Sir, — In your issue of 5 May you
were good enough to publish a letter of mine
on the above subject, and also to invite
me to write you further on our wages, hours
of work, and conditions of employ-ment. Before
responding to the same I have waited in the
hope that an abler pen than mine might take
up my subject and say a word on our behalf.
I conclude, however, that sufficient interest
is not taken in factory girls and their wrongs
outside their own sphere to call for any
comment. Speaking for our-selves, sir, I
can assure you that this question of prices
paid for our work and the general inadequacy
of the same in proportion to the work done
is one naturally of keen interest, and forms
the subject of constant discussion and complaint — entirely
amongst ourselves, please take note, sir!
Notwithstanding this general private discontent,
we unfortunately as a body regard the existing
state of things as inevitable, and have not
suffi-cient courage, and do not know how
if we had, to make a resolute stand against
the injustice done us. I feel my position,
sir, in this matter of giving information,
to be one of peculiar difficulty. On the
one hand, to be quite fair to myself and
to those I am endeavouring to represent,
I ought, and would like to describe fully
and explicitly the exact kind of work done
by us, the exact amount of it, and the exact
price paid for that amount, and to give my
own experience without reserve. But on the
other hand, were I to do this I should be
making revelations which would lead to instant
recognition by many people of the particular
factory in which I am employed, and probably
also, sir, to the identification of your
correspondent, which I shall do well to avoid.
And therefore, on that account I feel reluctance
to reveal them, greatly as I value this opportunity
which you, sir, have so kindly given me of
emphasising — for it must already be
known — the fact that we are suffering
from a great evil which stands in urgent
need of redressing.
However, I think that even within the limits
to which I shall have to restrict myself
I can make good the statements contained
in my first letter. I must explain before
proceeding further that I shall speak of
the branch of factory work known as 'finishing'
>> note 1 only.
I have reason to believe that the other branches [of female employment] are
not overpaid, but I shall speak only of what I know to be actual fact. With
regard to wages. We are paid not by the hour or day, but a certain sum per
garment. Wages, then, vary greatly. For instance, many different classes
of work have to be done, and different prices are paid, not at all, however,
in proportion to the amount of work to be done, for while one price may yield
us as much as 3d an hour (occasionally), another will not yield us 1 1/2d
an hour (quite frequently), working equally hard for each sum. Of course,
all classes of work have to be done, and we have to accept with gratitude
(or otherwise) whatever sum someone — our employer presumably — thinks
it right to give us. We are doing excellently when earning 3d
>> note 2 an
hour. We not infrequently work for 1 1/2d an hour. An average of about 2d
for the average 'hand' may be taken as fair. Occasionally we may
get work which will yield us as much as 4 1/2 d an hour, but it is so very
occasional that it may be passed by in silence — otherwise, of course,
we should have no cause for complaint.
And now to take an average of a year's
wage of the 'average ordinary hand',
which was the class I mentioned in my first
letter, and being that which is in a majority
may be taken as fairly representative. The
wages of such a 'hand', sir, will
barely average — but by exercise of
the imagination — 8 shillings a week.
I ought to say, too, that there is a minority,
which is also considerable, whose wages will
not average above 5 shillings a week. I would
impress upon you that this is making the
very best of the case, and is over rather
than understating. What do you think of it,
Mr. Editor, for a 'living' wage?
I wish some of those, whoever they may be
who mete it out to us, would try to 'live' on
it for a few weeks, as the factory girl has
to do 52 weeks in a year. To pay board and
lodging, to provide herself decent boots
and clothes to stand all weathers, to pay
an occasional doctor's bill, literature,
and a holiday away from the scope of her
daily drudging, for which even the factory
girl has the audacity to long sometimes — but
has quite as often to do without. Not to
speak of provision for old age, when eyes
have grown too dim to thread the everlasting
needle, and to guide the worn fingers over
the accustomed task. Yet this is a question
which some of us, at least, ought to face,
ignore it as we may, and are compelled to
do. The census showing such a large preponderance
of women over men in this country, it follows
that the factory girl must inevitably contribute
her quota to the ranks of old maidenism — be
she never so willing to have it otherwise.
And now as to the number of hours worked
to earn — or rather to get — this
magnificent sum. I explained in my first
letter that we are subject to fluctuations
as to the amount of work supplied us. In
other words that we have busy seasons and
slack ones. It follows, then, that in busy
seasons, to total up to the yearly average
I have given, we make good wages — and,
of course, work a proportionately long number
of hours — and in slack seasons bad
wages.
Now, sir, our working day — that is,
in the factory — consists of from 9
to 10 hours. Take out of this time (often
considerable and unavoidably so) to obtain
the work, to obtain the 'trimmings' and
materials to do it with, and then to get
it 'passed' and booked in to us when
done, and then calculate how much — say
we are getting 2d an hour — we shall
be able to earn in an ordinary working day
in the factory. It will be plain that in
order to average this wage we have in busy
seasons to work longer than the actual time
in the factory.
Home-work, then, is the only resource of
the poor slave who has the misfortune to
adopt 'finishing' as a means of earning
a livelihood. I have myself, repeatedly,
five nights a week, besides Saturday afternoons,
for weeks at a time, regularly taken four
hours, at least, work home with me, and have
done it. This, too, after a close hard day's
work in the factory. In giving my own experience
I give that of us all. We are obliged to
do it, sir, to earn this living wage! It
will be unnecessary to point out how fearfully
exhausting and tedious it is to sit boring
at the same thing for 14 or 15 hours at a
stretch — meal times excepted of course.
But we are not asking for pity, sir, we
ask for justice. Surely it would not be more
than just to pay us at such a rate, that
we could realise a living wage — in
the true sense of the words — in a
reasonable time, say one present working
day of from 9 to 10 hours — till the
eight hour day becomes general, and reaches
even factory girls. Our work is necessary
(presumably) to our employers. Were we not
employed others would have to be, and if
of the opposite sex, I venture to say, sir,
would have to be paid on a very different
scale. Why, because we are weak women, without
pluck and grit enough to stand up for our
rights, should we be ground down to this
miserable wage ?
With regard to the conditions of our employment,
those of which I can speak leave nothing
to be desired. In the particular factory
in which I am employed, we work in greatest
freedom and comfort, and I should like to
add, that as far as I personally am concerned,
from those in immediate authority over me
I have never received anything but consideration
and courtesy.
In conclusion, sir, I am aware that in writing
these letters to you I arn probably doing
what I was reading of the other day, namely, 'butting
my head against a stone wall'; but, as
the writer I am quoting went on to say, 'How
can one be sure it is a stone wall, or one
made only of paper, unless one does butt
one's head against it?' Now I am
not quite sanguine enough to think that the
wall against which I am butting my head will
give way at least with my solitary 'butt' .
Nevertheless, sir, I am determined to butt
my head against it. Indeed, I feel it to
be personally degrading and a disgrace upon
me to remain silent and submit without a
protest to the injustice done me.
And if the wall is of stone, sir, and the
only remedy lies in the radical one recommended
by the minority report of the Labour Commission,
>> note 3 then
will you allow me to urge upon your readers,
upon those of my own sex who though not
yet having the privilege of voting themselves,
yet have influence with those who have,
to use that influence intelligently, in
the right direction? And to those of the
opposite sex who do enjoy this privilege,
to send only those men to Parliament, of
whatever political creed, who stand pledged
to do all in their power, with the utmost
possible speed, to relieve the burden of
the oppressed and suffering workers of
this country, not least amongst whom are
the factory girls of Crewe.