Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 9.djvu/304

 2QO THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

to all. To the student, the philanthropist, and the legislator it suggests a rational ground for constructive action ; to the general public it may serve to awaken a sense of personal responsibility ; while to the toiler himself it may mean hope in the future.

It is inevitable that the mighty changes constantly taking place in modern industry should push to oppression some who can but poorly stand the strain. The responsibility is not theirs; cir- cumstances and the consumer are to blame. Then let us, as consumers, accept the dictum of fate and conduct ourselves accordingly. Duty may lead me to endure the hardships of the worker in the interests of amelioration ; she just as surely leads others to assist in lifting the burden when once it has been pointed out.

The field of investigation included in my present task is diffi- cult of delimitation, owing to the widely differing conceptions in men's minds; but in this study I use the term "sweat-shop" as synonymous with "tenement-house workshop," the same in which it is used by factory inspectors in their reports. The term itself appeared in England during the troublous times of 1847-48, when the working people were in the direst straits and com- menced taking work home for a mere pittance rather than sit quietly awaiting starvation. "In England and America alike the sweater is simply a sub-contractor who, at home or in small workshops, undertakes to do work which he in turn sublets to other contractors, or has done under his own eyes." 1 An inquiry into the sweating system conducted by a committee of the House of Lords in 1888-90 defined sweating as "no particular method of remuneration, no particular form of industrial organization, but certain conditions of employment, viz., unusually low rates of wages, excessive hours of labor, and unsanitary work-places."

The work of which I am to speak was undertaken in all seri- ousness with the hope that it might throw some light upon the evolution of the ready-made clothing industry, and thus inci- dentally aid the Consumers' League in its crusade against sweated garments, and in this way to awaken in the minds of buyers an appreciation of the danger lurking near them, when they unthink-

1 HELEN CAMPBELL, Prisoners of Poverty Abroad* p. 34.