The Goodland republic. [volume] (Goodland, Kan.) 1891-1907, 1892-04-22
IN A SWEATERS DEN
Working Eighty and Ninety Hours a
Week for the Beggarly Sum
Four Dollars.
BOYS PANTS MADE FOR IS CENTS A DOZEN
Slaves in a Free COuntry--.ChlldhOOd
Robbed of Sunshine..-DWarfed
Physically aud Morally.

Boston Labor Heraldi To those who
believe the statements of the New York
Press, aud other papers, that there are
no pauper laborers in America-that
all are we'll fed, we'll clothed and well
housed-we ask careful reading of
the following article by Rev. Madison
G. Peters. These statements are not
exaggerated or over-drawn. but indis-
putable facts,
II had read so much in the daily pa
pers about the sweating system on the
East-side in New York city, that de-
termined to see for myself if these
things were true. In company with a
labor agitatOr and newspaper man,
both of whom knew the system thor
oughly, started on my trip of investi-
CATION. The King of Cloakmakers'
introduced the reporter and the writer
to the contractors as factory inspectors.
That the contractors did not know that
we were not factory inspectors, proves
that the inspectors do not inspect. l
saw human beings almost heaped upon
one another and buried out of sight in
masses of materials which smelled as
powerfully and as poisonously as the
wretched tOllers themselves.
1.-The factories are out-Of- the-way
places, bed rooms. rear lofts and SUBJ
cellars. In many instances the en-
ployed live. work and sleep huddled
together in these shops. No wonder
the death rate in Hester street is 40 per
cent higher than the average made by
the plague in Brazil.
Ten years ago there were only ten
sweaters shops in New York, but now
there are $50, and the work that then
brought So and Sc, realizes only $3.50
now. Hardly anyone will believe the
truth unless he has seen it. If the
philanthropic people of this city could
visit these places, they would soon band
together for their abolition. These
people have suffered so long they have
bourne so much that the wonderis that
they are as moderate as they are. Can
you imagine the feelings of man who
has to work eighty or ninety hours a
week for SAP There are 10000 opera
tors in garments for women and opera
tors in cloaks for children; there are
$4,000 clothing makers.
1.-The contractors are generally men
from the ranks of the emigrnats. They
hire loft or two barn rooms, for about
$1S per month, get a pile of clothing
from the manufacturer, who tells the
price he will pay for each completed
garments and then they hire their
hands The market is overstocked
with labor, ana hundreds are ready to
take the place at any price. Nova
days the cloak is the product of fifteen
poor refugees (each making a part),
huddled together under the foulest
physical conditions, working from
fifteen to eighteen hours day as fast
as their feet and hands can go. don't
think that / found among the sweaters
employees an operator 40 years old,
They die or are struck by disease long
before that time.
"But you must now take trip with
me to sweaters den on Mulberry
street. The entrance is narrow and
squald, up three fight Of ladder-like
stairs, through u door rickety and
grimmy. Taking us for officers, we
were hailed, Vat you vantaP' These
gentlemen said our spokesman, 'art
factory inspectors. You must answer
, any question they put to you We are
in small, poorly ventilated loft. The
) windows are black with dirt from
poisonous fluff from garments. The
air is sitting, the ceiling low, the hea
intense. To work as prisoners fol
crime would have been a respite fol
I these sad-faced foreigners. Knee-pant
! are made here for 50 cents a dozen
for which the contractor gets IS cent
\ from the manufacturer. AS though
of the joyous childhood up town filleC
with innocent pleasure, and then con
templated these slaves Of the needle
working from twelve to eighteen hour
day in a miserable hovel for 81 so I,
81 week, and then to sleep in a room
with a dozen men, herding togethe
= like cattle, l said, what q subject TO
tears Of compassion! This injustice
oppression, and suffering! What
theme for the reformer or the novelist
These inhumanly long hours! Ties
y starvation wages!
How shall this injustice continu
upon these helpless foreigners, givinl
the lie to American freedomp On
Il upon this corrupt farce! Down wit
this abominble system! Let our factor
I law be so amended as to strike direct
at tenement factories, and make ne,
law forbidding the toiler to labor fl
r teen to eighteen hours a day for tn
, wages of day, AID blow will b
struck at this system from which
will never rppOypr