FORTY YEARS AGO

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 7, Issue 25, 19 November 1943, Page 5

FORTY YEARS AGO

ENGLISH TAILORING COSTS

EFFECT OK CHEAP LABOUIt

An interesting day-book, which he used to -keep whilst foreman of a large English tailoring establishment. which catered for the various uniforms worn by municipal officers, in the south of England, lias been unearthed, by a local resident, who has. been so struck with the cheap labour costs recorded forty years ago,, that he has handed the book on to this office for perusal. Entries made in 1!)02. show that the cost to the factory to turn out a completed policeman's overcoat, lined, culled and iinished, was ?part from the cost of material, only This astounding figure which is arrived at, as. the result of careful study of the time put in by each girl employed on the various sections of the garment, indicates the bedrock wages which the firm must have been in the habit of paying. The rates were, however,, as we are informed, universal, and somehow or other families managed to subsist upon the low rates, and were of course assisted by the reduced cost of living. Another entry, describes, coats (uniform and braided) used by attendants at the Bristol Lunatic Asylum,, and the cost, alter all the work of tailoring, lilting and pressing is described as a bare shilling. The cost of the materials may be set down as possibly ."j -. and thus the bare cost to the manufacturers would be G/-, a very handy"' figure to make a substantial profit on. when the selling rates were fixed. Tunics for the Rochester Polico Force, cost the factory just 3/- to make, which included neat black braided sleeves and braided edgings and neck-line. Double-breasted overcoats i'or the 1 same order cost 2/11 while, overcoats for the attendants at the Bristol Lunatic Asylum cost likewise only 1/4 to produce. The total cost for forty coats, supplied to the Bristol Work-house worked out at 1/o*2 each,, which would be quite an achievement in these days of, unions and overtime. Tunics again for the Croydon Fire Brigade cost in labour, only 3/apieee, while six ornate band tunics in black, white and scarlet cost the linn as far as its employees were concerned only 4/- each.

Summing the' whole question up, once we had overcome our surprise, we could not help arriving at the conclusion ■ that here was a sample of the bad old days of 'sweated labour,' when poor unfortunate girls worked twelve hours a day for 7/6 per week, and when the ,wealthy industrialists exploited the unlimited labour market to the full. Here is a definite argument for the calling into being of the Trades Union movement, which provided it maintains a fair and, rational attitude could do much to benefit the workers and industry and the nation asa whole*