By Self orSchool.By AllianceEmploymentBureau.Total.1902000190339746190452368819052961901906228110319071077871908119391581909 By school1571158428302730
This refers merely to the original or first placement of a girl. The total ofre-placements for 1909 was an additional 230, including those of many former pupilswho had heretofore placed themselves or been placed by the Alliance Employment Bureau.
The crucial question of wages is one that is extremely difficult to deal with in brief. The accompanying table gives a very general statement as to the range of wages obtained by graduates and the future possibilities in their trades, and read in the light of the comment below it is as specifically accurate as any "summary" can be.
Trade.Wages WhenFirst Placed.After Two toFive Years.Future Possibilities.19031909Dressmaking$3to$5$4to$6$6to$13$25 or own establishmentMillinery2.50to445to1512 to 25 or own establishmentOperating3to64to116to2515 to 40Novelty4to54to9[A]6to1118 to 25Art since 19075to84to77to1520 to 30
The column for 1909 shows that at last a minimum wage of $4.00 has been established for all the trades named, even Millinery. There are exceptions, but they are almost always due to some special disability on the part of the girl, and do not fairly affect a statement regarding the wage for girls of normal capacity, who have done satisfactory work during their course. The small percentage of pupils who fall below $4.00 for theirinitial wage are those who either did not complete the school course, or who did poor work, or who are subnormal mentally or handicapped physically, or can work only an eight-hour day because they are under sixteen. It is true that when they are obliged to start on piece-work instead of a week-wage their earnings may fall below our minimum for a short time, but the first week or two is in that case not usually a fair test of the girl's training or ability. Some little time is necessary for the readjustment involved in the change from school to workroom, and especially for attaining the "speed" necessary to earn a fair wage on trade piece-rates. The compensating advantage is that when she does begin to "make good" her improvement is usually registered in her earnings more quickly and accurately than it would be by the safe but slowly advancing "week-work." If after two weeks, however, the girl is earning less than $4.00, and thinks she "never can make out there," she is given an opportunity to change her place. But very often there is a sudden jump in earnings after ten days or so, as the girl gains confidence and speed. (One pupil earned $3.97 her first week on buttonholes, and over $7.00 the second.) Another point to be considered in connection with the wage is the length of the season and the duration of any one place. The comparatively steady work and regular, if small, advance in the dressmaking, for instance, will often counterbalance the larger week-wage or piece-work earnings of the trades where the season is short or the positions of uncertain duration.
On the "rate of advance" in wage the Bureau is as yet too young to make any general statements.
On account of the extreme poverty in the families of many of the students, some system of aid has always been necessary. The manner of giving it has changed, however, that it may be free from all tendency to pauperize or to deprive the recipient of self-respecting effort. At first it took the form of a scholarship, paid at the school every week, in equal amounts, to each student. A few months' experience, however, showed that it would be better to require a month's apprenticeship without pay. If after that the girl was allowed to continue her course, she was given a dollar a week during her second month. Each month thereafter the amount was increased according to the skill and good spirit which were evident in her work. The maximum amount a student could receive in one year was $100.
Early in the second year it became clear that a still more radical change was advisable, and a plan was adopted whereby the need of the girl's family became the only basis upon which money was given. A committee was formed, whose membership was composed principally of workers from the leading social settlements. Each applicant for aid was referred to the member of the committee living nearest her home. An investigation was made by the settlement worker, and aid was given in proportion to the necessity, varying in amount from car fare to the equivalent of a small wage. The girl went weekly to the settlement for the money. In this way the aid was separated as far as possible from the school atmosphere, and it was made clear to the girlsand their families that the money was in no sense pay for work. As indicative of this change in viewpoint, the term "Scholarship" was replaced by that of "Students' Aid." In addition to its other advantages, the new method reduced the cost for aid to less than one-half of its original proportion.
Since this time the aim has been always the same—to aid the girl handicapped by poverty so that she might prepare herself for efficient wage-earning. A member of the school staff is secretary of the Students' Aid Committee, and she knows personally every applicant wishing aid, and makes the initial visits and investigations. This plan has proved advantageous in making a closer connection between the school and the home, and in securing a more uniform standard of relief.
The Students' Aid Committee consists at present of representatives from sixteen settlements, who meet twice a month to discuss and decide upon the merit of each applicant. If aid is granted, the girl is assigned to the settlement nearest her home and goes there weekly for her money. An envelope showing the amount due the girl is sent from the school to the settlement worker, and on this is indicated any absence or tardiness. It is one of the duties of the member of the committee to inquire the reasons for any irregularity in attendance, and, if necessary, to report to the parent. In addition, each settlement worker renders valuable service by giving friendly oversight to the girls and families in her group, by doing as much for their welfare as time will allow, and by reporting any unusual conditions to the Students' Aid Secretary.
Students are at times sent to the school for instruction with a request for aid from some charitable institution, church, hospital, school, or settlement which knows and is interested in the family; but, in general, a girl needing financial help comes without such recommendations, and consequently a more thorough investigation of the case is necessary. Inquiry is always made at first of the Charity Organization Society, in order to learn whether her family has received or is receiving other relief. The "trial month" without aid gives time for the gathering of facts about the family, and for a test of the girl's ability and character. Aid is never promised to a girl before her admission.
A useful method has been worked out for determining the amount of aid which may be given in any one case. The total amount of the family income is obtained, and from it are deducted the fixed expenses for rent, insurance, and car fare. From the remainder the per capita income is found which must provide for all other expenses, that is, for each person's share of food, clothing, light, fuel, medicine, and all incidentals. It was estimated that a family could not maintain a decent standard of living on a per capita income of less than $1.50 a week. Although each case is considered on its merits, aid is almost always given when the per capita income is less than $1.50; in some special cases it is granted when the income exceeds this amount. The following table shows the income of the seventy-eight families that were being aided by the school on June 3, 1909.
Weekly per CapitaIncome.Number of Families.$ .00to$ .4916.50to.99261.00to1.49201.50to1.99102.00to2.4932.50to2.9913.00to3.492
Relief given by charitable institutions has not been included in this income.
Each girl receiving aid is told the reason for its bestowal in such a way that she will neither look upon it as money earned nor feel humiliated as a recipient of charity, but will understand that it should mean for her an opportunity to obtain a good education. It therefore is incumbent upon her to show a realization of its value by becoming a responsible and earnest worker. Students receiving such assistance are expected to attend regularly, unless for excellent reasons, and the reports from their departments must be satisfactory in regard to their work, attitude, and effort. If a girl varies from this standard and, after talking with her or with one of her parents, no improvement follows, the aid may be suspended or withdrawn. Improving circumstances in a family occasionally make it possible to decrease or even to give up the aid. On the other hand, it is often foundnecessary to ask additional assistance from special philanthropic sources when the need is very great.
Night continuation classes are a part of the aim of the school. They have offered training in expert parts of the Operating, Dressmaking, Novelty, Millinery, and Art trades. The classes were well attended, the work successful, and continued application for the renewal of the instruction has been received. This class of education requires the most skilled teachers and is consequently expensive. Lack of money to conduct both the day and the night work adequately has made it necessary to close the night classes temporarily. There is every reason to hope, however, that they will be reopened in the near future, with still greater facilities for teaching the advanced parts of the trades.
The Student Council concerns itself with the government of the school, the aim being to place it as far as possible in the hands of the students. It also assists in developing their sense of responsibility. The Council is composed of representatives elected from each class, who have been chosen for their executive ability and good character. They meet once a week with one of the supervisors to discuss questions of general school discipline and regulations. Each member is responsible for maintaining order in her class when it is not under other supervision, for settling disputes among the girls, and for reporting disobedience to school laws.
Some form of alumnæ association has been in existence since the end of the first school year. This important phase of the Trade School work is now thoroughly organized, and gains for us the warm coöperation of those who have benefited by the instruction. The Graduate Association includes those who have received the certificate of the school; the department clubs, however, are more democratic, and admit to membership any girl who has been in attendance. These associations work together for the benefit of the school. They hold frequent business as well as social meetings. They plan definite ways for getting in touch with Manhattan Trade School girls who are just entering trade, in order to help them to adjust themselves to their work and to increase in them loyalty and responsibility to the school; for improving themselves and working girls in general by discussing topics of interest concerning their trades, and by giving entertainments which are of real interest and value. They have carried out schemes for adding to the general finances of the school or for obtaining money for special objects, such as shower baths for the gymnasium. They have given several suppers to bring the faculty and former students together, in order to discuss informally trade and school matters.
FOOTNOTES:[A]This maximum is not in paste or glue work, but in the silk lampshade trade.
[A]This maximum is not in paste or glue work, but in the silk lampshade trade.
[A]This maximum is not in paste or glue work, but in the silk lampshade trade.
Theorganizing of a girls' trade school in any given locality necessitates the meeting of many problems of a serious nature. Some of these appear immediately and require consideration before a satisfactory curriculum can be developed, but most of them are hydra-headed, and one phase is no sooner settled than another arises. Attention must be given to them whenever they come if any progress is to be made in solving the question of the broadest and yet most practical education for the girl who must earn her living in trade. These problems are so connected with the keenest yet most obscure social and industrial questions of the day on one hand, and, on the other, with the future of the race, that they are often very puzzling. Some of them can never be entirely settled, though they can be temporarily adjusted to immediate needs. The following are selected as representative.
Many schools of a domestic or technical nature have been opened in the United States, but the instruction in them is for the home or for educational purposes rather than for business. The trades, if they are represented at all in these schools, are general in character, covering often many branches of an industry in a short series oflessons, and not having the particular subdivisions and special equipment which are found at present in the regular market. Employers of labor have not been favorably impressed with the practical usefulness of the graduates in their workrooms. As the sole reason for the existence of the Manhattan Trade School is to meet this requirement of employers, and therefore to develop a better class of wage-earners directly adapted to trade needs, the instruction must be in accord with methods in the shops and factories of New York City. Such specific trade education for fourteen-year-old girls was new, and therefore the problem of organization had to be faced for the first time in America. Careful study of the workrooms and the industrial conditions of New York City was essential before the aims or the curriculum could be decided upon and the school could be opened for instruction. Furthermore, if the training is to be kept up to date this study of trade conditions must not cease, and readjustments of the curriculum must equal the changes taking place in the outside workrooms. Consequently these problems must be met repeatedly.
On beginning the trade courses at the school a difficulty was discovered immediately which brought home the truth of the complaint made by trade that young workers are utterly incompetent. The students coming to the school were allowed by law to enter trade, as they had met all requirements for obtaining their working papers, but they were not found to have sufficientfoundation to begin the first simple steps at the school without some preliminary training. The defects which were especially evident were: (1) lack of sufficient skill with the hand; (2) inability to utilize their public school academic work in practical trade problems; (3) dullness in taking orders and in thinking clearly of the needs which arise; (4) absence of ideals; and (5) need of knowledge of the laws of health and how to apply them. Preliminary, elementary instruction in all of these subjects had, therefore, to be organized and given to the entering students before they could begin upon their true trade work. Such instruction is and will continue to be necessary unless the public elementary school arranges to give, between the fifth and eighth grades, a more satisfactory preparation to those who must earn their living. The Manhattan Trade School has been obliged to give from two to eight months to elementary branches of instruction alone. The kind of work needed varies constantly with the condition of the students. Every one requires some of it, but many must take months of tutoring. Public instruction could readily give the practical academic work which the school has organized. Such instruction would not only directly help the pupils who must leave early to work, but would lay a good foundation for the vocational education which is being planned for the early years of the public secondary schools.
As the courses at the Manhattan Trade School developed, an intermediate phase between the preparatorywork and the direct trade training took definite shape. This middle ground partakes in many ways of trade processes and lays a good foundation for shop work. It utilizes the early education, gives point to it, awakens in the student enthusiasm for her chosen trade, and shows her that it is worth her while to work hard if she would succeed. It takes from four to eight months, according to the student's ability to meet the requirements. Public instruction could also develop this intermediate field to advantage for those who, not wishing to enter the regular high school course, would be glad to avail themselves of further practical education. Such occupations for women as cooking, sewing, garment and dressmaking, millinery, laundry work, home nursing, household administration, care of children, novelty work, electric power operating, salesmanship, and other interesting activities can well be offered in Vocational Education. As the student in her chosen field plans, considers expenses, and contrives to utilize her material she gains skill, adaptability, judgment, and the true basis of criticism. The world's work interests her as its meaning becomes clear through her own experiences, and she begins to see ways to better her condition and to be a factor in the improvement of her home. She appreciates the value of her early education, and finds it worth while to think clearly and to act wisely; she listens to instructions, asks sensible directions, and goes to work without waste of time. The elementary and intermediate training just described, which the school found it must give preparatory to its real trade instruction, has proved advantageous as an introduction, for the student cannow quickly adapt herself to the work in the school shops, as she possesses the foundation qualities needed to make the best worker. She has to begin at the simplest trade work, to be sure, but can rise as rapidly as she shows ability. She has been carefully watched by her instructors and turned gradually in the direction best fitted to her.
Offering courses in many varieties of trade work exactly as they are found in a city like New York has many recurring difficulties, as has been before stated. The constant and rapid adaptations to fashion, the new mechanical devices introduced, and the labor situations are factors to be considered. The management must be ready at a moment's notice to change, increase, or drop work according to the demands of a fickle market. It would seem, therefore, that at present the problems of the school trade shops are of too serious and unsettled a character for adequate solution by public instruction as at present organized, for (1) it would be difficult to persuade the mass of taxpayers that added tax rates are advisable for beginning a continually altering form of education which has not yet commended itself to all employers or to all wage-earners, and which must be more or less expensive; (2) the usual public school committee man knows little of trade conditions, and would probably be averse to allowing a school the freedom to change at will its course of study and even the very trades it teaches; yet, on the other hand, if the trade school must wait for board action before altering its plans, it would prejudice the value of its instruction,which must be flexible if it would train its students directly for the market; (3) the impossibility of obtaining its teachers from the usual "waiting list" and the difficulties attending the selection of a satisfactory teaching force.
The possibilities for offering highly specialized, skilled work are great, but the poverty of the students limits their time at the day school. To help all girls who work, and who wish to get ahead, night classes have been organized from time to time, and during the day also temporary instruction is offered to any one who has a slack time in her trade. As the school is organized into trade shops, with the same specialization as in the market, a student can enter or be placed from almost any point. This increases its usefulness but complicates its management.
As trade instruction is new in education, the normal schools have not begun training teachers regularly for these positions, nor, indeed, are they yet prepared to do so. The organizer of a trade school faces, therefore, a serious difficulty in obtaining instructors who are adequate to the task before them.
The following trade teaching staff is needed: supervisors of the various trades; forewomen to direct the school shops; trade instructors to teach the various groups of students the specialized processes; assistants to attend to minor matters in the workrooms; art teachers, who have had experience in designing for the various trades represented; academic instructors whoknow the working world practically and can give the students a training which, while helping them in their trades, will broaden their knowledge of and sympathy in the world's work. All of these teachers must not only have had experience in trade, but must continually keep in touch with the methods of the outside market. Unsuccessful trade workers, who often wish to teach, or teachers who know nothing of the needs of trade workrooms, cannot adequately prepare students for specific trade positions. Trade knows what it wants, is a severe critic and an unsparing judge. The trade school, therefore, cannot afford to rely on instructors who would be themselves unsuccessful in the market, for the result would be certain failure in the students. Such specific training requires exceptional knowledge in its teaching force. The usual teacher of manual training knows too little of the ways of the workrooms and is too theoretical in her instruction to be trusted to train workers who must satisfy trade demands. On the other hand, the trade worker, good as she may be in her specialty, seldom knows how to teach. She can drive her group of workers, but she cannot train the green hands to do more than work quickly at one thing. She can make them work, but she cannot make them better workers. When she has orders to turn out, her lifelong training makes her think of the rapid completion of the articles rather than the careful development of the students who are making them. If she is not watched she will choose the girl to do a piece of work who can do it well and quickly (but who does not need this experience), rather than the one who should do it in order to have practice in it.
The problem is to find a way to unite the good teacher and the successful worker. Such a combination appears at rare intervals. At the present time the teacher who can adequately prepare young workers for trade has to be taught while she is herself teaching. She may be chosen from either the industrial or the educational field, if she has certain qualities of mind and spirit, but she must now make up the points she lacks, be it experience in trade or ability to teach. Supervisors need special insight and capability, as they are called upon to investigate a new and difficult field, to select from it the subjects needed, and after that to organize education of a most practical kind. They combine the duties of school principal, teacher, forewoman, factory superintendent, and business manager. They must be willing to give themselves to the cause, as they are responsible for the conduct of their departments throughout the year, at night as well as during the day, at least until they can train some one to whom they can delegate some of their responsibility. They need a broad, cultural education and, at the same time, interest and knowledge of the industrial problems of the time, as well as experience in their particular trade. They must have sympathy with the working people and their lives. It is evident that such women are hard to find, and when found or when trained are in demand by other institutions or in business life, in which places they can command high salaries. All efficient trade teachers also are equally in demand in workrooms, hence the school must compete with good business salaries in place of the usual underpay of educational institutions.
In addition to the trade teachers, practical instructors in healthful living and special secretaries needing social knowledge of various kinds are also essential in the modern trade school for girls. Their training adds to the director's responsibilities, for no one at present has the knowledge and experience necessary.
The many problems connected with obtaining an adequate teaching staff seem at present to have but one solution,i. e., the school has to be its own training school for its faculty to a greater or less extent. One source of assistant teachers has been found in students who have made good in trade. Pupils of fair education who show skill and executive ability in their department work and who later succeed in their trade positions have already proved helpful when brought back to the school. Such girls know the courses of instruction, their needs and difficulties, and also the outside workroom demands. If they are given some hints in methods of teaching, their success is greater. European trade schools for girls have drawn many of the best teachers from the student body and have organized teachers' training classes for them. A course of regular training for trade pupil teachers should be given later in American training schools to meet this situation.
As the changes about to occur in the market must be recognized and inserted in the curriculum in time for the students to be prepared for the new work when they are placed, set courses of study cannot be followed without endangering the practical value of the teaching.Furthermore, the pupils must be advanced as they show ability, and their different characteristics should have consideration; hence the work must be sufficiently flexible and adaptable to allow for increasing one kind of training and decreasing another, in order to develop a girl's best ability. It is not the trade courses only which should be fitted to the need, but the trade-art, trade-academic, and physical education must also shift and introduce needed material as quickly as would the market grasp at new plans for the workrooms. Nor is it sufficient that the curriculum should adapt itself merely to training girls for trade positions. It is never to be forgotten that these students are to be made into higher grade workers and citizens, and that the greater number of them will marry. In general, it can be said that woman's entrance into industry is more or less temporary in that it is apt to precede or to follow marriage, and, as a rule, is not continuous. Good citizenship for these young wage-earners should mean the better home as well as the broader views of industrial life. The inserting into an already too brief training the important factors for making the better home-keeper requires study of the ethics and economics of home and social life in addition to the study of the industrial situation, and places continuous problems before the faculty.
In order to be in vital touch with the practical needs and changes of the market, special investigations of trade have been and are continually conducted by the faculty of the school. Effort is made by them also to keep inclose contact with industrial and social organizations of workers in settlements, clubs, societies, and unions, that all phases of the wage-earner's life, pleasures, aims, and needs, may be appreciated. The pupils in attendance are studied to know their conditions of health, their tendencies, their needs, their improvement. After their entry into trade they are kept in touch with the school through the Placement Bureau, clubs, graduate associations, and also by visits from the school's investigator, in order to note the effect of their training on their self-support, their workrooms, and their homes. Groups of trained and untrained girls are compared, that differences and benefits may be noted and the true situation may be clearly understood.
That the essentials of this class of education might be grasped as far as possible, the director of the school made a six months' investigation of the professional schools for girls on the continent of Europe. This study was made after the Manhattan Trade School had been organized and was running successfully. The problems were then well in hand, and advantage could be taken the better of differing standpoints. In some European countries such practical instruction has been established for half a century. Each country has organized the work according to its own view of woman's position in industrial and domestic life. Many aspects of the problem can therefore be studied and various courses of instruction consulted. This investigation covered three interesting fields. First, the organization of the schools, including the equipment; the teachers and their training; the budget; the order work; the relation of the schoolto employers; the placing of the girls in positions; the wages; the schemes for financial aid, and the work of the alumnæ associations. Second, the trades taught and the courses of instruction; the general education required at entrance and that given as an integral part of trade; the trade-art courses; the housekeeping and training of servants; the development of ideas of better living and the training for responsibility in home and trade life. Third, the visiting of workrooms employing women; the obtaining information on the effect of trade schools; the students' usefulness and ability to advance, and a survey of the crafts conducted in the homes of the people.
A trade school must do its skilled handwork in the fashion of the day and on correct materials, yet the students are too poor to work for themselves. A school budget cannot supply such large quantities of valuable materials unless it can get some return for them. The school shop in each department, where orders both private and custom are taken, has proved advantageous, but involves great problems of administration: (1) the actual business methods and management connected with the invoices, sales, and delivery of goods; (2) the obtaining of orders needed and of the quantity desirable; (3) the taking of custom orders, fitting the customer, and delivery of orders on time; (4) a satisfactory apportionment of the order work so that the students may profit by it and not be expected to continue it after they have had sufficient experience of one kind, or if they are not yet able to do the elaborate work involved;(5) the finding of operatives who will do what the students cannot or should not do; (6) the expense involved in employing workers at trade prices and for shorter hours; (7) the cost of articles, and other details which are involved in entering into competition with trade. It may be stated that no trade school should underbid the market, but should charge the full prices and expect to give equivalent returns. A trade school cannot afford to be an amateur supported by a philanthropic public, but must have a recognized business standard.
Problems of varied kinds meet the school in placing its students. Each new enactment of child labor or industrial laws has its influence. Even a good law will sometimes have a temporary serious effect in lowering wages or turning capable girls out of satisfactory positions. Care must be exercised that students are not placed where there is a possibility of running counter to the best interests of labor. The desire to place each pupil where she can develop to her highest condition requires continual knowledge of the market needs and of the characteristics of the many girls. Records of students entering, studying, and placed, the kinds of positions open, and industrial and labor information must be kept up to date, yet such data are often hard to secure.
An important question that is always before a trade school is the effect the instruction may have on the working people. It is difficult for one not continuallyin the midst of the pressure of the actual trade to know the many ways that thoughtless advance in trade teaching may react to the disadvantage of the very ones that the school wishes to help. Injury may be done by preparing too many for certain occupations, filling places where a strike is on, replacing well-paid positions with trade school girls at a less price, placing the girls at too small a wage for their skill, doing order work at too low a price or when a strike is on, considering too closely the fitting of a worker for the employer's benefit rather than for the broadening of her own life, and like thoughtless actions. The difficulties of the situation are great and the solution frequently obscure, but a fair-minded school must be in touch with the effort the working woman herself has inaugurated to better her condition. The apparently unnecessary suspicion with which the laboring class regards the organization of trade instruction would have foundation if no thought were given to the trade conditions as the working girl sees them. A trade school for fourteen-year-old girls need not make a point of their immediate entrance into unions, but it should consider the subject simply and wisely in all its bearings, that the students may know the full aims and advantages of coöperation as well as the point of view and many difficulties of the employers.
The faculty of a trade school needs the coöperation and assistance of the working people and the employers of labor. Only through intimate interrelation with them can the best and most practical results be obtained.Auxiliaries and committees of employers and of wage-earners; visits of the staff of the school to trade, and of employers, forewomen, and workers to the school; the carrying out of orders for workrooms and assisting them at busy seasons, are some of the ways by which the Manhattan Trade School has tried to gain the help of the busy industrial world.
The aid given to enable the poorest students to attend the school has brought its own questions, such as: the danger of pauperizing the recipients; the methods of selecting the beneficiaries; the best way to give the weekly aid; the development of a spirit of earnest work and regular attendance in the girls thus aided; the stimulation of a desire to return some equivalent in special helpfulness to the Manhattan Trade School or to its students, and the eliminating of this philanthropic effort from any apparent relation to school work.
FOOTNOTES:[B]In order to explain these problems, it will be necessary to repeat some of the data in Part I.
[B]In order to explain these problems, it will be necessary to repeat some of the data in Part I.
[B]In order to explain these problems, it will be necessary to repeat some of the data in Part I.
Thefirst home of the Manhattan Trade School was a large four-story and basement dwelling house, for which a rental of $2,100 per annum was paid. The initial permanent equipment and first temporary stock provided for one hundred students, and cost $9,500. This amount was utilized principally for the furnishing of special rooms for electric power operating; for sewing; for dressmaking; for millinery; for pasting; and for the more general equipment of offices, academic and art rooms, a kitchen, and a lunch room. The following lists show the range of expenses for furnishing the main workrooms with necessary equipment:
Garment or Dressmaking Workroom
Sewing machines, each$18.00to$70.00Work, cutting, and ironing tables, each6.00to20.00upwardElectric irons, each7.75Gas stove (necessary when electric irons are not used), each2.00upwardCheval glass, each20.00to100.00upwardChairs, each.50to3.00upwardExhibition, stock closets, cabinets, and chests of drawers, each10.00to100.00upwardFitting stands, each2.00to30.00upwardFitting room (a curtained alcove), each10.00upwardFitting room (a furnished room), each100.00upwardDress forms, per dozen30.00upwardWaist forms, per dozen6.00upwardSleeve forms, pair1.00to1.50upwardLockers, per running foot3.00to8.00upward
A room for twenty workers may be plainly furnished at a cost of $300 to $500. If a large number of expensive sewing machines are desired, the estimates must be increased by several hundred dollars. The Manhattan Trade School has forty foot-power machines of the kinds most in use in the workrooms of New York.
The equipping of a workroom for electric power operating, including general and special machines, motor, cutting and work tables, cabinets and chairs, will be considerably more expensive than the one for garment making. In the latter, one sewing machine can be used by several workers, but in electric operating each worker must have her own machine. The electric motor adds also to the expense. The minimum cost of equipping a shop for twenty workers would be $1,000 to $1,500. The necessary equipment would be as follows:
Electric Operating Workroom
Plain sewing machines in rows, per head$22.50upwardTroughs for work between the rows and tables for the machines (per every two machines)10.00Special machines (two needle, embroidery, lace stitch, buttonhole, straw sewing, and the like), each according to kind35.00to 125.00Motor, each140.00upwardElectric cutter, each25.00upwardCabinets, tables, chairs, and irons, see above
The Manhattan Trade School has fifty-five plain electric sewing machines and thirty-two special machines, as follows: three buttonhole, one two-needle, one binding,one zigzag, five hemstitching, five tucker, four Bonnaz, one braider, one hand embroidery, one scalloping, nine straw sewing.
In workrooms conducting trades which use paste, gum, and glue, the following special equipment is required:
Glue pots, gas, each$7.50upwardGlue pots, electric, each21.75upwardHand cutter, each50.00upwardCabinets, tables, chairs, and irons, see above
The cost of equipping a shop would be from $200 to $400.
Special machines for perforating designs or for pleating materials are often needed in teaching the garment trades. Wholesale prices can usually be obtained when the order is large. Dealers have also shown themselves willing to sell their machines at low prices, to loan them, and even to give them to a school which has proved its ability to train good workers.
When it was appreciated that the original quarters of the school were too limited, the Board of Administrators went to work with great enthusiasm and in a few months collected the requisite money and bought a large business loft building at 209-213 East 23d Street, at an expense of $175,000. To put it in order for work cost $5,000 in addition. The former equipment was used and $5,000 more was spent for such needed items as: machines, $3,200; motor, $352; perforating machine, $38; additional master clocks, $233; chairs and tables, $850. The school is furnished in a simple, businesslike manner, the equipment merely reproducing good workroom requirements,i. e., essentials only.
The budget for the first year, 1902-1903, was $22,094.16, of which the salaries for teachers took about one-half and the rent and maintenance covered the other half. During this year there were 113 students admitted. In 1908-1909, after six years of rapid growth, the educational budget is $49,000, or more than double the original, of which the salaries are $38,806; the supplies, $1,710; printing and publishing, $600; maintenance, $9,900. At the beginning of 1908 there were 254 students in the school; 689 were registered during the year, making a total of 943 girls, being almost nine times the number in attendance during the first year.
The Manhattan Trade School has depended for its support entirely upon voluntary contributions. There have been few large donations and the donors represent all classes of the community—patrons of and workers in sociological, economic, philanthropic, and educational fields, employers of labor, and auxiliaries of many kinds of workers organized for special purposes. The most significant help, perhaps, and the largest in proportion to its income, has been that of the wage-earners themselves—not only the girl who has benefited by the instruction, but the general mass of women workers. These women, knowing the difficulties in their own struggle to rise, have shown themselves willing to set apart weekly a small sum to help young girls to attain quickly efficiency through systematic training. The auxiliaries of wage-earners are a mainstay of the school on account of their helpful enthusiasm, theirpractical suggestions, their interest in girls trained there, and their regular subscriptions on which the Board of Administrators can depend.
Theoriginal staff of the Manhattan Trade School, 1902-1903, consisted of a Director, an Executive Secretary, 4 supervisors (Operating, Dressmaking, Pasting, and Art), 5 instructors and forewomen, 4 or 5 assistants and occasional workers, a janitor, and 2 cleaners. The present staff, 1909-1910, consists of (1)Office Administration, 11: Director, Executive Secretary, Assistant Secretary, 2 Stenographers (office and placement), Placement Secretary, Investigator, Business Clerk, Buyer, and 2 Assistants (records, telephone, etc.). (2)Teaching Force, Supervisors, and Assistant Supervisors, 7: Dressmaking, Dressmaking workroom, Electric Operating, Millinery, Novelty, Physical Education, Art.Instructors, Teachers, and Forewomen, 11: Academic, 2; Dressmaking, 3; Operating, 5; Art, 1.Assistants, 14: Dressmaking, 7; Novelty, 3; Operating, 1; Physical Education, 2; Art, 1. (3)Doctor.(4)Care of Building, 7: Engineer, Janitor, Machinist, Cleaners 2, Elevator boy, and Night watchman.
I. Age: fourteen to seventeen years. The law requires a child to remain in public school until fourteen.The Manhattan Trade School has found that under fourteen a girl is too immature to specialize in trade work, and that over seventeen most girls are too mature to fit into the work planned for the majority of the class.
II. Public School Grade: 5-A or above. The subject matter of 5-A grade or its equivalent is required by the state before a child can leave to work. If for illness or other good cause a girl has not made this grade, she is admitted to the Trade School with special permission of principal of last school attended, and, while studying her trade, the necessary amount of schooling is made up to her by special classes and coaching. The Board of Health recognizes this substitute.
Grade of girls admitted since beginning is shown in following table:
Grade upon Leaving School