SHAMELESS SWEATING.

NZ Truth, Issue 180, 28 November 1908, Page 5

SHAMELESS SWEATING.

THE SORROWS OF A SEAMSTRESS.

Carter & Go's. Contracts.

What is the Labor Department

Doing?

Although New Zealand has a lot of socalled advanced legislation, has its Shops and Factories Act and a hundred and one enactments the purpose of which are to abolish sweating and to penalise the sSveater, no man, whether Parliamentary candidate or pot-walloper, is foolish enough to declare that there is no such thing as soulless sweating m New Zealand. Anyhow, on general principles, Avhen this paper gets hold of anything approacmng sweating, it , doesn't mince words or matters, because a sweater is generally a sordid, greedy, soulless wretch, who contrives, either by beating the L^w, or keeping within its bounds, to grind down every being em ployed and sweat the very life's blood out of them so that profits and dividends may accumulate and. motor cars and big bank balances and intense respectability follow m due course, while the. profit-making slaves sicken unto death, and are buried, perhaps, as paupers. Moreover, with a due regard to public interest, "Truth loves, as it were, •to get on to the track of aS- sweater because it too often happens that' the ground-down* slave has. noFra Union at his or. her back, and the hope is therefore always entertained that 'the Labor Department authorities will get a move on and- further •

EXPOSE THE BOWELLESS BOODLERS-,

per medium of a Police, Court or Arbitration Court prosecution. . Incidentally . this much-maligned,- but powerful, influential and withal eminently respectable journal is lost m wondering; contemplation as. to the present whereabouts of that shameful production ofEast London, the Sweated Industries exhibit of Christchurch's big show. To locate that exhibit would, just now, be very pleasing to "Truth " as it would do to compare exceedingly favorable with a sample" of the sweated industries of Wellington, the Capital of God's Own Country, but as we cannot for the moment put our finger on that sinful sample of soulless sweatingthe next best thing that can be done is to draw public attention to, and to invite the Labor Department to do all that is necessary with a blood-sucking firm of drapers, dress-makers, etc., known as Carter and Co., and to make the free advertisement thus given more prominent, we mention that Carter and Co. are to be found somewhere m Cuba-street. Naturally, "Truth's" staff are not autho rities on .the gentle art of dress-making, but after making a few casual ennuiriep it appears that dress-makers who take m work from large or. small firms are m the habit of receiving anything over eight shilings a dress, but the Carter crowd have hit out on a new scale of payments, -as the story told to "Truth" of a sweated seamstress serves to show. Now, this oarticular woman is having a very' hard row to hoe m this unsympathetic world She has an invalid husband, who is unable to follow his usual occupation, and there are two young children who. require food and clothing and a mother's care. This gallant little woman has had to battle along as best she Can, and the other day, IN A SINGULARLY UNLUCKY MOMENT, W sought work from the Carter cardons and the Company cheerfully rushed ; ier with six dresses to make', and while she was busily engaged m her task ur came a special ' dress to be made at once iM for which she was to receive thf truly magnificent remuneration of four »lessed bob. Ten yards of material vere sent along, and the seamstress did lier best to make the costume, or whatev:r it is called, up to mark, but to her *reat dismay when she delivered the .'lress the cowardly Carter crowd at onco turned on her and accused her of practically purloining four yards of material, < alleging that the woman Was dishonest, had only utilised six of the ten yards, and had converted the remaining four to her own use. Of course, the sweated mother and toiler' went for the cowards, and threatened them-with bearing more about it, and unless "Truth's" circulation' slumps out 'bf existence, Carter and Co. will hear more about it this very day. Straight to "Truth" the stitching slave came and told her tale, and incidentals it was gathered that the ruling rate of iay with Carter and Co. is 17s 6d per dozen dresses. Well, this dress-maker, who averageu one' dress a day, got for icr seven dresses the fortune of 12s 9d. .vhlch means 8s 9d for the common, ordinary half-dozen dresses and a paltry four bob for the special, m addition to which insult she was, by the blood-suck-ing, bone-picking carrion-crows ACCUSED OF BEING A THIEF, and it is perhaps fortunate for Carter and Co. that ;the victim of their greed, is m poor and lowly circumstances and unable to institute legal proceedings against the curs for defamation of character, and if "Truth" is any judge at all, if a case came before a Wellington jury, Carter and o°' would go down "kerflop" and taught a lesson, besides getting a .beautiful boom of their Mood-sucking busi- 1 ness. "Truth" doesn't know Carter and I Co. from any other carrier or carrion, but if the statements made above are not m strict accordance with fact the firm is at liberty to encroach on a reasonable space of this .popular, , pious print and make * itself good ■"' with the public, if it can, and • "Truth" honestly thinks it can't. Anyhow, the sweated seamstress has always averaged at least' £2 3s per week by her needle and cotton work, and the idea of making a dozen dresses at 17s 9d is something utterly repugnant to a sense of fair dealing. If these 'dresses are not samples of sweated industries, will someone please tell us what are. and we further wish to state that the seamstress m question, after one experience of , Carter and Co., has v«ry wisely decided .that m future the sweating mjQb will be given a very wide berth by her, and if 17s 9d per dozen is Carter's usual rate of pay, "Truth" thinks Carter and Co. should be boycotted by all dressmakers, particularly- if they are the bread-winners and have invalid husbands and young children and a home to keep . going. Of course, -Carter and Co. might' not have been aware of the fact that the sweated stitcher whom they accused of stealing four yards of dress material and whom they paid a measly sum of l^s 9d for more than a week's hard work, was a hard-working, respectable woman; on whose handicraft depended a sick husband and two young children, otherwise Carter and Co. MIGHT HAVE GIVEN HER LESS, though there is a faint glimmer of a hope that they might have doubled their remuneration. Anything is possible m this wicked world. Anyhow, the firm of Carter and Co. is not a charitable institution, and if the employees of that concern are paid at the same rate as the sweated dress-maker, "Truth" calls for three or more cordial groans for the firm, and at the same time asks the Labor Department authorities to" inquire into the matter and see that Carter and Co. get that jusice the wretched, sweating mob is properly entitled to. No doubt the firm of Carter and Co. is not the only sweating "joint" m Wellington, or for that matter, m New Zealand. The sordid greed for gold makes monsters of men. who live only to grind down and keep m dire poverty their fellow-men. These concerns are the saddest feature of our industrial life. The bosses show no mercy, and should receive none. And as far a,s "Truth" is concerned, its pen, for the purpose of merciless exposure, will, whenever the opportunity is afforded, be steeped m gait