The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1898-10-30

We're found in small densely crowded
rooms OF extreme uncleanliness--room
which no one would hesitate to call
sweaters dens.
II is often admitted, "No we don't
know the conditions under which GER
tain lines of goods are made, nor is
there any reason why we should" But
II the question is put to the owner of
the store, If a sufficient body of GUS
toners did really care about it, would
IL not be worth your while to find out,
and even to give trustworthy guaran-
tees that the goods were made under
peter, rather than under worse con-
dltlons," there is little doubt about the
answer. Indeed the strongest affirma-
1--WE testimony has already been given
on this point, and it contains the gist
or such justification as there is for a
consumers league. The manager of
one OF the foremost New York stores
says: Ii there is any way of inducing
a soodly number Of buyers to study
the question and act as if they cared,
we could find out about great MANY of
our goods of which we are now ignor-
ant, but they never seem to care in the
ieast. This is also the opinion of two
managers of Boston stores.
Two Facts are then clear: "a Even
thouSh the beginning is small one.
guarantees can already be given to the
buyer that certain classes of goods are
not sWeated goods. (2) That the chief
reason why this has not been done is
that the purchasing public has hitherto
peen ignorant or Indifferent as to any.
method of improving the situation.
Can this formidable difficulty of the
buyers ignorance and indifference be
SO tar met by the Consumers League
as TO make 1t worth while for the en-
pIoyer to find out where and how his
goods H. g. that portion of them with
Wnlch We are coneerned) are produced?
AT this point it must be said that the
consumers League is not a movement
against cheapness as cheapness, but
only against that cheapness which is
pound up with dangerously low sur
roundings The application of science
ana machinery, with factory conditions
higher wages and fewer hours, makes
extreme cheapness possible without
necessarily taking it out of the laborer.
II is necessary to lay extreme emphasis
upon this fact, that cheapness is of
course a boon to the poor 1t is a di-
rect and important addition to their
wages. The cheapness desired by the
Consumers League is that which sci
ence and machinery make possible in
spite of higher wages, shorter working
is now an accepted economic fact that
low wages and bad conditions do not
as a rule give us the cheap products
An overwhelming proportion of the
cheapest products are made by those
who work under best conditions and
with far higher wages and fewer hours
than would be found in the squalid
quarters of the sweater A great vars
iety of goods of the very lowest price
90 1n diraaflxr 70 ha oil.
cumstances for the worker This is the
cheapness of which we cannot have too
much; especially the poor cannot have
too much of 1t.
VIII any one maintain that by care
full investigation, and with the cooper
alton which employers are willing to
give, 1t is impossible for us to de-
mand from the stores land therefore
to get made) articles that are produced
under good rather than under bad con-
ditions? The uniform answer at the
store has been, why should we take
trouble about this as long as the pub
lie does not care where things are pro-
duced?"
All that the Consumers League asks
is that this economic principal shall be
applied. even if at the start it be upon
a small area and with relatively few
things. Investigation and cooperation
will continually add to the number of
things honestly made and deeently
paid. Here is the true "white list
not of stores, but a white list of
products and conditions which the con-
sumer makes in the purchasing. To
make this white list of properly made
and fairly paid goods known to the
largest number of buyers-to persuade
them to practice the new economic viz
tue of creating excellence by buying
excellence, is the end and aim of the
Consumers League.
The Consumers League is thus seen
ito be primarily an educational nove-
ment 1t is an education of our econo-
mic desires as these pass into purchas-
es. 1t is to teach us how to want
right things, rightly made. It is ia
teach us the ways through which an
organized buying of the best reacts
upon the workers life. 1t is to teach
us how to buy. so that the strain, the
burden. the squalor Of much Of the in
dustrial life about us may be diminish
ed