The full text on this page is automatically extracted from the file linked above and may contain errors and inconsistencies.
. . _ I' ..
~
r
(....
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
WOMEN'S BUREAU
POTENTIAL EARNING POWER
OF SOUTHERN MOUNTAINEER
HAND I CRAF'T
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
FRANCES PERKINS, SECRETARY
WOMEN'S BUREAU
MARY ANDERSON, Director
BULLETIN
OF
THE
WOMEN'S
BUREAU,
No.
128
POTENTIAL EARNING POWER OF
SOUTHERN MOUNTAINEER
HANDICRAFT
BY
BERTHA M. NIENBURG
UNITED STATES
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
WASHINGTON: 1935
For aale by the Superintendent of Documents. Washington, D. C.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
-
-
-
-
Price 10 cents
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
CONTENTS
Page
Letter of transmittal_ _ _ _ _ __ __ _ _ __ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ __ _ __ _ __ _ ___ __ __ __ _ _ __ _ _ _
Salient facts_ _ __ _ __ __ _ _ _ __ __ __ _ __ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ __ _ _ __ _ _ __ __ __ __ __ _ _ __ _ _ _
Handicraft must supplement and sometimes supply the entire family
cash earnings for the great majority of southern mountaineer
craftsfolk. There are relatively few whose incomes sustain a
healthful leisure which can be employed in handicraft purely for
self-expression_ _ _ __ _ ___ __ __ _ _ _ _ __ ___ _ __ _ _ _ __ __ __ _ __ __ __ _ _ __ _
Handicraft promoted by all philanthropic and educational groups
and not adjusted to market demands constitutes about 3 percent of
the 2½ million dollar annual sales, mainly by commercial agents who
adapted a limited number of handicrafts to market demands_ ____ __
The existing system of production control and distribution does not
use the present number of handicraft women; does not yield over an
average of a dollar a week per crafts woman and does not guard
against working conditions that menace the health of handicraft
family and public alike. It leaves unused the major portion of the
woman power in the southern mountaineer family-170,000 women
with no home responsibilities and no outside occupation-700,000
housewives who are concerned, now as always, with breadwinning
and household duties. Wise use of the woman power, like wise use
of man power, is an obligation resting on Government as consequence of its regional projects-human power unused runs not
only to waste but to social danger______________________________
Conferences with merchandising experts in large urban centers
establish feasibility of creating a mutual benefit handicraft association through which the southern mountaineer women's handicraft
can be so reorganized as to (a) open a market at prevailing prices for
many times the sales now made; (b) yield a far better weekly wage
per worker ; insure working conditions healthful to the handicrafters
and free from menace to the buying public __________________ -- __ Recom mendations concerning the development of handicraft on a selfliquidating ·basis________________________________________________
The principal steps in recommended organization are: The incorporation of a mutual enefit association to establish and extend the
marketability of southern mountaineer women's handicraft; such
association to be loaned a limited sum for organization purposes until
it can put the project on a self-supporting basis; such association to
have a board of directors on which women have equal representation
with men; the active direction of the entire project to be placed in
the hands of a woman trained in retail store buying or merchandising.
Statistical analysis_ _ _ _ __ __ __ __ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ __ _ __ _ __ _ __ __ _ __ __ __ __ _ _ __ __
Purpose of the survey_ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ __ _ _ __ _ _ __ __ _ __ __ _ __ _ __
Scope and method of the survey ________ __ __________ 7 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Area covered__ ___________ ________________________________
Production centers visited__________________________________
Methods of securing data ___ _______________________________
Handicraft production centers_ _ _ _ __ __ _ ____ _ __ __ __ _ _ __ __ __ __ _ ___
Location___ ______ _____ __ _________________________________
Type of production center__________________________________
Numbers of craftsfolk _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ __ __ __ __ __ _ _ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ _ _
Type of handicraft sold and numbers employed thereon________
III
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
v
1
1- ·2
2
3-5
5-7
7-9
10
10
13
13
13
13
14
14
14
15
16
IV
CONTENTS
Statistical analysis-Continued.
Handicraft production centers-Continued.
Total sales___________________________ _______________ _____
Sales methods______ ______________________________________
Receipts and expenditures of different types of handicraft production centers_______ __________________________________
Craftswomen and craftsmen __________________ ___ __ -- ________ ___
Age and relationship ___ ____________________________________
Sources of family income______________________________ _____
Farm crops__ ___________________ ___ ______ _____________
Employment other than crafts__________________________
Relief_ _ _ __ _ __ _ __ __ _ __ _ _ __ __ _ _ __ _ __ _ __ _ _ __ __ _ __ _ _ __ __
Craft earnings____________________________________ ___ _
Total earnings_______________________________________ _
Attitude toward the crafts _________________________________
Craftsfolk's availability for work at central point ________ ______
Comparison of factory earnings in southern States with craft
earnings_________ __ ____________________________________
Potential markets for handicraft________________________________
Counsel obtained_________ ________________________________ _
Infants' and children's articles__ __________________ __ ________
Rugs________ ____________________________ _____ ______ __ ___
Household linens, bed covers, and draperies__________________
Wood handicraft__________________________________________
Pottery___ _______________________________________________
Location of major retail outlets____________________________ _
Appendixes:
A.-Handicraft production centers in the Southern Appalachian
Mountains_____________________________________________
B .-The craftswoman's problems in the candlewick bedspread industry____________________________________________________
C.-The craftswoma n's problems in the quilting and applique industry___________ __ _____ __________________________________
P age
17
18
20
22
22
23
23
23
23
23
27
28
28
30
30
30
31
32
32
33
34
34
36
42
52
TEXT TABLES
I. Numbers of unoccupied women and men in rural and urban com..
munities of less than 10,000 population within the Tennessee Valley
area-1930_______________________________________________
II. Types of production centers and numbers of craftsfolk available for
handicraft in the Southern Appalachian Mountain region______
III. Number of persons producing handicraft at home or at the 57 production centers visited____ __ ________________________________
'IV. T ype of handicraft produced by craftsfolk for production centers in
the Southern Appalachian Mountains_______ _________________
V. Southern mountaineer handicraft sold in 1933 and 1929 __ _ _ __ _ __ _
VI. Sales methods of handicraft production centers in the Southern
Appalachian Mountains_________ _____ ___ ___ _____________ ___
VIL R eceipts and expenditures in 1933 of handicraft production centers
in the Southern Appalachian Mountains______ ___ ____________
VIII. Age and relationship of craftsfolk visited in the Southern Appalachian Mountains_________________________ _____ ___ ____ __ _
IX. Sources of family income of Southern Appalachian mountaineer
craftsfolk in 1933 _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ __ _ __ __ __ _ __ __ _ __ _ _ __ _ _ __ _ __ _ __ _
X. Earnings r eported by Southern Appalachian mountaineer craftsfolk_
XI. Amounts paid southern mountaineer handicraft workers in 1933 and
in 1929-30 through different type handicraft production centers_
XII. Southern Appalachian mountaineer craftsfolk available for work
at central point__________ _________________________________
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
12
15
16
17
18
19
21
22
24
25
27
29
LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR,
WOMEN'S BUREAU,
Washington, October 15, 1934.
MADAM: I have the honor to submit to you an economic analysis
of handicraft as it exists today in the Southern Appalachian Mountain
region. This study was undertaken because of the marked tendency
at the present time to encourage handicraft as a means of livelihood
for rural people or as a supplement to farm income. While much has
been written concerning the technical and cultural phases of handicraft, no information was available a.bout the income derived from
the various types of craft by men and women attempting to make a
livelihood thereby.
or was there any authoritative information concerning the potential market possibilities for such handicraft. The
Tennessee Valley Associated Cooperatives delayed its activities for
further development of handicraft until this study could be made.
It is plain from the facts presented in this report that the skill of
the southern mountaineer craftswoman can be applied to products for
which there is a substantial market but that a market can be built
up only by reorganization of the crafts to meet modern market demands. It is clear also that exploitation of craftswomen can only
be avoided by the establishment of a number of rural production
centers within walking distance of rural homes.
This study was directed by Bertha M. Nienburg. Assisting her
were Rebecca G. Smaltz, Louise R. Foeste, and Carrie W. Graves.
The report was written by Miss Nienburg.
Respectfully submitted.
MARY ANDERSON, Director.
Hon. FRANCES PERKINS, .
Secretary of Labor.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
POTENTIAL EARNING POWER OF
SOUTHERN MOUNTAINEER
HANDICRAFT
SALIENT FACTS
INTRODUCTION
Thirty years of effort on the part of educators and missionaries to
preserve colonial handicrafts in the Southern Appalachians has developed a high degree of hand skill among thousands of mountain
women and men. It was not alone the art value that gave the urge
to perpetuate the deft and distinctive hand production; it was a
measure of self-culture and self-sustenance for a people cut off from
the march of an industrialized civilization for a century and a half.
But lacking, to a large extent, the sources of raw materials available to their forefathers and without money to buy materials, handicraft for handicraft's sake could not be carried on by the mountaineers, even with an abundance of leisure and with the stimulation
of philanthropic groups. The p:r:esent-day craftsworker looks upon his
or her developed skill as a means of earning money 1 to supplement
a mountain farm crop valued, in 1929 for example, at less than $150.
The economic need of mountaineer families is concretely recognized
by local educators and missionaries, who value handicraft as a form of
cultural expression. Numbers of philanthropic groups other than
schools and colleges are attempting to find markets for the handiwork of the southern mountaineers. These groups furnish designs
and complete instructions to individual craftsmen, and they attempt
to maintain the standard of workmanship on a high level. They sell
the articles produced at their attractive mountain production centers
to visitors; they sell through tourist shops in the principal local cities
or resorts; they sell through the church, the sorority, the Daughters
of the American Revolution, or other societies which aid in their support; they sell through a mailing list of friends; and they consign the
mountain handicraft to gift shops in New England, Florida, and
other seasonal resorts. In all cases these activities are sustained in
part by public or private contributions.
These subsidized sale efforts are in themselves recognition upon
the part of local semiphilanthropic groups that handicrafts cannot
flourish under the prevailing economic order while the craftsman is
without many of life's necessaries. It represents a recognition of a
skill which should be used to his economic advantage if it is possible
to do so.
1 Without exception the 563 craftswomen and men visited in their homes by Women's Bureau agents
stated that they were engaged in the crafts to earn money as a chief or supplemental source of family cash
income.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
1
2
POTENTIAL EARNING POWER OF SOUTHEB.N HANDICRAFT
The complete instructions as to design, color, and form given by
these semiphilanthropic production centers to mountaineer craftsmen
leave no doubt but that, in spite of the workers' skill of hand, their
knowledge of the civilization in which the product would be used is
too limited to make them competent to apply their hand skill undirected to the production of useful and beautiful articles. Skill thus
directed loses the quality of self-expression. But craft guidance i3
essential for the production of merchantable articles upon a selfsustaining basis by thousands of persons. The creative artist, if any
there be among the thousands of skilled craftsmen working under
direction, will emerge, just as he will stand forth from among leisuretime craftsmen whose skill is used only for self-entertainment.
The iminediate question that confronts southern mountaineer
craftsfolk and those interested in their welfare is not use of crafts as
a leisure-time activity but whether under wise direction this acquired
skill can be applied to products with a market large enough to give
craftsfolk an adequate cash income. If it can be so directed,the
mountaineer may remain a skilled artisan; if it cannot, other practical uses for his or her services must be found.
THE MARKET FOR SOUTHERN MOUNTAINEER HANDICRAFT
IN 1933
Approximately 82,000 dollars' worth of southern mountaineer handicraft was sold in 1933 by the semiphilanthropic centers that keep sales
records, by the schools and colleges marketing student-made products,
and through the efforts of the Agricultural Extension Service and one
cooperative guild. The sales of hand-woven articles, of hand-made
furniture and wood carvings, of baskets and other small pieces made
under the direction of the semiphilanthropic centers totaled approximately $37,000, those by schools and colleges $35,000, while over
$10,000 worth of craft work reached the market through the other
two groups. 2
While these groups were engaged in keeping alive· the craft skill of
the mountaineers, the business men and women in the community
had recognized the acute economic need of mountain families. Knowing the market to be the pivot about which modern industry revolves,
a few business men took samples of mountain craft to the large merchandising centers. The merchandiser recognized the adaptability
of some types of handicraft to modern needs. With samples restyled
to meet market demands, the merchant returned to his mountain
community with quantity orders to keep his neighbor craftsfolk busy.
Out of the initiative of a few has grown a $2,345,000 business in the
products of southern mountaineer craft.
In other words, the total amount paid for southern mountaineer
handicraft in 1933 was approximately $2,500,000. About 3 percent
of this was from sales through the semiphilanthrqpic producing centers, schools, and other non-profit-making agencies. There can be
no doubt, therefore, that the public appreciates the mountaineers'
craft when their skill brings beauty or durability to articles that are
in current demand at a price the buying public can afford to pay.
• Factual detail upon which these statements are based is embodied in the statistical section of the report.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
I
SALIENT FACTS
3
THE STAKE OF THE MOUNTAINEER CRAFTSMEN IN 1933
HANDICRAFT SALES
Although the known number of women .and men trained in the
crafts in the mountain regions of southern Virginia, West Virginia,
North Carolina, northern Georgia, Kentucky, and Tennessee, and
in western Kentucky, approximates 15,000 persons, the number
actually given some employment during 1933 by the production
centers was closer to 10,500. Ninety-five percent of these crajtsfolk
whose work commands a market are women. 3 All but 600 of these
women worked in their homes. As visits to the homes of some
craftsfolk from each production center were made, the personal data
thus secured may be regarded as applicable to the larger group of
employees. This would indicate that 4 out of every 10 craftswomen
were daughters in the family, daughters able and willing, for the most
part, to make the trip to any nearby center to carry on their craft.
One-third of the craftswomen who were wives and mothers also
were free to go to a central point to work. Almost half the craftswomen, working in more than half the homes, were able and willing
to pursue their crafts in a nearby center.
The craftswomen and men employed received approximately
$520,000 in 1933 for their skilled work, an average of about $52 per
crajtsperson for the entire year. 4
Judging by earnings reports of individuals, well over half earned
less than this amount during the year. All persons reporting earnings
of $300 or more were workers employed in production centers or
were independent producers.
Although colleges paid much more to outside craftsmen whose
services were used in filling specific orders, although quilters and
hand-woven suiting craftsmen received much higher earnings during
the year than the average for all craftsfolk, in only individual instances
did these craftsfolk earn the present minimum rate for factory workers
in the South-$12 a week, or, for 50 weeks' work, $600 a year.
These low earnings are due in part to irregularity of employment
but also to a low standard basic rate and a haphazard method of
fixing piece rates for home craftsfolk.
The general opinion, shared by the se-miphilanthropic and commercial groups alike, seems to be that 10 cents or 12 cents an hour
is ample payment for craftswomen's service and about 20 or· 25 cents
seems to be the rate for men. When piece rates are fixed for hand
work on articles requiring widely varying amounts of work without
previously determining the time required to make the articles,5 when
home workers ·are called upon to do several minor time-consuming
tasks in addition to the skilled work, the 10 cents an hour standard is
only occasionally achieved. When craftswomen work in homes too
far distant for communication, when a dissatisfied worker knows there
are others only too eager to take over her work, complaints concerning
low piece rates will not be pressed.
Earnings contingent upon a guessing system of piece-rate determination are rendered more uncertain by the ease with which much of
the usual overhead expense can be pushed upon the home worker.
•Seep. 15.
•Seep. 27.
1 Seep. 44.
94268°-35--2
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
4
POTENTIAL EARNING POWER OF SOUTHERN HANDICRAFT
An outstanding example of this is the cost of distribution. In the
candlewick bedspread industry, for example, most of the materials
are distributed to home workers by haulers and subhaulers. The
chief hauler receives the sheeting, yarn, and at least one stamped
pattern of each kind from the firm. He distributes some to the
workers but calls upon a subhauler to carry materials to other
workers. This subhauler may turn over some material to a third
person for distribution, who may turn part of his load over to a fourth
hauler. Division of distribution among so many is not due to the
amount of work involved in hauling. Rather, because the hauler is
responsible for getting out required production and maintaining .
quality of workmanship, he must have agents who live within walking
distance of a group of home workers share his responsibility. When
any household cannot tuft its spread quota during the week, an
agent is notified in time to permit him to transfer the work to other
women in the neighborhood.
The haulers' commissions are taken out of the amount received for
finished spreads from the firm. Both haulers and subhaulers deduct
their own commissions before paying home workers. The amounts.
deducted are their own affair, so home workers are entirely at their
mercy. For spreads that would have paid workers 25 cents apiece,
had they been able to get them from the firm, they were actually
paid 15 cents, the difference representing the commissions of three
haulers. At a home 6 miles from firm headquarters an 80-cent
pattern had become a 50-cent pattern; a $1.80 pattern was reduced
to $1.30 after two haulers' commissions were deducted.
The quilting and applique industry in western Kentucky furnished
an example of what happens when rural workers must call for their
work. It is customary to give work out in small lots, with the date
of return specified by the shop. This necessitates 3 to 5 trips a week
from rural home to shop to deliver and secure work. Extra trips are
caused by the shops' failure to include all pieces of applique patterns,
the correct amount of thread, or other items necessary for completion
of the work; or because material is found to be defective after it has
been carried home. Upon arrival at some shops home workers are
kept waiting. Not only is their working time during a day reduced
by this system but some who pay train or bus fare or for gasoline have
actual earnings materially lowered.
The savings to employers in space alone by the home-work system
is great. Two dozen chairs are piled into the small home for caning
and allowed to stay there until it suits the convenience of chair firms
to ship them elsewhere. Quilting frames 7 by 8 feet in size, on which
delicate materials are worked, claim one locked room in many homes
where there are children. It is often difficult to find a space with
sufficient light for looms within the small homes. Bundles of spreads
must be accommodated week after week. With homes in many cases
too small for the families themselves, reserving one room for production purposes is a real hardship for which the home worker receives
no compensation.
The southern mountaineer craftswoman plying her craft in her home
from sunup till sundown whenever work is available from any source,
furnishing her own equipment, taking a material share of overhead
expense off the shoulders of her employers, bearing the full burden of a
poorly organized business, subject to every irregularity in market trends,
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
SALIENT FACTS
5
at the end of her year's e.ffort finds that her earnings have been about onetwelfth those of her lowest-paid factory sister.
But she keeps on and will keep on until she is offered other wageearning opportunities; for every dollar, no matter how hard to earn,
is a dollar toward securing the necessaries of life.
A LARGER AND BETTER-PAYING MARKET FOR THE
SOUTHERN MOUNTAINEERS' HANDICRAFT
1
Through the cooperation of the National Retail Dry Goods Association, conferences were held with leading merchants of New York,
Brooklyn, Chicago, Baltimore, and Washington concerning the
adaptability of the southern mountaineers' hand skill to products
that can be marketed at a price that will net the craftsfolk at least
the minimum paid southern factory employees. These retail merchants expressed a marked willingness to advise in any such adaptation
a.nd a preference for handicraft of this country if its quality could be
ra~sed sufficiently above imported handicraft to command a higher
price.
They emphasized the changed position of today's retail merchandiser. He can no longer act as a selling agent for any producer.
Rather he must determine each season's style demands, the retail
prices the customers of his store will pay, and go into the buying
market as the purchasing agent of his consuming public. He has
become the virtual dictator of the merchandise that can be manufactured at a reasonable profit.
Handicraft, to sell, must either be applied to the production of
merchandise in which there is a pronounced demand for hand work
or produce articles of unusual distinction so that the woman
buyer will gladly pay more for it than for its machine or imported
competitor.
Careful analysis of the type of skill possessed by the southern
mountaineer women and men and of the prices at which goods must
be marketed this season revealed a market for both types of hand
work in the retail store catering to the middle and upper income
classes, one at least of which will be found in every metropolitan area ..
Retail stores catering to the $2,000 ar:i.d lower income classes carry
imported hand-made articles, but southern mountaineers at a minimum of 30 cents an hour could not offer goods in competition with
these products.
The department that affords the largest noncompetitive field for
handicraft is the infants' and small children's department in the
higher-grade department stores. Hand work is demanded, and distinctive touches appeal to the mother and the grandmother. So
great is this appeal that regular machine manufactrners of infants'
or children's clothing carry a line of "hand-made" clothing of excellent quality. The southern mountaineer's skill lies not in such
product. But her weaving skill could be applied to weaving babies'
bibs, babies' towels and · pillow covers, to weaving blankets for crib
and carriage. Her applique technique produces most attractive crib
covers and crib sheets; her quilting is valuable for babies' and children's coats and caps, for crib quilts and comforters, for carriage
pillows. The hooked rug made to suit the child's room furnishings
adds attraction. Placques for the nursery walls, children's and dolls'
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
6
POTENTIAL EARNING POWER OF SOUTHERN HANDICRAFT
furniture may be made to suit the current style trends. Added to
this is the ever-present demand for all types of knitwear for children
up to 8 years.
· There are 24,000,000 children under 9 years of age in the United
States. For about one-fifth of them purchasing would be of distinctive hand-made articles. Therefore the southern mountain craftswoman's skill has a potential market of 5,000,000 children.
The prices the merchandisers are ready to pay for such goods are
ample to allow a fair payment to the craftswoman if production and
merchandising activities are soundly organized. A designer working
with the buyers of merchandise so that her work is correctly styled
with each season can develop new interpretations, not for woven
articles alone, nor for quilted articles alone, but for the entire infant's
or child's room or wardrobe. The merchant viewing the striking
ensemble knows he is offered goods that he can display to advantage.
His imagination is gripped as it will never be by any heterogeneous
collection of handicraft.
Operating as a cooperative organization with a board of directors
but under a single managing head, with centralized designing, centralized sales and advertising facilities, centralized purchasing a,nd
office force, hand production could be carried on in numerous small
shops located so near to groups of skilled rural workers that mountaineer craftswomen could walk to work. Present producing centers,
enlarged somewhat, could well serve as the nuclei for such a development. Women workers own the equipment they use; their willingness to work together in such centers has already been ascertained.
Merchandisers and buyers also believe the southern mountaineers'
craftsmanship can be applied successfully to bedroom furnishings,
as has been demonstrated in the case of candlewick bedspreads.
Here, however, it must compete with machine-made and imported
furnishings. Success lies in working with the store merchandisers
so that the changing market demands as to style, quality, color, and .
design are immediately reflected in the samples offered to the retailstore buyer. As oriental importers copy American designs and
send the copies back to China and Japan to be reproduced, their goods
-are offered on the market from 3 to 6 months later than American
handicraft. Through such an organization as is proposed in the
recommendations, mountaineers will always be 3 months ahead of
importers; thus American designers can hold the higher-priced trade
in bedroom furnishings. They must, of course, supply handicraft
of as good or better quality than do the importers. 6
As in furnishing the child's room, if comforters, if hand-woven,
tufted, or crocheted bedspreads, if quilts, if hooked or hand-woven
rugs, were designed together to produce a unified effect, these bulky
items would carry to market with them matching hand-woven or
tufted or appliqued window draperies, bureau scarfs, pillows, and
other textile accessories.
By centralization of all activities save handicraft production, overhead and selling co<sts can be materially reduced. Elimination of
middlemen and sharing of profits will permit the craftswomen to earn
a reasonable wage under conditions carrying no hazard to them or the
0 The hooked-rug market was largely lost to the southern mountaineer craftswomen because they
attempted to market the same patterns year in and year out and because the quality of rugs was and is
noticeably below the Japanese copy. A cheaper price attracted the merchant's attention to the importation, but the mountaineer did nothing to recapture his interest.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
SALIENT FACTS
7
public. Use of as many existing production centers as are willing to
pay a reasonable minimum wage, share profits, and cooperate with
the board of directors will eliminate the need of large initial capital.
No figures are available to indicate the extent of present business
in bedroom furnishings. One-twentieth of existing families, however,
may be regarded as a conservative estimate of the demand for bettergrade goods. Or approximately a million and a half families are
potential cornmmers for this type of handicraft. Not only do department stores carry such goods but a market can be built up with furniture stores and with interior decorators.
The Code of Fair Competition for the Retail Trade permits the
retailer to purchase only such merchandise as bears an N . R. A. label
whenever the manufacturers' code calls for such a label. Infants'
and children's wear, bedspreads, draperies, novelty cur tains and
pillows, robes, and knitted outerwear must bear the N. R. A. label.
This serves as a protection to any non-profit-making cooperative
developing these handicrafts markets.
An avenue for Beasonal activity for craftsmen lies in spring gardening equipment. Attractive natural wood fencing, ga.rden stakes both
decorative and practical, marking slips, binders, as well as garden
baskets are in ever-current demand in all types of hourn-furnishing
stores in the spring. The depression is still felt in the furniture
business; only cheap furniture finds a market.
If the 5,000 craftsfolk unemployed in 1933 plus half tho se securing
some paid work are to earn $600 a year under a non-profit-making,
mutual-benefit organization, a business of about $20,000,000 a year
must be built up. When a business of $1,600,000 exists in one type
of hand-made spreads, a $20,000,000 business catering to woman's
desire to surround the infant and child as well as herself with dainty
but Berviceable bedroom objects should be possible of development
under competent management.
RECOMMENDATIONS CONCERNING THE DEVELOPMENT
OF HANDICRAFT ON A SELF-LIQUIDATING BASIS
[Submitted to the Tennessee Valley Authority by the Secretary of Labor,
Aug. 21, 1934]
In the rural and small towns within the Tennessee Valley there are
over 170,000 girls and women who have neither household responsibilities nor paying occupations. There are about 700,000 home
makers, a large proportion of whom feel the economic pressure so
ac~tely that they are ready and willing to work at anything at any
price.
The obligation to use wisely this woman power, like the obligation
to secure wise use of the man power, rests on the Government as a
consequence of its great development of electrical power. Unused,
or badly used, woman power runs not only to waste but into social
dangers.
Because many southern mountain girls and women are skilled in
the crafts, because handicraft will give employment to a larger
number per dollar of sales than will machine work, ·because the capital
investment required is relatively small, the Women's Bureau recom-
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
8
POTENTIAL EARNING POWER OF SOUTHERN HANDICRAFT
mends that, as a part of the economic development of the Tennessee
Valley by the Tennessee Valley Authority!. A non-stock, mutual-benefit association be formed to establish
and extend the marketability of southern mountaineer women's
handicraft on a basis that insures fair wages and conditions of
work and protection to the buying public.
Among the concrete services such an association will render
are the following:
(a) To secure and maintain an effective touch with merchandising experts of the Middle Atlantic, Middle Western, far
Western, and Southern retail stores dealing in infants' and
children's articles, in bedroom textiles, and in rugs, in order to
plan all production in line with changing market demands;
(b) To provide a centralized designing service, provide for
sample production, and provide a centralized purchasing, sales,
8Jld office staff;
(c) To send production orders to present handicraft production centers, whenever such centers agree to employ craftswomen in the center at a rate not less than the present minimum
wage established for the South, providing that the production
center can produce the kind and quality of merchandise for which
retail orders are secured;
(d) To open and operate other production centers in rural
regions whenever.necessary;
(e) To secure from the southern mountain schools and colleges
teaching handicraft as much of the directive force as possible;
(j) To secure the cooperation of the Home Extension Services
of the respective States in obtaining other employees;
(g) And to provide any other means for increasing the marketability of and markets for southern mountaineer women's
handicraft that can be produced under controlled shop conditions.
2. That such association, having been incorporated to borrow
money and to give security therefor, be advanced a loan of
$100,000, return of the same to begin after the third season's
marketing in amounts to be determined by the Government
organization advancing the payment.
3. That such association operate under a board of directors
on which women thoroughly acquainted with the objective and
procedure of the association shall be named in equal numbers
with men.
4. That a woman with long experience in retail buying or retail
marketing be given authority to develop the entire project under
the general supervision of the board of directors.
As an advertising project rather than as an important merchandising
factor, the Women's Bureau recommends:
5. That a series of handicraft and tea or soda shops be established at points in the valley visited by large numbers of tourists.
Services other than the selling of handicraft must be rendered by
such shops. Few automobilists, unless already interested in handicraft, will feel free to enter a gift shop when they have no thought
of purchase. But if they go into the shop for refreshment, they
will look over the display of handicraft as they eat and drink and
become h8Jldicraft purchasers. Guide service or any other type
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
SALIENT FACTS
9
of service in demand by the usual visitor may be successfully substituted for refreshment services. Such local tourist shops should
be operated on a consignment basis under one directing head.
The woman in charge should be held responsible for the financial
success of all shops.
To perpetuate and render forever available the colonial handicraft
patterns of the Southern Appalachian Mountains, a rural handicraft
museum so placed as to be of value to the mountaineer as well as the
traveler should be established. This might well be a project in which
the National Park Service of the Interior Department could be
interested by the Tennessee Valley Authority.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
STATISTICAL ANALYSIS
PURPOSE OF THE SURVEY
An adult woman power of over 1,000,000 is available in the rural
and small towns of the Tennessee Valley. Much of this potential
power has never been put to any use, much has been harnessed to
the service of homes that possess no single modern labor-saving device.
The Congress of the United States 7 authorized the Tennessee Valley
Authority, through the President of the United States, not only to
develop the water power of the Tennessee Valley but to "foster an
orderly and proper physical, economic, and social development" of
this region. The Federal Government thereby assumed the responsibility for the wise use of woman power as well as of man power in
the region.
The 172,000 women who have neither gainful occupation nor
household or farm responsibilities command first attention, for idleness in a developing region that affords neither work nor recreation
for women is a breeder of social difficulties. The 34,000 other women
who work on the small family farm without remuneration are busy
only for a short period during the year and should be classed with
the unemployed, save as some may have full responsibility for food
production in families without male members. The 690,000 home
makers, although already burdened with the care of sizable families,
are so acutely aware of family needs that they are eager for paying
work of any kind. Increase in farm income, gainful employment of
daughters and sons who live at home, will lessen their breadwinning
. needs, even though there will still be demand for some paying employment for many.
The Women's Bureau, charged as it is by law to increase the opportunities for women workers, conferred with the Tennessee Valley
Authority about plans for fostering employment opportunities for
these rural women. It found marked interest in tbe development of
handicrafts for rural women as a means of livelihood or a" a supplement to farm income. No data were available, however, concerning
the economic feasibility of such development.
Because colonial handicrafts have been fostered among Southern
Appalachian mountaineers by educators and missionaries for 30
years, a high degree of hand skill is possessed by many mountaineer
women. Application of such capabilities to products with a large
market demand would permit the mountaineer to remain a skilled
artisan, to remain a rural worker, at the same time that it afforded
her an adequate cash income.
What efforts had been made to use the craftswoman's skill for her
own economic advantage? How successful had these efforts been?
Could the craftswoman's skill be applied to a larger market so that
r H . R. 5081, 73d Coni.
10
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
11
STATISTICAL ANALYSIS
others might find employment at a fair wage in these southern
mountain crafts?
These questions could only be answered by a survey of present
economic conditions surrounding craftsfolk and handicrafts and. by a
study of the retail market for articles which the mountaineers' skill
can fashion. The Tennessee Valley Associated Cooperatives agreed
to delay its activities for further development of women's handicraft
until the Women's Bureau had made an economic study of handicraft
in the Son.them Appalachian Mountains and of the possibilities for
its development under fair working conditions.
94268°-35---a
,' ·,i' ,
If ,
I I'','//
~
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
. . ,• .-:.
TABLE
!.-Numbers of unoccupied women and men in rural and urban communities of less than 10,000 population within the Tennessee Valley
area-1930
[Based on U.S. Census]
Total area
Total
Number
Women
Percent
Number
100.0
171,824
Tennessee
Alabama
Kentucky
Men
Percent
Number
54. 7
142,314
Total
Percent
Women
Total
Men
"\Vomen
Men
Total
Women
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ---- - - - - - - - - - - - - Unoccupied persons 15 and under 65
years of age ___________________________
314, 138
Total population 15 and under 65 years
of age ______ ________________ ----------- 2,073,000
Occupied persons- TotaL ______________ 1,758,862
Gainfully employed 2 _______________
Unpaid family farm workers ________
Home makers not gainfully employed a__________________________
100.0 1,029,725
45. 3
173,900
104,361
69,539
I
54,128
22,627
31,501
8,932
4,791
Men
--4,141
49. 7 1,043. 'n5
50. 3 1, 130, 114
562,166
567,948
404,402
201,477
202,925
70, 138
34,237
35,901
100. 0
857,901
48.8
900,961
51. 2
956,214
457,805
498,409
350,274
178,850
171,424
61,206
29,446
31,760
925, 781
140,513
100. 0
100. 0
131,417
33,916
14. 2
24.1
794,364
106,597
85. 8
75. 9
519,036
71,688
76,983
15,332
442,053
56,356
173,368
33,710
23,366
1.50, 002
12,288
21, 42:Z
32,411
4,183
4, 407
427
28,004
3,756
692,568
-------
365,490
365,490
---------
143,196
143, 196
---------
24,612
24,612
--------
692,568 --- ---
---------- -----Georgia
Total
Women
Mississippi
Men
Total
Women
-
North Carolina
Men
Total
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - --
Women
Men
- - - - --
Virginia
Total
Women
Men
Unoccupied persons 1.5 and under 6.5 years of age __________________
7,054
3,240
3,814
15. 005
7,749
7,256
28,083
14,380
13,703
27,036
14,676
12,360
Total population 15 and under 65 years of age ____ _____ ________ r---
61, 170
30,086
31,084
116,433
58,865
57,568
154, 144
75,895
78,249
136,599
66,999
69,600
54,116
Gainfully employed 1 __________________________________________ 28,362
Unpaid family farm workers ____________ _____________________
5, 199
Home makers not gainfully employed a________ ________________ ~ 20,555
26,846
27,270
101,428
51,116
50,312
126. 061
61,515
64,546
109,563
52,323
57,240
5,350
941
20,555
23,012
4,258
47,554
12,664
41, 210
5,843
4,063
41,210
41, 711
8,601
65,282
9, 135
51,644
9, 111
760
51,644
56, 171
8,375
59, 768
3,934
45,861
6,357
105
45,861
53,411
3,829
Occupied persons-Total. _________________________________________
◄·
I
---------
---------
---- -----
--------
Because gainful occupations are reported only for towns of over 25,000 population, it was necessary to include 5 towns of between 10,000 and 20,000 persons in Alabama county
figures.
2 Excepting Tennessee, includes occupied persons 65 years of age and over, as these data were not available by counties.
3 Excepting Tennessee, includes some gainfully occupied home makers, as these were not separable by counties.
Consequently, figures given for unoccupied persons are somewhat
below the actual numbers.
1
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
STATISTICAL ANALYSIS
13
SCOPE AND METHOD OF THE SURVEY
Area covered
The survey of southern mountaineer handicrafts was made in the
Appalachian Mountains south of Maryland, and in sections of central
and western Kentucky in which crafts flourished. This area includes
the mountainous sections of Virgini_a and West Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, and Kentucky. These mountains lie largely within the Tennessee Valley, although more northerly
sections of Virginia and West Virginia, and western Kentucky, are
beyond its boundaries. The entire area was included, however, in
order that handicraft endeavors in the Southern Appalachian Mountains might be reviewed in their entirety.
Production centers visited
For the purposes of this survey, handicraft production centers were
defined as centers that ordered handicraft from the mountaineers and
paid craftsmen upon acceptance of articles. The work may have
been done in the production center or in the home of the craft'3man.
Tourist shops that displayed handicraft but did not pay the craftsmen
until it was sold to the retail purchaser were not included. The only
exception was the Agricultural Extension Service markets that
served as cooperative markets for rural handicraft over which extension-service agents exercised advisory control. Schools and colleges
teaching the crafts and offering the work for sale also were included
so that the part their sales played in the retail handicraft market
might be established.
-while only a regular census could determine accurately all centers
giving employment to one or more craftsmen, it is believed that the
105 listed in appendix A comprise those that employ persons with any
regularity. All production centers and schools reported as furnishing
some employment to five or more mountaineers in the States of North
Carolina,8 Tennessee, and Kentucky were visited by the Bureau's
field investigators. In north Georgia, 10 centers handling 73 percent
of the business in candlewick bedspreads out of 20 firms operating in
1933 were scheduled. Shortage of time necessitated the substitution
of correspondence for personal interviews in some parts of Virginia.
Methods of securing data
The field survey was conducted during June and July of 1934.
Data for the calendar year 1933 or the fiscal year ending June 30,
1934, were sought. For purposes of comparison, similar information
was asked for 1929 or a corresponding predepression year. Wherever
records were kept, figures were transcribed from them. The larger
commercial establishments and colleges had established systems of
cost accounting, but many smaller centers were without complete
records for 1933 and had no accounting of business in previous years.
Only a few production centers, regardless of size, kept a record of their
home workers. Small centers knew home workers by name, so they
were easily counted. But larger establishments spoke of" contacts."
As there was overlapping of such "contacts" in the same community,
estimates of numbers employed had to be adjusted as the records of
all concerned were studied.
8 Cherokee Indian Reservation operating under the Federal Government was not included because
hldian handicraft is not under discussion in this survey.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
14
POTENTIAL EARNING POWER OF SOUTHERN HANDICRAFT
The field investigators secured some names of craftswomen and men
employed by each production center, the number chosen representing
roughly about 10 percent of those employed. These craftsfolk were
visited in their mountain homes, and data concerning the family,
the type of work done, the time required to do it, and the amount
earned were secured. As home visiting in mountainous region.:; is a
time-consuming task; it was not possible to locate all whose names
were secured. Visits were actually paid to 563 craftswomen and
men.
HANDICRAFT PRODUCTION CENTERS
Because the westward march of civilization left the eighteenth
century settlers of the Southern Appalachian Mountains undisturbed,
household crafts persisted in the mountains long after they had disappeared in other sections of the United States. But as communication facilities were increased in the southern mountains, the crafts
probably would have disappeared had not missionaries and educators
revived and fostered them. In the words of Frances L. Goodrich,
enterprises were developed "to save the old arts from extinction; to
give paying work to women too far from market to find it for themselves; and, more important than all, to bring interest into their lives,
the joy of making useful and beautiful things." 9
This revival of the crafts has resulted in the sectional development
of differing types of skill throughout the mountains. While in some
counties almost every woman knows how to quilt, in others hookedrug making or hand weaving is the specialty. The schools, of course,
are teaching young people craftsmanship, and the semiphilanthropic
agencies sometimes instruct new persons in the crafts; but the commercial agencies merely make use of a skill that was already developed
among the mountaineers. 10
Location
Thirty percent of the handicraft production centers located were
in North Carolina; Kentucky had 22 percent, and an equal proportion
were in north Georgia. Eighteen percent were found in Tennessee,
whereas only three handicraft production centers were in the Appalachian Mountain region of West Virginia, Alabama, and South
Carolina.
Type of production center
· Educational institutions concerned primarily with crafts as an
educational method but offering the student-made products for sale
are classed as "schools" in this survey. Other centers, sometimes
giving instruction but fostering, primarily, adult handicraft through
handicraft sales with some public or private philanthropic support,
are termed "semiphilanthropic" production centers; 17 of the 105
centers located were of this character. The home-extension centers
are sales markets conducted by the State Agricultural Extension
Service for the handicraft of farm women. One "cooperative",
while incorporated as a farm cooperative, is operating with Government funds. All other handicraft production centers, or 73 out of
• Goodrich, Frances L. Mountain Homespun, Yale University Press, 1931, p. 25.
Only 1 firm, locating in a section that had no craftswomen, taught the crafts.
1•
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
15
STATISTICAL ANALYSIS
105, were commercial in character, that is, operated on a business
basis with profit or loss to the owner.
Regardless of the type of center, the craftswoman or man is not
counted upon to furnish the creative ideas by any group. The designs, the colors, the quality of materials used are all determined by
the production center, which depends upon craftswomen and men who
follow instructions. Two semiphilanthropic centers reported efforts
to encourage crafts persons in t_h e expression of their own ideas in
their work. But this is usually done when the craftsperson is working
at the center under close supervision and not to fill orders.
TABLE
IL - Ty pes of production centers and n u mbers of craftsfolk available for
handicraft in the Sou thern Appalachian Mountain region 1
State and type of production center
Number of Number of workers
T otal mun- centers re- ·
available
c~[e~! 1
!v~U~tYe
workers
Women
Men
TotaL ___ · ---- -- ------- -- ------- - ---- - ------------ 1--N orth Carolina-TotaL _______________ __ ________________
Semiphilanthropic ___ -------------------------------Schools__ ____________ __ ____________ _____________ ______
CommerciaL__ ___ __ ______ _____ ______ ____ ___________ __
105
- - f --
31
4
22
5
Tennessee-T otaL _- ---- ---------- -- -- ---- ------- --- ----Semi philanthropic ___ -------- -- ----- ---- ---------- --Schools___ __ _______ _____ ____ ___ _______________________
CommerciaL ____ ------- ---- -- ------------ __________ __
Home demonstration ____ ___________________________ _
19
Ken tucky 1-T otaL __ _--- ---- - ------------ -------------Semi philant hropic __ ---------------------- -------- --Schools____ ___ _____ ____ ____________ __ _________________
Commercial _________ ________ __ __ __ __ __ ___ ____________
23
5
2
2
3
11
3
16
86
13,019
618
---+-- ---1--
20
4
2
14
670
93
17
560
159
67
2
16
1
3
9
3
408
65
32
221
00
50
4
19
3
2
14
1, 828
80
171
1, 577
195
90
8
38
20
112
63
Viiginia-Semiphilanthropic____ _____ _____ _____ _______ ___
II
5
206
44
Georgia-Total__________ __________________ _____________ _
Schools_______ ______ ___ _______ ________ ___________ _____
Commercial__ _____________________________________ __ _
23
23
9, 792
62
9,730
110
40
70
West Virginia-Cooperative ______ ______________ ____ _____ _
17
58
Alabama-CornmerciaL _______ ____ __ _______ _____ ___ ___ ___
49
South Carolina-CornmerciaL ___ ___ _______ _____ ___ ___ ___
49
1
22
1
22
1 Inclu des parts of central and western Kentucky.
Only production centers t hat paid craftsmen for work before it was sold are included.
1
Numbers of craftsfolk
Numbers available.- Eighty-six centers reported the numbers of
craftsmen available for the kind of handicraft they handled. This
does not represent numbers employed but rather numbers known
to be skilled and ready to ply their craft when given work. At times
number of "contacts" was reported rather than number of individual
workers ; a "contact" might mean a family with 1, 2, or 3 workers.
Out of a total of 13,637 available craftsfolk reported, all but 618
were women ; thus women constituted over 95 percent of the known
available craftsfolk in the Southern Appalachian Mountains.
H ad all centers reported concerning available craftswomen and
men, the total number probably would not exceed 15,000, for the
larger number of centers not reporting available workers did comparatively little business.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
16
POTENTIAL EARNING POWER OF SOUTHERN HANDICRAFT
Numbers actually employed.-'-Fifty-seven production centers for
which records were secured by the Bureau's field agents gave some
employment during 1933- 34 to 10,576 craftsfolk, of whom -approximately 95 percent were women.
Ninety-one percent of all craftsfolk were engaged by commercial
centers. Only 3 percent received some employment through the
semiphilanthropic centers, although this proportion is in excess of
the relative sales of such centers.
Only 595 women were employed within the production center itself
and 42 percent of these were students in craft colleges. All others
plied their craft at home, although under the orders of the production
center. The Southern Appalachian Mountain handicraft as now
practiced is obviously a home craft chiefly for women.
TABLE
III.-Number of persons producing handicraft at home or at the 57
·
production centers visited
Approximate numbers I producing in 1933- 34
Type of production center visited
N umber
of production
centers
visited
Total reported
Men
Number
- -57
TotaL __- --- ------ --- - -- ---- -- ---- Sem iphilanthropic ___ __ ___ _____ __ __ ___ __ __ - --8
Schools ____ ____ ____ _____ _____________ ____ __
8
Cooperat ive and Agricultural E xtension
Service _________ _____ ___ ____ _______ __ ____
4
Commercial_ ___ _________ ______ ____ ___ ___ __
Annual sales over $2,000 ___ __ ___ ___ ____
Annual sales under $2,000 __ __ _______ __
1
37
31
6
Women
10,576
327
444
165
9,640
9,608
32
Percent At center At home
- -- - - - --595
100. 0
-- - -3. 1
61
4. 2
252
1. 6 --- --- -- -91.1
90. 8
.3
282
262
20
9,440
165
30
--541
--101
162
107
58
9,138
9,126
12
220
220
----------
As pay rolls of home workers are not kept, number is always an ap proximated average.
Type of handicraft sold and numbers employed thereon
Candlewick bedspreads.-At the time the survey was made, the
largest number of handicraft production centers, the largest numbers
employed, and the largest sales were in candlewick bedspreads.
While 25 firms were operating in this field in June 1934, 5 had started
in business in 1934. The remaining 20 did a business as reported by
the Code Authority of $1,600,000 in 1933. Ten of these were visited
by the Bureau's field agents and showed recorded sales of $1,207,284.
These firms are estimated to have given employment to between
7,500 and 8,000 persons, chiefly women.
.
Hand weaving.-Hand weaving is the product of the second largest
number of production centers- hand weaving of towels, scarfs, and
. numerous small articles, hand weaving of men's and women's suiting
and of coverlets and tapestries. While 19 centers reported the employment of 380 women and 50 men in 1933-or about half the
number employed in 1929- the sales of -14 reporting totaled $184,724
in 1933 as compared with $401,953 sold by 12 firms reporting in 1929.
Ouilting.- The 12 establishments engaged in quilting or applique
work in 1933 gave employment to 851 persons as compared with
over 1,900 employed by but six production centers in 1929. Nine
quilting firms reported sales of $400,000 during 1933, whereas six of
these firms had sold over $900,000 of this type of handicraft in 1929.
Hooked rugs. - Over 550 women and 44 men found some employment on hooked rugs. While some production centers specialized in
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
17
STATISTICAL ANALYSIS
this floor covering, others made rugs along with other articles. In
such cases sales of rugs were combined with other items. The four
centers reporting hooked-rug sales in 1933 sold $55,398 worth of goods.
Chair caning.-Only the three chair-caning establishments giving
out home work in the Tennessee Valley and in western Kentucky
were included in this survey. There are 19 other firms sending caning into the homes to be done by hand, but they are located outside
the mountain area. The business reported in table V therefore represents only home chair caning done in Tennessee and in western
Kentucky. It totaled $138,625, not quite . half that sold in 1929.
Employment was said to be spread among 484 women and men.
Men's crafts.-Men workers, while employed in weaving suitings
and in chair caning, are not an important numerical factor in handicrafts. While there are potters and wrought-metal workers in · the
mountains, they are largely individual artisans employing one or
more assistants as they need them. The 13 production centers
reporting wood work-that is, the making of either furniture or small
wooden objects, the whittling of toys, or wood carving-employed 286
men and 41 women. The women wove tapestry for chairs, made
puzzles, and did other complementary tasks. Only seven production
centers reported their sales of wooden articles. These totaled $35,070
as compared with over $42,000 sold by four centers in 1929.
Total sales
In all types of handicrafts save tufted bedspreads and hooke·d
rugs, sales obviously were greater in 1929 than in 1933. Hookedrug sales for 1929 would have been materially greater had 1929
records for 1 firm that had gone out of business in 1933 been available. Only the candlewick bedspread industry had a real boom in
1933.
T A BLE
IV.-Type of handicraft produced by craftsfolk for production centers in
the S outhern Appalachian 111ountains
1933- 34
Type of handicraft
1929
Number Approximate num- N umber Approximate num•
ber producing 1
ber producing 1
cente~
centem
r1~rt
Women
Men
r1~~rt Women
Men
J~ft1g~
Total·---··-·········---···-······· 57
10,035
Candlewick bedspreads.·-·············· ·· ---107,629 4
Chair caning - · · · · - · · · · · · · · · · · · · - · · · · · · · · 3
411
Baskets, hearth brooms, fans, and corn•
shuck articles ....•.•............. . ......
50
9
9
566
Hooked rugs . . -···························
Pottery and pewter, wrought silver and
iron ........... . ........................ .
6 .••••.....
Quilted and appliqued articles ........... .
12
849
14
362
Weaving small articles ..... ·-········ · · ···
Weaving suiting, blankets, tapestries, and
coverle ts ................... . ........... .
18
Wood work, including all hand-made
chairs, large and small pieces of furni•
41
ture, and carved articles . ............... .
13
Miscellaneous ....•............ ......... ·-·
109
9
1 As pay rolls o! home workers are not kept, number is always
2 Some production centers produce several kinds of handicraft.
3 17 production centers operating in 1933-34 were not operating
d~6tig~
541
-5-5
73
16
44
12
2
1
3
37
4
3
8,435
349
4,600 ---1-6
451
81
6
4
14
644 · ····-----
4
6 ---·-·····
6
1,965
12
696
22
1
1
49
4
19
45
286
8
3
3
15
41
159
10
an approximated average.
in 1929. How many of those operating
in 1929 were out of business in 1934 is not known. 3 centers did not report numbers employed.
4 Outside the mountain region covered by this report, there are said to be 13 firms sending chair caning
into homes.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
18
POTENTIAL EARNING POWER OF SOUTHERN HANDICRAFT
In spite of reduced sales, 47 of a total of 57 handicraft production
centers visited reported sales of $2,032,316 in 1933. The Cod.e
Authority reported an additional $392,716 for the 1_0 candlewick
bedspread firms not scheduled, making a total of $2,425,032 known
sales in 1933.
TABLE
V.-Southern mountaineer handicraft sold in 1933 and 1929
Gross sales in 1929 1
Gross sales in 1933 1
Handicraft
Number of
production
centers
reporting
Amount
Percent
of total
Number of
production
centers
re por ting
Amount
Percent
of total
--Total_---------------- Candlewick bedspreads ______
Chair caning ___________ ______
Hooked rugs _____ ____ ____ ____
Quilting and applique _____ ___
Weaving ___ ___ _____ ___ _______
Wood carving and furniture __
Pottery, metals, basketry,
needlework, etc _____ ___ ____
032, 315. 83
100. 0
10 a 1, 207, 284. 00
3
138, 624.86
4
55,397.94
9
400, 093. 48
14
184,724.43
35,070. 24
7
59. 4
6.8
2. 7
19. 7
9.1
1. 7
11,120. 88
•5
147
9
3 $2,
2
33 $2, 396, 433. 21
100. 0
6
12
4
618, 447. 20
296,730. 00
54, 900. 00
928,612.14
401,953.87
42,410.00
12. 4
2.3
38. 7
16. 8
1. 8
4
53, 380. 00
2. 2
5
3
4
25.8
1 Whenever production center handled more than one product and sales for each product were reported
separately, sales are listed separately.
2 Only 40 production centers visited in 1934 were in operation in 1929 and 55 in operation in 1933; 8 did
not report sales in 1933 and 7 did not report sales in 1929.
a Does not include $392,716 of reported sales by 10 candlewick bedspread firms not visited.
Sales methods
Sales methods differed widely among the several types of production centers. Those partially subsidized counted upon the purchases
of visitors to the production center, upon exhibits sent to fairs or to
religious or other interested groups, upon local tourist gift shops.
Several consigned goods to gift shops in New England and other
seasonal resort places only to have much of their goods returned .
.One center sent a traveling truck through the summer colonies to
gather orders. All these efforts resulted in sales of $82,443, or 3.4
percent of the total known sales of southern mountaineer handicraft.
The larger number of commercial production centers sold directly
to department stores, specialty shops, or mail-order houses. These
were bona fide sales, for the larger commercial establishment will not
send any goods on consignment. Some sold through jobbers or
were really jobbers' contractors. Several quilting firms had retail
stores or main offices in New Y or-k, Chicago, and Louisville. Mailing
lists were used wherever a select clientele had been developed through
personal or direct sales contact.
Markets were not clearly defined except for chair caning; _the type
of chair caned in the homes was sold in the South and Southwest.
While other firms usually spoke of the "Middle West" as their best
market, some claimed they covered "the whole United States."
Because much,handicraft is made in New England and New England
people are inclined to buy their own products i~ is doubtful whether
southern work finds a ready market north of New York. But San
Francisco and other western retail stores are known to be purchasers
.
of the spreads and quilts.
Table VI shows in detail the sales methods of each type of production center.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
TABLE
VI.-Sales methods of handicraJt production center, in the Southern Appalachi an Mountains
Centers reporting each sales channel
Gift and resort shop
Type of production center
Total
reporting
Production
center
F airs
and
exhibits
Church
and
philant hropic
societies
M ailing
list
Local
Other
1
Sales
directly
to department Own
Sales
stores, shops in
thr ough
mailmetrojobbers
politan
order
houses , centers
and
specialty
shops
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -1- - - - -- - - - -,- - - - - - - - - - --·r--- -- i- - - - - - - - - - -- - - - Total- N umber reporting ______ _______ _______ _____ ______ ____ ______ ._
Percent ______ ---- --- ---- - ----- ----------- ------- - ------ - -- -Semiphilanthropic ____ ____ ___ ____ __ ____ ___ _______ __ _______ ____ ___ _______ _.
Schools __ _____ ________ ___ ____ _____________ ________ ____ __ _____ ______ ____ __ _
Cooperative and Agricultural Extension Ser vice __ _______ ______ ___ _______ _
Commercial:
Annual sales over $2,000:
·g~~~1H~t::;::e:::::~~:::::::::::::::::::::::::: ::::::::::::
Ot her ___ _____ ___ ___ __ __ _____ ___________________ _____ _______ ______ _
Annual sales under $2,000 __------ - -- ----- -- - - --- - - - - - ----- --- ------ - -1
Each production center sells through more than one channel.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
57
100. 0
29
50. 9
8
8
8
8
'
1
22
15
38.6
26. 3
10
3 - - ------ - - --------- - -- ------ - 10
1
8
8
5
2
2
6
'
18
31. 6
'
4
2
25
43. 9
18
31. 6
9
15. 8
21
2
36. 8
3. 5
6
1 -- --- - - - -- ---- -- -- -- - -- ------1
2
2
3
2
1
2 ----------
2
20
POTENTIAL EARNING POWER OF SOUTHERN HANDICRAFT
Receipts and expenditures of different types of handicraft production
centers
The costs of carrying on a handicraft business by varying methods
of organization are shown in table VII. 11
Productive labor, which included the actual cost of craftsmanship,
inspection, and other services directly related to manufacturing,
required a fairly uniform proportion of expenditure in all the major
groups of from 21 percent to 28 percent of costs. The higher proportion does not necessarily mean higher rates of pay, for other items
of cost affect the relative position of labor costs.
Administration costs were not always figured in the same way.
In the semiphilanthropic group where leaders received salaries, these
were charged against administration, as were any salaries paid out
by commercial firms for administrative assistance. The firm members themselves, however, usually were active functioning members
of the business. While whatever profit the handicraft business
realized was actual reward for their services as well as interest on
capital invested, a few firms charged part of any profit up as administrative cost or as selling cost. For example, in the candlewick bedspread industry only two firms charged salaries of active firm members
to administration. In the quilting, some firms c:1arged almost all
profit up to either administrative or selling costs.
Consequently, the difference between receipts and total cost of
goods sold cannot be considered the income of firm members in the
handicraft business.
The value of various sales methods described o:µ the preceding page
is clearly seen in a comparison of selling costs and handicraft sales.
To be able to carry on a million-dollar business with a sales cost of
7 percent obviously is a less expensive method of getting results than
having a 25 percent sales cost on a $200,000 business. Direct sales
to retailers without extensive advertising costs, without metropolitan
sales offices or stores, unquestionably is the least expensive method
of selling handicraft.
Overhead expenses exclusive of selling are low because only a few
production centers have work done at the center itself. Ten percent
may be said to represent a minimum at which a rural office and
assembling and shipping plant can be operated. The higher proportion shown by the six centers manufacturing hand-woven articles,
hooked rugs, wooden articles, and other types of handicraft is due
in large part to the fact that much of this work was done at the production center, requiring more space, woodworking or weaving machine repair, and other costs essential to the proper conduct of a
handicraft shop.
11
For details of organization of each type see appendixes B and 0 .
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
TABLE
VIL-Receipts and expenditures in 1933 of handicraft production centers in the Southern Appalachian Mountains
Commercial production centers
Receipts and expenditures
Semiphilanthropic 1------------.----------,----------,---- - - - - produ ction centers
centers with Centers with a nnual
(6 centers report- Candlewick (9 centers Quilting and appli- Other
over $2,000 annual
sales of less tr.an
ing)
que (7 centers rereporting)
$2, 000 (2 centers
sales
(6 centers reporting)
porting)
reporting)
Amount
P ercent
Amount
I Percent
Amount
P ercent
Amount
Percent
Amount
Percent
Receipts- T otaL__________ ______ ________ __ __________ ______ __ __
$34, 524. 08
Handicrafts _________ --------------------------------- --- -Other sources __ - -- -------------------- --- ------- -- ----- ----
30, 980. OS
3,544.00
1, 172, 145. 24
400,449. 09
4,260. 75 --------- - ------------
Expenditures-Total .__ _____ ____________________ __ _______ _____ _
34, 453.16
1, 068, 303. 10
Total itemized __- ------------------------ --- ---------- ___
Craft materials _____________________________________ ___ _
Equipment_
__-- --------------------__________
----- ---- ---- - ---_
Productive labor
__ ___________ _______
________
18,461. 24
100. 0
1, 068, 303. 10
4,366.52
265. 09
4,719.41
23. 7
541,237.52
2,500.00
297,199. 05
50. 7
33.1
129,885.90
. 2 -- --- -- -- --- - --- --- --27. 8
81, 956. 84
20. 9
16,339. 73
929. 76
42,855.28
9. 6
.5
25.1
5, 741. 73
1,100.54
963. 00
31. 1
6. 0
5. 2
42,660. 15
107,205.80
4. 0
10. 0
28,217. 00
27,063. 82
47,320. 24
7. 2
6. 9
12. 1
35,457.48
8,007. 79
23,976.30
20. 7 -- --- ---- --- --------4. 7
275. 00
18. 4
14. 0 ---- ------ -- ---------
1, 299.95
7. 0
77,500.58
7. 3
78,170. 70
19. 9
43, 447. 48
25. 4
Administrative and teaching (inci u di ng salaries of fi rm
members) _____________ ________ ______ ___ _____ __ ___ ___ _
M ain tenan ce a.nd depreciation ___ _____ ______ __________ _
Other overhead, inclu ding all taxes, interest, etc ___ ____ _
Selling cost, including transportation of finished prcdu cts _____ _. __ ___ ____ ___ _______ __--- -- -- -- -- ----- --- --
$1,176,405.99
1. 4
25. 6
$400, 449. 09
100. 0
--------------- ---------
392,614. 50
55,557.57
81, 294. 11
80,024.99
75, 308. 31
Cost or goods sold _____ __ ___ _____ _______ ___ ____________ _____ _____ __________ __ ____ ____ _
1,042,566.56
397,331.18
1
Inven tories had been taken by only 1 production center.
Invent9ries had been taken by only 3 production centers.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
---------
392,614. 50
lnventory Jan. l, 1933 __ __ ___ _____ ___ ___ ___ _______________ __ ___ _
(l)
__ __ __
Inventory D ec. 31 , 1933 _____ ____ __________ _______________ _______ __ ________ ___ _______ _
1
$195, 960. 21
$2, 020.00
194,860. 21
2,020.00
1,100.00 ----- - -- - --- -- ------191,113. 82
100. 0
171, 013.82
(2)
Ul
---------
1,497.00
100. 0
~
8H
Ul
1,497.00
100.0
360. 00
24. 0
----------- --------49. 6
742. 00
120. 00
8
8. 0
(1)
--------- --------- ---- --------- ------------ ----------------- ------------- ----- - --- ------------ ---------
8
H
Q
>
z>
>
~
~
~
Ul
H
w.
22
POTENTIAL EARNING POWER OF SOUTHERN HANDICRAFT
CRAFTSWOMEN AND CRAFTSMEN
At each of the 57 production centers visited names of "steady
workers", that is, workers who were employed whenever there was
work to be given out, were secured. As many as could be reached
in their mountain homes were visited. In addition, independent
craftswomen and men attempting to market their own products were
scheduled.
Five hundred and sixty-three craftsfolk in 362 households were
interviewed. This number did not include "helpers", that is, members of the household who "helped" when there was a rush of work
to be gotten out. One hundred and sixty-six of those visited were
employed on candlewick bedspreads; their helpers numbered 80 at .
the time of the survey. One hundred and fifty-one chair caners in
81 families had 28 children helpers, some as young as 7 years. Visits
were paid to 62 quilters and 64 independent craftswomen and men.
The remainder were given work by the semiphilanthropic and hookedrug, hand-weaving, and other commercial enterprises.
Age and relationship
More than half the craftsfolk visited held the responsible position
of wife or widowed head of the family. Twenty-eight percent were
daughters. Five percent were sons, while 6 percent were the fathers
of families. Other members of the family, that is, grandmothers,
mothers-in-law or sisters-in-law, nieces or nephews, formed 9 percent
of the total craftsfolk visited.
While daughters under 16 years of age were regular workers in
some families, the largest proportion-74 percent-were _between 16
and 25 years. Wives and mothers were largely in the 30-to-50-year
age groups. But craftsfolk as a class may be considered persons of
·
all ageB, as is shown in table VIII.
TABLE
VIII.-Age and relationship of craftsfolk visited in the Southern Appalachian Mountains
Total
reporting
Relationship to head
of family
Number
Percent
Age group
50
and J 18 and 20and 25and 30 and 40 and
Under 16
Age
under under under under under under year s not
16
re18
20
25
30
40
50
and ported
years years
years years years years years over
-- -Total-Number.
562 100. 0
Percent __ 100. 0 -------
Head of familyMale ____
Female __
37
45
Wife-Number _____ ___
244
Son-Number ____ __ ___
Other member of famHy-Number ________
27
Percent _____ ____ 100. 0
Daughter-N umber __ _ 159
Percent. ___ 100. 0
50
16
2.8
-- -- --43
7. 7
6. 6 -- ----- ------8. 0 ------2
.8
--28~3- 15
35
9.4
22. 0
---fs- ------4
43. 4 ----- --
8.9
1
2
-- ----
-
53
9. 4
94
16. 7
59
10. 5
100
17. 9
96
17. 1
90
16. 0
11
2. 0
1
6
2
16
6. 6
48
30. 2
11
3
1
34
13. 9
14
8. 8
2
11
4
72
29.5
8
5.0
1
9
14
61
25. 0
4
2.5
7
20
49
20.1
1
.6
------4
5
2. 1
34
21. 4
9
4
11
5
8
13
2
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
------------------- --- ---- -------
'
'I
·I
5
2. 1
;
I .,.
STATISTICAL ANALYSIS
23
SOURCES OF FAMILY INCOME
Farm crops
Seven-eighths of all families reporting raised part or all of their
food supply except staple groceries. The larger number of independent craftsmen raised all their fresh foods. Because these homes
were reached through the Agricultural Extension Service, they probably represent a better farming group than do the craftswomen employed by handicraft production centers. Very few of the families
engaged in chair caning raised anything but some vegetables and
chickens; this is due to the fact that these people live in towns within
walking distance of the chair-caning center. The importance of
keeping families on their farms while developing industrial tasks for
some members of the family is emphasized by the very comparisons
shown in table IX.
About a fourth of the crafts families sold some crops. These were
chiefly from the independent craftsmen group ·and from the candlewick-bedspread section where cotton was a cash crop. The amount
sold varied greatly, although $100 was reported more frequently as
the cash income for cotton during 1933.
Employment other than crafts
Regular employment had been afforded the fathers, sons, or
daughters of crafts families in 23 percent of those visited. The
largest group having such dependence on regular earnings were
families given craftwork by the semiphilanthropic production centers.
This is due to the fact that these centers create regular employment
for janitors, for teachers, or for other general assistance, and apparently gave craft employment to other members of the same families.
Part-time jobs were of more frequent occurrence. This is especially
true in the chair-caning families, for the towns in which these people
live afforded women such work as picking chickens, canning, washing, .
cooking, and other housework, and men work at the mill, at draying,
carpentering, and other odd jobs. These occasional jobs brought in
several dollars additional a week, when work could be gotten.
Relief
Almost 18 percent of these craft families had received some relief
during 1933, while 16 percent had menfolk employed by C. W. A.
Relief was received by 44 percent of the families whose craft was chair
caning in spite of the fact that more part-time jobs were available to
them.
Craft earnings
Only 15 percent of the households visited were entirely dependent
on craft earnings for their cash income. This was fortunate, for, save
as men and women craftsfolk were employed at the production center
on a time basis, home workers' earnings were low. In only 43 percent
of the cases did earnings in 1933 exceed $50. Only 5 percent of the
home workers earned from $150 to $300 during the year and :UQ
worker earned more than $300.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
TABLE
IX.-Sources of family income of Southern Appalachian mountaineer craftsfolk in 1933
Food produced
Type of production center by which employed
Families reporting
All
except
staple
groceries
P art of Famifresh
lies refoods
porting
only
Crafts
only
------ --- --Total-Number ..• _____________ .. . __ ___ ________ _.
Percent. __ . __ ._._ . ______ .. __ _. _______ . _. __
Semiphilanthropic-Number ___________________________
Percent ____________ . ____ . ________ __
Commercial:
Chair caning-Number. ____________________________
Percent. _________ . ______ ____ ________ _
Quilting and applique-Number ____________________
Candlewick bedspreads-Number __ ____ _________ ___
Percent ___________________
Other-Number ___________________________________ .
Independent and home demonstration-Num ber ______
Percent. ______
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
Relief
Sources of cash income
I
Father Sons o,
daughof
FamiRelief
Partters
family
reOther lies reregular- regular- C. W. A. time
porting
ceived
jobs
lyem- Iyemployed ployed
--------- --- --- --- --- --Farm
products
355
100. 0
137
38. 6
176
49. 6
350
100. 0
53
15. 1
90
25. 7
54
15. 4
8. 0
56
16. 0
133
38. 0
53
15.1
351
100. 0
63
17. 9
71
100. 0
38
53. 5
31
43. 7
70
100.0
20
28. 6
8
11. 4
18
25. 7
8
11. 4
8
11. 4
18
25. 7
7
10.0
69
100. 0
10
14. 5
81
100. 0
40
94
100.0
19
2
2. 5
9
46
48. 9
11
68 .
84. 0
22
35
37. 2
5
81
1-00. 0
35
94
100. 0
19
4
4. 9
1
14
14. 9
1
1. 2
8
41
43. 6
8
3
3. 7
9
15
16.0
3
3
3. 7
3
7
7.4
4
24
29. 6
10
11
11. 7
60
74.1
22
20
21. 3
3
4
4. 9
6
20
21.3
3
79
100. 0
40
93
100. 0
19
50
31
62. 0
15
30. 0
51
100. 0
10
19. 6
24
6
11. 8
3
5. 9
10
19. 6
13
25. 5
51
100. 0
100.0
4
47.1
28
--------3
5. 9
35
H.3
4
11
11. 8
1
2
3. 9
TABLE
X.-Earnings reported by Southern Appalachian mountaineer crafts!olk
Year's earnings (1933)
Type of production center giving
employment
P ersons
reporting
Number
TotaL _____________ ___ ___ ____
$25 and under
Over $25 and
not over $50
Over $50 and
no t over $75
P erPercent Number cent Number
--- --- --- --- --Percent
Number
Over $75 and
not over $100
Percent !Number
Percent
Over $100 and
not over $150
Number
Percent
Over $150 and
not over $300
Over $300 and
including $750 1
I
I
I
IN
PerN um b e r
po,.
~ umber ; ~ent
- - - -- -
337
100. 0
136
40. 4
55
16. 3
42
12. 5
31
9. 2
41
12. 2
17
5. 0
15
4. 5
Semiphilanthropic _______ _________ _
74
100. 0
20
27. 0
15
20. 3
11
14. 9
12
16. 2
JO
13. 5
4
5. 4
2
2. 7
Commercial :
Chair caning 2 _ _ __ __ ____ _ _ ____ _
Quilting and app!ique ______ ____
Other, exclusive of candlawick
bedspreads __ ____ _______ ______
129
56
100. 0
100. 0
88
7
63. 2
12. 5
24
10
18. 6
17. 9
9
9
7. 0
16. 1
6
7
4. 7
12. 5
11
Independent craftsmen _________ ___ _
: I ;~·;·
6 --- ----15 1
28. 8
2
4
--------
6 --------
7. 7
7
13. 5
--------- --- - --- 6
11. 5
2
I. 6 -- ----- -- -------19. 6
16. 1
9
1 --- ----17
32. 7
3 --- ----1
1. 9
---------------5. 4
3
8 --------
2 1
3. 8
Usual weekly 3 e:1rnin,,s (1933- 34)
Persons
reporti nf!
Under $1
$1 and under $2
$2 and under $3
$3 and under $4
$4 and under $5
$5 and under $6
$10 and over
1
PerPerPerP arPerPerPerPercent Number cen t Number cent Number cent \l"umber cent Number cent Number cent . umber cant
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - Number
Commercial :
Candlewick bedspreads ________
t
1
1.53
100. 0
40
26. 1
44
28.8
These craftsmen were employed at production centers or were independent producers.
Factory workers were not scheduled.
36
• Year's earnings could not be secured and employment varied too greatly to permit of estimates.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
23. 5
17
11. 1
6
3. 9
6
3. 9
4
2. 6
26
POTENTIAL EARNING POWER OF SOUTHERN HANDICRAFT
Ohair caners.-Annual earnings were lowest among chair caners
visited, partly because employees of one factory had suffered much
unemployment during the year and partly because rates during the
first half of 1933 had been one-half the rate in the latter half of the
year. Pay-roll data shown in table XI include payments to factory
employees, which averaged many times higher per worker than did
average payments to home workers.
Semiphilanthropic center workers.-Forty-seven percent of those
given home work by the semiphilanthropic production centers earned
$50 or less during 1933, and only 22 percent earned $100 or over.
The average as shown by the pay rolls was $63.87. Women employed primarily in weaving earned but $52.70, whereas the smaller
number of men making furniture or other woodwork received $85.80.
Quilters.-Quilting and applique workers had better earnings, as
well over one-third made more than $100 and only 30 percent received $50 or less. The average earnings as shown by the pay roll
obviously were over $100, although here as elsewhere lack of complete records covering personnel placed the numbers actually on the
pay roll in some doubt.
Candlewick spread tujters.-Although candlewick bedspread firms
gave employment to some workers for 48 weeks during the year, it
was difficult for individual workers who had not kept a written record
of earnings to be sure of the amount of employment they had been
given or actual earnings they had made with widely varying piece
rates. Consequently table X reports only the usual weekly earningg
of spread workers. About one-fourth earned less than $1 a week,
while a slightly larger number earned from $1 to $2 and a slightly
smaller number $2 and less than $3.
Any attempt to check up these reports with the pay rolls immediately brings attention to the fact that no direct contact existed between
producing center and home workers, as the work reached the homes
through a hauler. While the estimate of numbers given work through
these spread haulers has been reduced, as it was believed to include
helper-;, there still is reason to think the number is high. However,
yearly records of earnings kept by a few families who are regarded as
"best workers" are helpful in indicating maximum rather than average
yearly earnings. The first family tufted two patterns only-higherpriced spreads that they secured directly from the firm. One daughter,
aged 22, devoted her entire time to spreads; her mother took out
2 hours each day to get the meals and do other housework; a 16-yearold brother did all French knots and ctpping; and other brothers
clipped when not working on their 33-acre farm. During 1933 the
gross earnings from spreads were $590.42 for 48 weeks' work. If this
family is counted as having given the services of three full-time
workers to the task the average earnings per person for the year
would be $196.80, or $4.10 a week. This may well be regarded almost
as maximum earnings for home tufters and clippers of candlewick ·
bedspreads.
The second family had f~t workers but sometimes they had to pay
1 or 2 haulers' commissions to receive work. Consequently they
received less for their work and a wider variety of spread patterns.
Two daughters, 22 and 24 years of age, worked from 6 a. m. until
7 p. m. in s_pring and summer, from 7 a. m. until 5 p. m. in winter,
with a half-hour out for dinner. Their mother took out 2 hours each
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
27
STATISTICAL ANALYSIS
morning, or worked about 8 hours a day on spreads. These 3 women
worked the spreads together. In the 22 weeks of 1934, they had
earned $205.78, or $3.12 a week per woman. The third family, with
1 tufter and a husband who clipped 3 out of 4 spreads, earned $102
in 50 weeks of 5 days each.
Total earnings
In spite of some inaccuracies in estimated numbers employed by
specific groups---Bometimes too large and then again too small-the
total amount shown on pay rolls to have been paid craftswomen and
men during 1933 compares closely with reports of individual craftspersons. About $52 was the average craftsperson's income in 1933.
Factors responsible for this low wage are numerous: Lack of efficient
opera.ting organization, haphazard piece-rate systems, and above all
an oversupply of willing home workers. Description of conditions
prevailing in '3pecific craft organizations that operate to the home
workers' disadvantage will be found in appendixes B and C.
TABLE
XL-Amounts paid southern mountaineer handicraft workers in 1933 and
in 1929-30 through dijferent type handicraft production centers
1933
Type of production center 1
1929--30
Production
centers
reporting
number
Number
ememployed
ployed 2
and
amount
paid
workers
Total
amount
paid
Production
centers
reporting
number
Number
employed
employed 2
and
amount
paid
workers
Total
amount
paid
TotaL ______________ ________ _
345
Semiphilanthropic-TotaL _____ ___
Weaving ______ __________ ______ _
Wood carving and furniture ____
6
213
135
78
13, 604. 73
7, 112. 13
6,492.60
4
2
2
293
140
29
19,609.37
9, 793. 75
2,154.07
2
122
2
7,330. 96
330. 59
------------ ---------- ·-----------
1
2
165
75
40
50
7,773.70
6,085.99
988. 06
699. 65
------------ ---------- ---------------------- ---------- ---------------------- ---------- ---------------------- ---------- -----------
31
9,402
483,579.18
10
3
2
2
8
7,684
484
552
4
297,914. 75
43, 114. 67
26, 771. 22
3,095. 64
85,456.84
25,084.73
Schools-Tota!_ _______ _____________
Weaving-Students _______ _____
Outside ___ __________
Wood
carving
and furnitureStudents
__________
___________
Outside ______________________
Cooperative and Agricultural Extension Service-Total _________ __
Furniture _______________ _______
Hooked rugs ___________________
Miscellaneous ___ _______________
Commercial-TotaL ____ ___________
Annual sales over $2,000:
Candlewick bedspreads ____
Chair caning ______ _________
Hooked rugs ___ ___ _________
Pottery and silver __ ________
Quilting and applique ______
Weaving __ __________ _______
Wood carving and furni-
4
2
1
4
]
1
1
604
2
49
4
999. 33
' 1
2
10
312. 00
830. 00
ture ____ ____ -- -- --- -------
Annual sales under $2,000:
Hooked rugs ______________ _
Weaving __________ ___ ______
10,073 $524,566. 98
11
'25
2
2
7,827 $596, 696. 78
6
164
164
58,613. 47
8,613.47
470
260
110
28,190.39
. 14,082.55
9,107.84
100
5,000.00
------------ --- ---- -- - ---- - -- ---2
2
1
21
7,193
559,892.92
4,560
532
169,979.50
114,255.14
1,966
104
186,537.17
80,421.11
7
2,500.00
---------- 1-- -------------------1
1,000.00
6
3
-- - --- ------------------------2
23
5,200. 00
Main type of production, as several types were made by some centers.
Pay rolls of home workers are seldom kept· onsequently numbers employed represent estimate of aver•
age number during year; any computation of average earnings becomes an estimate.
a 2 centers visited in 1934 were not in ousiness in 1933 and 10 others had no record of amounts paid workers,
' 17 centers visited in 1934 were not in business in 1929 and 15 others had n o record of amounts paid workers.
' 65 students included.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
28
POTENTIAL EARNING POWER OF SOUTHERN HANDICRAFT
Small as the average earnings .per home worker are, even when the
family has other sources of income this craft money means much to
the majority of the women. To the daughters it means a little money
with which to buy needed clothing; to many mothers it means grocery
money, money to send a child to school, money for shoes, money to
pay a doctor's bill. In fact, the money earned through the crafts is
so immediately translated into much needed articles or services that
the amount earned usually is remembered by the purchases it made
possible.
"Craft money" represents the difference between financial serfdom
and freedom to many a mountaineer mother and her daughters.
Efforts were made to ascertain the full cash earnings of craft
families visited. Only the occasional family had any record of earnings, and even under questioning but few could recall what irregular
employments of several members of the family had brought into the
family coffers. In the 91 families with cash income reported it ranged
from $10 to $3,750 a year, with the median earnings of $255 for the
year 1933.
ATTITUDE TOWARD THE CRAFTS
Craftswomen and men were asked whether they used their skill in
the production of craft objects for their own households, the question
being put to determine their appreciation of their own handicraft.
But the question lost its significance, for the usual answer was that
they had not the wherewithal to purchase raw materials to work up
for their own use. Unlike colonial times, few raised sheep to furnish
wool, or knew how to transform raw cotton into warp or woof even
even when they rai~ed it.
Independent craftswomen, especially on hooked gs, used products they could not sell and a few plied their craft in the making of
an occasional gift. The candlewick spread tufters had to buy such
spreads as were damaged in the making (usually by cutting or
burning) or lose their labor, so some became owners of spreads.
Bu't ownership under such circumstances was not enjoyable.
Craft skill was looked upon by every worker visited as a possible means
of earning money. When asked how they liked the work, they
usually replied: "This is all we know how to do except work in the
field." Work intended for sale by a production center was done
under specific direction as to design, color, and other details. Obviously it was not possible to permit individuals to express their own
ideas when the production center had orders to fill. Production
center leaders often did their own designing. Creative ideas for
handicraft were theirs, while the mass of craftswomen and men were
copyists working under instructions.
CRAFTSFOLK'S AVAILABILITY FOR WORK AT CENTRAL
.
POINT
Craftswoµien and men were asked whether their respective home
responsibilities were so light that they would be free to spend part of
the day or week: at a nearby rural cra{t center. The idea was so new
that many, younger girls especially, hesitated over the answer.
Lacking adequate clothing, association with other persons presented
a problem not related to actual need for their services in the moun-
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
...
29
STATISTICAL ANALYSIS
tain home. Consequently, field agents believed that the threefourths who were free and willing to work away from home would
have been increased had other daughters been given time to consider the matter carefully.
It is not surprising to find that a third of the wives felt free to work
away from home. Early marriage and the tendency toward living
together often makes the wife's mother, mother-in-law, or sister-in-law
a member of the household. Adjustments can be made, therefore,
which leave household cares to members less skilled at wage-earning
tasks. Such adjustments already were taking place in households in
which candlewick spreads and quilts were fashioned, even though
such work was done in the home. When craftwork was available the
majority of craftswomen devoted their entire time to it. Other members of the household did the cooking and household tasks. Craftswomen stopped only to eat. When there was but one woman in the
household she would report that she got up at 3 or 4:30 and had all
her household tasks but the preparation of dinner done by 6 a. m .;
or that washing or other work was left till the rush was over.
In this connection it is important to call attention to the fallacy of
regarding home craftwork as something picked up for a part of the
day when household tasks are done. Commercial or semiphilanthropic centers with orders to fill expect to have their work done at
the time set, and the majority of women are so anxious for more work
that they will let nothing but household emergencies interfere with
completion of their quota on time. "Sunup till sundown with time
off for dinner" is a usual day. Ten hours was reported by many as
their actual craft working time. Only Sunday was a day of rest
everywhere.
Consequently, those who stated that they were able and willing
to go to a central point for work had in mind the giving of a full day
every day. · Part-time employment was considered by only a few.
In all, 58 percent of the households visited could send one or more
craftswomen or men to a central rural shop for full-time craft employment.
TABLE
XII.-Southern Appalachian mountaineer craftsfolk available for work at
central point
Craftsfolk available for work at central
point
Total reporting
Relationship
Full time
N umber
Percent
Number
Part time ·
Percent
Number
Percent
- - - - - - - - - - - --1--- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Households affected ________________ _
Members who were craftsfolk __ ____ _
Head-Male ___ _____________ __ ___________ _
Female ____ -- __ --- - -- __ -- -- -- -- -- -Wife __ ---------------------------------- __
Daughter ________ ------------------------Son __ __________ ___ __________ -------------Other member of household ________ ______ _
1
1
I
362
100. 0 ---------- ---------- ---------- -- --------
563
100. 0
37 ---------45 ---------100. 0
244
100. 0
159
27 ----- --- --
50
100. 0
2
258
45. 9
22 - --------13 --------- 31.1
76
71. 7
114
15 ---- -----36. 0
18
2
21
6
6
2. 5
3. 8
4 ----------
1
One did not report relationship .
The 279 persons available for either full-time or part-time work were in 210 of the households.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
3. 7
2 --- ------2 --- -------
2. 0
30
POTENTIAL EARNING POWER OF SOUTHERN HANDICRAFT
COMPARISON OF FACTORY EARNINGS IN SOUTHERN
STATES WITH CRAFT EARNINGS
Dalton, Ga., the home of the larger number of candlewick bedspread firms, has three woman-employing factories of good size.
The firms had located in this town to avail themselves of the labor of
mountain women living in the vicinity. The minimum rate under the
N. R. A. codes for women in two of these factory industries-cotton
goods and hosiery- was 30 cents an hour or $12 a week of 40 hours,
but the average earnings of women workers at the time of the Bureau's
visit to Georgia ranged from $14.50 for a 40-hour week in one factory
to $17 .34 for a 36-hour week in another. Compare this with the $1
weekly average earned by the home worker in the same vicinity, a
worker who often put in longer hours than did her factory sister!
When earnings were at a low point (1932) women workers in North
Carolina hosiery mills earned 24 cents an hour, in Tennessee hosiery
mills 23 centi; an hour. Boot and shoe workers in Tennessee earned
25 cents an p.our, while women in cotton factories averaged 20 and
21 cents in the several southern States. Since that time the 30 cents
minimum has been put into effect with resultant material increas~s
in average earnings. While detailed figures for the South are not
available, average weekly earnings in all cotton mills increased by
one-fourth from May 1932 to May 1934 in spite of a material decrease
in working hours.
POTENTIAL MARKETS FOR HANDICRAFT
Counsel obtained
Conferences with New York art connoisseurs, designers, stylists,
and buyers held prior to undertaking the field survey of southern
mountain handicrafts indicated that persons already engaged in the
crafts were having the greatest difficulty in marketing their wares and
that there was serious question concerning the marketability of
southern mountain handicraft even if produced on a controlled basis..
After the Bureau's field survey was completed and the skill of the
southern mountaineers at quilting, applique, tufting, weaving, and
woodworking was fully known, further conferences were held,
through the cooperation of the National Retail Dry Goods Association, with merchandising experts ·as to the applicability of such
craft skill to articles that had a quantitative market at a . price
permitting fair craft earnings.
·
Counsel of 46 or more experts in the retail markets for rugs, household linens, draperies, bedding, chinaware, and furniture, and for
toys, infants' and children's goods, and needlework was secured.
These experts were chiefly buyers, merchandise managers, or executives of department and specialty stores in Chicago, New York,
Brooklyn, Baltimore, and Washington, although importers and wholesalers also were consulted. Consumer demand for hand-made
articles, comparative market values of machine-made and foreign
hand-made articles, and other competitive elements were discussed
fully.
,
Quite generally the retail merchants expressed a preference for
American-made goods and a willingness to assist in the building up of
handicrafts in the southern mountains along lines that were economi-
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
31
STATISTICAL ANALYSIS
cally sound. Trained as they were in thinking in terms of "what ·does
the consumer want" rather than in terms of "what appeals to me
personally", the first tenet of any industry seeking a retail market
was regarded as the continuous adjustment of its products to the
lives of the people it would serve. Only active contacts with retail
markets make such adjustments possible.
The fundamental principles underlying the creation of a market for
handicraft as they were developed in these conferences has been
discussed on pages 5 to 7. The following data indicate the handicraft articles for which there is active demand and the prices at
which they must be sold.
Infants' and children's articles
Handicraft for which there is a retail market in infants' and children's departments in depar.tment and specialty stores catering to
the higher-grade trade is as follows:
Articles
Approximate wholesale price
Approximate
retail price
Handwoven:
Bibs with "Baby" in colored border ______ _____ _____ }$
to $2 40 a do en
Towels with "Baby " in colored border_ _______ ___ __ 2· 25
·
z ---- -----Pillow covers with "Baby" in colored border_ ______ $6 a dozen _______ __ ____ ____ ___ _
Blankets, wool, carriage _______ ____ ________ _____ __ ___ $1. 25 to $1. 50 apiece ___ __ ___ ____
Blankets, wool, crib ______ ___ __ ____ ______ _____ ____ ___ $1.75 to $2 apiece __ __ ____ ___ ___
$0 75 apiece
·
·
$1.00 apiece.
$2.50 apiece.
$3.50 apiece.
Applique: ·
Cr!b sheets, hemstitched i:nd applique __ ______ ___ ___ }$ to $ . .
3 50
Crib covers, colored, apphque _________ _______ ____ ___ 3
$4.50 to $5.50.
Quilted:
~~~if~J5c!;~-~~~!~~=~~~~===== == ================== ==== == ================ == ======== }$7.50 to $12.50.
Hooked: Crib rug 2 by 5 feet (solid colors) __ __________ ___ $3.50 to $4. 50.
Knit:
All types for infant clothing and for boys up to 8
years:
Bootees ___ ________ ___ _________ _____ ____________ _ $8.50 a dozen ________________ __ $1.50 a pair.
Sweaters and larger garments :
apiece
Medium quality __ __ __ ____ _______________ ___ $10.50, $12, and $15a dozen ____ _ }$
2 95
Better quality---------- - --- - --- - ---------- -- $18, $21, and $22.50 a dozen_____
·
·
Wooden objects:
Plaques for nursery walls and children's furniture;
stools; rockers, cribs, etc.; doll furniture __ ____ __ _ $6 a dozen __ _____ ____ ________ __ $1.
The prices at which infants' and children's articles will be purchased
are in line with quotations now made by southern agencies. Cost
of materials and overhead can be sufficiently lowered per unit to
permit higher earnings to craftswomen if a business covering all
kindred lines is organized on an order basis with unified buying, selling, and office staffs. ·
In knitwear, competition will be found in New England. New
York jobbers send wool to the New England farm homes where it is
made into babies' socks at 20 cents a dozen and into babies' jackets
at $1.50 a dozen if plain, $1.75 a dozen if fancy. As the higher-grade
retail establishments are willing to pay much better prices for knitted
articles, elimination of jobbers will raise materially the price that can
be paid a rural shop worker. Combining and offering of knitwear
with room appurtenances will lend added attraction to wearing
apparel.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
32
POTENTIAL EARNING POWER OF SOUTHERN HANDICRAFT
All objects in the toy department were reviewed with great care with
toy buyers. Stuffed toys and dolls are almost all made by machine
at a price with which hand work cannot compete. Wooden toys that
the child can use in its play are so beautifully produced by machine
methods that only a hand-made toy or game with original features
that appeal to the child's manipulative instincts would find an,Y
market in competition with machine-made toys. Only in articles
for dolls' houses- articles of too little value to produce save as a
byproduct of other industries-did there appear to be any field for
handicraft.
Rugs
All rug buyers agreed that there is a very definite market for hooked
rugs to go with maple bedroom furniture, and that in the South the
living-room rug and the occasional hooked rug have a market.
While much has been said of the inability of southern mountain
hooked-rug dealers to compete with the Japanese and Canadians,
this is largely due to lack of organization within the industry and to
failure to create new designs and maintain quality. The hooked .rug
has been made in the home to a large extent. The southern mountaineer woman purchases her own burlap, stocking tops, and dyes at
a cost of from 55 to 76 cents for 22-by-36-inch rugs. To dye and cut
up the strips with simple household equipment, to stencil the pattern,
to do the hooking or punching and then to trim, hem, and press the
rug takes about 7 hours. For the completed rug she is paiq $1.48.
This rug wholesales at from $2 to $2.20. By buying a better grade of
material in large quantities a much lower cost will be obtained. By
division of processes in a shop the time required to make a rug can be
very materially cut and the quality can be controlled. By manufacturing at the retailer's orders, the wholesaler's cost can be eliminated.
By offering new designs every 6 months, interest in hooked rugs will
continue and importers of Japanese rugs will have difficulty in
competing with the American-made product.
The small hooked rug must be produced to meet the 35 to 40 cents
a square foot quoted by the Japanese importer, or the 50 cents that
better-grade Canadian rugs secure. These are sold at retail for
approximately 75 cents a square foot; that is, the mark-up is 60 to 75
percent over the wholesale price. A room-size rug 9 by 12 feet will
bring offers of $37 to $40, the retail sales price being $59 to $79.
There is also a demand for small woven rugs of good grade. Woolen
weaves 2 by 4 feet, convenient for hall, dining room, or living room,
are being imported from Switzerland; the retailer pays $3.25 to $3.50
for them. Cotton weaves in plain colors are desired at $1.65 a square
yard.
A potential market exists for the more intricate hand-woven rugs.
Aubusson rugs, usually imported from France, have been made successfully by American women ~n the past year for one rug-specialty
house. This firm is ready to buy more than this newly trained group
of women can produce.
Household linens, bed covers, and draperies
The table linens imported from other countries are sold at so low
a price as to make southern mountain competition out of the question.
A 52-inch hand-woven, colored Russian tablecloth and four napkins
sell for $1.50 wholesale and $2.45 retail. A 17-piece linen set, beau-
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
33
STATISTICAL ANALYSIS
tifully appliqued and embroidered, may be purchased for $12 wholesale. Lovely guest towels can be purchased from Puerto Rico at
$1.85 a dozen.
_
Only when the bulky textiles for use in the bedroom are considered
is there a field for the southern mountaineers' craft skill. By introducing novel effects to be carried out in dresser and bureau scarfs, in
draperies and pillows, a tufted bedspread or an appliqued counterpane can be used to carry to market a number of smaller hand-woven
linens which could not be sold separately. The prices the stores
catering to the higher trade in metropolitan centers are ready to pay
for such articles for quantitative sales are as follows:
Bed covers and bedroom linens
Approximate wholesale
price
H and woven:
Spreads if unusual in design and color····----· $5.50 to $10.00 .• -·--·-·-·-··Scarfs for dressers, bureaus, and ta blesSmalL .................................... 80 cents .. ·-· ····-·-··--··-· ·
12 by 32 inches .... ·-···-·················· $1.50 . .. ·-··--···············
16 by 45 inches ............................ $2.00 .•... ·--················
Couch throws, woolen (Christmas trade) ...... $4.50 .... ·-·-·-··············
Draperies to match bed cover and scarf, 50
inches wideCotton ........ ·-·-···-·········· ·········· $1.50 to $1.75 a yard .........
Rayon ... . ····----··-··-···· ................ ... do..... .. ................
Wool or silk ............................... $3.50 and up .................
Blocked linens.·-··-···-···········---·-·· $2.50 and up ..... ·-····--··· ·
Tufted:
Spreads ....... ------·-----·-············--·-·· $1.25 to $2.25 .. ·······-······
$3.50 to $5.50.. ..............
$8.00 to $10.00 .......... - ... .
Draperies .... ..... ·-·- ............ _..... ·-·-· ................... ··- ..... -· ..
Quilted or appliqued:
Comfortables ....... ·····················-····· $12.90 and up .............•..
Pillows, boudoir accessory sets ........ ·-···· ·· $6.75 to $50.00 a dozen .... ___
I'
Approximate retail
price (85 percent to
90 percent mark•up)
$10.00 to $18.50.
$1.50.
$2.75.
$3.75.
$7.50 to $8.50.
$2.25 to $2.65.
Do.
$.5.00 to $6.00 a yard.
$3.50 to $4.00.
$1.98 to $3.50.
$5.29 to $8.80.
$12.50 to $16.00.
$22.30 to $60.00.
$1.00 to $5.00 and up.
Wood handicraft
No enthusiasm was evinced by retail furniture buyers or by furniture wholesalers concerning the application of craft skill to furniture.
Fifty percent of capacity of existing furniture factories lies idle and
stores cannot move any but the lowest-priced articles. Today the
3-piece maple bedroom set retails for $49 to $79. The occasional
living-room chair must be sold for $13.50.
Efforts were made to interest manufacturers and retailers of highgrade furniture in needlepoint or grossepoint as a furniture upholstery
handicraft. But buyers claimed that a solid mahogany chair upholstered in needlepoint would have to be sold around $25, which was
too low to net a profit or fair wages to anyone concerned.
As to reproduction of antiques, England is offering the furniture
dealers original antiques at half the price at which American machinemade reproductions can be offered.
But when the question of garden accessories was approached in
household-supply departments, there was immediate approval. An
attractive type of garden fencing is needed. Stakes of correct size
on which to tie different kinds of plants and bushes, labels that can
be seen and last through a winter, binding materials, baskets for
garden tools, all will find a market every spring in -almost all department stores.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
34
POTENTIAL EARNING POWER OF SOUTHERN HANDICRAFT
Pottery
Although some New York buyers were interested in developing
pot t ery similar t o the highly colored peasant pottery now imported,
little interest in hand-made pottery was evinced in other trading
centers.
Location of major retail outlets
The following t abulation 12 shows the importance of each major
center as a ret ail outlet for household furnishings and furniture.
Household furnishings
and furniture
Household furn ishings
and fu rnit u re
C it y
City
Number of
retail ou tlets
N ew York ___ __ ________ _
Chicago _____ ______ ____ _
L os Angeles ___________ _
P h iladelphia __________ _
D etr nit_ ___ _____ _______ _
B oston _____ ___ ________ _
C leveland _____________ _
San Francisco _________ _
St . Lou is ___ ____ _____ __ _
P ittsburgh ____ ________ _
Milwau kee ____________ _
B altimore _____ ___ _____ _
N ewark _________ ___ ___ _
B uffalo ______ ____ __ ____ _
CincinnatL ___________ _
K ansas City _____ ______ _
M inneapolis ___ ________ _
Indianapolis ___ ________ _
Oakland _______________ _
H ouston _____________ ___
D enver ________________ _
At lanta ___ _____________ _
R ochester _____________ _
Seattle ___ __ ____ __ ______ _
------ -- -----T
oledo ____________
P ortland
___ __ _
P rovidence __ __________ _
Syracuse ____________ ___ _
3,477
1,089
502
1,023
405
353
323
373
326
181'
233
269
175
239
203
163
168
124
158
144
125
130
134
164
97
153
121
117
Retail sales
in 1929
$298,120,000
103,260,000
51,670,000
48,980,000
40,400, 000
34,750, 000
33,610,000
29, 440,000
28,630,000
28, 200,000
21,800,000
21,330,000
17, 580,000
17,580,000
16,970,000
16,750,000
13,490,000
13, 170,000
12,660,000
12,230,000
11,550,000
11,130,000
10,820, 000
10,720,000
9, C, 0, 000
9,390,000
9,180, 000
9,050,000
Columbus _____________ _
D ayton ______ ______ ____ _
New Orleans __ ___ ______
D allas ______________ ____
For t Wort h ___ ________ _
L ou isville _____________ _
M emp his ____ __________ _
J ersey City ____________ _
San Antonio ______ _____ _
Oklahoma City ________ _
Grand Rapids _______ ___
Akron ________________ __
Salt L ake C ity __ ______ _
New Haven ____ __ _____ _
B irmin gham _______ ____ _
Hartford _________ _____ __
Richmond _____________ _
Omaha ________ ________ _
D es Moines _____ _______ _
Scranton ____________ ___
St. Pau L _____________ _
Flint_ ______ ---- - - -- - --Wichita ___ ______ __ ____ _
Nash ville ______ _____ __ __
Camden ___ ___ ____ __ __ __
Paterson ___ _________ ____
Albany ____ ____ ________ _
N um ber of
retail outlets
92
69
128
104
62
104
99
106
87
91
105
60
49
108
124
85
114
90
54
63
85
61
60
62
44
74
66
Retail sales
in 1929
$8, 590, 000
8,380,000
8,200,000
8,200,000
7,970,000
7,950,000
7,820,000
7,740,000
7,380,000
7,340,000
7,300,000
7,180,000
7,090,000
6, 960, 000
6, 800,000
6,800,000
6, 390,000
6, 130,000
5,990,000
5,950,000
5,640,000
5,550,000
5,510,000 '
5,410,000
5,370,000
5,100,000
5,080,000
u U . S. D ep artment of Commerce. Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce and Bureau of the
Census: Gener al Consumer M arket Statistics.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
APPENDIXES
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
APPENDIX A. - HANDICRAFT PRODUCTION CENTERS IN THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN MOUNTAINS
A..-CENTERS TEACHING ADULTS CRAFTS WHILE PRODUCING WORK FOR SALE AND SUPPORTED IN PART BY PHILANTHROPIC ORGANIZATIONS OR INDIVIDUALS
M aximum number employed or
available for employment in
1933-34
Location
Handicraft center ·
Handicraft
Source of support
Center
Women
Men
Home
Women
Men
NORTH CAROLINA
Watauga County-·Boone . ........•••••••..... Howard O. Ford ....•••••••.... . Weaving... . . ................. . ...... . ........
8 . ...... . State-Federal funds through
Woodworking, 2 shops.. . ... ....... . . .
(1 )
.• .•.• .. . ..•••..
Penland, N . C., and local
Lutheran Church.
A.very County- Crossnore . ......•...•••••.... Crossnore School, Inc .......... . ·weaving... ................. . .
20 .••• . .. •. •.. . .• . . • ••... . State-Federal funds and gifts.
2 1
2 32 ·- ••.•• •. • ....•.
Hooked rugs.. ................
Mitchell County-Penland ...••...•....••••.. Penl: nd Weavers and Potters . .. Weaving... . . . .. .............. . .... . .. ....... .
34 . •...... State-Federal funds and EpisPewter and pottery ...••.. .... ··· · · · ·2 ..•••••• ······· copal Church.
Clay County-Brasstown ....•••.••••••...••. John C. Campbell Folk School. . Wood carv ing ____ ·-··· ·····-· --· --·· ·2 - ·· · ·· -·
31 Private funds.
Weaving, etc._...............
2
11
VIRGINIA
Shenandoah County- Bird Haven._ ••• ····-- Shenandoah Community Work- Woodwork_ ....•••••....••••..
50
10
ers.
Giles_ County- Pearisburg _···-·-············· Christ Church.·-···-····-··---- Wo9dwork, chairs.·--·····- ····· · ---2 ·-- --- - - -- - - ·- ··
5
3
Weaving and baskets_ .. __ __ . _ ·· ----- - --- -- - -·
Franklin County-Callaway.-·············-· St. Peter's•in-the-Mountains __.. Woven burlap mats.-- ------·-- ----· --·---- --40 -- -----Hearth brooms, wooden fig3 10
3 10 ·- - - -· -- .- ·--·-·ures.
Madison County-Oldrag.. ..... ••• •••••.•••. Mountain Neighbors .•••••••••.. Weaving.·-·---·-·-·-·-- -····24 · ····· ·- - ····· - - ·······Dyeing, rag tearing, sewing, -·-····· · ······26 -·······
quilting.
Basketry, chair seating, wood6 -····· · 10
work.
Greene County-Bris... •••••.....•.•••••••. . Shop-Beside-the-Stream .•.•.... . Rugs, hooked, crocheted,
7
•
••••••.
42 ••••••••
woven, etc.
Small woodwork, brooms ...•...........•.............
3
A little iron work and hem•
(')
(')
(')
(')
D ickenson County-Nora • • ••• ----------- - -·· St. Stephen's···· · - - - - stitching.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
Do.
Episcopal Church .
Do.
Private funds, Virginia State
Board of Education, Madison County School Board,
Handicraft Club of Baltimore.
(').
Episcopal Church.
KENTUCKY
Leslie County-Wooton ______________________ Fireside Industries ____________ _ Weaving______________________ ______ __ ________
15 _______ _ Board or National Missions-Furniture _____________________________ ________ ------- 15
Presbyterian Church.
34
Mountain Cabin Quilters ______ _ Quilting____ __ _______________ _________________
Private funds.
Preparation of raw materials ____ __ ____ ___ _____
26
Knott County-Hindman ____________________ Hindman Settlement SchooL __ _ Weaving, baskets and chairs __
1
4
5
Carr Creek ________________ __ Carr Creek Community Center_ Weaving and woodwork______
(4)
(4)
(4)
(4)
Perry County- Ary__ __ _____________________ _ Rome Place ___________________ _ Dolls and dulcimers___________
(4)
(4)
(4)
(4)
TENNESSEE
Sevier County- Gatlinburg ___ _______________ Arrowcraft Shop ________________ Baskets and fans___ __________ _________________
,veaving _________ __ __________ _ ---- ---- -------Chairs______________ ________ ______ _____ _______
Sevierville (R. D. ) ___________ Pitman School_ _________________ Weaving______________________
(4)
(4)
1
63
l
Private
funds.
and
State-Federal
( 4)
B .-SCHOOLS TEACHING CRAFTS TO ST DE TS ONLY AND USING SALES RECEIPTS TO PAY STUDE
NORTH CAROLIN A
M adison County-Hot Springs _______________ D orland-Bell SchooL ___________ Weaving _____________________ _
2
T OR SCHOOL EXPENSES
Board of ational MissionsPresbyterian Church.
Private fun ds.
·-(4) ___ ------ -- ------ -- Board of ational MissionsPresbyterian Church.
Private funds.
Yancy County-Higgins ____ __________________ J ohn and Mary Markle SchooL_ Weaving and needlework ____ _
Buncombe County-Asheville ____ ___________ _ Asheville ormal SchooL _______ Weaving and woodwork _____ _
(4/4 -
Polk County- Tryon _________________ _______ _ 'rryon Toy Makers and Wood Wood carving and toys _______ _
Carvers .
Swain County-Cherokee ____________________ Cherokee Indian Reservation ___ Beadwork, basketry, weaving_
2
Federal funds.
GEORGIA
Rabun County- Tallulah Falls _______________ Tallulah Falls Industrial SchooL Weaving, basketry, woodwork_
62
40 ______ ___ ___ __ __ Georgia Federation of Women's
Clubs, State-Federal funds,
gifts.
KENTUCKY
H arlan County-Pine Mountain ____________ _ Pine Mountain Settlement
School.
Madison County- Berea _____________________ Berea College Student Industries.
TEN ESSEE
Weaving _____________________ _
12
5
Weaving, woodwork, toys ___ __
130
104
3
26
Private funds.
Do.
Cocke County-Cosby_______________________ Sunset Gap School______________ Weaving ____________________ __
10 ________ ----- - -- ____ ___ _ Board of National Missions-
Claiborne County- Harrogate __ ______________ Lincoln Memorial University ______ __do _______________________ _
Cumberland County-Pleasant HiIL _________ Pleasant Hill Academy ____ ___ __ Wood carving ________________ _
Presbyterian Church.
6 ------ -- -------- ________ Private funds.
16
8 ------ -- ____ ____ American Missionary Society,
Congregational Church.
See footnotes on p. 41.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
APPENDIX A.- HANDICRAFT PRODUCTION CENTERS IN THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN MOUNTAINSContinued
C.-COOPERATIVE HANDICRAFT AND HOME EXTENSION CENTERS FOR HANDICRAFT SALES
Maximum number employed or av ailable for employment in 1933-34
Location
Handicraft
Handicraft center
Center
Women
Men
H ome
W omen 6
Men
- - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - -- 1 - - - - - - - - -- - - - -1 - - - - -- - - - - - --1--- - - - - - - - - - TENNESSEE
Hamilton County-Chattanooga ____________________________ 4-H Handicraft Center ____ ___ ________ _ Hooked rugs _____________________ _ - -- ----- -- __ _______ _
Quilts __ __ ___ ____________ ________ ____ _______ ___ _______ _
Dolls _________ --- -- - - ------ - - - - - - - - - - - -- -- -- - - -- -- - - - Miscellaneous _______________ ___ ____ __________ ___ -----McMinn County-Athens_·_______________________________ __ McMinn County Club Market_ __ ___ _ Leather work _____ ______ _____ __ _____ _______ ______ ____ _
Baskets, shuck seats, m a ts, rugs, ___ _______ __ ___ ____ _
brooms, toys, dolls, etc.
Knox County-Knoxville ________ ___ ________________________ Knox County Farm Women's Club Rugs, mats, baskets, quilts, dolls, ---------- _____ ____ _
Market.
toys, needlework.
WEST VIRGI IA
Monongalia County-Morgantown _________________________ Mountaineer Craftsmen's Cooperative Association.
27
4
1
8
8
20
22
Furniture _______________________ ___ _____ ____
56 __________
2
Weaving ___ _________________ __ __ _____ _______ __________
5 ____ _____ _
12 _________ _
Needlework_____________ _________ ______ ____ ____ _______
D.-COMME RCIAL CRAFT CENTERS
[Shops placing orders with home craftsmen are not included unless work is paid for upon delivery]
NORTH CAROLINA
Buncombe County-Asheville______________________________ Biltmore Industries___________________ Hand-woven suiting_______ ______ _
7
40 ___________________ _
Treasure.Chest_ ______________________ Hooked rugs___ _____ ________ ______
2 __________
476 _________ _
Woodwork, pottery, baskets______ __________
11 __________
13
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
~
00
Biltmore _______________________________
Biltmore Forest__ ________ __________ ____
Luther Station ____ ____________ _______ __
Arden __ _______ ______________________ __
The Three Mountaineers ______________ Hooked rugs, baskets_____________
(')
(')
Woodwork, Pottery, etc _____________________ ---------The Spinning WheeL _________________ Weaving____ ______________________
1 _____ _____
Hooked rugs__ _____ ______________ _ ____________________
Mary's Homespun Sbop _____ ________ _ WFuearruv;1t·ngure- -_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_
<(:))
(<:))
The Artisan Shop_____ ___ _____________
3
Dodge Silver Craft_ ___ ____ ______ _____ _ Hand-wrought silver and iron_____ _________ _
Omar Khayam ____ ____ ________ ________ Pottery____________ ____ ______________ ______ _
1
Pisgah Forest Pottery __ _____ -- -- --- --- ___ __ do__ __ ________________________ _ ___ _______
1
Pottery (name not reported) __________ _____ do_______________________________________
2
~
1
Yancy County-Swiss ___ ------ ---------------- - ---- ---- ___ _
~r!: ~~ ks11-e-phercc =============== -~~~~~~-~~~~~================ =====
-------- -Madison County-Mars Hill _________ __________ ______ ______ _ Madison
Rug Shop _____________________ ___do____ ______ ____ _____ __ __ ______
38
12
Charles Engle _______ ______________________ _do___________________ ___ _______
5 ---------Polk County-Tryon ____________________________ ___ _____ ___ Appalachian Hand Weavers __________ Hand-woven suiting____________ __
6
5
Hooked rugs, candlewick bed- __ __________________
spreads, pottery, baskets.
Katherine Wyatt Shop ________________ Hooked rugs ___ ______________ ___ ____ __________________
Saluda _______ -- ---- --- -- --- -- --- - -- ---- -- ---i~fferfes======================= i1~:~!========================== --------~Catawba County-Hickory------------ -- ---- ----- -------- -Moore County-Pinehurst_ ___________ -- -- -- - --- - --- -- - ----Montgomery County-Steeds ___ __ -- - _---- - --- -- --- --- --- - -Guilford County-Guilford _____ __ -------------- ----------- (4)
Wilkes County-North Wilkesboro ___ _____________ ___ ___ ___ Chair factory (name not reported)____ _ Chairs 7__________________________ _ _____ ____ _
'
(')
(')
---------- -- -------
----- ----- ____ _____ _
1 ---- ---(')
(')
(')
(')
---------- -------- --
___________________ _
________ ___ ________ _
____ ____ __ -- --------
--------~- -------- -- -------________ __
____ ____ 5
==========
------------ - --- --------- - --
2
2 __ _______ _
----c•r--- ========== ====== == ==
~IT;:
~11;1gtH:~;;r~~=======================Jt========================== ==========
~:~
====================
_ ________ __ ________ _
TENNESSEE
Sevier County-Gatlinburg __________________ _________ ____ __ Woodcrafters and Carvers ___________ __ Woodwork, chairs, etc_____________ ______ ___
1 _________ _
Twin Creek Tweeds ________ ___ ______ _ Hand-woven tweeds_____________ _
(')
_____ __ ___
(•)
___ ______ _
Mill Creek Shop ____________ ___ _______ Woodwork____ ____ _____ ___________ ___ _______
3 ___ ___ _____________ _
Smoky Mountain Handicrafters _____ ___ ____ do_____________ __ ____________________ ____
7 ___ ___ _____ ________ _
5
Cumberland County-Pleasant HilL ___________________ __ __ jt:s?ctea~!n\~~fatts========= == ======= -~-~d~-~========================== -- ------3- =========- ________ _ ------ - --Knox County-Knoxville (Route 4) _____________ _________ __ _ Mrs. S. A. Armstrong ______________ ___ Hooked rugs__ __ _________________ ___ _______ _ __________
4
Hamblen County-Russellville ____ ____ _______________ _____ _ Shuttle Crafters _____________ ____ ______ Weaving_________ ____ ____ _______ __
4 _______ ___
4
Morristown _____ ___ ______ ___ _____ ______ _ Morristown Chair Co ____ _______ ______ Cane-seated chairs 7_______________ __________
25
100
Maury County-Columbia ______________________ ___ _______ _ Columbia Chair Co ________________________ do. 7_____________________ _____ _ __________
(')
(')
Coffee County-Tullahoma ___ ___ _______ __ ________ _____ ____ _ Owens Manufacturing Co ___ _________ _ Candlewick bedspreads_____ ____ __ _
(')
(')
100
KENTUCKY
McLean County-Livermore ______________________________ _ Livermore Chair Co ________ __________ Cane-seated chairs 7_______________ __ ________
32
110
Greene River Chair Co ________________ ____ do.7 _-------- --- -------- ------ - __________
16
201
Madison County-Berea _________ _________________________ __
;:;:~~=============== -~-e_adi~~==== ====================== ------ - ------- - _______ 25_ ==========
:f~: Mi8~;fil'i
See footnotes on p. 41.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
112
13
APPENDIX A.- HANDICRAFT PRODUCTION CENTERS IN THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN MOUNTAINSContinued
D.-COMMERCIAL CRAFT CENTERS-Continued
Maximum number employed or available for employment in 1933-34
Location
Handicraft center
Handicraft
Center
Women
Home
Men
Women 6
Men
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - --1-- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - l - - - - - - - - - - - - - - l - - - - · I - - -- - -- - - - - KENTUCKY-Con t inued
Meade County-Brandenburg ____________ ______ ___________ _
re~~!~
---cjr--"---
1
'ci~~-~~=================== ====== -~~~lo~-~~ _t!~-~---:==== ========= ==== = -<4
13
Je~~~~en°ci~r~ii~~f!?1fe_~============== === ==== ========= Regina, Inc ______ __________ _______________ _do____ ____ ______ ____________ ___
Larue County-Hodgenville ______ __ ________ ____________ ___ _ McGilL ___ __ __ ------------------ --- -- - _____ do_____________________________
(4)
(4)
Breckinridge County- Hardinsburg__ _______ ___ ____________ _ Eleanor Board, Inc _____ ___ ___ _____________ _do_________ ___ ______________ __ _
17
Kentucky Cottage Industries ____ ______ ___ _do_____ ____ ___ _________ ____ ____
40
Galante, Inc ______________________________ _do___________ __ ___________ _____
2
20
American eedlecraft, Inc ____ ____________ _do_______________ __ ____________
Kirk _____________________ __________ _ "Withers"---- _____ ________ ______ ___ __ _____do__ ___ ________ ______________ __
2
H ardin County-Elizabethtown __________ _________________ _ American Teedlecraft, Inc __ __ ________ , ___ _do_____ ______________________ __
35
Miller Bros., Inc ___ ___ __ ___________________ do______ __ _____ ___ ___________ __
2
1
Elizabethtown N eedlecrafts ______ __________ do .s ___________________________ - --------- ----------
>----
GEORGIA
Whitfield County-Dalton ______________________________ ____ B. J . Bandy Co ______________________ _ Candlewick bedspreads__ __ ______ _
3
2
M. W. Cannon ___________________________ _do ____ ______ ________ ___ __ _____ _
2
8
Cabin Crafts _______ _______ _____ ______ _ ____ _do ___ ____ _____ ____ ______ _______
51
9
R. M. Herron _____ ________ ____________ ____ _do _____ __________ ___ ___________
4
6
60
10
• Kenner & Rauschenberg __________________ _do______ _________ ____ ________ __
Dave Stewart_ ____ ________ ___ ___ ___ __ _ ____ _do___ ____ _______ ______ __ ___ ____ ------- --- -------- -0. B. Woods & Co _________ _______________ _do __ __ ____________ _____________
13
12
Rocky Face __ ________________________ ___ Mrs. W. T. Fields __________ __ ________ _____ do__ ______ ______ ___ __________ __
1 _________ _
Dalton ____ --------------------------__ __ Mrs. J. T. Bates _______ __ _____ _____ ___ ___ __ do ___ ___ _______ __ ______ ___ ____ _
Blue Ridge Spread Co ___ _________ ____ _____do___ ______ __ ___ ____ ____ ______ _
The Cordelia Corporation _________________ _do ___ ___ ___________ __ _________ _
Matt Deck ___ ______________________________ do __________ ___ _______ _____ __ __
Evans Manufacturing Co ___ _____ __ ___ ___ __do _________ ___________________ _
Everwear Candlewick Corporation __ __ ___ __ do _____ _____ __ ____ _____ _______ _
40
15
Miss Alice Wrench _______________ ______ ___ _do ___ _____ ____ __ ____ _____ __ ___ _
F loyd County-Rome_________ _____________________________ The Dellinger Spread Co ___________ ___ ___ __do ____ _____________ ___________ _
Fred R . Prater __________ ___________ _______ _do ____ _______ ___ ___ ______ __ __ __
Gordon County-Sugar Valley ___________________ ________ __ _ J . M . Muse ______ ________ _______ __________ _do ____ __ ___ ___ ___________ __ ___ _
Hill City _____ _____ -- ------ ___ _________ ___ _ Redwine & Strain ______________________ ____ do _______ ___ _____ _____________ _
Calhoun ___________ -- ____________________ _ Mt. Alto Spread Co ____ _________________ ___ do ____________ ____________ ____ _
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
(4)
(4)
100
170
150
100
12
150
10
100
200
6
1,500
500
500
202
3,538
250
500
300
2,061 ----------
A. R. McDaniel Co ______ _______________ __ _do ____________________________ _
S. Z. Moores Spread Co ____________________ do __ __ __ ______________________ _
2
3
6
2
50
150
ALABAMA
lackson County-Scottsboro ______________________ __________ A\abama Bedspread Co ____________________ do _____ _______________________ _
SOUTH CAROLINA
Sumter County-Sumter ______ ------------------- -----______ Polly Prentis ______________________________ do ________ ___ ___ ______________ _
Just starting.
Students.
Minors.
' Not reported.
•A few .
• These figures often represent "contacts" with families rather than actual numbers given employment at any one time.
7 Chair-caning factories giving out work in homes and located outside mountainous region not included.
• Three other hand-quilting firms were located in Indiana, Kansas, and California.
1
2
1
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
48
APPENDIX B.-THE CRAFTSWOMAN'S PROBLEMS IN THE
CANDLEWICK BEDSPREAD INDUSTRY
Conditions surrounding the candlewick bedspread worker in north
Georgia are susceptible of interpretation only when viewed in the
light of the organization of that industry.
ORGANIZATION OF THE INDUSTRY
"Members of the Industry''
"Members of the Industry", as they are termed in the Code of
Fair Competition for the Candlewick Bedspread Industry, take orders
for specific patterned bedspreads from department stores, mail-order
houses, and coverlet jobbers. The purchaser may have his own
designs made up or he may order from designs made by bedspread
firms. In either case, "Members of the Industry" produce only upon
order and accumulate little stock.
Upon :receipt of orders, bedspread firms assemble cotton sheeting
and yarn, and, if patterns are intricate, stamp patterns on the sheeting. On the cheaper spreadts, simple patterns are stamped on only
a few samples, the laying-off of patterns on the mass of spreads being
left to home workers to do on the floors of their cabins.
The "hauler"
Although six firms report that home workers may call at headquarters
for work materials, in only one small firm was the bulk of work handled
directly. · All firms have haulers who assume full responsibility for
giving out the sheeting, yarn, and at least one stamped pattern to
workers. They are charged with the responsibility of getting out
required production and must maintain quality of workmanship.
They also collect finished work and return it to the factory, which
pays them for delivered work after it has passed inspection. The
hauler.s, . in turn, pay home workers after deducting their own
comm1ss10n.
The larger firms have one or two chief haulers, who carry the
spreads to their own "spread sheds" in rural towns. Women come to
these spread sheds for work, some in automobiles and some walking,
returning spreads in sacks and getting their choice of patterns on
another order. Not all can make the trip; consequently, the chief
haulers use subhaulers, who may in turn employ other subhaulers.
Subhauling
Division of distribution among so many is not due to the amount of
work involved in hauling. Rather, it has grown up about the cheaper
spreads that are passed up by workers who call for their own work.
These spreads are trucked the longer distances. As the hauler is
responsible for the return of all spreads charged against him on the
eighth day following their receipt, and as telephones are few in the
rural regions, he must have agents who live within walking distance
42
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
43
APPENDCTES
of groups of home workers to share his responsibility. When any
household cannot tuft its spread quota during the week, this agent is
notified in time to permit him to transfer the work to other women
in the neighborhood. Often the women of his own household, who
are experienced tufters, are called upon to make up for others' shortages. While only major calamities prevent women from completing
each week's quota, a subhauler within walking distance of a group
of home workers is an assurance to the "Member of the Industry"
that the firm can always fill orders within 10 days.
Spoiled goods and repairs
When :finished spreads are returned to firm headquarters, they are
examined by inspectors paid by the industry member.
If the tufter has brought in her own work, she makes small repairs
due to unclipped work or missed stitches at the shop. If the repairs
are large, she must take the work home again. The hauler who
delivers work, usually accompanied by wife and daughters, must see
that all repairs are made before he is paid.
If sheeting is torn from pulling through threads, cut in clipping,
or burnt by sparks from the fireplace, it is customary to give the
worker the choice of losing her labor or paying for the material and
owning the spread. As a spread on which a worker received 20
cents for her labor may cost her $1 to $1.25 to pay for material, the
tendency is to lose the labor. Only one firm offers its workers
two-thirds of their labor for seconds.
Each hauler is held responsible for all spoiled work and consequently makes sure that any cost of poor work is passed on immediately to the home worker.
Hauling payment
Only one firm pays its chief hauler a salary. All others are paid
for the number of tufted spreads returned, multiplied by the pattern
price of the spreads. Out of this total, the chief haulers deduct their
commissions and turn the remainder over to the home workers
securing their spreads from the spread sheds or to subhaulers. Subhaulers, in turn, deduct their commissions before paying home
workers.
While one spread house and one firm post pattern prices, the mass
of home 'Yorkers only know the amount they receive on each pattern.
While the general idea prevails that haulers each take 10 percent
commission, this is not based upon fact.
The following are examples of commissions that were deducted:
Haulers'
Amount commisreceived sions on
by home amount
worker paid home
worker
Example I:
Home worker called for and delivered spreads at firm headquarters _____ _____ __
Home worker called for and delivered spreads at spread shed ____ ___ ____ ___ __ __
Home worker had spreads delivered by first subhauler_ ____ ______ __ ___ ___ ___ __
Home worker had spreads delivered by second subhauler __ ____________ ___ __ __
Example II:
Home worker called for and delivered spreads at firm headquarters _________ ___
Home worker cal.led for and delivered spreads at spread shed ___ __ __ __ ___ _____
Home worker had spreads delivered by first subhauler ____ __ ____________ ____ __
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
$0. 25
. 20
. 17
. 15
Percent
25
47
66¾
. 18 - --- - - - - -- -. 14
28
. 12
50
44
POTENTIAL EARNING POWER OF SOUTHERN HANDICRAFT
A pattern marked 80 cents at firm headquarters was found in a
home 6 miles from headquarters being worked for 50 cents. It had
passed through two haulers' hands before reaching this home.
A $1.80 pattern became a $1.55 pattern after the first commission,
and a $1.30 pattern after the second commisBion, had been deducted.
Cases were found where the hauler charged nothing for his services,
due to sympathy with the problems of individual families. In fact,
the hauling commission is entirely a per:Sonal matter and haulers
unquestionably vary their commissions to suit personal inclination.
Six subhaulers interviewed by the Bureau's field agents earned,
during the last 8-day hauling period, $12.80, $8.35, $7.65, $5.85, $4.10,
and $3.80, respectively.
Completion of orders
When the tufted spreads are accepted, the "Member of the Industry" usually sends them to a Dalton or Atlanta laundry to be
laundered, after which they are ready for shipment.
In 7 of the 10 firms visited, orders are filled in from 10 days to 2
weeks after being received. Eight days are allowed for hauling and
tufting, the remainder for laundering and shipping.
The "Member of the Industry" assumes responsibility only to the
companies whose orders he takes. He has no responsibility whatsoever
j or home production, except to see that goods turned in by haulers are
perject and that the hauler is paid. The hauler bears the major production responsibilities and is the real employer of home workers in the
industry.
The code of fair competition specifically eliminated "home workers"
from the class of "employees"; consequently, the provisions of the
code that increased piece rates and supposedly protected the home
worker from undue haulers' commissions were rendered ineffective.
It is expected that a rehearing will lodge responsibility for employment of home work with "Members of the Industry", who make
their profits out of this labor. 1
VARIABLE EARNINGS RESULTING FROM INEQUALITIES
IN PIECE RATES
The piece-rate system
Prior to June 11, 1934, piece rates were placed on each pattern at
firm headquarters. The rate has been fixed in part by a member's
judgment of the work involved in decorating the sheeting but also
partly by the price that the market would offer for different quality
spreads.
The code of fair competition substituted for this uncertain method
a system based on the amount of yarn and kind of muslin used for
each pattern. The rates fixed in the code were stayed by an order
of June 1, 1934, which substituted therefor lower piece rates but
retained the same method of determining rates. This order became
effective June 11, 1934.
· Home workers had no knowledge of the amount of yarn a pattern
required. They knew from experience which of the patterns av9:il1 At an open hearing ~n November "Members of the Industry" agreed to amendments to the .Code of
Fair Competition for the Candlewick Bedspread Industry which would define home workers fl.S "employees" and which would make" Members of the Industry" directly responsible for wage payments to
home workers.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
APPENDIXES
45
able to them netted the largest returns. All agreed that "small and
short designs", whether on "light-weight muslin or heavy muslin",
took the longest time, and that "long lines" were the easiest. All
agreed that at the rates of pay prevailing before June 11, "heavy
work" was far preferable, for on light spreads the laying-off of
patterns, the hemming, and the handling of so many spreads took
time that could no·t be spent in paid tufting and clipping.
In order to determine the validity of the new piece-rate base, data
were secured from home workers covering the time taken to make
patterns on which they were experienced.
Time required to tuft different patterns
Haulers took the Bureau's field agents to home workers who gave
their entire time to tufting when spreads were to be had. The belief
that housework and care of children makes home tufting hours
irregular is not borne out by the statements of these regular worker-:S.
The average family had 5 or 6 members, usually 1 or 2 of whom were
daughters. While either mother or daughter worked on spreads,
the other assumed the responaibility of the household, or such responsibility was forced upon younger members who could help only
occasionally on spreads. Because rural families rise early and men
and women begin work at 6 or 6:30 a. m., a half-day's work can be
done before any woman must stop to prepare the noon-day dinner.
When spreads had to be completed, home workers continued tufting
far into the night. Agents visited homes as late as 9 o'clock and
found women at work by lamplight who had been at work since
6:30 a. m.
At rush times, clothes washing and other weekly household tasks
are postponed. Spreads may be said to have right of way over all
other activities of the households of regular workers.
Method.-In order to determine yarn and muslin requirements for
the patterns with which home workers were familiar, firm records
had to be consulted. Only when firm pattern records and patterns
being tufted by home workers corresponded, have the statements of
time required to complete a spread been used in the following tables.
Individual time records on the same patterns have been averaged in
the computation of average hourly earnings.
Time record on 60/60 muslin.-On muslin 60/60, reliable time
records were secured from 56 home workers, tufting 10 different patterns. Six women worked on 3 patterns requiring 2¼ ounces of yarn,
• averaging on these patterns 1 hour 50 minutes, 2 hours 15 minutes,
and 2 hours 30 minutes. Obviously, hourly earnings on a yarn basib
would be one-third more on the first pattern than on the third pattern.
Seven women tufting on 2 patterns requiring 3½ and 3¾ ounces of
yarn finished the spreads in an average of 2 hours 5 minutes and 2
hours 55 minutes, respectively. On 4 different patterns requiring 4
ounces of yarn, the averages of 20 workers were 1 hour 50 minutes,
2 hours 14 minutes, 2 hours 16 minutes, and 3 hours 37½ minutes.
At a standard yarn rate, they would be able to earn almost twice as
much on one pattern as on another.
Time record on 64/64 muslin.-The patterns worked on 64/64 sheeting are much more varied than on the light muslins and conbequently
the time element differs greatly . A pattern requiring straight lines
over the entire_sheet, in which 15 ounces of yarn was used, took
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
46
POTENTIAL EARNING POWER OF SOUTHERN HANDICRAF.r
8 hours 5 minutes to work, whereas a more intricate pattern, taking
16 ounces of yarn required 14 hours of hard work, and on a 14-ounce
pattern 3 women averaged 13 hours 33 minutes. On one 10-ounce
pattern, 8 women averaged 4½ hours, whereas on an 11¾-ounce
pattern 3 others averaged 10½ hours, and an 8-ounce pattern required
about 13 hours.
Other examples are numerous and all comparisons indicate that the
amount of yarn used is not an accurate measuring rod of the time required
to make spreads of widely different patterns.
Factory time record.-Because it may be argued that even though
several women were timed on each spread and extremes were eliminated, home conditions were responsible for the variations cited above,
computations have been made from time records taken by one firm.
This work was done under controlled shop conditions with expert
tufters working at top speed.
A heavy muslin spread consuming 5 ounces of yarn required
4 ·hours 11 minutes to make, and one requiring 17 ounces of yarn
took 8 hours 54 minutes; thus the worker earned almost 60 percent
more when working on the 17-ounce spread than on the 5-ounce
spread. On the other hand, tests on a spread requiring 16 ounces
showed 15 hours 4 minutes as the necessary working time, whereas a
12-ounce spread took but 7 hours 16 minutes; or the worker of the
12-ounce spread, paid on the yarn basis, could make about 60 percent more than when using up 16 ounces of yarn in decorating another
spread. The same conclusion, that is, that yarn consumed is not an
equitable basis for establishing piece rates, is thus obtained from
firm time records as well as records of home workers.
Earnings significance of new piece rates
Summing up the changes in earnings that will result from the piecerate system established by the June 1st Order, as determined by time
records on 30 patterns worked by 86 home workers, the following
appears:
Number of patterns that will net
workerLess than 10 and
15 and
10 cents less than less than
an ho ur
- - - - - -- - -- --
;~ ~i~~
!~ ~i~~
20 cents
an hour
:~1e
- - - - -- - l - - - - - - - - -
HomeTotaL
worker____________
calls for and
spreads directly to fi ___
r:n:___ __
___delivers
___ _________________________
11
10
15
10
-6
On 60/60 sheeting ____ __________ ______ ___ ______ _____ ________ _- - - - - - - - - - -On 64/64 sheeti ng __ ___ ------------------ --------- ------ ----Home worker pays 15 percent to ha ulers:
TotaL _______ ___ __ ___ ___ ____ ______ _______ ______ · ___ __ ___ _
- - - - --
g~ t2fl2 :~::tf~L----___________________________________ _
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
- - - -- 0
1
47
APPENDIXES
At the piece rates originally provided in the code of fair competition,
but which were stayed by the order of June 1, the earnings possibilities are as follows:
·
Number of patterns that will net
worker-
- - - - - - -- - - -- - - - - - --1- -- - -Home worker calls for and delivers spreads directly to furn:
T otaL ________________ _____________ __ _____ _____ ________ __
---- -14
6
On 60/60 sheeting ___ __ ___ _____ ___ _______ ___ ______ ___ _______ _
On 64/64 sheeting _________ ____ ___ ___ __________ __ ___ ____ ___ __
7
0
7
l===ct=====l====I===
Home worker pays 15 percent to haulers:
TotaL ___ ____ ___ ___ ___ __ ___ ________ __ ___ _____ _____ ______ _
On 60/60 sheeting________ _______ ____ ____ ___ ________ __ ______ _
on: 64/64 sheeting ___ ____ ______ ________________ ______ __ _____ _
11
5
4
4
0
4
The patterns whose timing records were accepted were patterns
representative of the r ange of styles for which there is current demand.
Those paying largest amounts to the worker are too few in number to
insure to any workers continuous earnings of 20 cents or more an
hour, even when workers call for and deliver their own work.
At the piece rates established by the June 1st Order, earnings will
be closer to 10 cen ts an hour than to 15 cents; and when haulers must
be employed, even if they bring spreads only to a spread house where
the workers call for them, earnings will fall below 10 cents an hour.
The rates fixed by article IV, section 2, of the code probably would
result in earnings of between 10 cents and 15 cents an hour to many
home workers.
The irregularity of earnings resulting from the use of amount of
yarn as a basis for determining piece rates is evident in the accompanying tables.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
~
Time required to work different candlewick patterns on bedspreads and hourly earnings obtai nable from existing and code rates of pay
00
A.- M ATERIAL USED, 60/60 SH E ETING
Time required t o lay off pattern, t uft, clip, and hem
spreads
P at•
tern
- -
Y arn
weigh t
Num•
ber of
work ers
Ounces
4
P rice
paid
worker
1
On
Laying- when
hauler
yarn
off an d
basis h emming is used
R ate period
Time range
Average time
- --
A
Total
11
1 hour 40 m inu tes to 3
hours.
B
4
C
4
D
4
E
3¾
F
3½
6
1 hour 35 minutes t o 3
hours.
G
2½
2
2 hours to 2½ hours . ..
H
2½
3
2 hours to 3 hours_···-
I
2½
J
5
1
List or slip pri ce
Not reported.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
2 -- ------ - - ---------- ---3 hours 30 minu tes to 3
hours 45 minutes.
4
1 hour 25 minutes to 3
hours.
2 hours 55 minutes __._
1 hour 50 minutes .• • •.
2
2 hours 15 minutes to 6
hours.
2 hours 16 minutes .. . _ Pattern price prior to J une 11, 1934. ...... . .. -·
At rate effective June 11 to July 16. ...........
At code rate ... .. . .... . . . . .. .. . . . . . . ......... . _
1 hour 50 minutes . .. .. Pattern price prior to J une 11, 1934·-·· ······ ·At rate effective J une 11 to J uly 16 .. . .. . .. ... _
At code rate . . ... •·--- -·---···- - ---- --·--·---- 3 hours 37½ minutes __ Pattern price prior to June 11, 1934- - - -· ·--- - -At rate effective J une 11 to July 16- --- - -- - ·· - At code rate_. __ - - - --- -·--- - -- --- - - -- - --·· -·- 2 hours 14 minutes ~-· - Pattern price prior to June 11, 1934--- - -· - --- -At rate effective June 11 to Jul y 16- -- - -- -·- ···
At code rate--- ---- - ------ - - - - -·--- ---- -- ··--- 2 h ours 55 minutes_ . __ Pattern price prior to June 11, 1934- --·- - --- · · At rate effective June 11 to July 16__ ·--- -· -- · At code rate--- -- - - --- ---- --- - - --- -- - --- -· ··· -2 hours 5 minutes_ .. __ Pat tern price prior to June 11, 1934- -·-- -- ···- ·
At rate effect ive June 11 to July 16- -- ·-····· ·At code rate. ___ __ __ --- - --- - ------ ---- - ·-- · -- 2 hours 15 minutes .. · - Pattern price prior to June 11, 1934----- --- -· · At rate effective June 11 to July 16- -·· · ···· ·· ·
At code rate· -·-- - - --·- -·- - - -- ----- -----····· · 2 hours 30 minutes • • .. Pattern price prior to June 11, 1934- -----·- -· ··
At rate effective June 11 to July 16- --- - - - ·· · ··
At code rate-. . ___ ·· - - _____ ____ __ ___ ___ -- - · ·--_
1 hour 50 minutes _.... P attern price prior to June 11, 1934-- - -····· -· At rate effective June 11 to July 16_·- -· · · ··· ··
At code rate.. ---- -- -- -- - ··- -- - - - -- - --····· ·· · ·
4 hours 4 minutes_ ••.. P attern price prior to June 11, 1934- - - ·-···· · · ·
At rate effective J une 11 to July 16_ - --·· - · ·-- At code rate_·- · ·-· - --·- - - --- - - - · -·· - -·-· ·· ·· ·-
-
- - - --
- - --
Cents
Cents
Cents
Crnts
25
20. 0
-- --- -- - --- -- - -- -24.4
25
28
30. 4
35
32
20
-- - ----- -- ----- -- - ----- - -- -2
24. 4
25
30. 4
35
32
(1 )
7,
8,
9
--- - --- - -------- -24. 4
28
25
30. 4
32
35
20
17. 0
- -- -- - - - ---- -- - -- 24. 4
23
25
30. 4
32
35
20
-- - --- -- -- -- --- - -- ---- ----- 26.4
23. 4
3
23. 0
33
3
28. 7
30
20
17. 0
--- --- -- -- -- -- --- 24. 9
21. 7
21. 9
3
31
28
3
27. 0
8. 0
10
-- - ---- - ---------16. 1
18. 6
15. 6
3
23
20
3
20. 0
10
--- ----- -- ------- - -- --- ----18. 6
15. 6
16. 1
23
20
20. 0
15
-- --- --- --- - -- --- - ---- ---- -18. 6
15. 6
3
16. 1
23
20
3
20. 0
24
20. 0
-- -- - --- ---------34. 3
31. 3
29. 8
43
40
37. 4
Avera ge hourly
earnings onW ork re- Work re•
ceivcd
ceived
from
from l
firm
hauler
- - - - - - -Ct11ts
11.0
12. 3
15. 4
10. 9
15. 3
19. 1
7. 7
9. 6
9. 0
12. 6
15. 7
6. 9
9. 1
11. 3
9. 6
12. 0
14. 9
4. 4
8. 3
10. 2
4. 0
7. 4
9. 2
8. 2
10. 1
12. 5
5. 9
8. 4
10. 6
Cents
8. 8
10. 7
13. 4
13. 3
16. 6
2.0-2. 4
6. 7
8.4
7.6
10. 9
13. 6
7. 9
9. 8
8. 2
10. 4
13. 0
3. 6
7. 2
8. 9
6. 4
8. 0
8. 8
11. 0
5. 0
7.3
9. 2
B.-MATERIAL USED, 64/64 SHEETING
Time required to tuft, clip, and hem spreads
Pattern
Yarn
weight
Number of
workers
List or slip price
Rate period
Time range
Average time
Total
On
yarn
basis
Hemmin~.
French
knots,
colors
Price
paid
worker
when 1
hauler
is used
Average hourly
earnings onWork re- V\Tork received
ceived
from
from J
firm
hauler
- - -t--- -+- - -1-- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -1----- - - - - - - - - - - - - --,--- - - - - -- - - - -- - - - - - -A
Ounces
6½
B
8
3
C
9
4
D
10
3 hours 15 minutes ___ _ Pattern price prior to June 11, 1934 _______ ____ _ $0. 55 ----- --- ---- ------ ---------At rate effective June 11 to July 16______ __ ___ _
0. 01
$0.46
. 53 $0. 52
At code rate ___ __________________ ___ __________ _
. 66
. 01
. 65
. 57
10 to 18 hours_________ 13 hours _____ _________ _ P attern price prior to June 11, 1934 ___________ _
.4 -- ---- -- ---- -- ---.40
At rate effective June 11 to July 16 _______ ____ _
. 64
. 65
. 01
. 565
At code rate ________________ , ____ _____ ________ _
.80
. 70
. 81
. 01
5 to 10 hours _____ _____ 7 hours 11½ minutes __ Pattern price prior to June 11, 1934 _____ _______ { . 60 -------. 30
4 to 5½ hours _________ 4½ hours _______ ______ _
8
9¾ hours ___ __ ________ _
At rate
11 to_____
July_____
16-----------At
codeeffective
rate ___ ___J une
________
__________ _
Pattern price prior to June 11, 1934 ___ ______ __ _
At rate effective June 11 to July 16 _________ ___
At code rate ____ ___________ _____ _______ _______ _
Pattern price prior to June 11, 1934 ___________ _
At rate effective June 11 to July 16 _____ ______ _
At code rate ________ _____ ________ ___ ______ ____ _
P attern price prior to June 11, 1934 __ _________ _
At rate effective June 11 to July 16 __________ __
At code rate ____ _______________ _______ ___ ___ __ _
Pattern price prior to June 11, 1934 __ _______ ___
At rate effective June 11 to July 16 ___ ________ _
At code rate_______ __________ __ _______________ _
Pattern price prior to June 11, 1934 ____ ___ ____ _
At rate effective June 11 to July 16 ___________ _
At code rate ____________ __ _____ _____ __________ _
Pattern price prior to June 11, 1934 ___ ________ _
E
10
F
11¾
G
12
H
14
I
14
3
1
15
1 ________ ______ __ ______ __ 8 hours 5 minutes _____ Pattern price prior to June 11, 1934 __ _______ ___
3
9 to 11½ hours ________ 10½ hours ____ _______ __
2
8 hours ________________ 8 hours ____________ __ __
7½ hours ______ _______ _
10 hours 40 minutes to
15 hours.
I
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
13 hours 33 minutes __ _
At rate effective June 11 to July 16 ________ ___ _
At code rate ____ ___ ____ ____ ___ __ __________ ____ _
!~ ~~ee~!:~~~~-~~-e-~~-:~~~:-~~~===========
. 50
. 72
.90
. 72
. 90
==========}
.50 ---- -- -- ---- ------
. 63
. 78
. 45
. 70
. 1
.80
. 01
1. 01
1.00
. 01
. 88
. 95 ------- - -- ---- --- - ------ --- . 81
. 01
. 70
0
1.01
1.00
. Ol
.88
. 96 -- --- --- ------ --- . 85
2. 30
. 94
1. 36
2. 00
2. 37
1.185
1.1 5
2. 05
. 90 ------- - ---------- --- ------. 84
. 97
. 01
. 96
1. 21
1. 20
. 01
1. 05
. 90 ----- --- ---- --- -- - ---------1. 13
1. 12
. 01
. 98
1. 41
1. 40
. 01
1. 23
1. 50
2. 25
2. 81
1. 05
1. 21
1. 51
1. 12
1.40
1.13
1. 41
1. 96
2. 44
---- ------ ----------------. 01
1. 20
1. 50
. 01
1.05
1. 31
Cents
16. 9
{
16. 3
20. 3
3. 7
5. 0
6. 2
8. 3
7. 0
10. 0
12. 5
11. 5
18. 7
23. 3
10. 3
.8
10. 9
9. 1
21. 9
22. 5
11. 3
12. 1
15. 1
12. 0
15. 1
18. 8
16. 6
20. 7
13. 0
14. 9
18. 7
Cents
}
14. 2
17. 5
3.1
4. 3
5. 4
4. 2
8. 7
10. 8
10.4
16. 3
20. 3
7.6
9. 5
8. 1
19. 0
20. 0
10. 5
13.1
13. 1
16.4
14. 5
18.0
13. 0
16. 2
>
1-d
1-d
t,:_j
zt::,
H
~
Ul
Time required to work different candlewick patterns on bedsp reads and hourly earnings obtainable from existing and code rates of pay- Con.
B .-MA T E RI AL USE D , 64/64 SHEETING-Continued
T ime required to t uft, clip, and hem sp reads
P at- Yarn
t ern weight
--K
L
I umber of
workers
List or slip price
R ate period
T ime range
Average time
Toto]
On
yarn
basis
Hemming,
French
knots,
colors
Price
p aid
worker
when 1
hauler
is used
Average hourly
earnings onWork re- ·work received
ceived
from
from 1
fir m
hauler
- - - -- 1- - - - - - - ---1-- - - - - - ---1-- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- --j-- - -1-- - - - - - - - - - - - -- -
Ounces
16
2
18
M
19½
4
N
20
3
0
20
p
20
Q
24
R
28
s
28
T
30
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
2
2
4
11 to 17 hours __ ______ _ 14 hours _________ _____ _ Pattern price pr ior to J une 11, 1934 _____ _____ __ (
At rate efiective June 11 to July 16____________
At code rate_____________________ ___ ___________
14 hours ___________ ___ _ Pattern price prior to June 11, 1934________ ____
At r ate effective J une 11 to July 16_ _________ __
At code rate______ _________ ________ ____ ________
11 to 13½ hours __ __ ___ 12½ hours ___________ __ Pattern pr ice prior to June 11, 1934_ ___________
At rate effective June 11 to July 16__________ __
At code rate_____ _____ ______________ ___ ___ _____
7 to 8½ hours_ ______ __ 8 hours ____________ ___ _ Pattern price ~rior to J u ne 11, 1934__________ __
At rate effective June 11 to July 16____________
At code rate________________________ ________ ___
14 hours _________ _____ _ Pattern price pr ior to June 11, 1934____________
At rate effective June 11 to July 16_ _____ ______
At code rate_____ _____ ___________ ___ ___________
15 to 21 hours _____ ____ 18 hours ___________ ___ _ Pattern price pr ior to J u ne 11, 1934_ ___ ________
At r ate effective June 11 to July 16________ ____
At code r ate _________________ ____ ________ ·______
14 to 21 h ours ______ ___ 17 h ours 20 m inutes __ _ Pattern pr ice prior t o June 11, 1934____________
At rate effective June 11 to J uly 16____________
At code rate___ ___________ ___________ ________ __
22 to 32 hours _____·____ 27 h ours ______________ _ Pattern price p rior to J une 11, 19Z4________ ____
At r at e effective June 11 to July 16____________
At code rate __ _________ _____________ _____ _a_ ___
21¾ to 28 hours_ _____ _ 24¾ hours ___________ __ Pattern price pr ior to June 11, 1934 ____________
At rate effective J une 11 to July lG____________
At code rate_ _______________ _______ ____________
20 to 35 hours __ _____ __ 27½ hours ___________ __ Pattern price p rior to June 11, 1934____________
At rate effective J une 11 to July 16____________
.At code rate___ _______________ _________________
~t ig
1. 29
1. 61
. 95
1. 45
1. 81
1. 78
3. 13
3. 91
1. 00
1. 61
2. 01
1. 20
1. 61
2. 01
2. 90
3. 21
4. 01
1. 20
1. 93
2. 41
1. 56
2. 25
2. 81
• 1. 55
2. 25
2. 81
1. 80
2. 41
3. 01
Cents
}------ $1. 28
1. 60
-------1. 44
1. 80
-- -- __ __
1. 56
1. 95
---- - --1. 60
2. 00
---- -- -1. 60
2. 00
------ -1. 60
2. 00
-------1. 92
2. 40
---- ---2. 24
2. 80
-------2. 24
2. 80
---- - ----$0. 01
. 01
------- --. 01
. 01
- - -- __ -- -1. 57
1. 96
---------. 01
. 01
-- -- -----. 01
. 01
- --------1. 61
2. 01
---------. 01
. 01
------- -- . 01
. 01
---------. 01
. 01
--- - ---- -- 11. 4-11. 8
$1. 12
9. 2
1. 40
11. 5
. 90
6. 8
1. 26
10. 4
1. 57
12. 9
1. 25
14. 2
2. 72
25. 0
3. 39
31. 3
. 80
12. 5
1. 40
20. 1
1. 75
25. 1
. 95
8. 6
1. 40
11. 5
1. 75
14. 4
---- ----- 16. 1
2. 79
17. 8
3. 49
22. 3
--------- 6. 9
1. 68
11. 1
2. 10
13. 9
1. 40
5. 8
1. 96
8. 3
2. 44
10. 4
--------- 6. 4
1. 96
9. 3
2. 44
11. 6
- --- ---- -- ---- - --1. 55
6. 5
2. 40
. 01
2. 10
8. 8
. 01
2. 62
10. 9
3. 00
- - -Cents
8. 0
10.0
6. 4
9. 0
11. 2
JO. 0
21.8
27.1
10. 0
17. 5
21. 9
6. 8
10. 0
12. 5
15. 5
19. 4
3. 5
9. 7
12. 1
5. 2
7. 3
9.0
8. 1
10.1
5. 6-4. 7
7. 6
9. 5 ·
01
0
APPENDIXES
51
CAN THE CANDLEWICK BEDSPREAD INDUSTRY AFFORD HIGHER
RATES OF PAY?
After deducting from the net receipts of 1933 the total cost to
firms of all business conducted during the year, including in costs
Federal and local taxes, interest, and all overhead save administrative salaries to firm members, the nine firms reporting earned administrative salaries and profits of $170,499.58. Administrative salaries
were charged up as such by only two firms, although in all cases
members of the firm were rendering active service to their business;
consequently such salaries had to be added to net profits to show
total income of firm members.
This industry required almost no capital investment to get under
way. Even today the total business · of these nine firms would call
for not more than $85,000 working capital or credit. Profits such as
those above in a business in which no responsibility for its productive
force has been taken are most attractive. It is not surprising to find
five new firms starting in business in 1934.
The very fact that all one needs to start up as a candlewick bedspread manufacturer, with the present lack of organization of the industry, is an order for spreads and good credit, will be the undoing
of the industry as it now flourishes.
The total profits of 1933 were by no means evenly divided among
the nine firms visited. In fact, one young firm actually sustained a
slight loss. Highest profits were made by firms handling a large
volume of light-weight spreads, spreads upon which the workers
earned 5 to 8 cents an hour. The lowest profits for well established
firms were those of firms making the higher-priced spreads-spreads
upon which home workers earned 13 and 14 cents an hour.
Had no firm's profits exceeded $20,000 during the year, an additional $85,000 could have been added to the pay roll; or a pay-roll
increase of approximately 30 percent could easily be taken out of
profits on spreads and still leave excellent incomes. If the statement of members of the industry when discussing workers' earnings were taken at its face value, "that money goes three times as
far in north Georgia as in urban centers", the deduction of more than
30 percent would still leave handsome incomes for members of the
industry.
Members of three candlewick firms operated food stores in one or
more rural towns in this district. During 1933, two companies paid
home workers in scrip of value only in their stores. This was an
added burden on the workers, but undoubtedly contributed to the
profits of the firm members. Several workers said that one firm was
again beginning to issue scrip. If workers cannot secure what they
wish at comp any stores, they must discount the scrip at from 15 percent to 25 percent to get cash to buy elsewhere.
While recognizing the importance of any paying work to women
in north Georgia, the fact must not be lost sight of that thousands of
workers had to share the $297,199 paid out for producing candlewick
spreads during 1933, while nine local firms shared $170,499 .
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
APPENDIX C.-THE CRAFTSWOMAN'S PROBLEMS IN THE
QUILTING AND APPLIQUE INDUSTRY
Because the articles that are quilted or appliqued are usually delicate in color and are not laundered before sale, because they vary in
. size, in quality, and in type of work required, many conditions surrounding this handicraft are different from those prevailing in the
candlewick bedspread industry,
Bedspreads of muslin that are laundered can be heaped up on
cottage floors, can be worked on by children or men as well as skilled
women tufters, can be taken out on the porch when the days are hot
But when silks, satins, or velvets are to be made up into comforts,
spreads, couch throws, quilts, coats, caps, robes, or boudoir accessories, the material must be carefully guarded against soiled fingers,
flies, and anything that may spot it. Consequently, not only does
it become an indoor task for adult women workers but a light room
must be set aside for the quilting frame and materials must be carefully protected from accident.
A woman cannot undertake quilting in the midst of performing
household tasks without much inconvenience; her dress and hands
must be spotless whenever she touches her material and she must see
that the part of the article not befog immediately worked is covered
before she leaves it. While some households devote one room entirely to quilting and keep the set-up quilting frame behind locked
doors, others require this space at night. The work is then covered
with a sheet or spread and is stood up against the wall, thus .releasing the chairs on which the frame has rested and the room itself for
living purposes.
The processes involved in quilting and applique
The production center, locally termed a "studio", designs the
articles, stamps the pattern in a thin line of white or gray powder, and
cuts the pieces for each article. The piece is made up in the homes
and then returned to the studio for inspection and shipping.
The various kinds of work are sufficiently different so that production centers send app]ique into one section where women have great
skill in this type of needlework and send the same pieces into another
section to be quilted. American quilting (of quilts) is done entirely
by one person, whereas the Trapunto quilting process may be divided
into quilting, stuffing, and finishing. A description of the processes
involved in making some of the articles will indicate the degree of
skill required.
An American quilted and scalloped comfort
(1) The craftswoman puts the lining in her quilting frame; (2) wool
is spread on smoothly so that it hangs over the frame about 6 inches;
(3) this wool edge is split; (4) the cover is basted to this; (5) the
52
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
APPENDIXES
53
scallops are basted; (6) the comfort is then ready for quilting according to the design; (7) when this is completed the scallops are trimmed;
(8) bias strips are cut out of goods, sewed together and pressed; (9)
one edge of bias strip is stitched on by machine; (10) the edges are
turned and the other side is whipped by hand.
A Trapunto quilted spread (design produced in embossed etf ect)
(1) The gauze lining is sewed to central part of spread; (2) this is
placed in quilting frame; (3) it is quilted according to design; (4) the
design motives are stuffed by pulling lamb's wool or yarn, which is
threaded into a large needle through each segment; (5) side panels
are stitched by hand or machine to central portion of spread; (6)
ruffied edges are stitched on by m achine; (7) edges are finished by
hand; (8) spread is pressed and folded.
Finishing a Trapunto quilted purse
(1) Cuts out pieces for large quilted purse; (2) sews cord around
gusset pieces; (3) makes pockets and stitches gussets and pockets
into lining; (4) sews lining and purse together; (5) puts into ivory
frame; (6) sews braid on purse edge; (7) makes handle and sews on;
(8) presses.
These descriptions are indicative of the different types of work the
craftswomen are called upon to do. While the women visited usually
confined their activities to one of the major processes, that is, to
quilting, appliqueing or finishing, they were called upon to m ake a
large spread one day and might be working on pillow tops the next
day.
Piece rates and earnings
As articles are made to order, they are given out to home workers
by the piece or in small quantities. Piece rates in all but two firms
are determined by a distant office 1 or by the local supervisor, presumably on the basis of their knowledge of the amount of work
involved on each piece. The timing records of craftswomen on 124
patterns were secured. How haphazard the prevailing method of
fixing piece rates is and how wide the resulting earnings variations
are, may be seen in the following table.
Finishing Trapunto work as described above took an average of 3
hours and paid 75 cents to the home finisher. Another firm paid the
same rate for appliqueing a crib quilt that took the craftswoman 11
hours. A third firm paid the same rate for quilting a crepe de chine
robe that took 30 hours. These women, then, all paid the same
amount for different work given out by different firms, earned respectively, 25 cents, 6.8 cents, and 2}~ cents an hour. Patterns for which
$2.25, $2.50, and $2.65 were paid by four different firms required
Ame'r ican quilting totaling 17 hours' work on one and 38. hours' work
on a second comfort, Trapunto quilting totaling 57 hours, applique
taking 45 hours, and finishing spreads that required but 8 to 9 hours.
Thus piece prices ranging from $2 .25 to only $2.65 resulted in hourly
earnings varying from 4.4 cents to 28.1 cents.
1 Two Kentucky "studios " received their materials and instruc.tions as to piece rates from N ew York
flrm hoodquarters and twQ others took orders on a contract basis from New York and Chicago jobbers.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
Time required to work or fini sh differ ent quilting and applique patterns for which the same rate was paid
To quilt, stuff, or q uilt and fi nish work for which
specific r ates were paid 1
Piece rate paid
Num. ber of
wor kers
timed
Time range
Range of hourly
earnings
To appliq ue or applique an d finish work for
w hich specific rates were p aid 1.
Number of
workers
timed
Cents
'l'ime range
Range of
hourly
earnings
Cents
To finish work for which specific r a tes were
p aid 1
Number of
workers
timed
Time range
$0.025 to $0.10______________
4 45 m . to 4 h .2 __ ______ __ 2.5 to 10.0 ____ ________ _ _____________ ________________ ___ _______ ___ _____ ____________________ __ ________ _
$0.15 to $0.30 _____ _____ __ ___
2 4 h . 10 m . to 7 h . 30 m _ 3.3 to 6.0_ _______ ____ __
3 3 h . to 7 h _________ ____ 3.6 to 10.0 ___ ________ _______________________ _
$0.40_____ ___ ___ __ ____ ___ ___
2 2 h. 30 m. to 36 h _____ _ 1.1 to 16.0 ___ _________ _ ________ _____ ________ ___________ _______________ _____ _________________________ _
6 3 h. 30 m. to 22 h ______ 2.8 to 17.L__________ __
4 3 b. 30 m. to 11 h ______ 4.6 to 14.3 ___
3 1 h. to 3 h _____________
$0.50 to $0.625______________
$0.75 to $Q.85______________ _
11 5 h . 15 m. to 30 h ______ 2.5 to 15.2 __-: _______ ___
4 9 h. to 11 h ____________ 6.8 to 9.4 __ __
7 2 h. to 5 h ________ _____
$0.90 to $1.10__ _____ ________
10 7 h. to 40 h _________ ___ 2.5 t o 15.0 ___ ______ ____
6 10 h . to 25 h _________ __ 4.4 to 11.0 ___
1 5 h. 15 m __ ________ ____
$1.25 to $1.35____________ ___
3 20 h. to 24 h ____ ___ ____ 5.2 to 6.3 __________ ___ _ ________ ________ __ _________ _____ _____________ _
9 3 h. 30 m . to 5 h . 17 rn_
$1.40 to $1.ll0____ __________ _
4 7 h. 15 m. to 30 h ______ 5.0 to 19.3_____________
4 10 h. to 22 h. 30 m _____ 7.l to 16.0 ____ _______ __________ _______ ______ _
$1.75 to $1.80_______________
5 10 h . 15 m. to 30 h _____ 6.0 to 17.L ____ ______ __ ________ _________ ______ ______________ ___ ______________ ____ ________ __________ __
$2.25 ___________ ____________
4 16 h. 57 m. to 30 h _____ 7.5 to 13.3_____________ __ ______ ________________________ _____ _________
2 8 h. to 8 h. 50 m ______ _
6 17 h. to 57 h ___________ 4.4 t o 12. 9 _______ ____ __ _____ ___ _____ ______ ___________ __ _____ ___ __ ____
2 4h. 40m. to 12h. 30m_
$2.50 to $2.75_______________
$2.90 to $3.10___________ ____
7 24 h. to 60 h _________ __ 5.0 to 12.5_____________
2 30 b. to 33 h ___________ 9.4 to 9.7-___
3 12h. 55m . to 14h. 50m.
4 15 h. 17 m. to 55 h . 5 m _ 5.9 to 24.5 __ ____ ___________ __ ____ _________ ____ ______ ___ ____________ __________________________ __ _____ _
$3.25 to $3.75__________ _____
$5.50 to $6. 00________ _____ __ _______ _ ______ __ __ __ ___ ______ __ _ __________ _____ __ _____ __
4 54 b. 45 m. to 63 h. 20 m _ 8.8 to 10.9 __ _ _______________________________ _
$7.20 t o $8.50_______________
2 76 h. to 12~ h _________ _ 6.6 to 9 ..5______ ___ _____ ________ __ ___________________ ____ _______ ______ __ __ ___ _ _______ _______________ __
1
R ange of
hourly
earnings
Cents
20.0 to 50.0.
16.0 to 40.0.
20. J .
23.6 to 38.0.
25.4 to 28.1.
22.3 to 53.6.
20.2 to 23.2.
Articles timed v a ried so that differences in production time were ca u sed primarily by differences in the type and amount of work required on articles for which the same price
was paid.
2 In a few cases of Trapunto quilting the worker also "stuffed" the quilted design.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
.APPENDIXES
55
· In reviewing the figures quoted in the accompanying table it must be
remembered that the work for which relatively the same piece rates
are quoted varied greatly, so it is not surprising to find a wide range
of working time -reported. What is surprising is that firms in the
same general locality can have such different amoun.t s of work done
for the same rates. But personal interviews revealed that one firm
does not even quote a price for the work the home workers do. Work
is taken home and :finished, and when it is accepted by the studio the
home workers accept whatever pay the :mpervisor gives them. As
one home worker said: "We take what we can get and say nothing."
This defenseless meekness is further illustrated by an experience
some girls and wonien had during part of 1933. A new article was
being introduced on which they were all inexperienced. There were
no pay days but some workers were allowed to "draw" a dollar or a
dollar and a half a week with the expectation that on the final pay
day their services would be figured at $6 a week. The new article
proved a commercial failure, so the "final pay day" never arrived.
But for some a day of reckoning came when they were told they had
been on piece rates and had not earned all of the amount they had
withdrawn. Consequently, they had to work out the excess withdrawn or lose all chance of further work.
Two firms base piece rates on the quantity of thread consumed.
While this represents an effort away from mere guessing, it does not
re.s ult in equality of earnings on different pieces as the intricacy of
design, the material to be worked, thickness of article made, and the
kind of thread used are all factors affecting production time.
No uniform rate of payment seemed to exist in the hand-quilting
industry. Not only does the preceding table show the lack of uniformity, but, while amounts spent for raw materials correspond
closely with amount of business done, the production labor costs
ranged from 14.4 percent to 25 percent of total expenditures in the
several firms.
Time-consuming factors
Home quilters call for work at all but two studios. As "first come
is first served ", workers arrive early and wait around until work
has been prepared for them to take out. The larger number of home
workers interviewed made from 3 to 5 trips a week from rural home
to studio to deliver and secure work; and there were some who made
trips daily. As studios usually specify when work must be returned,
the making of trips is not left to the workers' discretion. Only one
firm had made any apparent effort to regulate the number of trips
necessary. While half the workers walked distances reaching 6
miles one way, others rode horseback or paid train or bus fare or for
gasoline. Where train or bus had to be usM the worker sometimes
had to wait over in the studio town all day because of infrequency
of connection.
One studio closes at noon, another every other day. If work is
not :finished in time to reach the studio before the closing hour the
rest of the day cannot be used for paying work. Families interviewed
told of having to make occasional extra trips because of studios'
failure to include all pieces of a pattern, the correct amount of thread
or other necessary items, or because of receipt of defective materials
not discovered until worker had returned home.
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
56
POTENTIAL EARNING POWER OF SOUTHERN HANDICRAFT
All these difficulties arising from "calling for work" are eliminated
by two firms who mail all materials out to their rural workers. Each
order has a slip that shows the name and address of worker, the
pattern number, the price, the date needed, and a place for comments. One of these firms has asked its workers to mark down the
time required to make each piece.
Some members of the "hand-quilted and hand-treated textile
industry" recognize that lack of wage-rate standards and the inequalities in amounts paid for service rendered not only to the same
firm but from firm to firm lay the industry open to underbidding for
orders and to the entry of the contract system, with a further depressing effect on piece rates and keener competition for those already
in business. A code of fair competition is now under discussion in
the industry.
0
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
@FedFRASER