a serious rival to the grade of
Telegraphist. In this connection, it is important to recognise that
the change is likely to entail an enormous increase in the use of
cheap labour. The maximum salary of the Telephonist in London is only
28s. per week. The work is extremely exacting and exhausting to the
nervous system, so much so, that it is an absolute necessity for the
maintenance of health that proper and adequate rest-room accommodation
should be provided, and that the operators should be equipped with
apparatus of the proper type.

The classes already mentioned have, until the present year (1913),
been recruited solely for the Post Office, but the class of Women
Typists, numbering about 600, are a Treasury Class, and are common to
the whole Civil Service, the conditions of entry varying according
to the Department. In the Post Office alone, are Typists recruited
by open competitive examination. The scale of salary is 20s. a week,
rising in three years to 26s.: they then have the option of qualifying
in shorthand, after which they can rise to 31s. per week. In the Post
Office, however, the number allowed to qualify in this way is
limited to 50 per cent. of the staff. The supervising posts are:
Superintendent, 35s. a week, and Chief Superintendent, 40s. a week.
No higher positions are open to Typists anywhere, no matter how good
their qualifications and educational equipment. The Association of
Civil Service Typists claim some avenue of promotion to clerical work
in the Departments in which they serve.

There are also about 650 women employed by the Board of Trade in the
Labour Exchange Service. With the exception of about 180, who were
transferred from the Post Office for Unemployment Insurance Work under
Part II. of the National Insurance Act, these women were admitted
by the new method of recruitment adopted by the Civil Service
Commissioner under Clause VII. of the Order in Council of January
1910. Under this system, applications are invited, and a certain
number of apparently suitable candidates are interviewed by a
committee of selection, and those chosen for appointment are
subsequently required to pass a qualifying examination. The
educational standard of this examination, for both men and women,
is so low that it appears to be designed, not for the purpose
of selecting candidates of good general education, but merely to
eliminate the illiterate.

The scale of salary for these posts is the same for women