24. Proprietor
Estimating, cost finding, study of composition, paper, ink, plates and engravings, composing room, pressroom, bindery, condition of printing trades, business development, visits to allied plants, plant organization and management, sales values.
PLAN No. 1238. THE GARMENT TRADES
This monograph was prepared by May H. Pope, under direction of Charles H. Winslow, Chief of the Research Division of the Federal Board for Vocational Education. Acknowledgment is due to Dr. John Cummings of the Research Division for editorial assistance.
A place to sleep, something to eat, and something to wear constitute the primary needs for us all. To satisfy the need for clothing a group of great American industries has developed—great in the value of their product as well as in the number of their workers.
From Hand Work to Machine Operation
It would be interesting to trace the development of the clothing industries out of the common household trade, using crude methods in introducing homemade garments, the materials for which were grown and spun and woven by the family, through the hand-sewing days and the various stages of foot-power machines to the present-day methods of electrically driven machines, adjusted to do most accurate work with special devices for all sorts of processes.
Providing a Prime Necessity
On the whole it may be conceded that these industries compare only fairly with others as regards prevailing conditions of labor, but as regards benefits conferred upon people generally, in placing within easy reach of all a prime necessity of life, the clothing industries rank very high.