Women in the Printing Trades Part 24

When busy, the work continues till 8 p.m. He had not used special exemption once the last year.

PROSPECTS.--There are no prospects except for the girls in the binding room. The present forewoman ("a jewel") had been with the firm for thirty years; one or two others whom she had trained could take her place.

ORGANISATION.--He had no knowledge of any Women's Unions covering the women employed here. This is a Society house in every branch for the men, but the manager said, "Trades Unionism is all humbug," and he would like to do away with it altogether, if possible; but it is so strong in London that if you want to get good men you must be a Society house.

MARRIED AND UNMARRIED.--He employed 2 or 3 married women amongst litho feeders. The firm ask no questions, but he said he knew most of the workers.

A lot of the job hands were married, but none of the regular hands in binding room.

LEGISLATION.--In manager's opinion legislation had not in any way injured the position of women workers. It did not affect him at all. He never employed men to fold at night, because it would not pay.

Occasionally, when the litho machines had to be kept working late, he had to draft in men from other departments to feed them, and he could understand that a small printer, without different departments, would find it awkward.

He would not himself have the place open at night with girls working in it. He would not take the responsibility of that; they would "lark about, etc." He thought it all to the women's advantage that they must not work at night.

The intentions of the Factory Acts are good, and he approved of them in principle, but there was a lot of humbug about them and the L.C.C.

regulations,[95] _e.g._, making him have six basins for lavatory for his workers. They never used more than two, preferring to follow each other, and they broke the others, and then round came the inspector and said you must have six.

[Footnote 95: This is allowed to stand as an indication of the frequent misunderstandings our investigators met with regarding the L.C.C. This body appeared to be charged with everything that caused irritation.]

The L.C.C. put a premium on burglary by making it compulsory to have a way out on to the roof. The Factory Inspector was not a practical man, and ordered a great deal of unnecessary fencing of machinery. He told me how one night he kept the girls late without giving notice (the work came in unexpectedly), and sat by the telephone so as to send up notice to the forewoman if the inspector came. It was not the Factory Acts which kept women from being compositors.

MEN AND WOMEN.--Women did litho artists' work at home, and there was no reason why they should not be quite as good at it as men. It was paid by the merits of the sketch.

_Feeding Litho Machines._--He used to have boys, and a few years ago introduced girls. They were much better at it, cleaner, quieter, and more careful to place the paper exactly than boys.

He still had boys for _feeding letter-press machines_--why, he did not quite know, except that it was the custom; then, having thought about it, he said further, that it was because less care was needed. Girls were no cheaper than the boys were, and were introduced solely on account of being better workers.

He had no women compositors, and employed only 12 men, and he did not see how he could work the two together, though he did not see why women should not do all the setting-up and the display work, though they could not lift the formes. He did not think the Union objected. It never had been the custom though.

He never had women to work _cutting machines_. The men would object.

Women never rose to mind the _printing litho machines_; he did not think they could do it.

He had only one _platen machine_, worked and fed by a boy; but in some places, where cheap things were done by this machine, _e.g._, paper bags, girls attended to it.

Men used to do _folding_ in his youth, and they still did _stationers'

folding_, notepaper, etc., in some houses.

HOME WORK.--The firm gave out a certain amount of folding when there was a press of work. The forewoman knew of old hands and others who could do it at home. He considered that to be quite a convenient arrangement.

INFLUENCE ON FAMILY INCOME.--Many of the job hands were married women, who liked to come out occasionally for a few extra shillings. Others were single girls, who preferred to be paid by the piece, and go about from house to house, making as much as time workers for shorter hours.

10. _Paper Colouring and Enamelling Firm in London, also engaged in Showcard Mounting and Varnishing and Book-edge Gilding. Employer's and Manager's Information._

Both were very communicative. The former, after repeated questions from me as to how things were done, took me over the whole place, intending only to show me the varnishing, and finally letting me see everything.

He is a working-cla.s.s master who has risen. His father had a small business, and he has made it a big one. It is one of the biggest firms in the trade.

TRAINING.--_Card Mounting._--The firm indentures apprentices, who agree to stay three or four years. They are taken on at fourteen years of age, and are paid 4_s._ a week for the first year, and then receive a portion of their piece work earnings, varying according to efficiency, from one-fourth, one-half, three-fourths, two-thirds, and so on, according to skill. They come for a month first to see if they suit.

_Paper Colouring and Enamelling._--In this department apprentices are also indentured for two years. They are taken on at fourteen, and are paid 4_s._ a week first year, then a portion of their piece earnings as above.

_Varnishing and Sizing._--No training is given for this. Girls must be tall, or they are no use. Any girl will be "good at it" after three weeks.

The employer remarked that parents could not afford to pay a premium. It was very provoking when girls went off after four years, when a lot of trouble had been spent in teaching them. I was shown some cards which a girl, who was supposed to be competent, had spoilt by pasting the sheet on so that there was a blister; 385 out of 500 were similarly spoilt, and they cost 6_d._ each, he said.

WAGES.--_Card Mounting and Paper Colouring._--Piece work rates are paid here, with overtime at the same rate. It is difficult to give an average. One girl would make 25_s._, while another girl would only make 7_s._ at the same work in the same time. After consideration, the head gave it as his opinion that 12_s._ 6_d._ a week would be what the ordinary girl would earn, taking the whole year round, slack with busy times. They were kept on all the year at this firm. Sometimes a girl would make as much as 28_s._

It was further stated that a girl might make 6_d._ in less than an hour at night, when the colours were mixed and she was finishing a job, whereas it might take her a whole morning to earn the 6_d._ next day.

A quick girl could do 1,000 eyelets in an hour, eyeletting being paid at 10_d._ per 1,000.

_Varnishing and Sizing._--Piece work wages are paid here, with overtime at same rates. Wages are reckoned by the lump sum for the gross work done, and divided equally amongst all the hands. The division is made by the firm, not the workers. We asked one girl what she took last week, and she said 14_s._; but my guide said that the average would not be so high for the year, say 12_s._

WORK.--There are four separate departments or businesses here, in three of which the work is done by women.

_Varnishing and Sizing_, where 16 girls are employed. The calendars, advertis.e.m.e.nts, and so on, to be varnished are placed in a pile on a table underneath the long webbing band, and a girl sits there and feeds.

They are caught up and pa.s.sed round rollers, and are sized or varnished as the case may be. Another girl stands facing the machine, seeing that they pa.s.s round all right. They are then carried over the top of the top roller along the webbing band, which stretches the full length of the room, till they come to the drum at the end, round which the band pa.s.ses on its return journey. There girls take them off and place them in racks, the bottom one of which is on a small trolley. When a big pile of racks (about 5 ft. high) is filled the girls wheel it off, lift up a door, and push it into a big cupboard which takes up all the middle of the room, and above which is a fan. There they are left to dry, and when dry the girls wheel them out again and take out the sheets.

There were two rooms in which this was being done, with about 8 girls in each. There was also a third room at the side, where they make up odds and ends, _e.g._, make up packets of "Happy Families," fold odd papers, eyelet a few things, and so on. There was only 1 girl in this; sometimes there are several. When a girl comes in first she does this work.

_Card Mounting._--About 30 or 40 girls were employed at this. This consists in putting the advertis.e.m.e.nts, calendars, and so on, on to the big sheets of cardboard and finishing them off. There are various different processes. The board has to be cut, and this is done either by a man or a girl who feeds the rotary cutting machine. The sheet of card is "lined," _i.e._, the back pasted on, and edges pasted over if required. Then the picture (or calendar) that is to go on it is pasted down, the girls covering the backs of about four pictures (or calendars), and then pressing them down one after another. For some work eyelets are then punched, and in the best work the edges are bevelled by a little machine consisting of a wheel in a trough, along which the edge is pushed. In the case of a good deal of School Board work there is a narrow band of tin or bra.s.s at the top which finishes it off, and out of which comes a bra.s.s loop by which to hang it up. The men cut the bra.s.s into slips, and the girls work about five hand machines, the principle of which is that you put in your map (_e.g._), put the tin or bra.s.s slip of metal in the right position, pull down a handle, lift it up, and the work comes out with the metal band pressed down on each side and the loop fixed in the middle. For other work, such as big maps, charts, diagrams, and so on, wooden rods are used as rollers, etc., and the work of fastening is done by girls.

_Paper Colouring and Enamelling by Hand._--Only 12 women were engaged upon this work--a considerable decrease. The sheet of paper to be coloured is placed in front of the girl, who then wets it over with the colour (black when I saw it) by means of a brush like a whitewash brush (the manager said that they were whitewash brushes with the handles taken off), which she dips into a bowl. She then takes another round brush, about 10 ins. in diameter, and brushes over the whole surface, so that the colour lies quite evenly. The sheet of paper is then hung, as it were, on to a clothes line to dry. These lines stretch over the room.

Enamelling is done in identically the same way, only it is enamel, not colour, which is put on.

Enamelled paper is the very shiny coloured paper used for end pages of books, for covering confectionery and similar boxes, etc.

Marbling is never done by this firm. All the coloured paper is in plain colours, marbling being a quite different process.

_Book-edge Gilding._--Only men are employed in this.

REGULARITY.--The _card mounting_ department is specially busy before Christmas with calendars, almanacs, etc., but advertis.e.m.e.nt cards are turned out all the year.

_Paper colouring_ comes in rushes, but is not a seasonal trade.

_Varnishing_ is sometimes busier at one time than at another, but it is not seasonal. The work of this firm is such that no job hands are employed.

HEALTH.--_Paper Colouring and Enamelling._--Mr. ---- called down one woman who had worked there fourteen years, and her mother before her.

She looked very strong and healthy. The other girls were not so robust looking as she, but did not look _ill_. One was sitting in one of the colouring rooms during the dinner hour, her hands all coated over with paint, eating bread and b.u.t.ter. Mr. ---- rebuked her and told her that she ought to wash her hands, and that he was always telling her to do so, but she did not obey, and went on eating stolidly.

The colouring girls were all splashed over, and so were the walls. The rooms were close and dirty. Work was done standing.

_Card Mounting._--The rooms were close and dirty, and the work seemed tiring.

_Varnishing and Sizing._--The smell and heat were enough to knock one down when one first went in, though one ceased to notice it after a bit.

There are hot pipes connected with the machine to dry the papers. The place looked very dirty, and my guide showed me how the dust all stuck to any varnish about, so that the racks, if left out for a day, got covered with flue. The girls did not look strikingly unhealthy. They have to drag heavy loads about. One or two looked a bit pale.