V. Departmental relations. The emphasis which the Academic and Art Departments have laid upon accuracy, careful work, appreciation of measurements, distances, color, and form has been of great value to the students in the Dressmaking Department. The Operating Department has also been of service in training some of the students to work on special machines, thus enabling them to make dress decoration. The use of the electric power machine in custom dressmaking establishments is on the increase. VI. Trade relation. The department is kept in close touch with trade conditions through personal visits, through the houses which purchase its output, and through those from whom the stock is bought. Many opportunities to purchase materials at reduced rates have been secured through the kindly interest of the trade. An advisory board, composed of business men and women, has been appointed to pass judgment upon the scheme of work, the standard and quality of work, and the cost and market value of the products. MILLINERY DEPARTMENT Aim The aim of the Millinery Department is to train assistants, improvers, frame makers, and preparers for wholesale and custom workrooms. Short Course When this department was first opened the scope of the work for the day classes was much more extended and included training for copyists, designers, and milliners. The curtailing of the course to more elementary preparation was brought about by a feeling of dissatisfaction with this trade for the young, untrained, or partly skilled workers. Close and continued contact with millinery shops showed that for young wage-earners a small, initial wage and a not very rapid rise are usual; that a short, irregular, seasonal engagement is almost inevitable; that a long experience is needed before even the trained girl can rise to the higher positions; that young workers become discouraged and are apt to drop the trade altogether, even for lower wages, if they can obtain steady work in another occupation. As it was the fourteen or fifteen-year-old girl who came for the instruction, it was better for her to be well trained as an assistant than to detain her at the school for a more advanced position which she would probably not be allowed to take on account of her youth and inexperience. Students in this department need to be watched with especial care to determine whether they are well adapted for their occupation, and the mediocre worker would better enter some other field where the opportunities for her are more encouraging. As the advance is slow the girl also whose poverty is hurrying her into wage-earning would better not elect this work. The night classes which have been offered at the school gave training in the more advanced lines of millinery. The day classes are also prepared to do so whenever older workers feel they can give time for the instruction. COURSE OF INSTRUCTION Length of course: Six months.