This is the fifth letter that Ada Nield Chew sent to the Crewe Chronicle on the 23rd June 1894.
Sir — Please allow me to reply briefly to ‘One Competent to Advise’, who writes in this week’s Chronicle. With his advice I am not content. I have no doubt that parents and friends of working girls will value it for what it is worth. It is the statements and insinuations contained in the letter which may be calculated to mislead the uninitiated to which I feel it my duty to reply. This gentleman compels me to again emphatically assert that this ‘movement’ has originated with myself alone. I repeat that I alone am responsible for originating this ‘controversy’, and no ‘portion’ of workers at all, skilled or otherwise. It is odious to me to have to keep thrusting myself constantly before the public, but in self-defence I am obliged to do so. Be it known to this gentleman and the public then, that I, the originator of this controversy, though not on any account claiming to be an expert, am yet an average hand , and am able 10 do and take work requiring skill; and any alterations in my work are the exceptions, not the rule. As to the experience required to understand the conditions of the trade, l, the originator, being what I profess to be, a factory girl, am not yet old enough to lay claim to the experience this gentleman considers necessary. I think, however, that Chronicle readers will agree with me that a lifetime’s experience may not be necessary to enable people to understand whether they are getting honest value for honest work. As this gentleman says, it is best known to ourselves why we are unable or unwilling to earn a decent living; and I think those who read my article on factory life in to-day’s Chronicle will also get an idea of the reason, At any rate, by the time I have finished with this subject they will, I hope, understand as well as those who ‘best know themselves’.
I should like to say also that I think this gentleman will find that when these things are understood a little better by those whom they concern most that it will be chiefly the more skilled portion of the workers who will be found in sympathy with any effort at combination. One statement made by this gentleman is very misleading: that quick and well-trained girls in times ‘of full employment earn from 18 shillings to 21 shillings per week. I defy him to prove it only in very exceptional and occasional cases, which it is not fair to take into consideration in dealing, as I am, with my class in its entirety. And if this sum is by chance earned sometimes, the reason why is no doubt ‘best known’ to this gentleman. With the remainder of his letter I shall probably deal in due course at a later stage of this ‘controversy’. Thanking you for space, I remain, sir, yours sincerely,
A Crewe Factory Girl