Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-11-12
THE SWEATING SYSTEM.
An Evil Which Exists in Most
 Manufacturing Centera
How the Burdens and Hardships of Work tng-Men and Working-Women Arc Aggravated - Evils That Arc
 Inseparable from the System.

AlInougn "SWeatlng" is an English term, the system which 1t picturesquely describes exists under more or less sharply defined and grievous forms in the United States, and, indeed, wherever the supply of labor exceeds the demand. But as this method of aggravatlng the burdens aud hardships of Worklng-men and vserking g-women has at tracted special attention in Great Britain, and has lately been made the subject of careful investigation by a committee Of the House of Lords, it may be well to point out the origin of the word 'sweating'' and to distinguish its various applications.
 It appears, says Once a Week, that the term ''swcating" was primarily :.sed in England by journeymen tailors to discredit those of their number who worked at home out of hours. As these sweaters could be aided, while working overtime, by thelr wives and daughters, they gradually found it convenient to do all their work at home. Next they began to employ others besides members of their own family and so became ''sweaters'' in the secondary meaning of the word, that is to say, men who made others sweat Among boot-makers, however, the term retains it's primary signifcation, designating only those journeymen who work out of hours. By cabinet-makers the small master is called sweater, and in other trades the term is loosely applied to any sub-con- u dSloI UT lulu0lSiudll by Guc StucTdl pUD- lie the word is accepted as meaning any employer whose worl-people are badly paid, harshly used or ill accommodated, as well as any middleman or sub b-contractor who squeeZes profit out of the hard-working poor.
 Plainly, therefore, there are many sys- tens differing materially from one another, which are all, nevertheless, held up to op- probrium by the vague term whose origin 1,o1 the well known mode of ''sweating'' prac- ticed in the clothing trades, where whole sale manufacturers, instead of hiring work people themselves, make a contract with some one who does, the materials needed, however, being provided by tho wholesale house. This distribution of functions be- tween the wholesale house and the small employer or sweater is in New York ex- tensively applied to the manufacture of cigars. It unquestionably evolves severe and grinding form of competition. Then there is the sweating system which in Lon- don bears most heavily on female home workers-Where, namely, the wholesale house, in place of dealing directly with the workers, employs go-between, who dis tributes and collects the work. This plan is also well calculated to take advantage of tho necessitous poor. Or again, where Q wholesale house, instead of ordering what
 
 labor and materials when put together there we have the sweating system as it is applied to cabinet-making. This Is de- scribed by experts as a terrible engine ot oppression. Then, too, we see the sweating system brought to bear on foreign immigra- | tion, when @ chamber master or small en- ployer Is able to obtain a constant supply of | learners or "greenhorns," Casually poor | foreigners) who will submit to work long | hours in return for bare subsistence. Final | ly, where systematic deductions are made from mems earnings by labor masters, who | can thus pocket the difference between the | ostensible pay and tho pittance which starv- l ing working men can be made to accept, we | have the sweating system as it has hitherto obtained at the London docks, but from which the workmen have been delivered by | the great strike.
 | According to Mr. Charles Booth, to whom | we arc indebted for accurate and exhaustive | information regarding the practice of sweating in England, the following evils | are found to be inseparable from the sweat | ing industries, to-Wit: overcrowding, de | fective sanitation. irregular hours, low pay periods of terrible strain, overtaxing the | powers and exhausting the vital forces periods of slack employment or ab- l solute want of work, discouraging and slowly undermining the persistent energies | and bread-winning determination of the work people. Among the remedies that have been suggested are protection of na- tive manufactures, State-aided emigration, the exclusion of pauper immigrants, the regulation or even the suppression of home or chamber industry. What the House of Lords committee will recommend is not yet | known. Mr. Booth, who is undoubtedly a high authority, declares himself unable to support any of the proposed remedies above enumerated. He would prefer to render l effective the functions of the factory in- l spectors. He would compel not only the owners of large factories but the lessees of every room in which any thing is made on 1 contract or for sale to take out a Govern ment license. For the beneficial results of | this provision he looks not so much to the direct action of the law regarding over crowding and sanitation backed by the i'm | position of fines as to the moral effect of in l spection, publicity and the open acknowl- | edgment of responsibilities. To us, how | ever, it seems clear that official inspection | would be rather a palliative than a cure ot l the evils of the sweating system.
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