Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 6.djvu/655

 SOME PHASES OF SWEATING SYSTEM IN CHICAGO 641

it is a serious question whether, if it is true that each person has a " right to be himself such as he is," he has not also the right to have undiminished that which he produces.

Although legislation and organization cannot be expected to do everything, yet a violent subversion of existing society seems hardly necessary if certain people, parts of the social process, can be made to feel their responsibility. First among these is the landlord. Conditions could not now be so bad if his prop- erty were always kept in repair and in good sanitary condition. In many cases the buildings are so far gone that the only proper thing to do is to tear down and build new. A movement in this direction has already been begun. When the rebuilding com- mences, however, a building inspector should be upon the ground to see that no dark rooms are put in, and that the plumbing arrange- ments are adequate. The contractor, too, has his share of respon- sibility, if he is to maintain his position at all. There is no reason why, if he undertakes to do business, he should not do it without destroying the health or lives of the workers.

The next person to be held responsible is the manufacturer. He may be the head of a department store or the owner of a large clothing establishment or a merchant tailor. Whoever he is, if he is not able to erect or to provide suitable factories instead of shifting the responsibility of workrooms upon his petty contractors, he would better delegate the manufacture of his goods to someone who is. There is no more necessity for any of these men except, perchance, the merchant tailor to make his own garments in little shops and in tenements than for him to make his own muslins and challies and lawns, his silks and linens and broadcloths. The manufacture of all these things has been, so to speak, socialized. Anyone who has seen or visited the enormous mills in Lowell or Lawrence, with their perfect adaptation of machinery to the work to be done, and with all their labor-saving devices, is led to wonder whether the ultimate solution of the present difficulties in the garment trades may not be in some such arrangement as has been suggested. Improved methods might throw some of the present workers out of employ- ment ; but there are many children who, because of immature