TOPICS of the DAY.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVII, Issue 149, 23 June 1906, Page 9

TOPICS of the DAY.

(From Our Special Correspondent.) LONDON. May 11. SWEATED INDUSTRIES. i _____ I It is a disgrace to England that the conditions of home labour in London should have rendered possible such an exhibition as that now proceeding in the Queen's Hall. At the same time ! the exhibition itself should do goqd. It j may perhaps arouse the public cons- j cience to a realisation of the scandal which permits unfortunate human beings to be shamefully '" sweated" by rapacious employers and a thoughtless, j unheeding public. The Sweated Industries Exhibition at the Queen's Hall includes all classes of home work and workers, the latter busy at their tasks in the little cubicles set apart for each. The exhibits, as Dr. George Adam Smith observed, represent not tne triumphs of peacef.ul and harmonious industry, but rather "a state of war, in which the struggle is constant, and one that is fought, not with strong men, but with the bloodless faces and emaciated frames of women and children." The great mass of home workers in this country have to work under insanitary conditions and for starvation wages. Very few of the workers present at the Sweated Industries' Exhibi- | tion make as much as 2d an hour. The j usual rate is from lid to ljd an hour, with additions for materials. What adds to the pity of it is the gross disproportion between t'.ic cost of the j labour and the price at which the finished article is sold to the public. Princess Henry of Batt-pnburg bought at the exhibition a white, daintilymade ba.by's pelisse; it. was beautifully made, trimmed and lined through, marked to sell in a shop at 14/6: the wou'an who did all the work in' it received 10d. At another cubicle a shoemaker turns out carpet slippers, which sell in the shops at half-a-crown n. pair; hp gets lialf-a-rrown a uozen pairs for making , them, aud .sixpence of that amount has to go in buying the material. On a side stall is displayed a lady's costume—a Chesterfield coat and skirt, lined throughout, well finished. The selling price in an ordinary middleclass retail shop is 28/11; for all the stitching, the making complete, the dressmaker received just 10d. Close by is an elaborately braided '" coatee," beautifully finished off, for which the shop price is 31/6; its maker received a whole shilling for the work. Instances of arduous labour for wretched pay might easily be multiplied. Women cover racquet balls for 2/ to 4/ per gross, and tennis balls for 4J.d to 6d a dozen. Umbrellas which sell at 2/11 each are covered by women i at a wage of 1/6 ppr dozen, the workers paying for their own thread out of what they receive. Cheap sunshades are j covered at. the rate of 6d per dozen. A I woman making hair-brushes receives | for 1000 holes (drawing bristles through pach), and it takes a little over four j hours to do a thousand. Half-a-crown ] a (}o7.en is paid for cotton slips with j elaborate yokes, and 24d of thai goes i for threat! to make the twelve. A bet- i j fcer quality of blouse is paid for at the | rate of 5/3 per dozen, w*th 3d off for ! thread. Women sew boys' knickers for [ 1/10 per dozen, all sizes, and the very j best work only earns JJJd a pair. Tlic woman finds her thread, and works ten hours a day to.earn an average sum of 6/ a week. A woman making artificial flowers is paid 7d a gross for I violets, 3d a gross for buttercups, j and 1/3 to 3/6 a gros:-; for roses. \ Every petal must he shaped and j coloured, and the sterna made, and the j flower must be perfect in detail, or it is ' returned. And so on and so on. all j through the dreary list of sweated in- j dustries. Here is a question that cries for Government intervention. But members of Parliament are too busy, as usual, talking and wrangling about the Education Bill, and asking sympathetic ques- i tions about the poor down-trodden na- i tives of some far-off clime. They I haven't time to consider the downtrodden men and women at their own door.