The Woollen and Worsted Industries (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1907 Excerpt: ... is curiously mixed. The Bradford trade, in the technical sense, is the home of the girl weaver; men have been well-nigh forced out of it In the worsted coating trade, and in most branches of woollen weaving, the sexes work side by side; but there is a tendency for the heaviest and most complex looms to be tended by men. In Huddersfield and district, for example, the percentage of male workers is unusually high, just as in Bradford it is unusually low. Everywhere the general oversight and direction of weaving, as of all operations, is in the hands of men. Without entering into the statistical controversy that has raged rather bitterly of late years, it may be stated definitely that, since about the year 1890, there has been a decline in the number of persons employed directly in the woollen and worsted manufacturing processes; although this decline has been accompanied by increased employment in some of the associated trades, such as dyeing, and in the commercial pursuits connected with the industry. The bald figures of the factory inspectors are: 1890, 301,556; 1896, 284,441; 1901, 259,909. The census figures tell much the same story; and the slow growth of those towns which are most completely given up to the industries, during the last decade of the nineteenth century, is a further bit of evidence in support. It is, however, most important to note that there has been no appreciable reduction in the demand for adult labour. For England and Wales, the number of persons over twenty employed in the trade was in 1891, 161,394 and in 1901, 160,999. The decline is therefore mainly a decline in the employment of halftimers and young persons. That there has been no counterbalancing growth may be traced in part to the steadily growing efficiency of machinery; in p...