OHEAP SUITS.

Auckland Star, Volume XL, Issue 136, 9 June 1909, Page 8

OHEAP SUITS.

(To the Editor.) Sir,—ln "Journeyman Tellor's" criticism of my former letter, he says he cannot understand what I want. Well, I will try and tell him in plainer language so thnt he may understand. I want the master tailors of Auckland to go on strike and refuse to be dictated to any longer by the Tailors' Union as to the methods they shall use in conducting their business. For years they have been hampered by restrictions placed on them by the Union, and it is about time they threw off the yoke. I also want the Union to meet the masters in a conciliatory manner to discuss* the ways and means oi combating this growing chart and euit-to-measure busi--1 ness. It's all very well for "Journeyman Tailor" to say, Let the public try these cheap suits. The fact is they are trying them, and are evidently satisfied, judging by the Urge trade being dona in that line. The overcoat trade has gone into the factories, and unless something is done the suit-to-measure trade will also be captured to a great extent 'by them. It is nonsense for anyone to think that the factories cannot turn out good work; they can, and they will go on improving, if the demand keeps up, until they turn out work equal to tailor-made. After all, there is little difference between tailor-made and fac-tory-made goods. The factories use the machine more, and also quicker methods, than those in vogue in the tailor shops, but the result is somewhat similar to the uninitiated, who are quite content with what they get at about 30 per cent off the cost ot tailor-made. This being so, if the tailors will not adopt quicker methods to enable the masters to compete with this trade, it ig up to the masters to place the matter before the Arbitration Court and demand the right to try on all suits under a certain price, and have them made in a factory, the try-on only to be allowed when the order is taken in a genuine tailor shop, and not when taken in a draper's, auctioneer's, grocer's, tinsmith's, or any other such establishment not devoted to tailoring exclusively. Then this trade would be diverted into the proper channel. "Journeyman Tailor's" letter is principally composed of a long effusion on the team system, which, he sa,ys, I am trying to ring in. No one with ordinary intelligence can construe such a meaning from my remarks; but as he is evidently a champion of the girls, may I ask him if It is not a fact that a year or co ago the Arbitration Court refused a demand made by the Tailors' Union, because that demand was a deliberate attempt to take certain work away from the girls employed in the trade? I should like to know if "Journeyman Tailor" was a member of the Union at that time,—l am, etc., , SNOB,