The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1886-08-25
SEWING-W0MEN'S PAY.
STARVATION WAGES CAUSED BY
CHEAP AND ROTTEN GOODS.

CHEAP AND ROTTEN GOODS.
An Inside View of the shoddy Business
"A Small Margin of ProHt-Future
Prospects Not Bright-The Lowest
Grades-"SIisflt" Goods.
''The general public was surprised and
shocked to learn of the miserable remunera-
tion of the sewing women OF Chicago" re-
marked the gentleman who had opened the
conversation. at appears that the song Of
the shirt is still a true picture, despite the
sewing-machine, the cutting, and other
modern mechanical inventions which have
revolutionizcd your trade"
"The wretched pay Of the majority OF
women tailors is q deplorable but easily ex-
planned fact" replied the merchant "For
q few years after its frat Introduction the
sewing machine did work wonder
full Improvement in tho condition Of
this class of workers, but by degrees its
benefits, as far as sewing women are con-
cerned, have disappeared, until now they
are almost il not quite as badly off as they
were before Elias Howe removed the eye OF
the needle from the head to the point"
chow do you account for this!"
"There have been several causes at work.
First, this machine has been 80 simp.itied
and improved and is now 80 easy to oper-
ate that all but the finest work has become
unskilled labor Though Gle amount of
tailoring during the thirty years Of the
sewing. machines existence has undoubtedly
increased more than hundr d-fold, still the
f1,. ~ fc
as it was under the old order of things But
the main cause of the starvation wages is
the manufacture Of an enormous and con-
tinually increasing quantity of cheap and
almost worthless goods Not many people
are aware that in our line, one of the prime
necessaries of life, the amount of imposition
and fraud praciicei is in.alcu'able nc
misfortune is that almost every man,
woman or child believe themselves to be
competent judges Of clothing, whereas
ninety five out Of every 1G0 know no more
about it than they do about architecture
sHoppY THAT LOOKS WELL
"There are a largo number OF firms all
over the country, whose main business Is to
make up shoddy piece-goods of handsome
appearance, but for wear and durability
they are almost worthless The workman
ship of these garments, while effective for
the eye, is of the roughest and most desplc-
able character In New York, which has
always so large floating population, and
where hordes of women are forced by their
necessities to accept whatever is offered, the
rates for sewing this stuff are so low that
starvation wages, is the only proper term.
To add to the wretched condition Of these
women, they can obtain work, as rule,
only through cormorant middlemen, called
Issweaters,' who make large incomes out OF
this white slavery.
"This mass of rubbish is not only injurious
In itself competing as it does with genuine
ccods-but it also has great influence in
fixing the rates Of payment in tho better
grades. Under this influence the earnings
of the least protected class-the women
have gone lower and lower. The manufac-
turers are not to blame. The margin of
profit is now so close, the competition be-
tween the direrent sections Of the country
80 strong, that they are forced to take every
advantage Of the cruel but inevitable laws
of supply and demond.
"An organization for tho protection of the
women employed in the manufacture OF
clothing-provided. that. it was universal
throughout the country-would have the
entire sympathy of the majority of inanu-
facturers, as it would add but small frac-
ton to the cost Of the output and relieve
class whose condition is as bad as it can be.
The prospects for the establishment Of such
an organization in the near future, however,
are not very bright Those women are so
utterly dependent on their daily earnings,
the cohesion among them is so weak, that it
would require strong efforts from the out
side to start and carry through any such
movement Philanthropic individuals with
a talent for organi ing, or societies who SEMI
enormous sums out of the country for mis-
sionary purposes, might turn their attention
toward the solution of this problem The
need Is urgent the field is almost unbrohen,
and would amply compensate for all the
time and money expended on it"
"Nhere are these shoddy garments usually
on salel'
"They are on sale wherever bargain-ma-
MACS are to he found, wherever foolish peo-
pie can be duped by means of catchy adrer-
tisements or bra.en assertion. They are
sold by the wagon-load in cutting and catch
penny stores throughout the country.
IN THE LOWER DEPTHS
"Even in this stuff there arc several
grades Resident store-keepers, however
uuscrupulous, dare not keep the lower ones.
Those are disposed of in another manner.
There arc several rerambulat!ng firms who
arc continually trare.ing from city to city
In the western, northwestern and southeTa
states One or more of these concerns
strike Chicago. every month or six weeks
They pretend to work oil some enormous
supposi ,ious bankrupt or immense contla-.
grafton stock. They ore heralded by an
advance man who rents a large unoccu-
pied store on q prominent thoroughfare.
He inserts their deceptive advertisements
in emo or two of the city papers, and in oil
the sheots issued in tho small towns and
villages within radius Of twenty miles
A few days Lefore the opening up he foods
the city and tho ndjacent suburban districts
with hand bills"
us tho business of handling 'misft' goods
a genuine one"
The merchant laughed heartily and said
that business was not so in furious as the
other. "The rise and progress Of the mistit
business" he continued, "ls one of the Curl
osities in or line. 1t first started in en-
eastern city-Philadelphia, believe about
ten years ago. A party who was then clerk
ing for retail clothing store was struck by
O brilliant idea, and backed by large
wholesale firm, proceeded to put it into op-
GRAFTON. In the course of two OF three years
he built up an enormous business He was
d large and skillful advertiser, and retired
year or two ago worth about S3OO,OO0 I'm
itators by the hundred soon stated up all
oyer the eastern states, but 1T is only within
the last four or five years they have APP
peared in the west. The modus operandi of
this business is very simple and very etfec-