WOMEN IN GENERAL TRADES.
As investigation progresses, it becomes at times a question as to which
of two great factors must dominate the present status of women as
workers; competition, which blinds the eyes to anything but the surest
way of obtaining the proper per cent, or the inherited Anglo-Saxon
brutality, which, in its lowest form of manifestation, makes the English
wife-beater. It is certain that the English workingwoman has not only
the disabilities which her American sister also faces,--some inherent in
herself, and as many arising from the press of the present system,--but
added to this the apparent incapacity of the employer to see that they
have rights of any description whatsoever. Even the factory act and the
various attempts to legislate in behalf of women and child workers
strikes the average employer as a gross interference with his
constitutional rights. Where he can he evades. Where he cannot he is apt
to grow purple over the impertinence of meddling reformers who cannot
let well-enough alone.
Such a representative of one class of English employers is to be found
in a little street, not a stone's throw from Fleet Street, the great
newspaper centre, where all day long one meets authors, editors, and
journalists of every degree. Toward eight in the morning, as at the same
hour in the evening, another crowd is to be seen, made up of hundreds
upon hundreds of girls hurrying to the countless printing establishments
of every grade, which are to be found in every street and court opening
from or near Fleet Street. It is not newspaper interests alone that are
represented there. The Temple, Inner, Outer, and Middle, with the
magnificent group of buildings, also a part of the Temple's
workings--the new courts of law, have each and all their quota of law
printing, and a throng made up of every order of ability, from the
reader of Greek proof down to the folder of Mother Siegel's Almanac,
hurries through Fleet Street to the day's work.
In a building devoted to the printing and sending out of a popular
weekly of the cheaper order, the lower rooms met all requisitions as to
space and proper ventilation.
"We have nothing to hide," said the manager, "nothing at all. You may go
from top to bottom if you will."
This was said at what appeared to be the end of an hour or two of going
from room to room, watching the girls at work at the multitudinous
phases involved, and wondering how energy enough remained after twelve
hours of it, for getting home.
A flight of dark little stairs led up to a region even darker, and he
changed color as we turned toward them.
"This is all temporary," he said hastily. "We are very much crowded for
space, and we are going to move soon. We do the best we can in the mean
time. It's only temporary."
This was the reason for the darkness. Stumbling up the open stairs,
hardly more than a ladder, one came into a half story added to the
original building, and so low that the manager bowed his head as he
entered; nor was there any point at which he could stand freely
upright, this well-fed Englishman nearly six feet tall. For the girls
there was no such difficulty, and nearly two hundred were packed into
the space, in which folding and stitching machines ran by steam, while
at long tables other branches of the same work were going on by hand.
The noise and the heat from gas-jets, steam, and the crowd of workers
made the place hideous. The girls themselves appeared in no worse
condition than many others seen that day, but were all alike, pale and
anemic. Their hours were from 8 A. M. to 8 P. M., with an hour for
dinner, usually from one to two. The law also allows half an hour for
tea, but in all cases investigated, this time is docked if the girl
takes it. Cheap "cocoa rooms" are all about, where a cup of tea or cocoa
and a bun may be had for twopence; but even this is a heavy item to a
girl who earns never more than ten shillings ($2.50) a week, and as
often from four to seven or eight. No arrangement for making tea on the
premises was to be found here or anywhere.
"We mean to have a room," the employers said, "but we have so many
expenses attendant on the growing business that there doesn't seem any
chance yet."
This employer brought his wage-book forward and showed with pride that
several of his girls earned a pound a week ($5.00). But on turning back
some pages, the record showed only fourteen and sixteen shillings for
these same names, and after a pause the manager admitted that the pound
had been earned by adding night work.
This question of whether night work is ever done had been a most
difficult one to determine. The girls themselves declared that it often
was, and that they liked it because they got three shillings and their
breakfast; but the managers had in more than one case denied the charge
with fury.
"It's over-work," the present one said, his eyes on the rows of figures.
"When?" asked my companion quietly, and he burst into a laugh.
"You've got me this time," he said. "You've given your word not to
mention names, so I don't mind telling you. It's like this. There's a
new firm to be floated, and they want two hundred thousand circulars on
two days' notice. Of course it has to be night-work, and we put it
through, but we give the girls time for supper, and provide a good
breakfast, and there's hundreds waiting for the chance. But you've seen
for yourselves. Some of them make a pound a week. What in reason does a
woman want of more than a pound a week?"
This remark is the stereotyped one of quite two-thirds the employers,
whether men or women. The old delusion still holds that a man works for
others, a woman solely for herself, and although each woman should
appear with those dependent upon her in entire or partial degree
arranged in line, it would make no difference in the conviction. It is
quite true that many married women work for pocket-money, and having
homes, can afford to underbid legitimate workers. But they are the
smallest proportion of this vast army of London toilers, whose pitiful
wage is earned by a day's labor which happily has no counterpart in
length with us, save among the lowest grade of needlewomen.
In the case under present consideration pay for over-time was allowed
at the rate of fourpence an hour and a penny extra. If late five minutes
the workwoman is fined twopence, and if not there by nine is "drilled,"
that is, sent away, or kept waiting near until two, when she goes on for
half a day. If tardy, as must often happen with fogs and other causes,
she is often "drilled" for a week, though "drilling" in this trade is
used more often with men than with women, who are less liable to
irregularities caused by drink. In some establishments the bait of
sixpence a week for good conduct is offered, but this is deducted on the
faintest pretext, and the worker fined as well, for any violation of
regulations tacit or written.
In another establishment piece-work alone was done, a popular almanac
being folded at fourpence a thousand sheets. Railway tickets brought in
from eight to ten shillings a week, and prize packages of stationery,
fourpence a score, the folding and packing of prize doubling the length
of time required and thus lessening wages in the same ratio.
I have given phases of this one trade in detail, because the same
general rules govern all. The confectionery workers' wages are at about
the same rate, although a pound a week is almost unknown, the girls
making from three shillings and sixpence (84c.) to fourteen and sixteen
shillings weekly. A large "butter-scotch" factory pays these rates and
allows the weekly good-conduct sixpence which, however, few succeed in
earning. This factory is managed by two brothers who take alternate
weeks, and the younger one exacts from the girls an hour more a day than
the older one. Here the factory act applies, and inspectors appear
periodically; but this does not hinder the carrying out of individual
theories as to what constitutes a day. If five minutes late, sevenpence
is deducted from the week's wages, which begin at three and sixpence and
ascend to nine, the latter price being the utmost to be earned in this
branch of the trade.
In the cocoa rooms which are to be found everywhere in London where
business of any sort is carried on, the pay ranges from ten to twelve
shillings a week. The work is hard and incessant, although hours are
often shorter. In both confectionery factories and the majority of
factory trades, an hour is allowed for dinner, but the tea half hour
refused or deducted from time. London in this respect, and indeed in
most points affecting the comfort and well-being of operatives of every
class, is far behind countries, the great manufacturing cities of which
are doing much to lighten oppressive conditions and give some
possibility of relaxation and improvement. Some of the best reforms in a
factory life have begun in England, and it is thus all the more puzzling
to find that indifference, often to a brutal degree, characterizes the
attitude of many London employers, who have reduced wages to the lowest,
and brought profits to the highest, attainable point. It is true that he
is driven by a force often quite beyond his control, foreign
competition, French and German, being no less sharp than that on his own
soil. He must study chances of profit to a farthing, and in such study
there is naturally small thought of his workers, save as hands in which
the farthings may be found. Many a woman goes to her place of work,
leaving behind her children who have breakfasted with her on "kettle
broth," and will be happy if the same is certain at supper time.
"There's six of us have had nought but kettle broth for a fortnight,"
said one. "You know what that is? It's half a quarter loaf, soaked in
hot water with a hap'orth of dripping and a spoonful of salt. When
you've lived on that night and morning for a week or two, you can't help
but long for a change, though, God forgive me! there's them that fares
worse. But it'll be the broth without the bread before we're through.
There's no living to be had in old England any more, and yet the rich
folks don't want less. Do you know how it is, ma'am? Is there any chance
of better times, do you think? Is it that they _want_ us to starve? I've
heard that said, but somehow it seems as if there must be hearts still,
and they'll see soon, and then things'll be different. Oh, yes, they
must be different."
Will they be different? It is unskilled workers who have just spoken,
but do the skilled fare much better? I append a portion of a table of
earnings, prepared a year or two since by the chaplain of the
Clerkenwell prison, a thoughtful and earnest worker among the poor,
this table ranking as one of the best of the attempts to discover the
actual position of the workingwoman at present:--
"Making paper bags, 4½_d._ to 5½_d._ per thousand; possible
earnings, 5_s._ to 9_s._ a week. Button-holes, 3_d._ per dozen;
possible earnings, 8_s._ per week.
"Shirts 2_d._ each, worker finding her own cotton; can get six done
between 6 A. M. and 11 P. M.
"Sack-sewing, 6_d._ for twenty-five, 8_d._ to 1_s._ 6_d._ per
hundred; possible earnings, 7_s._ per week.
"Pill-box making, 1s. for thirty-six gross; possible earnings,
1_s._ 3_d._ a day.
"Button-hole making, 1_d._ per dozen; can do three or four dozen
between 5 A. M. and dark.
"Whip-making, 1_s._ per dozen; can do a dozen per day.
"Trousers-finishing, 3_d._ to 5_d._ each, finding own cotton; can
do four per day.
"Shirt-finishing, 3_d._ to 4_d._ per dozen."
So the list runs on through all the trades open to women. A pound a week
is a fortune; half or a third of that amount the wages of two-thirds the
women who earn in working London; nor are there indications that the
scale will rise or that better days are in store for one of these
toilers, patient, heavy-eyed, well-nigh hopeless of any good to come,
and yet saying among themselves the words already given:--
"There must be hearts still, and they'll see soon, and then things'll be
different. Oh, yes, they must be different."