578 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION P, 



(V.) Com'posing. 



There is a strong inclination on the part of trade unions and of some 

 employers to keep women out of this branch altogether. The work is highly 

 skilled, and the apprenticeship a long one, except in the case of hand composing 

 in book printing, which requires less judgment and experience, and it is in 

 this branch of the trade that women are chiefly employed, to a small extent in 

 London and in larger numbers in the provinces. The work is strenuous and 

 carried on in a close atmosphere and involves the lifting of heavy weights. For 

 this reason it is generally necessary to have one man overlooking and lifting for 

 two or three women. Women can, however, be advantageously employed in the 

 first process of monotyping, which is done seated and is less tiring altogether. 

 At present, however, monotyping machines are not extensively used, being 

 estimated at about 3 per cent, only of the whole trade. The output of women 

 on monotypes is often as much as a man's, and women joining the union in 

 London must receive a minimum of 45s. a week. Outside the union the average 

 is Z2s. 6d. The employment of women as compositors varies in different parts 

 of the country. In many places the opposition of the men is strong enough to 

 keep them out of the process. In Edinburgh, where a number of women are 

 employed on monotyping machines, the whole question is to be reconsidered in 

 1916. 



(VI.) Bookbinding. 



Certain branches of the trade have been considerably depressed through the 

 War. There has, however, been some increase in the employment of women. 

 Certain processes are prohibited to women in some districts, but conditions 

 vary, and the restrictions are, generally speaking, piurely arbitrary. The 

 disputed processes are : 



(i.) Drawing on and gluing cloth covers (paper covers allowed), 

 (ii.) Quarter-binding where the edges are turned in (flush edges allowed), 

 (iii.) Pasting on end papers. All are very simple processes. 



Trade union minimum for women 15s. ; men 36s. Men generally take on 

 other work as well as quarter-binding, whereas women are employed on quarter- 

 binding alone, earning 13s. to 18s. 



The Future. 



Beports all agree that the condition of trade after the War will determine 

 this. Men will be reinstated in their old positions, as far as possible, but 

 employers seem, on the whole, inclined to keep on the women introduced since 

 the War, if the condition of trade enables them. Had the trade remained very 

 prosperous during the War, it is more than probable that temporary concessions 

 would have been made by the unions other than those already mentioned in 

 respect of the employment of women. But the unions, generally speaking, are 

 strong enough to be able to enforce a return to the status quo after the War, 

 and, whatever changes may take place in the demand and supply of labour in 

 the next twelve months, it is certain that no impoi-tant changes would be 

 countenanced as a permanent feature without the fullest consideration on the 

 part of the unions. Important changes, however, as already stated, are 

 rendered improbable by the very nature of the printing trade, where a great 

 deal of the work is beyond the physical powers of women, and generally the 

 readjustments which have been made to facilitate the employment of women in 

 the heavier branches of the trade are to be regarded as a temporary expedient 

 and not as a permanency. 



At present the great majority of the 12,380 women described in the Census as 

 ' others in the printing trade ' (of whom no less than 10,600 are between the 

 ages of 14 and 19) are employed in the purely subordinate occupations as feeders, 

 folders, messengers, &c., and the length of apprenticeship required, in order to 

 qualify women for the more technical and skilled work, which is fixed at a 

 minimum of four years, generally bars the way to any attempt at entering the 

 more skilled branches. In certain directions, however, women may in the near 



