SOME PHASES OF SWEATING SYSTEM IN CHICAGO 613
Swedes, Bohemians, and Jews, and receive a little more than the Italians. The Polish figures here given can, then, be used to illustrate the detail of the conditions found in all the shops. Of sixteen Polish shops on Dickson and Division streets on the northwest side visited in January, 1900, eight were engaged in making coats, six in making pants, and two in making cloaks and suits. In all but three cases foot-power was used. Of these, two had steam- and one gas-power. Seven had work all the year around at least for the past year five had very little work for four, five, or six months, and another for two months. Eighty-three adult males were employed, 150 adult females, and thirty-seven girls under sixteen. Wages were usually paid by the piece, every two weeks. Two cloak and suit shops, however, paid every week, and two other shops paid by the week instead of by the piece. The operators received from $2.50 to $12, or an average of $6.35 per week; the handworkers from 75 cents or $2 to $8, or an average of $3.65. The lower wages are the prices paid to girls under sixteen who are just beginning and are usually paid by the week. The pressers received from $6.50 to $12, or an average of $9.64 per week. Many shops had no home finishers ; when there were any, $3 seemed the usual wage.
The above figures do not include the two cloak and suit shops already mentioned, where twice as many men as women were employed and where the wages were considerably higher. The operators there received from $15 to $40, the average in one shop being $22 and in the other $16, while the hand- workers received $6 or $8, and the pressers $15 or $20. Yet in both of these shops foot-power was used, and one of them which was working for Marshall Field & Co. and for the Chicago Novelty Cloak Co., was employing five home finishers who earned only $3 or $3.50 per week.
The number of hours which the contractors reported was usually ten, but in three cases was fifteen or twenty minutes more ; in one of these shops the children were allowed to work only ten hours, and in the others the inspector gave warning that they must not allow the children to work more than ten hours if they wished to escape prosecution. One of the steam
