large factories of Worcester as a test case.

The returns were not as

complete as might have been secured if the investigators could have personally supervised filling in the cards, and we should advise this in the future if permission could be obtained from the firm. The results, did, however, confirm the impressions gained from the study of a single year's group of girls going to work. The third question did not draw as satisfactory results as desired and would be better worded thus: "Were you compelled to leave school to go to work?"

Questionnaire for women factory workers.

1. How old were you when you left school?..

2. In what grade were you when you left school?.

3. Why did you leave school?.....

4. How long have you been out of school?..

5. What are the different kinds of work you have done?..

1st.

2d.

3d..
4th.

Present...

6. If the school had taught trades would you have stayed a year longer to learn trade work?.

SOURCES OF INFORMATION.

The age and schooling certificates in Worcester and Somerville provided invaluable statistics as to total numbers, age, and schooling of girls going to work.

Through the courtesy of the chief district police, lists of factories and shops in the records of the factory inspectors of the cities studied were placed at the disposal of the State board of education. These statistics enabled the investigators to discover what industries were drawing the girls and women workers and to select wisely and visit representative establishments. Sixty-three establishments in Worcester were visited, including not only the largest women-employing1 industries, but also those offering greater opportunity for skill, development, and financial advancement.

The names, addresses, and school history of some 500 girls were secured from the public schools of Worcester. Three hundred were followed to the addresses given, and 214 located and visited. The age and schooling certificates of 727 girls who went to work in the past year, the records of 214 girls visited in their homes, the information gained from visits to 63 establishments, and the factory inspectors' reports, therefore, provide the material for the study of the needs of and opportunity for trade training in Worcester.

The term "women-employing" is used in this study to indicate those in which large numbers of women and girls are engaged. The term "girls" to indicate girls 14 and under 16 years of age.

II. INDUSTRIAL OPPORTUNITIES FOR WOMEN IN

WORCESTER.

Worcester is one of the great manufacturing cities of Massachusetts. In 19051 it ranked third in New England and twenty-ninth in the United States. The knowledge that many women are working in the industries of Worcester and that many girls are commencing work at a very early age has aroused the schools and the community to endeavor to discover what the real conditions are, and what more can be done by the schools to prepare the girls for their life. It has well been said that children may be either "book-minded" or "motorminded." The "book-minded" take advantage of the present opportunities, continue in one type or another of the schools, and finally enter professional or commercial life. The "motor-minded" girl is one who learns more by seeing, handling, doing things than she does from books. The purpose of this study is threefold: First, to discover what has become of these "motor-minded" girls who have entered industry at 14 or 15 years of age; second, to suggest, if possible, how the schools can persuade them to give a longer period to preparation; and, third, to discover what is the type of preparation which would fit them for the demands of the industries of the community.

It is therefore with these children who have dropped out of school during the past year that this study is concerned. It in no way considers the girls who now remain in school, and can afford a period of four years or more after they have completed the grammar grades; nor does it concern itself in any way with the book-minded child who through accident or temporary discouragement has been forced out of school, but might be influenced to return. It must be kept in mind, therefore, that the study considers the child 14 or 15 years of age, the child whose interests and abilities are for the more active and industrial pursuits.

Three definite lines of attack have been followed in making this study. First, it seemed necessary to gain a general view of all kinds of industries employing women; second, to intensify on those trades which seem to offer to the woman worker the greatest opportunity for self-development, for financial advancement, and for large demand; third, to follow to their homes the girls who had left school to go to work in the past year, to obtain some conception of the economic situation and aims and ambitions of these families.

Although the manufactures of Worcester are more diversified than in many of the New England cities, four great industries, viz, machine operating (manufactures of corsets, women's clothing, shoes, and slippers), textiles, wire and metal goods, and paper products, are the

1 Census of Massachusetts, 1905; III. Manufactures and trade, XXXIX.

great women-employing industries of Worcester. Accordingly, visits were made to 11 clothing factories, representing all the largest establishments and employing about 1,200 workers; to the 3 largest corset factories (of a total of 6), employing more than 2,000 women and girls; to 3 out of 7 shoe factories, employing about 225 workers; to 6 out of 18 textile mills, employing 800 women; to 1 of the 39 or more wire and metal factories, employing about 150 women; to 3 of the 10 envelope and paper goods factories, employing over 600 women; and to a biscuit factory.

A more comprehensive study of the trades offering a higher grade of work was attempted, and visits were made to 19 dressmakers (1 of whom was conducting the department for custom wear in the largest department store), employing some 200 women, and to 16 millinery establishments (4 of which constituted the millinery department of the 4 largest department stores), employing some 200 women. Worcester is, however, primarily a city of factory industries, which have shown a very rapid growth in the last few years. In 1908," for instance, 4 corset factories, employing 1,029 women workers, are reported, as compared with 6 corset factories in 1910, employing about 2,000 women and girl workers. The growth of this industry, undoubtedly, partially explains the increase in the number of 14- to 16-year-old girls who are leaving school to go to work.

The problems which concern us in this discussion of the need and opportunity for trade training for women will follow four main lines: (1) The annual exodus of young girls from the grammar schools, with a study of their age, schooling, nationality, and results gained from their early entrance into industry; (2) the industries which these young girls enter; (3) the kinds of work which the young girls do in these industries; and (4) the great women-employing industries in Worcester.

III. THE EXODUS OF YOUNG GIRLS FROM THE SCHOOLS.

A. Number of girls leaving school. The number of girls under 16 years of age who leave school to go to work has increased 40 per cent in the past five years. From September, 1909, to September, 1910, more than 700 girls' took out age and school certificates. Five years ago only 513 girls applied for these certificates, an increase of about 200 in all.

1 Total numbers of employees or of establishments for industries as a whole are based on the factory inspector's reports, which can be accepted only as indicative rather than statistical.

Twenty-third Annual Report on Statistics of Manufactures, 1908, p. 25.

* Number of certificates issued to girls within the past year and preserved in the office of the truant officer. This number probably includes some certificates taken out for temporary work, such as for the Christmas rush in the stores or for the summer vacation. Of 200 girls visited, however, less than half a dozen had taken out age and schooling certificates for temporary employment.

• This number is based on the figures given in the Report on Industrial and Technical Education, 1906,

p. 70.

The significance of this increase in the number of girl workers becomes apparent when it is discovered that there was an increase of only 10 per cent in the population during these five years. The increasing number and size of the great factories manufacturing corsets, textiles, and paper goods undoubtedly explains to some extent this increase in the number of girl workers, although the study of three cities, Worcester, Cambridge, and Somerville, seems to reveal a universal increase in the number of girls who go to work under 16.

Is this exodus of physically and mentally immature workers an economic necessity? Is it an ultimate benefit to the child? Is it an economic advantage to the employer? In fact, what is the effect of the large number of girl workers leaving school as soon as the law allows? Such are the questions these data force us to meet.

B. Age of girls leaving school. These facts concern us all the more when we discover that about 60 per cent of the girls who left school to go to work in the past year were only 14 years of age.2

Let us stop for a moment to see what this annual outgo of more than 700 girls under 16 years of age means to the community as well as to the girls. Are they prepared to take their place in the labor world, where approximately 10,000 women exclusive of home workers were employed last year, and what sort of preparation might have been given them?

C. Schooling.-Only 6 per cent of these girls have gone beyond the grammar grades; 8 per cent left school before reaching the sixth grade; about one-third dropped out in the sixth and seventh grades alone, and over one-half left school before reaching the ninth grade.* If all statistics, however, were complete, the proportion in all these groups would probably be larger, as the base used is the total number considered rather than those reporting.

D. Nationality. It is the natural assumption after visiting the factories to suppose that the exodus of young girls from the schools into the factories can be explained by the fact that large numbers are of southern European birth or descent. It is somewhat surprising, therefore, to find that 31 per cent of the girls who left school without special economic pressure were of Scandinavian, 20 per cent of American, and 20 per cent of Irish descent.5

1 Population of Worcester, 1905-128,135. (Census of Massachusetts, 1905, I.) Population of Worcester, 1910-145,986. (Special statement from Bureau of Labor, December, 1910.)

2 Seven hundred and twenty-seven age and schooling certificates issued in the year September, 1909September, 1910.

Age, under 14, 7: 14 and under 15, 431; 15 and under 16, 177; 16 and under 17, 24; 17 and under 18, 4; unclassified, 84; total, 727.

Under 14 years of age, 7: 11 years and 10 months; 13 years and 2 months; 13 years and 5 months; 2 of 13 years and 10 months; and 2 of 13 years and 11 months.

* Statistics from reports of factory inspection, together with data gathered from a personal study. See p. 56.

See p. 57. No data were secured on such a large number that the percentages are based here on the number reporting.

The northern European nationalities were also the predominating social elements leaving the schools of Cambridge and Somerville, which seems to indicate that for some reason the children of southern European descent are not found in large numbers through the publicschool records. This can probably be explained in three ways. A large number of the children of southern European birth or descent probably receive their schooling in the parochial schools. Some of the young girls observed in the industry were probably 16 or over at the time of their immigration to this country. Finally, there is reason to believe that some children get into industry without certificates, a fact which is also noted in the Government study of women in industry made in 1907.1

E. Economic and intellectual status of families.-Sixty-six per cent of the girls from 214 homes chosen from typical sections of the city might in the opinion of the visitor have gone on to school. Taking every factor into consideration, however, such as irregularity of parents' work, or father or mother dead, fully one-half, on a very conservative estimate, might have had longer schooling. Fully 55 per cent of the girls who left school in the past year came from really comfortable homes, and 58 per cent from intelligent families.

The importance of these facts becomes apparent when it is discovered that almost one-half of those going to work without special economic pressure were 14 years of age; that 25 per cent had not reached the seventh grade, and 60 per cent could not have passed the ninth-grade test. The surprising fact that one-quarter of those who left school without special economic pressure had not reached the seventh grade emphasizes the need of some kind of training which will capture these motor-minded girls and offer incentive for longer schooling.

Some 30 girls said they did not like school, could not get along with the teacher, were not promoted, or wanted to go to work. Two were working to help pay for a piano. One of these was a cash girl of 14 years who had left the ninth grade to go to work in a department store for $2, later $2.50 a week. The other was a girl of 15 from the eighth grade who went to work in a corset factory for $1 and rose to $4.82. Another girl was taking music lessons and contributing to the payment on the piano.

Twenty-seven girls were staying at home. In some cases they had left to help at home, while a few had left at a time of temporary stress and then had not returned to school. Four girls had changed places with the mother, who worked in a corset factory, laundry, or some such place, while the girl, whose wage-earning power was small, kept house for the mother or the children. A few were at home

1 Report on Condition of Woman and Child Wage Earners in the United States, I. Cotton Textile Industry, 1910. (61st Cong., 2d sess., S. Doc. No. 645, 156-162.)