El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1899-01-04
TO FIGHT THE SWEAT SHOP.
New York's Four Hundred to Estab-
1lsh a Cooperative Tailor
Shop.

Shop.
New York Journal.
Two months ago the leaders of the
1900" declared that they would drive
out the swestshops from New York.
Now, Mrs. Frederick w. Vanderbilt,
Mrs. Lorillsrd Spencer, Miss Helen
Phelps Stokes, Mrs. Stuyvesant Fish,
Mrs. Elliott Shepard and the daught-
ers of Ex-Governor Morton, With fol-
lowing of nearly two hundred of the
"4OO," have pledged Themselves to
open a cooperative tailor shop on
February l.
Their gowns will be designed, cut,
fitted, tried on and finished, from be-
ginning to end, in the shop. The
company will be organized and incor-
porated this week. Enough shares
have been sold to form the capital
stock of $4,000. Two hundred fashion
elusive set have promised their exclu-
sive patronage to the shop. It will be
located in the very fashionable heart
of Fifth avenue. It will be as elegant
as any of it's srivals. It is promised
that the work will be as good as any
done in New York.
The work will all be done in the
clean, sunny rooms OF the shop. The
wages will be of the living not the
" u
will be reasonable. No one will be
permitted to "work overtime" The
gentle hands of the women of the 400"
are striking q death blow at the sweat
shops.
The new shop had It's origin in the
parade of hungry men up Fifth avenue
on October 18. That fashionable thor
oughfare sis not the haunt of hungry
men. Its habitues are well fed and
P,rt
the ladies' tsilors who had been lock-
ed out for twenty two weeks and whose
wifes and children were crying for
food, had purpose in this October
promenade on Fifth avenue. They
had never begged in their lives, but
they thought the time had come to beg
sympathy from the dwellers in the
brOwn-stone fronts.
Placards were carried by the men
and circulars were distributed by the
women. Minus the poor spelling and
worse rhetoric the story told by the
placards and circulars was this:
LADIES.
1--WE are the tailors who have made
the coats and gowns for the richest
ladies in the country, without being
able to earn enough to keep our
selves and our families from starva-
ton.
I'VE have been locked out for twen-
ty-two weeks for refusing to yield the
right to belong to q union. We we're
discharged because we refused to sign
the following document:
T., residing at, do upon
my honor affirm that 1 am not q men,
Der of any union or other trade Or
ganization, and l do pledge myself
should I, while in the employ Of.
join union or any other trade Or
gauization, to inform my said
employer OF that fact Immediate
ly.'
"This meant that we would be dis
charged if we belonged to union. We
refused to sign away our manhood, aud
we're discharged
Lists of the men who refused to en-
ploy union tailors we're displayed.
There has been a noticeable falling off
of the best patronage of their shops
since the parade.
The sympathies of the fair dwellers
on Fifth avenue were awakened. Their
sense of justice was aroused.
The new shop in Fifth avenue is the
result.
The plan finally adopted is outlined
in the following circular, which has
reached every fashionable house in
Fifth avenue and its envirOns:
"The undersigned hereby agree TO
subscribe for the number of sh ,sres of
the Ladies' Tailors' :Co-operative COM
panY set in front of their DANES re-
spectively; said shares to rs of $50
each; the total capital OF the said COM