MASSACHUSETTS— BEEHIVE OF BUSINESS 231 



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Photograph by Leon H. Abdalian 



WHERE) "UPPERS" MEET AND ARE JOINED TO THEIR "SOEE-MATES" IN A 



SHOE FACTORY 



If all the American people wore hand-made shoes, as they did in Washington's time, at least 

 two million men would be required to keep the nation shod. 



has been invented that can calculate 

 more areas in half a minute than a 

 mathematician could in half a day. The 

 hide or skin is fed through this device 

 as cloth through a clothes-wringer, and 

 a hand on a dial above points to the 

 number of square feet in it, just as the 

 hand on a catch-penny weighing-machine 

 points to the number of pounds the per- 

 son on the platform weighs. 



"How much leather does this skin con- 



tain?" queries the operator, in effect. 

 "Zip, zip, zip," it answers, as its pointer 

 turns to 9.9 feet. Saying "Jack Robin- 

 son" takes longer than measuring a hide 

 in this factory. The machine is so deli- 

 cate that it has to be adjusted to tem- 

 perature every day. 



It would be tedious to note every person 

 engaged, every machine, and every proc- 

 ess in the making of a pair of shoes, for 

 that would introduce fifty machines, a 



