R. R. Lutz - Wage Earning and Education

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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.

CHAPTER II

FORECASTING FUTURE PROBABILITIES

The industrial education survey of Cleveland differs from other
studies conducted elsewhere in that it bases its educational program
on a careful study of the probable future occupational distribution of
the young people now in school. It does not claim to foretell the
specific positions that individual boys and girls will hold when they
are adults but it does claim very definitely that our safest guide in
foretelling their future vocational distribution is to be found in the
official figures of the present occupational census of the city.

One of the most familiar and time-worn platitudes of educational
speakers and writers is that "The children of today are the citizens
of tomorrow." In the field of industrial education it is quite as true
that the school children of today are the workers of tomorrow.
Moreover, since occupational distributions change but slowly even in
these modern times, it is unquestionably true that the boys and girls
now studying in the public schools will soon be scattered among the
different gainful occupations of Cleveland's industrial, commercial,
and professional life in just about the same proportions as their
fathers and mothers and brothers and sisters are now distributed.

The plan of the survey in advocating types of present preparation
based on studies of future prospects seems at first sight so obvious a
mode of procedure as hardly to warrant extended explanation. This is
far from being the case. The reader who proposes to follow the
working-out of the principle and to scrutinize the evidence underlying
it must be prepared to scan many a detailed table of statistics and to
arrive at most unforeseen conclusions.

THE POPULAR CONCEPT OF INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION

For many years past the public has given respectful attention to the
arguments of the champions of industrial education. There has been
general assent to the proposition that the schools should train for
and not away from the industrial age in which we live. We have come to
think of the carpenter shop, the machine shop, the forge shop, and the
cooking room as necessary and desirable adjuncts of the modern school
and to our minds these shops have typified industrial education. All
of these have come to be almost synonymous with progressive thought
and action in public education. Very generally it has been felt that
the problems of industrial education were to be solved through the
wider extension of these shop facilities in our public schools.

When these familiar generalizations are submitted to careful analysis
their whole structure begins to totter. In Cleveland about 3,700 boys
leave school each year and go to work. They represent various stages
of advancement from the 4th grade of the elementary school to the 4th
year of the high school. They are scattered through more than 100
school buildings. The problem of industrial education is to give these
boys with their differing ages, their widely varied school
preparation, and their scattered geographical distribution, the best
possible preparation for taking their places in the work-a-day world.
They represent every grade of intelligence, every stratum of social
and economic life, and it is extremely difficult to bring them
together for instructional purposes. They are scattered in little
groups through more than a thousand classrooms.

THE IMPORTANCE OF RELATIVE NUMBERS

Now it is possible to foretell with some certainty what these young
people will be doing a few years from now. Almost all of them are of
American birth and it is certain that in a few years they will be
engaged in doing just about the same sorts of work as are now done in
the city of Cleveland by adults of American birth. The data of the
United States Census of Occupations show us that among every 100
American born men in Cleveland there are eight who are clerks, seven
who are machinists, four who are salesmen, and so on through the list
of hundreds of occupations. The number of American born men in each
100 engaged in each of the 10 leading sorts of occupations is
approximately as follows:

Clerks 8
Machinists 7
Salesmen 4
Laborers and porters 4
Retail dealers 4
Draymen, teamsters, etc. 4
Bookkeepers 3
Carpenters 3
Commercial travelers 2
Manufacturers 2
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41

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