INCREASE IN THE NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES.

From the standpoint of recent immigration the most significant feature of the expansion of the industry consists in the enlargement of the operating forces and the necessary employment of immigrant labor because of the inadequacy of the native labor supply. The increase in the number of the employees in the United States during the period 1870-1905, and the average number of wage-earners in the principal leather manufacturing States in 1905 who were engaged in the manufacturing industry may be quickly seen from the table which immediately follows:

TABLE 2.-Average number of wage-earners engaged in leather manufacturing in the
United States, 1870-1905, and in the principal leather manufacturing States in 1905.
[Compiled from United States Census Special Reports, Manufactures, 1905, Part 3. Table 1, p. 257, and
Table 12, pp. 278-281 and 284-287.]

During the investigation of the industry information was secured from the territory east of the Mississippi and north of the Potomac rivers. Employees were studied throughout this section, special emphasis being placed upon the tanneries of Wisconsin and Pennsylvania and the leather-finishing establishments of Delaware, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts. The household study including households the heads of which were engaged in leather manufacturing was confined principally to the States of Delaware, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania.

HOUSEHOLDS STUDIED.

In connection with the industry a total of 362 households were studied, which, according to general nativity and race of head of household, were as follows:

TABLE 3.-Households studied, by general nativity and race of head of household.

The table next presented shows, by general nativity and race of head of household, the persons in the households studied and persons for whom detailed information was secured:

TABLE 4.—Persons in households studied and persons for whom detailed information was secured, by general nativity and race of head of household.

The following table sets forth, by general nativity and race of head of household, the sex of persons in the households studied for whom detailed information was secured:

TABLE 5.-Sex of persons for whom detailed information was secured, by general nativity and race of head of household.

The table below shows, by sex and general nativity and race of individual, the persons for whom detailed information was secured in the households studied:

TABLE 6.-Persons for whom detailed information was secured, by sex and general nativity and race of individual.

Detailed information was secured for 12,839 employees of the leather-manufacturing industry, of which number 9,480 were in establishments of the East and 3,359 in those of the Middle West. The following table shows, by sex, the number and percentage of

employees of each race for whom information was secured in the Middle and New England States:

TABLE 7.-Employees for whom information was secured, by sex and general nativity and

race-East.

(STUDY OF EMPLOYEES.)