TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION P. 569 



Bradford, Huddersfield, and Halifax are the chief centres of this trade. The 

 woollen trade is carried on to the eastern part of the West Riding, with Leeds 

 as the chief centre. Here the short wool undergoes several processes, including 

 carding, in the same mill. The distinctions between the long and the short- 

 wool, however, are breaking down with the introduction of improved machinery, 

 which enables short wool to be combed as well as the long wool. The funda,- 

 mental distinction is that in the worsted the wool is combed so as to lie in hori- 

 zontal line, while in the woollen it is carded to present a felted appearance. 



Men and women weavers are normally employed on the same processes, 

 save that 



(«) men do night work ; 



(b) men are able to ' tune ' their own machines and do small repairs, and so 

 save time and the expense of a mechanic ; 



(c) men are generally employed on the better-class and better-paid work. 



Men weavers are mainly confined to the Huddersfield district, where fine 

 'suitings' are made, as against 'dress materials' in Bradford, and 'tweeds' 

 in the Leeds or ' heavy woollens ' district. Outside the Huddersfield district, 

 weaving, save in plush weaving and certain better-class branches of the trade, 

 is a woman's trade. In slack times the men on night work are the first to 

 suffer from unemployment, and are not infrequently supported by their wives 

 on day work. 



Both females and males are normally employed in the Huddersfield district 

 as winders, warpers, and condenser minders. Boys as well as women are 

 employed as winders. In Scotland (Tweed district) boys are sometimes 

 employed as condenser minders, but in Yorkshire this work is generally done 

 by men or women. 



There are two separate piece-work rates for men and women weavers in 

 Huddersfield — the men earning an average wage of 27s., the women 18s. In 

 Bradford and Leeds men and women are generally employed at the same piece- 

 work rates, but no wages scale has been fixed as in Huddersfield, while the 

 average is lower than in Huddersfield. On ' khaki ' work women may earn 

 up to 27s. a week or as much as an average man. A nimiber of married women 

 have since the War returned to weaving, but, as the practice is for women 

 to return to the trade under their maiden name, no exact information on this 

 point is available. There is always a reserve of married women ' jobbers ' or 

 ' casuals ' in the trade who come in in times of pressure. 



Where men and women are employed as machine woolcombers on the same 

 processes, either 



(a) men do night work and the women day work, as in the case of ' comb 

 minders,' 'strong boxminders/ or 'furnishing boxminders ' ; or 



{b) the women work lighter machines, as in the case of ' breakers off ' — 

 women 2 laps, men 4 laps; or 



(c) the process itself is somewhat different, as in the carding department, 

 where men or youths feed the machines on the ' hopper ' principle (bowl 

 feeders), while women feed the machines on the easier 'feed-board' system. 

 There is little doubt that women could, and would, long ago have been em- 

 ployed as 'bowl feeders' on the 'hopper' principle, were it not for the 

 opposition, or as some would have it 'the chivalry,' of the men on the ground 

 of the unsuitability of the work for women. 



Where men and women do exactly the same work, day work and night work, 

 a capable woman will sometimes turn out more than a man, but the men have, 

 as a rule, the larger output. There is no doubt, however, that the lower 

 wages of the women are out of proportion to their lesser output. There appear 

 to be no cases in this branch of the trade of women taking men's work since 

 the War. 



Some women weavers have come in attracted by the higher wages in wool- 

 combing. Attempts were made in the early months of the War to put women 

 on night work, but the men then successfully resisted this on the ground that 

 there were sufficient semi- or unskilled men who could be drawn from other 

 trades or be promoted in the woollen trade to meet this temporary demand. 

 The men say th«y do not object to the introduction of women labour, provider} 



