Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-03-07
FEW SWEATSHOPS.
RESULTS OF AGITATION IN NEW YORK
 BY UNION LABOR.


 Progressive |LegIsIation = The Low
 Earnings of Home workers-Sta-
 tistics Gathered by the State Labor
 Bureau.
 John McMackin, commissioner of la Dor of New York state, has submitted to the legislature the annual report of the bureau of labor statistics.
 The report includes the results of an inquiry into the earnings of home workers in New York city tenements> A summary of the report follows:
 Recent Investigations conducted by the United States industrial commis- sion and other official bodies have re- vealed decided change in the condi- tion of the unorganized workers in the clothing trade and similar pursuits car ried on in the tenement districts of the great cities. The old time 'sweatshop" in the dwellings of the poor has well nigh disappeared in consequence of the legislative policy initiated in this state in 1892. An act. of that year amending the factory law made unlaw- ful the employment of any but imme- diate members of the family in work room in any dwelling. The effect of this law was to divide tenement work places into two distinct classes-the family workroom in the dwelling and the workshop in a tenement building, but outside the dwelling. The large workshop thus separated from the dwelling became subject to the visita- ton of the factory inspectors the same as other manufacturing ablishments, but the workroom in the dwelling, be- ing used solely by members of the fam lily and constituting part of their home, could not be invaded by state or local officials. To meet this situation the, leg islature in 1890 prohibited the manu- fracture of clothing and other specified articles in any tenement building ex- cept with the permission of the state factory inspector, who was to issue a license for such manufacture only when satisfied that the work would be done under proper hygienic and sant- kary conditions.
 While legislation was thus limiting the number of workmen who might be brought together in 8 dwelling place through the exclusion of all persons outside of the family, economic devel- opment was requiring the associa ton of larger and larger numbers of work CTS in a single work place in order to obtain the full advantage of the prin- cipIe of the division of labor. The two tendencies combined to remove most processes in the manufacture of cloth ing from the dwelling to the district shop. What was left to be done in the home was simply the finishing of gar ments-the felling, the sewing on of buttons, etc.-a class of work that nat urally falls into the hands of women. Besides these home finishers,'' who comprise the vast majority of all the home workers in New York city tene- ments, there are few custom and Journeymen taiIors, each of whom makes the entire garment at his home as in former times, so that the workers on clothing comprise more than 28, ,00O of the entire 27, ,o0o persons who at last accounts worked in the licensed family workrooms in New York city. There were also among the home workers somewhat more than 1000 makers of neckwear, nearly 1000 makers of arti- ficial flowers and about the same num- Der of cigar makers, while small num- bers were engaged in the manufacture of millinery goods, white goods, fur goods, hats and caps, purses, umbrel- las, etc.
 The sanitary conditions of family workrooms have been frequently inves- figated in the interest of the protection of the public health against the danger of disease transmitted through tene- ment made goods. But the economic condition of the home workers them selves is also matter of general inter est, which has not as yet been ade- quately described, chiefly on account of the difficulties attending the collec- ton of statistics among foreign born persons, who are generally ignorant of our language. But the factory inspect ors, who are brought into frequent contact with the home workers in the course of their daily duties, have nat uraIly acquired some facility in hold ing intercourse with them and were therefore able while making their semiannual inspection of tenement work places in August to gather suf- ficiently large number of reports to  show forth with some approximation to accuracy the actual income of the home workers in metropolitan tenements.
 The average earnings among the male home workers were $290 for the first six months of 1902, but nearly two-thirds of them (oe out of 15D were skilled workmen (tailors employed in making the entire garment). The aver age earnings of male home finishers, who had an average of one helper apiece, amounted to only $213 for the six months. This was supplemented by outside earnings of other members of the family, so that the total family in- come of male home fnishers amounted on the average to $25S in the first half of the year 1902, which was further in- creased to $274 by the letting of lodg- fngs, etc. The custom tailors averaged S31S (S331 with outside work and $346 with income from board and lodgings), U q 4sx41s prr@A