SWEATING SICKNESS 



5644 



SWEATSHOP SYSTEM 



is the trumpeter, an American bird now rarely 

 seen. It is larger than its whistling cousin and 

 has a call resembling the tones of a French 

 clarion. Except for the presence of the yel- 

 low spot on the head of the whistler, these 

 swans are alike in plumage. 



In the eastern hemisphere are found the 

 European whistling swan, Bewick's swan, a 

 smaller bird, and the mute swan, the majestic 

 species commonly seen in zoological gardens, 

 parks and estates. It is said that it never uses 

 its voice in captivity. A beautiful species 

 known as the black swan, which has a scarlet 

 bill banded with white, is native to Australia. 

 In South America is found the black-necked 

 swan. M.A.H. 



Consult Beebe's The Swans, in report of the 

 New York Zoological Society (1906). 



SWEATING SICKNESS, a very dangerous 

 epidemic which swept over Europe at intervals 

 during the fifteenth, sixteenth and early eight- 

 eenth centuries. Englishmen seemed espe- 

 cially susceptible to it, and were attacked both 

 at home and on the Continent. The disease, 

 which had as its victims chiefly strong, healthy 

 men, was characterized by a short chill, head- 

 ache, coma and profuse perspiration. It ran its 

 course in about a day, and was fatal to a large 

 number of victims. The sweating sickness is 

 always to be found in some part of the world, 

 but it is to-day generally called military fever. 



SWEATSHOP SYSTEM, the name applied 

 to an industrial policy by which the manufac- 

 ture of goods is carried on outside of the own- 

 er's premises under conditions so unfavorable 

 that they have aroused vigorous public protest. 

 The name sweatshop suggests a place of grind- 

 ing toil ; the system, known also as the sweating 

 system, has for its victims poor people who 

 under its operation unhampered by law have 

 no means of escape from despair. 



The manufacturers of clothing instituted the 

 policy by contracting for the making of much 

 of their product outside their own shops. 

 Rents were saved, responsibility was shifted, 

 management expenses were decreased and fac- 

 tory laws evaded. They probably did not fore- 

 see the evils which would result from the con- 

 tract system. Under the system a man or firm 

 receiving a contract will sublet it to a small 

 shop in a tenement district where the people 

 are in the grip of poverty and where labor is 

 therefore cheap. The owners of such shops 

 take contracts at as high prices as they can 

 force from the middleman and pay their em- 

 ployees by what is known as piecework, giving 



them little more than enough to keep them 

 alive. Working for so little, the employees 

 often spend from twelve to eighteen hours a 

 day at their tasks to make their weekly wage 

 as large as possible. 



Another side of the system affects the home 

 even more directly. Often a contractor will 

 give work to a man who takes it into his home. 

 His house becomes little better than a work- 

 shop, and he presses his family, even including 

 little children, into the daily labor, and here, 

 too, the hours of work may extend into the 

 night. 



The sweating system is thus charged with 

 overcrowding in shops, developing insanitary 

 conditions, forcing children into labor without 

 safeguards, and causing an increase in disease 

 and deformity due to confinement. The help- 

 less workers are unable to improve their condi- 

 tion within their own ranks, because they are 

 scattered and their employment is irregular. 

 Complaints may deprive them of even the 

 slight income they are able to earn. 



The above description pictures the system in 

 its worst aspect in great cities, but the state- 

 ment is not overdrawn. So scandalous have 

 been disclosures that thousands of people have 

 pledged themselves not to purchase clothing 

 made under the contract system. Public atten- 

 tion was first called to the matter when it was 

 found that diseases from the tenements were 

 carried in the new clothing manufactured under 

 the sweating system. Legislatures have taken 

 official notice of the evil, and in some states 

 have remedied conditions by laws which de- 

 mand light, airy, roomy buildings, reasonable 

 hours of labor, regular inspection of machinery 

 and premises, and restrictions upon employ- 

 ment of children. In the states of Massachu- 

 setts, New York, Ohio and Illinois the laws 

 provide that all rooms where such work is per- 

 formed shall be licensed and regularly in- 

 spected. There has also been a growing tend- 

 ency within recent years among manufacturers 

 to abate the evil. Many of the largest clothing 

 producers have equipped buildings with plenty 

 of room and every modern device to provide 

 security and health, and they pay wages which 

 assure improved living conditions. E.D.F. 



Consult Adams and Sumner's Labor Problems: 

 A Textbook. 



Related Subjects. The reader is referred to 

 the following articles in these volumes : 



Eight-Hour Day 

 Factory and Factory 



System 



Labor Legislation 

 Labor Organizations 



