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Show HOW SWISS PEASANT TOIL In some Homes 311k Looms Havo Never Stopped In Many Recorded Years. Ainerirans often wonder hosv it is possible for tho Swiss to prodtico articles requiring so much hand labor la-bor at such ridiculously low prices, says n consular report. To uiidor-stnnd uiidor-stnnd the question, one must to n certain clent study the sociologicnl side of the nsnnt life. I om ciy much impressed with tho industty of the people. Of course during tho hiinimcr I heir work is largely in the field', but Iho moment tho crops aro harvested nnd tho wood cut nnd stored fo- Iho inter the entire peasant family engages itself in indoor in-door work, such ns u caving or knitting knit-ting on the looms (always loaned to the peasant by the large manufacturers manufac-turers of knit and strasv goods). I knosv personally of one family of peasants, and this is not in tho least n unique case, but is typical of piobably If) per icnl. of those peasant peas-ant families, who ssoik during tho six winter n-onMis of tho c:ir at three looms wetting narrow silk and cotton tapes. This family consists con-sists of four persons who ore giown up, and sesen children, whose labor is availnble out of school hours, and cMM-y winter for scsernl years tsso of tho looms hao never stopped night or d. y, except for oiling or tlic introduction of new raw material. mate-rial. The thiid loom is run only dining the dnytinie by tho joungcr children when homo from school. Thi'Mi peasants aro industrious and sober people, and I am informed in-formed authoritatively nro satisfied with n daily profit on tho work of tho entile output for six months of winter. This is characteristic of the labor of I lie Swis?, and especinl-ly especinl-ly of the "unskilled" htbor, which produces the slr.iss and imitation strasv braids, enabling tho Ssviss maun fuel mors to ship to tho United States in spile of American duties in competition with American workmen. |
