Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 6.djvu/624

 6 10 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

hand-sewers according to the season, the busy season lasting from March I to July I and from September I to January I ; all these stipulations to hold from March I, 1900, until March I, 1901.

Corresponding to the union is the Custom Vest Tailors' Pro- tective Association, with a membership of thirty contractors. They are not allowed to employ any workers who do not belong to the union just described. Last winter they sent a petition to their employers asking a rise in the prices paid for vests, because of a rise in the price of silk and because of the demands of their employes, the scale of prices to hold good during the same time as the scale of wages which they must pay their workers. These requests were granted, and all seemed to be running smoothly between contractors and employes. In the shop visited 1 about twenty people were at work ; the room was large, light, and clean ; the power was supplied by a gas engine. It was really a small factory.

But even among the Swedes conditions are not all up to this standard. Next door to the factory is a cooperative tailor shop, 2 a room rented by several tailors, each working independently of the other and for a different merchant tailor. Each one pays $3 a month rent and about $i a week for silk, car-fare, and other incidentals. Their season is the same as that of the vest-makers, but there is very little work in the slack season. In the busy months each man makes two coats a week by working from twelve to sixteen hours a day, and earns from $8 to $13 a week. One of them, a Finlander, said it was not unusual for a man to work all night in order to fill a special order. The eyes of three of the six men in the shop were much inflamed, and their backs were bent. One or two of the older men, in response to the inquiry whether they had time to answer a few questions, answered wearily that they could take time.

The custom or journeymen tailors as a rule are obliged to furnish their own machines and to work in their own homes or in a room rented alone or with others. Some men prefer to work alone or in their homes, but the majority feel that

1 Personal investigation. a Personal investigation.