Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 6.djvu/645

 SOME PHASES OF SWEATING SYSTEM IN CHICAGO 631

Illiteracy is very frequent among them, especially among the Italians. On a low plane of intelligence in their own country, they remain on the same plane here or sink to one still lower, because in their own country they had known the common speech, but here they are almost helpless when away from their own people, unless they learn English. This many of them fail to do, especially if they had reached maturity before they came over. But, besides ignorance of the language, there is igno- rance of our laws and institutions, of our ways of doing things, of our aims and aspirations, to work against these people and keep them down. Added to this is their poverty, which makes it necessary for them to accept whatever work with whatever wages they can get. "The destruction of the poor is their poverty," according to the old proverb. The sweating system surely works in two directions : if it is true that the people are poor because their wages are low, it is equally true that their wages are low because they are poor.

Besides these things there is the shifting character of the population. The contractors are here today and there tomor- row. Their employes are even more unsettled in their places of abode. This fact, with that of their isolation and their igno- rance, makes organization almost impossible. The fact of isola- tion applies particularly to the home workers. Unless they happen to have neighbors who work for the same employer, they cannot tell what other people who are doing the same work for the same man are earning. Their situation in small shops works in the same direction, although to a less degree. Although the people in a shop are likely to earn the same wages for the same amount of work, yet a shop making the same grade of garments in the same block, or even next door, may be paying higher or lower wages.

Another set of causes has its rise in the character of the industry. The garment trades are seasonal industries ; that is, there are certain months in the year when a great deal of work must be done and other months in which there is almost no work. The roots of this reason seem to lie in the fact that people all wish to have their suits at the same time. One feels