Page 339 - The_story_of_the_C._W._S._The_jubilee_history_of_the_cooperative_wholesale_society,_limited._1863-1913_(IA_storyofcwsjubill00redf) (1)_Neat

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Shirts and Shirtmaking.
group there is completed by the shirt, underclothing, and mantle
factory. Some thirty years ago the C.W.S. gave out cloth every
week for a jobber to make up into shirts in conformity to instructions.
A further step was the introduction of the dozen machines
already mentioned, and another was the renting of a small factory
adjacent to Balloon Street. Here the industry grew, in company
with the manufacturing of underclothing, until a removal to
Broughton in 1896. In ten years at Broughton the annual value of
the output increased from £13,822 to £45,612. Electric power was
installed for the machines, but no stoppages from wages were made
for power, nor for thread, dining-rooms, fines, or any other purposes.
All the work of the factory was finished within its walls. Touching
upon Hood's famous verses, composed in 1843, the present wTiter
said in the Wheatsheaf for March, 1906:
When the sewing machine came into general use about 1870 it was
prophesied that the " Song of the Shirt " would lose its force. But after a
temporary improvement the conditions of shirtmakers became actually worse.
The factory competed with the home industry, and the worker was ground
between the two systems. At last, about fifteen years ago, when the outlook
in Manchester was at its darkest, a Shirtmakers' Union was formed. Since
that time, with ups and downs, there has been great progress. The C.W.S.
helped when, some thirteen years ago, it began shirt making under
standard conditions. But the improvement has been limited to the factories.
Outdoor workers, who are employed by all but one or two manufacturers,
find their position much the same. WTiere they are paid according to a fair
list they have to find their own machine, probably by the costly hire system,
and their needles, cotton, and so forth. But with the competition between
them—being quite unorganised—they are usually paid less per garment than
the inside worker. Meanwhile the employer has no factory expenses, no rates
"
and rent for factory room, and practically no responsibility. Thus a " rush
order comes in, and he immediately employs all the outdoor labour available.
The work is taken into poor two or one-roomed homes, in which, perhaps,
husband or children or father or mother is lying sick with some infectious
disease, and there the workers, probably themselves anaemic and ill, stitch all
night long, urged on by fear of a rent collector turning the whole household
into the street. At last the work is completed within the specified time, it
goes back, and the employer pays and ends the bargain. He has incurred no
extra charges for overtime, no extra expense in running machinery at all hours,
and is under no fear of Factory Acts; for, wliile there may be a nominal obliga-
tion to have his work done in decent homes, he knows it is practicalh' impossible
to fix responsibility upon him. Withal he has pleased his customer, and will
have the credit of being smart and obliging. It need hardly be said that the
C.W.S. gives absolutely no work out, whether orders are thereby lost or not.
Since the early death of Mr. John Harker, in 1908, there have
been two clianges of management at the factory, a circumstance not
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