FLAX, HEMP, AND JUTE MANUFACTURES. The value of the flax, hemp, and jute products in creased from $37,313,021 in 1890 to $47.601,607 in 1900. In the latter year there were 20,903 Prior to about 1876 ready-made clothing was made principally by skilled tailors, assisted by members of their household. About that time the 'team-work' and task-price system was in troduced, which divided the work between a number of persons. Each person performs only a small detail of the work, and little or no skill is required. Since the work requires no pre vious experience and no knowledge of the lan guage, the unskilled foreign element in the large population centres have naturally drifted into it. The manufacturer, after the cloth and the linings have been out, usually lets the work to contrac tors, who sublet it to be done in private houses or small workshops. This 'sweating system,' so called, represents one of the most unsatisfactory labor conditions in America. Very recently a new system, called in contradistinction the 'factory' system, is supplanting the task system. More
persons are employed in a shop, and sometimes more than 100 persons are engaged in the making of one coat. More skill is required in the man ufacture of women's clothing, and the task system has not been applied much in cloak manufacture. Considerably over one-third of the total prod uct of men's ready-made clothing and over two thirds of women's ready-made clothing are made in New York City. The increase in the value of men's ready-made clothing between 1890 and 1900 was greater for New York State than for the whole country. The business formerly done in :Massachusetts has been largely transferred to New York.
The value of the clothing product of men's custom work and repairing for 1900 was estimat ed at $137,714,282, and of women's custom-made clothing and dressmaking, $48,356,034. Other important items of clothing manufacture for the same year were: Shirts, $49,022,845; men's fur nishing goods, $43,902,162; and hats and caps, $52,797.697.