The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-04-28
THE SWEATING SYSTEM.
THE RESULT OF UNNATURAL COM
PETITION.
Not n New Thing-Where 1T Prevails
Wages and Hours of Work
Legislation sCan Do Lfttle-A Me-
mace to Health and Morals.

The sweating system is of respecta-
BILE antiquity. 1t is a survival OF the
| industrial system which preceded the
factory system when industry was
chiefly conducted on the piece-price
plan in small shops or the homes OF
the workers.
In practice, sweating consists of the
farming out by competing manutac-
turers to competing contractors the ma
teriaI for garments, which, in turn, IS
distributed among competing men and
women to be made UP. The middle
man, or contractor, is the sweater,
although he also may be himself SUBJ
jected to pressure from above) and MS
employees are the Sweated or OPP
pressed. He contracts to make up Ger
tain garments, at a given price per
piece and then hires other people to
do the work at a less price. His profit
lies in the difference between the TWO
prices. In the process he will furnish
shop-room and machines to some. ana
allow others, usually the finishers. to
take the work to their living and lodg-
ing rooms i'll tenements.
The sweater may be compelled 10
under-bid his fellow contractor in order
to get work, but he can count with
degree of certainty, on the eagerness
Of the people who work for him to
also under-bid each other, so as to
leave his margin of profit but little
impaired. The system thrives upon the
increasing demand for cheap, ready
made clothing, cheap c1oaks. and cheap
suits for children, which demand
springs in turn from the rivalry of
competing dealers and producers. Thus
each class -preys upon the other, and
all Of them upon the last and weakest.
In Berlin the hardshtps OF the sew
ing women have been-a subject of Of
fetal investigation and the conditions
disclosed have closely resembled those
In London, New York and Chicago.
England is the classic home of the
sweating system and in London it has
reached it's maximum development.
In this country the whole ready-made
clothing trade rests upon the sweating
system in some of Its various forms.
From Boston, for many years. gar
ments have been sent throughout New
England to be made by the wives and
daughters of the country people, but
the more recent migration Of Poles and
Italians to that city has introduced
new form of cheap labor and much
clothing of the poorer grades goes to
hcnes. Recent legislation and tene-
ment inspection has, however, done
much to improve sanitary conditions
among them and remove much of the
danger from infectious diseases.
From Philadelphia garments are sent
into New Jersey and Delaware, as well
as throughout the farming districts of
Pennsylvania, to be stitched by wo-
men. Vast quantities Of clothing. such
as cotton and wooden shirts and wo-
mems underwear, are farmed out under
contract to charitable and other in
stitutions, while clothing for the army
and navy, and for the postal service.
is largely made under the sweating
system, both in Philadelphia and Balti-
more.
The great centre of the clothing
trade is, however, in New York city.
There whole streets are reported as
having shops or home finishers in
every house. 1t is particularly difficult
to ascertain the number of persons
thus employed in that city, because it
is augmented by every ship load of
emigrants from Russia, Bohemia,
Scandinavia and Italy, and again re-
dueed by deportations to the west.
Sweaters shops are now scattered even
among those villages Of Long Island
and New Jersey which are easily ac-
cessible by ferryboat from New York.
No successful check upon the system
has yet been accomplished by legisla-
ton in that state. A measure recently
passed embraces somewhat trenchant
provisions, but its results remain as
yet to be seen. The reports OF the
factory inspector reveal a state of
things not surpassed by the English
reports.
ploy a number of sweaters who nom