Page:The Economic Journal Volume 1.djvu/668

 646 THE ECONOMIC JOURN.AL This inequality has n. ot always existed. The firm which first introduced women compositors (McCorqudale, Newton-le- Vrillows, Lancashire), 44 years ago, and worked them under the same rules as the men, paid them at the same rate, being that then current, viz., 4d. per ' 1,000 ens.' This fact, and the obvious disadvantage under which women compositors now labour in being forbidden to work at night, on Saturday afternoons or Sundays, at the meal-times or for un- limited hours, would lead us to suppose that this restrictive legislation was an adequate cause of their lower wages. But I am informed that in Paris, where women compositors are not subject to these disabilities, their piece-work rates are, never- theless, much below those of men. This is also the case at Capetown where no factory law ex. ists.  In neither case are they protected by a Trade Union. o! my iniormants says, indeed, that there are not more than 100.) They can earn far higher wages than women receive in other trades, but various causes keep their number down. Only about a dozen firms employ more than three or four women, the greatess number in one establishment being twenty. The number is made up by firms employing one or two women. The London Society of Compositors passed a resolution in 1887 admitting women to membership provided they earned the Trade Union rate (see for the exact terms, West. minster Rer/ew, February, 1888 'Higher Education of Women '); but none satisfy this condition, and 'Society Houses' can therefore only employ women under exceptional circumstances. The following were the actual rates of wages paid in July, 1891, in the principal London firms employing women: NO. 1 No.  No.  No.  NO. 5 No. 6 No. ? No. 8 No. 9 ls for men in tile same firms ........ o . Trade Union Rates ..... On Thne, per hour. 5d. 6 5 6 6 None None On Piece, per 1,000 ens. 7 I 7t ' Not iess tilan 8d 7d. to Is. so as to average nt to 8d.' [ less than 8d. Women compositors in Edinburgh receive little more than a third of the recog- nized Trade Union rates; their introduction did much to break up the general strike of 5872 3, and is said to have completely revolutionized the trade in that city. (P. 125 of Third Report on Trade Unions, C.--5808 of 1889.) They are also employed in two newspaper offices at Warrington, and in large book-printing establishments at Aylesbury and Redhill where they receive less than half the Trade Union rate per 1,000. A small number of girls (not more than fifty in all) are employed in stone towns for the work of distributing the typo where a certain kind of composing machine is used; but in no such case do they m,mipulate the composition, which the men retain for themselves.  Report of Select Committee of Cape Legislature upon Colonial Industries, 1891.