CLOTHING INDUSTRY IN AMER ICA. As shown by the 1914 census of manu factures in the United States, the value of the factory product of clothing exceeded that of all other industries except three, which, in order of magnitude, were iron and steel, slaughtering and meat pacicing and foundry and machine-shop products. Of the total for the clothing indus try, $1,297,273,396, the value of clothing for men and boys was $458,210,985, or 35.3 per cent; clothing for women and children, $473,888,354, or 36.5 per cent; shirts, collars and other fur nishings, including corsets, $122,440,522, or 9.4 per cent. Census statistics for these branches of the industry are shown in an accompanying table. Clothing for women and children and for men and boys, classified as two industries, ranked among all industries in 1914 seventh and eighth, respectively, in number of wage earn ers, and 13th and 12th, respectively, in value of product.
Clothing manufacturing is peculiarly an American industry. By far the greater quantity of the clothing worn in the United States is factory-made. All classes of people in this country buy more clothes and are better dressed than corresponding classes in other countries. In Europe clothing factories are compara tively few and small. Only a limited amount of special lines of clothing is imported into the United States. The statistics of imports and exports during the fiscal year ended 30 June 1914, a month before the war in Europe began, are: Wearing apparel of wool, imports, $2,268, 125; exports, $2,148,235. Wearing apparel of cotton, except hosiery and other knit goods, imports, $2,898,167; exports, $8,220,626. Wear ing apparel of silk, imports, $4,246,345; exports, $11,673.
Clothing produced in European factories does not equal the American product in style except for women's outer apparel. Models of women's dresses, suits and cloaks are brought from Paris. In other lines the styles of cloth ing worn in the United States originate with Amencan style designers, though occasionally suggestions from Europe are adopted. The styles of clothing for men in America are de termined by designers in large factories, rather than by custom tailors. Clothing manufactitres are the most extensive advertisers in this coun try. The styles of factory designers are attrac tively illustrated in newspaper and magazine advertising, and factory-made garments have been greatly popularized by this wide publicity.
The best grades of factory clothing, though sold for much less than the handiwork of cus tom tailors, is well tailored and compares favorably with it. The factory-made clothing industry has grown at a much more rapid rate than the population. The increase from 1900 to 1910 in the population of the continental United States, Alaska excluded, was 21 per cent, while the increase from 1899 to 1909 in the value of product was: clothing for men and boys, 75.5 per cent; for women and chil dren, 142.1 per cent.
Before ready-to-wear clothing was manu factured, clothing was made in the home or by tailors, who often were itinerant. Dealers in second-hand clothing supplied to some extent the demand for cheap apparel. The necessity for replenishing. the clothing of sailors during their few days in port led to the manufacture of ready-made clothing at New Bedford about 1825 and at Boston about 1830. Production on a larger scale was begun about 1831 by George Opdyke, later mayor of New York, who had a store in that city, with a branch in New Or leans. About 1834 his son-in-law, John D. Scott, moved from New Jersey to New York city, to take charge of the clothing factory, and thereafter the name of the firm was John D. Scott & Co. They had a large Southern trade, and soon opened branch stores in Charles ton and Memphis. They supplied clothes for planters, but their product was mostly garments of cheap materials for slaves on plantations. Other men, some of them merchants, began manufacturing clothing for sailors, for South ern negroes and, after 1848, for gold miners in California. Not a large amount was made for other classes before 1861. Until then the factories were principally in New York, Bos ton, Philadelphia and Baltimore, near the tex tile mills, and where a labor supply was obtain able, but some were in Rochester, Cincinnati and other cities. The cutting was done in the shops or factories, but many of the garments were made up in the homes of the workers. Some were sent to rural communities to be made up by females in the families of farmers during winter or in any spare time.