New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1897-05-23
CLOTHES AND THEIR MAKERS.

The tailors' strike and the tailors tariff pro-
test call attention to the depressing and even
degrading conditions to which a great branch
of industry is constantly subjected For, al
though it may have many different names for
its various departments, the making OF clothing
from cloth is, after all, one industry, and that
of high importance because it determines the
conditions and the home life Of a great multi
tude Of people The journeyman who works in
the establishment of fashionable merchant
tailor mistakes if he thinks that his interests
are in no way affected by the practices prevail
ing In the sweatshops or the treatment or gar
ment-makers by contractors The border line
between the ready made and the customs trades
is perpeuay shifting. and, In consequence of
changes in the cost Of product and wages ana
conditions of labor, all the way from one ex-
IRENE 10 the other
The merchant taors protest that the present
tariff is unjust TO Them and tends to transfer
to foreign shops the work Of clothing Amcri-
cans 1t plainly lessons consumption of Ameri-
can-nade cloth, and dcprivcs manufacturers OF
business and Injuries manufacturing operatives,
besides deprlvlng Government of a large rcve-
nue. which, If the foreign clothing Is to be i'm
ported. it should realize. The protest declares
passing into the hands of the European tailors,
land we are poweress. because either the Gus
toms cnactments or the constructions of them
"by the courts allow hundreds Of thousands OF
American tourists to purchase and bring IN
their clothing from abroad without paying one
Gent of the duty" 1t is equally true that the
tailors milliners and dressmakers who go abroad
every year, and return with vast quantities of
goods which are passed free their personal
baggage are in fact, conducting wholesale
business in smuggling.
The tariff has never been intended to deprive
travellers and tourists Of the advantage of bring
ing in free of duty the clothing they may have
bought abroad for their own actual use. though
it may be urged that laws should not favor that
well-to-do class, and discriminate against those
who have not means for travel and buy their
clothes at home. When such discrimination in
wolves heavy loss of revenue also. the remedy
is a sufficient duty on imported clothing Of every
description. The House Tariff bill limited the
value Of foreign goods which could be brought
in free as personal baggage to 500 for each
person. The Senate bill strikes out the limita-
ton, leaving each person to bring in as bag
gage such foreign wearing apparel. articles OF
personal adornment, toilet articles and similar
"include such articles as actually accompany
"and are in use of and as are necessary and ap-
"proprate for the wear and use of such persons.
The striking garmen-makers at the other end
of the Industrial line are complaining bitterly Of
their treatment by the contractors and other en-
ployers and are preparing TO apply to the State
for legislation to protect them. They are max
ing out lists of agreements which the contractors
| ,l. In
which the workers have been swindled out Of
their wages by the actual or pretended failure
of the contractor and the transfer of all his prop
erty TO his wife 1t Is not improbable that some
legislation TO prevent abuses in this quarter may
be wise. though extremely difficult to frame But
it cannot be denied that the condition Of this
| vast number of workers in all the great cities
affects most injuriously the circumstances and
the wages Of others far above them in the scale
| of remuneration, whose industry is nevertheless
| pcrpctually limited or depressed by the extreme
cheapness with which garments can be produced
| by a combination of sweating and swindllng.