The final stamping and wrapping in paper and tying with cord are done at
a rate of 25 pieces an hour, for a wage coming to $6 a week, by young
girls; and the situation is otherwise about the same as with the other
wrappers.
Except at the mangle, the operation of the sheet and pillow-case factory
was unsatisfactory to the management, who had begun to study the
department for reorganization just before the time of the inquiry.
Competition had so depressed the price of the manufacture of sheets that
the commission men, for whom these processes described were executed,
paid 25 cents a dozen sheets for the work. This does not, of course,
include the initial cost of the material. It means, however, that all of
the following kinds of machine tending and manual labor on a sheet were
to be done for 2-1/2 cents:--
Tearing; (men workers)
Hemming; (women workers)
Folding; (women workers)
Mangling; (women workers)
Book-folding; (women workers)
Wrapping; (women workers)
Ticketing; (women workers)
The management lost in its payment for labor here, and yet felt the work
was too hard for its workers, and should be changed. Alterations in the
rest periods are now being introduced.
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