upon the former cause, for the small shop holds its supremacy only by reason of the over-supply of cheap and needy labor. The large establishment, moreover, is far more subject to legislative supervision than the small, which maintains its economic position by driving down wages to the subsistence point and below, by indefinitely prolonging hours, and by wholly neglecting sanitary conditions. The large use of woman and child labor, and the small amount of skill required in a highly specialized industry also contribute to the success of the small shop. The foreigner, moreover, ignorant of the English language, is at the mercy of some small contractor, probably of his own nationality, from whom he learns a single process of manufacture and by whom he is carefully guarded from the knowledge of any means of escape from this vicious circle. Charity, also, frequently steps in and complicates the problem still further by giving aid only where it can be shown that the family is partly supported by its own efforts, thus placing pauper labor upon the side of the small, obscure shop and home work in the competitive struggle.

Another factor which has contributed largely to the success of the small shop is the seasonal character of the trade. Outside of the two rush seasons of three or four months each there is practically no work. If the manufacturer maintained his own establishment this fact would be a serious inconvenience and loss to him, while it would be hardly possible for him to increase his working capacity rapidly enough during the rush seasons. By

the contract system, however, he throws all the losses of the dull period upon the employees. Under it he can wait until the last moment to buy his goods, and can then distribute them broadcast to be made up in the minimum time. By means of this system a mass of unskilled labor is effectively organized for work when wanted, and is cast adrift readily when the need is over.

Aside from the three evils which we have seen to be inseparably connected with sweating, the main features of the system are, generally, the minute subdivision of labor and the contract system with a piece price or wage. The manufacturer is usually the owner of the material, but the work is not carried on upon his premises. In the garment trade either the manufacturer or a large contractor has what is called an "inside shop" where all the cutting is done and from which the articles are given out in bundles. The cutters are skilled workmen, usually working by the week, and enjoying superior conditions of labor.

Three principal varieties of sweating have been distinguished. First, individuals may labor in their own homes with the assistance only of members of their families. A great deal of custom work is done in this way by skilled journeymen tailors. For the most part, however, this is the lowest type of sweat shop labor, and is frequently carried on under conditions of indescribable filth and squalor, in quarters which have become centers of wretchedness and ignorance, and from which "are scattered

much of the crime and more of the disease that infest our large cities."

Secondly, individuals may labor in their homes with hired assistance for particular operations. This is the typical form of sweating, under which the living apartments are turned into factories in which outsiders are employed, and frequently also boarded. In these shops unclean and unhealthful conditions are inevitable, and the close association of from six to fifteen or more persons in one small, unventilated room renders the spread of contagion, as well as the danger of disease, a constant menace. The sweater, in this case, is not merely a contractor, but is the head workman, and often the only person in the shop who understands all the different processes involved in the making of a garment. It is against these shops that legislation is particularly directed.

The third variety of sweating is carried on in workrooms used especially for that purpose. These are sometimes connected with the living rooms of the sweater, but sometimes they are in buildings which are not used for residential purposes. They are frequently in rear tenements or barns, which have been condemned as unfit for human habitation. The machines in these larger shops are sometimes run by gas, steam or electricity. As the size of the shop and the number of employees increase, the sweater becomes more and more an overseer, driving the laborers to the greatest possible speed for the longest possible hours. Although wages are still by the piece,

only rapid work and long hours will enable the workpeople to hold their places in these shops, for the burden of expense which the sweater bears is comparatively heavy, and he is obliged by competition to turn out the maximum amount of work.

Though these are the three varieties which may properly be called sweating, there are two other methods of garment manufacture which have been gaining in favor within recent years. The first of these is the manufacture of clothing in the country by the wives and daughters of farmers and by other women who have spare time and work for "pin money." The conditions of labor in such cases are not in themselves objectionable, but it is obvious that this country competition is calculated to drive still lower the conditions in the city sweat shops. The second method is manufacture in large "inside shops" and is practically the factory system applied to this trade. Little objection can be made to this method when supervised by an efficient system of factory inspection.

2. Rise of the Problem: While in England the early victims of the sweating system were mainly English people, in the United States, and even in London at the present time, the immigrant population furnishes the vast majority of sweat shop workers. In New York City the tailor trade was originally carried on by the English and Scotch, but about 1850 the Irish began to appear, and a little later the trade was taken up by the Germans. The sweating system practically began, however, in 1885,

following the enormous immigration of the years immediately preceding. The Hungarian, German and Austrian Jews had entered the trade as early as 1873 and soon afterwards the Russian and Polish Jews appeared. By 1890 the Jews had gained entire control of the clothing industry in New York, the price of labor had fallen greatly, and a fierce competition reigned in all the larger cities of the United States, including New York, Boston, Baltimore, Philadelphia and Chicago. In the same year the Italians entered the clothing trade in New York, and they have even further reduced prices, and have been a powerful factor in the problem of home work. Thus the clothing industry seems to have been the first resource of each of the alien races in turn, the more recent driving out the older immigrants and all apparently using the sweating system merely as a stepping stone.

Passing over the element of race, there are traceable in the development of the clothing industry in this country four distinct stages. First, there was the journeyman tailor, a skilled mechanic who made up the entire garment himself and worked under fairly good conditions. The journeyman tailor has continued to perform a great part of the custom work, but his condition has steadily deteriorated, owing to the pressure of competition.

The second stage was the home shop with division of labor, and for this, as for all subsequent developments, the large and increasing demand for ready-made clothing is largely responsible. While in 1870 probably less than 25 per cent. of the clothing manufactured in this country