"It is the regular custom in A.'s now to have little girls at 3_s._ and 4_s._ a week doing work which women at 11_s._ and 12_s._ ought to do. They put a little girl beside a regular hand, and as soon as the little one masters the work [show-card mounting is being reported upon], they discharge the big one. When the little one asks for a rise, they give her 6_d._ or 1_s._ more, and when she wants still more, she goes." Figures follow showing that just under one-ninth of the women employed in this department at A.'s are "old hands." Then the report proceeds: "A. discharged about forty hands on the plea of slackness a little while ago, and then put up bills for learners." The investigators found that amongst the employées there was a very widespread opinion that "the learners always get all the best work," and that one of the regular features of the trade is, that it employs a large fluctuating number of learners, whilst a smaller number of skilled hands are kept in tolerably regular work.[52] [Footnote 52: This, however, is not a problem special to women's work, but is one of general industrial conditions, although it is marked with special distinctness in the case of women.] The old hands occasionally object to teach the young ones, but nothing comes of their opposition to a system by which they are compelled to train their own executioners. CHAPTER V. _INDUSTRIAL TRAINING._ 1. THE TRAINING. [Sidenote: How girls are taught.] At the present moment such training as is given generally begins in the workshops so soon as the girl has left school.[53] Girls are, in the best houses, employed on the recommendation of workers already there. Much of the work, such as folding, is merely a matter of mechanical quickness and accuracy, and after a few weeks' practice the girl is as useful as she is ever likely to have an opportunity to be. A great deal of the work women do in stationery factories (such as stamping, black bordering, numbering pages) is of a routine nature, and this work is generally paid by the piece. For such departments, no premium is asked as a rule.[54] Sometimes the beginner is paid a small wage--2_s._ 6_d._ or thereabouts--to encourage her at first. Sometimes she works a few weeks for nothing.[55] Sometimes she has to pay a tuition fee to the woman under whose charge she is put. Sometimes this woman gives her a small sum as a gift in respect of the help she renders. Some firms make the training period fairly long, in order that it may be impossible for the lower class of girls to accept the conditions of employment. By-and-by the learner is paid half of what she earns, and finally she is put on regular piecework, her advancement depending on her nimbleness. If she is in a large house she is only taught one process, but if quick, and employed in a smaller house, she may be taught several. In almost every instance she is put upon piecework as soon as possible after she begins.