district a saddler only makes the saddle. Some of the lighter portions of the work, such as the stitching, etc., are done by women, and these women earn from $4.86 to $6.07 a week, according to ability and the amount of work that is forthcoming.

By gig saddlers are meant makers of saddle pads for harness of all kinds. The foreman gig or black saddler gets from about $8.50 to $12.16 a week, day work; $12.16 commands the service of a good man, while an inferior man earns no more than $8.52. The foreman selects the material and cuts out, etc., taking the responsibility for the work being done properly. He knows how to select the leather and cut it economically. A black saddler fits up at piecework prices and earns about $8.74 a week.

Panel makers, at piecework, net about $6.07 a week. Women stitchers on best work earn at piecework $3.64 to $4.37 a week, according to aptitude and ability.

HARNESS MAKERS.

Cutters, day work, fifty-four hours per week, average about $9.73. A few get $12.16 to $14.59 on account of ability. A foreman and supervisor of the shops gets from $9.73 to $24.33 per week, day work, according to ability, number of hands employed, and class of work turned out. Preparers and finishers get about $7.29 to $7.77 for fifty-four hours. If harness makers are on best work and trade is good, they get $1.21 to $3.64 per week more, according to the class of work they are engaged on.

Women hand stitchers, working fifty-four hours, get, if trade is fairly good and they work steadily, $3.64 a week without much trouble, but there are few who actually earn more than $2.91. A girl is content to earn $2.67 to $2.91, but a widow will earn $3.64 to $4.37. This is on best work, the women stitchers taking heavy and light together.

Women machinists, using sewing machines, earn $3.64 to $4.37 per week, according to the class of work. There are no men stitchers in Walsall, but in London retail shops the stitching on the best harness is done by the harness makers, the work being less subdivided in London than in the wholesale manufactories in the provinces. There are no men machinists.

The following weekly wages are for men and women who have learned their trades: Women stitchers in harness and saddlery trades, $2.67 to $3.64; bridle cutters, men, $5.83 to $7.77; gig saddlers, men, $6.68; riding-saddle makers, gentlemen's work, men, $6.80 to $7.30; side hands, $7.77 to $10.94; purse makers, men, on saddle-style stuff, $5.83 to $7.77, and turned edge, men, $7.29 to $9.23; bag makers, including trunk and suit-case making, $8.26 to $9.73. The figures given are for journeymen. There are, of course, apprentices in all these trades, and in some of them disproportionate numbers, depending on the strength of the labor unions.

Stitching is largely done by learners, girls from 14 to 17 years of age. Their wages I shall not go into, as I know very little about them. I am not able to give you a printed list for the various trades; if I did have a list I fear the prices would not be authentic at the present time. Work is slack now, and in many cases men are working for altogether insufficient sums, not being able to get full-time work, but so far as possible the figures I give you are what would be earned in ordinary times. I happen to have a very good knowledge of what workers can earn here and in the United States. In my opinion a man can not produce as much work per week here as can a man of equal caliber in the United States, and women stitchers here are not able to do as much work as male stitchers in the United States. To the best of my knowledge women are not employed in these trades to any great extent in the United States.

I will simply say that the present 45 per cent does not cover the difference in wages. I have here a report which I sent out to my organization, which was taken up last summer, not with the intention of using it here, but merely as information for my own organization. This is from 41 different cities throughout the country, including the common mechanic that works in the cheap shops and the factories. During the month of June statistical blanks were sent to each local for the purpose of obtaining information upon which to base a report to the jurisdiction as to the condition of wages, hours, apprentices, and other matters, and to have a record here in the office for use as

a source of information to be used by the executive officers when they had any question to decide where such matters were involved. Not only were these facts to be a source of information to the jurisdiction, but also were to be a reference in shaping the future policy of the brotherhood. But for some reason or other only 51 locals saw fit to fill out the blanks; 46 did not. Now, this places us in a position to be able to report on a little over one-half, which is a very bad showing. If information is to be given out from this office we must receive the cooperation of all the locals to make it complete and have it of some value.

Fifty-one locals report a total of 2,380 U. B. men, 50 locals report a total of 3,841 journeymen in the cities, 51 locals report a total of 1,545 non-U. B. men in the cities, which shows that there is room for a large amount of work in the way of getting new members to be done by the locals in their own localities.

Forty-four locals report 309 apprentices. The total members reported by the 44 locals was 2,034, or an average of 1 apprentice to 63 men. In some locals the average is above the ratio of 1 to 10 set by our constitution, but as a rule it is below. Forty-six locals report 95 wholesale factories and 49 locals report 974 retail shops. Twenty locals have 22 agreements with wholesale factories and 24 locals have 126 agreements with retail shops. Twenty-one locals do not allow overtime; 25 locals allow overtime. Of these, 16 demand time and one-half; 2, time and one-quarter; 7 do not demand anything extra. Forty-seven locals report 1,274 men working piecework; 4 locals have no pieceworkers; 51 locals report week workers. All locals give the spring and fall as the busy seasons with a few exceptions. Fiftyone locals report on hours employed per week, which gives an average of 57%. Twenty-five locals report 60 hours; 4, 59; 3, 58; 1, 57; 1, 56; 2, 55; 13, 54, and 2, 53. This great difference in the hours employed is one of the causes of a great amount of dissatisfaction, as the locals that secure the shorter hours are in direct competition with those working longer hours, and they are held back and can not secure an advancement of wages, as their products must be put on the market to compete with those made in the factories working long hours.

Forty-one locals report on the number of days employed per year, which runs from 225 to 312. The average is 241 days per year. Locals reported average wage-working piecework as follows:

Forty-one locals reported an average increase of wages since they were organized of 17 per cent. The lowest was 5 per cent and the highest 33 per cent.

While these figures are incomplete on account of the number of locals not reporting, they will give the members an idea of the trade throughout the country. It is to be hoped that we will receive better cooperation in the future when a matter of this kind is taken up. You can see that the difference in wages between England and here is such that the 45 per cent does not even cover the wages alone.

Take, for instance, a man in New York who is making fine work. He will get $16 for making a pair of fine coach bridles. He will make those in five days. A man on the same class of work in England, where the minimum wage is about $8 a week, or, we will say he is a better class workman and gets 40s. or about $10 a week, will make those same bridles in five days.

There you have the same goods produced for $10 that cost us $16 here, even for the labor alone. And add 50 per cent on that $10 and you have got the best of the American mechanic, the English have, at that, not counting a word about their sending goods in here under value and the different tricks that they use, which have been followed up by the Treasury Department. In that connection, I will say that an agent of the Treasury Department made an investigation about three years ago, largely at my request; he examined into what was being done at New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and other ports. Now, the cities that are brought in direct competition with the English mechanics are Hartford, Newark, New York City, Philadelphia, Boston, Charleston, and Wheeling, W. Va. The average wage for a harness maker in those cities is about $15.08; the average wage for a collar maker is $17; the average wage for a saddle maker is $17.25; the average wage for a gig saddle maker is $16.60; the average wage for a harness cutter is $16.26; the average wage for machine operator is $16.57; the average wage for a saddle cutter is $15, and the average wage for a collar cutter is $15. I have here a table showing the average wages of all these workers.

Average wages of different branches of the harness trade in eastern cities.

Mr. BAKER (continuing). The great opposition that our trade has is the work done by girls on the other side, where we have to have a man. Our man would be getting from $13 to $16 a week as a stitcher, and the same work is done, on saddles and riding bridles, by girls who get, according to this report, from $2.65 up to $3.50 a week.

That has been proven by a harness that was brought in by a firm that I worked for in New York City. I want to say, gentlemen, that I know these things because I have worked in New York City at the bench since 1868, and I know what I have been up against. That was a fine harness, and the stitches and buckles in that harness alone would cost more in New York City than the whole thing did landed from England, and I paid 45 per cent duty.

The CHAIRMAN. Notwithstanding all that, we export $670,000 worth and import only $160,000 worth.

Mr. BAKER. But if you will notice the exportations are almost entirely to the Philippine Islands and such places.

The CHAIRMAN. No, these figures are for our whole exports and imports.

Mr. GRIGGS. You say the working girls on the other side are in your way?

Mr. BAKER. Yes, sir.

Mr. GRIGGS. What are you going to do with the working girls on this side?

Mr. BAKER. We have had girls in Hartford stitching that made $8, $9, and $10 a week. We do not propose to starve our girls over here and let them do the work in England.

Mr. GRIGGS. No, I do not; but I know they always work cheaper than men are willing to work for.

Mr. BAKER. We know that. We expect that. We expect that. But we want our American girls to do that instead of having it done over there, and we want to give our American mechanics enough wages so that they can take care of the girls and not make it necessary for the girls to go to work to help support the families.

Mr. GRIGGS. You want this duty of 45 per cent?

Mr. BAKER. We would like to have it 60 per cent, and then we can put more men to work.

A shop in New York City used to employ some 45 or 50 harness makers, and he took his patterns to England and had a big lot brought over, and all ready to put the buckles in, so if you wanted a silver-mounted harness or a brass-mounted harness he could put the buckles in in a couple of days.

The CHAIRMAN. The importations for the last ten years have amounted to about $150,000 a year

Mr. COCKRAN. And the exports to about five times that much.
The CHAIRMAN. Yes.

Mr. BAKER. But the exports are mostly harness of the cheaper grades.

The CHAIRMAN. Well, how about the imports? One hundred and fifty thousand dollars is a very small percentage, compared with our whole consumption in the United States.

Mr. BAKER. You must remember, Mr. Chairman, that the imported English goods are used almost exclusively in the East. A few of them get as far west as Chicago

The CHAIRMAN. It doesn't make any difference where they are used; that is all that came in, according to the government reports.

Mr. BAKER. I know, and if you were acquainted with the trade you would know that the English imported harness is used almost entirely in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and that section of the country.

Mr. GRIGGS. Is that a finer harness than we make?

Mr. BAKER. Yes; we can make it, but to compete with them we have to do the stitching by machine, where they do it by hand.

Mr. DALZELL. That harness would come in anyhow, would it not? People who buy that kind of harness would buy it, no matter what it cost?

Mr. BAKER. It is a luxury.

Mr. DALZELL. I know it is, and people that use that kind of harness would not have anything else, no matter what the cost was. I suppose that that is a fact, is it not?

Mr. BAKER. Then let that class pay for it.

Mr. DALZELL. All right.

Mr. BAKER. You put the tariff high enough and we will get the goods.

The CHAIRMAN. The difference in the revenue between a duty of · 45 per cent and 60 per cent does not amount to much on this $150,000 that is imported. I do not see how that would do you any good.

Mr. BAKER. It would give us more work for the men in the United States.

The CHAIRMAN. I do not see how.

Mr. BAKER. They would get this work, making this harness and saddles

The CHAIRMAN. That is the whole thing under that schedule, harness and saddles and the whole thing. That is the report.

Mr. BOUTELL. What factories in this country supply the great southwestern part of our country with harness and saddles, that great section of the country where nearly everybody rides or drives? Mr. BAKER. Most of them come from Chicago, St. Louis, and Cincinnati.

Mr. BOUTELL. Do they manufacture any saddles or harness in that section of the country?

Mr. BAKER. In Kansas City we have two good factories, and in St. Louis they manufacture harness.

Mr. CLARK. And in St. Joe.

Mr. BAKER. Yes, in St. Joe they have a big factory; and they also have a big factory in Atchison and one in Leavenworth.

The CHAIRMAN. And there are small factories almost everywhere; every town of any size in the country, I suppose, has a harness factory?

Mr. BAKER. When I speak of large factories I mean factories that employ 40 or 50 men.

The CHAIRMAN. Oh, yes; but the factories make a lot of harness

too.

Mr. BAKER. But that is only for the local trade.

The CHAIRMAN. But that is a part of the trade, and a very considerable part of the trade.

Mr. CLARK. In the sum total of the output of American harness, these small workers that work one or two hands make more than the big factories make, do they not?

Mr. BAKER. Not as a rule; no, sir.

Mr. CLARK. But take it altogether. Nearly every town has somebody that makes harness, and if you add all the little fellows together, you would find that altogether they make more harness than the big factories?

Mr. BAKER. No; not by a long shot. One of these large factories turns out more work

Mr. COCKRAN. Do you not think it is a very prosperous industry as it stands?

Mr. BAKER. Prosperous? No.

Mr. COCKRAN. An industry that supplies the entire wants of the American market, except about $160,000 worth, and exports $760,000?

Mr. BAKER. We have more men out of work to-day

Mr. COCKRAN. But you would not get them to work by increasing the cost of production?