The union scale of minimum *.7&g.?s for first class cutters, o er-.tors,
 poc1:etoook-nJcers, framers, n-I jarcrs, "rhich comprise tlihe five ma-
 jor classific-tions of o-ocrations on ...aas, is $'7.51 for 37:
 hours of work per ,7eek, or at tiLe rate of $1.00 :r hour in 'ew
 York. There are many workers wLo receive coui~ieraLL' more because
 of their skill or length of service.

 The rate for second. class workers is $.3.60 for $77 hours o0 :ork
 ner rv-eel:, or about 900 per hour. The Union's scale of minimum wages
 for Cielpers is $23.o for 37-j hours of work per week or about 654
 per hour. We understand that a great deal of the u:ork in the fac-
 tory of the .leeker Company is performed on a_ ciece .'ork basis, and
 that the piece :7or': rate is based on the minimum .-e of '51 .er
 aour. This fact is borne out by the payroll record of the ,eeker
 Company, which shows that 143 out of 213 workers earned the mini-
 mum code wage of 35. an hour. The piece .rork rate under Union agree-
 ment in '_Te' York factories is $1.11 an hour.

 The balance sheet of the ;ieeker Company does not -ive all the infor-
 mation necessary for an analysis of the operations of their business.
 We cac.nnot determine the items included in labor costs direct and in-
 direct, neither do we have a separation of the various brjnche! of
 their business, parts of which are included under another code.
 Without their operati.i figures, we cannot express an opinion as to
 the reason for their having incurred a loss in their business for
 the year 1934. The loss may have resulted fro.n the operations of
 some other branch of their business. We might say, hoe.ever, in gen-
 eral, that losses throu-hout the handbag industry werG not unusual
 for the year 1934.

 "I am clso enclosing what I think is the information asked for in the
 second paragraph of your letter. You will note we sho.7 for February and
 Iarch a big shrinkage in the number of people employed -.nd %,hen consider-
 ation is gFiven to the fact that all employees for the months reported,
 although many of them working only 2art time as the total hours will show
 end a smaller amount of r;oods manufactured, you can readily see how our
 business has deteriorated. April would show as bad or worse conditions
 than March."

 The chart submitted by the M.ee1ker Comroany shows th-it for the first
 three months of operation in 1933 wlVen the code was effective,
 against the first three -months of '134 previous to the code, there
 was a decline of 361; in the number of hours v:or:ed and only a de-
 cline of 241, in the value of the product produced, v.hich is proof
 that they operated ,nore efficiently in 1935, ;-nnd even thou-h they had
 to -ay the increase in the minimum -ages, th:r producedd a jrc. ter
 volume of soles frora the hours worked .

 It is true that the dollar volume of sales during the month of LIarch,
 1935 shows a decided decrease, 'ut the entire* industry had a very
 poor spring season in 1935 and., as c..L(.L;uUnceC, losses averaged
 from 33-1/3% to 5C, in sales volume were quite .eneral. The i-eeker
 Company show a loss in sales volume for the first three months of
 1935 of 24.3%.

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