Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 66.djvu/258

254 branch of the industry. Their skill is acquired in a few months, and they can only do certain kinds of work. This subdivision of labor makes it possible to train and employ almost at once the thousands of new arrivals, and out of the employment of these new arrivals and the conditions resulting from their ever increasing competition arise the sweat shop and its evils. The sweating system produces a condition of affairs in which the operative performs the maximum amount of work for the maximum wage, the length of his working day only limited by his endurance, and, even when he extends himself to the limit, in many cases he can earn scarcely enough to keep him from starvation. This work in addition is performed under the most unsanitary conditions, often in the foul vitiated atmosphere of tenement rooms which are used alike for working, eating and sleeping.

Effective organization is difficult, well-nigh impossible among these clothing workers because of the influx of new arrivals and the employment of women and children in the so-called home work. Legislation has done much to ameliorate sweat shop evils. The workshop in the home is seen much less frequently than formerly, and is fast disappearing. A certain amount of work upon clothing will inevitably be done at home, called 'finishing,' by women who are not entirely dependent upon it, but who increase the aggregate earnings of the family in this way. Much of the work in the clothing trade is now done in shops, especially fitted for the purpose. These shops are more amenable to inspection under our factory laws, and a great deal has been done by state inspectors in this direction.

Another institution charged to immigration, of which we hear almost as much as we do of the sweat shops, is the so-called 'padrone system' The padrone system is simply the extortion practised by unlicensed Italian employment agents, who, by their knowledge of our language, are in a position to oppress their credulous, ignorant fellow countrymen in a variety of ways. The worst features of the system have been eliminated through the enforcement of our laws, and the remnant of the system would disappear if the Italian immigrants could be distributed to the rural districts, instead of being at the mercy of padroni in the crowded Italian quarters of our cities.

It will be seen that the competition of the newly arrived unskilled laborer with native Americans is indirect. He competes directly only with other alien laborers, who are already settled in the country. On the other hand, the alien skilled laborer competes directly with native Americans. In some trades the foreign arrivals who are skilled come singly or in small groups, and can be taken into the labor organizations without trouble and no reduction in wages results, but when the stream of skilled arrivals of any particular trade is of large size and constant, organization is impracticable. The new arrivals have to