566 



TRANSACTIONS OP SECTION F. 



During the first four months of the War^ this industry was the most 

 depressed of all trades, and in regarding unemployment figures as a whole this 

 fact should be noted. Before the War, production had over-reached demand, 

 and, in addition, at the outbreak of war the trade suffered from the dis- 

 advantages resulting from the War under which all export trade laboured — high 

 rates for freight and insurance; the prohibition of code telegrams; and, during 

 August, the dislocation of the machinery of bills of exchange; as well as the 

 loss of German markets." 



The seriousness of unemployment in the cotton trade is not merely to be 

 seen in the figures of unemployment, for in textile industries as in mining 

 a contraction in the demand for labour is more generally met by a reduction 

 in the time worked per week by a large number of workpeople than by the 

 discharge of a smaller number. The following table traces the changes in the 

 cotton trade from the outbreak of war to the middle of February : 



(Number employed in July = 100) 

 Males. 



Females. 



The general improvement in December was due partly to recovery of trade 

 with the East, but in the main to the increase in the number of Government 

 orders placed in Lancashire. To a very large extent these orders involved the 

 substitution of coarser for finer yarn, a change which involved some adjustment 

 in wages and working conditions. 



From many cotton towns a shortage of male labour was reported, especially 

 of piecers and of various classes of labour in the winding rooms. Spinners 

 manipulate a pair of machines and require the aid of two operators — big 

 piecers (men earning up to 26s. per week) and little piecers (boys). Before 

 the War a serious shortage of little piecers was being felt as boys now take 

 less kindly to mill life. Now the problem is complicated by the dearth of ' big 

 piecers ' who have enlisted for the War. The employment of women as piecers 

 is a most controversial topic, and though a certain number of women are nor- 

 mally employed in some districts, generally in colliery districts when youths 

 are not available or in rural districts, and attempts have been made since the 

 War to introduce young women and girls to assist in creeling, there is a strong 



" For further information on the War and the Cotton Trade see article 

 by Prof. S. J. Chapman and D. Kemp in Economic Journal, March 1915. 



