The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1903-06-17

SYSTEM
Of Making Clothing as
Told by a Woman
WHO HAS STUDIED CONDITIONS
Most of the Work Done by Foreigners
Who Get Starvation Wages.
WHO HAS STUDIED CONDITIONS

In introducing the published repor
Of an investigation made in Philadel-
phia into the conditions in which the
makers Of mems clothing live and la
Dor, Anna G. WatmOuth, president Of
the Philadelphia Branch of the Con
sumers' League of Pennsylvania says:
The report is published with the
hope that what it shows will serve tC
rouse public opinion and interest in 6
trade carried On largely by foreigners
under conditions entirely foreign tC
orr native standard of living. and yei
a trade which, from the nature of its
product, comes into closest relation
with our American home life That
fact makes possible the two great
evils which characterize the clothing
industry; first. the introduction OF
crowded workshops into the homes OF
the workers; and second, the distribu
ton of clothing which is often infect
ed by disease"
Following are a few of the more i'm
pOrtant portions Of the report, which
is quite exhaustive in its way and
worthy Of close examination by those
interested:
The highest wages paid in the
country shops to women is 50 a week,
and the lowest $275. the average be-
ing 1922. This Includes coat and
trousers shops both in the farming
out districts and at Egg Harbor A
more helpful comparison. perhaps.
might be made between the state
ments Of country home workers on
trousers given above and the wages
paid in trousers shop in the same
district. The women operators in
this shop are paid by the piece. and
the average is s. per week
The CITY contractors, throughout
the year. fill in che deficiencies in sea-
average price paid city contractors
is slightly higher than the price paid
for country WORK If we now take the
total wages invo'v2d in the making of
a garment, rat Fer than the averages
paid the diffeTe.., classes of workers.
or the total aveGaHo for the trade. we
can make clear. comparison in the
costs Of manufacture so far as wages
are concerned.
Average Cost in Wages Per Garment.
To city contractors:
H00I0' $500 .'........ V.Zlo
Trousers, >. 49,. 49,. :. 0.207
10 country contractors:
Coats, =. . so S7
vests o.ll5
Trousers O129
The most striking difference be
tween the country and town shops is
that the operators in the town shops
are invariably men and in the country
shops they are usually women. This
latter has been made possible through
the Introduction of steam or electric
power, which superSedes foot power.
and in Montgomery and Bucks coun-
ties, where the shops are younger,
foot power is not in use at all. The
presence Of men in the country shops
as operators almost always indicates.
in the table, shop run by foot
power. The exceptions to this are
two American coat operators who
gave their wages as $12 per week.
The part Of the city trade con
sidered here is practically confined to
Russian Jews, if we except the cut
tiers and women who Finish" in their
homes. The cutters are Americans.
and most of the women referred to
are Italians. Out of over one hun
dred shops which We visited we found
only two owned by Italian contractors.
The rest were Jewish. The operators
who were working in both of these
shOpse were Italians, the pressers
were Jews, and the others were both
Jews and Italians
of the 261 whom we'QuestiOned as
to nationality. 237 We're Jews. twenty
were Italians, and four wrer women
finishers. The average number of
years these people had lived in the
United States, based upon 225 answers
was nine. The lowest time was one
and One-half years, and the highest
thirty years. Out of a total of flftv
women finishers working in shops.
thlrty-three We're jewish thirteen
were Italians, and four were Ameri
cans
I'm the country districts of Penn
sylvania the garment workers are
almost entirely Pennsylvania Dutch.
In New Jersey they are Americans
and German Americans 1t seems ne
cessary to make this latter distinction
as many of them speak German among
themselves. Both the Pennsylvania
Dutch and these Americans of Ger
man parentage are clannish people
but there is no evidence of a lower
standard of living than among their
American neighbors.
ITO understand how and to what
extent the country work affects the
wages of city garment makers. we
must consider, first, wages for the
country home workers. The compari-
son of wages between town and coun-
try workers in ShOnS is a fair nra