SWEATING AND SUICIDE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9142, 25 August 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

SWEATING AND SUICIDE.

The reports on sweating in various provincial centres have sometimes been described as overdrawn. This was particularly the case at Manchester. It, however, so happens that at the Manchester City Police Court a woman has just been acquitted for attempting to commit suicide, though her only excuse was the extremely low wages she earned when working for a sweater. During the whole of the previous week she had worked as a costume finisher from halfpast eight in the morning till seven in the evening, and yet only earned 2s 2d. She lived on tea and bread, and out of these wages 6d was deducted in consideration of the hot water supplied for her tea ! Then she had to repay the loan of 6d to the forewoman. With the remaining Is 2d she had to met her rent, which amounted to '2s fid a week. All this was corroborated by the evidence of others who worked in the same place. One of the women, who gave testimony, had earned as much as 12s in a week, but only by breaking the Factory Act, and this in a manner often described in our special reports on sweating ; that is to say, this witness worked from half-past eight to seven in the workshop, and then took work home, and continued toiling for the better part of the night. This seamstress was paid 4d for making a woman's dress. Under such conditions of work how can anything approaching decent sanitation be maintained ? The clothes at times are contaminated, the workers so starved and exhausted that they must soon fall victim to wasting disease when they are not actually driven to suicide. This is a matter of such immediate importance, and in which every sentiment of humanity is so concerned, that petty quibbles over the details of doctrinaire political economy must not be allowed to stand in the way of those sweeping and far-reach-ing reforms that alone can deal with the widespread evils now fully revealed to the public.—Lancet.