SWEATED INDUSTRY AND THE MINIMUM WAGE “The whole spectacle of poverty indeed is incredible. As soon as you cease to have it before your eyes—even when you have it before your eyes—you can hardly believe it, and that is perhaps why so many people deny that it exists, or is much more than a superstition of the sentimentalist.” W. D. HOWELLS. “The system which produces the happiest moral effects will be found most beneficial to the interest of the individual and the common weal; upon this basis the science of political economy will rest at last, when the ponderous volumes with which it has been overlaid shall have sunk by their own weight into the dead sea of oblivion.” R. SOUTHEY. SWEATED INDUSTRY AND THE MINIMUM WAGE BY CLEMENTINA BLACK WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY A. G. GARDINER CHAIRMAN OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF THE NATIONAL ANTI-SWEATING LEAGUE [Illustration: [Logo]] LONDON DUCKWORTH & CO. 3 HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN, W.C. 1907 _All rights reserved._ So many persons have kindly helped me with material for this volume that it is impossible to name all of them; but I cannot forbear to express my thanks to Mr W. Pember Reeves, to Mr Tom Garnett of Clitheroe, to my old friends Mrs Bogue Luffmann and Mr H. H. Champion, who have collected information for me in Australia, and last, but not least, to Mr Gardiner for his valuable introduction. C. B. _March 1907_ CONTENTS PAGE INTRODUCTION ix PART I SWEATED INDUSTRY CHAPTER I THE POOREST OF ALL 1 CHAPTER II WORKERS IN FACTORIES AND WORKSHOPS 23 CHAPTER III SHOP ASSISTANTS, CLERKS, WAITRESSES 48 CHAPTER IV TRAFFIC WORKERS 75 CHAPTER V WAGE-EARNING CHILDREN 104 CHAPTER VI SUMMARY 132 CHAPTER VII HOW UNDERPAYMENT COMES 144