SOME PHASES OF SWEATING SYSTEM IN CHICAGO 625
possible to buy goods : this merchant buys knee-pants at from $i to $12 per dozen, trousers at from $2 to $24 per dozen (this probably includes overalls), and wrappers at from $2 to $24 per dozen.
The members of a third firm say they do not know where their goods are made. Sellers tell them that they have their own shops, but they do not believe it. They suppose that some of their goods are sweat-shop goods, but "we would not have such if we knew it." They buy knee-pants at from $2 to $9 per dozen, trousers at from 75 cents to $1.50 per pair, and wrappers at from $6 to $13.50 per dozen. Ten years ago they paid from $3.50 to $12 per dozen for knee-pants, $i to $2.50 per pair for trousers, and $8 to $15 per dozen for wrappers.
The prices at which these goods can be bought from the manufacturer furnish in themselves some indication of the con- ditions under which they must be made. Wrappers at from $4 to $6 per dozen, or 33^ to 50 cents apiece ! The cloth alone at retail would cost 3 cents or 5 cents per yard, and eight or ten yards are required to make a garment. Not all of the 10 or 15 cents' value that is not in the cloth can have gone to the makers. The knee-pants illustrate further. In the three knee- pants shops visited in Chicago the prices received by the contractors were 95 cents, 96 cents, and $1.20 per dozen pairs. In the small town we find the country merchant able to buy knee-pants from the large city firms at $i or $2 per dozen 8^ or 16% cents a pair. Goods which can be sold at wholesale for such a price have prob- ably been made under worse conditions than those for which the contractor receives 8 or 10 cents a pair. There doubtless is some difference in the grade of the garments ; but, granting that, one fears that conditions are not improving for the workers. Accord- ing to the small merchants, 30 cents a pair was the lowest price at which such goods could be bought ten years ago. Part of the cheapening is due to improved methods in the manufacture and sale of cloth, but one is led to doubt whether it is not partly that the workers are receiving lower wages. At any rate the contrac- tors are receiving lower prices from the manufacturers, 1 and hence could with difficulty pay as high wages as before.
1 See p. 618.
