The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1907-08-10

some surroundings the workers are
compelled to toll IA and 16 hours a
day-poor folk who must pay the rent
of the workrooms, pay for the light
ing and heating of them, for the ma
chinery and tools and for the dellv-
cry Of goods; (3) articles sold cheap
because children under legal age have
been employed, or the factory laws IN
other ways violated, or because the
workers have not received fair liv-
| ing wage for their work or have been
| in some other way imposed upon Tor
selfish and avaricious purposes.
Dangers Turk in many socalled bar
gains, such as cheap wall paper that
exudes arsenic, cheap plumbing that
causes illness, cheap medicine that
does not cure. There is, however,
large class of Intelligent and we'll
TODD shoppers who entirely ignore the
dangers lurking in another class OF
bargains. I know 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 contagi-
Gus disease Yet this same careful
mother had purchased a cheap cloak
ready made, at a well-knoWn estab-
lishment, where only the "custom-
made clothing was made in the firms
own workrooms, the rest being pur-
chased from manufacturers who
shirked all responsibility by giving
their work out to be done under the
contract system. The child died from
scarlet fever. Where caught? No one
knows. But another case came under
my personal observation, where in
vestigation was possible. A woman
bought a shirt waist at a bargain
counter a few years ago and shortly
after wearing it noticed peculiar
rash on her body. This proved to be
a well-known skin disease, which the
physicians found difficult to cure. Her
husband made a search and discovered
that the shirt waist had been made
in dirty sweatshop by a young girl
who for years had been victim OF
this disease. These bargains were in
deed costly to the purchasers, and the
foolhardiness of buying sweatshop
bargains, physically tainted, becomes
at once apparent
It is conceded THAT tuberculosis is
Infectious; it is an established fact
that many Of the tenement houses in
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
houses at random. There are about
100000 people in the entire state of
New York employed in the garment
making industry and of this number
about $4,000 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 communi-
ty, if not Immediately to the, individ
ual. The consequences are much
farther reaching and more difficult to
overcome. Would one buy stolen
goods knowingly, however cheap
they might be? Some would refrain
no doubt, for fear of the legal pen
atty involved, but the consciences Of
the majority of people would rebel
from the idea of thus encouraging rob-
berry. 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 a low figure? Most
peoples consciences are rather elastic
in regard to buying Struggled goods
or even to personal smuggling. Many
who would scorn to swindle an indi-
vidual 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.
1t may be pertinent to ask those
who consider Struggled goods 'bar-
gains whether they take into consid-
Grafton the fact that they may be
called upon to pay extra taxes for the
building of warehouses, reformatories
and penitentiaries should factories
shut down; whether they realize that
to help build up the business of I'M
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 extra
| l.+.o+;1,o corvioo for tho o,1cfonoc ~