knowledge of trade requirement (women of such caliber can always command the best salaries). The teachers and forewomen also must combine teaching ability with competence in their workrooms; but as the market wishes a similar class of service and gives excellent wages to obtain it, the school must offer a like or even a larger amount. (4) Teachers of highly skilled industries are expert, usually, in but the one occupation, such as straw hat making by electric machine or jewelry box making; consequently, even if the student body is small, the teaching force can seldom be reduced without cutting off an entire department or a trade. A trade school differs from the high school in this particular, for in the latter, when necessary, two or more academic subjects can be taught by the same instructor.

Another difficulty confronting the school at the beginning was, that while numerous occupations in New York are open to women, there was reason to think that some of these were not well adapted to them. Little was known at that time of the trades offering opportunities for good wages, steady rise to better positions, satisfactory sanitary conditions, and moderate hours of labor; of the physical effect of many of the popular occupations; of the specific requirements of each kind of employment; of the effect of the working girls in their workrooms and in their homes; of their health and how to improve it; of the needs and wishes of the employers; of the relation of the Trade Union to trade instruction, and of labor legislation already operative or which should be furthered. Before deciding on courses of instruction in the Manhattan Trade School some accurate knowledge of these facts had to be obtained.

Selection of Trades

The selection of definite trades was made after five months of investigation in the factories, workrooms, and department stores of New York City. In general, it can be said of the occupations chosen that they employ large numbers of women; require expert workers; training for them is difficult to obtain; there is chance within them for rise to better positions; the wages are good, and favorable conditions, both physical and moral, prevail in the workrooms. Some trades employing women were rejected, as they failed to meet necessary requirements, while others were not chosen, as there was little chance in them to rise on account of men's trades intervening. Slack seasons occurring in many otherwise good employments were considered, and plans were made whereby the worker could be enabled to shift to another allied trade when her own was slack. If a girl gains complete control of her tool she can adapt herself to other occupations in which it is used with less difficulty than she can change to a trade requiring another tool. Women's industries, to a great extent, center around the skilled use of a few tools. These tools were selected as centers of the school activities, and the connected trades were radiated from them. The most skilled occupations were found to require the use of the sewing machine, foot and electric power, the paint brush, the paste brush, and the needle. Statistics show that teaching the use of this last tool will affect over one-half of the women wage-earners of New York, of whom there are at least 370,000. In addition to the general scheme of fitting a worker so that she may take up another allied occupation in slack seasons, specific training for this purpose is given to those students who choose trades where the busy season is short and of frequent recurrence.

Trade Courses

The curriculum includes instruction in the following trades; the courses are short and the teaching is in trade lines:

I. Use of electric power sewing machines.

II. Use of the needle and foot power sewing machines.

Entrance Plans

The school is open throughout the year in order to train girls whenever they come—the summer months being slack in most trades are especially desirable for instruction. The tuition is free, and in cases of extreme necessity a committee gives Students' Aid, in proportion to the need. Entrance to day classes for girls who are from fourteen to seventeen years of age and who can show their working papers or be able to produce documentary evidence of age, if under sixteen, can occur any week.

Each girl who enters, after selecting her trade, is given a typewritten paper showing the possible steps of advance in her chosen course. She takes this home in order that the family may know what is before her. She can by special effort or by outside study lessen the length of her training. The first month in the school is a test time. If the girl shows the needed qualities she is allowed to continue.

During the month of trial her instructors decide what she needs and if her chosen trade is the best for her. The right is reserved to make a complete change if her health will not stand the one she desires, if she has no ability for it, or if she gives evidence of special talent in another direction.

Industrial Intelligence

Every student has, as a part of her trade education, such academic work, art, and physical training as seems necessary; when she passes certain standards she is then allowed to devote full time to her selected occupation. It is not possible for a worker who has skill with the hand and no education to back it up to rise far in her trade. There is many a tragedy in the market of the woman whose poor early education prevented her from getting ahead. Accurate expression, whether oral or written, the use of arithmetic in simple trade transactions or detailed accounts, the ability to grasp the important factors in any situation and then to go to work without waste of time or