Show TH SWEATING SYSTEM THE RESULT OF VXXATURAL COMPETITION COM-PETITION Xot a Xcw Tiling Whore I Prevails Wages and Hour oE Work Legislation 5 Cau Do Little A Menace Me-nace to Heal tit and Morals The sweating system is of respectable respecta-ble antiquity It is a survival of the industrial system which preceded the factory system when industry was chiefly conducted on the pieceprice plan in small shops or the homes of the workers In practice sweating consists of the competing manufac farming out by cmpeting manuac turers to competing contractors the material ma-terial for garments which in turn is distributed among competing men and women to be made up The middleman middle-man or contractor is the sweater although he also may be himself subjected sub-jected to pressure from above and his employees are the sweated or oppressed op-pressed He contracts to make up certain cer-tain garments at a given price per piece and then hires other people to do the work at a less price His profit lies in the difference between the two prices In the process he will furnish shoproom and machines to some and allow others usually the finishers to take the work to their living and lodging lodg-ing rooms In tenements The sweater may be compelled to underbid his fellow contractor in order to get work but he can count with a degree of certainty on the eagerness of the people who work for him to alsq underbid each other so as to leave his margin of profit but little Impaired The system thrives upon the increasing demand for cheap ready made clothing cheap cloaKs ana cneap suits for children which demand springs in turn from the rivalry o competing dealers and producers Thus each class preys upon the other and all of them upon the last and weakest In Berlin the hardships of the sewing sew-ing women have beena subject of official of-ficial Investigation and the conditions disclosed have closely resembled those in London New York and Chicago England is the classic home of the sweating system and in London it has reached its maximum development In this country the whole readymade clothing trade rests upon the sweating system in some of Its various forms From Boston for many years garments gar-ments have been sent throughout New England to be made by the wives and daughters of the country people but the more recent migration of Poles and Italians to that city has introduced anew a-new form of cheap labor and much clothing of the poorer grades goes to thalr shops and is finished in their homes Recent legislation and tenement tene-ment inspection has however done much to improve sanitary conditions among them and remove much of the danger from Infectious diseases From Philadelphia garments are sent Into New Jersey and Delaware as well as throughout the farming districts of Pennsylvania to be stitched by women wo-men Vast quantities of clothing such as cotton and woolen shirts and wo mens underwear are farmed out under contract to charitable and other institutions in-stitutions while clothing for the army and navy and for the postal service is largely made under the sweating system both in Philadelphia and Balti more The great centre of the clothing trade is however in New York city There whole streets are reported as having shops or home finishers In every house It is particularly difficult to ascertain the number ot persons thus employed in that city because i Is augmented by every ship load of emigrants from ussia Bohemia Scandinavia and Italy and again reduced re-duced by deportations to the west Sweaters shops are now scattered even among those villages of Long Island and New Jersey which are easily accessible ac-cessible by ferryboat from New York No successful check upon the system has yet been accomplished by legislation legisla-tion in that state A measure recently passed embraces somewhat trenchant provisions but its results remain as yet to be seen The reports of the factory Inspector reveal a State of factary Inspeetor things not surpassed by the English reports 1 Substantially all manufacture employ em-ploy a number of sweaters who on < I S duct small shops on their own account ac-count These underbid each other to obtain work They do not make common com-mon cause against the manufacturers either by combining among themselves I or by uniting with their employees On the contrary they exploit their employees to the utmost to compensate themselves for the exactions of them the-m and the competition among themselves The economic position of the sweater Is anomalous He has no commercial rlsks he gives the manufacturer no considerable security for the goods entrusted en-trusted to his care and rarely has more than a wagon load of them in his possession he pays one weeks rent in advance for his shop which < nay also be his dwelling and buys his sewing machines on the Installment plan pay Ing for them 75 cents a week each or he may still further reduce his investment invest-ment by requiring his operators to furnish their own machines Finally he does not pay his employees until he receives his money for the finished lot lotThe The report of the labor bureau of Illinois showed a steady reduction in the prices for work During the last four years the price which the sweater receives for making overcoats has been reduced from 150 each to 1 In some cases the contract price for low grade overcoats is now only 50 cents each For sack coats the price has been reduced re-duced from SO cents to 50 cents each For trousers several shops report reductions re-ductions from 45 to 26 cents per air others report a decline from 40 cents In 1SS3 to 22 cents at the present time In the cheaper grades contract prices are now as low as 15 cents a pair A man and wife were found working at home on trousers at IS cents per pair I they could finish ten pairs a day earning earn-ing 180 or 90 cents each Competition is not only reducing prices but also eleminating the better class of workers thus reducing the morals of the remainder I drives the business into the very lowest quarters where cheap tenements and cheap labor are concentrated One evidence of this tendency is the fact that the system is chiefly spreading at present among the recently imported Russian Jews and Poles who eagerly take in the cheapest work and execute it in i the most squalid places At all seasons the reserve army of labor presses heavily upon the regu I reg larly employed and this enables the I sweater to dole out work in such small quantities that his employees smal al I eager to get as much as possible and will accept whatever price the sweater offers This is true of all departments of the work but especially of the horns finishers who combine with their sew ing the care of their children and the discharge of household duties Very many of these finishers are married women having ablebodied husbands who support their families The women wo-men work when they can and for whatever they can get and thus keep prices down for the women who are wholly dependent upon themselves for a living I Is difficult to define the rate of wages or the earnings of the depen dents upon the sweating shops From the best shops to the lowest the scale declines through the Inevitable opera tion of the system to a point where i is a mockery to name either the rate or the meagre sums received The ordinary hours of labor in the best shops is ten each day for six days per week In the worst shops and during the busy season the hours are from 5 a m to 10 p m seven days a week During the dull season in March the hours are shorter work more scarce and earnings consequently smaller quenty Legislation seems to be able to do little to improve or eradicate the sweating system I is a result of con ditions which create unnatural crate com petition among laborers forcing them to accept any wage and any terms which will afford them a living how ever miserable and precarious The only certain remedy is in destroying this unnatural competition |