._
CENTRES OF TEXTILE INDUSTRY: Lancashire and Yorkshire--Changes
in general conditions--Reforms not final--EXTENT OF
COMBINATION: Mixed Unions--Equal wages paid to weavers in the
cotton trade--Contrast between Lancashire and Yorkshire--Lower
scale for women in Yorkshire--Fines--SUPERVISION:
Immorality--SYSTEM OF FINES: Deductions from wages--SANITATION:
Defective arrangements--High temperature in cotton
mills--Dangerous machinery--LABOUR OF MARRIED WOMEN:
Child labour--Reforms needed--OTHER TEXTILE TRADES:
Crape--Silk--Ribbons--Carpets--Hosiery--Lace--Linen--Unhealthy
Conditions--Wages.
=Centres of Textile Industry.=--By far the largest demand for women’s
labour, next to household service, comes from the textile industry;
and it is in Lancashire, Cheshire, and Yorkshire, where the cotton and
woollen trades are carried on, that women’s labour under the Factory
system can best be studied. There are several departments of the
textile trades, such as the silk industry, crape manufacturing, and
carpet making, in which women are also largely employed; but it is in
the great cotton mills of Rochdale, Oldham, Burnley, and Blackburn, the
woollen mills of Huddersfield and Dewsbury, and the worsted mills of
Bradford, that the great majority of women are to be found.
=Changes in General Conditions.=--The grievances of the women and
children employed in the mills in the cotton trade were the subject
of general discussion fifty years ago, and it was the exposure of the
terrible conditions under which they worked, the excessive hours,
the insanitary conditions, and their complete helplessness, that
forced the hand of the various governments of the day, and enabled
Lord Ashley to introduce his factory legislation. Since that time the
country has heard but little of the lot of the mill operatives, but
from time to time it appears that all is not as it should be. For
instance, evidence was laid before the Labour Commission which shewed
that the currently-accepted picture of the prosperity and comfort of
the mill operatives was much too highly coloured. The representatives
both of the women and of the men brought forward a mass of evidence
shewing that the grievances to which the workpeople were exposed
were of the most real and vital kind. The wages in certain districts
and departments might be good, but the over-driving, the speeding
up of machinery, the high temperature maintained in the mills, the
utterly inadequate provision made for the health of the workpeople,
and the prevalence of fines, all pointed to the conclusion that the
factory legislation contemplated by Lord Ashley and his successors,
and followed up from time to time almost to the present moment,
presented no finality. The conditions of labour have, it is true, been
transformed since those early days when we read of the operatives’
deputation to Lord Palmerston. In order to demonstrate that working a
mule was not an easy matter the operatives induced the Prime Minister
to push a chair up and down the room in imitation of a spinner’s
motions. The hours of labour have been shortened, but the intensity
of labour has increased at an even higher rate. The strain upon the
muscle and bodily strength may be less, but the nervous wear and tear,
the mental strain, the storm and stress of the mill, have been also
steadily increasing. The history of the troubles of the Lancashire
and Yorkshire operative is not then a closed chapter; for that matter
no department of industry in these days is or can be. Changes and
improvements in manufacturing processes and machinery are so constant
and sweeping that the worker is ever face to face with new problems,
many of which, indeed, are directly due to the rising standard of his
own life.
=Extent of Combination.=--Whilst Lancashire and Yorkshire afford
the most instructive field for studying the influence of factory
legislation upon labour, the information that may be gleaned there
respecting combination as an element in the economic and social life
of women is no less instructive. Side by side with one another you
find two great kindred industries--the woollen and the cotton--and
the level of one, so far as women are concerned, is far below that of
the other. No explanation based on competition, either in commercial
or labour markets, can account for this difference. The explanation
must be sought, not in the ability of the individual or the working of
the market, but in the extent and direction of the combination which
exists among the operatives. It is certain that the operatives of
Lancashire and Cheshire have shewn themselves far more alive to the
benefits of combination than those of Yorkshire. The worker in the
cotton mill, whether male or female, is a Trade Unionist almost as a
matter of course, and though, as in the best organized of trades, a
certain number still remain outside the pale of the union, those who
are inside are sufficiently strong, both in numbers and in practical
effectiveness, to formulate the labour policy of the trade. There
is a wide difference between formulating a policy and carrying it
out in practice, but the organizations of the spinners, weavers, and
cardroom-workers have been successful in making the two very nearly
synonymous. Their leaders have been fully alive to the absurdity
of attempting to carry through an heroic policy in the absence of
effective co-operation on the part of the majority. To ignore the
women workers would have been fatal in an industry which numbers them
by tens of thousands. Accordingly the policy of the Unionists has
been to bring men and women together into the same organization; to
treat their labour as one and the same; and to provide equal rules for
the remuneration and protection of all. The most notable result has
been that women weavers in the cotton trade are paid precisely the
same wages as the men; though indeed the fact is scarcely second in
importance that the co-operation of the women workers in every branch
of the cotton industry is absolutely secured for every trade movement.
The Northern Counties Weavers’ Association numbers 71,180 members,
and of these 43,000 are women and 28,180 men; whilst the Card and
Blowing-room Operatives’ Organization with its 35,000 members has
14,000 men and 21,000 women enrolled. There are no women in the
Amalgamated Association of Operative Cotton Spinners, but by the
federal arrangement I have referred to, on large questions of trade
policy, and even of state policy, where the interests of the cotton
trade are touched, men and women spinners, cardroom-workers, and
weavers, every component part of the labour of the cotton trade, may
be counted upon to “go solid.” Although the men are in a minority
in these unions they have not as yet seen their way to giving any
considerable share of the control to the women, and the managing bodies
consist almost exclusively of men. The fact that women have made no
move for representation would serve to show that their interests have
been well guarded by the various executive bodies. Nor does there
appear to be any jealousy or friction between the men and women in
the Cotton Trade. Mr. Mullen, Secretary of the Cardroom-workers’
Organization, giving evidence before the Labour Commission, spoke
emphatically on this point, and what he said is equally true of other
departments where men and women are employed together. It seems obvious
indeed that where absolutely equal conditions are claimed, and can be
maintained, for both sexes, the causes of ill-feeling and disagreement
are removed, inasmuch as the fatal element of competition between men
and women is no longer at work.
=Contrast between Yorkshire and Lancashire.=--At any rate we have
not the extraordinary anomaly which the woollen trade shews, of
work precisely similar in kind, and almost equal in quantity, being
blacklisted, as it were, because it is done by women. I have before me
a document entitled “Huddersfield Woollen Manufacturers’ and Spinners’
Association--Amended Weaving Scale,” in which the piece-work prices
for men and women respectively are given. The men have a table upon
one side, and upon an opposite side it is indicated under the heading
“Women. 15 per cent. to be deducted from men’s scale for woollens
and cotton warps reversibles. 20 per cent. to be deducted from men’s
scale for white-vested worsted mixture, or solid coloured worsteds
and woollen shawls. 25 per cent. to be deducted from men’s scale for
single white worsteds. 30 per cent. to be deducted from men’s scale
for serges and cotton warps. 15 per cent. to be deducted from men’s
scale for coloured worsteds.” The above applies to looms running fifty
picks per minute; for looms running seventy to eighty picks per minute
50 per cent. less than men’s scale is to be paid for wages, while in
other cases proportionate deductions are prescribed. For looms running
110 to 120 picks per minute the rate is briefly and compendiously set
out as one-third of men’s scale, which is equivalent to a penalty of
two-thirds of the wage. The women, it may be noted, are as skilful
and as rapid workers as the men, only less productive to the extent
of about 2½ per cent., a difference which is accounted for by the
inability of the women to readjust their looms when out of order.
The disparity which is put upon them has therefore no proportionate
foundation in fact. It is a purely artificial degradation of wages, a
system at once of fining the workers for being women, and of putting
women’s work and claims for an adequate standard of living at a
discount. To thoroughly appreciate what the Unions of the cotton trade
have done it is well to bear in mind this manner of dealing with
women’s labour, which is habitual in every trade where men and women
are jointly employed. Instances might be multiplied in the woollen
trade. Thus in a large Halifax carpet mill the women’s wages average
13_s._ 9_d._ per week, and the men’s £1 1_s._ 8_d._ for the same work.
And in the wool-combing trade of Bradford the average weekly earnings
of the women are 12_s._ against the men’s 18_s._
Nor is it only in the matter of wages that the Trade Unions have been
able to do so much for the women operatives of Lancashire. There is
abundant evidence to shew that public opinion has been brought to
bear by them upon the administration of the Factory Acts, and that a
standard of factory administration has been brought about through their
agency that could not possibly have been attained without it. Then
again in the matter of fines, with which I deal more fully later on,
the Unions have made themselves felt. Whilst fining is still far too
prevalent in the cotton factories it is less prevalent and arbitrary
than in the woollen and worsted trades.
=Supervision.=--But perhaps the question which touches women most
closely is the nature of the supervision to which they are subjected.
Unhappily this has sometimes been of the lowest kind. Not only have
bullying expedients been used for the purpose of “driving” the
workpeople--for instance, by exposing the names of those who had
fallen below the standard of the labour driver in the shed--but
immoral conduct has had to be submitted to. However, the Unions have
taken a firm attitude in this latter respect, and indeed two strikes
have recently taken place, one at Oldham and one at Nelson, with the
result that in each case the obnoxious overlooker was removed. In the
Nelson case the evidence was submitted to arbitrators, clergymen of
the neighbourhood, who, in giving their judgment, placed it on record
that the offences of which the man had been judged guilty “are not
uncommon among men who have the oversight of the female operatives in
other mills, and as ministers of religion we most earnestly appeal to
the employers of labour practically to recognise their duty in this
matter, and seriously consider how essential it is to the happiness and
well-being of those under their charge, as well as to their credit,
to make the moral conduct of their workpeople the subject of nearer
concern and of greater importance.” It is satisfactory to note that
this award has created an improvement in the behaviour of overlookers
generally, and has attracted the attention of employers.
=Fines.=--The system of fines is deeply felt and bitterly resented. The
fines may be divided generally into two classes; namely, disciplinary,
and those inflicted on account of damage done to the work. Under the
first head are included fines for late attendance in starting work, and
in returning to the mill after meal hours; being found in the wrong
shed or room; laughing, sitting down, etc. Fines for late attendance
range as a rule from 1_d._ for the first five minutes lost up to 3_d._
and 6_d._ according to the time lost; other disciplinary fines from
6_d._ to 2_s._ 6_d._ The deductions made for damages of various kinds
are even a more serious matter. After the work leaves the loom it is
examined and passed, and if any flaw is found in it the weaver is
liable to have the piece returned with the intimation that she must buy
it, or submit to a heavy deduction. In many cases the fines imposed
amount to the wages earned upon the piece. The injustices incident to
such a system--if system it can be called where no rule obtains--are
many. In the first place it gives an immense power into the hands of
the overlooker or cloth looker who examines the work, and this power
is often abused. Then again it enables the employers to shift from
themselves to the workpeople the loss sustained by the use of bad
material. The system of piece-work itself accomplishes this, as the
worse the material the longer and more troublesome the job, and the
less the wages. But in addition to this the worker’s own time has to be
lost in “mending,” and wages are deducted for mistakes which no amount
of watchfulness or skill could avert. Frequently too the operatives
are not even shewn the piece on account of which the fine is imposed.
The “Particulars Clause,” which was inserted in the Factory Act of
1891, had mainly its origin in what amounted to a fraudulent system of
deductions. The system is somewhat too technical for explanation here,
but it consists in giving weavers and other textile piece workers a
false basis on which to calculate the amount of work done, so that the
wages paid to them fall short of what they are entitled to receive.
It is now compulsory upon employers to furnish to certain classes of
operatives particulars of piece-work--another instance in which Trade
Unionism has suggested legislation, for the clause is entirely due to
the influence of the Textile Unions.
Among other forms of deduction are charges made for the use of hot
water, the oiling of looms, the renewal and repair of brushes and oil
cans, and the cleaning out of lavatories. I have known mills in which
the system of fines has been purely nominal; but unfortunately these
constitute a minority, the rule being that the workpeople have to
ensure the employer out of their own wages against all risks and damage
in the process of production, whether due to defects in material,
machinery, or workmanship.
=Sanitation.=--Although the Factory Acts have been in operation for
several years, the lamentable conditions to which reference has been
made in passing can scarcely be said to have been seriously grappled
with. It is necessary to distinguish between the conditions which
attach to the work-place, and those which are due to the nature of the
work itself. I have therefore considered them apart from one another.
There is abundant evidence to shew that throughout the textile trades
operatives are exposed in a very grave degree to evils arising from
defective sanitary arrangements. In the majority of mills the sanitary
arrangements are most unsatisfactory, both from the point of view of
health and decency. Evidence collected on this head by the Labour
Commission leaves no doubt whatever upon the matter. Whether it is due
to negligence, or ignorance, or both, the fact remains that, tried by
the lowest standard, the sanitary arrangements are grossly defective.
This part of the subject cannot be left without remarking upon the
altogether lower level of public health administration existing inside
the factory than that which is maintained outside. We must deal with
remedies later on, but the lack of symmetry and co-ordination in our
public health system stands out so glaringly in this particular as to
call for some notice here. Dealing with ventilation, it is equally
evident that the mills have been designed entirely without reference
to the workers. The consequence is, that where ventilation exists it
is often of the most haphazard description. Everything is subordinated
to the purposes of manufacture, and however vigilant and efficient a
factory inspector may be, it is often impossible to arrange in existing
buildings for the proper renewal of air.
=High Temperature in Cotton Mills.=--With regard to temperature and
atmosphere the woollen worker is better off than the cotton worker. The
practice of sizing the cotton has led to the introduction of excessive
heat and steam for the purpose of softening the fabric during the
process of weaving. It was to check this that the Cotton Cloth Act
was introduced; but, although a certain standard has now been laid
down, the operatives are still exposed to very injurious influences.
In many of the weaving sheds the temperature stands at 90°, whilst
steam jets are to be found within a few inches of the weavers’ heads.
Cotton weavers suffer in consequence from diseases of the chest brought
about by the sudden change from the hot, humid atmosphere to the
outside air. Rheumatism is also general, and cases of fainting are
not uncommon among the workers in these mills. But even where there
is no artificial production of a bad atmosphere, there always exists
the natural deterioration induced by the presence of large numbers of
workpeople penned together with a great mass of machinery. The great
heat and exhaustion of air, the constant showers of fibrous dust given
off by the fabric in course of construction, are elements which call
for a strenuous counterblast in the shape of abundant fresh air. In the
chapter upon diseases of occupation fuller reference is made to these
matters.
=Dangerous Machinery.=--Much has been done to secure the protection of
dangerous machinery, but accidents caused by flying shuttles are still
far too frequent, and are sometimes attended by the most distressing
results. In eighteen recent shuttle accidents the loss of an eye has
ensued. This is a risk which is quite preventable by the adoption of a
shuttle-guard. But the matter is left to the option of employers, and
guards are not in general use.
=Labour of Married Women.=--There are other sacrifices demanded of
the women who work in the textile trades besides those which can
be directly connected with their work. I am aware that many of the
workers themselves do not look upon their employment in this light. An
abundant demand for labour in which women can participate is generally
regarded as a great boon; but against the advantages must be set the
drawbacks--the comparative break-up of home life and the habitual
neglect of children. The problem is a grave one, and opinions are
conflicting, but most people agree that something should be done at any
rate to arrest the terrible infant mortality, which is to be found in
all the centres which give widespread employment for married women. It
is urged that it is impossible to legislate for comfortable homes, and
that the direct prohibition of the labour of those whose homes should
be their first charge is also impossible, but that yet some improvement
is necessary, and can, by more moderate measures, be secured. We
certainly cannot afford--the manufacturers themselves cannot afford--to
have generation after generation sapped of its strength, and thrown
upon life unfitted for its tasks. And much also may be said as to the
doubtful economy of the mother’s supplementary wage. It may sometimes
be the means of adding to the family income, but cases have come under
my notice in which the weekly payments made for looking after the home
and children, the extra expenses involved in mending and in washing
and in the preparation of food, outweigh the gain in wages. Then again
the payments for doctors and medicine are higher in families where the
mother works at the mill, and the children are left to themselves,
than in those where the children are constantly under a mother’s care.
If in addition to this we remember the tendency of women’s labour to
pull down the general standard of remuneration, it is apparent that we
must not hasten to accept the conclusion that the prohibition of the
labour of married women, either partially or entirely, would mean the
impoverishment of the family.
=Child Labour.=--Much attention has been given to the age of admission
of children to work in the textile trades. At the Berlin Conference
twelve was fixed as a sort of international minimum at which children
should be allowed to enter upon factory labour. The age fixed by the
British factory legislation of that time was ten for half-timers and
fourteen for full-timers, or thirteen if the child had passed the
prescribed educational standard. Our representatives, however, with
the concurrence of the Government, endorsed the proposal for raising
the age to twelve. When however the Factory Act of 1891 was being
passed through the House of Commons, the opposition of Lancashire and
Yorkshire overcame the good intentions of the Government. Instead
of proposing to raise the age to twelve, they refused to alter the
then existing law, with the result that they were beaten on Mr.
Sydney Buxton’s amendment to raise the age to eleven. And most
people--except of course directly interested parents and employers--who
are acquainted with the unhealthy surroundings of mill life, are of
opinion that eleven is too young an age at which to begin work, even
as a half-timer. It is true that the certifying surgeon is empowered
by the Factory Act to refuse a certificate to any child who appears to
him to be from physical causes unfit for work; but the children are
only submitted for examination once, either upon, or immediately after
beginning work, so that their fitness for employment must therefore be
more or less a matter of speculation. They are not again examined till
they have become “young persons,” and a certain number whose employers
manage to evade the law are never examined at all.
=Other Textile Trades.=--The other branches of the textile trades, and
the other districts in which those already referred to exist, are, with
the exception of the linen trade, comparatively unimportant. Of those
in the woollen-cloth trade, or such of it as still survives in the
West of England, we find women who work in the factories at Trowbridge
and Stroud earning about two-thirds of the wages of the Yorkshire
women. There is no effective combination either amongst the men or
the women. Wages have been fixed by custom, and they scarcely ever
fluctuate. The low-water mark of factory wages is to be found in the
Essex crape industry, where the women are in receipt of about 5_s._ a
week.
The silk trade is carried on mostly at Macclesfield and Leek. The wages
earned by women vary according to the districts and employers. They
are for the most part very low; and as employment in the silk trade is
more intermittent than in any other textile industry, the average wages
per week for the year are miserably low. In the silk-throwing trade of
Macclesfield they amount to about 6_s._ a week if calculated throughout
the year. Women working power looms can command about 12_s._ a week
during the good season. Taking the various departments together, the
average wages in Leek are 11_s._ 6_d._, Derby 10_s._, and Congleton
7_s._ In Coventry, which is the principal centre of ribbon weaving,
much of the work is done by outdoor weavers; their looms are driven by
an engine which supplies the power to each block of houses. The weaver
owns the loom and pays rent for house and power together at the rate of
about 10_s._ per week; home workers are able to command better prices
than the factory workers.
In the carpet manufacture, of which Kidderminster is the centre, a
large number of women are employed, the wages ranging from 6_s._ a
week for the simplest work to 14_s._ 6_d._ for the more difficult. Men
are employed in the heaviest work and in the most skilled departments,
and they have been able to resist the introduction of women’s labour
Fourteen years ago an attempt was made to introduce women at the same
wages as those paid in Yorkshire, about 15_s._ a week, but the men held
their ground, and still retain the old standard of 35_s._
The hosiery and lace trades, which are carried on in Nottinghamshire
and Leicestershire, give employment to several thousand women. There
is no standard rate of wages in Nottingham; the small firms pay lower
wages than the large ones, whilst in the adjoining country districts
the rates are considerably lower than in Nottingham. A great deal of
finishing work is given out by middlemen to people in these districts,
and is paid for at a very low rate.
The lace trade is characterised by extreme irregularity of employment.
Wages range from 4_s._ a week for “dressing” lace to 24_s._ for making
it up. A quantity of work which was formerly done inside the factories
is now given out, with the result that prices have dropped heavily. As
in the hosiery trade, the sanitation and ventilation of the factories
vary very greatly. No standard appears to be recognized or enforced,
and as is the case in so many other industries, a few employers have
spared no trouble or expense to ensure the health and comfort of their
workpeople, whilst the majority have done little or nothing.
Belfast may claim to be the centre of the linen trade, which finds
habitation as well throughout the north of Ireland, and in the little
Scotch towns of Forfar, Brechin, and Dunfermline. But in Scotland
the linen industry and the jute industry are largely carried on
together, whilst in Belfast the linen trade almost unsupplemented
holds the field, and provides work for nearly 30,000 girls and women.
The processes of manufacture closely resemble those of the cotton
industry, but the wages are much lower, the unhealthy conditions far
more marked, the protective agencies supplied by the workers themselves
in the shape of trade unions altogether wanting, and a law similar to
that which regulates the heat and humidity in the weaving sheds of
Lancashire non-existent.[16]
It is extremely difficult to give the actual wages earned, for although
the supply of employment is usually regular, much loss of time is
occasioned by the exhausting and unhealthy nature of the work, and a
considerable lessening of wages is consequent upon the deductions and
penalties which are enforced. Thus if a woman loses half a day she is
deprived of half her bonus, whilst the loss of a whole day means the
disappearance of the bonus altogether. This so-called bonus on regular
employment is really a part of the time wages of the workers. In most
of the factories and mills it is 1_s._ 6_d._, in some 1_s._ a week.
As it is exceptional for a woman to be able to work the whole week
through, this bonus rarely finds its way in its integrity into her
pocket. In addition to this there are fines and deductions for damaged
work, just as there are in the cotton and woollen industries. Taking
all this into account, the average wages of the women can scarcely
amount to more than 8_s._ or 9_s._ a week. Further reference is made to
the grossly insanitary condition of the trade and the mills in another
chapter. So far no labour movements on the part of the women have ever
had the slightest success. The employers have been in the habit of
meeting any movements of the kind by the threat of a lock-out, which
has been carried into effect more than once.
[16] The linen trade has since been classed among “dangerous
trades,” and is now under “Special Rules.”