The Connecticut labor press. (New Haven, Conn.) 191?-1921, 1920-07-31
LADY GARMENT
WORKERS UNION
TO MANUFACTURE
Live Wire Organization Starts
Move That May Revolutionize
Business for Unions.
WILL LOWER PRICES
To Create Chain of Retail Stores
as Well as Produce
the Goods.

With an initial capital of $4,000 and
probable early increase to at least
double that amount, the International
Ladies Garment Workers Union will
undertake this fall to establish union
owned factories and retail stores in an
effort to provide work for its members
and also with the hope of reducing the
prices OF clothing, according to Benja-
min Schlesinger, president of the in
ternationa1 union.
Mr.. Schles1nger said yesterday that
he had several representatives of the
union touring the country to select half
dozen cities in which to try out the
experiment, but that the factories and
stores would not actually be established
until his return to America early in
October from Europe, where he goes
next month as delegate to the Con-
gress of the International Clothing
Workers. It is not likely, he said, that
any stores will be established in New
York for some time but all the fac
tories are to be located here.
Two factories, Mr.. Schlesinger said.
would be ample to care for the require
ments of the half dozen stores, some of
which will be located in Connecticut.
others in Pennsylvania and other states.
Additional factories will be established
from time to time as new stores are
opened and the demand for the goods
increases. He estimated that a factory
employing 100 to 200 persons could be
equipped for around $4,000. The first
plant, he said, will likely be larger and
the cost about $50,000
The union will begin business with
much larger investment than many of
the firms engaged in this line started
with, Mr.. Schlesinger said Nearly all
of the members of the existing firms
were formerly members of the union, he
said, and started business with little
capital, but they have shown good busi-
ness judgment and have prospered, he
said. The union has in its ranks now
men of equal ability and they can du-
plicate for the union the success of the
individuals, thereby not only benefting
themselves, but their fellow workers,
and also the public through lower
prices, he thought
he high cost of garments at present,
Mr.. Schlesinger asserted, was due TO
proflteering, all the way from the mills
to the retailer. The mills first exact an
unreasonable profit, he said, after which
the cloth goes through the hands of FIVE
u oi~N JODD(Ao, CdSu plliiiS up handsome
profits; then the manufacturers takes his.
and the retailer, not to be outdone by
the others who have handled the cloth
or garments, tacks on every cent he
considers that the public will stand.
The result of this prohteering has
been, he said, that the women have re-
tuesd to buy clothes. A suit they for
nerly purchased for $40 or $50 now
costs $3.50 or more. The average woman
has Just SO much to spend each year on
clothes, Mr.. Schlesinger said, and the
result has been that she is buying one
garment where formerly she purchased
three or four. In many cases, he said,
she is wearing last summers clothes
this year because of the exorbitant
prices.
This means shorter seasons and less
employment for the workers" Mr..
Schlesinger said. 'In fact, our workers
suffer through this situation in a double
way; they have less work and in ad
dition have TO face the terrible cost of
living. The question arises: is it really
absolutely unavoidable mat garments
should cost as high as they cost today?"
Many workers have been out of en-
ployment all the Simmer. Mr.. Schles-
niger said, because they has been no
work. At least 10000 workers in this
industry are now idle, he said.
Referring TO recent trip to Europe.
Mr.. Schlesinger said that in GERMANY
France, Holland and Austria he found
union-owned tailor shops, and found
them to be the largest and the best IN
the industry. In Germany he found that
1t was the union-owned plants that had
the modern equipment.
do the same in the Un1reo States" he
continued, "and even on a larger and
more attractive scale than in Europe.
1t can scarcely be denied that the idea.
of industrial and distributive co-opera-
ton has made greater strides in the
United States during the last two years
than it did before in an entire genera
ton. For reasons which need not be re-
cited here, but which can be principally
ascribed to the maddening rise in the
cost of living and the growth of profit
eer1ng, the idea of checking the traf-
hckers in the necessities of life through
cooperation has grown by leaps and
bounds"
Mr.. Schlesinger said the recent con-
vention of the International decided that
the initial fund should be raised by an
assessment of s. from each member.
which would mean 100000. as the or
ganization has 10000 members, 10000
of whom are in New York city. Be-
sides, about $250,000 would be taken
from the treasury, giving the organiza-
ton more than half million dollars
with which to start the r1evv scheme