average wage elsewhere. Managers fancy "it would not do" to advance a girl abruptly from 6_s._ to 10_s._ a week in the same shop, but do not blame the girls for leaving. "It is human nature." Girls are taken on at any age after fourteen, and stay on till they are married or until they are called away to domestic duties. Some remain on after marriage, but not more than 1 or 2 per cent. A few come back as widows. Married and unmarried as workers are "six of one and half a dozen of the other," remarked an employer of both, while another thought married women "less regular" in attendance. There are no signs of married women lowering rates of pay. "Time and a half" is the overtime rate. Women workers who do not get paid overtime when they work beyond the normal day get paid over the holidays, but not otherwise. There are no fines. There is no trade organisation among the machine feeders, and as the various unions of the men are not directly affected they do not interfere. In some firms feeding has been done by girls for a quarter of a century; in others they have been introduced only within the last five or six years. Boys were rough, irregular, scarce, and wanted higher pay. The girls, although they also are drawn from a rough class, are steadier, cleaner, and more economical in the use of material than boys. Besides, there are more of them. There was no inducement for boys to continue at such work, so they have been drafted into certain forms of unskilled, but fairly well paid, labour, such as is offered by the Post Office or bread factories. In some districts they go to the shipyards to assist riveters, and are able to earn straight away twice the wages they would obtain in a printing shop. As overtime by girls is restricted by legislation, young men (over 18) are kept for feeding in one large jobbing-shop where there are often seasons of great pressure (_e.g._, in the printing of penny monthly diaries and time-tables) and where "rushes" and overtime are inevitable. These young men would not be thus employed but for the restrictions of the Factory Acts, as the manager, for reasons stated above, much prefers girls for feeding. While all modern machines are fitted with self-fliers, not one of the many attempts to provide automatic feeders has proved quite satisfactory. For long runs such feeders as have been designed may serve fairly well, but in shops with much jobbing and many short runs too much time would be spent in adjusting the feeder to the particular job. The sole advantages of a mechanical feeder are that it neither "takes ill" nor "goes on strike." Meanwhile it is imperfect and expensive, and the supply of cheap female labour abundant. (B.) _Lithographic Printing. Machine Feeding._