INGENUITY AND LUXURY 



In this, the specialization in the work was still fur- 

 ther extended until in some factories as many as one 

 hundred workmen, each performing different tasks, 

 were required to make an ordinary coat. By this 

 system little skill was required on the part of any of the 

 workmen except the finishers, and even these were 

 relatively unskilled as compared with the old type of 

 journeyman tailors. Any workman, even of mediocre 

 intelligence, could quickly learn to sew together a few 

 pieces of cloth cut into definite shapes in a certain man- 

 ner. He not only learned to put them together but to 

 do this particular part of the work much more rapidly 

 than even a very skilful tailor. The result was that 

 the manufacturer, by employing a few skilled finishers 

 and a great number of unskilled workmen performing 

 a single task, could produce in the aggregate a far 

 greater number of garments made equally well in a 

 given time than by the older system. 



Even the factories themselves became specialized^ 

 certain factories only making coats, others vests, and 

 still others trousers, only a comparatively few attempt- 

 ing to turn out the entire garment. The wholesale 

 dealer who had contracted for a thousand suits of a 

 certain pattern might receive the coats from a factory 

 located in New York City, the vests from a factory 

 in Jersey City, and the trousers perhaps from Phil- 

 adelphia. 



As a rule these factories were independent estab- 

 lishments knowing nothing of the others, each finishing 

 its own particular garments, which were assembled in 

 the establishment of the wholesaler. 



[82] 





