TABLE 4.-Index of total employment in textile industries, 1929-37-Continued TABLE 5.-Index of total pay rolls in textile industries, 1929-37 TABDE 5.-Index of total pay rolls in textile industries, 1929-37-Continued Dyeing and finishing: 1929. 1930 1931. 1932. 1933. 126.5 133.6 133. 5 92.1 65.9 1934 85.4 101.4 103. 2 99.6 92. 2 1935 107.9 105.7 105.4 1936. 1937. 97.1 96.3 100. 5 112. 2 111.9 112.6 Knit goods: 1929 First, as regards the employment situation: In 1929, at the peak of employment, in February, the index of employment in cotton stood at 99.6 percent of the average for the base period. The average for the year was 96.1 percent. During the depression, the index declined to 53.7 in July 1932, hardly more than half of what it had been in 1929. For the year, the average was 67.1. Under the stimulus of the pre-N. R. A. boom, and with the shortening of hours, the employment index rose to 99.9 in August 1933. This was back to the 1929 level. There have been ups and downs since that time, but the index in March 1937 stood at 105.1 percent of the 1923-25 average. For the 12 months ending with March 1937, the average is a little higher than the average for 1929. Perhaps I may call your attention to two low points in employment during this period. The strike in September 1934 pulled the index of employment down below the lowest level of the depression. It is always difficult to say how much employment is permanently lost through labor disputes. Some of the loss is, at times, anticipated by building up stock piles. Part of it is recovered by subsequent operations. But strikes or lock-outs in the production of highly styled goods entering a seasonal market are likely to result in great and irrecoverable losses. A second low point occurred in the summer of 1935. This was partly seasonal. It was influenced by a condition of stock accumulətion through the winter and early spring of 1935, a movement that was probably accentuated by efforts which were being made to restrict hours temporarily to less than 40 per week under the N. R. A. But it was also induced by the great uncertainty that followed the N. R. A. Mr. KELLER. What was the N. R. A.'s requirement as to hours? I have forgotten. Mr. HINRICHS. Forty hours per week. Mr. KELLER. Forty hours a week? Mr. HINRICHS. Yes. Mr. KELLER. Proceed. Mr. HINRICHS. In connection with consideration of production control requirements, it is important to bear that particular experience in mind. Any advantage which might have come out of production control was pretty largely cut away by large production in anticipation of curtailment. There are three similar experiences in the history of the cotton textile industry, as I know it. One was the boom in anticipation of the N. R. A., in July 1933, and that took us a good while to get over. Another was in expectation of the hours curtailment of 1934, which was, perhaps, not as drastic. The third situation was this one which occurred during the discussions of production the limitation in the spring of 1935, and partly vitiated the benefits which might have accrued from production limitation. I think, however, that the low point in 1935 was also in part induced by the great uncertainty that followed the Schechter decision and the abrogation of the N. R. A. I can engage in a similarly detailed discussion of each of the leading branches of production, if you wish. I should prefer to save the time of the committee by merely noting that employment in woolens and worsteds is above the level of 1929, and that dyeing and finishing approximates that level. Knit goods employment averaged 116.0 in |