The center of production in Italy is Signa, near Florence. It was
estimated (1924) that 1,500 persons were employed in the Signa district
in establishments producing men's straw hats. The employees were about
evenly divided between men and women.
In England the principal centers of straw-hat production are St. Albans
and Luton, towns near London. No estimate was obtained of the number
of factories in operation, the volume of production, or the number of
persons employed. The English manufacturers of men's straw hats in
1923-24 were suffering a business depression, and some of them were
changing over to the manufacture of women's hats.
_Types of hats produced in foreign factories._--Neither the English nor
the Italian factories producing men's straw hats confine their business
exclusively to men's sewed straw hats. Some of them also block and trim
woven-hat bodies, such as panamas; some make women's and children's
hats, and others produce, or deal in, felt hats. Nor is production of
sewed straw hats confined to those made of sennit braids; hats are made
of other braids as well.
_Organization of foreign production._--The sennit braids used in the
Italian straw hats exported to the United States are not made in Italy
but are of Japanese origin, as are also the sennit braids used in the
sewed straw hats made in the United States and in England.[2]
[Footnote 2: Milan and fancy braids are plaited by Italian women
in their homes, but this industry is not to be confused with the
manufacture of sewed hats, the subject of this investigation.]
In general, the foreign straw-hat factories do not bleach straw braids
in their own establishments. In Italy, however, one concern not only
bleached its own braids but also bleached braids for other straw-hat
manufacturers.
With respect to hats, some of the unfinished bodies, usually leghorns,
are made by women in their homes. But men's sewed straw hats, the
subject of this investigation, are produced in factories or in small
workshops. The latter generally operate on a contract basis for the
larger manufacturers or shippers. The workshops which own their own
equipment are organized to produce from 25 to 200 dozen sewed hats per
week. In the making of the shell or body of the hat the contractors
are paid on the basis of the number delivered to and accepted by the
principal. The contractors furnish their own sewing cotton, gelatin,
and other materials, except braid, used in making the shells or bodies
of the hats. The trimming of straw hats is also to some extent performed
on a contract basis.
The establishments visited in England generally perform all the
operations of making and trimming hats in their own establishments,
although at times "outworkers" are employed.
_Working hours and wages._--The labor employed in the manufacture of
sewed straw hats is well organized in both Italy and England. The rates
of wages and hours of labor, both of factory workers and of employees
of contractors, are determined by collective bargaining. A minimum wage
scale for both pieceworkers and timeworkers became effective in Italy
October 27, 1924. The labor of women and children in Italy is limited to
48 hours per week (decree of March 15, 1923). The employment of children
under 12 years of age in shops and factories is prohibited.