Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1893-02-23
AS BAD AS PAINTED
so SAYS WARNER OF THE HORRORS
OF THE SWEATING SYSTEM.

BE Found.
Representative Warner, of New Y ork,
the chairman of the subcommittee of
the house committee on manufactures,
which was directed to inquire into the
sweating system, was interviewed in
Washington recently. The investiga-
tion has been prosecuted in New York,
| Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago and Gin
cinnati. 1t is stated that in the cities of
Cincinnati and Philadelphia the sweat
ing system is more prevalent and the
conditions surrounding it more unfavor-
able than in the other cities. Mr.. War
ner was asked how the conditions in
New York compared with those in Bos-
ton and Chicago. He said
"rhey are so similar as to be scarcely dis
! tinguishable, except as modified by the differ
ent conditions Of the several cities. In Chicago,
4 for example, this sweating business is carried
on in quarters where the streets are practically
bottomless and the buildings are rotten and
disgusting, as well as inadequate and untitled
| for human occupants. These buildings are
generally frame and two stories in height with
Easements, generally below the sidewalk.
Hence there is nothing like that possibility of
crowding that there would be were those quar-
ters more closely and substantially built up.
The conditions of the sweating industry there,
however, are as disgusting and the liability to
contagious and epidemic diseases as great as in
New York. In Boston the industry seems 10
be carried on almost exclusively in extremely
old but fairly substantial buildings in the most
crowded quarters so that while the municipal
conditions are better the result Is an even
greater liability to contagion in the more limit
ed area covered
I'm New York the streets are, as a whole,
much better paved and cared for than in Chi
cago, and much more spacious and afford more
breathing room than in Boston. While the
| tenements in New York are, on the one
/ hand, far more like human hives than those in
| Chicago and Boston, they are more recently
and solidly built, and therefore, on the average
much less squalid and uncomfortable. The hu-
man conditions are practically identical, and
the general result varies only by essential local
conditions"
LAS to dangerous contagion there is equally
little distinction. In Chicago we saw the scar
let fever signs posted up where the sweating
system had been carried on and in neighbor-
hood where ii was still being prosecuted. In
Boston we stumbled into proximity with the
disease in room where the household manu-
featuring of clothing was going on. 1t was not
occupied by the same family, but it opened
upon the same corridor. In New York one of
the most typical instances was where we found
poor wretches working under the most filthy
conditions at 10 O'Clock Sunday night, when in
the next block to them typhus had broken out
only last summer.
"The members of the committee arrived here
yesterday" continued Mr.. Warner, "and ex-
pect that they will complete taking the testi-
mony today, and then il will make its report
at the earliest possible moment"
What is the general result of your investi-
gationY' was the next question.
1--WE have" replied Mr.. Warner, verified,
not merely as instances, but az general .on-
dition, the worst that has been alleged. But,
with one exception, we have no proof of i'm
morality, and, speaking for myself, | have the
greatest respect for the manliness and the wo-
manliness of the persons employed. From the
| testimony taken we find repeated instances
where at and 10 O'Clock at night the opera
! tives were still continuing their work. They
had begun their work at or a. M, and the
so called sweater or boss worked along with
them bringing work for them the next morn
ing. 1t was not unusual to find eight or zen
people with their machines crowded into u I2
by lO-foot room. In the majority of cases the
living room of family was connected with tho
shop, and garments finished and unfinished
were scattered about indiscriminately.
"Of child labor personally saw but few in
stances, but did see Il little girl about eight
years of age at $50 in the evening dragging
along bundle which she was physically nm
dDlc W carry anu acting as u human express
for the transfer of goods. Children III every
condition of filth and health swarmed in most
of the shops. In the last one we visited every
one had gone except two wornout fellows, who
had made a pile of the bundles of goods ready
to be made up upon which, without bed
clothes, they proposed to sleep without change
of the filthy condition of their persons or their
clothes The sweater and the sweated' per-
fectly agreed as to the miserably low wages
paid.
ut was shown conclusively by the witnesses
that the evil was not diminishing in any of the
large clothing centers with the exception of
Boston, where the state laws have been so ef-
fectivey enforced as to lessen it to a great ex-
tent"
The public is not so much interested
now as it was few months ago in the
sweating system. immigration is the fad
OF the press for the moment. 1t is prob
able, however, that when Mr.. Warmers
committee presents its report to congress
the sweater and the sweated will again
command attention. 1t remains to be
seen whether anything in the way of re-
lief or attempted relief will be under
taken by the powers that be.
In an editorial commenting upon the
statements made by Mr.. Warner the
Pittsburg Dispatch makes use of the fol-
lowing language:
That human beings should be worked to
| death on starvation wages and surrou ndin.,s
| that are a direct encouragement to the propa-
| CATION of disease in any civilized country at
the close of the Nineteenth century is matter
| for very deep and sorrowful reflection. That
such conditions of slavery are to be found in
this great and glorious republic of the free
would be incredible were the facts not proved
And the facts being proved, the continuance
of the iniquity cannot be longer tolerated in
| silence.
Persons who are Mortified to hear of the alb
ject misery in which their less fortunate fell
lows labor are wont to think little OF their
share of the responsibility therefor. Nothing
short of conscientiousness on the part of con-
sumers can eliminate the demand for produc-
tions at prices dependent upon the sweating
system.
Let Christian men and women, let all human
beings who believe in the brotherhood Of the
race, be thoroughly informed of the crcum-
stances under which this white slavery exists,
and they cannot fail to take measures for It's
eradication without being open to accusations
of hypocrisy. While one section of society
consents in thoughtlessness or cynicism to live
at the terrible cost of another, tenements unfit
for habitation will be overcrowded, and many