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THE MAKING
OF A TRADE SCHOOL
_By_ MARY SCHENCK WOOLMAN
_Director of Manhattan Trade School for Girls
Professor of Domestic Art, Teachers College, Columbia University_
[Device]
WHITCOMB & BARROWS
1910
BOSTON
Copyright 1909
By Teachers College
Thomas Todd Co., Printers
14 Beacon Street
Boston
CONTENTS
PART PAGE
I. ORGANIZATION AND WORK 1
II. REPRESENTATIVE PROBLEMS 38
III. EQUIPMENT AND SUPPORT 53
IV. OUTLINES AND DETAILED ACCOUNTS OF DEPARTMENT WORK 58
THE MAKING OF A TRADE SCHOOL
PART I
ORGANIZATION AND WORK
History
The Manhattan Trade School for Girls began its work in November, 1902.
The building selected for the school was a large private house at 233
West 14th Street, which was equipped like a factory and could
comfortably accommodate 100 pupils. Training was offered in a variety of
satisfactory trades which required the expert use of the needle, the
paste brush, and the foot and electric power sewing machines.
Beginning with twenty pupils on its first day, it was but a few months
before the full 100 were on roll and others were applying. In
endeavoring to help all who desired instruction the building was soon
overcrowded. It thus became evident that, unless increased accommodation
was provided, the number already in attendance must be decreased and
others, anxious for the training, must be turned away. It was decided
that even though the enterprise was young the need was urgent, demanding
unusual exertion. It would therefore be wise to make every effort to
purchase more commodious quarters. In June, 1906, the school moved to a
fine business building at 209-213 East 23d Street, which could offer
daily instruction to about 500 girls.
The movement owes its existence to the earnest study that a group of
women and men, interested in philanthropic, sociological, economic, and
educational work, gave to the condition of the working girl in New York
City. They were all intimately acquainted with the difficulties of the
situation. Early in the winter of 1902 this committee made a special
investigation of the workrooms of New York. They were but the more
convinced that (1) the wages of unskilled labor are declining; (2) while
there is a good opportunity for highly skilled labor, the supply is
inadequate; (3) the condition of the young, inexpert working girl must
be ameliorated by the speedy opening of a trade school for those who
have reached the age to obtain working papers; (4) if public instruction
could not immediately undertake the organization of such a school, then
private initiative must do it, even though it must depend for its
support upon voluntary contributions. The result was that an extreme
effort was put forth and the following November the first trade school
in America, for girls of fourteen years of age, was begun.
The first Board of Administrators, composed largely of members of the
original committee of investigators, was as follows:
President, Miss Virginia Potter; Vice-Presidents, Dr. Felix Adler, Mr.
John Graham Brooks, Mrs. Theodore Hellman, Mrs. Anna Garlin Spencer,
Mrs. Henry Ollesheimer; Treasurer, Mr. J. G. Phelps Stokes; Secretary,
Mr. John L. Eliot; Assistant Secretary, Miss Louise B. Lockwood;
Director, Professor Mary Schenck Woolman.
Purpose and Scope
The immediate purpose of the school was to train the youngest and
poorest wage-earners to be self-supporting as quickly as possible. It
was decided to help the industrial workers rather than the commercial
and professional, as the last two are already to some extent provided
for in education. The function of the school was, therefore, that of the
Short-Time Trade School, which would provide the girl who must go to
work the moment she can obtain her working papers (about fourteen years
of age) with an enlightened apprenticeship in some productive
occupation. Such training cannot be obtained satisfactorily in the
market. The immature workers are present there in such large numbers
that they complicate the industrial problem by their poverty and
inability, and thus tend to lower the wage. Jane Addams, of Hull House,
Chicago, says these untrained girls "enter industry at its most painful
point, where the trades are already so overcrowded and subdivided that
there remains in them very little education for the worker." The school
purposed to give its help at this very point.
Trade, on its side, is eager to have skilled women directly fitted for
its workrooms, but finds them hard to obtain. The school's duty was to
discover the way to meet this wish of the employers of labor. It is true
that the utilitarian and industrial education offered by public and
private instruction has benefited the home and society, but such
training has not met the problem of adequately fitting for specific
employments the young worker who has but a few months to spare. The lack
in this instruction has been in specific trade application and
flexibility as to method, artistic needs, and mechanical devices. These
points are essential to place the girl in immediate touch with her
workroom.
Therefore the Manhattan Trade School assumed the responsibility of
providing an economic instruction in the practical work of various
trades, thus supplying them with capable assistants. Hence its purpose
differed not only from the more general instruction of the usual
technical institution, but also from those schools which offered
specific training in one trade (such as dressmaking), in that it (1)
offered help to the youngest wage-earners, (2) gave the choice among
many trades, and (3) held the firm conviction that the adequate
preparation of successful workers requires more factors of instruction
than the training for skill alone. The ideals of the school were the
following: (1) to train a girl that she may become self-supporting; (2)
to furnish a training which shall enable the worker to shift from one
occupation to another allied occupation, _i. e._, elasticity; (3) to
train a girl to understand her relation to her employer, to her
fellow-worker, and to her product; (4) to train a girl to value health
and to know how to keep and improve it; (5) to train a girl to utilize
her former education in such necessary business processes as belong to
her workroom; (6) to develop a better woman while making a successful
worker; (7) to teach the community at large how best to accomplish such
training, _i. e._, to serve as a model whose advice and help would
facilitate the founding of the best kind of schools for the lowest rank
of women workers.
In other words, the Manhattan Trade School aimed to find a way (1) to
improve the worker, physically, mentally, morally, and financially; (2)
to better the conditions of labor in the workroom; (3) to raise the
character of the industries and the conditions of the homes, and (4) to
show that such education could be practically undertaken by public
instruction. The four aims are really one, for the better workers should
improve the product, make higher wages, react advantageously on the
industrial situation and on the home, and the course of instruction
formulated to accomplish this end would help in the further introduction
of such training.
It was not expected that immature girls of fourteen or fifteen years of
age would, immediately on entering the market, make large salaries or be
broad-minded citizens. The hope was to give them a foundation which
would enable them to adapt themselves to situations best fitted to their
abilities and to make possible a steady advance toward better
occupations, wages, and living. In order to do this, each girl on
entering the school must be regarded as having capacity for some special
occupation. This aptitude must be discovered that she may be placed
where she can attain her highest efficiency as rapidly as possible. She
must be treated individually, not as one of a class. Her own efforts
must be awakened, her handicaps, such as inadequate health and
unadaptable education, must be removed, and her training proceed in a
way to give her possession of her powers.
Conditions among the Workers
The conditions of life among many of the wage-earners of New York City
are, briefly stated, as follows: Thousands of families are so poor that
the children must go to work the moment the compulsory school years are
over. In 1897, 14,900 boys and girls dropped from the fifth school
grade, most of them going to work from necessity more or less pressing.
To rise to important positions in factories, workrooms, or department
stores will require a practical combination of any needed craft with the
ability to utilize their school education in rapid deductions, business
letters, accounts, and trade transactions. The public school offers such
children a general education which will be completed in the eighth
grade, but the majority leave before that time. For varying reasons,
such as their foreign birth, irregular attendance, the impossibility of
much personal attention in the crowded classes of a great city, poor
conditions of health, and the desire of the pupils to escape the routine
of school as soon as the law will allow, the greater number of them, who
go early into trade, have not had a satisfactory education for helping
them in their working life. Year after year are they found wanting, and
yet young workers still come from the schools at fourteen with poor
health, little available hand skill, unprepared to write business
letters or to express themselves clearly either by tongue or pen,
uninterested in the daily news except in personal or tragic events,
unaware of municipal conditions affecting them, ignorant of the simple
terms of business life, and with their arithmetic unavailable for use,
even in the simple fundamental processes when complicated with details
of trade. The mechanical processes, therefore, which they do know are
now useless unless they can first think out the problem.
These boys and girls have no regret at leaving the schools, and are, as
a rule, glad to get to work. The tragedy of life, however, begins when
they become wage-earners, for they are only fitted for unskilled and
poorly paid positions. A little fourteen-year-old girl finds it
difficult to obtain a satisfactory occupation in the teeming workrooms
of New York. She, or some member of her family, eagerly searches the
advertising sheet of one of the daily papers. Most of the "Wants" are
entirely beyond her crude powers to supply. An unskilled worker is
perhaps desired in some business house, but the applicant finds that
hundreds of other girls are flocking to obtain the same position, and
her chance is too remote for hope. Or perhaps, after weary days of
wandering about from place to place, she is recommended to the boss of
some shop, and finds herself in the midst of machines which rush forward
at 4,000 or more stitches a minute. She assists a busy worker on men's
shirts, her duty being to pin parts together, to finish off, or to run
errands. From early morning to late afternoon, with an interval for
lunch, she must be ready to lend a hand. She can get at best but $2.50
or $3.00 per week. No rise is possible in this shop unless she can work
well on a machine. Her fellow-workers are too busy to teach her, for
each moment's pause means reduction in their little wage. Perhaps she
does persist and finally can control a machine. By learning to do one
thing rapidly she can obtain a better wage, but two or even more years
in trade often pass before she can earn five dollars a week. After
several seasons spent in doing the same process thousands of times, her
desire for new work becomes deadened, and she is afraid to attempt
anything different from her one set task. She usually refuses to try
more advanced work, even if offered a good salary while she is learning,
for she has lost her ability to push ahead.
In general, it may be said that the untrained girl has to take the best
place she can find, without reference to her ability, her physical
condition, or her inclination. The most desirable trades are seldom open
to her, for they require workers of experience, or, at least, those who
have had recognized instruction. Even if a green girl enters a skilled
trade, she cannot rise easily in it, and is apt to be dropped out at the
first slack season. The sort of positions open to her have usually
little future, as they are isolated occupations that do not lead to more
advanced work. Illustrations of these employments are wrapping braid,
sorting silk, running errands, tying fringe, taking out and putting in
buttons in a laundry, dipping candy, assorting lamps, making cigarettes,
tending a machine, and tying up packages. These young, unskilled girls
wander from one of these occupations to another; their salaries, never
running high, rise and fall according to the need felt for the worker,
and not because her increasing ability is a factor in her trade life.
After several years spent in the market, she is little better off than
at her entrance.
Some Difficulties of Organization
It was to relieve this serious situation that the Manhattan Trade School
was founded. It began its work in the face of great discouragements.
Employers were prejudiced against such instruction, for girls trained in
former technical schools had not given satisfaction in the workrooms.
The parents of the pupils felt that they could not sacrifice themselves
further than the end of the compulsory school years, but must then send
their children into wage-earning positions. It was impossible to obtain
state or municipal aid, and it was known that the experiment must be
costly, for: (1) A trade school must be open all the year for day
classes, and for night work when needed (schools usually are open from
eight to ten months). (2) The work must be done on correct materials,
which are often expensive and perishable; but pupils are too poor to
provide them, therefore the school must plan to do so. (3) The
supervisors must be well educated, with a broad-minded view of industry,
capable of original thought, and having a practical knowledge of trade
requirement (women of such caliber can always command the best
salaries). The teachers and forewomen also must combine teaching ability
with competence in their workrooms; but as the market wishes a similar
class of service and gives excellent wages to obtain it, the school must
offer a like or even a larger amount. (4) Teachers of highly skilled
industries are expert, usually, in but the one occupation, such as straw
hat making by electric machine or jewelry box making; consequently, even
if the student body is small, the teaching force can seldom be reduced
without cutting off an entire department or a trade. A trade school
differs from the high school in this particular, for in the latter, when
necessary, two or more academic subjects can be taught by the same
instructor.
Another difficulty confronting the school at the beginning was, that
while numerous occupations in New York are open to women, there was
reason to think that some of these were not well adapted to them. Little
was known at that time of the trades offering opportunities for good
wages, steady rise to better positions, satisfactory sanitary
conditions, and moderate hours of labor; of the physical effect of many
of the popular occupations; of the specific requirements of each kind of
employment; of the effect of the working girls in their workrooms and in
their homes; of their health and how to improve it; of the needs and
wishes of the employers; of the relation of the Trade Union to trade
instruction, and of labor legislation already operative or which should
be furthered. Before deciding on courses of instruction in the Manhattan
Trade School some accurate knowledge of these facts had to be obtained.
Selection of Trades
The selection of definite trades was made after five months of
investigation in the factories, workrooms, and department stores of New
York City. In general, it can be said of the occupations chosen that
they employ large numbers of women; require expert workers; training for
them is difficult to obtain; there is chance within them for rise to
better positions; the wages are good, and favorable conditions, both
physical and moral, prevail in the workrooms. Some trades employing
women were rejected, as they failed to meet necessary requirements,
while others were not chosen, as there was little chance in them to rise
on account of men's trades intervening. Slack seasons occurring in many
otherwise good employments were considered, and plans were made whereby
the worker could be enabled to shift to another allied trade when her
own was slack. If a girl gains complete control of her tool she can
adapt herself to other occupations in which it is used with less
difficulty than she can change to a trade requiring another tool.
Women's industries, to a great extent, center around the skilled use of
a few tools. These tools were selected as centers of the school
activities, and the connected trades were radiated from them. The most
skilled occupations were found to require the use of the sewing machine,
foot and electric power, the paint brush, the paste brush, and the
needle. Statistics show that teaching the use of this last tool will
affect over one-half of the women wage-earners of New York, of whom
there are at least 370,000. In addition to the general scheme of fitting
a worker so that she may take up another allied occupation in slack
seasons, specific training for this purpose is given to those students
who choose trades where the busy season is short and of frequent
recurrence.
Trade Courses
The curriculum includes instruction in the following trades; the courses
are short and the teaching is in trade lines:
I. Use of electric power sewing machines.
1. General Operating--(cheaper variety of work--seasonal; fair
wages. Better grade of work--year round, fair and good wages,
piece or week work): Shirtwaists, children's dresses (cloth and
cotton), boys' waists, infants' wear, children's clothing,
women's underwear, fancy petticoats, kimonos and dressing
sacques.
2. Special Machines--(seasonal to year round work, depending on kind
and demand, wages good): Lace stitch, hemstitching, buttonhole,
embroidery (hand and Bonnaz), and scalloping.
3. Dressmaking Operating--(year round, wages good): Lingerie, fancy
waists and suits.
4. Straw Sewing--(excellent wages for a short season, but the worker
can then return to good wages in general operating): Women's and
men's hats.
II. Use of the needle and foot power sewing machines.
1. Dress and Garment Making--(seasons nine to eleven months, and
fair to good wages): Uniforms and aprons, white work and simple
white embroidery, gymnasium and swimming suits (wholesale and
custom), lingerie, dress embroidery, dressmaking (plain and
fancy).
2. Millinery--(short seasonal work, low wages, difficult for the
average young worker to rise): Trimmings and frame making.
3. Lampshade and Candleshade Making--(seasonal work, fair pay). This
trade supplements the Millinery.
III. Use of paste and glue: 1. Sample mounting (virtually year work,
fair wages). 2. Sample book covers, labeling, tissue paper
novelties and decorations (seasonal and year round work, good
wages). 3. Novelty work (year round work, changed within workroom
to meet demand, wages good). 4. Jewelry and silverware case
making (year round work, wages good).
IV. Use of brush and pencil (year round work, good wages): Special
elementary art trades, perforating and stamping, costume
sketching, photograph and slide retouching.
_Note._ Year round work, in general, includes a holiday of longer or
shorter duration, usually without pay.
Entrance Plans
The school is open throughout the year in order to train girls whenever
they come--the summer months being slack in most trades are especially
desirable for instruction. The tuition is free, and in cases of extreme
necessity a committee gives Students' Aid, in proportion to the need.
Entrance to day classes for girls who are from fourteen to seventeen
years of age and who can show their working papers or be able to produce
documentary evidence of age, if under sixteen, can occur any week.
Each girl who enters, after selecting her trade, is given a typewritten
paper showing the possible steps of advance in her chosen course. She
takes this home in order that the family may know what is before her.
She can by special effort or by outside study lessen the length of her
training. The first month in the school is a test time. If the girl
shows the needed qualities she is allowed to continue.
During the month of trial her instructors decide what she needs and if
her chosen trade is the best for her. The right is reserved to make a
complete change if her health will not stand the one she desires, if she
has no ability for it, or if she gives evidence of special talent in
another direction.
Industrial Intelligence
Every student has, as a part of her trade education, such academic work,
art, and physical training as seems necessary; when she passes certain
standards she is then allowed to devote full time to her selected
occupation. It is not possible for a worker who has skill with the hand
and no education to back it up to rise far in her trade. There is many a
tragedy in the market of the woman whose poor early education prevented
her from getting ahead. Accurate expression, whether oral or written,
the use of arithmetic in simple trade transactions or detailed accounts,
the ability to grasp the important factors in any situation and then to
go to work without waste of time or motion, are required for positions
of trust and for supervision in any workroom. It was soon discovered
that the girls entering the school know arithmetic in an abstract way,
but are at sea when asked to meet the ordinary trade problems. They are
inaccurate in reading and copying; they cannot write a letter of
application, conduct correspondence, make out checks, or keep simple
accounts. They are ignorant of the laws already made which concern them
and of their own relation to future laws. They have no ideals in their
trade life. They need to see the relation of their chosen trade to the
country, of their work to their employer's success, the effect they may
have in bringing about a better feeling between the employer and the
wage-earner. A practical, immediately available business education is
absolutely essential to make workwomen of executive ability. Therefore
specific trade instruction in arithmetic, English, history, geography,
and civics was planned to supplement and enrich the trade courses.
Steady progress has been made in determining the kind of cultural trade
instruction which will best assist such young wage-earners. A new field
in practical education had to be opened, and subject matter which could
be of service in the workrooms selected from it. The many trades of the
school had to be studied in order to know their needs. The work has
grown more valuable each year and has proved itself to be a truly
necessary part of the curriculum. A concrete evidence of its worth is
the fact that many of the girls in slack seasons have taken clerical
positions and have been complimented on their grasp of the subject,
their orderliness, their ability to think, and their reliability.
Naturally all departments unite to develop character in the students,
but the Academic Department feels this to be a special aim. Pleasure in
the subject of instruction, followed by mental and moral improvement,
has indicated clearly that the academic dullness which is shown at
entrance comes frequently from lack of motive in former studies. The
interest is all the more encouraging as there are many handicaps in the
teaching, for the students enter at any time, are graded by the trades
they select, and are placed in the market as quickly as possible; hence
the work cannot be uniform in its advance. Nor is the academic work a
help to the girls in their business life only, for such subjects as the
keeping of accounts, the consideration of the cost of living, and the
value and price of materials are of direct use also in home life.
Trade Art Instruction
Courses in Trade Art were also organized as a fundamental part of the
instruction. Each trade has its own art, and the school has tried to
adapt the work in the studios to each different occupation. It
recognizes that the art applied in dressmaking differs from that in
millinery, and this again from that required for decorating jewelry
boxes and calendars. It consequently offers each student the kind of
elementary art training needed in her trade. The time is too short to
develop designers, but it does help a girl to be more exact,
resourceful, and useful in her workroom, and often enables her to make a
higher wage. A worker who can place trimming, adapt designs to new
purposes, stamp patterns, draw copies of garments, and combine color
attractively is especially desirable in her chosen employment.
Health
The young wage-earner of New York is much handicapped by her poor
physical condition; heredity, poor habits of life, and unsanitary homes
show their effects upon her. The girls who come to the school are young
enough to remedy many of their defects. In a few months they will be in
positions demanding eight or more hours a day, in which they must
strain every nerve and bend all of their energies to meet the standard
brought about by trade competition. The Physical Department of the
school studies the health of each girl and trains her to care adequately
for it. The specific treatment needed by some of the students takes them
many hours a week from their department work. While this has its
disadvantages, it is felt to be more important to improve the physical
condition than to develop skill alone when the health is too poor to
stand the strain of exacting positions. It is often difficult at first
to persuade parents that such close attention to health is necessary.
The results, however, in the majority of cases have proved the wisdom of
this procedure.
Immediately after entering the school and being assigned to a department
each girl must report to the school physician. Beginning with the family
history, a complete record of all the important events relating to her
physical life is taken. She is closely questioned as to all bodily
functions, and a careful record is kept of irregularities. Eyes, ears,
teeth, nose, throat, and feet are likewise examined, and measurements
are taken of height, weight, and the principal expansions. After the
examination, instruction as to treatment is given, if any is needed.
The work in the gymnasium has three purposes: invigorative, reactive,
and corrective. Every girl who is not restricted on account of physical
defects takes the prescribed gymnastic work. Nor has this a physical
effect only, for through the active games such qualities as judgment and
accuracy, self-control, and the harmonious working with others are
developed. Slow, uncertain, vague movements denote lack of mental
quickness and strength. Motor activity, rightly directed, leads to poise
of mind as well as of body. These girls live mostly in crowded
localities of the city, where free exercise is unknown. The school aims,
as far as possible, to supply the lack of wholesome outdoor life and
give joyous active exercise. Talks on hygiene are a regular part of the
work and aim: (1) to give each girl a knowledge of her body and of its
functions which will enable her to care for her health in an intelligent
manner; (2) to show her the relation of food and its preparation to her
physical condition; (3) to establish in her mind ideals of correct
living which can be made practical in her surroundings; and (4),
recognizing the right and desire of every girl for amusement, to create
a love for wholesome and simple pleasures that will take the place of
the too strenuous and often unwise recreations which tend to undermine
the health of the girl who works.
The Lunchroom and the Cooking Classes
From the opening of the school, hot soup, hot chocolate, or cold milk
had been served daily, at two cents a cup, to those wishing to
supplement the cold lunch which they had brought from their homes. The
teachers also had an opportunity of buying a simple, hot meal which was
prepared by one of their number, assisted by students who aided in the
preparation, serving, and clearing away. At first the average girl felt
she could not give much time to her trade training, consequently such
time had to be devoted to making her able to command a living wage. The
hope, however, that in the future the opportunity would come for
offering increased domestic training was never forgotten. The opening at
the school of a temporary workroom for unemployed women during the
financial stress of 1908 provided them with regular work and pay. It was
advisable also to serve nourishing lunches daily to these underfed
workers. There was already a simple lunchroom in the basement of the
school, containing such bare necessities as plain tables on horses, long
wooden benches, a gas stove with four burners, a few cooking utensils,
and a closet filled with inexpensive china. The complete cost of
equipment had been $300.
The school was now, however, face to face with the need to feed daily
more than 500 people--teachers, workers, and students--and yet no
additional money could be spent for equipment. The necessity was so
great, however, that in addition to the usual lunches a hot, nourishing
meal was given daily to the hundred workers in the temporary workroom,
for which they paid one-half of the price of materials.
With this inauguration of regular cooking it seemed especially desirable
to take the opportunity of training at least some of the students in the
selection, care, and preparation of food. The majority of these girls
will be the mothers of the next generation, and yet they know nothing of
food values or food preparation. This is evident from the daily lunches
they bring and from their discussions in the class on hygiene. On the
other hand, girls who can remain but a few months in the school have a
serious need to face, that of self-support, for the wage for unskilled
girls ($3.00) is not sufficient to live on with decency. The physical,
mental, and moral future of these young girls demands that they should
be able to make more than this pittance. In the few months during which
the majority are in attendance both a trade training and a knowledge of
cooking cannot be given, therefore the former must take the precedence.
The school has been able to prove, however, that girls educated there
can command a fair wage in trade, but that a longer time given to this
training will enable them to obtain better positions and salaries. Hence
an increasing number have been willing to remain longer, giving even a
year or more to preparation. It was with this latter class that the time
was ripe to offer some training in lunchroom cookery which could teach
them what could be procured at low prices and yet be nourishing; how to
prepare food at home, and how to use the hot table often found in an
up-to-date factory. For this purpose, therefore, some simple additional
equipment was installed and a daily menu was offered, comprising
inexpensive, attractive, wholesome dishes, at the lowest possible cost.
Many of the students care for so little variety in food that all of the
necessary elements for building strong, healthy bodies are not supplied,
hence they are under-nourished. They require encouragement to even try
the food which is essential for improving their physical condition. The
girls have taken great interest in their lunchroom cookery. They
appreciate the inexpensive menus and admire the simple table
decorations. Gradually they have given up spending their few pennies
for poor fruit, cake, or candy at some cheap shop, and now purchase
nourishing dishes cooked by the students at the school.
The cooking course connects directly with the talks on hygiene. The plan
of work is the following: (1) Twenty girls are chosen at one time. These
work in two groups of ten each, and for six weeks have daily one-hour
lessons. This gives them thirty lessons, which is almost equivalent to
what the public school offers in a year, but, being concentrated into
daily work and practical use in the lunchroom, is of equal, if not
greater, efficacy. (2) The students set the tables, cook a definite part
of the lunch, dish the articles, prepare the counters, sell the various
dishes, keep and report sales, and clear the counters afterward. The
groups alternate in order that preparing food, watching its progress,
and taking it from the stove may be done by all with a minimum loss of
time from their trade instruction. (3) The selection of girls to take
the course is made from (_a_) those who can remain long enough in the
school to combine trade training with the simple cooking course, (_b_)
those who have such poor health that a knowledge of what to eat and how
to cook it is the first consideration, and (_c_) those who are already
little housekeepers in their homes, as their mothers are incapacitated
or dead.
After several months of experience it was felt that the six weeks of
constant practice was well worth while. More elaborate courses of
cookery would demand a more thorough kitchen equipment, entailing much
expense, and would require students to remain a longer time in school.
With the present arrangement they learn the most important cooking
processes in a very practical way, and discuss the relation of food to
themselves and to their families.
Trade Orders
The handwork in the various departments falls into three grades: 1.
Practice work, which not being up to the standard is ripped up and used
again. 2. Seconds; fair work, not quite up to the school standard for
trade work. This is sold at cost to the students or to needy
institutions. 3. Trade work; up to the standard. This is sold to the
trade or to private customers at regular market prices. This feature of
the school work, entailing, as it does, the taking of many varieties of
orders from the outside factories and workrooms, has proved itself to be
an important educational factor. After six years of experience in
utilizing orders from the outside workrooms, it can be said that this
part of the instruction serves the following purposes: (1) It provides
the students with adequate experience on classes of material used in the
best workrooms; these girls could not purchase such materials and the
school could not afford to buy them for practice. (2) The ordinary
conditions in both the wholesale and the custom trade are thus made a
fundamental part of the instruction. Reality of this kind helps the
supervisors to judge the product from its trade value (amateur work will
thus be rejected), and the teaching from the kind of workers turned out.
Through the business relation the students quickly feel the necessity
of good finish, rapid work, and responsibility to deliver on time. (3)
The orders bring in a money return and thus aid the school in the
expense for material. (4) The businesslike appearance of the shops at
work on the orders and the experience trade has had with the product
have increased the confidence of employers of labor in the ability of
the school to train practical workers for the trades. The school is
constantly urged by trade to increase its order work, but its
unfaltering policy is to take only the amount needed for educational
purposes. (5) The business organization and management required in the
adequate conduct of a large order department can itself be utilized for
educational purposes, and has its value for training students who show
promise of becoming good stock clerks.
Trade workers are employed in the business shops connected with the
various departments. These assistants have proved their value in making
the best utilization of the order work. They facilitate the completion
of the work on time and help train the girls to feel responsible for
their share of it. As the students work slowly at first, and as their
hours in the shops are interrupted by other studies, the trade workers,
when necessary, continue with or complete the articles while the girls
are absent. They make possible the tradelike organization of the shops,
for each one has around her her own little groups of assistants, and she
teaches them while she also works. Constant repetition of the same
process ceases, after a time, to be valuable to a student, hence her
time must not be wasted by too simple work or by unnecessary details.
It often happens also that an article may require expert work in its
completion which the students cannot yet do; the trade workers select
for each girl the process which will be of value to her, and then do the
work the students cannot do or should not do.
The following lists will show the class of orders which have been
demanded by trade and turned out by the school:
_Operating Department Orders_: 1. Trade Work: Ribbon run on webbing
for suspenders, infants' dresses--eight different styles,
children's aprons--two different styles, hemstitching and
embroidery for yokes, ruffling--hem and hemstitched, faggoting.
2. Individual Custom Orders: Dressing sacques, aprons (kitchen,
gingham, and work), gymnasium suits, waists, children's dresses,
corset covers, drawers, skirts and chemise, sheets, pillowslips,
curtains, straw hats, fancy petticoats, kimonos, handkerchiefs,
fancy neckwear, infants' outfits, boys' waists, quilting,
hemstitching by yard, silk waists and dresses hemstitched,
tucking by yard, waists, collars, cuffs, and cloth embroidered,
initials on linen and monograms on saddle cloths, ruffling by
yard.
3. Order Work for Other Departments: Dressmaking: Machine work on
nightgowns, corset covers, drawers, combination suits, petticoats,
kimonos, gymnasium bloomers, swimming suits, buttonholes,
hemstitching on silk skirts, dresses, waists; Bonnaz embroidery on
dresses, waists. Millinery: Veils hemstitched. Art: Pencil and
brush cases. Office: Coats and overalls for janitors employed in
school.
_Dressmaking Department Orders_: Aprons, petticoats, maids' dresses;
machine-made underwear; collars and neckwear; nurses' uniforms;
swimming, bathing, and gymnasium suits; children's and baby
clothes; fine handmade underwear; plain shirtwaists, fine waists,
afternoon gowns, street suits, evening gowns, cloth suits
tailored.
_Pasting and Novelty Orders_: Mounting suspender webbing, mounting
corset samples, pasting suspender tabs and sockets, case making.
Desk sets, lampshades, and candleshades.
_Art Department Orders_: 1. Trade Order Work: Stamping, perforating,
coloring fashion plates, stencil cutting.
2. Custom Work: Stenciling curtains, scarfs, table covers, sofa
pillows; designing patterns for embroidery for table covers,
doilies, bags, buttons, shirtwaists, skirts, parasols, and
chiffon scarfs.
3. Order Work for Other Departments: Decorating book covers, desk
sets, boxes, dress trimmings--panels, lapels, vests; collars and
cuffs, insertions for hand and machine; banding for hats, letters,
monograms: designs for doilies, scarfs, curtains, work-bags.
PLACEMENT BUREAU
From the first the school made some provision for placing its pupils
satisfactorily in the trades for which they are trained. Originally the
heads of departments attended to it, each for her own students, but as
the school grew and the department work increased this method ceased to
be practical. An arrangement was made, therefore, with the Alliance
Employment Bureau to place the girls of the Manhattan Trade School when
they were ready to leave the school or whenever they applied for help
thereafter. This was a most helpful connection when the work was
beginning, but it was understood that when the school reached the point
in its development where the volume of business was great enough, and
other conditions warranted it, a Placement Bureau should be opened in
the school itself. This long-cherished idea went into operation in
October, 1908, when a Placement Secretary was engaged and the school
bureau was opened. This plan has already proved advantageous. In the
first place a bureau so situated can, by keeping in constant touch with
the departments, obtain intimate and detailed information about the
character, the work, the special aptitudes, and the physique of each
girl. Such data are extremely valuable in making wise placements, but
are difficult of access for an outside agency. In the second place such
a school bureau, open to graduates, tends to bring them occasionally to
it, and thus strengthens their interest in and loyalty to the school by
giving a practical reality to their connection with it.
Aims
The aims and working plans of the Placement Bureau are the following:
(1) To secure suitable positions for girls leaving the school--those
forced out by poverty as well as those who have really completed their
courses. The problem is to get the square peg into the square hole, and
it is solved by having a very intimate knowledge of each peg, and by
knowing of as large a variety of holes as possible from which to choose.
(2) To be a means of connection and communication between the school and
the trades, on the one hand, and the school and its former pupils on the
other. (3) To gather data about trade conditions that shall be helpful
to the several departments, or in deciding school policies. (4) To build
up a series of records that shall be of general sociological value as
well as of immediate use for school purposes.
Kinds and Methods of Work
In connection with the placement itself there are four lines of
activity:
1. _Interviews_ in the office, when girls come in to apply for
positions, and when employers ask for workers. Much valuable data as to
the experiences of the girls who have been some time in the trade have
been gathered in this way. In the case of the employer, if he is not
already familiar with the school, an effort is made to induce him (or
her) to go through it.
2. _Trade Visits_ of investigation. It is the policy of the Bureau not
to place a girl in any establishment until it has been visited, unless
it is one already well known to the school, in which case the visit may
follow instead of preceding the placement. These visits are often made
upon the request of employers or in response to advertisements, if, as
sometimes happens, a girl wishes to be placed and the employers already
known do not need additional help.
3. "_Following up._" After the girls are placed it is necessary to keep
track of them. In order to do this satisfactorily, blanks have been
printed in two different forms, one for the employer and the other for
the worker. The former asks about the quality of the girl's work
(whether it is satisfactory, and if not, why not) and about her wages.
The latter asks the girl to report on her work, wages, and shop
conditions. By this system the Placement Secretary is able to keep in
close touch with the students who have been placed, and to hear and act
upon complaints from either employer or girl with a promptness that
often has the result of establishing the worker in a "good" place or,
occasionally, rescuing her from a poor one. Employers are almost
uniformly prompt and courteous in returning the reports, and all but a
very small percentage of the students are equally responsive. In cases
where a girl is not heard from, the Students' Aid Secretary makes a
personal visit to her home.
4. _Keeping of Records._ Card catalogues are kept, giving the full data
obtainable in each case: (1) for girls applying for positions; (2) for
girls placed; (3) for employers visited; (4) for employers applying or
worth investigating, but not yet visited. All data from employers and
girls which have been obtained from the blanks before mentioned or from
other sources are recorded on the cards.
The Placement Bureau, in addition to its specific work, performs certain
services for the general benefit of the school. Data are obtained as to
the conditions of work and wage in certain trades and the length of
training advisable in others. Advice from the trade is often needed in
one or another of the departments, and through the Bureau's acquaintance
with employers, managers, or foremen and forewomen, it is able to
ascertain and report their expert opinion. It is also possible to induce
some of these busy people to come and view the problem in the light of
conditions at the school as well as in their own business.
General Results
Although the Placement Bureau is still in its infancy, some results may
be recorded. It is already in touch with some 700 employers, about 550
having been personally visited. The table below gives the facts as to
placements in former years, and may be interesting for comparison.
GIRLS PLACED AND REPORTED UPON
--------------------+-------------+-------------+--------+
| By Self or | By Alliance | |
| School. | Employment | Total. |
| | Bureau. | |
--------------------+-------------+-------------+--------+
| | | |
1902 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| | | |
1903 | 39 | 7 | 46 |
| | | |
1904 | 52 | 36 | 88 |
| | | |
1905 | 29 | 61 | 90 |
| | | |
1906 | 22 | 81 | 103 |
| | | |
1907 | 10 | 77 | 87 |
| | | |
1908 | 119 | 39 | 158 |
| | | |
1909 By school | 157 | 1 | 158 |
| | | |
+-------------+-------------+--------+
| | | |
| 428 | 302 | 730 |
| | | |
--------------------+-------------+-------------+--------+
This refers merely to the original or first placement of a girl. The
total of _re_-placements for 1909 was an additional 230, including those
of many former pupils who had heretofore placed themselves or been
placed by the Alliance Employment Bureau.
The crucial question of wages is one that is extremely difficult to deal
with in brief. The accompanying table gives a very general statement as
to the range of wages obtained by graduates and the future possibilities
in their trades, and read in the light of the comment below it is as
specifically accurate as any "summary" can be.
---------------+--------------------------+--------------+----------------
Trade. | Wages When | After Two to | Future
| First Placed. | Five Years. | Possibilities.
---------------+------------+-------------+--------------+----------------
| 1903 | 1909 | |
| | | |
Dressmaking | $3 to $5 | $4 to $6 | $6 to $13 | $25 or own
| | | | establishment
| | | |
Millinery | 2.50 to 4 | 4 | 5 to 15 | 12 to 25 or own
| | | | establishment
| | | |
Operating | 3 to 6 | 4 to 11 | 6 to 25 | 15 to 40
| | | |
Novelty | 4 to 5 | 4 to 9[A] | 6 to 11 | 18 to 25
| | | |
---------------+------------+-------------+--------------+----------------
| | | |
Art since 1907 | 5 to 8 | 4 to 7 | 7 to 15 | 20 to 30
| | | |
---------------+------------+-------------+--------------+----------------
The column for 1909 shows that at last a minimum wage of $4.00 has been
established for all the trades named, even Millinery. There are
exceptions, but they are almost always due to some special disability on
the part of the girl, and do not fairly affect a statement regarding the
wage for girls of normal capacity, who have done satisfactory work
during their course. The small percentage of pupils who fall below $4.00
for their initial wage are those who either did not complete the school
course, or who did poor work, or who are subnormal mentally or
handicapped physically, or can work only an eight-hour day because they
are under sixteen. It is true that when they are obliged to start on
piece-work instead of a week-wage their earnings may fall below our
minimum for a short time, but the first week or two is in that case not
usually a fair test of the girl's training or ability. Some little time
is necessary for the readjustment involved in the change from school to
workroom, and especially for attaining the "speed" necessary to earn a
fair wage on trade piece-rates. The compensating advantage is that when
she does begin to "make good" her improvement is usually registered in
her earnings more quickly and accurately than it would be by the safe
but slowly advancing "week-work." If after two weeks, however, the girl
is earning less than $4.00, and thinks she "never can make out there,"
she is given an opportunity to change her place. But very often there is
a sudden jump in earnings after ten days or so, as the girl gains
confidence and speed. (One pupil earned $3.97 her first week on
buttonholes, and over $7.00 the second.) Another point to be considered
in connection with the wage is the length of the season and the duration
of any one place. The comparatively steady work and regular, if small,
advance in the dressmaking, for instance, will often counterbalance the
larger week-wage or piece-work earnings of the trades where the season
is short or the positions of uncertain duration.
On the "rate of advance" in wage the Bureau is as yet too young to make
any general statements.
Students' Aid
On account of the extreme poverty in the families of many of the
students, some system of aid has always been necessary. The manner of
giving it has changed, however, that it may be free from all tendency to
pauperize or to deprive the recipient of self-respecting effort. At
first it took the form of a scholarship, paid at the school every week,
in equal amounts, to each student. A few months' experience, however,
showed that it would be better to require a month's apprenticeship
without pay. If after that the girl was allowed to continue her course,
she was given a dollar a week during her second month. Each month
thereafter the amount was increased according to the skill and good
spirit which were evident in her work. The maximum amount a student
could receive in one year was $100.
Early in the second year it became clear that a still more radical
change was advisable, and a plan was adopted whereby the need of the
girl's family became the only basis upon which money was given. A
committee was formed, whose membership was composed principally of
workers from the leading social settlements. Each applicant for aid was
referred to the member of the committee living nearest her home. An
investigation was made by the settlement worker, and aid was given in
proportion to the necessity, varying in amount from car fare to the
equivalent of a small wage. The girl went weekly to the settlement for
the money. In this way the aid was separated as far as possible from the
school atmosphere, and it was made clear to the girls and their
families that the money was in no sense pay for work. As indicative of
this change in viewpoint, the term "Scholarship" was replaced by that of
"Students' Aid." In addition to its other advantages, the new method
reduced the cost for aid to less than one-half of its original
proportion.
Since this time the aim has been always the same--to aid the girl
handicapped by poverty so that she might prepare herself for efficient
wage-earning. A member of the school staff is secretary of the Students'
Aid Committee, and she knows personally every applicant wishing aid, and
makes the initial visits and investigations. This plan has proved
advantageous in making a closer connection between the school and the
home, and in securing a more uniform standard of relief.
The Students' Aid Committee consists at present of representatives from
sixteen settlements, who meet twice a month to discuss and decide upon
the merit of each applicant. If aid is granted, the girl is assigned to
the settlement nearest her home and goes there weekly for her money. An
envelope showing the amount due the girl is sent from the school to the
settlement worker, and on this is indicated any absence or tardiness. It
is one of the duties of the member of the committee to inquire the
reasons for any irregularity in attendance, and, if necessary, to report
to the parent. In addition, each settlement worker renders valuable
service by giving friendly oversight to the girls and families in her
group, by doing as much for their welfare as time will allow, and by
reporting any unusual conditions to the Students' Aid Secretary.
Students are at times sent to the school for instruction with a request
for aid from some charitable institution, church, hospital, school, or
settlement which knows and is interested in the family; but, in general,
a girl needing financial help comes without such recommendations, and
consequently a more thorough investigation of the case is necessary.
Inquiry is always made at first of the Charity Organization Society, in
order to learn whether her family has received or is receiving other
relief. The "trial month" without aid gives time for the gathering of
facts about the family, and for a test of the girl's ability and
character. Aid is never promised to a girl before her admission.
A useful method has been worked out for determining the amount of aid
which may be given in any one case. The total amount of the family
income is obtained, and from it are deducted the fixed expenses for
rent, insurance, and car fare. From the remainder the per capita income
is found which must provide for all other expenses, that is, for each
person's share of food, clothing, light, fuel, medicine, and all
incidentals. It was estimated that a family could not maintain a decent
standard of living on a per capita income of less than $1.50 a week.
Although each case is considered on its merits, aid is almost always
given when the per capita income is less than $1.50; in some special
cases it is granted when the income exceeds this amount. The following
table shows the income of the seventy-eight families that were being
aided by the school on June 3, 1909.
------------------+--------------------
Weekly per Capita | Number of Families.
Income. |
------------------+--------------------
|
$ .00 to $ .49 | 16
|
.50 to .99 | 26
|
1.00 to 1.49 | 20
|
1.50 to 1.99 | 10
|
2.00 to 2.49 | 3
|
2.50 to 2.99 | 1
|
3.00 to 3.49 | 2
|
------------------+--------------------
Relief given by charitable institutions has not been included in this
income.
Each girl receiving aid is told the reason for its bestowal in such a
way that she will neither look upon it as money earned nor feel
humiliated as a recipient of charity, but will understand that it should
mean for her an opportunity to obtain a good education. It therefore is
incumbent upon her to show a realization of its value by becoming a
responsible and earnest worker. Students receiving such assistance are
expected to attend regularly, unless for excellent reasons, and the
reports from their departments must be satisfactory in regard to their
work, attitude, and effort. If a girl varies from this standard and,
after talking with her or with one of her parents, no improvement
follows, the aid may be suspended or withdrawn. Improving circumstances
in a family occasionally make it possible to decrease or even to give up
the aid. On the other hand, it is often found necessary to ask
additional assistance from special philanthropic sources when the need
is very great.
Night Classes
Night continuation classes are a part of the aim of the school. They
have offered training in expert parts of the Operating, Dressmaking,
Novelty, Millinery, and Art trades. The classes were well attended, the
work successful, and continued application for the renewal of the
instruction has been received. This class of education requires the most
skilled teachers and is consequently expensive. Lack of money to conduct
both the day and the night work adequately has made it necessary to
close the night classes temporarily. There is every reason to hope,
however, that they will be reopened in the near future, with still
greater facilities for teaching the advanced parts of the trades.
Student Government
The Student Council concerns itself with the government of the school,
the aim being to place it as far as possible in the hands of the
students. It also assists in developing their sense of responsibility.
The Council is composed of representatives elected from each class, who
have been chosen for their executive ability and good character. They
meet once a week with one of the supervisors to discuss questions of
general school discipline and regulations. Each member is responsible
for maintaining order in her class when it is not under other
supervision, for settling disputes among the girls, and for reporting
disobedience to school laws.
Graduate and Department Clubs
Some form of alumnæ association has been in existence since the end of
the first school year. This important phase of the Trade School work is
now thoroughly organized, and gains for us the warm coöperation of those
who have benefited by the instruction. The Graduate Association includes
those who have received the certificate of the school; the department
clubs, however, are more democratic, and admit to membership any girl
who has been in attendance. These associations work together for the
benefit of the school. They hold frequent business as well as social
meetings. They plan definite ways for getting in touch with Manhattan
Trade School girls who are just entering trade, in order to help them to
adjust themselves to their work and to increase in them loyalty and
responsibility to the school; for improving themselves and working girls
in general by discussing topics of interest concerning their trades, and
by giving entertainments which are of real interest and value. They have
carried out schemes for adding to the general finances of the school or
for obtaining money for special objects, such as shower baths for the
gymnasium. They have given several suppers to bring the faculty and
former students together, in order to discuss informally trade and
school matters.
FOOTNOTES:
[A] This maximum is not in paste or glue work, but in the silk lampshade
trade.