acquired the capacity to make a coat right out ought to be allowed to enter the tailoring trade. But in the workshop of the sub-contractor the work is split up into fractions, each of which is soon learned, so that it becomes possible to introduce into the trade persons possessing no previous training, and generally Willing to work for wages far lower than those to which the regular tailors consider themselves entitled, and which, so long as they are not exposed to the competition of these outsiders, they are usually able to secure. On the other hand, while it may suit the manufacturer, anxious to keep down the cost of production, to give his work out to middlemen, it is beyond question that any form of the “small master” system is necessarily liable to abuse in many directions. Among these small masters the eagerness to secure employment is usually so keen that the work is often taken at a price too low for it to be possible for these sub-employers to pay to their workpeople wages adequate to provide the reasonable requirements of working class life. The workshops of the middlemen are scattered over large districts, and these little masters frequently move their business from one house to another. Both of these are circumstances which tend strongly to make efficient regulation by the factory and the sanitary inspectors very difficult. Not seldom, especially when trade is brisk, these work-places are overcrowded in a manner injurious to health, and in not a few cases their sanitary condition is defective. It will readily be understood that combination among the people employed in these numerous small isolated work-places is much less easy than among the compact bodies of workers employed in large factories, so that any attempt to resist oppressive conditions of employment by trade-union organization meets with serious obstacles. But perhaps the worst of all the features which this method of manufacture presents is the absence of motor power and machinery. The fact that a manufacturer has laid out a large sum in plant, thus entailing a heavy expenditure in “standing charges,” necessarily induces him to do his best to make employment regular. In the little outside workshop, on the other hand, lengthy spells of enforced idleness are followed by short periods of most severe toil, during which the hours of daily labour are prolonged to an inhuman extent. At the same time, the workpeople employed in the ill-equipped workshop of the little master are competing with the much more efficient production of the factory provided with labour-saving machinery driven by steam or other mechanical power; and in many cases their only chance of retaining the work under these circumstances is to take it at starvation prices. But the progress of invention moves fast, and antiquated methods of production are gradually being abandoned. Already, in many of the trades in which the sweating system has hitherto largely prevailed, especially in the tailoring, the boot-making, the cabinet-making and the nail-making industries, the factory system is coming so far to the front in the race for cheapness of production that, although in certain industrial centres, in which the rents of factories are high and a specially abundant supply of needy and unskilled workpeople is available, a good deal of work is still given out to small outside masters, the proportion of the total output manufactured in this manner is day by day diminishing. (D. Sch.)
An endeavour has been made in the United Kingdom to combat legislatively the evils of sweating. The Trade Boards Act 1909 established trade boards for trades to which the act applied. The trades specified were ready-made and wholesale tailoring, the making of paper or chip boxes, machine-lace making and chain-making, but the board of trade was given power to apply the act under a provisional order to any other trade in which exceptionally low wages prevailed. The duties of the trade boards are to fix, subject to certain restrictions, minimum rates of wages for time-work for their trades, while they may also fix general minimum rates of wages for piece-work, and these rates may apply either universally to the trade, or to any special process in the work of the trade or to any special class of workers, or to any special area. The rates so fixed become obligatory by order of the board of trade upon the expiration of six months from the date when made by a trade board, but they may, in the meantime, have a limited operation (1) in the absence of a written agreement; (2) where an employer has given written notice to the board of trade that he is willing to-pay them; and (3) in the case of contracts with government departments and local authorities. If the minimum rate of wages has been made obligatory and an employer has been summarily convicted of not paying same, he is liable to a penalty of not exceeding £20 in respect of each offence and to a penalty of not exceeding £5 for each day on which the offence is continued after conviction. He may also be ordered to pay, in addition, a sum equal to the wages due. The trade boards consist of an equal number of representative members of employers and workers, together with appointed members whose number must be less than half the total of representative members. Trade boards may also establish district trade committees with a constitution similar to their own and may delegate to them their powers and duties under the act. Women are eligible for membership of trade boards or district committees indeed, in case of a trade board for a trade in which women are largely employed, at least one of the appointed members must be a woman.
SWEDEN [Sverige], a kingdom of northern Europe, occupying the eastern and larger part of the Scandinavian peninsula. It is bounded N.E. by Finland (Russian Empire), E. by the Gulf of Bothnia and the Baltic Sea, S.W. by the Cattegat and Skagerrack, and W. by Norway. It extends from 69° 3′ 21″ to 55° 20′ 18″ N., and from 11° 6′ 19″ E. on the south-west coast to 24° 9′ 11″ E. on the Finnish frontier, the extreme length being about 990 m., the extreme breadth (mainland) about 250 m., and the total area estimated at 173,547 sq. m. Out of a detailed total estimate of the boundary line at 6100 m., 4737 m. are coastal, the Norwegian frontier is 1030 m., and the Finnish 333 m.
Physical Features.—The backbone of the Scandinavian peninsula is a range, or series of masses, of mountains (in Swedish Kölen,[1] the keel) extending through nearly the whole length of the peninsula towards the western side. The eastern or Swedish flank has, therefore, the slighter slope. This range forms, in a measure, a natural boundary between Sweden and Norway from the extreme north to the north of Svealand, the central of the three main territorial divisions of Sweden (Norrland, Svealand and Götaland); though this boundary is not so well markd that the political frontier may follow it throughout. Sweden itself may be considered in four main physical divisions—the mountains and highland district, covering all Norrland and the western part of Svealand; the lowlands of central Sweden; the so-called Småland highlands, in the south and south-east; and the plains of Skåne, occupying the extreme southward projection of the peninsula.
The first district, thus defined, is much the largest, and includes the greatest elevations in the country and the finest scenery. The highest mountains are found in the north, the bold Northern Highlands. peak of Kebnekaise reaching 7005 ft., Sarjektjåcko, 6972 ft., being the loftiest point of magnificent group including the Sarjeksfjäll, Alkasfjäll and Partefjäll, which range from 6500 ft. upwards; and, farther south, Sulitelma, 6158 ft., long considered the highest point in Scandinavia. Elevation then decreases slightly, through Stuorevarre (5787 ft.) and Areskutan (4656 ft.), to the south, of which the railway from Trondhjem in Norway into Sweden crosses the fine pass at Storlien. South of this again, before the main chain passes into Norway, are such heights as Helagsfjäll (5896 ft.) and Storsylen (5781 ft.); and a group of mountains in the northern part of the province of Dalecarlia (Dalarne) ranges from 3600 to 4500 ft. in height. The neighbourhood of Areskutan and the Dalarne highlands, owing to the railway and the development of communications by steamer on the numerous lakes, are visited by considerable numbers of travellers, both Swedish and foreign, in summer; but the northern heights, crossed only by a few unfrequented tracks, are known to few, and to a considerable extent, indeed, have not been closely explored. From the scenic standpoint the relatively small elevation of these mountains finds compensation in the low snow-line, which ranges from about 3000 ft. in the north to 5500 ft. in the south of the region. All the higher parts are thus snow-clad; and glaciers, numerous in the north, occur as far south as the Helagsfjäll. The outline of the mountains is generally rounded, the rocks having been subjected to erosion from a very early geological age, but hard formations cause bold peaks at several points, as in Kebnekaise and the Sarjeksfjäll.
- ↑ In Swedish the definite article (masc. and fem. en, neut, et) is added as a suffix to the substantive (when there is no epithet). Geographical terms are similarly suffixed to names, thus Dalelfven, the river Dal. The commonest geographical terms are: elf, ström, river; sjö, lake; ö, island; holm, small island; fjäll, mountain, group or range; dal, valley; vik, bay. In Norrland the following terms are common: å, river, often attached to the names of the large rivers, as Torneå, Luleå (although properly it means a smaller river than elf); the names of towns at their mouths always following this form; träsk (local, properly meaning marsh), jaur (Lapp), afva, lake (provincial Swedish, properly a kind of creek opening from a river). Å is pronounced ö.
