Appendix Iii.--General Glasgow Report.

(A.) Letterpress Printing. Machine Feeding and Flying.

Girls are employed to "feed" the machines and to "take off" the impressed sheet. A girl will learn "taking off," or "flying," in a couple of days; but except in the old-fashioned and smaller jobbing-shops flying is now done entirely by machinery. Machine feeding is not so easy and simple a process as it seems. The girls stand and perform the same movement repeatedly, each time giving to the sheet the precise swing required to send it accurately into the grips. The work requires little intelligence, and the extent to which it can be characterised as exhausting depends partly on the speed of the machine, but chiefly on the length of the "run." Three methods of treating the girls may be distinguished. In some shops where there are very long runs, perhaps extending to a couple of weeks, as in the case of the printing of low-priced Bibles, the work is tiring. At the close of a long run the machines have to be prepared afresh, and the girls enjoy a spell for a day or two. This leisure they are sometimes inclined to abuse by interrupting the work of others with conversation, and consequently attempts are being made to employ them on other machines during the interval. This innovation the girls are resisting. In other shops the fatiguing nature of a long run is mitigated by removing the girl to another machine with a different movement, but the "right" of a girl to be so moved about and rested is not recognised; it is simply a matter for the consideration of the foreman. To allow the claim to frequent shifting might prove inconvenient in times of pressure. Lastly, in establishments where the bulk of the work involves short runs, as, for example, in printing the official matter of a municipality or a college, the necessity for frequently preparing the machines affords considerable leisure to the feeders. These intervals explain the groups of girls often to be seen chatting and knitting in odd corners of the machine-room. Some of these shops recognise the right of a girl to feed and keep clean "her own machine" and no other. Where this is the case a girl may be employed feeding for no longer than a quarter of the normal working week of fifty-two and a half hours owing to the shortness of the runs and the length of time spent in re-adjustment. The work is dirty but not dangerous, as all machinery is well-fenced, and accidents are of very rare occurrence. The day's work usually starts at 6.15 a.m. and ends at 6 p.m., with meal hours at 9 and at 2 o'clock and half an hour for tea when engaged on overtime. Saturday's shift is from 6.15 a.m. until 10 a.m. Girls are paid 5s., in a few shops 6s., a week as beginners. They get their first rise in three months, and are gradually advanced to an average wage of 10s., while an expert feeder may earn 11s., or at the outside 12s., a week. When girls find that they can feed well after a comparatively short time in a shop and that they are getting only 7s. or 8s. a week they commonly seek and obtain the average wage elsewhere. Managers fancy "it would not do" to advance a girl abruptly from 6s. to 10s. a week in the same shop, but do not blame the girls for leaving. "It is human nature." Girls are taken on at any age after fourteen, and stay on till they are married or until they are called away to domestic duties. Some remain on after marriage, but not more than 1 or 2 per cent. A few come back as widows. Married and unmarried as workers are "six of one and half a dozen of the other," remarked an employer of both, while another thought married women "less regular" in attendance. There are no signs of married women lowering rates of pay. "Time and a half" is the overtime rate. Women workers who do not get paid overtime when they work beyond the normal day get paid over the holidays, but not otherwise. There are no fines. There is no trade organisation among the machine feeders, and as the various unions of the men are not directly affected they do not interfere. In some firms feeding has been done by girls for a quarter of a century; in others they have been introduced only within the last five or six years. Boys were rough, irregular, scarce, and wanted higher pay. The girls, although they also are drawn from a rough class, are steadier, cleaner, and more economical in the use of material than boys. Besides, there are more of them. There was no inducement for boys to continue at such work, so they have been drafted into certain forms of unskilled, but fairly well paid, labour, such as is offered by the Post Office or bread factories. In some districts they go to the shipyards to assist riveters, and are able to earn straight away twice the wages they would obtain in a printing shop. As overtime by girls is restricted by legislation, young men (over 18) are kept for feeding in one large jobbing-shop where there are often seasons of great pressure (e.g., in the printing of penny monthly diaries and time-tables) and where "rushes" and overtime are inevitable. These young men would not be thus employed but for the restrictions of the Factory Acts, as the manager, for reasons stated above, much prefers girls for feeding. While all modern machines are fitted with self-fliers, not one of the many attempts to provide automatic feeders has proved quite satisfactory. For long runs such feeders as have been designed may serve fairly well, but in shops with much jobbing and many short runs too much time would be spent in adjusting the feeder to the particular job. The sole advantages of a mechanical feeder are that it neither "takes ill" nor "goes on strike." Meanwhile it is imperfect and expensive, and the supply of cheap female labour abundant.

(B.) Lithographic Printing. Machine Feeding.

What has been said of feeders under letterpress printing is generally true of feeders in the lithographic branch. The only difference seems to be one of social position. Girls employed in feeding lithographic machines are "higher," "less filthy in talk," etc. They form the intermediate class, of which the girls in the bookbinding and warehouse departments are at the top. In one shop where all three classes are employed, the manager remarked that these caste distinctions were "clean cut," and obvious to the most casual observer.

(C.) Letterpress Printing. Type-setting.

The employment of women as compositors is a "vexed question." In two shops only are they so employed in Glasgow, and both are on the black list of the local trade union. Inasmuch as the conditions which obtain in these shops differ in important respects, they are here described separately.

Firm No. 1 introduced women as compositors some nine or ten years ago, when a dispute with the union ensued. It now employs about a dozen women at the cases. Girls are taken on at any age after fourteen. In three months' time they are able to set up type in "solid dig," i.e., newspaper or book matter, consisting of solid uniform paragraphs. Three girls who have spent about eight years with this firm are declared to be "good at displaying," and "more competent than the ordinary journeyman." Beginners get 6s. a week during the first year, and in the third year are put on piecework rates. There are no indentures. Capable women compositors may earn 24s. a week, while their average earnings may be put at 22s. a week, and they never sink below a pound. Young workers make an average of 18s. a week or thereabouts. The normal week is one of fifty-one hours, made up as follows:--

8 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. on four days. 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Wednesdays. 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays.

A compositor sometimes acts as "clicker," i.e., checks the amount of piecework, but this is usually done by a clerk. No married women are employed. Overtime is paid time and a half, and women are fined a penny for being late.

Firm No. 2 employed at one time about two dozen girls in the composing-rooms. They were engaged solely on solid newspaper work, and never in the higher branches of the trade, such as "displaying." Seats were provided for them. They worked a forty-eight hour week for a "stab" wage of 15s. or 16s., and had three weeks' holiday, off and on, for which they were paid. Further, they were never turned away in slack time. But the experiment was not altogether a success, and by to-day the two dozen have dwindled down to two, who set for newspapers and get 16s. a week. The reasons assigned for the gradual reversion to the employment of men are as follows:--

(a) Irregularity of the women's attendance at work.

(b) Their shorter hours.

(c) Marriage.

(d) The introduction of the Linotype machine, of which there are three in this establishment. This was urged as the most important cause of the change back to men.

Of the work in general, it may be said that some intelligence is needed, that no dangerous machinery is used, and that the health of the workers depends largely on the character of the workroom. The special trade disease is that to which men are similarly subject, viz., "consumption" in some of its many forms.

In Glasgow the Typographical Association has strenuously, and, with the above exceptions, successfully, resisted the introduction of women into the composing-room. The attitude taken up by the men may be summarised as follows: No objection would be offered to the employment of women at the case provided that they served the usual seven years' apprenticeship at the same rates as male apprentices, and then on its completion were paid the full standard wage. "Underpaid female labour is equally unjust to the legitimate employer and employee." To allow women unrestricted access to the composing-rooms would probably lead in time, not only to the reduction of the men's wages, but to the undermining of the trade itself. The various branches of the trade which now demand many years of apprenticeship before they are completely mastered by one man would be split up and distributed among a number of highly-specialized workers. Women would be employed for separate departments, and by being continuously kept at one job or branch would become expert therein, but would have no knowledge of the trade as a whole.

The employers, on the other hand, are aggrieved that, while the union prevents women from acting as compositors in Glasgow, the same trade society allows them to work in Edinburgh. The result of the present arrangement is to divert a certain class of trade, viz., "solid dig," or book work, from other centres to Edinburgh. The cause of this is to be found in the non-employment of women compositors in Glasgow, and is not, as sometimes suggested, due to the superiority of Edinburgh printing.

In answer to the claim of the union to equal pay for equal work for women and men, it is urged by the masters:--

(1) Women when employed as compositors at piecework rates get the best, i.e., the simplest jobs. They are put to do what boys would be at when half through their apprenticeship. They are kept always at pretty much the same kind of work, and thus become very skilful at it. Boys, on the other hand, would claim to be shifted on to the higher branches of the trade.

(2) The man who now does the solid type-setting, which the employer wishes to see a woman do, is paid higher than a woman would or should be, because he is liable to be called on at any moment to undertake the more complex operations of his craft, while a woman is not. In other words, the man is paid for potential ability.

(3) If women were taken on freely to do solid setting, it is not at all likely that they would seriously aspire to the higher stages of the compositor's craft.

(a) Partly for physical reasons. Women are not fitted to handle the heavy formes.

(b) Partly because they could not be relied upon to go through a full course of training. They would be continually leaving in the middle or at the end of it, and employers, therefore, would not take the trouble to train them. "The pick of the girls get married. The qualities which make a girl smart and successful at her work would similarly make for her success in the marriage market."

(4) The cheaper type-setting of women is needed in order to compete successfully with the Linotype machine. There is no doubt that to a certain extent the comparatively low price of women's labour tends to retard the introduction of machinery.

(D.) Bookbinding.

In the bookbinding trade girls fold, put in plates and illustrations, collate, sew by hand and by machine. Sewing used all to be done by hand, but machines were introduced some fifteen years ago. In the case of primers and stitched books girls do all except print the covers. They make cloth cases as distinct from leather cases. Girls also lay the gold leaf on covers, which are subsequently stamped by machines operated by men. For at least half a century women have worked in these branches, but while in earlier days they learnt a variety of operations the tendency now is to keep them to a special process or machine. Hence a smart girl can pick up her task in a week. The old custom of a four years' apprenticeship still survives. Girls start at fourteen, or at thirteen if they have passed the fifth standard. The initial wage is still in some shops 3s. a week, but there is a decided upward tendency, which in one case was found to reach 4s. 6d. for beginners. On the termination of the apprenticeship an average wage of 10s. a week is paid, but in the exceptional case referred to above the average was given as 12s. 6d., while 15s. is earned by expert pagers, coverers, and perforators who have been in the employment of the firm for some time. A chargewoman gets about 15s. a week, while the principal forewoman in a firm employing nearly 300 girls in its bookbinding branch is paid a guinea per week. Folders and hand-sewers are paid piecework rates in the large shops, but not in the smaller ones. To the casual visitor these pieceworkers exhibit a remarkable swiftness and accuracy, and the work must involve no small physical strain. Although the girls engaged in folding and the allied processes are as a rule of higher intelligence than mill girls and machine feeders and drawn from different social strata, there are many who come, frail and under-fed, from very poor homes. To these especially the early hour at which the day's work begins is a hardship. On a Glasgow winter's morning to start work at 6.15 on a hurried bite of bread and margarine, with the distant prospect of more bread and margarine three hours later, leads logically to "broken time." There has been some slight tendency towards beginning at 8 o'clock and stopping on Saturdays at 1, but two of the largest firms still adhere to 6.15 a.m. and finish on Saturdays at 10 a.m. The manager of one of these characterised the system as a "relic of barbarism," and said he had tried to alter the hour to 8 o'clock, but the men vigorously opposed the change and the scheme had to be dropped. As matters now stand, and owing to the great irregularity of the attendance during the week, work has often to go on from 11 till 2 on Saturdays. Otherwise in this establishment overtime is systematically avoided, the manager maintaining that the normal week of 52½ hours is quite exhausting enough for the girls. When, as at seasons of unusual pressure, overtime is reluctantly resorted to, it is paid time-and-a-quarter, as in the case of men. The busy season lasts from August to March, but the girls are hardly affected, and have plenty of work round the year. In another large firm, where much railway printing is done, the conditions differ somewhat. The hours are as follows:--

6.30 a.m. to 9 a.m. 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays till 1 p.m.

There are small fines for spoilt work, but the money goes to the Workers' Benevolent Fund. These fines do not amount to more than sixpence per head per annum. Overtime is worked to the full limit. It is paid at a higher rate, but not at the same proportionally higher rate as men. Girls are never suspended in slack seasons, but are put on time wages of 13s. or 14s. a week for the best workers.

The employment of married women is regarded as exceptional, but all large firms have a small number of such--3 or 4 per cent., perhaps. The usual practice is for girls to come from school and remain on until they get married or leave for some domestic purposes. Some come back as widows or when living apart from their husbands. Some firms boast a considerable number of workers who have been employed for very long periods, ranging from 15 to 30 years and upwards. There are no signs of married women lowering the rates of pay. It is customary for those who return after a long absence to do so at the old wages. Efforts have been made from time to time to organise the women into unions, but they have invariably proved disappointing. Indirectly the women have gained by the successful efforts of the men to shorten the hours of toil. Generally speaking the attitude of the men's unions is not so much one of hostility as of indifference to women's work, except where it threatens to encroach on the men's preserves. There is no positive agreement as to the line of demarcation; it is determined tacitly by use and wont. The men profess to see a tendency among employers to extend the field of female labour. This extension of woman's sphere they deprecate as likely to lead to the lowering of men's wages. Just as men are never employed in folding in the bookbinding department of a publishing firm, so certain processes are invariably never done by women. As a rule men do the heavier and more complicated work, while women do that which is preparatory or supplementary. In jobbing-shops where odd volumes come in to be bound in various styles women are unsuitable, and men do the work right through; but in large publishing houses where orders run into thousands women specialise on particular processes. Women's work is apt to be extended where there are large quantities involved and where the work can be sub-divided. While women perform many of these sub-divisions quite as skilfully as men, they do not exhibit a like concentration of effort, and are more inclined to scamp.

Opinions differ as to the amount of homework done nowadays. The plant required is just a folder--a piece of bone. There is no doubt that to some extent folding is still done at home by the older girls who have during the day been employed in the factory. One employer admitted that on "not more than three or at most four nights in the year" do girls take work home from his shop. The cause is set down to the impatience of the public. Everybody wants his order executed immediately. Rates paid for homework are, if anything, a shade less than those paid for work done in the factory. While such work increases the total earnings this is not the main motive for undertaking it. A good deal of it is forced, and due to the urgency of the public demand. During very busy months some firms have a great deal of folding done as outwork by widows and married women not now employed in the factory during the day. But this practice is declining. Twopence per 1,000 extra is paid by one firm, i.e., 10d. as against 8d., for this outwork to compensate for lack of facilities in the home.

Despite the great number of sewing and folding machines introduced in recent years there are probably more women employed at the trade than ever. There is more work. The small shops tend to retain women's labour. Their jobs are so small in amount and varied in character that it would not pay them to introduce machinery. Further, in the large shops, folding machines have not always proved satisfactory. Doubtless, had men been engaged in folding during the last fifty years, employers would ere this have perfected a folding machine, but the cheapness of women's labour takes away some of the incentive to invention. Sometimes the introduction of a machine reduces women's work in one department and increases it in another. Take as an example the wire-stitching machine used in the production of tens of thousands of penny pocket time-tables and diaries. If the diary is not out during the first three days of the month it may as well not appear at all. There is a short selling time during which sales are keen. Without the device of the stitching machine the only way in which large quantities of such ephemeral publications could be placed quickly on the market would be by the employment of a very large staff of women. But the big and rapid output possible by means of the machine, although it reduces the work of women stitchers, brings increased work to the women folders.

(E.) Machine Ruling.

Girls who start as feeders are sometimes promoted to the supervision of simple ruling machines. Men look upon this with disfavour, as it used to be considered their work. One firm is said to have only two men now employed where there were once forty, and the two that remain are tenters, who supervise the girls and the machines. Machine ruling is paid at time rates. Wages rank as high as 17s. a week, where men formerly got 28s. For more complex machines girls would need to be specially trained, but managers think they could easily be prepared, as intelligence rather than strength is necessary. The girls themselves believe they would succeed if given a chance.

(F.) Type and Stereotype Founding.

No type founding is done in Glasgow, and no women are employed here in stereotype founding. Such work is considered unsuitable for women, and there seems no likelihood of their taking it up.

(G.) Paper Staining.

This work has always been done by women. There is no formal apprenticeship, but it takes a couple of years before the girls are thoroughly initiated. They are taken on at thirteen or fourteen at a wage of 4s. a week, paid 5s. at the end of the first year and 6s. at the end of the second. Afterwards their wages range from 12s. to 14s., with an average of about 12s. 6d. per week. There is no piecework and no fines are exacted. The working hours are 56 per week, distributed as follows:--

6 a.m. to 9 a.m. 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays, 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Work is plentiful all the year round. No dangerous machinery is used, and there is no special trade disease. The girls remain on till they get married. They are drawn from the "better sort" of working-class families, and some were reported as coming to the factory on cycles. They have no trade organisation, and there do not seem to have been any attempts on the part of the girls to supplant men in the allied processes. No machinery has yet been devised capable of doing the work of the girls.

(H.) Paper-box Making.

Girls come from school and begin by dabbling about the shop and running messages. Presently they become "spreaders," and in two or three years' time "coverers," the highest position open to them. The cutting of the paper and cardboard is done by machines, which men operate. The material thus prepared to the required sizes is passed on to the girls to be glued up into boxes. The girls use no machinery, and stand to their work at benches. At the height of summer, and despite the gluey atmosphere of the workrooms, the girls have the usual reluctance to open windows. Wages start at 3s. or 3s. 6d. Spreaders are paid from 5s. 6d., to 7s. 6d.; coverers, 10s. and 11s. Hours vary from shop to shop. Some begin at 8 and finish at 6.30 (Saturdays, 12.30), with a meal hour at 1 o'clock. Others allow an hour and a quarter for dinner, so as to enable girls to get home. The week is then arranged as follows:

7 a.m. to 9.15 a.m. 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. 3.15 p.m. to 6.30 p.m. Saturdays, 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

(I.) Pattern-book Making.

This trade consists in making pattern-books for travellers, and is usually found in close alliance with box-making. Girls get 4s. to start, and rise to 13s. a week. The hours in one factory visited were found to be as follows:--

8 a.m. to 1 p.m. 2 p.m. to 6.30 p.m. Saturdays, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. without a break.