GIRLS IN PRINTING OFFICES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 8373, 29 September 1890, Page 6

GIRLS IN PRINTING OFFICES.

TO THE EDITOR. Sip.,—" Compo." and " Typo.'' are to the front with fulminations on this subject, mingled with abuse of me. Cowardly comments, under the shield of anonymity, may well pass unheeded, so I shall omit, as far as possible all reference to the personal aspect of the matter, until I know tho personality of my antagonists. If they are men, they will either reveal themselves, or confine their remarks in future to the general question at issue. It is such a genuine ! pleasure to find two male printers possessed of so much "spine" as to defend publicly the conspiracy to thrust a number of girls and women out of employment, that I gladly undertake the duty of replying to their reasons for opposing female labour in the printing trade. "Compo." wants to know why female labour should be allowed to displace male? Simply because we live in a free country and in an enlightened age. He might push the position a little further, and ask why machinery should be allowed to displace both male and female labour ? Why not smash the steam engines and improved printing machines, so as to find work for men at the spine-invigorating exercise of turning the old mangle appliances? This would be quite as rational as, and a good deal more humane than, depriving girls of their means of livelihood. ''Compo" accuses me of wilfully and knowingly stating what is incorrect when I affirm that " females in the trade are now receiving £2 10s per week. ' Allow me to say that I did not lie. 1 know women in the trade in Auckland who are receiving £2 10s and £1? per week, and the former sum is the recognised wage for journeymen and journey women compositors. If "Compo'' wishes for the proof, to enable him to apologise for his false accusation, he may have it privately. Your correspondent finds an argument against female labour in tho alleged fact that males stick to their trade all their lives, while nineteen out of twenty girls don't. V\ hat tloe-i he want .' If he would like the women to remain at the trade, and give the men a chance to leave it, why should he affirm that "girl labour in printing offices ... is an unmitigated evil to the male employee*?' Poor "Compo!" His reasoning is all astray, but his conclusion is sound —the women arc in the way, and, right reason or none, they must go.* The printing trade exists for the sole good of " male employees !" Next comes " Typo," who seems to consider himself a regular printer's (ai]>o, though sadly deficient in "spine." He says typesetting is " manual labour. . . totally unfit for a female." Let me reply to this by citing tho : illustration which English printers employed in order to convey*an idea of the trade to the mind# of a committee of the House of Lord-. They asked the noble Lords to imagine a lot of pins lying loosely in little boxes, and stated that the work of type-setting resembled the picking up of those pins and sticking them into pin-cushions, according to a certain plan. This is the terrible toil which has wrecked the constitution of " Typo," and which he fears would injure the eyes and spines of females. Doubtless he would prefer to see the gentler sex employed at the healthier occupation of farm labourer (as in our mother country), or hod-carrier (as in Austria), or beast, of burden yoked side by side with dogs (as in some parts of Germany). We are all, more or less, familiar with the disease known as " housemaids' knee ; 7 but it has been reserved for a typo." and a "solicitor, etc.," to discover the new disease of " lady compositors' spine." I really wish the medical profession would turn their attention to this obscure ccmplaint. It is too late in tho day to raise the question of decorum in the employment of males and females side by side. Hundreds of thousands of females work in the same rooms as males, at a great variety of occupations, all over the civilised world, and in New Zealand an ,-vct of Parliament—the Employment of Females Act—regulates this matter in a wav that any reasonable person would regard as satisfactory. Typo's"' proposed test of six boys against six girls would prove nothing, so need not be entertained. Again, I am accused of disingenuousness and ""of attempting to hoodwink the public. I asserted that girls who have been three years in the Observer office were ordered to be paid £2 10s a week ; whereupon "Typo" begs to correct me by affirming (1) that some of these girls have been six or seven years at the trade ; (2) that they have been three years in my employ ; and (3) that they are not paid according to their merits. Really, the impudence of the fellow is amusing. Am I not supposed to know my own affairs better than this anonymous scribbler? Each of his statements is distinctly faDe, and I offer to prove to him categorically that no girl in our employ has been six or seven years at the trade, that my partner and 1 have only been eighteen months on the Observer proprietary, and that our lady compositors are paid according to merit. " Typo" writes as one under authority, for he uses the plural "we," and states that it is the intention of the Typographical Association " to put the whole matter before he public in a straightforward and clear manner." I hope they will employ someone with a better moral spine than " Typo " to draw up the statement, otherwise its character for straightforwardness will sutler.

As this discussion, from being a theoretical one as to the justice and propriety of females entering the printing trade, has drifted into one regarding the special dispute between the Observer Office and the Auckland Printers' Union, kindly allow me to state how that contention stands The printers demand—(l) That my partner and I should instantly dismiss our female apprentices ; or (2) pay them £2 10s each per week; or (3) suffer such terrible consequences as their dread executive may decree. To which we reply—(l) This is an inhuman and monstrous proposition ; (2) this means financial ruin to us ; (3) trot out your boycott ! That's the whole thing in a nutshell, and I defy the printers i'o put it in a more clear and straightforward manner. —1 am, etc., J. L., Kelly. Auckland, 27th September, 1800. TO the editor. Sir, —With your permission I should like to say a few words concerning the employment of females in printing offices. I feel as deep an interest in the welfare of young lady compositors as any other person in this community. 1 would therefore urge the gentlemen members of the printing trade not to look on it as the prerogative of men alone to guide the universe, but to allow the gentler sex to take part in the arrangement and settlement of the questions which affect mankind generally. " Typo," in Saturday's Herald, says "that it is not the intention of the A.T.A. to degrade..females." God forbid ! But lie says he would " lift them up to the same level as men." That is, the A.T.A. would insist on the female compositors being paid the same rate of wages as men. Now, to my mind, that should settle the question. The sympathy of the public is with " Typo" and the A.T.A. in their endeavour to accomplish that excellent and just proposition. I remember that amiable lady, Mrs. Aldis, writing in support of that very thing — I think it was that lady teachers should be paid at the same rate as male teachers. Bearing that in mind 1 most humbly and respectfully solicit her support in the cause of the female compositors. They should not be held up as a reproach ; it should not be left in the power of men to say that female compositors are underworking the men by selling their labour at too cheap a rate, and so cutting off married men from the work that wins the bread for their wives and children. The public, I have no doubt, will bear me out when I state chat an employer who traffics in female labour for the purpose of competing with his brother employers, by outbidding them in cheap work, is not worthy of public support. Now, it will be said that female compositors are not vorbh £2 10s, as a rule. That may be, and it may be the case with male compositors as well. Illhealth and age affects us all alike. But I understand that payment by the piece system would remedy all that. So what valid objection can there be to women earning a living at type-setting, providing of course they are paid at the same rate as men ? After a young lady has served faithfully her five years of apprenticeship, I say it is dishonourable to take advantage of her sex and tell her she cannot expect the wages of a journeyman, that she must serve another year as an apprentice. I should say to such an employer "pub the girl on

piece-work." Then she would only be paid for tho amount of work done. Now, if the girls are true to their own interests, they will insist upon being paid as much wages for their work as men ; and thefe is not a woman in or around Auckland (nor man either) who will not give them moral and monetary support. My dear girls, be nob cajoled by sophistry —that when trade improves, etc. " When the sky falls we shall all catch larks !" But I would remind you that "A bird in tho hand is worth a dozen in the bush." To the employers of female compositors : I would beg to remind them that if they treat their female employes at the same rate as males, they have nothing to fear from the public. But, my word for it, the public will see that full and adequate justice is done to the female compositors, even though the heavens should fall.— am, etc., Marion Gordon.