The Sweating System.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume II, Issue 177, 2 August 1888, Page 1

The Sweating System.

London, June 10. The enquiry into the “ sweating ’ system in London has brought out many revelations to some people. On Tuesday, Lord Dunraven’s committee of the House of Lords took the evidence of a ladies’ tailor who worked with his wife and one little girl for a particular firm, which was, he said, the worst in the sweating trade, but the name of which he would rather not mention. Referring to a statement that Poole’s did not employ sweaters, he gave the name of a foreigner in Garrad-street, who, he maintained, received trousers from Poole’s to make at ss. fid. per pair, and let them out to women to make at Is. fid. per pair, and also employed men to finish at a pound a week. He added later that Poole’s had endeavoured to check sweating, but had found it would be cruel to withdraw all the work. Since this enquiry began they had employed men in their shops. He gave the name of a large firm of ladies’ tailors who, he said, executed orders for princesses and the aristocracy, who employed women to make jackets and bodices which were supposed to be made by men. In answer to Lord Onslow, he did not agree that ladies were aware that the work was only cut out by men. He gave the names of several firms which he said gave out work on the sweating system. He had been offered 4s. for each good tailor he took into one shop ; but he was told the man whom he took was not a good man, and and he would only be paid 2s, which he had not yet got. The system of employing young women in the same rooms with foreign men of different degrees of intelligence conduced to immorality. Many of the young tailoresses were immoral and addicted to drink, and it was difficult to get them to work on Mondays. In crossexamination on this point, he said he had worked in a shop where there were in all fifteen men and twenty-five women. Very bad and obscene language was commonly used in shops where men and women worked together. The best firms did not employ men and women together. In reply to Lord Derby, he agreed that the low prices were due to competition among the workers themselves, and he could suggest no remedy except education of the men. Asked as to co-operation, he said, the conductors of the Rochdale Co-operative society acted in the same way as the gentlemen conducting the Civil Service stores. W. J. Price, an English journeyman tailor, whose physique and respectable dress contrasted most strikingly with the appearance of the foreign sweaters, deposed that there were plenty of people willing to make coat* at 5d., or even 4d. each. Samples were] always paid more.