though the work is irregular; but the general hands engaged in making 1s. coats, generally women, get a maximum of 1s. 6d., and a minimum which is indefinitely below 1s. for a twelve hours’ day.  This low-class work is also hopeless.  The raw hand, or “greener” as he is called, will often work through his apprenticeship for nominal wages; but he has the prospect of becoming a machinist, and earning from 6s. to 10s. a day, or of becoming in his turn a sweater.  The general hand has no such hope.  The lowest kind of coat-making, however, is refused by the Jew contractor, and falls to Gentile women.  These women also undertake most of the low-class vest and trousers making, generally take their work direct from a wholesale house, and execute it at home, or in small workshops.  The price for this work is miserably low, partly by reason of the competition of provincial factories, partly for reasons to be discussed in a later chapter.  Women will work for twelve or fifteen hours a day throughout the week as “trousers finishers,” for a net-earning of as little as 4s. or 5s.  Such is the condition of inferior unskilled labour in the tailoring trade.  It should however be understood that in “tailoring,” as in other “sweating” trades, the lowest figures quoted must be received with caution.  The wages of a “greener,” a beginner or apprentice, should not be taken as evidence of a low wage in the trade, for though it is a lamentable thing that the learner should have to live upon the value of his prentice work, it is evident that under no commercial condition could he support himself in comfort during this period.  It is the normal starvation wage of the low-class experienced hand which is the true measure of “sweating” in these trades.  Two facts serve to give prominence to the growth of “sweating” in the tailoring trades.  During the last few years there has been a fall of some 30 per cent, in the prices paid for the same class of work.  During the same period the irregularity of work has increased.  Even in fairly large shops the work for ordinary labour only averages some three days in the week, while we must reckon two and a half days for unskilled workers in smaller workshops, or working at home.

Among provincial towns Liverpool, Manchester, and Leeds show a rapid growth of sweating in the clothing trade.  In each case the evil is imputed to “an influx of foreigners, chiefly Jews.”  In each town the same conditions appear—­irregular work and wages, unsanitary conditions, over-crowding, evasion of inspection.  The growth in Leeds is remarkable.  “There are now ninety-seven Jewish workshops in the city, whereas five years ago there were scarcely a dozen.  The number of Jews engaged in the tailoring trade is about three thousand.  The whole Jewish population of Leeds is about five thousand."[22]