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WAGE EARNING AND EDUCATION
THE SURVEY COMMITTEE OF THE
CLEVELAND FOUNDATION
Charles E. Adams, Chairman
Thomas G. Fitzsimons
Myrta L. Jones
Bascom Little
Victor W. Sincere
Arthur D. Baldwin, Secretary
James R. Garfield, Counsel
Allen T. Burns, Director
THE EDUCATION SURVEY
Leonard P. Ayres, Director
CLEVELAND EDUCATION SURVEY
WAGE EARNING AND
EDUCATION
BY
R.R. LUTZ
THE SURVEY COMMITTEE OF THE
CLEVELAND FOUNDATION
CLEVELAND · OHIO
1916
COPYRIGHT, 1916, BY
THE SURVEY COMMITTEE OF THE
CLEVELAND FOUNDATION
WM. F. FELL CO. PRINTERS
PHILADELPHIA
FOREWORD
This summary volume, entitled "Wage Earning and Education," is one of
the 25 sections of the report of the Education Survey of Cleveland
conducted by the Survey Committee of the Cleveland Foundation in 1915
and 1916. Copies of all the publications may be obtained from the
Cleveland Foundation. They may also be obtained from the Division of
Education of the Russell Sage Foundation, New York City. A complete
list will be found in the back of this volume, together with prices.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
Foreword 5
List of Tables 10
List of Diagrams 12
CHAPTER
I. THE INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION SURVEY 13
Types of occupations studied 13
The Survey staff and methods of work 14
II. FORECASTING FUTURE PROBABILITIES 18
The popular concept of industrial education 19
The importance of relative numbers 20
A constructive program must fit the facts 23
An actuarial basis for industrial education 24
III. THE WAGE EARNERS OF CLEVELAND 25
IV. THE FUTURE WAGE EARNERS OF CLEVELAND 29
The public schools 29
Ages of pupils 32
Education at the time of leaving school 34
V. INDUSTRIAL TRAINING FOR BOYS IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS 38
What the boys in school will do 40
Organization and costs 44
What the elementary schools can do 45
VI. THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 47
Specialized training not practicable 48
A general industrial course 49
Industrial mathematics 52
Mechanical Drawing 54
Industrial science 55
Shop work 56
Vocational information 58
VII. TRADE TRAINING DURING THE LAST YEARS IN SCHOOL 60
The technical high schools 62
A two-year trade course 66
VIII. TRADE-PREPARATORY AND TRADE-EXTENSION TRAINING
FOR BOYS AND MEN AT WORK 69
Continuation training from 15 to 18 74
The technical night schools 76
A combined program of continuation and trade-extension
training 80
IX. VOCATIONAL TRAINING FOR GIRLS 83
Differentiation in the junior high school 86
Specialized training for the sewing trades 88
Other occupations 90
X. VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE 92
The work of the vocational counselor 92
The Girls' Vocation Bureau 94
XI. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 97
SUMMARIES OF SPECIAL REPORTS
XII. BOYS AND GIRLS IN COMMERCIAL WORK 101
A general view of commercial work 106
Bookkeeping 108
Stenography 108
Clerks' positions 109
Wages and regularity of employment 110
The problem of training 111
XIII. DEPARTMENT STORE OCCUPATIONS 115
Department stores 115
Neighborhood stores 116
Five and ten cent stores 117
Wages 118
Regularity of employment 122
Opportunities for advancement 123
The problem of training 124
Character of the instruction 129
XIV. THE GARMENT TRADES 131
Characteristics of the working force 132
Earnings 135
Regularity of employment 139
Training and promotion 140
Educational needs 143
Sewing courses in the public schools 145
Elective sewing courses in the junior high school 147
A one year trade course for girls 148
Trade extension training 149
XV. DRESSMAKING AND MILLINERY 151
Dressmaking 151
Millinery 153
The problem of training 156
XVI. THE METAL TRADES 158
Foundry and machine shop products 159
Automobile manufacturing 169
Steel works, rolling mills, and related industries 170
XVII. THE BUILDING TRADES 173
Sources of labor supply 173
Apprenticeship 174
Union organization 176
Earnings 176
Hours 178
Regularity of employment 179
Health conditions 179
Opportunities for advancement 180
The problem of training 181
XVIII. RAILROAD AND STREET TRANSPORTATION 187
Railroad transportation 187
Motor and wagon transportation 192
Street railroad transportation 193
XIX. THE PRINTING TRADES 195
The composing room 198
The pressroom 201
The bindery 203
Other occupations 204
The problem of training 206
LIST OF TABLES
TABLE PAGE
1. Occupational distribution of the working population
of Cleveland 26
2. Nativity of the working population in Cleveland 27
3. Pupils enrolled in the different grades of the public
day schools in June, 1915 30
4. Enrollment of high school pupils, second semester,
1914-15 31
5. Ages of pupils enrolled in public elementary, high,
and normal schools in June, 1915 33
6. Educational equipment of the children who drop out
of the public schools each year, as indicated by
the grades from which they leave 35
7. Per cent of total male working population engaged in
specified occupations, 1900 and 1910 40
8. Distribution of native born men between the ages of
21 and 45 in the principal occupational groups 41
9. Distribution of third and fourth year students in
trade courses in the Cleveland technical high
schools, first semester, 1915-16 63
10. Distribution by occupations of Cleveland's technical
school graduates 64
11. Time allotment in the apprentice course given by the
Warner and Swasey Company, Cleveland 70
12. Course and number enrolled in the technical night
schools, January, 1915 77
13. Per cent of total population engaged in gainful
occupations during three different age periods 84
14. Number employed in the principal wage earning
occupations among each 1,000 women from 16 to 21
years of age 85
15. Per cent of women employees over 18 years of age
earning $12 a week and over 120
16. Wages for full-time working week, women's clothing,
Cleveland, 1915 139
17. Average wages for full-time working week for similar
workers, in men's and women's clothing, Cleveland,
1915 139
18. Proportions and estimated numbers employed in machine
tool occupations, 1915 161
19. Average, highest, and lowest earnings, in cents per
hour, and per cent employed on piece work and day
work, 1915 162
20. Estimated time required to learn machine tool work 164
21. Average earnings per hour in pattern making, molding,
core making, blacksmithing, and boiler making 166
22. Estimated number of men engaged in building trades,
1915 174
23. Union regulations as to entering age of apprentice 175
24. Union regulations as to length of apprenticeship
period 175
25. Union scale of wages in cents per hour, May 1, 1915 177
26. Usual weekly wages of apprentices in three building
trades 178
27. Average daily earnings of job and newspaper composing
room workers, 1915 199
28. Average daily earnings of pressroom workers, 1915 202
29. Average daily earnings of bindery workers, 1915 203
30. Average daily earnings in photoengraving, stereotyping,
electrotyping, and lithographing occupations, 1915 205
LIST OF DIAGRAMS
DIAGRAM PAGE
1. Boys and girls under 18 years of age in office work 103
2. Men and women 18 years of age and over in clerical
and administrative work in offices 104
3. Per cent of women earning each class of weekly wages
in each of six occupations 119
4. Per cent of salesmen and of men clerical workers in
stores, receiving each class of weekly wage 121
5. Per cent of male workers in non-clerical positions in
six industries earning $18 per week and over 122
6. Per cent that the average number of women employed
during the year is of the highest number employed
in each of six industries 123
7. Distribution of 8,337 clothing workers by sex in the
principal occupations in the garment industry 134
8. Percentage of women in men's and women's clothing and
seven other important women employing industries
receiving under $8, $8 to $12, and $12 and over
per week 136
9. Percentage of men in men's and women's clothing and
seven other manufacturing industries receiving
under $18, $18 to $25, and $25 and over per week 138
10. Average number of unemployed among each 100 workers,
men's clothing, women's clothing, and fifteen
other specified industries 141
11. Percentages of unemployment in each of nine building
industries 180
12. Number of men in each 100 in printing and five other
industries earning each class of weekly wage 196
13. Number of women in each 100 in printing and six other
industries earning each class of weekly wage 198
WAGE EARNING AND EDUCATION
CHAPTER I
THE INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION SURVEY
The education survey of Cleveland was undertaken in April, 1915, at
the invitation of the Cleveland Board of Education and the Survey
Committee of the Cleveland Foundation, and continued until June, 1916.
As a part of the work detailed studies were made of the leading
industries of the city for the purpose of determining what measures
should be taken by the public school system to prepare young people
for wage-earning occupations and to provide supplementary trade
instruction for those already in employment. The studies also dealt
with all forms of vocational education conducted at that time under
public school auspices.
TYPES OF OCCUPATIONS STUDIED
Separate studies were made of the metal industry, building and
construction, printing and publishing, railroad and street
transportation, clothing manufacture, department store work, and
clerical occupations. The wage-earners in these fields of employment
constitute nearly 60 per cent of the total number of persons engaged
in gainful occupations and include 95 per cent of the skilled workmen
in the city. The survey also gave considerable attention to the
various types of semi-skilled work found in the principal industries.
Each separate study was assigned to a particular member of the Survey
Staff who personally carried on the field investigations and later
submitted a report to the director of the survey. Each report was also
subjected to careful analysis and criticism from other members of the
Survey Staff before it was finally passed upon by the Survey
Committee. Mimeographed copies were sent to representatives of the
industry and to the superintendent of schools and members of the
school board and their criticisms and suggestions were given careful
consideration before the Committee and the director of the survey gave
their final approval to the publication of the report. The value of
the work was greatly enhanced through the ample discussion of the
different studies from widely diverse points of view secured in this
way. The industrial studies were carried through under the direction
of the author of this summary volume.
THE SURVEY STAFF AND METHODS OF WORK
The reports of the studies relating to vocational education were
published in a series of eight separate monograph volumes. The names
of the reports and the previous experience in educational and
investigational work of each member of the Survey Staff are as
follows:
"Boys and Girls in Commercial Work"--Bertha M. Stevens; teacher
in elementary and secondary schools; agent of Associated
Charities; secretary of Consumers' League of Ohio; director of
Girls' Bureau of Cleveland; author of "Women's Work in
Cleveland"; co-author of "Commercial Work and Training for
Girls."
"Department Store Occupations"--Iris P. O'Leary; head of manual
training department, First Pennsylvania Normal School; head of
vocational work for girls and women, New Bedford Industrial
School; head of girls' department, Boardman Apprentice Shops, New
Haven, Conn.; special investigator of department stores for New
York State Factory Investigating Commission; three years' trade
experience as employer and employee; author of books on household
arts and department stores; Special Assistant for Vocational
Education, State Department of Public Instruction, New Jersey.
"The Garment Trades" and "Dressmaking and Millinery"--Edna Bryner;
teacher in grades, high school, and state normal college; eugenic
research worker New Jersey State Hospital; statistical expert in
United States Bureau of Labor Investigation of women and child
labor; statistical agent United States Post Office Department;
Special Agent Russell Sage Foundation.
"The Building Trades," and "The Printing Trades"--Frank L. Shaw;
teacher in grades and high school; principal of high school;
assistant superintendent of schools; superintendent of schools;
special agent United States Immigration Commission; special agent
United States Census; industrial secretary North American Civic
League for Immigrants; author of reports on immigration
legislation.
"The Metal Trades"--R.R. Lutz; teacher in rural and graded
schools; superintendent of schools; secretary of Department of
Education of Porto Rico; took part in school surveys of Greenwich,
Conn., Bridgeport, Conn., Springfield, Ill., Richmond, Va.;
Special Agent Division of Education, Russell Sage Foundation.
"Railroad and Street Transportation"--Ralph D. Fleming; special
agent and investigator for United States Immigration Commission,
the Federal Census of Manufacturers, the United States Tariff
Board, the Minimum Wage Commission of Massachusetts, the National
Civic Federation, and the United States Commission on Industrial
Relations.
The work began in April, 1915, and ended in the same month of the
following year. Two members of the staff, with one stenographer and a
clerk, were employed during the entire period. One member of the staff
was employed 11 months, one nine months, one approximately five
months, and one two months.
The field investigations consisted largely of visits to industrial
establishments for the purpose of securing first-hand information as
to industrial conditions and the nature and educational content of
particular occupations. Over 400 visits of this kind were made by
members of the Survey Staff. Many conferences were held with employers
and employees with the object of securing their views as to the needs
and possibilities of industrial training.
The task of tabulating and classifying the data obtained by the
individual investigators in their visits to the local industrial
establishments involved much time and labor. Although it was not found
practicable to maintain complete uniformity in the different
inquiries, the members of the staff kept in close touch with each
other, so that with respect to the points of principal importance, the
results of their investigations are comparable. Practically every
recommendation made in the reports was discussed in conferences with
school principals and with other members of the teaching force engaged
in the teaching of vocational subjects.
Throughout the survey the objective held constantly in mind was the
formulation of a constructive program of vocational training in the
public schools. In outlining the field of inquiry a clear distinction
was drawn between those kinds of general education which have a more
or less indirect vocational significance, and vocational training for
specific occupations in which the controlling purpose is direct
preparation for wage-earning. The studies were purposely limited to
this latter type of vocational training. The survey did not concern
itself with manual training conducted for general educational ends,
with the art work of the schools, or with courses in domestic science
and household arts. These subjects in the curriculum were dealt with
in different sections of the education survey, but were considered as
being outside the legitimate field of the vocational survey.