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CONFERENCES WJTH SHOE MANUFACTURERS.

Several meetings of this commission have been held at which proprietors of shoe factories were present. All agreed to the great need of better trained shoe workers. The report of the committee recommending the establishment of a school of shoe manufacturing at Lynn was considered by this commission and by the shoe manufacturers that met with the commission. Such a school properly conducted seemed to all very desirable. None of the shoe manufacturers, however, have indicated, thus far, any disposition to materially assist in the industrial training of shoe workers either by contributing money towards its sup- port, or by furnishing shoes to be manufactured and co-operating in the marketing of the manufactured shoes, or by instructing pupils in their several factories.

COMPLICATED CHARACTER OF SHOE MANUFACTURING.

The shoe industry is so highly specialized that any fair knowledge of the whole process of manufacturing a single shoe involves a knowledge of from fifty to seventy-seven different operations or occupations. Often a man spends the whole period of his employment in a shoe factory, working at a single one of these fifty or seventy-five processes.. The matter is still further complicated by the fact that these operations vary with the different systems of machinery used and the different classes of shoes manufactured.. There are about three hundred and fifty different kinds of shoe machines in Common use.
In view of the lack of offers of material assistance by the shoe manufacturers and the complicated character of the shoe industry; this commission is not prepared at present m any definite recommendations. The need is apparent, but the best way to supply it is not yet clear to us.

MANUFACTURE OF MACHINERY.

The Manufacture of Machinery is the largest industry of Beverly. Besides the United Shoe Machinery Company, which has about three thousand employees at present, there are several smaller machine shops, and these are likely to increase in number.

Of the persons reported to the Inspector of Factories as employed in Beverly between the ages of fourteen and twenty-one, more than one-half were employed by the United Shoe Machinery Company.. This company, at the present time, has no apprentice system or plan by which their employees may systematically learn the machinists' trade. When a new man is employed, he is taught one "job" or process and he may re- main on that "job" as long as he is employed. There is no systematic plan of progress from one process of the industry to another.

CONFERENCES WITH MANUFACTURERS OF MACHINERY

This commission has had several meetings at which representatives of the United Shoe Machinery Company discussed the existing conditions and the opportunities for trained machinists in the shops of this Company. They stated that thoroughly skilled machinists were difficult to secure and that, of those available, a large part had been trained in some foreign country. The representatives of the Company expressed hearty approval of the general principle of industrial education and signified their willingness to co-operate on broad lines and in a substantial way in providing facilities for teaching youths between the ages of fourteen and eighteen the elements of the machinist's trade.

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