The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-08-12
WOMEN BEWARE OF
 TAINTED BARGAINS

causes Illness. cheap medicine that
 does not cure, There is. howevAr. a
 large class of intelligent and we'll
 to-do shoppers who entirely ignore the
 dangers lurking in another class of
 bargains. knows a mother who so
 carefully guarded her child that she
 had never ~allowed her to ride in a
 street car nor play In the park with
 other children, nor go to any school.
 lest she might contract some contagf-
 ous disease. Yet this same careful
 mother had purchased cheap cloak
 ready made. at a weli-known estab-
 lishment, where only the 'custom-
 made" clothing was made in the firms
 own workrooms, the rest being pur-
 chased fro manufacturers who
 ssiEked responsibility by giving
 their work out to be done under she scarlet fever Where caught? No one
 knows. But another case came under
 my personal observation. where in
 vestigation was possible. woman
 bought shirt waist at a bargain
 counter few years ago and shortly
 after wearing 1t noticed peculiar
 rash on her body. This proved to be
 weiI-known skin disease. which the
 physicians found dificult to cure Her uuSbaHd mdNe eeHEcH ana aiscOFcFSu
 that the shirt waist had been made
 in a dirty sweatshop by q young girl
 who for years had been victim of
 this disease These bargains were in-
 deed costly to the purchasers. and the
 foelhardiness of buying sweatshop
 bargains. physically tainted. becomes
 at once apparent.
 It is conceded that tuberculosis is
 infectious: 1t is an established fact nf "A n
 that quarter of New York city known
 as the least side are filled with
 tuberculosis germs: the dried tubercle
 has been found In the dust taken by
 way of experiment from different
 houses at random There are about
 104.000 people in the entire State of New York employed in the garment making industry and of this number about Se.000 work In this crowded tenement house district. Men. women
 and children in the last stages of consumption work until they are too weak to sit up. and the garments made in these infected novels are distributed all over the country. Is there any
 wonder that one-seventh of the entire number of deaths is due to tuberculo- sis? Persons living In Kalamazoo. Topeka, Richmond Or Savannah are just as likely to buy these germs with their garments as though they pur- chased them in New York.
 However harmful the results may be
 from buying physically tainted bar gains. those that are morally tainted ultimately cost more to the commRni- ty, if not immediately to the indivad-
 ual. The consequences are much farther reaching and more difieuit to overcome. Would one buy stolen Ir.. -e~4~r mt.~ mS, they might be7 Some would refrain,
 no doubt. for fear of the legal pen- aity involved, but the conscienoes of the majority of people would rebel from the idea of thus encouraging rob- befy Yet how many would refrain from buying goods that are cheap be- cause part of the time or wages or health of helpless working girls has been practically stolen in order to sell the articles at low hguref Most peope's consclenees are 1ather elastic In regard to buying sHaugsled goods
 or even to personal smuggling, Many who would seorn to swin6ie an IAdi- viduai boast of their ability to swim dIe large group of individuals repre- senting the national government. Usually the people who enjoy cheat ing the government out of Its dues are | first to rush to it's representatives for protection.
 It may be pertinent to ask those
 who consider smuggled goods Oar gains. whether they take Into censid- eration the fact that they may be called upon to pay raNtaxes for the
 building of warehouses. feformatoriea
 and penitentiaries should factories
 shut down; whether they realize that to help build up the business of un- scrupulous merchants they actually help wreck the business of their high principled competitors and thus lower all business standards: whether they appreciate that they must contribute toward defraying the cost of exra
 detective service for the customs of- flee, made imperative by smugglers,
 ebargains" when the cost is official bribery and corruption, a cost SO great that 1t cannot be measured in doi- lars and cents?
 The output of any industry carried on under conditions that make for degradation and misery and under mine physical health oF moral charac- ter are costly to the community, how ever cheap the product may be when put upon the market. Sound physical
 health. morality, energy. high stand ard of civic character, aesthetic or artistic taste. are what enrich and en- noble a community. Industry alone
 cannot do 1t. else would some of our
 mining towns or stone-quarrying wills
 lages or lumber districts bs typical of our highest civilization. The fact Is that if miners, stone auarriers or lum-
 bermen are kept at work from early
 dawn until evening on such a pittance that their homes are mere novels, If they have no places of recreation save the saloon and the gambling den, II is not likely that they will be inspired