ABSTRACT
The Pall Mall Gazette of March .5th contains an article on the ~.sweating" system, under which the East End sempstresses suffer so deeply.
To come to a plain statement of facts, the conditions under which thousands of poor seamstresses are working in East London are as follows. They receive their work, with very rare exceptions, out of the hands of a middleman or "sweater." ''Sweater be the proper na_me," says the poor· old needlewoman, who has for more than thirty years been a trousers finiEher, "for they lives by the sweat of our brow." There are two reasons which make it difficult for. the women to obtain .work direct from the warehouses. First, on taking
away work, they would have to find a security for the city house, which in their extreme poverty they are unable to do ; secondly, the way to the city is long; it takes half a day at least to fetch or deliver work, and often it takes several pence for fares. And to expend so much time or money is again out of the question. Consequently, there is no other wny of obtaining work than through the sweater, who as a rule, makes 4d. out of every shilling. The needlewomen are divided into two great classes. .Machinists and finishers receive
.about the same wages, 4d. to 4td. for each pair of trousers (all other garments are paid on the same scale of wages), which can be earned by a quick worker in two hours. From this she has to find her own cotton, several colours being required for all trousers, twist at a ld •
. a yard, and silk for button-boles, and soap, which is used to flatten the seams, &c. A brisk fire has also to be kept up continually, there being a great deal of ironing to be done. The machinist has, besides these current expenses, to pay weekly 2s. or ~e. 6d. on <her machine, and if she fails to be punctual in the weekly payment her machine is taken back by the maker or seller, who, according to the ordinary "hire-purchase" system, has a right to confiscate it. The seamstress meanwhile has to begin again from the beginning, take another machine, and try not to fail in her weekly payment, t-hough, as it is too often the case, she hungers through the week for it. It is astonishing, considering that even at the best of times the needlewomen rarely earn more than 9s. a week, that these payments are kept up as well as they are. In this way a large number of women find their daily bread ; some are old and feeble, some are ·crippled, many are the mothers of large families, but all are needy, and a very few are strong and well. And if at ordinary times they are to be pitied, how much more should they arouse sympathy and compassion in these hard days when competition is greater than ever, .and when it is hardm." to obtain work than even the oldest workers remember it to have been before ! it is not a very great capital which is wanted, and we hope that we shall not appeal in vltin to our .readers to help in permanently relteving a large class of workers who have almost forgotten what it means to live otherwise than in one .continued struggle with hunger and want.
