tion of the law by his employees, and (c) that the Federal government should enact legislation, based on inter-state commerce in the articles manufactured. Probably the imposition of a penalty on the manufacturer would be the most effective improvement which is feasible at the present time.

4. Present Status: One of the most difficult points to determine is the exact extent of the evil, for sweating is not coincident with any particular industry. Nevertheless, some rough idea of the problem may be obtained from the following table, derived from the Twelfth Census, and covering only the most important industries in which the sweating system is known to exist to a greater or less extent:

These industries are characterized by the large proportion of female labor, the small ratio of capital to the value of the product, and the concentration in cities. The apparently small proportion of children in such industries as the manufacture of women's clothing is surprising, and there is reason to doubt the accuracy of the figures. It is probably accounted for by the fact that these statistics are compiled from returns made by the manufacturers themselves, and by the further fact that many small establishments escape census enumeration.

As the sweating system is confined to the cities it is interesting to compare, for the two principal sweated industries, the percentage of the total industry, by value of product, which is carried on in the six largest cities in the United States. This is done in the following table:

In New York City there is manufactured nearly onethird of all the men's clothing, and nearly two-thirds of all the factory product women's clothing in the United

States. The first three cities are important in the clothing industry in the order of their population, but St. Louis falls behind Cincinnati and Rochester, as well as Baltimore and Boston. Other important cities are Syracuse, Detroit, Milwaukee and San Francisco.

It was estimated by the Committee on Manufactures, which investigated the sweating system in 1893, that probably one-half of the clothing manufactured at that time was made in factories by the employees of a contractor, and the other half was divided between home work and subcontract in small shops, with perhaps five per cent. of country work. Since that time the country work has increased considerably, and the factory work has also shown a strong tendency to increase in relative importance, but at the same time, the clothing business has grown so rapidly, having increased 65 per cent. in New York City between 1890 and 1900, that the sweat shops must also have multiplied. Mr. J. B. Reynolds, of the University Settlement Society, testified before the Industrial Commission that he believed four-fifths of the clothing trade of New York to be done in sweat shops, the other fifth being done by custom tailors and factories. In other cities the sweat shop is probably somewhat less prevalent, in proportion to the size of the city.

From the application of the present New York law, which applies only to rooms or apartments in tenement houses, in September, 1899, up to September, 1901, 46,985 applications for licenses were received, of which 79.6 per cent. were granted, and at the latter date there

were 28,787 licensed places in the state of New York and 20,046 in New York City. One-third of all the licenses held in the city were in the lower East Side, the most crowded district of Greater New York. The total number of persons authorized to work in the licensed places was 72,636, and of these 50,381 were in New York City. About one-third reported that they were to work on custom-made garments.

In Chicago it is said that practically all the clothing is made in sweat shops or home shops and, from 1894 to 1899, the manufacture of garments, cigars and cigarettes in that city increased 57 per cent. in the number of employees. The Illinois factory inspector estimated in 1899 that there were 60,000 people in Chicago engaged in the three sweated industries, the garment trades, the manufacture of cigars and cigarettes and the bakeries. The Pennsylvania factory inspector reported, in 1902, 8,122 persons as subject to the sweat shop law, probably nearly all in Philadelphia, while Baltimore had, at the beginning of 1903, 1,309 licensed places in tenement houses or dwellings with 11,849 persons employed.

It was found in Boston in 1890 that nearly 89 per cent. of the annual product of the clothing industry was made, wholly or in part, under the contract system, which applied to practically all the work except the cutting and trimming. Only 47.88 per cent. of this work, however, was done in Boston, 16.72 per cent. of it being done in New York City and the rest in other parts of Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire and even New Jersey. The

tenement work in Boston is principally confined to the finishing process. Conditions are far better there than elsewhere, but it cannot be said that the sweating system has been abolished.

A good deal of the Cincinnati and Cleveland work is done in the surrounding suburbs. In Detroit, during the year 1902, the special inspector visited 528 places employing 1,002 persons in tenement work shops, and issued 520 permits. In Milwaukee there were granted, between the fall of 1901 and July 1, 1902, 300 licenses, and in 280 of these places there were 1,637 employees. In Indianapolis in 1902 there were 151 permits outstanding for the manufacture of clothing in the homes of the workers, and there were employed in these homes 168 people.

5. Social Aspects: Having determined as accurately as possible the extent of the sweating system, it is necessary to consider the social aspects of the problem, the location and sanitation of the shops and the danger to the health of the workers and of the public. The statistical information to be obtained on these points is necessarily of a very scattering kind.

In New York state in 1901, 5,300 of the licensed places were in shops and 23,487 were in dwellings. Though the shops were less than one-fifth of the whole number of licensed places they contained 45.4 per cent. of the employees. The great majority, 82.6 per cent., of the home workers were women. In Chicago in the same year 5,313 places occupied by garment workers were inspected and in 359 cases the work was being carried on in living