The wageworker. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1904-????, 1904-05-20
THE SWEAT SHOPS
Spreaders of rlisery, Dis
ease and Death.
Some Plain Facts for Chronic ssBar-
gain Hunters" to Ponder on
for a Little While.

You women who are forever hunt
ing bargains seeking to buy the
cheapest! Did you ever stop to think
that your desperate hunt tor bargains
is a source of misery despair and
death to hundreds of ,5ur sex every
year? The cheap things you make
such desperate effort to buy are US
ually made in sweat shops by iholl W.
eyed women and children who already
bear the death damp upon their brows.
Every time you chuckle and con-
gratulate yourself on having secured
a wrapper at a bargain, Just stop and
think that the poor woman in the
sweat shop receives the magnificent
wage of 40 cents a doz. n for making
them cents each.
You buy a cambria dress, with lined
waist and some trimming at what you
consider a great bargain. Do ycu
know that the life blood of one OF your
sex is sewed into the seams of that
''bargain?" Some sweat shop worker
is making those dresses for 10 cents
each.
That pretty nightgown, with tucked
yokes and insertion-you got it at
great bargain. Much cheaper than
you could bay the material and make
it yourself. Some pool woman in a
New York sweat shop is making those
nightgowns for one dol.ar dozen
less than 10 cents each.
Those pretty aprons you got at sl'ch
bargain Some poor sweat snop
worker had to make dozen OF them
in order to earn % Gems.
Sweat shop workers are making silk
shirt waists and receiving the munif-
icent wage of SO cents dozen in or
der that you may get a bargain.
Neckties are being made at $1.25 a
gross-less than a penry each.
Trousers are finished ior from 2 70
10 cents pair. +g.gs..s i ii.
Mems coats aid overcoats are being
finished at from to iV cents a gar
ment.
The competition of helpless chii-
dren and oyerworked women GUS
wages until tenement workers are
practically made paupnrs, outside OF
the short rush seasons.
Thus home work in the tenen.ents
the privacies of life; it robs the child
of it's schooling, it's parents, it's very
home. 1t breaks down the adult years
before his time by its grinding pres
sure; it kills the weak. In the sweated
trades a man is old at Lhirty-fve; his
trade life probably shorter than hat
of men in any other occupation, the
factory inspectors tell us. tuberculosis
is the characteristic uIsease OF both
men and women.
Yet all these tenement Industries
exist to supply demand; for these
goods there is always purchaser, ig-
norant, as rule, of the anIect dents of
his purchase.
In Gods name, good women OF
America, cease this mad rush for
bargains Give women and children
a chance to live littie better tan
gutter rats Give them a chance to
get breath of pure air once or twice
grass growing and leaves rustIing in
the breeze.
Join the Woman's Union Label
League and insist upon seeing the Ia
bel upon all you buy. The label means
health and strength an happiness to
all who work upon the article bear
ing it.
Stop and consider the fact that your
craze for bargains IS starving wo-
men by the hundreds, killing infants
oy the score, stunning children men
ally and morally, filling the aims
houses, recruiting the houses OF pros
.ltution and piling up rich fees for the
coroner and the undertaken.
The sweat shop is OIL. of the great
,st evils of the presen, day, and wo-
nen who love their Goo and their tel
ows can drive it out forever il they
will but try.