=Contrast between Yorkshire and Lancashire.=--At any rate we have not the extraordinary anomaly which the woollen trade shews, of work precisely similar in kind, and almost equal in quantity, being blacklisted, as it were, because it is done by women. I have before me a document entitled “Huddersfield Woollen Manufacturers’ and Spinners’ Association--Amended Weaving Scale,” in which the piece-work prices for men and women respectively are given. The men have a table upon one side, and upon an opposite side it is indicated under the heading “Women. 15 per cent. to be deducted from men’s scale for woollens and cotton warps reversibles. 20 per cent. to be deducted from men’s scale for white-vested worsted mixture, or solid coloured worsteds and woollen shawls. 25 per cent. to be deducted from men’s scale for single white worsteds. 30 per cent. to be deducted from men’s scale for serges and cotton warps. 15 per cent. to be deducted from men’s scale for coloured worsteds.” The above applies to looms running fifty picks per minute; for looms running seventy to eighty picks per minute 50 per cent. less than men’s scale is to be paid for wages, while in other cases proportionate deductions are prescribed. For looms running 110 to 120 picks per minute the rate is briefly and compendiously set out as one-third of men’s scale, which is equivalent to a penalty of two-thirds of the wage. The women, it may be noted, are as skilful and as rapid workers as the men, only less productive to the extent of about 2½ per cent., a difference which is accounted for by the inability of the women to readjust their looms when out of order. The disparity which is put upon them has therefore no proportionate foundation in fact. It is a purely artificial degradation of wages, a system at once of fining the workers for being women, and of putting women’s work and claims for an adequate standard of living at a discount. To thoroughly appreciate what the Unions of the cotton trade have done it is well to bear in mind this manner of dealing with women’s labour, which is habitual in every trade where men and women are jointly employed. Instances might be multiplied in the woollen trade. Thus in a large Halifax carpet mill the women’s wages average 13_s._ 9_d._ per week, and the men’s £1 1_s._ 8_d._ for the same work. And in the wool-combing trade of Bradford the average weekly earnings of the women are 12_s._ against the men’s 18_s._