The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-04-28

duct small shops on their own &C
count These underbid each other Il
obtain work. They do not make com
mon cause against the manufacturers
either by combining among themselve:
or by uniting with their employees
! employees TO the utmost TO compensate
/ themselves for the eXactions of the
manufacturers and the competition
among themselves.
/ The economic position of the sweater
IS anomalous. He has no commercial
risks; he gives the manufacturer nc
considerable security for the goods en-
trusted to his care, and rarely has
more than wagon load of them in his
possession; he pays one weeks rent in
! advance for his shop (Which knay also
J be his dwelling) and buys his sewing
| machines on the installment plan, pay
ing for them IS cents a week each; or
he may still further reduce his invest
ment by requiring his operators To
furnish their own machines. Finally
he does not pay his employees until
| he receives his money for the finished
/ lot
The report Of the labor bureau OF
Illinois showed a steady reduction in
the prices for work. During the last
four years the price which the sweater
receives Tor making overcoats has been
reduced from $3.50 each to 81. In some
cases the contract price for low grade
oYercoats is now only 80 cents each.
For sack coats the price has been re-
duced from so cents to 50 cents each.
For trousers several shops report re-
auctions from 40 to 20 cents per pair;
others report a decline from 40 cents
in 1885 to % cents at the present time;
in the cheaper grades contract prices
are now as low as 10 cents d pair. n
man and wife were found working at
home on trousers at IS cents per pair;
they could finish ten pairs a day, earn
ing $3.50, or 90 cents each
Competition is not only reducing
prices but also eliminating the better
class of workers, thus reducing the
morals of the remainder. 1t drives the
business into the very lowest quarters
where cheap tenementS and cheap
labor are concentrated. One evidence
of this tendency is the fact that the
system is chiefly spreading at present
among the recently imported Russian
Jews and Poles, who eagerly take in
the cheapest work and execute it in
the most Squalid places.
At all seasons the reserve army of
labor presses heavily upon the resu-
larly employed and this enables the
sweater to dole out work in such small
quantities that his employees are all
eager to get as much as possible and
will accept whatever price the sweater
offers. This is true of all departm ents
of the work, but especially of the home
finishers who combine with their sew
ing the care of their children and the
discharge of household duties. Very
many of these finishers are married
women. having ablebodied husbands
who support their families. The wo-
men work when they can and for
whatever they can get, and thus keen
prices down for the women who are
wholly dependent upon themselves for
living.
1t is difficult to define the rate Of
wages or the earnings of the depen-
dents upon the sweating shops. From
the best shops to the lowest the scale
declines, through the inevitable opera
ton of the system, to point where
1T is a mockery to name either the rate
or the meagre sums received.
The ordinary hours of labor in the
best shops is ten each day for six DAYS
per week. In the worst shops and
during the busy season the hours are
from a. m. TO 10 .. m, seven days a
week. During the dull season in March
the hours are shorter, work more
scarce and earnings consequently
smaller.
Legislation seems to be able to do
little to improve or eradicate the
sweating system. It is a result of CON
ditlons which create unnatural com
petition among 1aborers, forcing them
to accept any wage and any terms
which will afford them a living. how
ever miserab bic and precarious Tho
only certain remedy is in destrovine
this unnatural competition.