New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1851-03-27
4 Movement for the shirt.sewers.

Of all descriptions of Labor in our own
own and other Cities, probably that OF
Seamstresses is the worst paid and its con-
dition least hopeful of amendment. Poorly
C~~i~o ;s P~id, thoro anu lung will
be too many seeking to live by it. The
Sesmstress enjoys considerable personal
independence as to hours, location, &c.
If she works for a master, she is seldom
under his eye-her labor is genteel, clean
ly and does not require great muscular
exertion; and those who follow it may
live quito unobserved and as cheaply as
they see fit. Thousands of women who
from tine to time are precipitated by the
death or failure of relatives from ease and
comfort to poverty and the necessity of
exertion have in their more fortunate days
learned how to sew and very little else
that will now avail them. They can
not bring themselves quite down to kitchen
work in the easements of those who Tor
such as) were yesterday their equals per-
haps they could not do it acceptably if they
would; so they shrink into garrett and
stitch, stitch, until they wear out or starve
out and are taken to the hospital, the poor
house or the grave. But where one dies
two are ready to take her place; and
the procession of despair, ever swelling
moves sadly onward. There will never
be lack of Seamstresses while the world
remains essentially as it is, and the great
mass of them will always be meagerly
paid.
What we have to do, then, is to see that
what is paid for their work actually reaches
them-that it is not half wasted or diverted
in the transit from the seller to the buyer
of Sewing. Shirts, Vests, PantalOons,
Caps, &C., &C., will continue to be made
for less than the labor required ought to
command so long as too many are competi-
tors for that employment; but there is no
reason at all that One-fourth to one-half of
what a man pays for the making Of his
Shirts, &C., shall be paid to and enjoyed by
some one else than the seamstress. Here
is superadded hardship which the class
of Sewing Women can and must be
shielded from by proper Organization of
their labor. We ask the attention of
thoughtful, philanthrOpic men and women
to the following:
CIRCULAR OF THE SHIRT SEWERS ASSOCIATIONS OF TIE
CIff OF NEW-YOkK.
To THE FRIENDS OF LABOR: The ShlrtSeWerS
OF this City, encouraged by the interest manifest
ed by the action of the Industrial Congress Ia their
behalf would nor lay their case before the COM
muuity generally, and ASK cooperation, patronage
and counsel from the better rem1nerated portion
Of the laboring population The scale OF prices
given by the mUnOposts OF the Shirt Trade IN
Newton are so graduated as to render 1t nearly
snd for many styles Of work utterly impossible
for a woman 20 earn her daily bre ad thereby aud
for the few custom shops that Professedly pay fair
prices the work must be done in 90 superior a
manner that the remuneration s still in most cases
inadequate. The number OF Shirt Sewers but par
italy employed and poorly remunerated, if stated
IL round numbers, would not be believed S0tf "a
It 70 say, that the number to be benefited by this
Association, if once thoroughly established, will
be commensurate with the philanthropy OF the
Iob'est minds.
We therefore, deem it necessary, and propose
making arrangements TO cOmmelce business our.
selves, in a " ay that will enable us to divide the
tTofs among the employed To eu,bark in an
enterprise where so many difficulties confront IA,
at frat sight, may to some minds be deemed chi.