Away in the East, past the Limehouse, Millwall and India Docks, we come to Poplar, where this Society was started in 1900, to try and combat, in some degree at least, the evils of “sweating”. All through the East End of our city, the women, and some of the men too, exist on what they earn by working “for the Jews”; this term, which is recognised
among the people, is synonymous with sweating. The employers are by no means all Jews, although many are; but they are the manufacturers of ready-made clothing, which they, in their turn, dispose of to the warehouses, who again sell to shops for the retail trade. With this system, and the number of people who require to make profits on their wares, one can easily see that the actual producer can benefit very little when the garments made are sold by the shops so cheaply.
Very much has been done by legislation to remedy some of the evils, but even now these people, who take the orders home to execute, find it almost impossible to make a bare existence for themselves, although they often work practically day and night, when work is to be had. One instance of this, among many, is of a widow now employed as forewoman to the Society, who had been receiving 5s. a dozen for making tucked and lined silk blouses, and who by often working fifteen hours a day could barely support herself and her two little boys. Another is of a young widow with a little girl, who lived by making ladies’ skirts at 6s. a dozen, and the most she could possibly do in a week was two dozen, and that only when they were not “much trimmed”! If they had crape too she could only manage one dozen and a-half.
These are some more prices paid by “sweaters”: — Making elaborately flounced silk underskirts, 8s. a dozen; tucked and trimmed silk fronts, 2s. a dozen; ladies’ blouse shirts, is. a dozen; and gentlemen’s under-flannels, 9d. a dozen. All this must necessarily be very bad for the people themselves; not only is their life all the week a constant grind and anxiety, but even Sunday is by no means a day of rest — this is the opportunity for doing the cleaning and cooking for the next week, and the family wash has also to be done — or left undone, as the case may be. When one seriously considers the unceasing toil these poor folk undergo, it is hardly to be wondered at that their clothes are in rags, and both their dwellings and themselves squalid and dirty — the marvel would be were they otherwise. Yet in passing along the streets of the East End one can frequently see a clean window, with white curtains and a carefully whitened sill.
There is yet an aspect of all this that makes one very sad, and that is the most degraded idea that some of these people have of their work. I have actually found cases where well-paid work was refused for no other reason than this — that if it were better paid, better execution would be expected, and they could not be “bothered” with fastening off and finishing the garments properly; they have become accustomed to do just so much, or so little, as their employers will pass, and no amount of talking will put into their heads a right idea of honest work. This, of course, applies only to some of the workers; others are only too glad to seize the opportunity, given them by a Society like the above, of doing really good work for a proper living wage. The Society also wishes it to be known that it is in no sense a charity; it is worked on strictly business principles, and therefore, being self-supporting, it should last as long as there is any need of it. Charities have a way of fluctuating in a manner which is sometimes disastrous to the people who have come to depend upon them. Not only this, but a great many people have not yet accustomed themselves to being helped, and are proud enough to prefer to earn their own living for themselves.
