Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-11-24
TOO MANY TA|LORS
Takes Thirty-Nine Men to
Make One Coat.
DUE TO SPECIALIZATION
One Man Does Basting, Another
Marks Buttonholes, Etc.
APPRENTICE SYSTEM RUINED
Labor Men Interested in Industrial
Training Reforms Proposed by
National Society.

Special Correspondence Of The Star.
NEW YORK, November %. 1907.
According to the United States bureau
of la Dor the old song 1T Takes Nine Tai
lors to Make Man" is filed with mis-
Information, for in reality the bureau
finds it takes thirty-nine men OF different
trades just to make a coat under the pres
ent system of shop manufacture. For the
day when one tailor measured the GUS
toner, cut out the goods, and, with his
apprentices, shaped it into a finished and
pressed garment has practically passed
Today all one tailor may do through his
entire life is to mark tie place where
buttons are to be sewed on. Another
man never marks places for buttons
His speciality is to mark buttonholes. A
third man spends the long day in sew
ing on buttons; fourth in making but
tonholes. Men who sew sleeves do not
make armholes. The armholists give place
to shoulder shapers, and these last do no.
touch collars. which are di.tinct special
ty. Even the men who manipulate the
tailor's goose are divided into pressers of
seams, edges, Innings. sleeves and coat
pressers. The basters stick to one dis
tinct specially of basting, and a separate
functionary. the basting puller, undoes
their work.
Even the coat strap is a separate prov
ince. So that when the coat is finished
it represents thirty-nine distinct varieties
man finally puts on the coat he is wear
ing the product OF 312 fingers and
IS thumbs, not counting the dig
it's of thos who sheared the sheep, wove
the CLOTH dyed it, finished it, shipped it
and cut it, nor the ink-stained clerical
xx-hi oh oil
the processes. Probably from sheep to
wearer the coat was handled by at least
5000 fingers.
This specialization In industry. where
one man all his life makes but fraction
of an article and has no chance to learn
all the processes, according to observers,
has, with The introduction of machinery,
killed the apprentice system and has re-
suited in falling off of skill among
workmen. The apprentice came in with
the guild system, where he was able to
learn all of a trade and to make a fin
ished article, under the personal super
vision of q master workman. In the old
days. boy could be apprenticed to a tall
or and in two or three years learn to
make suit of clothes himself Today
in a large tailor shop he could learn prob
ably but one operation at a time and to
master the whole thirty-nine needed to
make coat would take him seventy
eight years, II he spent two years learn
have to learn cutting and ''pants-making
and west tailoring"
Apprentices Are Few.
In the latest United States census the
| number of apprentices and helpers In
sixteen skilled trades constituted only
2.45 per cent of the workers. The highes,
percentage of apprentices was among the
| machinists-5.S6
| Yet these trades, according to educators
| can be taught and at least a preparation
| toward trade education can be given In
| the elementary public schools. At present
the children who should go into skilled in.
| dustries find nothing in the public school,
| curriculum to help them in their anu.
ton, and as consequence hundreds OF
| thousands of boys leave school every year
before they have completed the course. A
relatively small proportion of these de.
serters quit because they are forced by
| actual want.
| A new era in which boys will be trained
| for the skilled trades along scientific
| lines at public expense is coming through
| this industrial education. according t.
those who have been studying the prob
lem. Among the people generally they
observe growing realization of the neet
| for radical improvements in the system OF
elementary education to enable It to NEE
| the unsupplied demand for skilled arti
| sans.
Many far-sightad manufacturers o
| prominence have for several years beer
keenly awake to the necessity for bette
industrial training. and OF late prominen
| labor men have shown great interest il
| the idea. This interest was we'll il,ustrat
ed at the recent convention of the Ameri
| can Federation of Labor at Norfolk, Va.
which. at the request Of President Com
pers. was addressed by representative O
the National Society for the Promotion O
Industrial Education. the organization
that has been at work for the past yea
to further the cause OF industrial edu