Men and Things

by Henry A. Atkinson

The Task System. A study of conditions in the dressmaking industry was made by the United States government. The results of this study showed that we never can get back to the old state of affairs. We have entered into a new period of production and this must continue. The task system prevails in a large number of the garment-making shops. By the task system is meant that the work on a garment is done by a team of three persons consisting of a machine-operator, a baster, and a finisher. Every three teams have two pressers and several girls to sew on the pockets and buttons that are necessary for the completion of the garment. There is essentially a fine adjustment within the team, so that each one completes his work in time to pass it on to the next one as soon as the latter is ready to receive it. A certain amount of work is called a task, and this amount is supposed to be done within a day. Forced competition has gradually increased the amount of the task, until frequently even with the most strenuous activity the task cannot be completed without working twelve and fourteen hours a day. The wages paid are based upon the utmost that the best individual in the team can do in a day.

This system came in with the influx of the Jews into New York in the early eighties. These workers, with their intense desire to accumulate money, get on in the world, and then be emancipated from hard work, are peculiarly adapted to the system. Just as soon as a few of the workers save enough money they become proprietors of small factories. Another thing that enters into the situation is the characteristics of the people themselves. Jews are a restless race and resent the rigid routine and supervision of the factory, but the comparative freedom in a small shop under the task system appeals to their desires to get on in the world and gives them a degree of freedom which they cannot have under the factory system. The task system lends full opportunity for the cupidity of worker and owner to exploit other workers, and in the end every man in the shop comes to be looked upon as an opportunity for more profits.

The Modern Factory. Another stage in the evolution of the clothing industry is found in the factory itself. Just as the task system was an improvement over the sweat-shop in the home, so the factory is a big advance over the task system. The factory has grown very rapidly owing to the demand for tailor-made clothes, to the continual change in the styles, and to the large supply of cheap labor always at hand. In recent years the demand for men’s and women’s ready-made clothes has so increased that now large department stores which formerly sold only cheap grades of ready-made clothes are stocking up with expensive garments in order to cater to the class of customers who used to order their clothes directly from the custom tailor.

This movement toward standardizing the clothing industry aids the factory in overcoming the competition of the smaller shops. There is going on a sure but slow movement toward the elimination of the bad conditions in the garment trades, and the factories are increasing because people of even moderate means are demanding higher-priced and better-grade garments. “I got such a wonderful bargain to-day, you just ought to see the shirt-waists that are being sold for one dollar and seventy-five cents. Why, you couldn’t even buy the material for that price, to say nothing of the work and trouble of making it.” This is an accurate report of a conversation overheard on a street-car one evening. It sounds familiar to you, now, doesn’t it? When you got your bargain, did you ever consider the girls who work to make you that waist? The manufacturer is not alone responsible for bad conditions. It is impossible for him to pay good wages and continue in business unless he can sell his goods at a decent profit. If you force him to compete with the sweat-shop, you drive him out of business and subsidize the sweat-shop at the same time.

Our selfishness in desiring to get the best possible bargains makes us thoughtless partners of the exploiters of the men and women who are working to make our clothes. Progress costs money, time, and thought. We are all bound together and go forward or backward with the group. Next time you buy a dress or a suit, try to picture the girls and men who worked on it. Consider the hours of labor which they spent and the responsibilities that rest upon them; then figure against the price which you are paying a fair proportion of the cost for wages to these workers, and ask yourself would you be willing to make the garment for that price? If you would not, providing, of course, that you had the skill, you are not playing fair with your sister and brother who live somewhere and are being cheated out of a decent wage.

Groups by Races. The workers in the garment industries in New York live in groups made up not by industrial conditions or interests so much as by racial interests. The Jews tend to live in certain quarters of the city confined to themselves, and the Italians have their quarters also. As a family accumulates a little money, plans are made to move out of these sections in lower New York and to settle in different surroundings in the upper part of the city, on Lexington Avenue or in the Bronx.

Seasonal Work in the Garment Trade. In spite of the tremendous advance made in late years in these industries in matters relating to conditions of work, such as the eliminating of excessive overtime, shortening of the regular hours of labor, and raising rates or earnings, the matter of unemployment is still a serious problem. The garment trades are affected by seasonal demands. Everybody wants a new suit at just about the same time. “If I cannot have my spring suit by Easter, I would just as soon not have it at all,” was the complaint of a young girl whose family was trying to make retrenchments during war time. The improvement in conditions has been marked; but in no way has it been found practicable to lengthen the work season. And since payment by the piece is widely prevalent in the clothing industries, in the case of home workers a record of the time and the payment is not strictly kept, and statistics are not available.

Health Conditions. The health conditions among the workers in the garment industries show an interesting relationship to the wages paid and the method of payment. The United States Public Health Service, reporting on conditions among the garment-workers in New York City, states that the strain was more prevalent where wages were paid on the piece basis than by the week or other time basis. With the increased use of machinery another series of health hazards appears, according to this report. These are the result of fatigue and overstrain caused by the close application to the same process through long hours. The monotony of the work contributes to the bad industrial conditions. At its best the wage of the garment-worker is pitiably small. Among the girls, especially, there is keen competition. They cut one another down, and they underbid and undersell each other. The average wage paid barely affords a living. One little Italian girl in a recent shirt-waist strike in New York said, “Me no live verra much on forta-nine cent a day.” This wage of forty-nine cents it must be said is not usual, and is largely the result of the ignorance of the girl, but there are others like her who are forced to go to work unprepared and therefore are unable to earn a better wage.

In many communities there still lingers the employment of the women and children in home trades, making garments under sweat-shop conditions. The contractor who formerly depended for his living upon letting out his work to the sweat-shops has largely disappeared; but there are still many homes in which work is done and no serious attempt has been made as yet to reach the evils incident to it. Here the workers are driven by the pressure of poverty to labor under conditions and for wages that destroy life, and to work their children in the same manner. Here disease breeds and is passed on to the consumer.

A recent study of the home conditions shows that the worst abuses of child labor linger in this remnant of family work. No child labor law that has been passed in the United States seems to be adequate to the situation. To control this there must be a special provision made in the factory laws of each state regarding the work done by families in their own homes. Several of the states do provide in their laws that no work for pay shall be done in the homes except by the members of the families themselves. Other states provide that this work shall be done under certain conditions, and standards are required of the factory. Massachusetts issues a license to the family to do work in the home, and like New York, requires a “tenement made” tag attached to the article; also holding the owners of the property responsible for any violation of the law. At the Chicago Industrial Exhibition a picture was shown entitled “Sacred Motherhood.” It was that of a woman nursing her child and driving a sewing-machine at the same time. It was a terrible portrayal of unchecked, unregulated industry, which does not stop to reckon the effect upon the future, but imperils the well-being of both the mother and the child.