SWEATED LABOR IN SYDNEY.

Colonist, Volume XLVIII, Issue 11678, 13 July 1906, Page 3

SWEATED LABOR IN SYDNEY.

Received July 32, 10.55 p. to. Sydney, July 12. An exhaustive report has been Issued by the Special Committee of the Labor Council on sweated labor in Sydney. Its findings set forth that slavery does exist in Sydney today; thab women ' and little children are daily drawn out of the slums, and made to pass under the hammer of an inexorable auctioneer employed by capital, that the crack of the slave owner's whip is legally forbidden, but, nevertheless, daily, thousands of unwilling slaves go to their allotted tasks, to the stunting of their physical and mental growth, and often to the ultimate destruction of body and soul. Many of the cases investigated, especially those instances in which children are victimised slaves, disclose such . a hideous system of brutality as to almost justify a denial of our boasted civilisation, while the term Christian, anr.lied to the city where employers ihive on downright slave dealing, is an awful misnomer. Received June 12, 11.8 p.m. Sydney, July 12. Our search disclosed heartless

conditions in connection with" tbe , dairying industry, soap and'candle ■ works, boiling down establishments and we loudly proclaim the presence" ofithe sweater in the jam. biscuit,lolly'nnd pickle factories, and iu*tW fruit* canning industries, potteries and, kindred industries, sweaters claim t.bcir toll, and though -. but little distance has been penetrated, your'eommitteft is appalled£at the deep"dfcd- sweating that flourishes in various' abhorrent forms. j^Girls were^employed by a certain firm for peiiods ranging xtp to two'years for nothing, and afterwards paid^half-a--crown a week. There were instances where dismissal took place when'the | probationary period ended. ,*•„. One ; clothing factory is desjribed'as not ififcjfor pigs, and the wages paid vtevb •7s 6d for forty-eight hours.