suitable for women, if they would properly qualify themselves for it.
The young man said a paper marbler in Philadelphia used to employ some
women to assist him, but he had to mix their paints. A paper marbler in
Boston writes: "I do not know of any females being employed as marblers
of book edges in the United States. Some are employed in marbling paper
for the covers and linings of books."
=391. Paper Rulers.= In ruling paper for blank books and ledgers,
females are employed in some establishments to feed the machine. It is
not difficult to learn, though there are not many willing to take
learners, as considerable paper must be wasted before they can become
proficient. Only a few weeks are required, and they are seldom paid
while learning. $4 a week is a fair average for female workers. Very
closely connected with this branch is that of paging blank books. It may
be learned in from ten to twelve days. This is a limited business, and
would not justify many in learning. K. thinks thirty girls would supply
the demand for the whole United States. The most busy season is from the
first of July to the last of October, and they seldom refuse any
applicants during this season. March and April are also busy months.
About half the hands are retained through the dull season. The girls
earn from $5 to $6 a week; the forewoman something more. All are
required to be orderly and respectable, and there are no associations
that would have an immoral tendency. A journeyman paper ruler in Boston
writes: "There are a few girls employed in this city at ruling, _i. e._,
where they feed on the paper, watch the work, fixing it when it requires
attention, &c. The paper is trimmed for them, it being hard work, and
requiring a man's strength to do it. The wages are from $3 to $4.50 per
week--$3.75 about the average--and when they board away from home, pay
$2 to $2.25 per week. I work by the piece, and make sometimes $10,
sometimes $16 per week; can make $12 and $13 per week well enough, nine
hours to the day. One disadvantage females have, is, that some of them
are inclined to marry when a good opportunity is offered. I wish to be
understood that this is a disadvantage only as keeping down the price of
female labor. The young man learns his trade, then he marries. He does
not quit the shop, but still improves in skill in his trade. The female,
when she marries, bids farewell to the shop and her trade. Nine or ten
hours a day is as long as girls work at our trade here. One great
objection girls have to our trade is, they do not like to soil their
hands with the ruling ink, and one cannot get through much ruling
without soiling their hands more or less."
=392. Press Feeders.= "The number of women who feed power presses in
printing offices in Philadelphia may number one hundred and fifty. They
can earn, upon an average, $4 per week." At the Methodist Book Concern,
New York, they pay to press feeders the usual price, $4 per week. It
requires about six months to become a good press feeder. When work is
scarce, they retain all their hands, if possible, but work a less number
of hours, and pay in proportion. At a blank-book manufactory I was told
their girls are paid $6 a week for feeding. Their girls think they make
poor wages when they earn but ten cents an hour. Some embossers, in
Boston, who employ thirty women in binding and press feeding, write:
"They pay both by the week and by the piece. Their women, on an average,
earn $5 per week. Female labor is thirty-three per cent. cheaper than
men's, and the part done by women is too effeminate for men. Women spend
from one to two months learning. Prospect of employment in this branch
is good. The women work ten hours. They are out of employment in summer.
Board, $1.50 to $2.50." At a printing office where from forty to fifty
women were employed, I was told the girls were mostly German, because
the foreman was a German. It requires four weeks to learn. They work ten
hours a day, and are never thrown out of employment. The demand seems to
be fully met in New York.
=393. Printers.= "In 1476, Fra Domenico da Pistoya and Fra Pietro da
Pisa, the spiritual directors of a Dominican convent, established a
printing press within its walls; the nuns served as compositors, and
many works of considerable value issued from this press between 1476 and
1484, when, Bartolomeo da Pistoya dying, the nuns ceased their labors."
In the Victoria Printing Office, of London, all the compositors' work is
done by women. The Printers' Unions in the United States have done all
they could to prevent women from entering the occupation and obtaining
employment. Men's employments in the cities, they say, are now filled,
and if women enter, men's wages will fall. They do fall, at any rate,
because women will work for less than men. To obviate this difficulty, I
would suggest that more men engage in agricultural and other occupations
that will take them out of the cities. At present, the war demands large
numbers. A printer told me that type setting could be carried on more
easily by women in towns and villages than in cities, where men are
slaves to the Unions. In the latest rules of the Printers' Union, New
York, a printer is not prohibited from working in the office with a
woman. Yet few publishers are willing to employ them, because it is
supposed they are employed for less wages. At a printers' convention,
held recently in Springfield, Ill., the following resolutions were
adopted: "Whereas, the employment of females in printing offices, as
compositors, has, wherever adopted, been found a decided benefit, both
as regards the moral tendencies inculcated and the dependence to be
placed in their constant presence and attendance upon the duties
required of them, and as a means of opening a wider field of
remunerative labor to a deserving class of society; therefore, be it
resolved, That the Association recommend to its members the employment
of females in their offices, wherever and whenever practicable."
Printing is mostly paid for by the thousand ems. More is paid for
printing from manuscript than for reprint. Newspaper is paid rather
higher than book printing, and morning papers more than evening. Much
has been said of the unhealthiness of a printer's work. The majority of
causes that render it so are not confined to the occupation itself. Some
printers must work during the night. Their habits become irregular, and
many run into dissipation. The rooms occupied by some are poorly
ventilated, and so poorly lighted as even in the day to require
artificial light, which helps to absorb the oxygen of the atmosphere.
When type are heated they emit an odor that affects respiration, and
will in the course of time paralyze the hand. But there is no necessity
for using them when heated. The standing position of compositors weakens
the organs of digestion; but compositors can as well sit as stand.
Stools may occasionally be seen in the offices of men. Bending over the
stone to correct is not more tiresome than bending over cloth when
sewing. A good education and general intelligence are necessary for a
printer. A gentleman connected with a printing office remarked to me
that printers generally possess much desultory information, but have not
their faculties more fully developed than people in most other trades.
Women's fineness of touch and quickness of motion will fit them for type
setting. "They might be instructed, not merely to compose and
distribute, but to correct, make up, impose forms, and prepare the type
completely for the press or stereotype foundery." A man should be
employed to carry the chases to the press room. When the pressman has
had the type inked and used them, he should have the form washed and
returned to the compositors' room. When women have had as much
experience as men in the printing business, they will be fair
competitors. In most large cities, and even towns, many are now employed
in type setting; but they are much scattered, and consequently not much
is known of them. In Boston, women have been engaged in type setting for
nearly thirty years, in New York eight years, and in Philadelphia five
years. More girls are employed as type setters in Boston than any other
city of the United States. They set type for nearly all the large
periodicals. They are paid less than men; but some earn $8 a week. F.,
of Boston, who employs some women as type setters, writes: "I pay twenty
cents per thousand ems, which averages to a good hand about $6 or $7 per
week. It requires about six months to learn type setting. I pay my
learners, because I consider it to my advantage in the long run to do
so. Type setters with an ordinary education will improve as they
progress. In a few years, women will work in many branches that to-day
would be termed innovation. I consider winter the best season for
printing books and periodicals. On account of neatness and taste, women
are well suited for the ornamental branches of printing." The
proprietors of a printing house in Boston, who have some thought of
employing females, write me: "The printing business is considered rather
unhealthy, on account of its being both mental and physical. It requires
from two to three years to become good workmen at our business for
males, and would take about the same time for females, although our
business is now classed composition room and press room, and females are
sometimes employed in other offices in both rooms. Our business does not
vary much, except in the month of August, when it is generally dull. Our
number of hours for work are ten, the year through. Our business is not
considered very laborious, and females make from $4 to $8 per week. Men
are generally superior to women in education and judgment. The printing
business is almost a school for learning. Board, from $1.50 to $2.50."
The largest number of printers in New York are employed on books and
periodicals. I think it likely there are more Americans employed in the
book-making trade in New York than any other trade. From an article on
"Printers," in the New York _Tribune_ of April, 1853, we extract the
following: "We estimate the services of a competent young woman at type
setting as worth in this city $2 per week, after a fortnight--$4 per
week, after three months--$6 per week, after a year--$8, after two
years. Every compositor on the _Tribune_ at work at the case has
thirty-seven cents per thousand ems, and thirty cents per hour for
steady time." The present price required by members of the New York
Typographical Union for newspaper work, when employed by the week, is
$12--ten hours constituting a day's work. For book and job work $11 is
required. At the _Day Book_ office I saw one of the editors, who thinks
women do not correct so well as men, and they want self-reliance.
Besides, they cannot lift the forms. Men are paid better for these
reasons. He thinks more women might very advantageously be employed in
setting type for papers. Job printing he thinks not so well adapted to
them, because of the variety in the work, and the judgment and
self-reliance required. Two of the girls in the _Day Book_ office have
with their earnings bought their mother a home in the country. Their
girls are more intelligent, have more pride, and dress better than most
working girls. To set type requires more intelligence than most shop
girls possess. The foreman of the same paper writes: "We employ ten
women, whose exclusive business is type setting. Seven are American
women. I deem the employment of type setting unhealthy, but not more
injurious to women than it is to men. We pay women twenty cents per
thousand ems. Men receive thirty-one cents per thousand ems in our
office. Women are not as competent to do all kinds of work as men,
particularly in a newspaper office; hence the difference in wages. The
time of learning depends almost wholly on the aptitude of the new
beginner. Some persons (men as well as women) would or could not learn
the business in a lifetime. Women have been paid while learning in this
office. A knowledge of the English language, and a disposition to
improve that knowledge on all suitable occasions, are the principal
requisites. The general order of intellect did not amount to much, when
we first tried the experiment; those who have worked steady have
improved wonderfully. They work ten hours per day. Average wages $6.50
per week in this office. With proper training and instruction, they
would be competent to do any portion of the work not requiring too much
physical exertion. The best seasons for a printer's work depend almost
wholly on circumstances. Large cities are the best places for the
printer who wishes to have steady employment." T., of New York, told me
"he employed girls for a while, and would have retained them if he could
have had time to attend to the composition department. He paid his girls
the same price he did his men. He thinks it strange that more
broken-down ministers and worn-out school teachers do not turn to type
setting, as it is learned in a very short time, requires intelligence,
and demands no outlay of muscle. On the principle that a stout muscular
man should be a blacksmith, and a small delicate one a watchmaker, a
woman should be a type setter. A girl should begin when young. Women are
no more thrown with men in type setting than in feeding presses. In all
large establishments, type setting and press work are done in separate
rooms." I think if some lady teachers would learn the art of printing
and get places as forewomen, they could from girls obtain as much work
as a foreman does from boys; but he thinks it difficult for a foreman to
be exacting with women, particularly with those who are old enough to be
sensitive and self-willed. He thinks, "in New York, women are not so
much employed in intelligent occupations as in Boston. In the cities
printers make most all their profits off two-thirders, as they are
called--boys who have not attained their majority, and do their work as
well for much less than journeymen. His son, a boy of sixteen, earns
from $5 to $6 a week as type setter." H., in New York, employs three
girls. They get $6 a week of ten hours a day. They can sit if they
choose. They have a room to work in, separate from the men. At W.'s,
opposite, a youth told me a fast worker could earn $8 a week. The girls
there were working in the same room with the men. J., of Philadelphia,
said he used to employ women to print his labels, but they demanded $6 a
week, and men he could get for $9. He told the women they were cutting
their throats in asking so much. He said women should not expect as high
wages as men, even if they did their work as well, and as much of it,
for they would thereby displace men; and besides, you could not order
women about as you could men. B., editor of the Pittsburg _Commercial
Journal_, employs six girls as compositors. Connected with his office
are two journeymen, who set type after 6 P. M., reporting telegraphic
and local news. All type setting should be done by women in the day,
unless they board very near, or in the house of the printing office,
because of the exposure of going home late at night. Three fourths of
the work of a printing office could be done by women. Afternoon and
weekly papers could be very well printed by ladies, as they are printed
in the day. One of B.'s lady compositors receives $7 a week, another $6,
and the others $4 and $3.50. They work eight or nine hours a day; and to
a learner they pay $1.50 a week, until she can set type correctly--then
more; and in two years she will be very nearly or quite perfect in the
art. It requires quickness of eye and finger to succeed. At the office
of the Detroit _Daily Democrat_, girls as apprentices are paid from $3
to $4 per week, and those advanced twenty-five cents per thousand ems.
"The compositors' office of the _Ohio Farmer_, at Cleveland, has four
apprentice girls. Compensation light at present, but after the first
year they will have the same that journeymen are receiving in this
place, _i. e._, twenty-five cents per thousand ems." A lady learning to
set type in Indiana writes: "I think the reason of the printers
objecting to my learning was that I was not required to run of errands,
or, in other words, be the 'devil' of the office, as boys are who learn
the printing business. Besides, my compensation is better than theirs,
in consequence of my ability to do more than they. I receive my board
and $50 a year while learning; after that, journeyman's wages by the
week or by the thousand ems, as I prefer. In this time I can learn to do
all, except the press work, making up, &c. The girls employed as type
setters in the office receive $3 per week while learning." I have been
told that in Rochester, Buffalo, and New Haven, printing is done more
cheaply than in New York, and some publishers send their printing to
those towns to have it done. A great deal of raised printing is done for
the blind in the United States, but women do not work at that. Printers
were wanted some time back in Charleston, S. C., and when affairs become
settled in the South, we doubt not there will be many openings for
printers. An institution has been founded in Edinburg for teaching girls
the art of printing. Monsieur P. says in many of the villages of France
it is difficult to get printers. He proposes that a certain number of
girls be qualified for the work, as women are well suited to such work,
and it is of a kind that pleases those who have tried it.
=394. Sealing-Wax Makers.= D., sealing-wax, ink, and mucilage
manufacturer, employs two girls in putting up carmine ink and gum
mucilage, also in rolling, stamping, and boxing sealing wax. To one he
pays $5 a week, to the other $4. He employs his girls all the year.
Making sealing wax is too heavy work for women, D. thought, and there is
not much demand for the kind used in sealing letters. Self-sealing
envelopes and mucilage have done away with both wafers and wax. In the
United States, one pound is sold where formerly one ton was sold. Had
the use of wafers increased with correspondence, it would have been an
extensive business; but the making and baking of wafers, D. thought, was
too heavy work for women. I expect it is not more so than making and
baking bread. But little ink is made in the South and West. C. said
women could not make sealing wax, because of the danger of being about
the fire. I suggested there is not more than in cooking. He said lifting
the vessels is very heavy.
=395. Stereotypers.= All the first plates in this country were moulded
by a Mrs. Watts, the wife of an Englishman, who introduced the art from
London. Stereotyping could be learned by women. It is an interesting
employment, but requires intelligence and judgment. In stereotyping, one
department of labor is that of correcting metal plates. If a letter is
wanting, a type is soldered in the plate. If any of the letters or
spaces are filled with superfluous metal, it is removed. I think
stereotyping an occupation well adapted to skilful and educated women.
It requires an apprenticeship of three or four years.
=396. Type Rubbers and Setters.= At P. & Co.'s, I saw the whole process
of type making. They employ some women to rub type, and some to set them
up. The setters earn from $1.50 to $2 a week. It is very simple, but
there is much difference in the quantity done by different individuals.
A careful and rapid manipulation is desirable for the worker, as it is
paid for by the number of types set up. The rubbers are paid by the
pound, and earn from $8 to $9 a week. Some people can rub 2,000 types in
an hour. The fingers become hardened. P. & Co. do not employ many
American girls, for American girls do not like such dirty work, and most
of them dislike to work where men are. Breaking off the jets is in some
places done by women. It is a mechanical operation for removing the
inequalities of the metal, caused by the imperfect chasing of the
moulds. It requires a very rapid movement of the hand, but is not a
laborious operation. It is said that some fast workers can break off
5,000 in an hour. Girls are employed at type rubbing and setting, in the
same room with men. Type are cut of a soft metal, from which copper
moulds are taken for forming printers' type. It requires a steady hand,
a correct eye, and some practice to cut them, but not much strength. It
could be done by women. B. thinks the work is not unhealthy. I suppose
the same objection as regards health might be made to breaking off the
jets, type rubbing, and type setting, that is often made to the business
of a compositor--that the lead in the metal has a tendency to paralyze
the arm; but I have never heard the objection offered. B. does not pay
learners. Prospect for employment tolerable. When times are good, he
keeps girls all the year. They are paid by the quantity. The little
girls can earn $2.50 each, and some of the larger girls, who are very
expert, can earn $4.50. Girls always sit in rubbing type. In setting up,
I think they can sit or stand, as they please. There will be a demand
for type so long as books and papers are printed. I suppose there will
now be an opening in the South for type founderies. W. takes learners,
and pays by the quantity from the first. All his women sit while at
work. It is not healthy work, because of the lead floating in the
atmosphere being inhaled. He can always get hands by advertising.
Setters get about $2.50 a week, and rubbers $3, and $3.50. C. says, if
type rubbers are industrious and attentive, they can earn from $3 to $7
a week. Rubbing pays better than setting, but is quite laborious.
Setters earn from $2 to $3.50, and are generally small girls. They are
always paid by the quantity. It does not require long to learn. The
prospect is good for employment. In ordinary times they are employed all
the year. At H.'s, I was told that girls are never taught rubbing until
they have learned setting, as rubbing pays best, and it is not fair to
give a learner the advantage of an old hand. Setters cannot earn more
than $2.50 a week; rubbers, from $4 to $6. He gives work all the year.
Some of his girls are always absent on Monday. He thinks there are from
700 to 800 girls in founderies in New York. His girls earn from $3 to $6
a week. Printers, he says, are always first to suffer in a panic. A type
founder in Buffalo, writes: "I employ fifteen American girls in
finishing type, and pay by the piece. They earn from $3 to $5 per week.
One day is sufficient to learn, and nimble fingers greatly assist.
Seasons make no difference with the work. The work is easy in a warm
room in winter." The proprietors of the Boston Type Foundery sent me the
following intelligence by mail: "We employ about twenty women in
breaking, rubbing, and setting type. The metallic dust from the type is
considered unwholesome. We pay by the piece. The girls are from ten to
twenty years of age, and average from $1 to $6 per week, working from
six to nine hours. But a short time is required to learn the parts,
except rubbing, which occupies some months. They are paid while
learning. All other parts of our business, except those mentioned, are
too severe for women. The prospect for a continuance of work is
tolerable."