3. PAPER GOODS.

BY CAROLINE E. WILSON.

A. Introductory.

The paper goods industry of Massachusetts is distributed among 165 factories located in various sections of the Commonwealth, but principally in the eastern portion and in the Connecticut Valley. Of the 46 establishments visited, seven reported home work. The principal products are boxes, labels and tags, stationery, and novelties. Four factories which produce confectionery supplies, boxes, tags, and novelties are included in the present study.

B. Processes and Rates of Pay.

Home work on Paper Goods is almost entirely hand-work. The simplest process, tag stringing, is entirely unskilled.1 The operation is practically the same for all tags from small jewelry and cut glass tags to heavy shoe and baggage tags. A string is looped through the eye of the tag, leaving the ends ready for tying. Stringing jewelry tags is more difficult, owing to the use of fine silk with which they are strung.

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The work on "spangled tags" is the only instance of machine home work on Paper Goods.3 Spangles" are small four-pronged metal caps which are to be fastened in the ends of small parchment tags. The tags come in long strips partially cut out. The worker puts the tag and the cap in the proper places in a machine which is worked by a foot treadle. One movement of the foot treadle clinches two prongs to the tag and leaves two others for fastening the tag to articles. The process is slow and requires accuracy. The machines are owned and kept in repair by the manufacturers. Seven of the workers have had them in their homes for several years. Owing to the fatigue caused by the monotony of performing the same process an infinite number of times, tag stringing is frequently described as "nervous work." Workers also report that it is hard on the eyes, and that fewer children would need glasses if there were no work on tags.

Making boxes is done by former employees who have been specially trained for the purpose. The boxes sent to the home are ring, jewelry, and coin boxes. The worker is provided with paste, glue, brushes, and

1 See Plate IV, facing this page; figures 7 and 14, Christmas tags.

2 See Plate IV, facing this page; figure 11, baggage tag.

See Plate IV, facing this page; figure 4, dry-goods tag; figure 5, spangled tag, front and back; figure 10, jewelry tag.

molds of various sizes by the manufacturer, and uses a special workshop table upon which the materials are spread. Pasteboard frames, cut and marked, and paper already cut are sent from the factory. The worker fits the frames over the mold and pastes the paper covering over the bottom and sides. The top is made in the same way. If the box is to be hinged, the worker pastes heavy pieces of paper from the inside of the top to the inside of the bottom of the box. The boxes are sent back to the factory for the linings. Drop fronts for fancy boxes are made from pasteboard with red, gold, and flowered coverings.

The process of making paper flowers is exceedingly complicated, and varies with the kind of flower made. The making of the carnation is perhaps typical. The parts of the flower are cut out at the factory. The home worker wraps a long wire stem in green paper, fastens to it a green calyx, and surrounds the calyx with numerous folded petals. Cloves are pounded and put at the base of the petals in order to give the flower a fragrance. Buds and leaves are wound in near the base of the stem.

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Other work in the homes includes fancy red and white bells made by pasting fringed tissue paper to buckram frames; frills for chops, wound around and pasted together; 1 paper flags, cut out and pasted on sticks or pins; 2 paper napkins, folded so as to bring the decorated corners outside; cardboard with tissue paper coverings on which jewelry is to be displayed; jewelers' mats of plush and velvet for show cases; and caps to be put inside costume crackers. The workers using fancy paper complained of the tiresome effect of red paper on the eye. The eye-strain is so soon felt that they are not able to work on red continuously for any length of time.

C. The Labor Supply.

The supply of home workers on Paper Goods more than exceeded the demand, except in one case where the local supply had been exhausted. The exception was a town in which between five and six hundred families strung tags or did some other kind of paper goods work. The manufacturer in this town found it necessary to establish sub-stations in other towns in order to secure a sufficient supply of home workers.

The exact number of home workers in this industry could not be ascertained. Between 1,500 and 2,000 names appeared upon the payrolls; but in many instances a single name represented a group of workers, so that the number at work was appreciably greater than the pay-rolls indicated. The workers were recruited in part from former employees and their families and friends; a factory employee may become handicapped for factory work and still be able to do home work; or a woman employee may marry and wish to continue her work at home. Sometimes a former employee who has been an especially good worker is favored with rush or special orders by her former foreman. Factory employees sometimes take work home for themselves or their families when leaving the factory. In one factory where this is not allowed it is necessary for other members of the family to go after the materials. Information concerning a demand for additional workers spreads so quickly that the need is supplied almost immediately. One contractor at a sub-station where the work is irregular reported that his method was to announce to two or three of his workers that a consignment of tags was expected on the following day; these workers spread the news so effectually that more than a sufficient number were on hand when the tags arrived.

The staple articles of this industry are in constant demand. The orders for tags, always strong and comparatively steady, have been increased by the establishment of the parcel post far beyond any point known in recent years. Nevertheless, slight variations occur. One of the sub-stations obtained only an intermittent supply of work lasting for a few weeks or as long as six months. When tags are being distributed, each home worker is required to take out work every night unless she can furnish a good excuse. Failure to do this causes the worker to lose her number, and with it her chance to secure work for some time to come.

In certain towns on Cape Cod tag stringing has been done regularly for nearly 60 years, except in the cranberry season and during the summer months when the demand for servants comes from the cottages and summer hotels, and then tag stringing is temporarily abandoned. At this season