latter country than the production figures just given. The number of such looms in 1913 was estimated at 4,500 for the United Kingdom, while 9,709 were reported by the census of the following year for the United States.

Sources of raw material. Great Britain imports, for the use of her carpet industry, wool and other fibers from much the same sources as the United States. Perhaps to an even greater extent than in the United States the carpet mills purchase and do not themselves spin the yarns which they use. What spinning is done is confined to yarns of wool. Even the largest carpet concern in England spins only the worsted yarns which it consumes. The separation of spinning from other processes is evidenced also by the fact that in the Kidderminster district there are reported to be seven wool spinning mills making carpet yarns to serve the factories in that district.

Mechanical equipment.-The carpet industry in England has been to a peculiar extent dependent upon looms of American origin. The looms for the production of Wilton and Brussels carpeting were developed by an American. The Crompton loom for weaving royal Axminster is also an American machine, which has been and is still the only loom used for that purpose in England. These looms are almost wholly imported from the United States. A recent report of the British departmental committee on the textile trades states that the general opinion of witnesses testifying before it is to the effect that British machinery is quite equal to the American. No superiority for it was claimed.

A machine to produce an exact imitation of a handmade fabric is in use in Great Britain as well as in the United States.

The condition of material equipment in the British industry at present is largely an inheritance from difficulties of the trade during the war. The British factories were undergoing, prior to 1914, a change from narrow to wide looms. New machinery was not installed during the war, and the machinery actually in the factory has not been kept in good repair. Post-war replacements have involved the installation of the more expensive wide looms.

Organization, marketing, associations.-The British carpet manufacturing industry may be described as large scale. Much capital is needed to set up a factory, largely on account of the outlay involved in the purchase of carpet weaving and other machinery in the best way to attain efficient production. A few large firms furnish the bulk of the product. Recently six important firms, having previously to some extent interests in common, have combined to form a corporation capitalized at $15,000,000.

The British industry is organized on the basis of direct sale from the manufacturer to the retailer, its products not passing through the hands of middlemen to the extent to which they do in the United States.

There has been a tendency for the mills to specialize in the manufacture of one—or at least a very small number-of the usual types

• Brinton, op. cit., p. 104. Of these one-fourth were given as chenille Axminster looms, a kind forming only a small fraction in the United States. The proportion formed by Brussels, Wilton, tapestry, velvet and Axminster looms in the two countries was much the same for each, totaling two-thirds for the United Kingdom, three-fourths for the United States, while the proportion of looms not mentioned above was, of course, larger in the United States than in the United Kingdom.

of carpets and rugs. Organization among the manufacturers has followed the tendency of the industry in this direction. Associations have been formed to cover the different lines "for the control of quality and prices in that fabric only."7 The Brussels and Wilton Manufacturers' Association has been in existence for some' time; it has cooperated with the Axminster Association; there are also a Victorian (chenille) Association, an association among the makers of tapestry, and the Carpet Manufacturers' Federation, covering the cheaper grades of Brussels and Wiltons, not under the influence of the first organization mentioned. One firm may belong to more than one of these associations, according as it produces more than one type of carpeting.

The organizations enumerated comprise the large majority of the makers of the various carpet fabrics concerned; and they have controlled the prices and terms obtaining in the grade on the whole in a very effective manner, though subject always to the somewhat disturbing influence of the manufacturers remaining outside the associations. Of these, however, the greater number have habitually followed the standard of prices and selling conditions set up by the associations.8

The work of the associations has likewise included the standardization of a number of qualities of the various fabrics.

Organization on more general lines, especially for the purpose of dealing with the employees, has come since the outbreak of the war. A scheme, along the lines of the Whitley Councils, was put forward in 1918, providing for the formation of the British Carpet Manufacturers' Association for the trade, with three district associations for the three carpet manufacturing areas. These district associations have been formed. A Joint Industrial Council was organized for the trade in 1919, to deal with wage adjustments.

Trade. The trade of the United Kingdom in carpets and rugs. shows a difference from that of the United States, characteristic of the position of the former in general trade. The much larger production of the latter finds its outlet, except for a quantity of very minor importance, in the domestic trade. Imports, though large in themselves, are unimportant relative to total production, while reexport of foreign-made rugs is a negligible factor. For Great Britain, these generalizations may be reversed without involving misstatement.

Approximately one-third of the British product is manufactured for export. Exports of carpets and rugs in 1913 amounted to 8,600,000 square yards, valued at $7,500,000. The influence of the war was to produce a very marked decrease in exports; in 1919 the yardage was approximately 45 per cent of the above figure, valued, however, at over half as much again as in the former year. In 1920, the yardage exported increased to over 80 per cent of the 1913 figure, only to decline in 1921 to 56 per cent. Both before and since the war the British Dominions, particularly Australia, have been the leading markets, taking over half the exports; but the United States has also become a market of some importance, her share of the British exports being, in 1920, four times and, in 1921, three times as great as in 1913.

'Brinton, op. cit. 1919, p. 107.

• Ibid., p. 108.

'Compare with the high United States figure, 265,000 running yards in 1894.

Imports into the United Kingdom have been smaller in amount, but have shown much the same course. In 1913, they amounted to somewhat less than 2,000,000 square yards, of which slightly less than 30 per cent were reexported. This 30 per cent, however, consisted largely of the more valuable rugs, so that it represented over 60 per cent of the total value of the imported articles. Imports during 1919 were slightly over 600,000 square yards, 45 per cent of which were reexported. In 1920, however, the yardage imported increased to practically the same figure as in 1913, about 35 per cent of the imports being reexported; in 1921, the yardage imported declined to about 88 per cent of the 1913 figure, about 23 per cent being reexported.

Imports are largely oriental. Machine-made foreign goods which. find a market in the United Kingdom are principally from France, and, before the war, Germany and Austria. The French products are largely Wiltons, which are of good quality and wear well. The German and Austrian goods are in large part chenille Axminster of the extremely cheap grade not manufactured in the United States.

Great Britain, whose machine carpet industry is second only to that of the United States, thus occupies a commanding position in the world's carpet trade; she is not only, as is the United States, an important manufacturer of these products, but also handles a large share of the world's traffic in them, both as exporter of her own manufactures and as importer and exporter of foreign-made goodsher position in the latter trade being due largely to her acting as an entrepôt of eastern rugs.

Labor-Number of employees.-The last British census presenting statistics of wage earners-that of 1911-gives the following figures for persons employed in the carpet and felt industry. The inclusion of the manufacture of the last-named article of course results in numbers in excess of those actually employed in the carpet industry. Number of wage earners employed in the carpet and felt industry in the United Kingdom. [Census, 1911.]

The total number of persons employed in the carpet and felt industry in the British Isles was thus 21,500, only 6,000 of whom work outside of England. Over 57 per cent of these workers were women. This figure is higher than the percentages recorded in any previous British census. The employment of women increased continuously from 1861, when only 18.3 of all wage earners were women, until it reached the high figure of 1911. This increase has been attributed to the severe competition which began somewhat after

1880, when the first importations of American Axminster carpets into Great Britain resulted in the employment of women at the looms.

Labor— Wages.-Prior to the war standardization of wage rates was by no means general, nor has it become widespread since, either within the three chief manufacturing areas or between them. Standard weaving rates, however, had been established for Brussels and Wilton fabrics in each of the three districts, and after 1911 standard rates were in force for tapestry manufacture in Scotland.

The typical wage rates presented will be confined to weaving.10 The present British wage rates are stated in two parts: (1) A basic wage (usually that in force in July, 1914); and (2) a percentage over that base, called a bonus or cost of living wage. To calculate the wage paid at any time the base rate times the bonus is added to the bare rate.

In the case of the carpet industry the percentage contains (1) increases to compensate for increased cost of living since the outbreak of the war; (2) increases (15 per cent for pieceworkers) to compensate for reduction of hours to 48; and (3) increases in basic wages, to be regarded as permanent. In the statement of present wages the last increases are not added to the basic rate to which the percentage forming the cost of living wage is applied, but are simply a part of this percentage which will not be removed with the decrease in cost of living.

To obtain the rates in force in July, 1920, these basic rates are increased by the bonus in effect at that date.

The first bonus was of 10 per cent, granted on July 8, 1916, to the workpeople in the Kidderminster district. On October 19, 1918, the bonus had reached 75 per cent for piece and time workers in the industry. On March 10, 1919, an increase of 15 per cent was given pieceworkers, to compensate for the establishment of the 48-hour week, in place of the 55 or 55 hour week previously worked in England and the 49 to 56 hour week in force in Scotland. Time rates were at the same date arranged to give the same weekly earnings as before. On July 1, 1919, a 15 per cent increase was granted to pieceworkers and a 20 per cent increase to time workers, these increases to be considered a permanent addition to the base rate but "not to carry the bonus." 11 In other words, the bonus for pieceworkers at this date was 105 per cent over the base, this percentage including 75 per cent to compensate for the increased cost of living, 15 per cent to compensate for decreased hours, and 15 per cent to be regarded as a permanent advance in wages. The bonus to time workers was 95 per cent. On August 12, 1919, four-sevenths of the time rates then in force was declared to be the base rate.

In March, 1920, standardization of the bonuses for the entire industry was arrived at through the Industrial Council. The agreement which it drew up was to remain in force from January 1 to September 1 unchanged, except for increases or decreases in the bonus involved in the agreement itself. It provided for (1) a 15 per cent increase over base for both time and piece workers, which made the total bonus 110 per cent for time workers and 120 per cent for

10 For a British wage scale, see Appendix E, p. 132.

"This phrase means that increases would be based on the 1914 wages as before, and that this 15 or 20 per cent would simply be added in as a part of the bonus.

pieceworkers; (2) a change in the bonus according to the cost of living figures published in the Labour Gazette, in accordance with the following scale:

Advances in the cost of living since the adoption of the scale brought the bonus, in July, 1920, to 130 per cent for time workers and 140 per cent for pieceworkers.12 Calculations of weaving rates have been made on this basis and are presented, with those American rates which are most nearly comparable in the following table:

Table 1.-Typical weaving rates paid in the carpet industry in the United Kingdom and the United States, July, 1920.

12 On the first pay day in September, 1920, 150 per cent for pieceworkers and 140 per cent for time workers.