dent, also a woman, at 30s. a week.

There is sometimes difficulty in getting accurate information with
regard to payments. The heads of typing schools and colleges are apt
to give too rosy a picture, and the individual clerk has usually a
somewhat narrow experience and is inclined to be pessimistic. A man
whom I interviewed (in place of the manager, who was engaged), at
one of the biggest schools for training clerks, informed me that
everything depended on the clerk. He said the girls who were getting
10s. a week were not worth more, and that there were "many" women
clerks getting from L300 to L350. I said I was delighted to hear this
as I had had difficulty in running to earth the woman clerk with
L200, and had not before heard of the higher salaries. I took out my
notebook and begged for particulars. He then said he knew of "one" of
their diplomees working for a firm of florists, who had a salary
of L300: she was able to correspond in English, French, German, and
Spanish. I asked if he would kindly give me her name and address that
I might interview her, but he said he could not possibly do that, as
any woman clerk who allowed herself to be interviewed would be certain
to lose her post.

The manager of a business in Manchester, who employs five shorthand
typists, pays them from 15s. to 30s. He admits that it is impossible
for the girls to live on their salaries unless they are at home with
their parents, as is the case with all of them. But he says that it
is unreasonable to expect him to give more than the market rates, and
that for 30s. he gets excellent service. He suggests that the only way
to raise wages is for the clerks to organise.

The principal of a high class typing office in the City, a woman of
experience, who trains only a select number of educated girls, never
allows a pupil from her school to begin at less than 25s. a week with
a prospect of speedy increase. She pays her own translator L3, 5s.
a week, and four members of her staff are paid at the rate of L160 a
year.

Mr Elvin, Secretary of the Union of Clerks, tries to enforce a minimum
wage of 35s. a week as the beginning salary for an expert shorthand
typist, and this may be regarded as the present Trade Union rate. Mr
Elvin's difficulty is chiefly with the girls themselves. They are so
accustomed to the idea of women being paid less than men that it is
not easy to get them to insist on equal pay. In one case he was asked
to supply a woman sec