Women in the Printing Trades Part 4

[Sidenote: Organisation amongst bookbinders.]

The bookbinders' organisation sprang up in 1779-80, as most organisations then did, from friendly meetings in certain houses of call. It was at first known as "The Friends." In 1786, the working day was from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m., with certain breaks for meals, giving, perhaps, an actual working time of twelve and a half hours per day. But in March of that year, a Conference of the sections decided to ask for a reduction of an hour per day, and their pet.i.tion was followed by the discharge of workmen.[15] The employers then went further, and in May, 1786, indicted twenty-four of the ringleaders for conspiracy. In a manifesto to the public, the men complained that their wages were only from 15_s._ to 18_s._ per week, rising in a few cases to a guinea, and proceeded to charge the employers with having "with vindictive rage forced into the sweet retreats of domestic felicity" wives who were employed in the trade. This action on the part of the employers was not prompted, however, by an objection to women, for, according to the testimony of Mr. W. M. Hall,[16] one of the men indicted, an attempt was made to supply the book market as a temporary makeshift during the dispute with the imperfect work of women. He says, "I cannot remember the exact time of striking the women. This I remember, it was on account of them and the apprentices doing books in boards, by the booksellers consenting to take them so for a time, I was appointed to strike Black Jock's[17] women. I went at one o'clock to see Maria, his forewoman, who used to dine in the shop, she being single. I told her she must inform the other women of the injury they were doing us by continuing at work.

If they were willing to serve our interest and leave their work, they should receive their wages for doing nothing. If we gained our cause, they should be sure of employ, and the advantage of the hour also.

Coming downstairs, I met Mr. McKinley.

"'Well, Mr. Hall, are you coming to work again directly?'

"'Sir, if you will grant the hour----'

"'Come in here,' he says, going into his dining-room, and setting down a large square bottle of Hollands to give me a gla.s.s, taking one himself and pouring out another. Pat, pat, pat! came our ladies downstairs.

'What is all this about?' I was glad to make my escape. The six or seven women were all subpoenaed against me on the trial."

[Footnote 15: In the Report of the Committee on Trades' Societies published in 1860 by the National a.s.sociation for the Promotion of Social Science, Mr. Dunning tells the history of the London Consolidated Society of Bookbinders. pp. 93-104.]

[Footnote 16: _The Finishers' Friendly Circular_, May, 1846, No. 4.]

[Footnote 17: An employer named John McKinley.]

The narrative of this famous struggle--one of the most important in the history of Trade Unionism, involving persecution, imprisonment, and death--contains no further records of the part played by women in it, but Mr. Hall's reminiscence indicates how they behaved. The men were successful, and in 1794, the working day was again reduced, so that it lasted from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Presumably the women shared in these advantages, and also in that of an afternoon tea half-hour, which was theirs exclusively until 1806, when the men, during a period of active trade and overtime, demanded the same privilege. James Watson, in his "Recollections,"[18] hints that the kind indulgence of the women to the men, permitted in some shops, made the afternoon tea half-hour a general demand. "Their kind friends, the ladies, while preparing for their own comfort, neglected not those of their less fortunate companions, but contrived by making their tea to accommodate them as much as possible, and the men, if not immediately under the eye of their employer, would seat themselves on the end of their presses for ten minutes or so and thus partake of it." A strike to secure the half-hour was unsuccessful, but the men gradually won their point. Mr. Watson tells how, after the strike, it happened that he was being engaged by one of the opposing masters. The master, "being pressed upon the point, d.a.m.ned the half-hour, but said I might come in and do as I liked. I accordingly accepted the situation, and at tea-time, when I prepared to sit down, I expected to be supported by the men of the shop who were well aware of my intention, but not one of them would move. I was thus placed in an awkward position, and could only turn to my good friends, the ladies, to countenance my proceedings, who kindly invited me to their tea table."

In about a month, Mr. Watson informs us, every man in the place was following his example.[19]

[Footnote 18: _British Bookmaker_, June, 1892.]

[Footnote 19: The friendly conduct of "the ladies" was long remembered in the trade, and was celebrated as late as 1847 in a song:--

"What we enjoy we dearly bought, And n.o.bly they the battle fought, Who--though the ladies' aid they sought, Would--right or wrong--have tea.

_Chorus_ "Then let us all our voices raise, And loudly chant to-night in praise Of those who gained in byegone days, The time we have for tea."]

[Sidenote: The Bible Society controversy.]

The struggle which the bookbinders fought with most pertinacity was, however, that which they waged against the Religious Societies--particularly the British and Foreign Bible Society--when attempting to cheapen the production of religious literature by means which, the bookbinders contended, involved unreasonably low rates of pay. In this struggle women played a prominent part.

It broke out as early as 1825 when the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge reduced its prices and the master bookbinders working for it reduced wages. The strike which followed collapsed for want of funds. In 1833 the contest was resumed with the British and Foreign Bible Society.

That year the five houses then employed by the Society reduced wages, and it appears that when the dispute was about to be settled by both sides accepting a compromise, a representative of the Bible Society instructed the masters to hold out. The men appealed to the Society, but were told that it could not intervene. No definite settlement was ever arrived at.

The first pet.i.tion which the men addressed to the Society in 1833 made special reference to the condition of the women workers. "Your memorialists beg leave to state," they wrote, "that there are a number of females (about 200) employed in binding the books of your Society, the whole of whose wages have been reduced in consequence of the late alteration in the prices of these books. Their wages were before very low. Your memorialists respectfully submit that the making it more difficult, and in some cases impossible, for females to earn an honest subsistence, by their labour, is in the same proportion to give potency to the seducers of female virtue." Reply and counter-reply were made, and the Society was heartily attacked by the Union with texts from Scripture and reflections on applied Christianity. In the defence which the Society issued in 1834, it is stated that its binders informed it that "competent and industrious men in our employ earn on an average 6_d._ an hour or 30_s._ weekly when in constant work; and women in the same description from 8_s._ to 10_s._ and upwards."

Mr. Dunning, the Union Secretary, replied that he could prove that the scale given was an "entire falsehood," and published a second "Address to the Religious Public," in which the wages paid by the princ.i.p.al firm were given, the average for thirteen men working out at a small fraction over a guinea per week, and of twenty-four women at 5_s._ 11_d._ per week. In 1843 the dispute was allowed to end, when the five firms promised to pay the women on timework at rates between 7_s._ 6_d._ and 15_s._ per week, and to work them only ten hours per day.

In 1845 the Society decided to give all its binding to one firm, the proprietress of which was Miss Watkins, and four years later the most famous dispute of the series broke out. The "controversy," as it is called in the bookbinders' records, opened by an appeal addressed to the Society on August 17th, 1849, by the journeymen bookbinders of London and Westminster, in which it was alleged that Miss Watkins had returned to piecework, and that the wages she was paying to women averaged only 5_s._ 6_d._ to 6_s._ per week for a longer day than ten hours. Learners were taken on and were discharged so soon as they were ent.i.tled to increases in wages, and a rule was said to be in operation by which, so soon as a woman worker was qualified to be paid more than 7_s._ a week, she was discharged. "Exorbitant" fines were also imposed. "Females,"

remarks the appeal, "often have not the power to plead their own cause in such matters, and being helpless in many respects where their wages are concerned, they are trodden down until a state of things such as described in the 'Song of the Shirt' appals the mind with the enormity of their injuries, their suffering, and their moral condition." The appeal contained the following table, showing the difference in wages paid to women working for the Bible Society and those working for the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.

Bible Society for Promoting Society. Christian Knowledge.

_s._ _d._ _s._ _d._ 5 0 Pearl Bibles, per 100 vols. 7 6 5 1 Ruby " " 7 0 6 10 Large Pica Bibles, " 8 4 6 8 Small " " " 8 4

One of the grievances specially mentioned in this appeal was that women were not allowed hot water, except between 4 and 4.30 p.m., and were then charged 1_d._ per week for it.

Immediately (August 22nd, 1849) after the issue of the "Appeal" the women employed by Miss Watkins were asked to sign a statement that they were perfectly satisfied with their pay and conditions. Several signed, not knowing the purport of the paper; others refused. On the advice of the men's Union a counter-statement was drawn up and signed, and sent in to the Bible Society, and on finding that the forewoman who had taken their part, together with the active promoters of the counter-pet.i.tion, were to be discharged, the women left work, and demanded:--

1. That prices should be raised to the standard paid by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.

2. That fines should be abolished.

3. That they should have access to cold water as well as hot for tea.

4. That after the learners then employed had completed their apprenticeship, not more than twenty learners should be employed at one time.

About a hundred women had come out, and the men's Union organised a relief fund.[20]

[Footnote 20: It may not be amiss to copy a few sentences from Mr.

Dunning's obituary notice in the _Bookbinder's Trade Circular_, January 21st, 1862, of the women's leader, Mary E. Zugg, an early and humble worker in women's organisations. "Nothing could exceed the temper, moderation and firmness she displayed. Possessing great energy, strong sense and great acuteness of perception, detecting at a glance pretence from reality, she was not what was termed a strong-minded woman, commanding great respect and but little affection, for her goodness of heart and great regard for the feelings and welfare of others endeared her to all." She died at the age of thirty-three of consumption on November 13th, 1861, and is buried in Bow Cemetery.]

Miss Watkins replied, denying every charge made by Mr. Dunning, and giving 10_s._ as the earnings for a week of sixty hours. The Union replied by asking that a deputation should be allowed to inspect the wages books of the firm. It claimed to be in possession of the rates of wages paid to ninety-seven folders and sewers for three weeks in August, and gave the average as 6_s._ 2_d._ for a sixty-hours' week, and in other respects it supported its original charges.

The _Times_ of January 25th, 1850, contains in its advertis.e.m.e.nt columns the report of a Committee of the Southwark Auxiliary of the Bible Society, which examined Miss Watkins' books, and it supported her statements. The women earned from 9_s._ to 14_s._ per week. But Mr.

Dunning was not silenced, and on March 25th he issued a long pamphlet, the last of the "controversy" for the time. In it, it is stated that the committee of investigation had been deceived so as to mistake wages paid for ten days as though they were paid for a week, and a table of wages for three weeks in September and October, for the week ending July 28th, 1849, and for the four weeks preceding the strike, was printed.[21] The wage average of the periods was from 5_s._ 9_d._ to 6_s._ 4_d._ per week of sixty hours.

[Footnote 21: See p. 184.]

The agitation failed. The women either found work elsewhere, or went back under the conditions against which they had struck. Mr. Dunning could only say that the dispute had arrested a downward tendency in prices and wages.

The dispute cost the men's Union 146. This was spent mostly in printing and postage, but it included grants amounting to 22 given to the separate Women's Committee, which had collected an additional fund of 650 to aid the strikers.

The finishers had strongly opposed the support which the Union had given to the women, and their section, to the number of 150, was finally expelled from the Union.

But whilst this unusual harmony existed between the men's Union and the women workers, no serious attempt had been made to organise the women permanently, either as members of the men's Society, or in one of their own. In 1833, in an address to the London journeymen bookbinders, a Mr.

Benjamin Teasdale, of Manchester, advised the formation of a women's Society, but nothing appears to have been done. In 1855 they were allowed to borrow books from the men's library on the payment of 6_d._ a quarter. It is impossible to ascertain how far the agreement between men and masters for a nine hours' day in 1872 really affected women, as a considerable proportion of them had been working only for nine hours before the agreement was made.

[Sidenote: The Society of Women employed in Bookbinding.]

Not till 1874 was there a determined and successful attempt made to organise women bookbinders into a Union. On September 12th of that year "the first Society formed for women," the Society of Women employed in Bookbinding, was formed by Mrs. Emma Paterson, the pioneer of women's Trade Unions in England,[22] and in the following year Mrs. Paterson was sent as its delegate to the Trade Union Congress meeting in Glasgow.

This was the first time that a woman had appeared at these parliaments of Trade Unionism, which had been held annually since 1868. From the commencement the relations between the men's and the women's Societies were most cordial, and at the first annual meeting of the latter Mrs.

Paterson read a letter she had received "some years ago" from Mr.

Dunning, in which he advised "the formation of Trades' Societies for women." The cordial greetings extended to the new Society by its brother organisation did not meet it everywhere. A congratulatory resolution was moved at the London Trades' Council, and though it received the support of the veteran George Odger, it was met with considerable opposition.

Women's labour was cheap labour, and many of the delegates to the Trades' Council could not get beyond that fact.

[Footnote 22: Mrs. Paterson was born in London on April 5th, 1848, and was the daughter of H. Smith, headmaster of St. George's, Hanover Square, parish school. In 1867 she became a.s.sistant secretary to the Club and Inst.i.tute Union, and in 1872 secretary to the Women's Suffrage a.s.sociation. Next year she married Thomas Paterson, a cabinet-maker and wood carver. With him she visited America where she saw the Female Umbrella Makers' Union at work. On her return to London in 1874 she formed the Women's Protective and Provident League, the membership of which was mainly middle cla.s.s, though its object was to promote Trade Unionism amongst women. She died December 1st, 1886, and was buried in the Paddington Cemetery. See art. _Dictionary of National Biography_.]

It is unnecessary to detail the somewhat uneventful career of the Union.

Mrs. Paterson, at the end of eighteen months, was succeeded by Miss Eleanor Whyte, who still occupies the position of secretary.[23] The membership began at 66 and reached 275--of whom only 200 were financial members--at the end of the first year. From that time till now the membership has been exceedingly variable, and no full and reliable records seem to exist. But from the disconnected information which is at our disposal, it would appear that the two most successful years of the Society were 1876 (when 63 new members were enrolled), and 1890 (when 67 were enrolled). In 1870 the membership was given at 210; in 1884 at 200; in 1891 at 240; in 1901 at 270; the period of depression from 1883 to 1889 seems to have tried the Society very severely.

[Footnote 23: December, 1903.]

The objects of this Society are stated to be: "To maintain and protect the rights and privileges of the trade and to grant relief to such members as may be out of work, or afflicted with illness." The subscription is 2_d._ per week, and an entrance fee of 1_s._ is imposed.

It can hardly be expected that a Society whose membership has probably never exceeded 270, could have much fighting force. But agitation has never been the policy of the Society. It has refused to join with the men in making demands upon the employers; its representatives at Trade Union Congresses and elsewhere have steadily resisted legal restrictions upon labour; it has not shown itself anxious to seize what the men regarded as opportunities to make itself felt.[24]