The comparison of the wages paid men employees shown in Diagram 9 is somewhat less favorable. Women's clothing ranks with printing and publishing as to the proportion of male workers receiving the highest specified earnings per week. Men's clothing ranks sixth among the industries compared.

The various kinds of work do not command fixed wage rates, as do many other types of industrial employment. Quantity of output as well as quality of workmanship is an important factor in the determination of wages. Men generally turn out a greater output than women on the same kind of work and piece workers usually earn more than those paid by the week. The lowest, average, and highest wages for each of the principal occupations in the two branches of the industry are shown in Tables 16 and 17.

One reason often given for the higher earnings received by workers on women's garments is the greater irregularity of employment in this branch of the industry. This, however, does not sufficiently account for the difference. The most weighty reason is that a higher degree of adaptability is required of workers than is the case in the manufacture of men's clothing.



TABLE 16.—WAGES FOR FULL-TIME WORKING WEEK, WOMEN'S CLOTHING, CLEVELAND, 1915

- - Workers Lowest Average Highest - - Assorters, women $6.00 $8.75 $14.00 Hand sewers, women 6.00 10.00 20.00 Trimming girls 7.00 10.25 15.00 Operators,* women 6.00 12.00 30.00 Sample makers, women 10.00 12.75 15.00 Examiners, women 8.00 13.50 18.00 Models, suit and cloak 10.00 15.25 21.00 Forewomen 9.00 16.25 25.00 Operators,* men 7.00 17.75 50.00 Pressers, men 9.00 18.25 35.00 Cutters,Sec. men 8.00 19.25 30.00 Pattern graders, suit and cloak, men 13.00 22.00 27.50 Sample makers, men 13.00 22.50 25.00 Examiners, men 16.00 25.00 45.00 Head tailors, men 18.00 25.00 ... Foremen 14.00 30.00 75.00 - - *: Includes piece and section operators and helpers to head tailors Sec.: Includes all cutters except foremen, apprentices, and pattern graders

TABLE 17.—AVERAGE WAGES FOR FULL-TIME WORKING WEEK FOR SIMILAR WORKERS, MEN'S AND WOMEN'S CLOTHING, CLEVELAND, 1915

-+ + + Workers Men's Women's clothing clothing -+ + + Hand sewers, women $9.50 $10.00 Section operators, women 9.25 11.25 Examiners, women 7.00 13.50 Section operators, men 16.50 15.25 Pressers, under 12.00 15.75 Forewomen 11.00 16.25 Pressers, upper 18.50 19.50 Cutters, cloth 18.75 20.00 Examiners, men 17.75 25.00 Foremen 29.25 30.00 -+ + +

REGULARITY OF EMPLOYMENT

The making of women's clothing is seasonal, to meet a seasonal purchasing demand. Most people purchase their summer clothes in April and May, and their winter clothes in October and November. During the months previous to these purchasing seasons a large number of workers are needed, but after the height of the purchasing period employment becomes less and less steady until the first demands of the new season are felt. During the rush season a greater number of workers is employed, or the output may be augmented by increasing the speed at which the work is performed or the number of hours in the working day. A combination of these methods is frequently used. During dull periods the workers may be busy from a few hours a week to full working time; while in rush periods they may work not only the regular working hours, but in addition a good deal of over-time.

Compared with other manufacturing industries as regards regularity of employment men's clothing makes an excellent showing while women's clothing ranks low. In Diagram 10 the average number of unemployed among each 100 workers is shown for men's and women's clothing and for 15 other large manufacturing industries in the city. Men's clothing leads the list, with an average unemployment of four among each 100 workers, while women's clothing ranks 14th, with 15 among each 100.

TRAINING AND PROMOTION

Designers learn their work through apprenticeships to custom tailors and cutters and by taking supplementary courses in drafting and grading of patterns in a designing school. Most designers in Cleveland have had training in designing schools in New York or Chicago.



With but few exceptions organized training for machine operating is found only in the largest establishments. There is general agreement among employers that it takes a girl who has never operated a machine before about four weeks to learn an easy operation well enough to be taken on at regular piece rates. A much longer time is required to become a first class worker on a single operation, and to acquire skill in a group of operations takes from one to two years.

Girls are not usually employed as hand sewers unless they know how to do plain sewing. A girl who starts with this knowledge should be able to learn factory sewing well enough to earn fair wages within from six months to a year.

In cutting, which has a so-called apprenticeship lasting from two to six years, there is no formal system of instruction. Boys must pick up the trade from observation and practice. Beginners start as errand boys, cloth boys, bundlers, or helpers.

Pressing is usually learned in cleaning and pressing shops. It takes about eight weeks for a green hand to become a good seam presser. To become a final presser on skirts and dresses requires from six months to a year, and on jackets and cloaks from two to three years.

Examiners have usually had considerable previous experience as machine operators or finishers. The length of experience depends on the kinds of garments and ranges from three to eight years.

Trimmers and assorters learn their work as helpers to experienced employees. A year or so of experience is required before they can be entrusted with responsible work.

Foremen are selected from the working force or, in a few cases, trained especially for their positions. Although there are few opportunities each year for advancement to foremanship, employers declare they cannot get enough persons of ability to fill vacancies. A study of the previous experience of foremen and forewomen made by the survey shows that they come from nearly every department of the factory. The length of previous experience among the cases studied ranged from three months to nine years.

EDUCATIONAL NEEDS

The quality which proprietors of garment making establishments value above all others in their employees is adaptability. The reason for this is that the manufacturing of clothing differs from almost all other kinds of industrial work in the frequency with which changes take place in the size and shape of the product and in the range of materials which must be handled by the same workers. There is an annual change in the weight of cloth used for the different seasons, from light to heavy and from heavy to light. The size and shape of the pieces which compose the finished garment are determined by changes in style which vary from the minor modifications occurring yearly in men's clothing to the radical changes in the style of women's clothing. A wide variety of fabrics is employed, ranging from thick to thin, smooth to rough, closely woven to loosely woven and from plain weave to fancy weave. In one season a single establishment will make garments from as many as 200 different fabrics, and each operator is likely to work upon 60 or more different kinds of cloth.

In view of the fact that many of the workers are foreigners or of foreign parentage, and that the frequent changes in styles and materials require the giving of detailed instructions by foremen, instruction in English is of more importance in the garment trades than in occupations where there is a larger proportion of native born and where the products and processes are more uniformly standardized.

All clothing workers should have a practical knowledge of the fundamental operations of arithmetic. Where the piece and section systems are in operation it is important for the worker to keep account of what she has accomplished and to know enough arithmetic to check her own record with the tally kept by the foreman or payroll girl. Some of the occupations, such as cutting, involve a considerable amount of arithmetical computation.

As in other trades, all workers and prospective workers need a general knowledge of industrial conditions. They would greatly benefit from a better understanding of the supply of labor, factors affecting prices, organization of workers, industrial legislation, the relative importance of the field of employment in different industries, the nature of important industrial processes, and the like. At the present time there is little opportunity for gaining such information either before entering any specific line of work or afterwards.

For certain small groups within the clothing industry there are needs in the way of technical training that are important and at present unsupplied. Training in applied mathematics, drafting and design would be of benefit to a considerable number of employees who are occupying or working towards advanced positions.

A large proportion of the women workers need skill in hand sewing. Before girls enter the industry they should have careful and systematic training in plain sewing stitches, sewing on buttons and other fasteners, and button hole making.

Machine operating is the most important occupation in the industry, and employs more women than any other occupation in the city, except perhaps dressmaking. After a careful study of the characteristics of this occupation and the various conditions affecting it, the survey reached the conclusion that there should be established by the school system a trade course for prospective power machine operators.

SEWING COURSES IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS

In the elementary schools manual training sewing is given in the fifth and sixth grades. It consists of one hour a week of hand sewing taught by a regular grade teacher or sometimes by teachers of domestic science or other special subjects. The aim is to give the girls a knowledge of practical sewing which may be of use to them in the home. In five of the elementary schools hand and machine sewing is taught by special sewing teachers. About four per cent of all the seventh and eighth grade girls in the elementary schools receive this instruction. In the technical high schools the sewing course covers four years work. During the first two years all girls are required to take plain hand and machine sewing three and three-quarter hours a week. In the third and fourth years they may elect either millinery or dressmaking, and special courses in these subjects are provided for girls who wish to prepare for trade work. The aim of the sewing course as stated in the outline of the East Technical High School is "(1) Preparation for efficiency in the selection of the materials used in sewing and the construction of articles relating to the home and family sewing: (2) laying the foundation for courses in college, normal school, or business school." A two year elective course in sewing is provided in the academic high school as a part of the home economic course. The aim of this sewing, which is called domestic art, is stated thus: "Problem—my personal appearance is one of my chief assets. What can I do to improve it?" Dressmaking and millinery classes are conducted in the night technical high schools to teach girls how to make their own clothes and hats.

The manual training sewing in the fifth and sixth grades cannot be considered as furnishing any important contribution in the training of those who will make their living in the sewing trades. Much the same must be said of the work in the technical high schools. It is taught not for the purpose of securing quick, accurate hand or machine stitching, but to enable the girls to make a few garments for their personal use. Due to the fact that very few of the girls who become wage earners in these trades remain in school after the completion of the elementary course it is doubtful whether the technical high school offers a hopeful field for practical training. The work in the elementary schools is so hampered by lack of equipment that the results, from the standpoint of trade preparation, amount to very little.

ELECTIVE SEWING COURSES IN THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL

The reduction of retardation all through the grades is of fundamental importance to any plan of vocational training. The age of 15 is the final compulsory attendance age for girls, and those who enter at six and seven and make regular progress should be in the first or second high school year by the time they reach this age. Last year there were, however, 1,170 fifteen-year-old girls in the Cleveland schools who were from one to seven grades below normal. Instead of being in the high school, they were scattered from the second grade to the eighth, and they constituted more than half of all the girls of that age in the school system. It is clear that unless the schools can carry them through more nearly on schedule time there is no hope of providing industrial training for a large proportion of them, because they reach the end of the compulsory period before entering the grades in which industrial training can be given effectively and economically.

The report recommends that during the junior high school period girls who expect to enter the sewing trades should be given work in mechanical drawing, elementary science, industrial conditions, elementary mechanics and hand and machine sewing. The fundamentals of sewing can be thoroughly taught in two years. The work during the first year might well be limited to hand sewing. Machine sewing should be taken up in the second year, and the girls given an opportunity during the third year to specialize somewhat broadly in a trade school on the kind of work in which they may wish to engage—power operating, dressmaking, or millinery.

A ONE YEAR TRADE COURSE FOR GIRLS

Specialized training must be conducted under conditions closely resembling those found in the industry. This involves equipment similar to that used in the factory, an ample supply of materials, and a corps of teachers who have had practical experience. It might seem that on the score of adequate equipment the factory itself would be the place for such training. But the fact is that the main object of the factory is to turn out as large a quantity as possible of saleable product. In the school the main object should be to turn out as large a quantity of saleable skill and knowledge as possible, with the saleable product as a secondary, although necessary, feature.

The junior high school is not the place for specialized trade training, since it is reasonably certain that there would not be a sufficient number of girls in each junior high school desiring to enter a single trade to warrant the provision of special equipment and special teachers. For this reason the report favors a trade course in a separate school plant where girls who wish to specialize in any of the sewing trades can be taught in fairly large classes. The work done during the past few years in such institutions as the Boston Trade School for Girls and the Manhattan Trade School for Girls in New York City gives evidence of the practicability of this plan.

TRADE-EXTENSION TRAINING

The only instruction offered by the public school system at the present time which can be considered as trade-extension training for the garment industries is that given in the sewing classes in the technical night schools. The enrollment in these classes during the second term of 1915-16 was 229. Only a small proportion of the girls and women enrolled in the night sewing classes make their living by sewing. The students employed by day in clothing factories or in any of the sewing trades constitute somewhat less than 15 per cent of the total number enrolled. Nearly half of the enrollment is made up of workers in commercial, clerical or professional pursuits and approximately one-third are not employed in any gainful occupation.

In both technical night schools the emphasis is laid on training for home sewing rather than on training for wage earning. The courses now given are not planned for workers in the garment trades, but to help women and girls who want to learn how to make, alter, and repair their own garments.

If a trade school of the kind described in the previous section were established it would be possible to give at night short unit courses in machine or hand sewing to those workers who wish to extend their experience and prepare themselves for advancement, utilizing in the night classes the equipment of the day school. It is probable also that special day classes could be organized during the dull season to give beginners the opportunity to learn new processes and extend their knowledge of trade theory.



CHAPTER XV

SUMMARY OF REPORT ON DRESSMAKING AND MILLINERY

At the time of the last census the total number of women in Cleveland employed as milliners or dressmakers was approximately 5,000, of whom about seven-tenths were dressmakers and about three-tenths milliners. For the most part they were of native birth. The proportion of young girls engaged in these occupations was relatively small, the age distribution showing that only about one-third of the milliners and less than one-fifth of the dressmakers were under 21 years of age.

DRESSMAKING

Four distinctive lines of work are done by those who are classified by the census as dressmakers and seamstresses: dressmaking proper, usually carried on in shops; alteration work in stores; general sewing done by seamstresses at home or in the homes of customers; and the work of the so-called dressmaking "school," in which the dressmaker helps her customers do their general sewing.

Shop dressmaking is in the main confined to the making of afternoon and evening gowns and fancy blouses. Nearly uniform processes of work are maintained and the workers in the different establishments need about the same kinds of abilities and degrees of skill. There is a strong and increasing tendency towards specialization of the work.

Among each 100 workers in dressmaking shops about 13 are head girls, 55 are finishers or makers, 16 are helpers, eight are apprentices, and the rest are lining makers, cutters, embroiderers, errand girls, shoppers, and stock girls.

Alteration work constitutes a separate sewing trade and consists of the adjustment of ready-made garments to individual peculiarities. It furnishes employment to several hundred workers in Cleveland.

The weekly wages most commonly paid to each class of workers in dressmaking shops may be roughly stated as follows: apprentices, $2 to $4; helpers $6 to $9; finishers or makers $10 to $12; and drapers $18 to $20. Lining making, done in most shops by apprentices or helpers, pays from $4 to $6 a week. In one shop a specialist on linings received $12. Women cutters, found in two shops, and doing supervisory work similar to that done by drapers, earned from $15 to $25. Hemstitchers earn $10 to $14 and a guimpe maker in one shop earned $12. Errand girls were found at $3 and $6; stock girls at $8, $12, and $13; and shoppers at from $3.50 to $10.

Beginners in alteration departments are started at from $5 to $7. Regular alteration hands earn from $7 to $18, the average being $9 or $10. Fitters earn about the same as drapers in dressmaking shops, averaging from $15 to $18, with a range of from $10 to $25.

As a rule comparatively little time is lost through irregularity of employment. Workers average from 10 to 11 months' work out of the year. Establishments usually close during the month of August and for one or two weeks in the spring. Workers in alteration department average 11 months of work. Dress alteration work is steady, while suit and coat alteration is irregular.

Apprenticeship in dressmaking comprehends a trying-out period of from six months to a year. Most shops take apprentices, the proportion in the trade being one to every 12 workers; and an effort is made to keep these new workers if they are at all satisfactory. There is no standardized apprenticeship wage. Girls may serve without pay for six months, or may start at from 50 cents to $4 a week. At the end of six months they may be earning from $1.50 to $6. The lack of any wage standard in apprenticeship probably accounts for the fact that it is difficult to get girls to enter this trade.

MILLINERY

Millinery requires the handling of small pieces of the most varied sorts of material, most of it perishable. The materials must be measured, cut, turned, twisted, and draped into innumerable designs and color combinations, and sewed with various kinds of stitching. The main processes are making, trimming, and designing. Making consists in fashioning a specified shape from wire or buckram and covering it with such materials as straw or velvet. The covering may be put on plain, or may be shirred or draped. Trimming consists in placing and sewing on all sorts of decorative materials. A combination of the two processes of making and trimming, known as copying, consists in making a hat from the beginning exactly like a specified model. Designing is the creation of original models.

The increase in the use of the factory-made hat has decreased the number of workers in custom millinery, and has also had an effect in diverting business from small retail shops to millinery departments in stores. The number of millinery workers constantly fluctuates, not only from season to season, but from year to year. According to a close estimate not more than 2,000 workers were actually engaged in millinery occupations during the busiest part of 1915. Between 1,200 and 1,400 were in retail shops; about 300 were in millinery departments in stores; and about 300 more were in wholesale houses.

The data collected indicate that the wages of workers in retail shops are lower in general than the wages of workers in millinery departments in stores and in wholesale houses. Makers in retail shops earn from $3 to $16 a week, the average being about $8. Trimmers earn from $10 to $40, with an average of about $18. Out of 45 retail shops, only 22 paid as high as $10 to any maker; 15 paid as high as $12; six paid as high as $15; and only one paid over $15.

In millinery departments in stores, trimmers, who are generally designers, earn from $15 to $50 a week or more. The rate most commonly received is $25. Makers are started at from $4 to $6 and may advance to $15, with an average of about $10.

In wholesale houses designers earn from $25 to $60, or more. Makers start at about $5, and the usual range is from $10 to $15. Those employed in straight copying may earn between $15 and $20. The 1914 report of the Industrial Commission of Ohio presents data showing that of the women 18 years of age and over employed in wholesale houses 37 per cent receive under $8, about 22 per cent receive between $8 and $12, while 41 per cent receive $12 and over. The girls under 18 years of age were, with one exception, receiving less than $4 per week.

Employment in retail shops averages about 32 weeks during the year; in the millinery departments of stores from 32 to 42 weeks; and in wholesale houses about 40 weeks. The proportion of workers employed the year round is very small. The majority of millinery workers are faced with the problem of tiding themselves over two dull seasons, aggregating from 12 to 28 weeks each year.

The millinery apprenticeship period lasts for two seasons of 12 weeks each. Almost all retail shops take apprentices in large numbers, there being one apprentice to every three or four workers in the trade. Few apprentices are found in stores and wholesale houses. The apprenticeship wage is extremely low. The usual rate is $1 a week during the first season and from $1.50 to $2 during the second.

THE PROBLEM OF TRAINING

The needs of girls who are soon to leave school and go to work can best be met by a modification of the junior high school course and by the establishment of a one-year trade school for girls. Before a re-organization of the junior high school work is made to meet the needs of these girls an effort should be made to reduce retardation so that more girls will reach the junior high school before the end of the compulsory attendance period. The present courses should be reorganized so as to give basic preparation for wage earning and should be as concrete and real as a thorough understanding of the requirements of the gainful occupations can make them. Thorough sewing courses planned from the standpoint of the sewing trades should be offered, extending over two years. The program suggested closely resembles that recommended for the garment trades.

It is also recommended that a one-year trade school be established for preparing girls to enter employment in dressmaking and millinery. The history of trade schools for girls, both private and public, indicates that such a school, if properly conducted, would be highly successful in Cleveland.

The classes in sewing and millinery in the evening technical high schools do not offer trade-extension training for workers and it is not likely that they could be easily reorganized to furnish such training. It is recommended that if a trade school is established in Cleveland, short unit courses in sewing and related subjects, such as design, be given in evening classes.



CHAPTER XVI

SUMMARY OF REPORT ON THE METAL TRADES

Approximately one-half of the total number of persons in Cleveland engaged in manufacturing are found in the metal industries. When the last federal census was taken nearly one-seventh of the entire male population was employed in establishments engaged in the manufacture of crude or finished metal products. Pittsburgh only, among the 10 largest cities in the country, has a higher proportion of its industrial population working in such establishments. In relation to its total population, Cleveland has twice as many people working in these industries as Chicago, three times as many as Philadelphia, and four times as many as New York. It is estimated that at the present time the number of wage earners in the city engaged in this kind of work is between 70,000 and 80,000.

The report deals with the three leading industries of the city,—foundry and machine shop products, automobile manufacturing, and steel works and rolling mills. The study of this last group also includes several related industries, such as blast furnaces, wire mills, nail mills, and bolt, nut, and rivet factories. About three-fourths of the total number of wage earners in the city engaged in the manufacture of metal products are found in these three industries.

The field investigations consisted of personal visits to the manufacturing establishments for the purpose of securing first hand data as to industrial conditions, and conferences with employers, superintendents, foremen, and workmen as to the need and possibilities of training for metal working occupations. In all, 60 establishments, employing approximately 35,000 men, were visited. The conclusions as to vocational training were based on an analysis of educational needs in the various metal industries, together with an extended study of the social and economic factors which condition the training of all workers. Particular attention was given to the administrative problems involved in such training in public schools.

FOUNDRY AND MACHINE SHOP PRODUCTS

According to the United States Census, foundries and factories making machine shop products gave employment in 1909 to nearly 18,000 Cleveland wage-earners. This industrial group ranks first in the city, employing more than twice as many workers as the next largest industry,—automobile manufacturing,—and approximately two-fifths of the total working force in all metal industries. Its growth during the previous five years, from the standpoint of number of workers employed, showed an increase of about 33 per cent, and it is estimated that the total number of wage-earners in 1914 was approximately 25,000. At the present time, due to the impetus given to this branch of manufacturing by the European war, the working force is undoubtedly in excess of this figure.

The report gives extended consideration to the machinist's trade, which constitutes by far the largest body of skilled workers in the city. This trade has been affected more than any other by the progress of invention and the modern tendency towards specialization. In many establishments the all-round machinist, competent to do independent work and operate the wide variety of machine tools now used in the trade, had practically disappeared. In his place are found "specialist" machine hands who have learned the operation of a single machine tool, but have no general knowledge of the trade, and who if called on to perform work requiring the use of a machine tool different from the one on which they are employed are unable to do so. There are hundreds of drill press hands who cannot operate a milling machine, lathe hands who know nothing of planer work, and so on. The subdivision of these occupations follows closely the advance in invention, so that employers advertising for help frequently specify not only the machine tool to be used but add the name of the firm which manufactures that particular type of machine, with the result that there are about as many kinds of machinists as there are manufacturers of machine tools. Table 18 shows the estimated number of men employed, with their distribution in the various branches of the trade.

TABLE 18.—PROPORTIONS AND ESTIMATED NUMBERS EMPLOYED IN MACHINE TOOL OCCUPATIONS, 1915

-+ Estimated Workers Per cent number + - Lathe hands 18.8 3,384 Drill press operators 17.9 3,222 Bench hands 13.4 2,412 Machinists 12.7 2,286 Screw machine operators 9.4 1,692 Milling machine operators 8.6 1,548 Tool makers 8.3 1,494 Grinding machine operators 6.2 1,116 Planer hands 2.2 396 Turret lathe operators 1.8 324 Gear cutter operators .7 126 -+ Total 100.0 18,000 + -

Specialization has operated to lower standards of skill and keep down wages. The average wage of the "all-round" machinist is very nearly the lowest found among the skilled trades. The union scale is but 14 cents an hour above that paid unskilled labor, while the average earnings of machine operators range from four to 12 cents above laborers' wages. Only among the highly skilled tool makers do the wages approach those received by skilled labor in most other industries. Table 19 shows the average, highest, and lowest rates per hour for all branches of the machine trades in the establishments from which data were collected during the survey, with the per cent employed on piece work and day work.

TABLE 19.—AVERAGE, HIGHEST, AND LOWEST EARNINGS, IN CENTS PER HOUR, AND PER CENT EMPLOYED ON PIECE WORK AND DAY WORK, 1915

- - - - Per cent Per cent on piece on day Workers Lowest Average Highest work work - - - - Tool makers 25.0 39.0 50.0 .. 100 Machinists 25.0 33.2 50.0 .. 100 Planer hands 20.0 32.2 42.0 .. 100 Grinding machine operators 20.0 32.0 50.0 70 30 Bench hands 17.5 29.6 45.0 48 52 Screw machine operators 17.5 29.5 63.8 79 21 Lathe hands 19.0 29.1 40.0 40 60 Turret lathe operators 25.0 29.0 47.5 80 20 Gear cutter operators 20.0 26.7 40.0 96 4 Milling machine operators 15.0 25.9 40.0 53 47 Drill press operators 15.0 23.5 35.0 35 65 Machinists' helpers 20.0 22.2 25.0 .. 100 - - - -

On the basis of weekly or yearly earnings, the trade makes a better showing. Work is steady throughout the year, and the time lost through unemployment on account of seasonal changes is slight. Also, as the usual working day is from nine to 10 hours, that is, from one to two hours longer than in the higher paid building trades, the difference in daily wages is really less marked than a comparison of hourly rates would seem to indicate.

Little attempt has been made to adapt the apprentice system to modern conditions. The term of service and rates of pay have changed but slightly over a long period of years. As a result only a small proportion of the boys who begin as apprentices finish the apprenticeship term of three or four years. Employers attribute this to the relatively high wages paid for machine operating, and the slight advantage, from a wage standpoint, of the "all-round" man over the machine operator. After a year or two the apprentice finds that he can double his pay by taking a job as operator, and the inducement for learning the trade thoroughly is too small to hold him. The report gives a comparison of the earnings of an apprentice and a machine operator, both starting at the same age, the first becoming a journeyman machinist at the end of three years and the second specializing on a particular machine. Assuming that both boys go to work at the age of 16 their total earnings up to the age of 25 years will be approximately equal. The lack of thoroughly trained workmen is beginning to be felt, but the efforts made by industrial establishments to meet it have small prospects of success unless the economic factors of the problem are given greater consideration.

Inasmuch as no regular apprenticeship period is served for machine operating, a special effort was made to secure data relating to the time usually required for the worker to learn the operation of each tool well enough to earn average wages. In this matter the individual opinions of foremen and superintendents differed widely, but when the reports from all the establishments visited were compared, a sufficient degree of uniformity was found to serve as a basis for estimating the amount of experience workers of average intelligence would need, under normal shop conditions, in order to become fairly proficient.

There was practical unanimity in fixing the period at four years for tool makers and three to four years for machinists. Higher estimates were received from the superintendents of plants doing a jobbing business or manufacturing high grade machine tools than from the specialized shops making a single product. The superintendents of automobile manufacturing plants, where the standard of quality in production is necessarily high, gave the lowest estimates of all. Table 20 shows the estimated time required to learn the various types of machine work.

TABLE 20.—ESTIMATED TIME REQUIRED TO LEARN MACHINE TOOL WORK

Workers Time required Grinding machine operators 12 to 15 months Lathe hands 6 to 9 months Planer hands 6 months Gear cutter operators 6 months Turret lathe operators 4 to 6 months Screw machine operators 3 to 6 months Bench hands 3 to 6 months Milling machine operators 2 to 4 months Drilling machine operators 2 weeks to 4 months

The weakness of specialization, with its constant tendency towards the substitution of semi-skilled operatives for trained workmen, lies in its failure to provide a body of workers from whom to recruit the large directive force needed in any scheme of production based on semi-skilled labor. This condition is regarded by many employers with grave concern, and in a few plants apprentice schools designed primarily to train future foremen have been established.

Practically all the foremen in the shops visited had received an all-round training as machinists, and there are few opportunities for promotion open to men who have not a general knowledge of the trade. On the other hand, such general knowledge is only one of the requisites for advancement. Others are initiative, resourcefulness, tact, self-control, ability to get along with men, and a disposition to subordinate personal interests to the interests of the business. To these should be added the quality of patience, for there must be vacancies before there can be promotions, and vacancies among the better positions are not frequent. Ten of the establishments visited, employing a total working force of over 5,000 men, reported but eight vacancies among foremen's positions over a period of one year. These same establishments had in their employ a total of 618 all-round machinists and tool makers. Assuming that only the machinists and tool makers were eligible for promotion, the mathematical chance per man of becoming a foreman during the year was about one in 77.

Other occupations studied in detail were pattern making, molding, core making, blacksmithing, and boiler making. Pattern making offers the most interesting work and the highest wages among the metal trades, but the total number of American born pattern makers in the city does not exceed seven or eight hundred, so the field of employment is relatively limited. Molding and core making, in which between 4,000 and 5,000 men are engaged, have practically become foreign trades. Less than 20 per cent of the molders in the city were born in this country. These trades offer few opportunities for employment to boys of native birth. Somewhat similar conditions exist in the blacksmithing trade. Changed methods of production have largely done away with the old-time blacksmith, who survives only in horse-shoeing and repair shops. The proportion of native blacksmiths is steadily declining, and it is unlikely that any considerable number of boys from the public schools will enter the trade. The boiler making trade employs relatively few men, the total number of native born boiler makers at the time of the last census being less than 600. The trade seems to be at a standstill. The increase during the previous decade was less than five per cent against a total population increase of 46 per cent. The average earnings per hour for these trades in the establishments visited by members of the Survey Staff are shown in Table 21.

TABLE 21.—AVERAGE EARNINGS PER HOUR IN PATTERN MAKING, MOLDING, CORE MAKING, BLACKSMITHING, AND BOILER MAKING

Average earnings Workers Per Hour

Pattern makers .44 Skilled molders .39 Semi-skilled molders .27 Skilled core makers .39 Semi-skilled core makers .27 Blacksmiths .33 Boiler makers .32

The findings and recommendations as to training emphasize the fact that the vast majority of boys who become workers in the metal trades leave school by the time they are 15 with at most a common school education, so that any vocational training before they go to work must be given between the ages of 12 and 15 and before the end of the eighth grade. The report points out the impossibility of effective vocational instruction in elementary schools on account of the prohibitive cost per pupil for both equipment and teaching, and endorses the recently adopted junior high school plan. This form of organization has the great advantage of concentrating in large groups the boys who are old enough to make a beginning in prevocational training, and through the departmental system of teaching offers facilities for differentiation of courses to meet their varying needs.

Whatever their cultural value, the present manual training courses in woodwork have little relation to the requirements of any metal working trade, except pattern making, in which some of the same tools are used. No manual training work in metal is offered in the elementary and junior high schools.

The course recommended for the junior high school lays especial emphasis on applied mathematics, mechanical drawings, practice in assembling and taking apart machines, and the utilization of the shop as a laboratory for teaching industrial science. The report maintains that the object of such a course should be the development of industrial intelligence through the application of mathematical and mechanical principles to the solution of concrete problems, rather than the teaching of specific operations and skill in the use of tools. In mechanical drawing the ability to understand and interpret drawings should be given more importance than the ability to make drawings. Few workmen are ever called on to draw, while the ability to read plans and sketches is always in demand. It is also recommended that boys who do not expect to take a full high school course or who intend to leave at the end of the compulsory period should devote at least a period each week to the study of economic and working conditions in industrial and commercial occupations.

With respect to the technical high schools the report holds that these schools are primarily training schools for the higher positions of industry. They undoubtedly offer the best instruction obtainable in the city for the ambitious boy who wishes to prepare himself for supervisory and managerial positions in industry or for a college engineering course.

The establishment of a separate two-year vocational school, equipped for giving instruction in all the larger industrial trades, is recommended. The number of boys in the public schools between the ages of 14 and 16 who are likely to enter the metal trades is between 700 and 800, of whom from 500 to 600 will become machinists or machine tool operators. An enrollment of much less than this number is sufficient to justify the installation of good shop equipment and the employment of a corps of teachers who have had the special training necessary for this kind of work. It should be possible to form a class in pattern making and foundry work of from 80 to 100 boys, and one of at least 30 in blacksmithing. Boiler making could be taught in connection with sheet metal work.

Various changes are recommended in the present evening school classes for machinists, molders, and pattern makers now given by the technical high schools. It is claimed that the courses as now organized are not elastic enough to meet the varying needs of the journeymen, helpers, machine operators, and apprentices employed in these trades. The great need is for short unit courses in which the instruction is limited to a particular machine or a special branch of the trade. The long course tends to discourage the student, especially when it embraces an amount of theory out of all proportion to his working needs.

AUTOMOBILE MANUFACTURING

Due to the large number and specialized character of the occupations in this industry, they are taken up in a more general way than the "foundries and machine shop" group. The productive departments of the automobile factories utilize in the main the same equipment as other machinery manufacturing plants, but specialization has been carried to a degree found in few other metal industries. The "all-round" workman is a rara avis. The machine shops are manned by machine "specialists" most of whom know how to operate a single machine tool or perform a single operation made up of relatively simple elements. From one-half to two-thirds of the working force is recruited from immigrant labor which is "broken in" under skilful foremen within a period varying from a few days to a few weeks. In the simpler assembling operations the jobs are so subdivided that any man who is not actually feebleminded can learn the work in a few days. Production is on a large scale, permitting the maintenance of high-grade engineering and experimental departments, where all of the work is planned to the last detail. As a result the automobile manufacturers are turning out one of the most complicated and most efficient machines known to modern industry with a working force composed chiefly of semi-skilled labor.

For the machine shop workers the training suggested is similar to that recommended for the same class of workmen in other machine shops. The necessity of short unit courses adapted for teaching parts of the trade rather than the whole trade is obvious, as most automobile workers are employed on specialized operations. Short unit evening courses for motor and transmission assemblers, and testers and inspectors, are recommended.

STEEL WORKS, ROLLING MILLS, AND RELATED INDUSTRIES

A somewhat similar treatment is followed with respect to the iron and steel group of industries—blast furnaces, steel mills, rolling mills, wire mills, nail mills, and bolt, nut, and rivet factories. These industries are characterized by a high proportion of common and semi-skilled labor in the working force. Between 75 and 90 per cent of the workers are of foreign birth. In the operating department of one mill only two Americans were found among a total of 600 employees. As a rule the native born workers are mechanics employed in the power and maintenance departments.

With scarcely an exception the occupations are of a nature that require the worker to learn through actual experience in the mills. Theory and practice must be learned at the same time. Even the supervisory and executive positions in which a technical education is of considerable value require a long and arduous apprenticeship on the job before the worker can compete with men who have started with the scantiest educational equipment, but have picked up a knowledge of the processes by experience and observation. Below these positions the work rapidly grades off to various kinds of machine operating in which not even the ability to read or understand English is required.

No plan of vocational training is presented, because at present the mills recruit almost exclusively from foreign labor, and only a very small number of boys from the public schools are likely to seek employment in them. The technical content of the work which might conceivably be given in evening classes, except in the case of the few directive and supervisory positions, is so small that continuation instruction offers but meager hopes of success. Under present conditions the long working day and the necessity of changing from the day to the night shift, or vice-versa every two weeks, constitutes an insuperable obstacle to the organization of night classes.

The principal need of the rank and file is a speaking and reading knowledge of the English language, so that the workers can be taught to avoid and prevent accidents, and give themselves the necessary care when they occur. Instruction in English with possibly courses in accident prevention and personal hygiene represent about the only training possible that can be said to have any real vocational significance.



CHAPTER XVII

SUMMARY OF REPORT ON THE BUILDING TRADES

A careful estimate places the number of men engaged in building construction in Cleveland at the present time at about 30,000, comprising more than one-fifth of the total number employed in manufacturing and mechanical occupations. About two-thirds of these workmen are skilled artisans, distributed among some 20 different trades. The estimated number in each trade is shown in Table 22.

SOURCES OF LABOR SUPPLY

The building trades get their workers from four principal sources: immigration, native journeymen from outside the city, helpers, and apprentices. Immigration contributes the largest proportion in both skilled and unskilled work, practically monopolizing the latter. Over four-fifths of all cabinet makers, more than two-thirds of all brick and stone masons, and nearly two-thirds of all carpenters are foreign born. Plumbers and steam-fitters show the smallest proportion of foreign labor.

TABLE 22.—ESTIMATED NUMBER OF MEN ENGAGED IN BUILDING TRADES, 1915

Workers in trade Number employed Carpenters 7,105 Painters, glaziers, varnishers 2,746 Plumbers, gas- and steam-fitters 2,014 Bricklayers 1,800 Machine woodworkers 1,198 Sheet metal workers or tinsmiths 1,069 Cabinet-makers 895 Inside wiremen and fixture hangers 750 Plasterers 638 Paperhangers 379 Structural iron workers 356 Roofers and slaters 315 Stone-cutters 292 Lathers 275 Stone masons and marble setters 250 Ornamental iron workers 200 Cement finishers 200 Hoisting engineers 150 Elevator constructors 100 Parquet floor layers 100 Tile-layer 100 Asbestos workers 75 Wood carvers 63 Helpers 926 Apprentices 306 Total 22,302

APPRENTICESHIP

The general decline of the apprenticeship system which began with the invention of modern labor-saving machinery has affected the building trades least of all. Here it survives in an active state and is steadily gaining ground. It is in favor with many employers and with all unions. The best apprenticeship systems are found in the strongly organized trades.

It is true that in some of the trades apprenticeship is little more than a name, meaning simply that permission has been granted to learn the trade. The apprentice is left free to pick up what experience he can between the odd jobs that are given him. What meager instruction he receives comes from a journeyman worker who is none too eager to give up what he considers the secrets of his trade.

The union regulations provide that boys shall not enter the trades as apprentices or helpers below the age of 16. The limits set by the various trades and the union regulations as to length of apprenticeship are shown in Tables 23 and 24.

TABLE 23.—UNION REGULATIONS AS TO ENTERING AGE OF APPRENTICES

Asbestos workers Enter at any age Bricklayers Between 16 and 23 Carpenters Between 17 and 22 Cement finishers Must be full grown Elevator constructors Must be full grown Lathers Must be 18 years old Inside wiremen Between 16 and 21 Painters and paperhangers Before 21 years old Plumbers and gas-fitters Must be 16 years old Sheet metal workers Must be over 16 years Slate and tile roofers Must enter before 25 Steam-fitters Must be full grown Structural and ornamental iron workers Between 18 and 25

TABLE 24.—UNION REGULATIONS AS TO LENGTH OF APPRENTICESHIP PERIOD

Trades in which indentures are usually signed Bricklayer 4 years Plasterers 4 years Sheet metal workers 4 years

Trades in which indentures are seldom signed Steam-fitters 5 years Carpenters 4 years Inside wiremen 4 years Plumbers and gas-fitter 4 years Cement finishers 3 years Asbestos workers 3 years Painters and paperhangers 3 years Slate and tile roofers 3 years Lathers 2 years Structural and ornamental iron workers 11/2 years Elevator constructors varies

All obtainable information points to the conclusion that the number of apprentices employed in the city is far below the maximum permitted by the unions. Many large contractors have no apprentices and say they will not bother with them. Others state that they have been unable to get or keep good apprentices and have therefore given up the plan.

UNION ORGANIZATION

The building trades are among the most strongly organized in the city. It is estimated that their unions at the present time include about 90 per cent of all the men engaged in building work. Practically all the large contracting firms employ only union labor. The few non-union workers are employed by small contractors.

Requirements for admission to the different unions vary to a marked degree. If the union is strong and has a good control over the labor supply, admission fees are higher and regulations as to apprentices and helpers are more stringent than if the union is fighting to gain a foothold.

EARNINGS

No industrial workers in the city are paid better wages than those employed in the building trades. More than one-half of the skilled workers are in trades that pay an hourly wage of 50 cents or over. The hourly rate in each occupation is shown in Table 25.

TABLE 25.—UNION SCALE OF WAGES IN CENTS PER HOUR MAY 1, 1915

70 Cents Bricklayers 70.00 Hoisting engineers on boom derricks, etc. 70.00 Stone masons 70.00 Structural iron workers 70.00

From 60 to 70 Cents Marble setters 68.75 Inside wiremen 68.75 Plasterers 68.75 Slate and tile roofers 67.50 Parquet floor layers (carpenters) 62.50 Lathers, first class 62.50 Plumbers 62.50 Steam-fitters 62.50 Stone-cutters 62.50 Hoisting engineers, brick hoists 60.00 Elevator constructors 60.00

From 50 to 60 Cents Tile layers 59.38 Lathers, second class 56.25 Carpenters 55.00 Cement workers, finishers 55.00 Sheet metal workers 50.00 Painters 50.00 Paperhangers 50.00

From 40 to 50 Cents Asbestos workers 47.50 Composition roofers 42.50

Under 40 Cents Cabinet-makers and bench hands 37.50 Machine woodworkers 37.50 Electrical fixture hangers 37.50 Hod-carriers 35.00

Union organization is a more powerful factor in determining wages in these trades than technical knowledge and skill. A high degree of skill in a given trade brings little advantage in the matter of wages. By establishing a minimum scale below which no journeyman shall work, the union secures practically a flat rate of pay for most of the men in the trade. When there is much building work and good men are scarce, contractors sometimes pay higher wages to highly skilled workmen in order to secure their services. As a rule, however, their reward comes in the form of steadier employment. The less skilled man is the first to be laid off when business is slack, while the first-class workman, for the reason that he is so hard to replace, is the last to be discharged.

Many unions, among them those of the carpenters, bricklayers, and painters, make no provision as to the wages of apprentices. Table 26 shows the wages in three of the building trades that have established a uniform scale for apprentices. Sheet metal apprentices are paid a bonus of $1 extra for each week served.

TABLE 26.—USUAL WEEKLY WAGES OF APPRENTICES IN THREE BUILDING TRADES

- Sheet metal Year Inside wiremen Plasterers workers - First year $5.50 $5.50 to $6.25 $5.00 Second year 13.20 8.25 to 11.02 5.50 to 6.00 Third year 17.60 13.75 to 16.00 6.50 to 7.00 Fourth year 22.00 19.25 8.00 to 9.00 -

HOURS

The usual working day is eight hours. Many of the trades work only a half day on Saturdays throughout the year; practically all have this half holiday during the four summer months. For holiday or over-time work the men receive either pay and a half or double pay.

REGULARITY OF EMPLOYMENT

Due to the seasonal character of building work, it is next to impossible for a building contractor to keep a large force employed all the year. One result of this situation is that the men change employers more than any other workers in industry. Irregularity of employment is greater in building construction than in any other of the principal industries of the city. A comparison between the different branches of building work as to regularity of employment is presented in Diagram 11. The best showing is made by electrical contracting, in which the average number employed is 93 per cent of the maximum working force, and the poorest by plastering in which the average is only 66 per cent of the maximum.

HEALTH CONDITIONS

Nearly all of the building trades are open air occupations, much even of the inside work being done before the buildings are closed in. For the most part the materials used are not injurious to health if reasonable precautions are taken and ordinary habits of cleanliness observed. In general, health conditions are better than those found in the factory industries.



OPPORTUNITIES FOR ADVANCEMENT

The building trades offer many opportunities for advancement. One reason for this is the large number of supervisory positions made necessary by the wide range of building activities. A foreman in almost any of the trades must be able to read plans, as he must lay out the work. It is not necessary for him to be the most skilled mechanic in the force. Employers and superintendents say that in selecting foremen they lay about equal weight on skill and on ability to handle men.

As a rule, foremanship carries with it higher wages, although in some cases the pay is the same as that of the regular journeymen. The reward for the added responsibility comes in the form of steadier employment. It is not uncommon for a foreman to be hired on a salary basis and carried on the payroll throughout the entire year.

Small contracting offers another form of advancement. It requires but little initial investment to make a modest beginning, because individual workmen in the various building trades provide their own tools and no expensive machines are required. Comparatively little working capital is necessary, as provision is made in most contracts for part payments as the work progresses.

THE PROBLEM OF TRAINING

The recommendations of the report relating to training for the building trades may be summarized under five headings:

1. Reduce retardation. The first step in improving the educational preparation of workers entering the building trades is to reduce retardation or slow progress in the elementary grades. At present it is approximately true of the men entering the building trades that one-third drop out of school by the sixth grade, two-thirds by the seventh grade, and three-thirds by the eighth grade. Now according to law a boy cannot go to work until he is 16, and if he has made normal progress he will have completed the eight grades of the elementary course before he has reached that age. In point of fact, many of these boys do not make normal progress through the grades and hence they reach the age of 15 before completing the elementary course. As a result they fall out of school without having had those portions of the work in reading, drawing, mathematics, and elementary science which would be of most direct use to them in their future work.

2. General industrial courses in seventh, eighth, and ninth grades. If retardation could be largely reduced in the elementary grades, industrialized courses could be properly introduced in the seventh, eighth, and ninth grades for boys intending to enter the building trades. The specific changes recommended include as their most important elements:

a. Increased training in industrial arithmetic beginning in the seventh grade.

b. Courses in industrial drawing.

c. Courses in elementary science relating to industry.

d. Courses in industrial information.

e. General courses in industrial shop work.

These are general industrial courses and it is recommended that they be introduced as prominent features of the work of the junior high school. They are not intended to take the place of specialized courses in the building trades, but they are proposed as courses valuable for all future industrial workers and within which certain adaptations should be made for those who are intending to enter the building trades.

3. A two year industrial trade school. In addition to the general industrial courses in junior high schools that have been recommended in the previous section, there should be established a two year industrial trade school for boys. It should receive boys 14 to 16 years of age who desire direct trade-preparatory training. There are good reasons why the present elementary schools, the proposed junior high schools, and the existing technical high schools cannot satisfactorily take the place of a specialized two year course in giving boys direct trade-preparatory education. Boys who go through the technical high schools do not remain in the building trades as artisans. This is shown by the fact that less than two per cent of the graduates of these schools are working in the building trades.

The elementary schools and the junior high schools cannot conduct satisfactory trade-preparatory courses for the building industry for the reason that they do not bring together at any one point a sufficient number of these future workers to make it possible to teach them economically. This is a consideration which conditions every plan for the organization of industrial education. It is a question of the community's capacity to absorb workmen trained for any given occupation. In Cleveland about 4,000 boys leave the public elementary schools each year. Approximately 2,400 of them drop out of the elementary schools or leave after graduating from them, while the remaining 1,600 go on to high school. The future workers in the building trades will be largely recruited from the 2,400 boys who leave the elementary schools each year. Most of them range in age from 14 to 16 and in school advancement from the fifth to the eighth grades. They represent a cross-section of a large part of the city's adult manhood of a few years hence.

Now the census figures tell us that if present conditions maintain in the future only about 100 of the 4,000 boys leaving school each year will be carpenters. For the purposes of the present inquiry we may assume that these 100 future carpenters are to be found among the 2,400 boys who do not go on to high school. But Cleveland has 108 elementary schools and these 100 future carpenters are widely scattered among them. Even if we knew which boys were destined to become carpenters, and even if we knew when they would leave school, and even if we should decide to give them all trade preparatory education for the last two years of their school life, we should still have an average class in carpentry of only two boys in each elementary school. This is administratively and educationally impossible. For similar reasons specialized trade preparatory classes in junior high schools would prove exceedingly difficult to organize.

The whole situation is changed, however, when we gather in a central school all these future artisans who have decided that they wish to prepare for specific trades. Under these conditions classes would be sufficiently large so that specialized training could be given and special equipment provided. This work would best be undertaken in a school entirely devoted to the purpose, but such courses might be organized in connection with the present technical high schools. This arrangement would be less desirable and probably give inferior results. The important point, however, is not so much the organization or curriculum for these classes, it is the fundamental fact that trade classes can be wisely organized only when a sufficiently large number of pupils can be gathered in one place so as to make the work efficient and economical.

The effectiveness of the trade-preparatory training recommended would be greatly increased if the upper limit of the compulsory attendance period for boys should be placed at 16 years instead of at 15 as it is now.

4. Trade-Extension Classes for Apprentices. At the present time the technical high schools offer evening classes for apprentices in the building trades. About one-seventh of the apprentices of the city are enrolled in these classes. In the main they are full grown men. In general they do not want shop work related to their own trades, but prefer instead to enroll in courses in drawing.

The considerations already presented bear in minor degree on the problem of providing evening instruction for trade apprentices. The essential for efficient work is that a sufficient number of pupils be brought together so as to make it possible to organize specialized classes in different kinds of work that the pupils want and need. So long as there are only 50 apprentices enrolled in the entire city, and these represent a number of trades, many different stages of advancement, and a variety of needs, truly efficient work will be impossible. Better conditions can be brought about only through the cooeperation of the unions, the employers, and the school people.

5. Trade-Extension Work for Journeymen. The evening technical schools now maintain shop classes and drawing classes for workers in the building trades. Less than one per cent of the workers in these trades are enrolled in these classes. There is little differentiation in the school work offered to helpers, apprentices, and journeymen. The result is that the work is much less efficient than it might well be. It cannot be rendered much more efficient than it is until the classes are increased in size and as a result the work differentiated and specialized. This type of improvement will result only from putting the night school work in the hands of skilful and well paid directors and teachers who bring to it a degree of energy, enterprise, ingenuity, and adaptability that it is unreasonable to expect and impossible to get from day school teachers who have already given the best that is in them to their regular classes and are giving a fatigued margin of work and attention to their night school pupils.



CHAPTER XVIII

SUMMARY OF REPORT ON RAILROAD AND STREET TRANSPORTATION

The report on railroad and street transportation takes up a class of wage earning occupations that give employment in Cleveland to approximately 15,000 men. A much larger proportion than is found in most other industrial manual occupations are natives of the city. Although some of the work is relatively unskilled, all of the different occupations have one common characteristic—the necessity for a knowledge of the English language and some acquaintance with local customs and conditions. For this reason comparatively few foreigners are employed.

The report takes up separately three types of workers, those employed in railroad train service, those engaged in wagon or automobile transportation, and the car service employees of the street railroad.

RAILROAD TRANSPORTATION

The study covered only those railroad occupations that are directly concerned with the actual operation of trains, such as those of engineers, firemen, conductors, and trainmen. These occupations have many points in common and bring into play many similar mental and physical characteristics. The requirements for entrance are strict and examinations for the higher positions are obligatory. In all of them the hazards are great. Each occupation is firmly intrenched in trade unionism. Differences with employers relating to such matters as promotion, hours of labor, wages, and overtime are settled by collective bargaining or, in case of failure to agree, by arbitration proceedings.

The estimated number of men in Cleveland employed in these occupations in 1915 is approximately 4,500. Of these about one-fourth are switchmen and flagmen, one-fourth enginemen, one-fifth brakemen, one-sixth conductors, and one-eighth firemen.

The requirements for entrance call for a high degree of physical fitness. The applicant for employment must pass a severe examination as to vision and hearing, and in addition furnish certain data as to his family history, as it relates to insanity, tuberculosis, and certain other diseases. The high standard maintained insures a type of employees which for physical fitness, mental alertness, and ability to handle difficult situations is unsurpassed in any industry.

Frequent examinations, which are compulsory, are the stepping stones to the higher positions. In this way a brakeman qualifies for the position of freight conductor, a freight conductor for that of passenger conductor, and a fireman for a position as engineer.

Each of the two services, passenger and freight, has its advantages. In the passenger service the working day is short, with little overtime. Freight service requires a longer working day and a considerable amount of overtime. Promotions in both services and from one to the other are made on the basis of seniority.

Violation of the strict rules laid down for the operation of trains on the part of employees may result in reprimand, suspension, or dismissal, according to the gravity of the offense. The penalty of suspension has practically superseded the others except in extreme cases, such as drunkenness, theft, or other serious violations of the rules, for which offenders are summarily dismissed. On some railroads, a graded system of demerits is used. When an employee has received a certain number of demerits he is dismissed from the service.

The railroad unions are among the strongest and most aggressive in the country. The total union membership among train operating employees alone in the country is approximately 350,000. The unions are all modeled upon the same general plan. They are quite independent of each other, keep strictly to their agreements and oppose the sympathetic strike. They all maintain some form of life insurance. Four organizations have underwritten over $500,000,000 of insurance and one of them in a single year paid claims amounting to $1,135,000. The influence of these unions has been particularly effective in securing the passage of protective state and national legislation such as full crew laws, standardization of train equipment, employers' liability laws, car limit laws, etc.

The hazardous nature of the work is indicated by a statement made by a prominent union official to the effect that the Trainmen's Brotherhood paid a claim for death or disability every seven hours. A report to the Interstate Commerce Commission states that there is one case of injury in train or yard service every nine minutes. With the invention of safety devices the risk of accident has been greatly lessened, but railroading is still one of the most dangerous industrial occupations.

There is little chance of employment for applicants under the age of 21 years. In fact, many roads refuse to employ men below this age. Physical or sense defects which often accompany advancing years, and which would not disqualify a man in other occupations do so in railroad work. The average length of the working life is a little over 12 years.

Railroad employees are among the best paid workers in the country. A close estimate based on extensive wage investigations places the annual earnings of engineers at from $1,200 to $2,400 a year, with an average of $1,600. Conductors average about $1,350, firemen a little over $900, and other trainmen about $950. The usual working day is 10 hours, although this is often exceeded. Overtime is paid on a regular scale agreed upon by the companies and the union.

The educational requirements are not very exacting. A thorough grounding in the "three R's" is usually all that is necessary. A large amount of trade knowledge is obtained through contact and participation after entering employment and can be gained in no other way. The examinations for promotion are of a thorough-going character. One of the roads in Cleveland requires an examination of its firemen and trainmen six months after employment, as to vision, color-sense, and hearing. They must also pass an oral examination on the characteristics of their division and a written examination on certain set questions furnished them in advance. Two years later they are examined again, the fireman for engineman, and the brakeman for conductor. The scope of these examinations covers the whole range of train operating. Each of the five large railroads entering Cleveland has air-brake cars equipped with various forms of air brakes, air signals, pumps, valves, and injectors for the purpose of giving instruction to trainmen. A competent instructor is put in charge of these cars to explain the theory and practice of the apparatus and also to give instruction in any new type of engine or train equipment.

The conclusions of the report are in the main negative with respect to specialized vocational training in the public schools. There is no doubt that the general industrial course recommended for the junior high school period in previous chapters would be of some value to boys who may enter this line of work. Problems of railroad transportation might well be included as part of the work in applied mathematics. What workers in these occupations need most, however, is a thorough elementary education.

MOTOR AND WAGON TRANSPORTATION

This section of the report takes up such occupations as those of teamsters, chauffeurs, and repairmen. There are no reliable data as to the number of men in the city employed in these occupations, but it is certain that it does not fall below 9,000. Notwithstanding the great increase in the use of automobiles and auto trucks in recent years the number of teamsters at the present time is in excess of 4,000 men. A very large proportion of the men employed in these occupations are of American birth.

The general conditions of labor such as wages, hours of labor, and so on, are the same for teamsters and chauffeurs. They earn about the same wages, belong to the same union, and work about the same hours. The wages range from 25 to 37 cents an hour. Earnings in the better paid jobs compare favorably with those in several of the skilled trades. Automobile repairmen earn from 30 to 45 cents an hour, and work from nine to 10 hours a day. The working day for teamsters and chauffeurs is somewhat longer, ranging from 10 to 12 hours. At the present time these occupations are only partially organized in trade unions.

The report recommends the establishment of a course in automobile construction and operation in the technical high schools. In view of the constantly increasing use of automobiles such a course would be of value to many boys besides those who enter employment as chauffeurs and truck drivers.

STREET RAILROAD TRANSPORTATION

There are employed in Cleveland at present approximately 2,500 motormen and street car conductors. Almost all of them are of American birth, and the majority are natives of the city.

As in railroad work each applicant for employment must pass an examination, although the requirements are less exacting than those demanded in railroad work. The preliminary training occupies about 10 days, during which the motorman is taught by actual car operation how to operate the controller, how to apply and release the brakes, and other duties connected with the careful running of the car through crowded streets. The conductor is taught the names of the streets, how and when to call them, where stops are to be made, when to turn lights on and off, how to act in case of accidents, and the various duties which deal with the sale, collection, and reporting of transfers and tickets.

No one is admitted into the service before the age of 21 or after 35. Promotion usually comes in the form of better runs. The chances of promotion to positions above the grade of conductor or motorman are very slight. About 90 per cent of the men belong to the local union. Union rates of pay for motormen and conductors are higher in Cleveland than in most cities in the country, in spite of the fact that this is the only large city in the country with a three cent street car fare. The wages of both motormen and conductors are 29 cents an hour for the first year and 32 in succeeding years. The hours of labor are very irregular. The usual working day is from 10 to 12 hours.

The author of the report is of the opinion that no special instruction for this type of workers can be given by the public schools.



CHAPTER XIX

SUMMARY OF REPORT ON THE PRINTING TRADES

A smaller proportion of the industrial population in Cleveland is engaged in printing than in most large cities. The number of persons employed in printing occupations in 1915 is estimated at approximately 3,900, made up chiefly of skilled workmen. Little common labor is used in any department of the industry.

The business of printing is usually conducted in small establishments. There are not more than six plants in the city which employ over 75 wage earners. Data collected from 44 local printing shops, showed an average working force of only 36 persons. Due largely to this characteristic printing affords an unusual number of opportunities for advancement to the skilled workers in the industry. The smaller the establishments are the greater is the proportion of proprietors, superintendents, managers and foremen to the total number of wage earners. Ten per cent of the total working force in the printing industry is employed in supervisory and directive positions. In many of the large manufacturing industries of the city the proportion in such work is less than three per cent.



No other manufacturing industry employs so large a proportion of American born workers. In recent years many of the skilled industrial trades have been recruited to a very large extent from foreign labor, but in printing the American worker has so far held his own remarkably well. This is due in part to the relatively high wages and desirable working conditions and to the necessity in all branches of printing for a working knowledge of English.

Practically all of the trades are thoroughly organized. The unions are united in a body called the Council of the Allied Printing Trades. Although only about half of the shops in the city employ union labor exclusively, the union regulations as to wages and hours of labor are observed in both open and closed shops.

Printing workers are among the best paid industrial wage earners in the city. A comparison of the weekly earnings in the various manufacturing industries is shown in Diagram 12. This comparison is based upon the 1914 report of the Ohio Industrial Commission.

The comparison of the earnings of women in various industries, shown in Diagram 13, is less favorable to printing. On the basis of the proportion of women that earn $12 and over per week this industry takes third place. It should be noted, however, that nearly all the women employed are engaged in semi-skilled work in binderies,—a lower grade of work than that done by most women workers in clothing factories, where wages are higher. Compared with other occupations that require about the same amount of experience and training, in textile, tobacco, and confectionery manufacturing establishments, the wages of women employed in the printing industry are relatively high.

Wage earners in printing establishments lose less time through irregularity of employment than do those in most other factory industries. The kind of work done by women is more seasonal than that done by men, although less so than in other manufacturing industries which employ large numbers of women.



COMPOSING ROOM WORKERS

Nearly all the workers in this department of the industry are hand or machine compositors. Until about 30 years ago, before practical type-setting machines were invented, all type was set by hand. Today the hand compositor, except in very small shops, works only on jobs requiring special type and special arrangement, such as advertisements, title covers of books, letter heads, and so on.

In the city there are about 1,200 people employed in composing room occupations, or about 30 per cent of the total number of workers in the industry. This number includes some 50 women employed as proof-readers and copy-holders. Nine-tenths of the composing room workers are members of the International Typographical Union, although the number of shops that employ union men exclusively, called closed shops, approximates only one-half of the total number in the city. The remainder, while employing union labor, observing union hours, and paying union wages, reserve the right to hire non-union workmen.

Composing room workers are the best paid in the industry. A comparison of average wages in newspaper and job establishments is shown in Table 27.

TABLE 27.—AVERAGE DAILY EARNINGS OF JOB AND NEWSPAPER COMPOSING-ROOM WORKERS, 1915

-+ -+ + Newspaper Workers in trade Job offices offices -+ -+ + Foremen $5.19 $6.65 Linotype machinists 4.66 4.84 Proof-readers 4.63 3.98 Monotype operators 4.57 .. Linotypers 4.28 4.65 Monotype casters 3.96 4.30 Stonemen 3.94 4.89 Hand-compositors 3.48 4.58 Copy-holders 2.30 2.93 Apprentices 1.64 1.30 -+ -+ +

Compositors suffer most from the diseases that are common to indoor workers. The stooping position in which much of the work is done, together with insufficient ventilation and the presence of gases from the molten metal used in monotype and linotype machines, favors the development of lung diseases. The number of deaths from consumption among compositors is more than double that in most outdoor occupations.

The apprenticeship system has held its own in the compositor's trade better than in most industrial occupations. In the establishments visited by the Survey Staff there were approximately 15 apprentices to each 100 hand and machine compositors. As a rule there is no real system or method of instruction. The points principally insisted upon by the union, which strongly favors the apprenticeship system, are that the number of apprentices employed shall not exceed that stipulated in the agreement between the employers and the union, and that each apprentice shall be required to serve the full term of five years.

During the first and second years the apprentice is required to perform general work in the composing room under the direction of the foreman. In the third year he joins the union as an apprentice. The apprenticeship agreement stipulates that during this year he must be employed four hours each day at composition and distribution. In the fourth and fifth years the number of hours per day on such work is increased to six and seven respectively. During the last two years of his term he must take the evening trade course given by the International Typographical Union, the expense of tuition being met by the local union. The agreement contains no stipulation as to wages for the first and second years. The wage for the third year is $9 a week, for the fourth year $12, and for the fifth, $15. Apprentices in newspaper composing rooms are permitted to spend the last six months of their period working on type-setting machines.

THE PRESSROOM

The pressroom occupations include platen and cylinder pressmen, web or newspaper pressmen, platen and cylinder pressfeeders, plate printers, cutters, flyboys and apprentices. Approximately 15 per cent of the men employed are cylinder pressmen, about 10 per cent platen pressmen, and less than three per cent web pressmen. Pressfeeders comprise over 40 per cent of the whole group. Nearly nine-tenths of all pressroom workers are employed in job establishments. Five occupations—those of cutters, floormen, flyboys, plate printers, and web pressmen—give employment to fewer than 40 men each.

The average daily earnings of pressroom workers in the establishments from which wage data were collected during the survey are shown in Table 28.

The hourly rates of pay are high as compared with those in other occupations requiring an equal or greater amount of skill and knowledge. Cylinder pressmen earn more per hour than do tool and die makers—the most highly skilled of the metal trades—and platen pressmen in charge of five or more presses earn more than all-round machinists and boiler makers. The rate for cylinder pressfeeders is about three cents an hour higher than that received for specialized machine work in the metal trades.

TABLE 28.—AVERAGE DAILY EARNINGS OF PRESSROOM WORKERS, 1915

Job pressroom workers Foremen $4.78 Cylinder pressmen 3.63 Cutters 3.41 Platen pressmen 2.97 Floormen 2.91 Cylinder pressfeeders, men 2.54 Cylinder pressfeeders, women 1.77 Platen pressfeeders, men 1.83 Platen pressfeeders, women 1.70 Flyboys 1.56

Newspaper pressroom workers Foremen 6.11 Web pressmen 4.33 Web pressmen's assistants 2.95

Formal apprenticeship is practically unknown. The boy begins as a pressfeeder, usually on a platen press, and in the course of time gets to be a platen pressman. A knowledge of platen presswork does not qualify a man to run a cylinder press, and as a rule the platen pressman who wants to change must serve some time as a cylinder pressfeeder and cylinder pressman's assistant. There is no organized system for training beginners. The boy who wants to become a pressman must pick up the trade through experience and practice, the length of time required depending chiefly on how frequently changes occur among the force of pressmen employed in the shop.

THE BINDERY

The bindery is the only department of the industry in which any considerable number of women are employed. Some of the occupations, such as gathering, sewing, and stitching, are practically monopolized by women. They are also employed extensively in hand and machine folding. About one-fifth are gatherers and one-fifth sewers and stitchers. The other three-fifths are distributed among a number of occupations usually classed as general bindery work.

The occupations in which men predominate are forwarding, ruling, and finishing, and cutting. The forwarders comprise more than one-fourth of the total number of men engaged in bindery work. The other two skilled trades—ruling and finishing—give employment to about 35 men each.

The average daily earnings in the various occupations, based on returns from 44 establishments, were as shown in Table 29.

TABLE 29.—AVERAGE DAILY EARNINGS OF BINDERY WORKERS, 1915

+ -+ -+ Workers in trade Men Women + -+ -+ Foremen $4.78 $2.05 Rulers 3.56 .. Finishers 3.51 .. Forwarders 3.23 .. Cutters 3.21 .. Machine-folders 2.81 1.49 Wire-stitchers .. 1.57 Apprentices 1.53 .. Gatherers .. 1.52 Sewers .. 1.52 Other bindery operatives 1.40 1.51 + -+ -+

On account of the seasonal character of the work considerable time is lost through unemployment, particularly in those occupations in which women predominate.

Beginners in these occupations in which the majority of the women are employed, start on folding or pasting, and as opportunity presents, gradually acquire practice in the higher grades of work, such as gathering and machine operating. There are some traces of the apprenticeship system in forwarding, ruling, and finishing, but these trades are so small that all of them combined require only a very few new workers each year.

OTHER OCCUPATIONS

Other departments of the printing industry are photoengraving, stereotyping, electrotyping, and lithographing. They give employment to approximately 700 workers, distributed among more than 20 distinct trades, requiring the most diverse sorts of skill, knowledge, and training. There are about 100 men in the city engaged in the different processes of photoengraving. Nearly all of the stereotypers, numbering from 60 to 70, are employed in newspaper offices. There are about 125 electrotypers and 400 lithographers. The labor conditions closely approximate those found in other departments of the industry. Average wages for the different occupations are shown in Table 30.

TABLE 30.—AVERAGE DAILY EARNINGS IN PHOTOENGRAVING, STEREOTYPING, ELECTROTYPING, AND LITHOGRAPHING OCCUPATIONS, 1915

Average Workers in trade daily earnings

Photoengraving Artists $6.32 Photographers 4.69 Etchers 4.52 Routers 4.25 Finishers 4.21 Proofers 3.69 Strippers 3.61 Blockers 2.36 Apprentices 1.49 Art apprentices 1.27

Stereotyping 4.00

Electrotyping Molders 4.41 Finishers 4.01 Casters 3.18 Routers 3.17 Builders 3.13 Blockers 2.05 Batterymen 1.97 Case fillers 1.59 Apprentices 1.10

Lithographing Lettermen 6.63 Artists 6.41 Pressroom foremen 5.80 Grainers 4.73 Engravers 4.35 Pressmen 3.91 Transferers and proofers 3.41 Pressroom apprentices 2.80 Tracers 2.63 Stone polishers 2.53 Pressfeeders 1.72 Other apprentices 1.59 Artist apprentices 1.23 Flyboys 1.10

There is no well organized system for training apprentices in photoengraving, stereotyping, and electrotyping, or in any of the lithographic trades, except that of poster artist, in which an efficient and strictly regulated system of apprenticeship is maintained.

THE PROBLEM OF TRAINING

The report maintains that up to the end of the compulsory attendance period school training preparatory to entering the printing trades must be of the most general sort, due to the fact that in the average elementary school the number of boys who are likely to become printers is too small to form special classes. For example, in an elementary school of 1,000 pupils the number of boys 12 years old and over to whom instruction in printing would be of value from the standpoint of future vocational utility, would probably not exceed two. While admitting the advantages of the junior high school for the purposes of vocational training, the report points out that even in a school where only pupils of the upper grades are admitted, the number who are likely to become printers is still too small to warrant special instruction. In a junior high school of 1,000 pupils not more than nine boys are likely to become printers.

The report recommends a general industrial course during the junior high school period. What the boys need at this time is practice in the application of mathematics, drawing, and elementary science to industrial problems. Shop equipment should be selected with this object in mind. It is doubtful whether it should include a printing shop, for while such a shop would be useful to the few boys who will become printers, it would be of little value in training for other industries. The report suggests as subjects which should be included in the general industrial course practice in handling and assembling machinery, the study of color harmony, and the principles of design in connection with the work in drawing, the use of printing shop problems in applied mathematics, and thorough instruction in spelling, punctuation, and the division of words. It also recommends the course of industrial information referred to in previous chapters.

The establishment of a two year printing course in a separate vocational school is recommended to meet the need for specialized instruction from the end of the compulsory period to the apprentice entering age. The printing trades are relatively small and it is only by concentrating in a single school plant all the boys who may wish to enter them that specialized training can be made practicable. In this way it would be possible to secure classes of from 60 to 100 boys each for such trades as composition and presswork. The report emphasizes the need for instruction in trade theory as against practice on specific operations. It points out that the boys will have plenty of opportunity after they go to work to acquire speed and manual skill, while they have little chance, under modern shop conditions, to obtain an understanding of the relation of drawing, physics, chemistry, mathematics, and art to their work.

The only trade extension training offered by the public schools at the present time is that given in the technical night schools. During the second term of 1915-16 there were 28 persons enrolled in the technical night school printing class. Of these 28 persons three were journeymen printers, five described themselves as "helpers," 11 were apprentices, one was employed in the office of a printing establishment, and eight were engaged in occupations unrelated to printing. No special provision is made for the apprentices. The course, which includes hand composition, a little press work, and lectures on trade subjects, is planned "to help broaden the shop training of those working at the trade." That it does so to any considerable extent is doubtful. Too much of the time is devoted to hand work and practice on operations which the boys can easily learn in the shops. It is believed that the plan followed in the evening apprentice course prescribed by the International Typographical Union, in which no shop equipment or apparatus is used, is better adapted to the needs of boys employed in the trade. The course consists of 46 lessons in English, lettering, design, color harmony, job composition, and imposition for machine, and hand folding. The classes are taught by journeymen teachers. In February 1916 about 100 students were enrolled, of whom approximately one-third were apprentices and two-thirds journeymen.

CLEVELAND EDUCATION SURVEY REPORTS

These reports can be secured from the Survey Committee of the Cleveland Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio. They will be sent postpaid for 25 cents per volume with the exception of "Measuring the Work of the Public Schools" by Judd, "The Cleveland School Survey" by Ayres, and "Wage Earning and Education" by Lutz. These three volumes will be sent for 50 cents each. All of these reports may be secured at the same rates from the Division of Education of the Russell Sage Foundation, New York City.

Child Accounting in the Public Schools—Ayres. Educational Extension—Perry. Education through Recreation—Johnson. Financing the Public Schools—Clark. Health Work in the Public Schools—Ayres. Household Arts and School Lunches—Boughton. Measuring the Work of the Public Schools—Judd. Overcrowded Schools and the Platoon Plan—Hartwell. School Buildings and Equipment—Ayres. Schools and Classes for Exceptional Children—Mitchell. School Organization and Administration—Ayres. The Public Library and the Public Schools—Ayres and McKinnie. The School and the Immigrant—Miller. The Teaching Staff—Jessup. What the Schools Teach and Might Teach—Bobbitt. The Cleveland School Survey (Summary)—Ayres.

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Boys and Girls in Commercial Work—Stevens. Department Store Occupations—O'Leary. Dressmaking and Millinery—Bryner. Railroad and Street Transportation—Fleming. The Building Trades—Shaw. The Garment Trades—Bryner. The Metal Trades—Lutz. The Printing Trades—Shaw. Wage Earning and Education (Summary)—Lutz.

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Transcriber's Notes:

Typos Corrected In Text: Table 15 on page 120: establishments for estabments page 194: "car fare" for "car far" page 15: employee for employe

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