The great question is, How can the girl get sufficient training and experience to enter the trade? Doubtless she must be older, perhaps 16 or 17, and must have shown some ability to sew, else it will be useless for her to endeavor to enter the trade. This, therefore, means that the girl must not have any pressing or immediate necessity for economic independence and that she must look forward to a moderate income for some time. Although the length of working season in the trade in Worcester would doubtless give as large an immediate income as some of the factory industries, it would not be proportionate to the length of time she may have given to preparation. The largest trade-training problem is therefore the one connected with that trade which offers the greatest opportunity. There is, without doubt, a demand for a small number of short-course trained girls, 20 perhaps, at present, each year, but there is a fair outlook that with the growth of the industry those types of shops which require young workers might develop, and that the great dearth of workers would result in the utilization of a larger number of well-trained beginners. On the whole, the situation seems to demand longer courses in which the actual trade or technical training shall be much extended, giving to the girl a two, three, or four year course. Such a course, however, would necessitate from the beginning a different plan of work from that offered in the shorter course. The longer course must get the girl somehow into the field. There are apparently certain stages at which she could enter the trade: (1) As a little more mature assistant in a dressmaking shop; (2) as a seamstress; or (3) as assistant to day workers in the home, thus gradually preparing herself to become the day worker of the simple type. As the schools develop, doubtless it will be possible and desirable to establish short dull-season courses, or perhaps short evening continuation courses for the more mature workers, in which instruction shall be given in some particular phase of the trade, such as drafting, waist draping, or designing.

(3) Millinery: To a great number of girls, millinery is the most attractive of all the trades, offering, as it does, unlimited opportunity for the exercise of creative ability. Unlike dressmaking, millinery still retains a system of apprenticeship by which young girls can learn the trade. This trade, at least in all but the most exclusive shops, has two fairly well-marked divisions, one requiring deftness and one artistic powers; the one a trade, the other an art. The less skilled division of work, ordinarily known as the making of hats, offers opportunity for a fairly large number of young girls who can profitably be put upon the simpler kinds of work. The dressmaking trade does not have such clearly defined divisions, so that in that trade it is difficult for a wholly unskilled girl to do any part which does not merge into the skilled processes.

The young apprentice in millinery who serves for a year without pay is put upon such simple parts of the hat as making bands and the simpler frames, putting in linings, and wiring ribbons, from which she may progress into the somewhat more complicated work of the "maker." It is in this process that she may be tried out, and the siftings result in the retention of the more able girl who may then become a maker with the power to earn a fair wage with perhaps a longer season than the trimmer. It is from this group and through this educational process that the girl with the artistic ability-the prospective trimmer-is discovered. She must be the woman of real ability and knack. It is not to be supposed that the more expert or even the less skilled maker can succeed unless she has a certain degree of millinery taste, but it is only the girl with the exceptional power who can become the trimmer.

The trade therefore must be looked upon as being almost two distinct trades-the higher being the development through the lower and each requiring certain similar yet certain peculiar ability for success. However, into the lower trade may go many girls with moderate ability who can make a fair wage in a pleasant trade. Into the higher trade can only be admitted those with the exceptional artistic ability. As a whole, the opportunity in millinery is limited as to wage for the large numbers who may enter. It is limited as to numbers in the highly paid work.

Unlike the dressmaking trade, millinery suffers very little from outside competition in Worcester. Tradespeople say that only a few of the wealthier people buy their hats in Boston, and that the number of customers lost to each milliner in this way is so small as to be almost negligible. There are at present some 50 or 60 milliners listed in the Worcester directory, but probably not more than 20 of these employ over 1 or 2 women. Sixteen of the large establishments were visited, including the millinery shops of four department stores. These establishments report places for 52 learners a year, under the present system, and their total number of employees is about 200. Here, as in dressmaking, the stability of the workers is a marked feature of the trade. Milliners frequently reported that they had retained their most skilled employees 5, 10, or 15 years. Most of the milliners prefer to take girls over 16 years of age, and only 3 establishments were found employing girls between 14 and 16. There are opportunities in plenty for the older girl, but very few for the 14 and 16 year old girl. As the milliners say, "What can you expect of girls of 14 They are only children."

The number of milliners desiring girls over 18 years of age was 2; at 16, 4; at 15, 6; at 14, 2; indifferent as to age of workers, 2.

The number of firms employing no girls 14 to 16 years of age was 2; 1 girl of that age, 0; 2 girls, 2; 3 girls, 1; not reporting, 1.

Types of millinery shops in Worcester, illustrating kinds of workers and range of wage.

Millinery, like dressmaking, shows various stages of economic evolution, and a resultant variety of types of shops. Four fairly definite types appear in Worcester: (1) The small custom shop where the employer does most of the trimming and hires several makers at $6 or $8 a week; (2) the high-grade custom shop, employing a head trimmer at $25 a week, a trimmer at $18, some 10 or so makers ranging from $3 to $10, and an apprentice and stock girl; (3) the large millinery store; and (4) the millinery department of a department store, with correspondingly higher pay for the trimmers in accordance with degree of skill or responsibility required.

The wages therefore show a wide range for the trade as a whole, but a fairly common wage in all shops for similar work. The division requiring creative artistic ability shows a wider range, from $10 to $45, as the tables indicate, according to the amount of responsibility assumed and the degree of artistic and creative ability possessed.

Two features of millinery seem to make trade-school work possible for the girl who wishes to enter or who has entered the trade. First, it is more highly seasonal than any other skilled industry for women. Second, it is characterized by an apprenticeship system, which means that the girl who goes into the trade gives her services without remuneration for two seasons, averaging about 3 months each. Unless the girl can find some other occupation for her dull seasons, which cover about 3 months in winter and 3 in summer, she must work for a year without pay. The second year she is started on a small wage, usually not more than $3 a week, and her pay advances by degrees as her skill increases, but, as one employer put it, she does not become a "real milliner" for 2 years. Now it is a self-evident fact that both the seasonal aspect of the trade and the system of apprenticeship which prevails with most milliners tend to exclude the girl who by reason of economic pressure is obliged to get to work as soon as the law allows, and to attract the girl who can afford to

wait for the higher wage which comes with experience and a high degree of skill. Yet all the milliners visited reported a great number of girls from whom to choose. Reports from 51 workers in the millinery trade showed that 40 per cent were high-school girls and 50 per cent from the ninth grade, while none had ever worked in unskilled industries. So that in dealing with the millinery situation, the question of the child's economic ability to avail herself of trade training need not enter into the discussion. It is safe to assume that the child who can afford to go into millinery can afford to go to a trade school.

The question which does confront us, the one which some milliners ask, is whether apprenticeship in a millinery workroom does not give the child a better equipment than the training which a trade school could offer? A survey of the situation leads to the conclusion that the present system of apprenticeship leaves much to be desired from the point of view of the prospective learner. Even with the minimum age limit at 16, as is the case in most millinery shops, there seems to be maladjustment and waste. Only 3 of the milliners interviewed were able to say that most of their apprentices "made good," and 1 of these 3 would not take any learners who were not experienced sewers. Two milliners said they used their apprentices each year with no thought of retaining them when they reached the point where they could demand pay. What, then, can the trade school give these girls which the shops can not give them? A training under teachers who can take time enough to give each girl a thorough try out, their aim being to develop individual efficiency, even though the process may be long and unremunerative.

The labor situation in the millinery trade in Worcester, therefore, is much less serious than in the dressmaking trade. There is an annual demand for about 50 young girls now, showing opportunity for larger numbers than in the dressmaking trade. The opportunity is small for the girl of not much skill, but larger for the fairly skilled worker-that is, for the expert maker and fair for the skilled trimmer. The pay for the expert maker is good and for the skilled trimmer excellent. But it must be noted that the season in the millinery trade is short.

Girls must be fairly efficient to enter and to continue in the trade. Its workers are necessarily a selected few, for two reasons. First, they must have natural ability and millinery taste. Moreover, they must acquire ability to sew and deftness in handling materials which can be developed with training. One milliner says that one of the requisites of millinery workers in a town like Worcester is the ability to make things over; to renovate, rearrange, freshen up old materials, requiring a large amount of ingenuity. Second, the girl who desires to go into millinery must be efficient, but one who need not

acquire immediate economic independence, because the trade partakes of the nature of a profession. She must be the girl with small necessity for economic independence or a larger wage for sometime to come. The more efficient girl without economic independence may be able to go into the trade, and by a brave struggle succeed, by filling in her dull seasons with anything which she may find to do; but for the less efficient it would be questionable.

A possible solution for the problem of a secondary trade appears in the valentine and fancy paper-goods factory of Worcester. The proprietor of the factory thought a large number of his workershe employs 200 in the busy season-came from the millinery shops. Unfortunately, at present the busy seasons overlap somewhat. The time of maximum employment in the valentine factory is from September to December, although the work continues through January and February. The busy season for millinery is September and October, and for some workers, November. Since the valentines, cards, etc., are made for the next year's sale, the question arises if it might not be possible to shift the season somewhat in the valentine factory. Millinery workers might be shifted during their dull season into such a factory, and if they proved their superior ability this change would probably come about of itself. The summer season usually brings opportunities in the hotels at summer resorts for girls who are economically dependent. If some such adjustments with secondary occupations could be made, the economically dependent girl who may chance to have real ability and efficiency along lines of millinery art may find great opportunity to enter and develop her art in the trade.

What significance, then, has this situation for the trade school? There would be, without doubt, a demand on the part of a fair number for a short course, which might be offered to the younger girls in the trade school. There certainly seems to be opportunity for advanced and medium dull-season courses or evening courses, since there is a dull season of 3 months in the winter and 3 months in the summer, and since the reports of milliners seem to show a large number of girls not immediately economically independent. Finally, this economic condition might seem to indicate a moderate demand for longer courses of 2 years.

VII. SUMMARY.

Worcester is a city of factory industries which employ more than 8,000 women. Four industries-machine operating, textiles, wire and metal goods, and paper goods-receive 90 per cent of these

women.