The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1885-01-15
is LIFE WORTH LIVING?
How the "Song of the Shirt Is Sung in
New York k-Thirty Cents Dozen.

New York Thirty Cents Dozen.
When Thomas Hoods poetic soul,
angered at the inhuman manner in
which INDECENT English seamstesses
were treated by their employers. in
spired him to produce his immortal
Song of the Shirt England responded
to his cry for justice, and vowed that
the evils which he deplored should be
at least mitigated, if not abolished. A
similar appeal to humanity seems to
be desirable in this city just at present,
at least if one is to Judge from the
heartrending story which a prominent
merchant told Herald reporter Satur-
day afternoon.
six dollars and So cents is nice pay
pent for making 291 shirts, is it not?'
Was his indignant question, as he pulled
pay-book from his pocket and showed
the figures in black and white. mo,
am wrong. The estimable employers
paid S7.75, but you must deduct from
that 81. p for car-fares, and then you
have S6.53 for making 29l shirts. Who
was fool enough to accept the jobp I'll
tell you. A man came here from Silesia
about fifteen months ago with his wife
and two children. He is bright, in
telligent fellow about 40 years old, and
has worked for some years on rail-
road in Germany. He brought with
him two sewing and he and
his wife managed to support themselves
for some months by making shields for
caps. When the demand for these ar
ticles ceased, he sought other employ
ment, but was unable to find any. At
ln,t S., 4
East Fiftv-third street would be willing
to employ him at making shirts. He
jumped at the idea, went to the firm,
got the material for the shirts, and set
to work at once, after he had provided
himself with cotton thread and other
necessaries. That was on Nov. 26
From that day until Dec. 9, he and his
wife and another woman, who provided
third sewing-machine, worked from
6 o'clock in the morning to II at night,
and at the end of the time they had
finished POI shirts, and had received
$7.75.
He lived in Brooklyn, at a consid-
erable distance from the ferry, and had
to pay a considerable sum in car fares.
The agreement was that he should re-
ceive 80 cents for every dozen shirts,
and on Nov. 90 he took three shirts to
his employers, expecting to be paid at
the rate of % cents shirt. But how
could he be paid the odd half cent?
Would his employers be magnanimous
enough to give him 8 cents instead of
y. Quite the contrary. They paid
him cents instead of Z! cents, his
lawful due On Dec 3 he took eight
dozen shirts to his employers, and re-
ceived g. 40; on the fifth he took anoth-
er eight dozen and received 81 ga the
increased wages being accounted for
by the fact that these shirts required to
be finished better than the others and
on the 9th he took another eight dozen
end received the same amount as for
the preceding lot
after | saw him he had taken his
last eight dozen, and he told me his
story. l got his pay-book from him and
men of this city. Knowing the price
hardly believe that any employer would
be so mean as to ask men and women
to make them for p cents each. l told
them that the man wife could not sup
port her children on such starvation
wages. and was obliged to get coal,
tea, and money from some charitable
ladies in Brooklyn. L then went to
prominent labor bureau and requested
the proprietor not to recommend any
| man or woman, however badly off he
or she might be, to take employment
from this firm at such rate of pay
ment, and finally promised the man
whose case attracted my attention to
the matter to do my best to get him
some job better than that one. He is
an honest man, and he says that it would
break his heart to see his children SELL
ing newspapers on the street. That was
the reason why he accepted such badly
paying work. If The Herald will only
give due prominence to this story
Hoods hopes may be realized in this
city. You remember how he says:
And still in IA voice of dolorous pitch
Would that its tones could reach the r1ch)
She sang the song of the shirt
"Not even the most stony-hearted
employer would dare to pay man and
two women for thirteen days labor such
/ a miserable sum as this firm paid Re-
gen and his fellow workers, if the mat
ter was known to the public. "-Neao
| Y0r6 Herald.