NEEDLEWOMEN.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPROTATOR:]
▪ have read with much interest your notice of the condition -of the needlewomen who work for slop-sellers in Liverpool, and of the effort Mr. Simpson is making to help them. I shall be glad if you will allow me to give him and his fellow-workers some advice, founded on the experience of a similar effort made twenty years ago in Whitechapel. At that time public attention had been drawn to the condition of the slop-workers in the East End of London, and the Society for Promoting Working-Men's Associations, of which the late Mr. Maurice was President, established a Needlewomen's Association in Welldose Square, in the hope of obtaining work at first hand, and so of saving for the poor women the profits which went into the pockets of "the -sweaters," as the middle-men in this wretched trade are well called.
The association ultimately broke down, because we could not -succeed in doing this. We found that, apart from the great slop- sellers to whom it was useless to apply, the Government were the great customers for the articles of clothing upon which the women were working from twelve to seventeen hours a day, and starving. At that time we found it impossible to obtain any of the Govern- ment work, but the system has been altered since ; and I have mason to think that direct contracts might now be obtained for portions of the articles required for the Army, Navy, or Police, without much difficulty, by any society established for the con- templated object, which was properly organised, and prepared to
g ive security for the due fulfilment of contracts.
But there is another method of reaching the consumer directly, which seems to me more hopeful. There are now a vast number of co-operative stores scattered all over the country, but more numerous and powerful in Lancashire and Yorkshire than else- where, all of which deal in such ready-made articles as these poor women produce for the "sweaters." The consumption of theile stores is, to a mat extent, organised already, and they are supplied through the agency of the North of England Wholesale Associa- tion, whose chief place of business is in Balloon Street, Manchester. So far as I am aware, these stores are supplied at present through the ordinary channels, or in other words, by the wholesale clothiers who employ "sweaters." I would suggest that Mr. Simpson should -endeavour to obtain this custom through the North of England Wholesale Association.
In any easel trust he will not start until he has secured, in the man- ner suggested, or in some other way, a large and regular demand for his goods at first hand. Otherwise, I fear he will find himself with a large stock of slops on his bands, for which he will be unable to find a market; and so his workers will sink back again sooner or later into the old groove, and find themselves more hopelessly than ever under the tender mercies of the "sweaters." Expert° crede.—
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