There are small establishments with little machinery which manufacture plug and smoking tobacco and are open only a few months in the year, as well as those which cover half a dozen city blocks.

In the smaller factories the majority of the laborers are black, but in the larger establishments both negroes and whites are employed.
Sometimes they do the same sort of work on opposite sides of the same room.

In some departments negro and white men work side by side, while in others only whites or only negroes are found.

The more complicated machines are usually tended by whites, and the filling and inspection of containers is ordinarily done by white girls, who are also found in large numbers in the cigarette factories.

Not many years ago the tobacco industry was supposed to belong to the negro, but with the introduction of machinery he has lost his monopoly, though on account of the expansion of the industry the total number of negroes employed is greater than ever before.
In the smaller factories labor is usually paid by the day, but in the larger establishments every operation possible is on a piecework basis.
These operations are so related in a series that a slacker feels the displeasure of those who follow him and depend upon him for a supply of material.