and to humanity is to make this great experiment, here, of free laws and educated labor, the most triumphant success that can possibly be attained. In this way we shall do far more for Europe than by allowing its city slums and its vast stagnant reservoirs of degraded peasantry to be drained off upon our soil." REFERENCES: Of the older works on immigration the most valuable are Emigration and Immigration, by Professor Richmond Mayo-Smith, and the article by Professor E. J. James on "Emigration and Immigration" in Lalor's Cyclopaedia of Political Science. For authoritative information in regard to the recent problem the reader is referred to the Report of the Industrial Commission, Vol. XV, which contains the testimony of witnesses, a review and digest of the evidence offered and several special reports, and Vol. XIX, pp. 957-1109, in which the entire subject is summarized. More recent statistics may be found in the Twelfth Census, Special Report on Occupations, pp. lxxxi-lxxxv, clvcxvii, clxxxvi-ccxii, and in the Annual Reports of the CommissionerGeneral of Immigration. The most important of the more popular treatments of the subject are: The series of nine articles on the "Racial Composition of the American People", by Professor John R. Commons, published in the Chautauquan from September, 1903, to May, 1904, Vols. 38 and 39; the articles in the Popular Science Monthly by Dr. Allan McLaughlin, on "The Bright Side of Russian Immigration", Vol. LXIV, pp. 66-70, and on "Immigration and the Public Health", Vol. LXIV, pp. 232-238; and the symposium on "The Immigrant, His Problem and Ours", in Charities, Vol. XII, No. 6, pp. 129-154. SUPPLEMENTARY READINGS: 1. Immigrants in City Slums: (a) Claghorn, "The Foreign Immigrant in New York City," (b) Seventh Special Report of the (United States) Depart- (d) Woods (ed.), The City Wilderness, passim. (e) Woods (ed.), Americans in Process, passim. 2. Economic Effects of Immigration: (a) Commons, "Immigration and Its Economic Effects," Industrial Commission Report, Vol. XV, pp. 295-316, 385-448, 647-722. 1 Walker, Discussions in Economics and Statistics, "Restriction of Immigration," p. 449. 3. 4. 5. Legislation: (a) Industrial Commission Report, Vol. XIX, pp. 1014-1030. pp. 417-451. Chinese and Japanese Immigration: (a) Turner, "Chinese and Japanese Labor in the Mountain and Racial Elements in the Population of the United States: (b) Kuczynski, "The Fecundity of the Native and Foreign CHAPTER IV THE SWEATING SYSTEM One of the greatest evils which is fostered and developed by the constant influx of alien immigrants is the sweating system. This is the last unwholesome survivor of the domestic system of labor and, though it is most prevalent in the clothing trade, is possible in any industry in which are present the three essential conditions: (a) a crowded population in large cities, (b) contract work, and (c) inexpensive machinery. It is coming to be recognized, for instance, that true sweating exists in this country in cigar factories, bake-shops and laundries. Newly arrived immigrants crowded in large cities are the most helpless victims of the system, and, by their willingness to submit to almost any terms of employment in order to live, are the source of a fierce competition which intensifies the very evils under which they suffer. In its earlier form the sweating system was practically identical with the sub-contract system, the difference between the price paid the contractor and the price paid the sub-contractor or actual worker being considered as "sweated" from the normal earnings of the latter. Of late years, however, the tendency has been to reduce the cost by eliminating the sub-contractor, without in any way changing the labor conditions. There is no industrial system coextensive with the evils complained of and . "an examination of the sweating system resolves itself into an inquiry into the conditions under which occupations recognized as 'sweated industries' are worked, and into the causes, whatever they may be, of the evils which are suffered. '' In the following section an attempt will be made to describe the system, principally as it relates to the clothing trade, by means of a study of its characteristic conditions and its more fundamental causes. 1. Characteristics of the System: The following definition of the sweating system is given by Mr. Henry White, formerly general secretary of the United Garment Workers of America: "The term 'sweating system' has a general meaning, but is specifically used to describe a condition of labor in which a maximum amount of work in a given time is performed for a minimum wage, and in which the ordinary rules of health and comfort are disregarded." This definition brings out the three characteristic evils of the sweating system, (a) low wages, (b) long hours, (c) insanitary workshops. In the last named evil is implied a fourth, the danger to the health of the consumer from the use of sweat shop goods. The final process in the manufacture of clothing in the sweatshop is the removal of the grease, dirt and vermin that have collected, but the less obvious accumulation of disease germs generally passes unnoticed. 1 Booth, Life and Labor of the People, Vol. IV, p. 333. White, "The Sweating System," Bulletin of the (United States) Department of Labor, No. 4, p. 360. The causes of the sweating evil are somewhat complex and even obscure. It has been found, however, that it is a serious mistake to regard the middleman or "sweater" as himself the cause, or even a contributing cause, of the evil. The typical sweater is little, if any, better off than his employees, and is himself a victim of the system. Nor is sub-contract an absolutely essential part of the sweating system. The same conditions have been found to exist when the work was taken direct from the manufacturer. Another view is that the ultimate cause of the system is the weakening of the race through the bad sanitary and hygienic conditions prevalent in cities, which render the individual inefficient and incapable of competition with those who have lived under better conditions. This idea, however, fails to account for the fact that in the United States thousands of victims of the sweating system come from the agricultural communities of Europe, and for the further fact that only a small proportion of the children of sweat shop workers are themselves found in sweat shops. Nevertheless, a leading cause of the sweating system is undoubtedly the lack of competitive ability on the part of large numbers of wageworkers, a lack, however, which is principally due to ignorance, absence of industrial training and a low standard of life. A second leading cause of the sweating system is the fact that in certain industries the general rule that the big shop can produce more cheaply than the small one does not hold good. This fact is, of course, largely dependent |