sually tucked away in government offices or libraries,
to which the public has practically no access. A newspaper paragraph
gives its readers the information that another report on this or that
feature of public interest has been prepared and shelved for posterity,
and there the matter ends.

In the present case public feeling and interest have been so stirred by
the condition of unexampled misery and want among masses eager to work
but with no work to be had, that the report has been called for and
read and discussed to a degree unknown to any of its predecessors. While
it gives results only in the most compact form and by no means compares
with work like that of Mr. Charles Peck in his investigations for the
New York Bureau of Statistics of Labor, it still holds a mass of
information invaluable to all who are seeking light on the cause of
present evils. As with us the system is closely a part of the
manufacture of cheap clothing of every order, tailoring leading, and
various other trades being included, furniture makers, strange to say,
being among the chief sufferers in these.

With us the system is so clearly defined and so well known, at any rate
in all our large centres of labor, that definition is hardly necessary.
For England and America alike the sweater is simply a sub-contractor
who, at home or in small workshops, undertakes to do work, which he in
turn sublets to other contractors, or has done under his own eyes. The
business had a simple and natural beginning, the journey-worker of fifty
years ago taking home from his employers work to be done there either
by himself or some member of his family. At this time it held decided
advantages for both sides. The master-tailor was relieved from finding
workshop accommodations with all the accompanying expense and from
constant supervision of his work people, while good work was insured by
the pride of the worker in his craft, as well as his desire not to lose
a good connection. There was but the slightest subdivision of labor,
each worker was able to make the garment from the beginning to the end,
apprentices being employed on the least important parts.

Work of this order has no further place in the clothing trade, whether
tailoring or general outfitting, save for the best order of clothing.
Increase of population cheapened material, the introduction of machinery
and the tremendous growth of the ready-made clothing trade are all
responsible for the change. The m