Sweating in London.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 14042, 28 October 1909, Page 2 (Supplement)

Sweating in London.

THE UNDERPAID CLASSES. In the, course, of an interesting article on the "Economics of Sweating," Clementina Black, in the London "Daily Chronicle" says:— It is not true that aliens in England are working under worse conditions than any natives. The worst-paid workers of the East-end are, not Jews, but Englishwomen. Such was the case when Mrs. Sidney Webb investigated the tailoring trade; such is the case still. Only as a cause of lowering wages is the alien economically undesirable, nor is he in this respect any more undesirable, economically, than a native who behaves in the same way. Not the. foreigner, but the undersellev, is the enemy of the worker. 11 may he added that, as employers, .Tows are neither better nor worse than other people; some of the very best employers of whom 1 have any knowledge are Jewish, and some also of the worst. The variations are not, racial, but. personal. Another false opinion is that only cheap goods are sweated. The fact is that expensive articles, no' less than cheap ones, are often produced by sweated labour. Women in London engaged in machining cheap cotton dresses for servants are, on tho whole, somewhat better paid than women engaged in machining expensive silk petticoats.

Rates of payment seldom bear any relation to the retail price of the product. Highly-skilled "hand embroidery, for which the customer invariably has to t>ay a high price, is, in certain districts, ' among the very worst paid of women's employments, although machinery does not, and never can, compete, in the same field. Perhaps no group of workers in Europe is worse paid than some of the women in Belgium who, make the very costliest sorts of lace. Tn the blouse trade, here in London, we have more than once found workers who had given

.up making expensive and elaborate garments, because thoy found their weekly takings.'even smaller than when they made much commoner kinds. The declaration, in more trades than one, that "the cheap work pays better" is quite familiar to experienced investigaTlms there is not the slightest reason for apprehending that various branches of cheap production will: bo killed by the enforcement of a minimum wage. On the contrary, a decent level of wages stimulates the . demand for cheap goods. : n