| Class of work. | Character of work. | Hours (weekly). | Wages (weekly). | Requirements and qualifications. | Disqualifying handicaps. | Training required. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Custom tailors. | Making garments to order. | ... | ... | High-grade intelligence; knowledge of cutting, designing, operating; knowledge of materials, common-school education. | Bad eyesight; loss of both hands. | Tailors are trained in the trade. |
| Designers. | Create designs; select materials; make models; figures yardage and trimmings; estimates amount of material needed. | ... | $50 up to $12,000 a year. | Good judgment; artistic taste; high-grade intelligence; knowledge of drafting; experience in cutting and garment making; common-school education. | Blindness; loss of both hands. | Designers are trained by working as apprentices to custom tailors and to factory cutters. A course in drafting, either with a private teacher or at a school for designing is desirable. |
| Cutters. | Cutting of materials for garments; directing the spreading, marking, and cutting; using material economically; knowledge of fabrics. | 44 | $20 to $50, averaging $35. | Above average intelligence; accuracy; steady hand; ordinary strength; ability to stand; experience as spreader, marker, etc.; three years as apprentice, common-school education. | Loss of hand; amputation of the leg would seriously handicap unless a well-adjusted artificial limb enabled the man to stand easily; bad eyesight. | Cutters learn, through apprenticeship, the technique of laying patterns, stretching cloth, sloping, and the right use of materials; cutting small parts with knife; “repair” cutting with shears. |
| Sample makers. | Making samples of new models. | 44 | $30 to $60. | All-round tailor; knowledge of cutting, operating, fitting, ordinary strength and ability. | Bad eyesight; loss of arm. | The training is the same as for a tailor which is usually gotten in the trade. |
| Foremen. | Superintendent, supplying work, quality of work; quantity of work, training workers, keeping machines in repair. | 44 | $25 to $75. | Initiative; executive ability; mechanical ability; knowledge of processes; experience as cutter or fitter; ordinary strength and ability; common-school education. | Blindness. | Foremen are often selected from workers. Special training is sometimes given men with secondary education through a course in the workshop. |
| Machine operators. | Sewing parts together by machines; hemstitching; lace running; tucking; making buttonholes; button sewing. | 44 | $25. | Ordinary intelligence; adaptability; speed and manual dexterity; ability to stand nervous strain of noisy machines; ability to run power machines; knowledge of English. | Bad eyesight; loss of hands; tuberculosis; nervousness. | Instruction in power sewing machine operating and handling of materials. In a few weeks’ time an operator learns enough for an easy operation, a year or two years is required to become |
| Handworkers (very few men are employed). | Rough sewing; basting, fine sewing; finishing. | 44 | $25 to $27. | Ability to do plain hand sewing, to thread needles, and to tie knots rapidly, take even stitches, and fasten work; deftness of fingers; good eyesight; steady nerves. | Bad eyesight; loss of hands. | Hand sewers are taught how to adjust their knowledge of plain sewing to factory methods. |
| Pressers. | Using hot irons (or machines) for pressing seams and parts of garments, as well as the whole garment. | 44 | $33. | Average intelligence; ability to handle a pressing machine; more than average strength. | Loss of one or both arms; loss of legs; bad eyesight. | Pressers ere trained by doing. Beginners press seams, then skirts and dresses; after this experience the pressing of coats and cloaks may be undertaken. |
| Examiners. | Inspecting the finished garment as to workmanship and shape. | 44 | $25. | Skillful with scissors; experience as operator; intelligence; reliability; knowledge of styles; ability to detect poor work; common-school education. | Bad eyesight; loss of both arms; loss of fingers or hands. | Through a knowledge of garment making as machine operators or as helpers to examiners. |
For the unskilled worker the garment trades offer fair wages, though wages are not quite as high as in other similar trades. Chance of promotion is small, and the working week is 44 hours. Serious disabilities are great handicaps in the garment trades.
Previous experience, a working knowledge of the trade, and skill in some of the better processes would be the only legitimate reasons for offering the opportunities of the garment-making industries to a returned disabled soldier.
PLAN No. 1245. PODIATRY AS A VOCATION
The wise man will not come to a hurried conclusion in deciding his life work. A false start in life is frequently the undoing of an individual because misapplied ambition often eventuates in indifference. Therefore, it is well to weigh the pros and cons of so momentous a consideration, and the following is presented in the hope that it may prove of service in studying one phase of activities in that connection:
What is Podiatry?
Podiatry means the care of the human foot in health and in disease. The intelligent practice of podiatry constitutes the practitioner a specialist in this branch of medicine.
Specialists in Medicine
In recent years those educated and equipped as doctors of medicine, in many instances, particularly in the larger cities, have devoted themselves to some special branch, and so it is that we have laryngologists (throat), otologists (ear), urologists (male organs of generation), gynaecologists (female organs of generation), oculists (eye), orthopaedists (deformities), odontologists (teeth), and many others who specialize in some one particular field of medicine. Strange as it may seem, physicians, other than orthopædists, have never specialized in foot lesions, and the work of the latter in that field has been merely incidental.