when in this country, asked to see a shoe made in a Yankee shoe factory. A large lace or "Polish" boot was the style selected, and twenty minutes after he began pursuing the hurrying workmen the shoe was presented to him completed. It is not practicable to make quantities of shoes thus hurriedly at the expense of drying and seasoning, but there are few well-conducted factories which have not "snap" enough to make a single pair of samples at half a day's notice if necessary. Orders in large quantities are generally filled in about four weeks, as a factory running full time needs that much work in process. There are many interesting machines used in addition to those mentioned, especially in the manufacture of men's and boys' goods--the crimping-machine, for instance, to crimp heavy leather; the pegging-machines, which cut their own pegs before driving them; and in place of sewing, the "screw-nailing" machine, which with a whirl and a thump drives a screwnail severed from a coil of brass wire through the thickest of tough leather. A lasting machine has also been used with success on heavy work. Wax finishes are

so generally used for men's shoes that "treeing" and "dressing" with gum and blacking as the final process in finishing are important.

As the result of one year's manufacturing, our people required, for 1880, 6,831,661 sides of sole-leather, 21,147,656 sides and skins of upper-leather, besides leather sold by weight to the amount of 32,960,614 pounds. This supply was sufficient to make 125,478,511 pairs of boots and shoes, or a little more than two pairs each for every man, woman, and child in the United States. One such place as Lynn would perhaps require for weekly supply the slaughter of four thousand cattle, ten thousand goats, fifteen thousand sheep, the manufacture of fifty thousand yards of cotton cloth, nearly a ton of silk and thread of every kind, two or three tons of nails and tacks, besides general supplies of every description which enter into the composition of shoes.

The table shows the leading facts of the great branches of the leather industry, to which might be added a few "patent-leather" manufactories and other small divisions of the trade.

Uncertain.-Rolling-machine, hand-power; steampower applied in 1851.

1840.

Sole-leather "separating" machine. 1844. Sole-leather "stripping" machine, succeeded by "splitting" machine.

1844. Sole-cutting machine, foot-power; steampower applied in 1857. 1845-7.-Dies used for hammering out. 1851.-Howe sewing-machine used for stitching shoes by a Worcester (Massachusetts) manufacturer.

1851. Die-machine, foot-power; steam-power and revolving die-block applied in 1857. 1855.-Buffing or sand-papering machine. 1857.-Pegging-machine.

1859. Splitting-machine.

1862.-McKay sole-sewing machine.

Less than one-half the number of shoe establishments paid two and one-half times the amount of wages of tanning, currying, and morocco establishments combined. It required 111,152 persons, however, to make into shoes the leather which 40,260 persons prepared for use.

The wages in the shoe factories are proportionally the largest, because the average includes 3483 children in the shoe department, and only 726 in tanning, currying, and morocco - dressing combined. Women, also, to the number of 25,122 are employed in the shoe manufacture, and only 473 in the leather establishments. These distinctively factory estimates do not include the persons who work on shoes in fifteen thousand custom and repair shops, and who add several millions of dollars to the gross product. A large proportion of this class are their own **masters," as the Germans express it of their own shoemakers, and it would be incorrect to quote wages in which there might be a sprinkling of profit also. Colonel Wright, of the Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics, selects four hundred and sixty representative shoe manufacturing establishments in the State, and in his table develops the interesting facts that the average annual earnings are $381 58, that three millions of dollars more are paid in wages in the year than the capital invested, and that about three-quarters of the employés are men. He makes the average day earnings of shoe employés $1 41 per day, and those employed in different branches of leather $1 50, explicitly stating that this is the average for "men, women, and children.”

The table below tells the history of the shoe trade for the last thirty years. In it we see again the old shoemaker of 1850, pounding out his $205 43, without the aid

in 1870 earns $463 50 (currency), or, figured in gold, according to the census directions, $370 80. "Black Fridays" come apace; he makes more shoes than are worn out; he does more work for less money, and in 1880 earns $387 21. In 1884 he is looking about him, talking about the country being too small to keep him employed, preparing to push into other markets, and determined that in 1890 or 1900 Uncle Sam's census shall credit him with more earnings. Thus has machinery lightened his toil, improved his manner of living, and given to him in 1880 almost double the wages of 1850.

In addition to the evidence of these compilations, there may be mentioned some influences in the trade which it is not the province of the general statistician to recognize. A gradual reduction in the number of working months of shoe operatives, caused by the ease with which labor-saving machinery can supply the market, has made the shoemaker somewhat migratory in his pursuit. If there is not full work at his regular place of employment he uses his spare hours in another factory, or, as is often the case in shoe-manufacturing cities, works for half the season in a factory supplying the Western market, and in a factory supplying the New England market the other half of the season. Sometimes, too, men begin a season in New York and finish in some Massachusetts shoe city. It is not uncommon for a man to hold a job" in each of two small factories, and be returned as an em

If this great army of workers could have steady employment through all the months of the year, instead of having little or no work during certain inevitable "dull months," a more remarkable comparison than this could be made. The wages of shoe operatives, although they have always earned more than the "oldfashioned shoemaker," have been practically decreasing for a number of years, by reason of the constantly increasing number of large factories to flood the home market. There has been a strong tendency all over the country to get as many people under one roof as possible. According to the census of 1870 there was an average of twenty-nine people in every shoe factory, and in 1880 fifty-six people. The result of this ambition has been that such factories as employ a number of hundred hands have kept up a constant warfare for the ascendency. This has made the actual working-time much less, and the average yearly wages have therefore decreased. It has engendered a strong competition to sell goodsto sell at a good profit if possible, but to sell anyway. When machinery was first introduced it was possible for a workman to earn thirty or forty dollars each week, and even girls in the stitching-rooms could earn fifteen or eighteen dollars weekly, without working "early and late" to earn "fancy wages." As long as there was a demand for as many shoes as could be made, operatives practically named their own wages and number of working hours. When a manufacturer could get a good profit himself, he did not care to meddle with the wages question any more than to "bid higher" if workmen were scarce. When he made shoes so fast that the "shoe began to pinch," and workmen had to be cut down" to meet the market, there commenced "strikes," which had never been known before except in seasons of great financial depression. As wages have declined, operatives have worked harder and longer to earn the same amount. Most of the work is "piecework," so that to ambitious operatives decrease of pay means increase of work.

Our English cousins are great shoe manufacturers, and they, too, have factories where hundreds of workmen are employed by a single firm. They have their "clickers," or cutters, lasters, riveters, finishers, who are paid by the piece or week, corresponding in a marked degree with our own system of payment. A comparison is quite interesting, although there is less division of labor in England. An American laster, for instance, merely draws the upper over the last, and his part is done; but the English laster draws the upper to the last, puts the soles on, puts down the channels, builds and squares up the heels. This one process is a good illustration of the difference in manner of manufacture in the two countries. American labor - saving machinery and improved methods increase wages and decrease cost of production. Wages are high

the Governor of the colony by a company in London, at a salary of £10 per annum, with the recommendation of a grant of fifty acres of land where

he should be directed to settle.

In 1635 Philip Kertland, the first Lynn shoemaker, arrived.

In 1648 the shoemakers of the Massachusetts colony were invested by the General Court with the privileges of an incorporated company, or guild, with the power to regulate their trade for three years.

In 1721 shoemakers in Pennsylvania were prohibited by an act of Assembly from taking more than 68. 6d. for a pair of good, plain, well-made The same act prescribed the manner of making men's shoes, and 5s. for a pair of women's shoes. them, and forbade the use of neats and calf leather in the uppers of the same boot or shoe, or any sheep-skin uppers when made for sale.

in Lynn, by whose superior skill domestic workmen

In 1750 John Adam Dagyr, a Welshman, settled

were taught how to make shoes nearly equal to those imported.

In 1802, and again in 1812, the London Society of Arts awarded premiums for machines which should enable shoemakers to work in a standing position, thereby relieving pressure upon the breast and constraint of position.

In 1807 a patent for making lasts was granted to William Young of Philadelphia, and in 1817 a patent was granted to him for right and left lasts. and shoes, and a patent for a pegging-machine forty In 1811 a patent was taken out for pegging boots years later, in 1851.

In 1818 the first full cargo of boots and shoes was shipped from Boston, on board the sloop De

*The following interesting incidents are gleaned from the concise history of the boot and shoe trade contained in the United States census for 1870:

In 1629 Thomas Beard took passage for Massachusetts with a supply of hides, being accredited to

Market, New York.

In 1819 patents for a lathe for turning lasts were granted to Thomas Blanchard, of Sutton, Mass.

In 1827 John Kimball made the improvement of cutting blocks from the upper and anterior parts of

lasts.

In 1829 Boston jobbers stopped consigning goods, and sold direct to purchasers.

er in America, but cost of living is also somewhat higher. English shoe operatives are, on the whole, quite well conditioned. Earning more than a pound a week, living in tenements which, according to the customs of their country, are deemed comfortable, if provident they are enabled to save a few shillings each week. As with us, they have the provident and the prodigal, but their wages have been increasing within the past few years, and their opportunities for saving are good, if they wish to take advantage of them.

Providing there is full work, American "cutters" can earn each week $12 to $15; English “clickers," $7 to $7 50; American makers, $11 to $13; English makers, $7 50 to $8 50.* American operatives work each week 59 hours; English operatives, 54 hours. American ladies' shoes, wholesaling at $1 50 per pair, cost for labor of making 25 cents; English ladies' shoes, wholesaling at $1 50 per pair, cost for labor of making 34 cents; American men's shoes, wholesaling at $2 60 per pair, cost for labor of making 33 cents; English men's shoes, wholesaling at $2 60 per pair, cost for labor of making 50 cents. In the report of the Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics for 1884 the general average weekly wage in Massachusetts is given as 128.9 per cent. higher than in Great Britain. The general average weekly wage in Massachusetts is given as $11 63, and in Great Britain $5 08.

The Germans have some establishments, employing a large number of hands, but it seems to be the general desire to become a "master" as soon as one has properly learned his trade. German shoemakers earn about four dollars each week. Consular reports tell us of Mexican shoemakers who earn seventy-five cents to one dollar and a half per day, and of Italians the same. The French earn about one dollar and a quarter a day, but the aim of the French and Spanish is to produce stylish, handsome shoes, to attract as well as to compete. The representative factory operatives of shoemaking are the English and Americans, as all other nations have their shoes-and good ones too-made in "custom" shops, whether for home or foreign use.

In view of the accomplishments of one short generation, it is not visionary to

The prices paid English operatives were kindly furnished by Mr. H. D. Richardson, editor Boot and

Shoe Trades Journal, London.

VOL. LXX. No. 416.-19

assume that the invention of shoe machinery is far from its possibilities. Few attempts have been made to combine different steps. As is well known, the wages of operatives depend largely on the facility with which they "handle" their work. It takes more time to handle work than it does to do it, and if the taking up or putting down a piece of work can be eliminated, the actual time can be reduced more than one-half. This will be the next point to strike at. The knife that moves with the needle on a stitching - machine, the steam - eyeleting machine, the machine which cuts and works the button-hole, the sole-rounding and nailing machines, are about the only ones in which combination has been attempted. The rolling machine has yet to be invented which will feed the rolled soles to a splitting knife to save one machine in the stock-fitting. Some day a machine with properly shaped knives, a brush to black the edges, and heated irons to correspond with the knives, will trim and finish the edges too. The chemist has a great field. Such a machine for making edges would be impracticable without quickly drying blacking which would strike into the stock at once, or blacking which could be polished when wet. damp day is as disastrous to shoemaking as it is disappointing at a picnic, and blacking which will prove superior to wet weather will be an important adjunct to swift manufacturing. It requires imagination, but perhaps not too much, to believe that a heavy machine will yet be invented to hold a shoe on a form after it has left the beating-out machine; that a wellguided knife will trim the edge, a brush apply blacking, an iron will finish it; that the heel will be nailed and shaved in a similar manner to the present heeling machine; that emery will smooth for a heated iron to burnish; and, lastly, a revolving cylinder sandpaper the bottom of the sole. It is possible that the next generation will reduce the processes of combining sole and upper to a lasting, a sewing, a beating-out, a combination, and a bottom-finishing machine. It is not probable that a shoe can ever be well made and profitably made by one machine, although it is not hard for a person who has watched the development of a few years to believe that the manufacture of cheap slippers for house wear is capable of enough simplification to approach it.

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