Page:The Economic Journal Volume 1.djvu/486

 zt64 THE ECONOMIC JOURNAL coatings, &c., and partly because the demand for machinists and finishers in the ready made clothing trade had set in. The last ten years have been years of prosperity to Leeds so far as the working classes are concerned, and the flax trade only exists because of the ex/stence of a low class of labour content to live on low wages. It is doubtful whether more than 1,500 people are em- ployed in flax spinning in Leeds. One large flax mill is still working, where about 800 are employed, of whom 700 are women and girls. A few on piece work have obtained as much as 12s. and 14s., but such wages are very exceptional; the maximum wages may really be put at 10s. a week, adult women often earn- ing less than 8s.. The flax spinners are principally Irish. In appearance and in reputation they more nearly resemble the match girls of East London (also largely Ir/sh) than do any other mill girls in Leeds. The trade, carried out under the best cond/tions, cannot be described as a healthy one, and it is not a matter for regret that the demand for women's labour in better paid trades has almost made the industry an impossible one in Leeds. The great flax mills which for eighty years were the boast of the town, are now converted into a large wholesale ready made clothing factory. Linen weaving is not so unprofitable as flax spinning. It is considered by one linen manufacturer as more difficult than cloth weaving, but it is not so well paid, as the price does not leave suffic/ent margin. One woman in this factory was making a linen for which she received 17s. a piece; another was doing work at about ls. a piece and earned about 12s. to the other's 17s.; but the higher priced piece paid the best and gave more profit than seventeen of the other pieces. There is considerable difficulty in ascertaining the average weekly earnings of cloth weavers. They are paid for the pieces actually or nearly finished during the week; some perhaps do one piece a week, others do about three pieces in a fortnight and may be paid 13s. 6d. one week and 27s. the next. Even when the maximum average is three pieces a fortnight, a fortnight is not a sufciently long term on which to take an average, as two h/gh weeks and two low weeks often come together. There is also considerable reluctance among cloth manufacturers, quite re- gardless of the labour and time involved in working out the average, to give results which ,nay appear to show that they pay less than their neighhours, who may be doing a d/fferent class of work, or employing a different class of labour although not paying a higher rate. One manufacturer pays his