THE WORLD OF THE GARMENT MAKERS
Fifth Avenue in New York is one of the world’s great thoroughfares.
Years ago it was devoted exclusively to residential purposes. The
wealthy people built their homes along the lower end of the street.
As the city grew, these people followed the avenue north until at
the present time the finest homes in the city are located in the
neighborhood of Central Park in the upper reaches of the street.
Between Fourteenth Street and Washington Square there are now a number
of business houses, two fine old churches, and a portion of the city
that still retains the residential quality of dignity and worth. From
Fourteenth Street to Fiftieth Street the avenue is given over almost
exclusively to business. From Thirtieth Street to Fifty-seventh Street
are found the finest shops and stores in New York City. Below Thirtieth
Street this stately avenue, and the numbered cross streets for many
blocks running east and west have been invaded by great skyscrapers
known as loft buildings in which is being carried on the greatest
garment-making industry in the world.
The workers in the garment trade in New York are nearly all Jews and
Italians. At any time of the summer and winter thousands of these
workers will be Found spending their leisure on the street between
twelve and one o’clock. When the workers are free it is almost
impossible to pass along the sidewalks of Fifth Avenue from Fourteenth
to Twenty-third Street. This solid mass of men and women, all speaking
a tongue that is unintelligible to American ears, pass round and round,
back and forth, up and down, a resistless tide typifying the steady
resistless rise of labor to a position in society where it must be
considered.
These big loft buildings occupied by the garment-making industry
have been constructed in recent years, and so rapidly have they been
erected that the storekeepers and business men of upper Fifth Avenue
have formed an organization and are exerting every effort “to save the
avenue from this advancing tide of foreign workers.”
[Illustration:
Press Illustrating Service.
When the workers are free it is almost impossible to pass along the
sidewalks of Fifth Avenue from Fourteenth to Twenty-third Street.]
Many shops and department stores have been forced to give way before
the onward sweep of this enterprise. The area in New York occupied
most exclusively by the garment workers is about a mile long and about
one-half mile wide; in this district there are thousands of workers
employed exclusively in making garments of one kind and another. The
Garment Makers’ Union has a membership of 60,000. How much do we know
about these workers? When the Triangle Shirt Waist Company’s loft
caught fire and scores of girls were burned to death or killed by
jumping from the building, the country was shocked, but up to that time
we had not known that thousands of girls work every day behind closed
and locked doors. We have almost forgotten the incident. Where was the
factory? What was done about it? The girls were, however, our servants
working at the task of furnishing us with clothes!
=Fashion and Clothes.= In the last chapter we considered the workers
who produce the material from which clothes are made. The question that
is still of vital significance to most of us is, how shall we make our
clothes? “I have not a thing to wear,” is a very common statement, yet
it does not mean what it says, for the people that use this complaint
most frequently are the ones who have literally trunks full of clothes.
What they mean is that they have nothing in the latest fashion. Fashion
is a hard taskmaster. Some one has said that the length of the stay of
a society woman at any hotel can be determined by the number of gowns
she brings with her to the hotel. “She would no more think of wearing
the same gown twice to the same place than she would think of insulting
her best friends,” was a woman’s description of her companion to prove
that she was a “real lady.” The frequent changes in style bring rich
returns to the manufacturers of clothing and call for a ceaseless outgo
by people who feel that they are obliged to follow the dictates of
fashion. “I hate rich people,” said a little shop-girl. “For every time
I see a woman wearing a fine dress I cannot help thinking how hard I
work and how useless the dress is for any practical purpose.”
=Dressmaking in the Home.= Dressmaking was at one time carried on
entirely within the family. It was a domestic employment. The only
garments that were made outside of the home were men’s clothes, and the
journeyman tailor was a skilled mechanic. He made the entire garment
himself; but even in this industry very often the work was carried on
in his home and all the members of the family assisted more or less.
=The Sweat-Shop.= The sweat-shop, in most cases, is a home that
has been turned into a factory. The father or mother goes to the
manufacturer of clothing and agrees to furnish so many pairs of pants
or waists or shirts for so much money. The worker carries these
garments to the home and all the family go to work upon the job. Many
of these homes are one-room affairs, so that in many instances the work
is carried on in the room where the cooking is done; where the meals
are eaten and where the family sleeps. Legislation has done much to
eliminate the sweat-shops, and sweating as a system is under the ban.
Every church and every individual in the church ought to know all about
the work of the National Consumers’ League. This organization inspects
factories and workshops and issues a stamp or label that is attached to
all garments made under clean, humane, healthful, and fair conditions.
Information can be secured by writing to Mrs. Florence Kelly, 289
Fourth Avenue, New York. Look for this label when you buy any garment.
Low wages make possible the continuation of the sweat-shop system.
In a family where the wage-earner receives less than enough for its
subsistence, or for some reason or other the earnings are decreased
to a rate at which the family cannot live, it becomes necessary to
supplement the family income. Wife and children go to work, boarders
and lodgers are taken into the home, and the standardization of living
is so lowered that normal conditions of home life are impossible. In a
study made of the garment trades it was found that in the homes where
work is being done for a profit only about 11 per cent. of the husbands
in these families earned $500 or more a year, while more than one half
of them earned $300 or less a year.
=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.
=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.