Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 9.djvu/315

 THE SWEAT-SHOP IN SUMMER 30 1

tenement-house workshop in the autumn the busy season, which lasts from September to December. During the remain- der of the year the sweaters do as they please. When one remembers that nineteen people inspect upward of twenty thou- sand establishments, employing about half a million people dur- ing the year, the herculean task of the inspectors becomes evident. There are in Chicago alone nearly six thousand ' garment-makers' shops, employing twenty-five thousand women and two thousand or more girls under sixteen years of age, besides twenty-one thousand men and five hundred little boys.

For graphic statement the following tabulation is adopted as a recapitulation of the foregoing facts :

Factory inspectors in Illinois - 19

Annual inspections - 17,219

Total employees - - 484,172

GARMENT WORKERS (CHICAGO).

Establishments 5>3 1 3

Total employees - 50,417

Women 2 5>573

Girls under sixteen years of age 2,417

Men - 21,759

Boys under sixteen years of age 569

And this is the great army whose life and conditions of work interested me, and should interest everyone who buys clothing. One cannot quiet his conscience by announcing that he goes to high-priced clothiers for his garments, and so cannot come in contact with sweated goods ; hence he is free from responsibility in the matter. Such soothing syrup may prove fatal in the end. In the first place, the mere fact of buying expensive clothing does not exempt one from the danger of tenement-house goods. The tailor who charges fancy prices is quite liable to let his work out by contract, and the original contractor, though not a sweater himself, may sublet the work to one who is ; and so one's hundred- dollar coat may repose on the bed of a scarlet-fever patient before it is delivered ready for use. Costliness alone is no guarantee that a garment is made under decent conditions.

1 Round numbers only are used here.