6 New York City, including Hastings, Staten Island, Long TABLE I SHOWING AMOUNT OF REPLACEMENT IN NEW cal riations. The amount and character of replacement was dictated not only by the pressure of war contracts but also by local plant and labor conditions. Different sections of the State show interesting variations. According to the natural progress of replacement women filled first those vacancies where the work was light, less skilled and repetitive, on such metal cutting machines for instance as lathes, stamping machines and gear shapers. Heavy or skilled work was attempted only after considerable time had elapsed, or in response to unusual conditions such as existed in Western New York. In both Buffalo and Niagara Falls the male labor supply had been chronically inadequate. Consequently when the government placed contracts in Buffalo for aeroplanes and motor trucks, women were called out in large numbers and placed in every conceivable process. Two schools were installed to prepare them for penetration into the ranks of the most skilled men. In Niagara Falls, the chemical plants were in a similar difficulty and placed women on work of an exceedingly heavy character. They became yard laborers, with pick and shovel, brick layers' helpers and furnace stokers. 7 Plants were chosen for inspection in which replacement was known to have occurred, or in which it was indicated by product and character of work done. As a result, industries were represented in the following proportion: It was not by chance that 25 plants were inspected in Metals and Their Products, and only one in Food and Kindred Products. It is probable that replacement tended to be greater in industries which employed few women before the war than in industries which employed many. Further the introduction of women was no such venture in industry where work was light as in the chemical plants where isolated, arduous, heavy labor promised little chance of equal production or success. Those communities have enjoyed the greatest ultimate success in replacement where the predominating industry 8 has offered work of a light nature and was one in which untrained women could be easily absorbed. Such a town was Rochester where in optical and instrument making, women could perform light machine and bench work with a minimum of training; or Schenectady where much machine work on small electrical fittings had always been done. It is probably safe to add that replacement has come easier to employer and women in those towns where women's industries had been located and some body of knowledge concerning the methods of handling the problems of women workers was already in existence. In Utica, for instance, the esprit de corps of hundreds of women textile operators was at the command of a machine gun plant when it opened its doors. In Rochester, where factory work is either vocation or avocation of two-thirds of the young women, a disciplined group of workers was ready for use on new work. It is not surprising that replacement took place sooner and with greater ease in these towns than in such communities as Jamestown where there are no women's industries. PROCESSES ON WHICH WOMEN It would be far simpler to discuss the subject of processes from a negative point of view, enumerating only those in which women have not been substituted for men. As any list of processes on which women have replaced men will show, there are few types of work on which women have not been tried with more or less success. An English engineer at the end of two years of war claimed that he could build a battleship from keel to aerial entirely by woman power. A New York maker of automobiles planned during the war to place women in every department from the drafting room to the assembling shop. Women have replaced men: (1) where the material to be handled was not too heavy or could be lifted by a boy or man serv- (2) where the machine could be operated without (3) where the machine could be reset and cleaned or process readjusted by a woman or by a man serving several women. (4) where training could be reduced to a minimum by the production of a standardized product or the subdivision of a process. In the following list are enumerated the processes on which replacement has occurred. Buttons.-2 plants. Turning, sawing and coloring. Paper and Painting.-1 plant. Feeding, pressing, engraving. Metals and their Products.-25 plants. Assembling, inspecting, bench work, helpers, packing, shipping, scraping strips, stringing for plating, operating punch presses, drills, lathes, milling machines, screw machines, acetylene welding. Leather and Its Products.-3 plants. Finishing, measuring, seasoning, cutting, sewing machines. Electrical Supplies.-12 plants. Bench work, inspection, assembly, machine operation. Food and Kindred Products.-1 plant. Packing cartons on revolving platform as boxes are delivered from moving belt, yard work. Optical Goods.-3 plants. Operating diamond drills, automatic and hand grindstones, polishing and grinding lenses. Industries and Processes. Instruments.-9 plants. Repairing watches, polishing, drilling, riveting, jewelry lathe, pinion machine, milling machine. Chemicals.-7 plants. Stenciling, wiping cans, laboratory assistants, sanitary squad, yard work, sorting stones on moving belt, cleaning carbons, lathe operators, nailing machine. Iron and Steel (heavy metal).—18 plants. Coremaking, re-threading bolts and nuts, sand chute operators. Railroad Repair Shops.-1 plant. Boiler makers' helpers, crane operators, hammer operators, yard work, machinists. Ammunition.-8 plants. Bench work, inspection, as sembly, hand millers, drill press operators, punch press operators, weighers, examiners, boxing and shipping. Fire Extinguishers.-2 plants. Gear cutting machine, soldering, soda and acid inspecting. Lumber and Remanufactures.-13 plants. Hand and machine sandpapering, wood assembly, bending brake, joiners' helpers, electric welding, finishing, lacquering, dipping, light cabinet work, glueing, varnishing, veneer helpers, boring machines, cane webbing, shapers, trimmers, cork cutting machine, stock clerks. Vehicles for Land Transportation.-4 plants. Inspection, assembly, machine operating, upholstery. Aeroplanes and Hydroplanes.-6 plants. COVERING DEPARTMENT (in Assembling Dept.) a. Sewing machine-operators sew together lengths of linen out of which covering is made. b. Tacking and stretching linen on wing frames; wings laid on trestles four feet from the |