Labor Disturbances. The fundamental cause of the troubles in the clothing industry in Boston prior to the spring of 1913, was similar to that in the same industry in New York before their abolition by concerted action of the employers and employees in the spring of the same year. There have been serious disturbances in the garment trade in Chicago, New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and other cities. The difficulty was right in the trade itself and many of the causes of discord will continue for some time to come.
Among these causes of disturbances are long hours, low wages, poor sanitary conditions, sub-contracting, unequal distribution of the work, work in tenement-houses, failure to state the standard price for piece-work, playing of favorites in the giving out of the work, lack of cooperation between the employers and the employees, prevalence of the piece-work system, and the difficulty of determining what shall be paid or what constitutes a just basis for computing hours and wages.
For instance, three girls work in one factory and are put upon work that is to be a test upon which a new wage is to be based. One of the girls is put to work upon a certain task in shirt-waists. They are made of thin material; the thread used is very fine and the stuff shirrs easily, so that it is almost impossible to make any speed. The second girl is put to work upon a pile of plain waists. The third girl has a still different task. Each girl at the beginning of the day has an equal amount of work to do. They all put in the same number of hours and expend approximately the same amount of energy; but at the end of the day one of the girls has finished her task, the other has probably two hours’ work to do on the day following, while the third girl, the one who was working upon the thin waists, has more than a day’s work ahead of her. It will be readily seen that it is almost impossible to determine what pay would be a fair price for making shirt-waists, or for doing any part of the work connected with the making of these garments unless a different and more equitable basis of reckoning is established.
Cost and Selling Price. Another matter that enters into the situation and complicates it is the fact that there is a different selling price put on each garment. Of course, we must all recognize that wages cannot be made except in proportion to the selling price of the garment. No business can be run unless it is able to make enough on its products to pay a decent wage. The cost of production, including the cost of materials, a fair price for the superintendent, and a proportion of the general overhead cost of the factory must be charged against each garment, together with a proportion of the interest on the investment and the approximate cost of the wear and tear on the machinery. Add to this the cost for advertising and marketing the garment. All of these things have to enter into consideration, and the wages must be determined by the amount of money that will be received for the finished garment. Now, how are we to bring about a just settlement of this vexed question? There is only one way in which it can be done, that is, by bringing the workers themselves into partnership with the firm. Just as long as the destiny of the worker is in the hands of the foreman and there is no chance for these workers to be heard, or to have any voice in the decisions that are made, so long there will be fruitful cause for trouble.
Arbitration. The experience of the Massachusetts Board of Arbitration warrants the conclusion that there is a proper and very useful sphere of activity for a permanent State Board of Arbitration. A number of questions arise from time to time in almost all trades which do not require a detailed knowledge of the industry on the part of the arbitrating body. There are, for example, questions of discharge in alleged violation of a clause in an agreement covering discharges. There are certain other controversies which both sides are willing to have decided by the application of standards which are matters of fact ascertainable upon investigation. For instance, in many piece-price controversies, both sides are willing to have the questions decided on the basis of what competing manufacturers pay for the same operations under similar working conditions; but each is unwilling to accept the figures presented by the other side in support of its contention. This has been done by the Massachusetts Board in the boot and shoe industry, and recently in a textile case. The Arbitration Board should be given all the powers in the way of compelling the attendance of witnesses and testimony under oath, and the production of books and papers, which it requires to secure the information necessary to reach a decision.
The Religious and Social Problems. Twenty-five per cent. of all the effort put into the processes of industry and commerce is concerned with the supply of clothing. Most of the clothing is made under conditions which determine the life and welfare of such a large proportion of the people that we find in the garment-making industries themselves a distinct and definite challenge to the religious and social agencies. There are some fundamental considerations which must be borne in mind and which will help us to see the problem as it affects the workers. Most of those in the garment trades are foreigners unused to our way of thinking. At noon on Fifth Avenue and again at night as the workers leave for their homes, the newsboys sell papers printed in Yiddish characters almost exclusively, and only a few English papers are sold for several blocks below Twenty-third Street. In religious matters the garment-workers represent three groups: those who are devoted to the faith of their fathers and who are Jews in the truest sense of the word; those who have drifted away from the old faith in the rush of life in America, and, antagonistic to the domination of the Roman Catholic faith, have not been attracted or won by the Protestant faith; and a third class composed of those who are bitterly hostile to all religions because of the corruption of the church as they view it, because of the social injustice of which they are the subjects, and which is identified in their own minds with the church and religious leaders.
It is an interesting thing to visit a social center in either Boston or New York. Ford Hall or Cooper Union serves as a good illustration. Here the majority of the people are Jews, radical through and through. They are intelligently awake and thoroughly skeptical. The Bible is not an open book to many of these people, and they have not learned to read history or current events with an open mind. Social conditions and economic pressure make it almost impossible for them to render a straight and just judgment. They have monstrous misconceptions of Protestants and the Protestant religion, for they see for the most part only the worst side. America means to them, instead of freedom, hope, and independence, only extortionate profiteering.
The Gospel for the Garment-workers. How can we overcome this prejudice? How can we give these people an adequate and intelligible interpretation of the gospel? We must respect their faith. It will not solve the problem to make proselytes of a large number of our new Jewish citizens. We need to be definite, concrete, and practical, and to leave controversial matters and philosophical discussions out of the situation. We need to cultivate more reverence in our American churches, and a finer regard for the associations and experiences of the past of these people. As these words are being written, I can see from my window the tower of a church surmounted by a cross. It is the Judson Memorial Baptist Church on Washington Square. Sunday after Sunday there are gathered together large groups of people. Most of them live under sordid, cramped conditions, but they find in this church a ministry that appeals to them. The church is more interested in making good Americans out of these people, and in interpreting America to them than in securing their membership in the church. And rightly this church is justified in its attitude. By ministering to the people it is gaining their allegiance to the principles of Christianity as it could in no other way.
To sum up the chapter, the making of garments, like other industries we have considered, is highly specialized. It has been taken out of the hands of the American group. The old-fashioned dressmaking and tailor shops have given way to the huge lofts where many factories are turning out clothing for men, women, boys and girls in large quantities. The workers are all city dwellers. They are all foreigners, most of them Jews, with a large intermingling of Italians. To meet their needs and to interpret the gospel to them the church must first of all come to know the conditions under which they live. It must create a public opinion that will demand an adjustment of the difficulties in the trade itself and then in the homes of the people. In the community in which they live it must show that the members of the Protestant churches are the best of friends and neighbors.