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work done by giving it out to sub-contractors, who in some cases made the garments or boots themselves, with the assistance of other work-men, and in others sublet their sub-contracts to men who carried them out with similar help. Afterwards this See also:

plan was adopted in the manufacture of ready-made clothing for civilian use, and of " bespoke " garments (made to the See also:

order of the customer). Previously the practice had been for coats, &c., to be made up by workmen employed on the premises of the See also:

MASTER (Lat. magister, related to tnagis, more, as the corresponding minister is to minus, less; the English form is due partly to the O. Eng. maegister, and partly to O. Fr. maistre, mod. maitre; cf. Du. meester, Ger. Meister, Ital. maestro)

master tailor or working together in See also:

COMMON

common workshops, but in either See also:

case directly employed by the master tailor. The new plan brought a large number of workpeople possessing little skill and belonging to a very needy class into competition with the See also:

REGULAR

regular craftsmen; and in consequence a fall in See also:

WAGES (the plural of " wage," from Late Lat. wadium, a pledge, O. Fr. wagier, gagier)

wages took See also:

PLACE (through Fr. from Lat. platea, street; Gr. IrAar6s, wide)

place, which affected, to a greater or less extent, the whole See also:

BODY

body of workmen in the tailoring See also:

trade. The work was done in overcrowded and insanitary rooms, and the earnings of the workers were extremely See also:

low. In 185o a vigorous agitation against " the sweating system " was commenced, based mainly upon a See also:

SERIES (a Latin word from serere, to join)

series of articles in the See also:

MORNING

Morning See also:

CHRONICLE (from Gr. Xpovos, time)

Chronicle, which were followed by a pamphlet, Cheap Clothes and Nasty, written by See also:

Charles See also:

Kingsley under the name of " See also:

PARSON

Parson See also:

Lot," and by his novel See also:

ALTON

Alton See also:

Locke. Kingsley and his See also:

friends, the See also:

Christian Socialists, proposed to combat the evils of the sweating system by promoting the formation of co-operative workshops; and several experiments of this nature were made, which, however, met with little success. Except that in 1876–1877 the outcry against the sweating system was renewed (principally on the ground of the See also:

RISK

risk of infection from garmentsmade up in insanitary surroundings), the See also:

MATTER

matter attracted little public See also:

NOTICE

notice until 1887, when the system again came into prominence in connexion with the See also:

IMMIGRATION (from Lat. in, into, and tnigrare, to depart)

immigration of poor foreigners into See also:

East See also:

LONDON

London, where large See also:

numbers of these See also:

PEOPLE

people were employed in various trades, especially in the tailoring, See also:

BOOT

boot-making, and See also:

CABINET

cabinet-making See also:

INDUSTRIES

industries, under conditions generally similar to those complained of in the earlier agitations. In 1888 a select See also:

COMMITTEE (from commute, an Anglo-Fr. past participle of commettre, Lat. committere, to entrust; the modern Fr. equivalent comite is derived from the Eng.)

committee of the See also:

House of Lords was appointed to inquire into the subject; and after a lengthy investigation—in the course of which See also:

EVIDENCE (Lat. evidentia, evideri, to appear clearly)

evidence was given by 291 witnesses in relation to tailoring, boot-making, furriery, See also:

SHIRT

shirt-making, See also:

MANTLE

mantle-making, cabinet-making and upholstery, See also:

CUTLERY (Fr. coutellerie, from the Lat. cultellus, a little knife)

cutlery and hardware manufacture, See also:

CHAIN (through the O. Fr. citable, chcene, &c., from Lat. catena)

chain and See also:

NAIL (O. Eng. naegal, cf. Dutch, Ger., Swed. nagel; the word is also related to Lat. unguis, Gr. ovu, Sans. nakhas)

nail-making, military accoutrements, See also:

SADDLERY

saddlery and See also:

HARNESS (from O. Fr. harneis or harnois; the ultimate origin is obscure; the Celtic origin which connects it with the Welsh haiarn, iron, has phonetic and other difficulties; the French is the origin of the Span. arnes, and Ger. Harnisch)

harness-making, and See also:

DOCK

dock labour—this committee presented its final See also:

REPORT (O.Fr. report or raport, modern rapport, from O.Fr. reporter, mod. rap porter, Lat. reportare, to bring back, in poetical use only, of bringing back an account, news, &c.)

report in See also:

APRIL

April 189o. The committee found themselves unable to assign an exact meaning to the term " sweating," but enumerated the following conditions as those to which that name was applied: " (I) A See also:

RATE

rate of wages inadequate to the necessities of the workers or disproportionate to the work done; (2) excessive See also:

HOURS, CANONICAL

hours of labour; (3) the insanitary See also:

state of the houses in which the work is carried on." They stated that, " as a See also:

RULE

rule, the observations made with respect to sweating apply, in the See also:

main, to unskilled or only partially skilled workers, as the thoroughly skilled workers can almost always obtain adequate wages." With regard to the sweating system, the committee declared that this cannot be regarded as responsible for the industrial conditions described; for " the middleman is the consequence, not the cause of the evil; the See also:

INSTRUMENT (Lat. instrumentum, from insincere, to build up, furnish, arrange, prepare)

instrument, not the See also:

hand which gives See also:

motion to the instrument, which does the See also:

MISCHIEF

mischief. Moreover, the See also:

MIDDLE

middle-See also:

man is found to be absent in many cases in which the evils complained of abound." While, on the one hand, we find, as pointed out by this committee, that " sweating " exists without the presence of the " middleman " (the fact being that many grossly underpaid workpeople are in the See also:

DIRECT

direct employment of large firms), it is, on the other hand, no less true that the " middle-man " (i.e. subordinate employer) is common in numerous trades in which there is no trace of any such oppression of the work-people employed by the sub-contractors as is denoted by the term " sweating." Thus, for example, in See also:

SHIPBUILDING

shipbuilding in many cases men work in squads, the leading workmen employing their own helpers; in the See also:

cotton trade the See also:

MULE (Lat. mulus)

mule-minders engage and pay their own piecers, and the weavers their own tenters; in the manufactured-See also:

IRON [symbol Fe, atomic weight 55.85 (0=16)]

iron trade, in See also:

MINING

mining, &c., a See also:

GOOD, JOHN MASON (1764-1827)

good See also:

DEAL

deal of work is done under sub-employers employing their own assistants, none of these sub-contractors being alleged to " sweat " their helpers.

There is, in See also:

SHORT, FRANCIS JOB (1857– )

short, no system of employment which can properly be called " the sweating system." At the same See also:

time, wherever workers possessing a small degree of skill and deficient in organization are employed under a number of small masters, there " sweating " is likely to obtain. The common See also:

IDEA (Gr. Ibia, connected with i&eiv, to see; cf. Lat. species from specere, to look at)

idea that the " sweater " is an unscrupulous See also:

TYRANT (Gr. r6pavvos, master, ruler)

tyrant, who fulfils no useful See also:

FUNCTION

function, and who makes enormous profits, has no counterpart in fact. Whatever may have been the case in earlier days, before the internecine competition of the " middlemen " had time to produce its inevitable effects upon the position of these sub-employers, it may now be considered to be beyond dispute that the small master (" sub-contractor," " See also:

GARRET (from the O. Fr. garite, modern guerite, a watch-tower, connected ultimately with " guard " and " ward ")

garret master," " fogger," &c.) usually See also:

WORKS

works at least as hard as his employes, and that his gains are, as a rule, no more than a See also:

FAIR

fair return for the work which he performs—work which in many instances consists in doing some difficult See also:

PART

part of the See also:

job, and in all cases in organizing the labour engaged. So far as concerns the " manufacturer," by whom the " sweater " is employed, and who is clearly the causa causans of " the sweating system," for him the practice of getting his work done in outside workshops is undoubtedly convenient, especially in localities where See also:

RENT

rent is high, because he is saved the expense of providing See also:

ACCOMMODATION (Lat. accommodare, to make fit, from ad, to, cum, with, and modus, measure)

accommodation for those who do his work. He is also See also:

FREE

free from restrictions as to the subdivision of labour and the employment of a certain class of workpeople which the sentiment of the regular factory workers would impose upon him. The regular tailor, for example, thinks that no one who has not, by a lengthy See also:

period of tuition, acquired the capacity to make a coat " right out " ought to be allowed to enter the tailoring trade. But in the workshop of the sub-contractor the work is split up into fractions, each of which is soon learned, so that it becomes possible to introduce into the trade persons possessing no previous training, and generally willing to work for wages far See also:

LOWER

lower than those to which the regular tailors consider themselves entitled, and which, so See also:

long as they are not exposed to the competition of these outsiders, they are usually able to secure. On the other hand, while it may suit the manufacturer, anxious to keep down the cost of See also:

PRODUCTION (Lat. productionem, from producere, to pro-duce)

production, to give his work out to middlemen, it is beyond question that any See also:

FORM (Lat. forma)

form of the " small master " system is necessarily liable to abuse in many directions. Among these small masters the eagerness to secure employment is usually so keen that the work is often taken at a See also:

price too low for it to be possible for these sub-employers to pay to their workpeople wages adequate to provide the reasonable requirements of working-class See also:

LIFE

life. The workshops of the middlemen are scattered over large districts, and these little masters frequently move their business from one house to another. Both of these are circumstances which tend strongly to make efficient regulation by the factory and the sanitary inspectors very difficult. Not seldom, especially when trade is brisk, these work-places are overcrowded in a manner injurious to See also:

HEALTH

health, and in not a few cases their sanitary See also:

CONDITION (Lat. condicio, from condicere, to agree upon, arrange; not connected with conditio, from condere, conditum, to put together)

condition is defective.

It will readily be under-stood that See also:

COMBINATION (Lat. combinare, to combine)

combination among the people employed in these numerous small isolated work-places is much less easy than among the compact bodies of workers employed in large factories, so that any See also:

ATTEMPT (Lat. adtemptare, attentare, to try)

attempt to resist oppressive conditions of employment by trade-See also:

union organization meets with serious obstacles. But perhaps the worst of all the features which this method of manufacture presents is the See also:

ABSENCE (Lat. absentia)

absence of motor See also:

POWER [WILLIAM GRATTAN] TYRONE (1797-1841)

power and machinery. The fact that a manufacturer has laid out a large sum in plant, thus entailing a heavy See also:

EXPENDITURE

expenditure in " See also:

STANDING

standing charges," necessarily induces him to do his best to make employment regular. In the little outside workshop, on the other hand, lengthy spells of enforced idleness are followed by short periods of most severe toil, during which the hours of daily labour are prolonged to an inhuman extent. At the same time, the work-people employed in the See also:

ill-equipped workshop of the.little master are competing with the much more efficient production of the factory provided with labour-saving machinery driven by See also:

steam or other See also:

MECHANICAL

mechanical power; and in many cases their only See also:

CHANCE (through the O. Fr. cheance, from the Late Lat. cadentia, things happening, from cadere, to fall out, happen; cf. " case ")

chance of retaining the work under these circumstances is to take it at See also:

STARVATION

starvation prices. But the progress of invention moves fast, and antiquated methods of production are gradually being abandoned. Already, in many of the trades in which the sweating system has hitherto largely prevailed, especially in the tailoring, the boot-making, the cabinet-making and the nail-making industries, the factory system is coming so far to the front in the See also:

RACE

race for cheapness of production that, although in certain industrial centres, in which the rents of factories are high and a specially abundant See also:

SUPPLY (through Fr. from Lat. supplere, to fill up)

supply of needy and unskilled workpeople is available, a good deal of work is still given out to small outside masters, the proportion of the See also:

TOTAL

total output manufactured in this manner is See also:

day by day diminishing. (D. Sen.) An endeavour has been made in the See also:

UNITED

United See also:

KINGDOM

Kingdom to combat legislatively the evils of sweating. The Trade Boards See also:

ACT (Lat. actus, actum)

Act 1909 established trade boards for trades to which the act applied. The trades specified were ready-made and wholesale tailoring, the making of See also:

paper or chip boxes, See also:

machine-See also:

LACE (corresponding to Ital. merletto, trina; Genoese Pizzo; Ger. spitzen; Fr. dentelle; Dutch kanten; Span. encaje; the English word owes something to the Fr. lassis or laces, but both are connected with the earlier Lat. laqueus; early French laces were

lace making and chain-making, but the See also:

BOARD (O. Eng. bord)

board of trade was given power to apply the act under a provisional order to any other trade in which exceptionally low -wages prevailed. The duties of the trade boards are to See also:

FIX, THEODORE (180o-1846)

fix, subject to certain restrictions, minimum rates of wages for time-work for their trades, while they may also fix See also:

general minimum rates of wages for piece-work, and these rates may apply either universally to the trade, or to any See also:

SPECIAL

special See also:

PROCESS

process in the work of the trade or to any special class of workers, or to any special See also:

AREA

area.

The rates so fixed become obligatory by order of the board of trade upon the expiration of six months from the date when made by a trade board, but they may, in the meantime, have a limited operation (I) in the absence of a written agreement; 12) where an employer has given written notice to the board oftrade that he is willing to pay them ; and (3) in the case of contracts vith government departments and See also:

LOCAL

local authorities. If the mini-mum rate of wages has been made obligatory and an employer has been summarily convicted of not paying same, he is liable to a See also:

PENALTY (Lat. poena, punishment)

penalty of not exceeding £2o in respect of each offence and to a penalty of not exceeding 5 for each day on which the offence is continued after conviction. He may also be ordered to pay, in addition, a sum equal to the wages due. The trade boards consist of an equal number of representative members of employers and workers, together with appointed members whose number must be less than See also:

HALF

half the total of representative members. Trade boards may also establish See also:

DISTRICT

district trade committees with a constitution similar to their own and may delegate to them their See also:

POWERS, HIRAM (1805-1873)

powers and duties under the act. See also:

WOMEN

Women are eligible for membership of trade boards or district committees indeed, in case of a trade board for a trade in which women are largely employed, at least one of the appointed members must be a woman.

End of Article: SWEATING SYSTEM

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