Note 98 — APPENDIX IV. WOMEN IN THE PRINTING TRADES IN BIRMINGHAM.

The only actual cases of dismissal of workers owing to introduction of machinery which I can ascertain is that of the new grinding machines for pens. The employer, who has invented the machine, told me he meant to dismiss about half his grinders and supply their places with girls fresh from school, as very little skill will be needed to work the machine. I hear that the largest pen business has ordered sixty of these machines, but I have not yet ascertained what effect it will have on that business. The employer in the first business mentioned spoke of the grinders as the most indocile of his workers, and as many of them belonged to the Penworkers' Union, he hoped that the machine would help in annihilating the union. In two businesses I was told that the cheapness of women labour retarded the introduction of thread sewing machines, etc.