Grand Rapids morning telegram., 1885-06-08
THE SONG or THE SHIRT.
AMONG LOCAL sl1lRT-mAssRs-
Com t8arisons OF Wages tor Needle
uork Ia this Country ara Europe
America IN the lead.

America IN the Lead
There can be 10 question that there are
taau.auds and leus II thousands u needle
xousep - zhom Hoods famous -Song of
tha Shirt = stiI VIVID reality and the re-
eoliacuon ~ their daliy t0N and the made
,susts s,s1glls.fI -tlJD tnat .oes With n, bring
.st, ~ anpiea-aut reflections ~heu The
bard of ths teiiers sect hls melody echolng
through England ntty years ago. That
needle ~ork tor women II poorly paid a.
rule i true OF this county a. vel a. Ia
England. and other portions OF Europe,
though We believe the balance l. largely IL
favor OF this county. Ia England, espe-
cially Tor fifty years, the cry has been going
up year b year for Increased compensation
for tbis class Of labOFers, and yet the mex
orabie demand for cheap goods b. tie people,
aud the efforts OF producers % meet this de
maud have kept wages down nOtwIthstand-
ing al the Improvements made IN machinery
10 facilitate more rapid and less laboriOus
production. Recently active efforts Tor re-
lief have been made In London, and lnVesti
cations Of prices paid have been made. ln
this connection Il may be OF interest 10
state that in London the price paid for but
tOuhole- making II from 10 cents per
dozen, and quick worker can make ten an
hour. thus earning from Il 10 a. cents per
DAY or Sl.W "a y - per week. In ladies
linen, which II the poorest paid class OF work,
the worker can earn but II cents per day.
That wages IN this country are much bet
Ter can be easily. seen by comparing the
above figures with wages paid needle-workers
ia our own city. Take for example the
case OF the shirt makers IN the extensive
-hirt-makiug establishment or Gardner &
Baxter about whom 80 much has re-
rently been said IN the public press, growing
out OF slight reduction IN the prices paid
owing 20 the introduction OF steam, whereby
the producing capacity of employees was in
creased sufficiently To enable them 10 stand
the reduction without decreasing the weekly
earnings The prices III the factory run
about as follows according 10 the statements
OF both Mr.. Paxter and his employees, viz: -
/ cent? for oOlored shirts when made with col
/ lars and cuffs and - cents without them.
/ For white shirts the price Is % cents for the
/ be-t, 20 cents for the next grade and IL cents
/ for the poorest At these prices the girls are
/ able 10 earn from $500 to $500 per week,
While a. compared with needle-workers III
/ London looks like pretty good pay Not
withstanding this large balance in favor OF
needle-workers in Michigan, there appears
70 be- hot controversy going on over the re-
/ ductiOn of - per cent which went into effort
I on ths recent introduction of steam, "a ex-
/ planned above. Both sides of the case have
been published heretofore and in order tC
/ place the views of Mr.. Baxter before TN,
public we reproduce his statement of the
| case recently made 10 a reporter for th'
Times. Speaking of the introduction o.
steam power. its effects on wages, and the
| discomfort among employees arising there
from, Mr.. Baxter said:
The girls, after being spoken to in re-
gard to the matter, requested that / put II
the steam power. The machinery and fix
ings are quite expensive, to say nothing o
I'm.
with the girls was that the shirts should b
made 70 per cent. less than before, as tha
was what | figured the difference in wha
they could earn and what il would cost us Il
run the steam power. The experienced
hands can now, after learning to use th'
power, earn As much as they could by treadle
They can do one fourth TO one-third NOR
work than they could before, as is shown by
statistics Here Is list OF salaries paid on
seven oldest hands for nine weeks Just past
taken right from the books, and 1t averages
10 each one, after taking out all expense
and making no allowance for lost time
S654 per week. You can figure il for your
self" The reporter did so, and upon look
ing over the books found the totals correct
AS for the machines" continued Mr.. Bax
ter, Il do not own one of them
The girls furnish them themselve
and rent or purchase from out
side parties As to the thread, they are a
/ perfect liberty to buy where they please
They did buy from Voigt, Herpolsheime
K CO., for a while, but recently, while in Chi
cago. my attention was called TO some extr
large spools. which are used In the grea
shirt factories. purchased dozen for tn
girls 10 try and they found them so benz
fetal that have kept supply for their u.s.
DO not make penny on dozen, nor do
wish to. The girls understood the reductiO
was TO be made a soon as steam power wa
first put in. iut | let it 90 month 1T III
old price so as to give the girls a chance
/ learn the use of steam a | knew they mus
necessarily fall short in their work. Tn
gave the advantage of learning at my q
pense. Some of them talk about our stanC
ing advertisement for experienced shir
makers. We mean exactly what we say i
the 'ad'. We want shirt makers, not str
dents. / could put in thirty students to- da
but il does not pay. At the same tim
If thirty experienced shirt makers appl
we will employ them all an
give them and all our present employees a
they can do. Ii Is the new people, who q
, not understand the work that are dissatisfied
If these same girls went into a dry goods {
! fancy goods store they could not make u
wages they get here and have none of n
advantages. We let our girls have almO
their own hours and If they lay of an afte
/ noon or a few hours We never say wOr
II l. only their own lookout. All we want
that we shall be treated fairly and the dit
Guilty shown up in It's true light. Where tn
trouble originated / am unable TO say. bl
from all | can hear 1t came from girl wi
worked here three weeks and was dissatishe
, because We could not let her of a whole d'
. on account of n rush. For the three wee
: she worked here her salary was on an avera.