own hands. Suppose--"

"Suppose!" The manager threw out his hands in a gesture more full of
disclaimer than any words. "There is no room for supposes in business,
madam. We do what we must. How are we to compete with a factory turning
out suits by steam power? Not that we would compete. There is really no
occasion," he added hastily. "But their methods certainly have an
unpleasant influence, and we are obliged to take them into account
slightly."

"Then your statement would be, that no matter how expensive the suit
made up, you can make no profit on it?"

"Absolutely none. It is a concession to a customer's whims. We could buy
the same thing and sell to her at half the price, but she prefers to
select materials and have them put together in our work-room, and we
must humor her. But rents are so enormous that the space for every woman
employed by us in these departments may be said to represent simply so
many cubic feet in good coin, bringing us no return. Our profits are
dwindling with every year."

"Might not co-operation--"

Again the manager threw out his hands.

"Simply another form of robbery. We have investigated the history of
co-operation, and it does not appear to affiliate with our institutions.
The lamentable failure of the Co-operative Dress Association ought to
be the answer to that suggestion. No, madam. There is no profit in
suits, or in any form of made-up clothing for ladies' wear, if it is
done on the premises. You have to turn it over to the wholesale
manufacturer if you want profit."

Having heard this statement in many forms, and recognizing the fact that
increase in rents as well as in systematized competition might well have
reduced profits, it still appeared incredible that the rates charged
held no surplus for the firm. Little by little it has become possible to
supplement each statement by others of a different order. Nothing is
more difficult than to obtain trustworthy information regarding the
methods of a firm whose standing is such that to have served it is
always a passport to other employment; whose payments are regular, and
where every detail of work-room is beyond criticism. It is no question
of bare-faced robbery as in that of many cited, yet even here the old
story tells itself in different form, and with an element which, in many
a less pretentious establishment, has not yet been found to exist.

The work done here is piece-work. French cutters and fitters, receiving
from