The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1902-10-13
.TOILERS IN TENEMENTS
REAL GOOD is DONE BY LIcENs.
ING "sWEATsHoPs"
New Sanitary Homes Which Have
HealthfuI Goods-New York Act Re-
quiring Tenement Workers to Be
Licensed Acts Like Charm In
lettering Physical Conditions.

worst danger spots in this, as in ev-
cry great metropolis, is the sweatshop
as it exists in the tenements. Such
places have been always far more
numerous in New York than the just
dues of labor, the public health, or
the reputation Of the city can afford.
But the immense influx Of cheap,
starvation foreign labor into this port.
and the fact that it is the commercial
center of the country, combined to Gre
ate the existing conditions, and all that
could or can be done-to regulate and
ameliorate so far as legislation and
overlooking can accomplish, the con-
ditions prevailing in our local under
world Of tenement house sweatshop
labor.
Here we have what equals the popu-
lation of good sized town engaged
in the performance of work that may
lawfully be taken home and done there.
There are 22,3S7 licenses now held by
workers, and under these $4,000 people,
the majority being adult females and
children, are working daily. In more
cases the labor is performed at home,
on account of the necessity for the
women remaining at home to look aft
er domestic duties. Besides, the fam
lies are generally SO poorly off, and
the father so seldom earns enough to
keep the house going, that it becomes
absolutely necessary for the women
to work too. The children, as soon az
they are big enough, are pressed into
the service to help out the family
finances.
tour of these work shop homes to-
day would amaze the explorer, espe-
cially If he had ever made similar
tour through the same class of places
in the past. The law has operated to
produce a most surprising improve
lnfof 4I1o4
and menace to the health Of the oc-
cupants, goods which, made in such
surroundings, were peril to the pub
TIC health, are now, respectively, clean
ly, comparatively cheerful, quite sani-
tary, and reach the public in a per-
fectly innocuous condition.
How the Law Works.
This is the excellent result of an excel
! lent law, which has been in operation
in the metropolis for some time. II
was simply a law which commanded
That persons who lab0red permanently
In their own homes should take out
state licenses. This is the manner of
its working: A license is applied for,
Whereupon factory inspector is sent
| to make a report. The license will be
granted only if the inspector reports
that the premises are in a proper san
1tary condition, and that the goods
which 1T is proposed to make there can
be made under conditions which are
healthy.
The license fixes the number of peo-
pie who may work in the room, each
one of whom must have $50 cubic feet
of air and at night 400 feet Imperative
rules of continued cleanliness are i'm
posed upon the applicants for licenses.
and they are required to admit the fac
tory inspector "at reasonable times"
that he may certify that the terms of
| the license are being fully complied
| with. Whenever, during such visits. an
insanitary state of things is d1scov-
cred, the license is revoked and any
| goods being sent out from that partic-
ular workshop are labeled as not sani-
tary. Should contagious diseases be
discovered the board of health is no.
| titled and the measures necessary in
| such cases are taken without delay.
Nor is every applicant who receives a
license, for within the first three months
| of the present year 532 applicants for
/ licenses were refused and 262 were re-
| voked.
Interesting illustrations of the profits
| and hours of labor of these tenement
| houses of sWeat-shop workers in the
| great city of New York are revealed by
| investigations of the officials charged
| with their superintendence. In one in
stance a manufacturer of clothing
| paid to the contractor the following
| schedule of prices: Trousers, eleven
| cents; vests, thirteen cents; coats
| tWenty-three cents. An entire suit OF
clothes, fory-seven cents-and, OF
course, including cutting. Out of these
| prices the contractor had to make his
| profits as middleman, so the figures
| paid the tenement house toilers were
necessarily considerably lower.
Net Prices to Workers.
| sample Of the workers net prices
may be seen in this: A mother and
| daughter, regarded as expert operators
| on tine neckt1es, and receiving fifty
| cents a dozen, were able to make, be-
tween them, one dollar a day, counting
the days work as a fourteen hour shift
The average rate for sewing on but
tons was found to be five cents pei
gross. Finishing sack coats was done
at the rate of two cents each. For the
| complete making of a mans sack coal
thirty-five cents a coat. The finishing
of ready made pants was worth ter
| cents dozen. A coat was finished fol
eight cents and vest for half cent
| Artificial flowers, with five petals to 9
| stem, and one hundred and thirty five
| stems to a wreath, brought to the
maker eighty cents a dozen. Black
| silk violets were made for two cents a
| gross.
Such articles as these make up the
| main part of the work given out to the
laborers in tenements; and although in
the case Of highs grade clothing the
| prices paid are higher, that class OF
| work is not so easy to obtain.
Every tenement house worker Is
| obliged to keep a regular book in &C
| count with the contractor or manufac-
| turer who employs him. In this book
the worker enters each amount paid
| him, with the usual accompanying de-
tails, and the earnings quoted below
are copied directly from these account
| books. A man who worked nine hours
| a day for the first six months of this
| year, making neckties, according to his
book earned during that period ninety
four dollars and eighty eight cents.
| Some of the Earnings.
| Between them working one hundred
and ten hours week, a man and wife,
! making high grade trousers at $1.25
per pair. realized during the first six
months of the year $219. A woman
who had an invalid husband earned $66
in six months on coats. A woman, and
child of II years, working together
| sewing on buttons, in six months re-
| allied SOS. An old couple in their six
IleS, SiSuI uOuI . d udy, GdTueQ weekly
| a grand total for the two of them of
| $3.50 a week. An average of eight
working hours a day brought a young
| Brooklyn woman in weekly income
| of from eighty cents to dollar and
seventy-five cents. This was on the
| finishing of vests. A hundred hours a
week of working time, put in steadily
for six months by two young sisters on
the finishing Of pants, earned for the
fvryn o1f 81 he ~
this year, just fifty-five dollars.
Such figures as those just given are
selected from the official return as be-
ing really typical. There are thou
sands Of others, similar in character,
| to be found in the same place.