This is the lowest work in letterpress printing. Girls are employed largely as feeders, and are replacing boys. The managers said that the work was not liked by boys, as leading to nothing, and it was difficult to get them. The wages for a machine feeder are 4_s._ 6_d._ to 5_s._ 6_d._ initial wage, which rises to 8_s._ 6_d._ or 9_s._ In the best workshops we were told that the firm tried to find better work for machine feeders when they had been some time with them and had proved themselves capable and steady. Other firms did not know what became of machine feeders when they grew dissatisfied with the small wage paid to them. _Employment of Married Women._ It is curious to notice how few married women there are in the printing trade in Birmingham compared to the pen trade, for example. A better class of girl seems to go into the printing trade, coming from better homes than women employed in the hardware trades. It is very exceptional for a girl who marries a skilled artisan in Birmingham to continue her work, and in these trades girls appear to belong more to the skilled artisan class. Several employers refuse married women; one employer told me that he never had had an application for work from a married woman. Only one employer was indifferent as to whether he employed married women, and did not know whether his hands were married or not. _Women and Machinery._ It was very difficult to ascertain whether the machinery introduced meant dismissal of hands. In one business, for example, the thread sewing machine introduced 12 months ago did the work of 12 girls. The machinist was taking 12_s._ per week in place of 12 girls at 10_s._ to 12_s._ 6_d._ The manager said that they had not dismissed any thread sewers when this machine was introduced, but had absorbed them in other processes. They would, however, engage no more girls as thread sewers. The new Scotch folding machine for envelopes, which turns out 25,000 per day against 2,000 done by hand, also was _said_ not to have been productive of dismissals.[98] [Footnote 98: 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.] _Continuity of Employment in Printing Trade._