allowing for necessary outlay on forge and fuel, was
fixed at us. 3d. Poor enough, we may say. But so
great an improvement was this to the workers them-
selves that their comment is said to have been : "It
is too good to be true." The change did not take effect
without considerable difficulties. The Trade Boards
Act provides that three months' notice of the prices
fixed by the Board shall be given, during which period
complaints and objections may be made either by
workers or employers. At Cradley this waiting period
was abused by some of the employers to a considerable
extent. Many of them began to make chains for
stock, and trade being dull at the time they were
able to accumulate heavy reserves. Thus the workers
were faced with the probability of a period of un-
employment and starvation, in addition to which a
number of employers issued agreements which they
asked the women to sign, contracting out of the
minimum wage for a further period of six months.
WOMEN IN TRADE UNIONS 133
This was not contrary to the letter of the law, but was
terribly bitter to the poor workers, whose hopes, so near
fulfilment, seemed likely again to be long postponed.
They came out on strike, and were supported by the
National Federation of Women Workers, in conjunc-
tion with the Trade Union League and the Anti-
Sweating League. A meeting was arranged between
the workers' representatives and the Manufacturers'
Association, at which the latter body undertook to
recommend its members to pay the minimum rate so
long as the workers continued financial support to those
women who refused to work for less than the rates.
This practically of course amounted to a request from
the employers that the workers' Trade Union should
protect them against non-associated employees. It has
been remarked that this agreement is probably unique
in the annals of Trade Unionism.
After long consideration the workers agreed. An
appeal for support was made to the public, and met
with so good a response that the women were able to
fight to a finish and returned to work victorious.
Every employer in the district finally signed the
white list, and more recently the Board has been
able to improve upon its first award. The organisa-
tion has so far been maintained. Thus a real improve-
ment has been achieved in the conditions of one of the
most interesting, even picturesque of our industries,
though unfortunately also one of the most down-
trodden and oppressed.
No one who has ever visited Cradley can forget it.
The impression produced is ineffaceable. So much grime
and dirt set in the midst of beautiful moors and hills
so much human skill and industry left neglected,
despised and underpaid. The small chains are made
134 WOMEN IN TRADE UNIONS
by women who work in tiny sheds, sometimes alone,
sometimes with two or three others. Each is equipped
with a bellows on the left of the forge, worked by the
left hand, a forge, anvil, hammer, pincers, and one or
two other tools. The chains are forged link by link
by sheer manual skill ; there is no mechanical aid
whatever, and we understand that machines for chain-
making have been tried, but have never yet been
successful. The operation is extremely ingenious and
dextrous, and where the women keep to the lighter
kind of chains there would be little objection to the
work, if done for reasonable hours and good pay. It is
carried on under shelter, almost in the open air, and is
by no means as drearily monotonous as many kinds of
factory work. On the other hand, in practice the women
are often liable to do work too heavy for them, and the
children are said to run serious risks of injury by fire.
At the time of the present writer's visit, now about
ten years ago, these poor women were paid on an
average about 53. 6d. a week, and were working long
hours to get their necessary food. Most have achieved
considerable increases under the combined influence
of organisation and the Trade Board, and probably
us. or I2s. is now about the average, while some are
getting half as much again. When the strike was over
there was a substantial remainder left over from the
money subscribed to help the strikers. The chain-
makers did not divide the money among themselves,
but built a workers' Institute. Surely the dawn of
such a spirit as this in the minds of these hard-pressed
people is something for England to be proud of.
In August 1911 came a great uprising of underpaid
workers, and among them the women. The events of
that month are still fresh in our memories ; perhaps
WOMEN IN TRADE UNIONS 135
their full significance will only be seen when the history
of these crowded years comes to be written. The
tropical heat and sunshine of that summer seemed to
evoke new hopes and new desires in a class of workers
usually only too well described as " cheap and docile."
The strike of transport workers set going a movement
which caught even the women. In Bermondsey almost
every factory employing women was emptied. Fifteen
thousand women came out spontaneously, and the
National Federation of Women Workers had the
busiest fortnight known in its whole history of seven
years.
Among the industries thus unwontedly disturbed
were the Jam-making, confectionery, capsule-making,
tin box-making, cocoa-making, and some others. In
some of the factories the lives led by these girls are
almost indescribable. Many of them work ten and a
half hours a day, pushed and urged to utmost speed,
carrying caldrons of boiling jam on slippery floors,
standing five hours at a time, and all this often for
about 8s. a week, out of which at least 6s. would be
necessary for board and lodging and fares. Most of
them regarded the conditions of their lives as in the
main perfectly inevitable, came out on strike to
ask only 6d. or is. more wages and a quarter of an
hour for tea, and could not formulate any more
ambitious demands. An appeal for public support
was issued, and met with a satisfactory response. The
strike in several instances had an even surprisingly
good result. In one factory wages were raised from
us. to 135. ; in others there was is. rise all round ; in
others of 2s. or 2s. 6d., even in some cases of 45. In
one case a graduated scale with a fixed minimum of
43. 7d. for beginners at fourteen years old, increasing
136 WOMEN IN TRADE UNIONS
up to I2S. 4d. at eighteen, was arranged. One may
hope that the moral effect of such an uprising is not
wholly lost, even if the resulting organisations are not
stable ; the employer has had his reminder, as a
satirical observer said in August 1911, "of the im-
portance of labour as a factor in production."
Many women were enrolled in new branches of the
National Federation of Women Workers. Not all of
these branches survive, but there was some revival
of Unionism in the winter, 1913-14, and many of the
workers who struck in 1911 will be included under
the new Trade Boards.
Perhaps even more remarkable was the prolonged
strike of the hollow-ware workers in 1912. Hollow-
ware, it may not be superfluous to remark, is the
making and enamelling of tin vessels of various kinds.
This was once a trade in which British makers held the
continental markets almost without rivalry ; it was
then chiefly confined to Birmingham, Wolverhampton,
and Bilston. But small masters moved out into the
country in search of cheaper labour, and settled them-
selves at Lye and Cradley, outside the area protected by
the men's Unions. In 1906 the Unions ende_ay aired
to improve conditions for the underpaid workers, and
drew up a piece-work list of minimum rates applicable
to all the centres of the trade. But they had nq,t
strength to fight for the list, and wages went down and
down. As one consequence, the quality of the work
had deteriorated, shoddy goods were sent abroad, and
foreign competitors improved upon them. 1 This in
1 In Mr. Keighley Snowden's words, from which this account is
taken (Daily Citizen, 12, xi. 1912) : "If foreign competition at last
threatens us, it is in consequence of this heartless folly."
WOMEN IN TRADE UNIONS 137
turn was used as an excuse for further driving down
wages. The hollow- ware trade, like chain manu-
facture, employs women as well as men. In 1912
many of these women were working for a penny an
hour, tinkering and soldering buckets, kettles, pots
and pans from early morning until night ; at the week-
end taking home 6s. for their living.
It should also be remembered that some processes,
especially the making of bright frying-pans, entail
serious risk of lead-poisoning. Galvanised buckets
are dipped in baths of acid, and the fumes are almost
blinding, and stop the breath of an unaccustomed
visitor. The work done by women is hard enough.
But they did not take much notice of the hardness or
of the risk of industrial disease. Their preoccupation
was a more serious one : how to get their bread. Wages
were rarely more than 75. a week, and in 1912 a con-
siderate and attentive visitor found their minds con-
centrated on the great possibility of raising this to
I2s. ? 145. ? 155. ? What the hollow-ware workers
of Lye and Cradley had set their minds on was merely
los. a week, and to attain this comparative affluence
they were ready to come out weeks and weeks on end.
As a r~~ult of conferences between representatives of
the National Federation of Women Workers and twenty
of the principal employers, during the summer 1912,
i* was decided to demand a minimum wage of IDS. for
a fifty-four-hour week. Not, of course, that the
officials considered this a fair or adequate wage, but
because they hoped it would give the women a starting-
point from which they could advance in the future,
and because, wretched as it seemed, it did in fact
represent a considerable increase for some of the
women.
138 WOMEN IN TRADE UNIONS
The best employers yielded at once, but several
refused to adopt the terms proposed. In October
840 men handed in their notices for a 10 per cent
increase of wages and a fifty-four-hour week. Twelve
firms conceded these terms at once, leaving 600 men
still on strike against thirty-three firms. As a result
many women-workers were asked to do men's work,
and it seemed not unlikely that the men might be thus
defeated. The National Federation of Women Workers
decided to call out the women to demand a IDS.
minimum, and at the same time support the men in
their demands. All the women called out received
strike benefit. There was, however, another body of
women and girls, whose work stopped automatically
because of the strike, and these were not entitled
to any strike pay. A public appeal was there-
fore issued by the Daily Citizen and also by the
Women's Trade Union League, and the response evoked
was sufficient to tide the workers over the crisis. The
struggle ended with complete victory for the workers,
and as an indirect but most important result, the trade
was scheduled for inclusion in the Revisional Order
under the Trade Boards Act.
In the North also the last two or three years have
witnessed increased activity in the organisation of
underpaid trades. In the flax industry the strike of
a few general labourers employed in a certain mill
resulted in the locking out of 650 women flax-workers.
Although the preparing and spinning of flax is a skilled
industry, the highest wage paid in the mill to spinners
was us. including bonus, reelers occasionally rising to
133., and the common earnings of the other workers
were from 73. 6d. to 93. Several small strikes had
taken place, but the women being unorganised and
WOMEN IN TRADE UNIONS 139
without funds were repeatedly compelled to return
to work on the old terms. By the efforts of the
Women's Trade Union Council of Manchester a Union
was now formed, and a demand made for an increase
of as. all round. With the help of public sympathy
and financial support the women were able to stand
out, and after a lock-out of nearly three weeks a
settlement was arrived at under which the women got
an increase of is. all round and the bonus was re-
arranged more favourably for the workers. The whole
of the women involved in this dispute joined the Union.
A dispute in another flax mill was much more pro-
longed, and lasted for over sixteen weeks. It was
eventually arranged by the intervention of the Board
of Trade, and some concessions were obtained by the
workers. In both these disputes the men and women
stood together. There is perhaps no feature so hopeful
in this " new unionism " of women, as the fact that
women are beginning to refuse to be used as the instru-
ments for undercutting rates and injuring the position
of men.
Many other such efforts might be recorded did space
permit. Many of them do not unfortunately lead to
stable forms of association. The difficulties are
enormous, the danger of victimisation by the employers
is great, and in the case of unskilled workers their
places, as they know so well, are easily filled from out-
side. A correspondent writes to me that " fear is the
root cause of lack of organisation." The odds against
them are so great, the hindrances to organisation and
solidarity so tremendous, that the instances recorded
in which these low-grade workers do find heart to
stand together, putting sex jealousy and sex rivalry
behind them, disregarding their immediate needs
140 WOMEN IN TRADE UNIONS
for the larger hope, are all the more significant. Several
of the labourers' Unions now admit women, notably
the Gas-Workers' and General Labourers' Union and
the Workers' Union.
The National Federation of Women Workers. The
most important Union for women among the ill-defined,
less skilled classes of workers is the National Federation
of Women Workers, which owes its existence mainly
to the initiative and fostering care of the Women's
Trade Union League. The form of organisation pre-
ferred by the Women's Trade Union League in the
twentieth century is that men and women should
wherever possible organise together. This is the case
with the firmly-established Lancashire weavers and
card-room operatives and with the progressive Shop
Assistants' Union. In the numerous trades, however,
in which no Union for women exists, a new effort and
a new rallying centre have been found necessary. The
National Federation of Women Workers was formed
in 1906 for the purpose of organising women in miscel-
laneous trades not already organised. It has made
considerable progress in its few years of existence, and
has a number of branches in provincial and suburban
places. The National Federation is affiliated to the
Trades Union Congress and to the General Federation
of Trade Unions, and insured in this last for strike pay
at the rate of 55. per week per member. The branches
are organised in different trades, have local committees
and local autonomy to a certain extent. Each branch
retains control of one-sixth of the member's entrance
fee and contribution, together with any voluntary
contributions that may be raised for its own purposes.
The remainder of the funds go to a Central Management
Fund from which all strike and lock-out money is
WOMEN IN TRADE UNIONS 141
provided, and a Central Provident Fund. Branches
may not strike without the permission of the Executive
Council.
The National Federation of Women Workers has an
Insurance Section in which about 22,000 women were
enrolled in 1913. At the time of writing a special
effort is being made for the organisation of women in
those industries to which the Trade Boards Act has
recently been extended.
Women's Unions in America. In America women
are fewer in numbers in the Trade Union movement,
but they have occupied a more prominent place in it
there than in our own country. The American labour
movement may roughly be dated from the year 1825.
In that year the tailoresses of New York formed a Union
and went on strike, and from that time to the present
women wage-earners have constantly formed Unions
and agitated for better pay and conditions of work.
The first women to enter factory employment were
native Americans, largely New England girls, the
daughters of farmers, girls who would naturally be
more independent and have a higher standard of
comfort than the factory hand in old countries.
Several important strikes occurred among the cotton-
mill girls at Dover, New Hampshire, in 1828 and again
in 1834, an d also at Lowell in 1834 an( i 1836. It does
not appear that these strikes resulted in any stable
combinations.
Subsequently, between 1840 and 1860, a number of
labour reform associations were organised, chiefly
among textile mill girls, but including also representa-
tives of various clothing trades. These societies
organised a number of successful strikes, increased
wages, shortened the working day, and also carried on
142 WOMEN IN TRADE UNIONS
a successful agitation for protective legislation. The
leader of the Lowell Union, Sarah Bagley, had worked
for ten years in New England cotton mills. She was
the most prominent woman labour leader of the period,
and in 1845 became president of the Lowell Female
Labour Reform Association, which succeeded in obtain-
ing thousands of operatives' signatures to a petition
for the ten hours' day.
The Female Industrial Association was organised
in New York, 1845, a Union not confined to any one
trade but including representatives from tailoresses,
sempstresses, crimpers, book-folders and stitchers, etc.
Between 1860 and 1880 local branches were formed
and temporary advantages gained here and there by
women cigar-makers, tailoresses and sempstresses,
umbrella sewers, cap-makers, textile workers, laun-
dresses and others. Women cigar-makers especially,
who were at first brought into the trade in large
numbers as strike breakers, after a struggle were
organised either as members of men's Unions or in
societies of their own, and once organised " were as
faithful to the principles of unionism as men." The
Umbrella Sewers' Union of New York gave Mrs.
Paterson, then visiting America, the idea of starting
the movement for women's Unions in London. The
women shoemakers formed a national Union of their
own, called the Daughters of St. Crispin.
In this period there was little organisation among
the women of the textile mills, and the native American
girls were to some extent ousted by immigrants having
a lower standard of life. There were, however, a
number of ill-organised strikes which for the most part
failed.
In the war time the tailoresses and sempstresses,
WOMEN IN TRADE UNIONS 143
already suffering the double pressure of long hours and
low wages, had their condition aggravated by the com-
petition of the wives and widows of soldiers, who, left
alone and thrown into distress, were obliged to swell
the market for sewing work as the nearest field for un-
skilled workers. Efforts, however, were made to form
Trade Unions among the sewing women ; many of these
were short-lived and unsuccessful. The growing
tendency among men to realise the importance of
organising women is seen in a resolution passed by a
meeting of tailors in June 1865 :
RESOLVED that each and every member will make every
effort necessary to induce the female operatives of the
trade to join this association, inasmuch as thereby the best
protection is secured for workers as well as for the female
operatives.
In 1869 the International Typographical Union
admitted women to equal membership, after years of
opposition, to the entrance of women into the printing
trade.
In 1873 and onwards Trade Unionism among women,
as among workers generally, suffered from the trade
depression of those years. During this period, however,
a number of eight-hour leagues were formed, both of
men and women members, who found in the short-time
idea a significant and vital measure of reform. The
Boston League (1869) wa,s the first to admit women.
In this and other similar societies they served as officers
and on committees.
A remarkable organisation of female weavers was
formed in Fall River in January 1875. The Male
Weavers' Union had voted to accept a reduction of
10 per cent ; but the women called a meeting of their
144 WOMEN IN TRADE UNIONS
own, excluding all men excepting reporters, and voted
to strike against the reduction. The male weavers,
encouraged by tjieir action, decided to join the move-
ment. Three thousand two hundred and fifteen
strikers, male and female, were supported by the
Unions, and the strike was successful. Work was
resumed late in March.
From 1880 the organisation of women again pro-
gressed in the labour movement of the Knights of
Labour. For the first time in American Labour history
women found themselves encouraged to line up with
men on equal terms in a large general organisation.
They could also form their own Unions in alliance with
the Knights of Labour, and almost every considerable
branch of women's industry was represented in these
organisations, the most prominent being the Daughters
of St. Crispin (shoe- workers). The first women's
assembly under the Knights of Labour was held in
September 1881. From its first institution ' this
association had realised the necessity of including
women. The preamble to this constitution, adopted
by the first national convention of the Knights of
Labour in January 1878, included on this subject two
significant provisions. One called for the prohibition
of the employment of children in workshops, mines and
factories before attaining their fourteenth year. The
other gave as one of the principal objects of the order :
" To secure for both sexes equal pay for equal work."
And the founder of the Order, at the second national
convention in 1879, asked for the formulation of an
emphatic utterance on the subject of equal pay for
equal work. " Perfected machinery," he said, " per-
sistently seeks cheap labour and is supplied mainly
by women and children. Adult male labour is thus
WOMEN IN TRADE UNIONS 145
crowded out of employ, and swells the ranks of the
unemployed, or at least the underpaid." The women
not only demanded better wages but appealed for
protective legislation.
The numbers increased steadily till May 1886, when
twenty-seven local branches, entirely composed of
women, were added in a month. But a decline set in,
and in the next following six years, the whole strength
of female Unionism under the Knights of Labour
disappeared. It had probably never exceeded 5o,6oo. 1
The policy of labour organisations generally has,
however, considerably developed in regard to the
affiliation and membership of women. The General
Federation of Trade Unions, which formerly had been
indifferent or hostile to women- workers, had come to
recognise even in the 'eighties that women occupied a
permanent place in industry, and that it was both
necessary and desirable that they should be organised.
The position was summarised in an article in the
Detroit Free Press. 21
An Equal Chance.
Woman is now fairly established in the labour-market
as the rival of man. Whether this is the normal condition
of things is a point doubted by some political economists ;
but whether it be so or not, it is likely to remain the order
of things practically for generations to come. This being
so it must be accepted, and every fair-minded person must
wish her to have an equal chance in the competition. A
woman supporting her mother and little brothers and
1 Space does not permit us to give a full account of the efforts
for co-operative action for social purposes made by working women
at this period, or of the interesting study of social conditions made
by Leonora Barry, the investigator of women's work under the
Knights of Labour. See Report on Women's Unions, Chapter IVA.
a Quoted in the Cotton Factory Times, September 18, 1885.
L
146 WOMEN IN TRADE UNIONS
sisters is a very common spectacle ; and the fact that
Professor Somebody regards her as abnormal does not
make her bread and butter any cheaper. She is entitled
to at least as much sympathy as the man who supports a
wife and children. For his charge, it must always be
remembered, is voluntary he took it on himself. She
could not help her responsibilities ; he assumed his of his
own accord. It is therefore quite just that she should
have an equal chance.
In more recent years the growth of industry and
the increasing use of mechanical power has constantly
tended towards larger utilisation of women's labour.
The American Federation's declared policy is to unite
the labouring classes irrespective of colour, sex, nation-
ality, or creed. Unionism among working women has