cotta workers) which together added 4 unions and 384 members to the totals for the sub-division. THE LEADING TRADES. At the end of September, 1905, there were 52 trades in which there were 2,000 or more trade unionists. The following, Table 7, shows the total membership in each of such trades arranged in order of importance according to such membership and with the corresponding totals for 1904 and 1894. In 1904 there were 58 trades which had 2,000 members or more, so that there are six fewer trades in that class this year than last. As a matter of fact, there were nine such trades of last year which have dropped out of the list this year-the boilermakers and iron shipbuilders, cabinet makers, car workers, clerks and salesmen, cooks (hotel and restaurant), dock builders, elevated railroad employees, jacket makers and marine cooks and stewards-while but three were added the electrical apparatus makers, post-office clerks and telegraphers. TABLE 7-NUMBER AND MEMBERSHIP OF UNIONS IN THE PRINCIPAL TRADES, 1894. 1904 AND 1905. *Includes steam fitters and helpers. †Combined with pressmen. Includes bluestone cutters. TABLE 7.-NUMBER AND MEMBERSHIP OF UNIONS IN THE PRINCIPAL TRADES, 1894, 1904 Again this year as in each of the last two preceding years, the number of women among the trade unionists in the state declined. The decrease this year was 552, equal to 4.3 per cent. of the total number in 1904. This served to again reduce, though only slightly, the proportion of women among all trade unionists, there having been such a reduction also in each of the last three preceding years, and the proportion now stands lower than in any previous year, thus: 1894. 1895. 1897. 1898. 1899. 1900. 1901. 1902. 1903. 1904. 1905. 4.8 5.6 3.4 4.4 4.0 4.8 5.3 4.7 3.7 3.3 3.2 The following table shows the changes this year in the number, and the present proportion, of organized working women in each of the groups of trades where they appear. TABLE 8.-NUMBER OF WOMEN IN LABOR UNIONS IN EACH INDUSTRY. TABLE 8.-NUMBER OF WOMEN IN LABOR UNIONS IN EACH INDUSTRY-Continued. The principal loss was in the theatrical and musical trades owing to a decrease of 699 among the actresses in New York City unions. The next largest loss, in the sub-division of boots, shoes and gloves in Group III, was chiefly the result of the disappearance of the glove makers' unions of Gloversville and Johnstown in which there were 329 women last year. The loss in the garment-making trades was scattered as to trades but chiefly in New York City. The decrease in the tobacco trades was practically all among the women in the cigar makers' unions. of the metropolis. The very large gain of organized women in the shirt, collar and laundry trades was the result of the organization of the collar starchers in Troy (1,035 members, all women save one). Among the lapsed unions this year were several composed of women alone so that there are now but 18 such in the state as compared with 26 a year ago. But counting the large new union of Troy collar starchers as an exclusively women's organization, which may fairly be done, the total membership of women's unions has increased from 3,424 last year to 3,764 at the close of this year. The distribution of these unions by groups of trades is as follows: TABLE 9.-FEMALE WAGE WORKERS IN MIXED UNIONS AND IN WOMEN'S UNIONS. |