Among the employees less than five years in the United States, the Russian Hebrews make perhaps the best showing, with 25.5 per cent earning at least $15 a week, though they have a large proportion, 21.4 per cent, earning less than $7.50 a week. Only 11.0 per cent of the South Italians earn as much as $15, and this race shows 31.9 per cent of its adult males earning less than $7.50 a week.

Among those in the United States between five and nine years, the Russian and the Hebrews other than Russian report 49.1 per cent and 47.8 per cent, respectively, earning at least $15 a week, though the North and South Italians have only 26.2 per cent and 27.1 per cent so reported. Thirteen and one-tenth per cent of the North Italians and 14.4 per cent of the South Italians have a weekly income of less than $7.50, while only 4.2 per cent and 4. 4 per cent, respectively, of the Russian Hebrews and Hebrews other than Russian earn so small an amount. The Russian Hebrews fall behind the Hebrews other than Russian after a residence of as much as ten years, the latter showing much the largest proportions earning high wages. Similarly, the North Italians appear to much better advantage than the South Italians in this group.

The following table renders possible a study of the progress in earning ability of the females of each race:

TABLE 108.-Per cent of foreign-born female employees 18 years of age or over earning each specified amount per week, by race and length of residence in the United States."

(STUDY OF EMPLOYEES.)

[By years in the United States is meant years since first arrival in the United States. This table includes only races with 200 or more females reporting.]

This table shows wages or earnings for the period indicated, but no account is taken of voluntary lost time or lost time from shutdowns or other causes In the various tables in this report showing annual earnings allowance is made for time lost during the year.

This table shows that with each race the proportion earning each specified amount or over per week generally increases as the period of residence in the United States is extended. The difference is most marked between those who have been here less than five years and those who have been here five to nine years. The Russian Hebrews make the most creditable showing. Of those in the United States less than five years, 23.7 per cent earn at least $10 a week and only 2.6 per cent earn less than $5. For the next residence period the percentages are 32.3 and 2.2 respectively, while of those persons in the country as much as ten years, 36.9 per cent earn at least $10 and all earn at least $5 per week. The South Italians in

the United States less than five years report only 6.4 per cent earning as much as $10 a week and 23.2 per cent earning less than $5; in the next residence period, 17.8 per cent earn at least $10, but 14.3 per cent earn less than $5.

The table next presented arranges the races under length of residence in the United States and makes possible a study of the comparative weekly earnings of foreign-born female employees who were 18 years of age or over:

TABLE 109.-Comparative earnings per week of foreign-born female employees 18 years of age or over, by race and length of residence in the United States.*

(STUDY OF EMPLOYEES.)

[By years in the United States is meant years since first arrival in the United States. This table includes only races with 200 or more females reporting.]

*This table shows wages or earnings for the period indicated, but no account is taken of voluntary lost time or lost time from shutdowns or other causes. In the various tables in this report showing annual earnings allowance is made for time lost during the year.

CHAPTER IV.

WORKING CONDITIONS.

Hours of work-Size of establishments-The immigrant and organized labor-[Text Tables 110 and 111].

HOURS OF WORK.

The following table shows the weekly hours of labor of the employees of the tailoring and dressmaking establishments in New York City visited by the state factory inspectors:

TABLE 110.-Weekly hours of labor in the clothing industry in New York City, 1907, by

department.

[Compiled from report of New York State Bureau of Factory Inspection, 1907, Vol. II, pp. 190-191.]

Of the 149,753 employees in the 7,291 tailoring and dressmaking establishments inspected, 6.6 per cent work less than fifty-two hours a week, 62.6 per cent work from fifty-two to fifty-seven hours, 29.8 per cent work from fifty-eight to sixty-two hours and only 1 per cent work over sixty-three hours. The proportion of employees working from fifty-two to fifty-seven hours is considerably larger in dressmaking than in tailoring, while the proportion of employees working in the other weekly hour groups is larger in tailoring than in dressmaking. Of the tailoring employees 47.9 per cent, as against only 16.6 per cent of the dressmaking employees, work from fifty-eight to sixty-three hours per week. It is clear, from the data presented, that the longer weekly hours of work are more common in the tailoring than in the dressmaking establishments.

SIZE OF ESTABLISHMENTS.

The table next presented shows the distribution of employees in New York City in the different divisions of the industry, according to the size of establishments.

TABLE 111.-Number and per cent of employees in shops employing each specified number, and average number of employees per shop, by department.a

[Compiled from report of the New York State Bureau of Factory Inspection, 1907, Vol. II, pp. 190-191.]

Of the 149,753 employees of the clothing industry for whom data are presented in the table, 23.2 per cent were in shops employing from 1 to 19 persons, 63.2 per cent were in shops employing from 20 to 199 persons, and 13.6 per cent were in shops employing 200 persons or over. A considerably larger proportion of the tailoring employees than of the dressmaking employees are in shops employing less than 20 persons, but a larger proportion of dressmaking employees than of tailoring employees are in shops employing from 20 to 199 persons, and 200 persons or over, respectively. The average number of persons per shop is but 15.6 per cent for the tailoring industry, as compared with 26.6 per cent for the dressmaking industry and 20.5 for the two industries combined. In other words, the average dressmaking establishment has a considerably larger number of employees than has the average tailoring establishment.

In giving statistics on the clothing industry of New York City the factory inspection report of the department of labor of the State of New York for the year 1907 a used the classifications" tailoring" and "dressmaking." The former classification includes men's, youths', and boys' suits, pants, and other wearing apparel; while the latter includes women's suits, cloaks, skirts, and waists. Employing this classification, the number of wage-earners in the shop force engaged in tailoring in Manhattan and the Bronx in 1907 was 55,708, and in Brooklyn 15,770. The total number of wage-earners employed at the time the factories were visited in connection with this investigation was 63,020 for the several districts. According to the same report of the New York department of labor, the shop force engaged in dressmaking in Manhattan and the Bronx was 102,791 in 1907, and in Brooklyn 5,581. The force employed at the time of this investigation numbered 82,360 in Manhattan and the Bronx and 4,373 in Brooklyn.

The operations in the two departments of the industry are conducted in over 7,000 factories and shops, both large and small, of which about 6,000 are in Manhattan and the Bronx. There are 850 wholesale tailoring establishments in the three boroughs, of which 800 are in Manhattan and the Bronx. Of this number there is only one firm of any importance that does all of its manufacturing on the premises.

a See pp. 190–192.

Practically the whole industry is based upon the contract system. The shops are conducted by men who contract to do the work of the wholesaler at a stipulated price per garment. This price covers the labor cost, rent, and other items. In the majority of instances the wholesaler does not know or is not supposed to know the wages paid by the contractor.

A force of men known as "cutters," varying in number with the size of each concern, is employed by all manufacturers in the same building in which are the offices and show rooms. Their work requires a higher degree of skill than is demanded in the other occupations, and probably 50 per cent of them are American-born. In the plant of one large firm 82 out of 111 cutters employed were reported to be of native birth.

Patterns for each part of a suit, following out the ideas of the designer of the company, are given to the "cutters," who arrange and trace them on the goods to be cut so as to effect the greatest saving in cloth. The several sections of the suits are then cut from the cloth either by hand or machinery. These pieces are then given to the contractors whose employees "operate" them; that is, sew them together and turn out a finished garment. No single contractor "operates" a complete suit. The work is specialized, the manufacturer giving the coats to one, the pants to another, and the vests to a third. Different grades of work, moreover, go to different shops. The shops of the contractors rarely occupy more than one floor or "loft" of a building, and are frequently located in a house that has been remodeled for the purpose. The number of persons found employed in these places ranges from 10 in vest shops to 200 and 300 in the coat and pants shops. Most of the contractors work for several of the manufacturing firms. But there are a few wholesale manufacturers who employ contractors on the condition that they work for them exclusively. One large company, for instance, has in all 40 contractors who work exclusively for it. The contractors, however, employ their own forces and provide for their own pay rolls. Their shops are chiefly found in Newark, Manhattan, the Bronx, and Brooklyn.

There are a few firms operating in the city that give out to contractors a small part of their work, but have most of it done in small factories of their own located in other buildings than that occupied by their offices. Under this system the employees in the small shops are paid by the manufacturing concern. There is a foreman in charge of each shop who supervises the work and inspects the garments as - they are finished, very much as does a contractor. He receives, however, a weekly salary instead of a fixed price per garment. The largest factory visited was located in Brooklyn. The company was employing 800 persons and operated two large model factories in which all the manufacturing was carried on. Manufacturing in Brooklyn as a rule, however, is done in small shops by contractors, many of whom are working for companies situated in Manhattan.

A large number of the contractors sublet their work to small groups or families who have one room or more in a house or tenement, These groups do the finishing and buttonhole work. This class of work is done almost entirely by Italian women. They learn the art of needlework in Italy, and are especially skillful in making buttonholes by hand. The work of finishing consists in the cutting of