OUR YORKSHIRE LETTER.

Otago Witness, Issue 2690, 4 October 1905, Page 8

OUR YORKSHIRE LETTER .

JFkom Oue Special ConnESPOspEKT.) 'BRADFORD," August 11. f SUITS *AT 15s 3d. /Oolonial woolgrowers have recently hacl* " iheir attention ca'led to the great and growling*'use of sKoddy; and it is welljJoiown < Jhafc the 'moire" of this: stuff is usecTand the S.i'ess roomr there .'is for pure wool. T was struck-- with a little-article written in^ " the -London Dually News; avid' "as showing' - -whatsis 'actually being done, the following -. facts will be read with interest and perhaps 7 profit: — " / ' --.Stilts- at 15s 3d! Our wholesale price, -to -the .public! Worth 40s! Carriage f we ! , BowJls it done? . : I have_,met one of these 15s 3d suits in, . ok rather on, the flesh, for the -most en-er- * getio .member of the Daily News staff has had rite v enterprise , to bviy one and the courage to wear it. ".You order them m ' but tjhey'.-reaoh you from Leeds "in a brown jo_aper parcel. The postage costs 7d? leaving only :24s Sd.for the suit. What "pf the materials and labour? ZSrsfc as to our "celebrated 1 cloth," from " jwhich ihe suits are made. At a distance of half a mile or so i^ -looks not unlike •blue " sorge. As a matter, of fact it «ns made of shoddy helS^together by cotton. Shoddy is disintegrated "woollen and worsted a-ag, - spun into yarn with or without an addition .of new wool. Of course, it is dreadfully weak stuff, and in the "cloth" -of the -15s suit it is woven on a cotton -warp, which just holds the stuff together. .£he price of the cloth i& 9|d per yard, and _jos-6£ yar.ds are required.^the chief material icosts 5s 3£d. Then there are the linings, "buttons, oto. Altogether the materials cost: — ■

So that materials and postage together come to 9s 2d. Subtracting this sum from 15s 3d we have 6s Id left for labour, management- rent, interest, profit, and adver-

tising. It is clear that someone at Leeds is running a sweating shop. Of course, the things are very badly made, but no inconsiderable amount of labour must be expended to put together the materials of a Suit, however sloppily. It is an awful nitv that we do not know how the things we wear are made, and what is paid for their making. What ought to be paid for a jacket suit made of all-wool material? No question is more difficult to answer in a straightforward way. Take a pair of never-mention-'ems. It (or is it they?) can be made in three strenuous hours, or it can be made in three hard-working days If then, I told the reader that it cost 'so much to make the ugly cylinders of oloth he is wearing, it would give him no idea as io whether the labour was badlypaid or the reverse. Thus it may fall out that a bigh-.priced suit, bought and made entirely by hand in the West Said, may yield the workers concerned a lower remuneration than a lower-priced suit bought in the city, and made m the feast i End No hard-and-tast ratio exists be- ! tween the price of a garment and the earnings of tho person or persons who make !it In a fdir workshop the men earn i about 7s 6d to 10s per day, and the women 25s per week. What relation does tnat bear to the amount of labour -in a suit? i It • -would mean that in. a jacket suit (i.e., ! iacket vest; and trousers) there would be about 21s worth of labour. Given, tnen, a fair all-wool material we should get:—

Rent management, profit, etc , would have •to-be added to arrive at a "fair price. The 'recognised price for making a, coat by hand in the West End is- 255. A man and a woman, working smartly, could make a coat in a day. The man is paid- by the piece and the woman by time. The woman gets 25s per week and the man earn 3 upwards' of twice as much. Quite how mudh is uncertain, for a great deal of the man's time is wasted in waiting, trvine on, etc I have said that there may be about 21s worth of labour in a machine-made jacket suit, but there may be much less than this. In a 35s to measure" suit the labour often costs only 8s to 10s in what is called "bagging work. It is an expressive term. What, then, to go clown to the depths, is paid for the making of the 15s 3d' suits from Leeds? Welk there is a firm which boasts that it gets a jacket done for 6id and* it is probable that not more than Is 3d or Is 6d is paid for the putting together of the bits of shoddy and lining which form the 15s 3d suit. If we jjfcit it at Is 6d we get : —

And that appears to be "how it's done." Ie is a wicked business from first to last. It means ho v rible sweating, and it aiso means the waste of an enormous amount of ■labour, for the suits are next to useless. j That 's another point in bur charming competitive system whioh is too often overlooked by its worshippers.- Sham, shoddy, and make believe— these are erected in the form of .houses, sewn up in the form of suits, packed in receptacles to mock children as "food," made the sole occupation of millions of quite honest people. What j wonder, then, if our "cry civilisation is j a veneer — a pitifully thin veneer? Builders building, not houses, but profits. Bakers baking, not bread, but profits. Tailois sowing, not suits, the profits. = And what do the of tie schools say to it all? They .ire lost in admiration of the beautiful machinery ! I saw the other day,, an article in which it was gravely -.explained' by an- "economist that . tW'fi-ind who^obrners wheat in _ pursuit of profit isSffot'an enemy of his kind, but their 'saviour. By raisin? price he compels people to economise the supply; and so saves" them from starvation f Tins woula ■probably ■ never bay©*- occurred to my uu-'"a-ided intellect a<ud I felt, quite grateful for- 'the communication of a truly poetical

— Tke 15s 3d Shoddy Suit.— » "Materials .> •• •• :•« •• Postage .. •• •• .••; •• Labour „• ** *.« •• •»• s. a. 8 7 0 7 1 6 Balance for management, rent, profit, advertising, etc. .* "»• .««i 10 S 4 7 15 3

6& yards of cloth at 5s Linings, etc. (not silk), say .. Labour .«, « •• •&« £1 12 0 7 1 1 £3 1

££ yards of snoddy "clotli" at 9|d .. Ik yards lining silesia far coat and vest, at 4Jd 1 yard Italian clotfi | yard linen at 7d .. £ yard black silesia for pocketa, at Sewing cotton .. ... .. ■• Buttons .. .fl . ;••) ••» >* 1J yards canvas for »•■ as >- s. d. 5 3i 0 6| 1 0 0 31 c 34 0 2 0 6 0 6 Total for materials 8 7