CAPITAL A.VD LABOR. 



149 



comes and nails up the cases, and the hats are 

 ready for shipment. I have enumerated only 

 a few of the more than twenty processes of 

 hat-making-, each of which is the piece-work of 

 separate individuals — all ''parts of one stu- 

 pendous whole." I don't know if that phrase 

 is exactly applicable to a man's hat. It cer- 

 tainly is to that of a woman as regarded be- 

 tween ourselves and the foot-lights. 



The relations between the factory-owners 

 and their employes just now are amicable, but 

 as among the great European Powers, war is 

 not unlikely to break out at any moment. 

 The workmen are masters of the situation. 

 They know, as well as their employers know, to 

 a penny what it costs to make a hat and what 

 price hats command in the market. It is not 

 the employer who fixes the wages of the em- 

 ployed, but it is the employed who figures out 

 exactly how much the employer shall be per- 

 mitted to make. The* employes are all union 

 men, and they will not allow a single non-un- 

 ionist to work, nor will they "permit any boy 

 under seventeen, or man over twenty-one years 

 of age to learn the trade. At present they are 

 earning from three to five dollars per day, ac- 

 cording to their capacity. That gives the 



