PART II.-CLOTHING MANUFACTURING IN NEW YORK CITY.

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTION.

Extent of the industry in New York City-Employees for whom information was secured [Text Tables 96 and 97 and General Table 54].

EXTENT OF THE INDUSTRY IN NEW YORK CITY.

The factory-inspection law of the State of New York provides for the inspection of all tailoring and dressmaking establishments. The number of establishments inspected in New York City in the year 1907 and the composition of the working force are shown by the following table:

TABLE 96.-Number of establishments inspected and number and per cent of employees of each sex in the clothing industry in New York City, 1907, by department. [Compiled from Report of the New York State Bureau of Factory Inspection, 1907, Vol. II, pp. 190-191.]

It is of course possible that some establishments in the city escaped the attention of and were not visited by the inspectors, but the proportion of places not visited is doubtless very small. The data presented in the table may, therefore, be regarded as a fair indication of the extent of the industry in the city. Of the 7,291 establishments inspected 4,033 were tailoring and 3,258 dressmaking establishments. The maximum number of employees during the year 1907 was 71,557 for the tailoring and 108,372 for the dressmaking establishments, a total of 179,929 employees, but at the time of inspection there were only 63,020 employees in tailoring and 86,733 in dressmaking establishments. It will be noted that while the tailoring establishments exceed the dressmaking establishments in number, the latter employ a considerably larger working force than do the former. There seems, also, to be a considerable variation in the number of employees in the course of the year, both in tailoring and in dressmaking.

At the time of inspection 58.7 per cent of the employees in all establishments were males. In the tailoring establishments the males considerably outnumber the females, and in the dressmaking establishments the females slightly outnumber the males.

EMPLOYEES FOR WHOM INFORMATION WAS SECURED.

A detailed study was made of 406 households in New York City, the heads of which were employed in the manufacture of clothing. The data thus obtained, however, were not tabulated separately for New York, but are included in the tables for the industry as a whole, along with the returns secured for households in Baltimore, Chicago, and Rochester, N. Y. In addition to the households studied, detailed information was also secured for 7,258 individual employees in New York City, and this information is used as the basis for the following general survey of the industry in the city.

The following table shows by sex the number and per cent of employees of each race for whom information was secured:

TABLE 97.-Employees for whom information was secured, by sex and general nativity

and race.

TABLE 97.-Employees for whom information was secured, by sex and general nativity and race-Continued.

CHAPTER II.

RACIAL DISPLACEMENTS.

History of immigration-Period of residence in the United States of foreign-born employees-Racial classification of employees at the present time [Text Tables 98 and 99 and General Table 55].

HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION.

In 1850 the clothing industry in New York City was in its infancy. Cutting and sewing were done by hand at that period. There were no factories, and the workers occupied small rooms or "sweat shops. From that date until 1880 the Irish workers in the industry predominated. They were not imported, and, in fact, no race has ever been brought to the community to engage in the industry. All of the earlier immigrants who engaged in the clothing industry had learned the trade of tailoring abroad and followed as a natural course the work that they knew upon entering this country. The introduction of machines has simplified the work to such an extent that the later immigrants can be taught their fixed tasks within a week or two, and has created in many ways a distinctly "immigrant" industry. From 1865 to 1888 a few Swedes entered the industry, but the number of them in the clothing shops has never been large. They are considered, however, the most intelligent workmen employed and are found engaged in hand work on the finest grades of clothes. Germans entered the industry during the period 1880 to 1890. The majority of them had worked as hand tailors in their native land, and in a short time after entering the industry in this country were found principally in the occupation of busheling, which is more skilled work than that done by the machine operators for the reason that it requires a knowledge of the tailoring of the whole suit. The Russian and Polish Hebrews first found employment in the industry in large numbers from 1890 to 1895. The immigration of Italian workers began in 1895.

The periods mentioned are those of the greatest immigration to the industry. A number of persons of the several races were found in the community prior to those periods, however, for a large number of Italians were employed in the shops as early as 1880 for instance. At the present time the Italians are supplanting the Russian Hebrews in the shops. There has been a steady displacement of the old races by the new, or recent, immigrants who are constantly entering the industry. It has not been a displacement resulting from a superior skill possessed by the incoming workers, but one resulting through the willingness of the "raw" immigrants to accept lower wages than those who have been in this country for a longer period of time.

The wages paid the new races in the shops are comparatively low, but as a rule are considerably higher than they could earn in Europe.