the neighborhood which attracted immigrant labor-the people had to live near their work. Therefore this garment-making industry and the conditions of work in the industry twentyfive or thirty years ago had a great deal to do with the development of the East Side itself. The people who lived there were mainly those who worked in the needle-working industries.

Have the conditions under which these people worked improved in your lifetime?

Very decidedly. And this has been brought about chiefly through the organization of the unions, which have improved standards through agreements with employers.

How have they done this?

Until 1910 they did it through constant guerrilla warfare or strikes. These industries, as I have said, are seasonal. During the busy season the workers have the upper hand, when the employer needs labor. During the slack season the employer has the upper hand. The workers therefore would strike during the busy season and get their concessions then. Not infrequently, when the employer had the upper hand, he would reduce the standards gained by the workers during the busy season. And so there was a constant fluctuation between progress and retrogression from year to year. But, in spite of that, there has been an upward tendency. What has been the nature of these improvements!

Since 1910 the guerrilla warfare has been growing less and less because a collective agreement was made between the union and the association of employers-not with an individual employer, but with a group of employers in an association. This is called collective bargaining. And in 1910 the union for the first time had a collective agreement with a responsible association of manufacturers. This agreement brought about a great many interesting changes. First, it actually decreased the number of working hours from fifty-hour, and in some cases over fifty-four, to fifty hours a week. It reduced the amount of overtime to not over one and a half hours a day above the normal during the busy season; in the dress and waist industry not more than one hour a day. The employer cannot require the employee to work more than one hour above the usual working period of the day. This is an important change, because it not only checked the employer from overworking his worker, but checked the worker from exploiting himself

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in case he wanted to overwork. worker could work as long as he pleased, the working conditions established by the workers as an organized body would be undermined, and there would be brought about overwork for everybody and unscrupulous competition through the exploitation of greedy workers. It abolished the last remnant of home work in tenements. This agreement also brought about a very decided improvement in the sanitary conditions of the workers. For the first time in the history of American industry a board of sanitary control was organized. This board consisted of representatives of the union and the manufacturers in addition to representatives of the public. This board established standards, not alone of sanitation, but of fire safety, light and illumination, and cleanliness in general. The board has its own force of inspectors. It makes semiannual inspections. Through the associa tion of manufacturers it brought about compliance with its orders in case any manufacturer violated the standards. And the union sometimes enforced its standards in one or two cases through a strike against employers who were not members of the association. There was thus a tendency to improve the standard in the smaller shops, which needed most improvement in this respect. This represents, not welfare work from above, but democratic co-operation in industrial improvement. The representatives of the public on this board are Dr. William J. Schieffelin, Chairman, Miss Lillian D. Wald, and the Secretary.1 We have served on this board since 1910, and it was working in two industries, the cloak and the waist industries. Since the abrogation of the agreement in the cloak industry it is working only in the waist industry, where the protocol still exists. This board is introducing health certification in industry. It will make periodic physical examinations, and will give to the workers in the union certificates which will indicate whether they are in good physical condition or not. Then, too, the board carries on a great deal of education through the newspapers and lectures on health subjects among the workers and the manufacturers.

How has the improvement been made since 1910?

Since 1910 there has been a marked improvement in the following respects: First, the improvement of sanitary conditions of

The Secretary is Dr. Moskowitz himself.-THE EDITORS.