(d) The introduction of the Linotype machine, of which there are three in this establishment. This was urged as the most important cause of the change back to men.
Of the work in general, it may be said that some intelligence is needed, that no dangerous machinery is used, and that the health of the workers depends largely on the character of the workroom. The special trade disease is that to which men are similarly subject, viz., "consumption" in some of its many forms.
In Glasgow the Typographical Association has strenuously, and, with the above exceptions, successfully, resisted the introduction of women into the composing-room. The attitude taken up by the men may be summarised as follows: No objection would be offered to the employment of women at the case provided that they served the usual seven years' apprenticeship at the same rates as male apprentices, and then on its completion were paid the full standard wage. "Underpaid female labour is equally unjust to the legitimate employer and employee." To allow women unrestricted access to the composing-rooms would probably lead in time, not only to the reduction of the men's wages, but to the undermining of the trade itself. The various branches of the trade which now demand many years of apprenticeship before they are completely mastered by one man would be split up and distributed among a number of highly-specialized workers. Women would be employed for separate departments, and by being continuously kept at one job or branch would become expert therein, but would have no knowledge of the trade as a whole.
The employers, on the other hand, are aggrieved that, while the union prevents women from acting as compositors in Glasgow, the same trade society allows them to work in Edinburgh. The result of the present arrangement is to divert a certain class of trade, viz., "solid dig," or book work, from other centres to Edinburgh. The cause of this is to be found in the non-employment of women compositors in Glasgow, and is not, as sometimes suggested, due to the superiority of Edinburgh printing.
In answer to the claim of the union to equal pay for equal work for women and men, it is urged by the masters:—
(1) Women when employed as compositors at piecework rates get the best, i.e., the simplest jobs. They are put to do what boys would be at when half through their apprenticeship. They are kept always at pretty much the same kind of work, and thus become very skilful at it. Boys, on the other hand, would claim to be shifted on to the higher branches of the trade.
(2) The man who now does the solid type-setting, which the employer wishes to see a woman do, is paid higher than a woman would or should be, because he is liable to be called on at any moment to undertake the more complex operations of his craft, while a woman is not. In other words, the man is paid for potential ability.
(3) If women were taken on freely to do solid setting, it is not at all likely that they would seriously aspire to the higher stages of the compositor's craft.
(a) Partly for physical reasons. Women are not fitted to handle the heavy formes.
(b) Partly because they could not be relied upon to go through a full course of training. They would be continually leaving in the middle or at the end of it, and employers, therefore, would not take the trouble to train them. "The pick of the girls get married. The qualities which make a girl smart and successful at her work would similarly make for her success in the marriage market."