The Goodland republic. [volume] (Goodland, Kan.) 1891-1907, 1893-03-31
SWEATING SYSTEM.
Report of House Commute of FIay-
Second Congress. ~


making up which frequently txo, and
sometimes more, mlddlemen's profits
must be sweated. The housshold8 in
which it is made include manysoft The
most wretched in which human beings
exist among us. The conditionsaof
squalor and filth are such as in laege
proportion of cases to make even in
spection impossible except by one
hardened to the process. while .gthe
quarters toward which this work seems
to tend are the eddies into which SEEM
to have drifted the most wretehed and
ignorant of our population, and from
which are scattered much Of the crime
and more of the disease than infest
our large cities. From the wholesale
manufacturer. marketing from 81, 600
900 to 100000 worth of goods per
year, though the middleman of the
home tenement worker, the steps are
steadily dOwnward-of a decreasing
prominence and responsibility in a
business way, of decreasing comfort
and compensation. the profit of each
one of the line, above the wretch who
tolls at the bottom, being sweated
from the one next below him.
So tar as concerns operatives in the
contractors shops, while there may be
much to suggest as to certain instan-
ces and places, yet your committee
has found no sueba general condition
as to call for c6ngftssfolal consider
alton: In several cities their condi-
ton is being steadily bettered as the
result of the work of local or state in
spectOrs. The operatives employed in
them receive the ordinary wages OF
other labor. skilled or unskilled. of
similar grade. Woman labor is neith-e
er exceptionally prevalent or poorly
compensated, and child labor is little
used-probably not more than in the
same localities and in other cailings it
would be used without question.
ers and tyrannical ones, good ones and
bad ones of every kind; but then only
special features worth mentioning
here are perhaps. first, that the pre-
portion of foreign-born labor is ex--
traordinary when compared with that
employed in other occupations, and
that the hours are frequently-though
BIO no means nvariablv-longer than
those at which in similar sized shops
of other industries they would be per-
mitted to work.
In the tenement sweat shops, how
ever. the conditions are radically
changed for the worse. In the first
place, unhealthy and unclean conditi-
ons are almost universal, while those
of filth and contagion are common.
The proportion of foreign born and
newly arrived immigrants is so large
that others form an inconsie cradle
proportion. The circumstances of the
| wage workers making them more de-
pendent in getting along in the new
country to which they have come.
they are more subject to hard treat-
ment by the subcontractor or sweater
who employs them, though it must not
be supposed that the latter are par
ticularly inhuman class. The proper
ton of female labor arises to a much
larger proportion than in the first con-
tractors shops, and child labor is gen.
orally used. while as to wages they
average from 25 to $50 per cent less
than in the larger shops, and as to.
hours there is practically no limit, ex-
cept the endurance of the employe,the
work not merely being paid for by the
/ task. but the task so adjusted as prac--
LEGALLY to drive from the shop each
employe who is not willing to work to
the limit of physical endurance, the
hours of labor under this system rarely
being less than II, generally Is or IA,
sand frequently from 10 to IS hours in
/ the "a.
- The lot, however, of these tenement
house shop workers is enyiable COM
pared to that of those engaged in tene-.
nent house home. work. except, how
ever. the limited number as above
noted engaged in the customs trade
under a different system. The tene-
ment house worker is almost invari-
ably foreigner. generally Of a short
stay in this country. frequently defec--s
tive in habits or physical or in nentals
capacity, or woman whom the death
OF worthlessness of her husband leaves
to support family. which prevents
her leaving her home. Here the labor
is practically all foreign born. The
women are more numerous thans the
men, aud the children are as nuper-
Gus as either. The work is carried on.
in the one. two, or three rooms occu-
pied by the family. which probably
has, as subtenants or boardeifs., an
eoual number of outsiders. Na-bre-