Special Problems
Girls in the Mule Rooms.—The shortage of boy labour in the spinning branch of the cotton industry has led during recent years to a revival of the old custom of employing women and girls in the mule rooms. In strongly organised districts this means that girls are being engaged as piecers in increasing numbers, while where Trade Union organisation is weak, outside the great spinning areas, as in Wigan, they are frequently acting as mule minders. As might be expected, the influence of war conditions has been to intensify this shortage of boy labour and to increase the number of female piecers, so that the Bolton Operative Cotton Spinners' Association finds that no fewer than 1163 additional girl piecers have been brought into the mule rooms in their district since the outbreak of war, making a total of 3315. The increase will be proportional in Oldham and district.
In this inquiry the evidence as to the effects of such work was drawn entirely from non-medical sources, as it was impossible to get definite medical experience of the problem. Consequently the conclusions are more general than exact. Many employers and overlookers and some Trade Union witnesses were firmly of the opinion that mule-room work exerted no injurious influence on the health of girls, but it must be noted that these witnesses were drawn entirely from Wigan and Leigh, where the proximity of coal-mines with the attraction of higher wages absorbs most of the available boy labour, so that the shortage has been acute for some years, and the witnesses have got so accustomed to the presence of girls in the mule rooms that they can see nothing against it. All the more striking, therefore, is the testimony of some overlookers in these districts who declared that the work made girls thin, weak-chested, and anaemic. The temperature of the mule room frequently exceeds 90°F. and girls and men work in very scanty clothing, and the liability to colds on leaving the overheated atmosphere is very marked. Girls are on their feet the whole day, with no opportunity for rest, and by the end of the day they have walked many miles. One witness said that girls get very tired, but that no permanent ill-effects are noticed; but he advocated that rest-rooms be provided in order to prevent undue fatigue. More than one mule-room overlooker declared that no daughter of his should ever work in the spinning room, and the opposition to such work was based on physical as well as on moral grounds. One manager pointed out that "wiping down" the mule is particularly "nasty work" for girls: every two hours or so the little piecer has to run down the mule under the ends and clean with both hands as she runs, and this has to be done with great speed, as the spinners object to the mules being stopped for more than a minute or so.
A small meeting of mule-room women workers, joint minders, and piecers whom I interviewed were very resentful that their work should be considered harmful, probably from fear of losing their employment, so it was difficult to get any definite evidence. The only reform for which they pressed dealt with the provision of cloak-rooms where men and women work together. As mentioned above, the heat is so intense that very little clothing is worn—men wear a pair of linen drawers and a shirt, the women and girls frequently only a skirt and blouse; and they dress and undress in sight of one another. The moral effects of mule-room work are outside the scope of this investigation, but attention must be drawn in passing to the undesirable position occasioned by the heat, the scanty clothing, the attitudes necessary for the work, and the subordination of women and girls to the male minders in an unhealthy atmosphere. In Wigan, where women minders or joiner-minders are the rule, these moral objections seldom occur.
Witnesses from mills that do not employ girls in mule-room work were very insistent on the objectionable moral and physical effects of such work, agreeing with Mr. James Haslam that it makes girls "sallow and tired, crooked in limbs, bloodless and dyspeptic."[13]
Speeding up.—We have already referred to the driving effect of piece-work on simple automatic processes, but it is difficult to deduce any definite conclusions from the evidence of the non-textile industries. Thus some Welfare Workers and employers say that the girls take full advantage of the liberty allowed them, and are frequently to be seen wandering into other rooms and workshops for conversations with their friends. This seems to contradict the view that anxiety to earn a good wage causes excessive speeding up, but other witnesses find that the incentive to increase output which piece-wages provide is so strong that girls will not make use of rest-pauses when these are allowed, and sometimes consequently become exceedingly nervous. The pace is set by the quickest workers, and the effort to keep up is very wearying to weaker and slower girls, who will not sit down or rest even when seats are provided. Some interesting observations were made by the director of a factory employing about a thousand female workers. He has found that continuous piece-work on simple processes has a cramping mental effect, so that the girls become perfect machines. Thus young women who have been in the works for about six years will not face the responsibility of an overlooker's position, and seem to have no interests outside their output and their wages. On the other hand, a small proportion of the workers do not work at top speed if they can get a moderate wage which seems to supply their ordinary needs. Some girls previously earning 16s. per week on piece-work are still getting the same money, although they now get 3s. or 4s. war bonus, plus their piece-earnings.
Speeding up of the machinery in the cotton industry has been very marked during recent years. In each department unremitting attention is necessary if even a moderate wage is desired. The standard of comfort is higher in Lancashire than in any other industrial district, and a good family income is considered essential. Consequently children and young persons are just as keen on their output as adult workers. Some witnesses pointed out that doffers and back-tenters and other beginners who are paid a time-wage are saved from the excessive speeding up which results from piece-wages, and that they get time to sit down and rest in the intervals of doffing, etc. But any one who has watched the gang of doffers passing from frame to frame in the ring spinning rooms of the cotton industry or at fly or cap spinning in the worsted trade will be inclined to disagree with this view; and indeed the textile master at the technical schools of one of the West Riding worsted centres said that doffing was done at top speed amid deafening noise, so that the work was more fatiguing than any other occupation in the mill.
Weavers and winders suffer from increased speed as much as the card- and spinning-room workers. Attention has been drawn to the spirit of competition which managers and overlookers encourage between weaver and weaver. Boys and girls, men and women, are indirectly set to emulate each other. Some witnesses believe that women and girls work at higher pressure than men and boys, and since the former invariably have domestic work when the factory day is over, the strain is considerably increased. At the present time girls are given responsible work before they are equal for it. Teachers frequently find half-time scholars, who have not been at the mill more than a couple of months, announcing that they were working "for sick," that is, minding the looms for a weaver who is away ill. Such girls will get two looms of their own before they are on full time, and at 14 they have four looms under their charge. It was no uncommon thing in north-east Lancashire to find that girls have been working their mother's four looms for some months while the mothers are minding the soldier father's six looms. In some cases girls of 16 have six looms, and Sick Visitors report that cases of heart trouble, anaemia, and general weakness are most common at the present time amongst these girls; "the possible lasting effects of this severe strain are terrible to contemplate." The Sick Visitors of another Union say that the falling-off in health which is marked in adolescent workers, shows itself most when the girl is put on to three looms. Even in normal times girls mind three looms at 16, and the strain is considerable. These witnesses believe that the average girl should not be in charge of three looms until she is 18, and that 21 is soon enough for four looms. In this connection the evidence of one large mill where the quality of the weaving is above the average is particularly instructive. The manager reported that the standard of health was extremely satisfactory, and he pointed out that girls are not allowed to take three or four looms until they are strong and capable enough to manage them, and he had found by experience that it is seldom advisable to put them on the full number of looms until 17 or 18.