Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 6.djvu/619

 SOME PHASES OF SWEATING SYSTEM IN CHICAGO 605

twelve or sixteen hours, to make from 75 cents to $i a day, with little chance of any rise in wages.

Another new feature of this period was the development of the "task system," giving out enough work to keep one busy for six days, but paying for it as only three or four days' work, and often expecting it to be finished in that time. 1 The home-shop, or sweating in the narrower sense of the term, was the rule. The cutters found that the system was gaining ground in Boston. The public was aroused, and laws were passed against the manu- facture of clothing in living-rooms. Massachusetts has been fairly successful in the enforcement of these laws and has practi- cally done away with the home-shop. New York passed her labor laws in 1886, but the legislation on sweating did not come until a little later. 2 Pennsylvania and Ohio are the only other states thus far, except Illinois, that have attempted to regulate or abolish the sweating system.

Illinois passed her first factory-inspection laws in 1893. They provide that garments shall not be manufactured in living-rooms except by members of the immediate families ; that all shops shall be kept clean and free from -vermin and contagion ; that any goods reported to the board of health or the factory inspec- tors as being infectious or contagious, whether made in this state or some other, if brought here for sale, shall be inspected and destroyed if necessary; that no child under fourteen years of age shall be employed at all in a workshop ; and that no child over fourteen but under sixteen years of age shall be employed, unless the contractor possesses an affidavit signed by the child's parent or guardian stating his age and the date and place of his birth. The next section stated that no female might be employed more than eight hours in any one day or forty-eight hours in any one week, but this was declared unconstitutional by the supreme court of Illinois. The hours required of women each day must be kept posted in every room where women are employed. A list of the names and addresses of children under sixteen must also be kept posted. Violation of any of these provisions is

x See PLUNKETT, Thirteenth Annual Convention, pp. 87, 88. 2 See New York State Factory Reports.