The manufacture of men's straw hats has been conducted on a commercial scale in the United States for upward of 50 years. The industry is centered in and around New York City, in a number of cities in Massachusetts and Connecticut, and in Baltimore, Md. Statistics of production of men's sewed straw hats are not available, since the census of manufactures does not distinguish between men's and women's hats nor between sewed hats and woven hats. Domestic manufacturers estimate that the value of the men's straw hats produced in 1914 was $12,000,000, or about 45 per cent of the total production of all straw hats. In 1920 the value of the total production of men's straw hats was estimated at $20,000,000, of which about $12,000,000 was men's sewed hats. At the preliminary hearing it was estimated that the average annual production of men's sewed straw hats in recent years amounted to 800,000 dozen. There are about 40 manufacturers of men's sewed straw hats in the United States. The majority are well established firms. The production of men's sewed straw hats for the season 1923-24 of 19 factories for which costs were obtained was 553,253 dozen. The factories may be classified as follows: TABLE 1.--_Domestic straw-hat factories grouped according to annual production_ ------------------------------------+--------+------------+---------- | Number | Production | Per cent | | | of total ------------------------------------+--------+------------+---------- | | _Dozen_ | Group I. Factories with annual | | | production of | | | 50,000 dozen and over | 4 | 265,767 | 48.0 Group II. Factories with annual | | | production of | | | 25,000-49,000 dozen | 4 | 122,936 | 22.2 Group III. Factories with annual | | | production of less | | | than 25,000 dozen | 11 | 164,550 | 29.8 +--------+------------+---------- Total production | | 553,253 | 100.0 ------------------------------------+--------+------------+---------- _Kinds of hats produced._--There are two general types of men's straw hats produced by the domestic manufacturers: (1) Woven hats, such as panamas, etc. The bodies of these hats are imported in the rough and are shaped, finished, and trimmed in this country. (2) Sewed hats. All of the operations necessary in the manufacture of a sewed straw hat, with the exception of plaiting the braids, are performed in the United States. This investigation relates to sewed hats only.