Other clothing trades have passed through the same process of development, and have produced a sub-contracting middleman.

When the connotation of the term "sweating" had become extended so as to include along with excessive hours of labour, low wages, unsanitary conditions of work, and other evils, which commonly belong to the method of sub-contract employment, it was only natural that the same word should come to be applied to the same evils when they were found outside the sub-contract system.

When the connotation of the term "sweating" had become extended so as to include along with excessive hours of labour, low wages, unsanitary conditions of work, and other evils, which commonly belong to the method of sub-contract employment, it was only natural that the same word should come to be applied to the same evils when they were found outside the sub-contract system.

For though it has been, and still is, true, that where the method of sub- contract is used the workers are frequently "sweated," and though to the popular mind the sub-contractor still figures as the typical sweater, it is not right to regard "sub-contract" as the real cause of sweating.

For it is found Firstly, that in some trades sub-contract is used without the evils of sweating being present.

Mr. Burnett, labour correspondent to the Board of Trade, in his evidence before the Lords' Committee, maintains that where Trade Unions are strong, as in the engineering trade, sub-contract is sometimes employed under conditions which are entirely "unobjectionable."

So too in the building trades, sub-contract is not always attended by "sweating.

" Secondly, much of the worst "sweating" is found where the element of sub-contract is entirely wanting, and where there is no trace of a ravenous middleman.

There is evidence that the sub-contract system here is sometimes carried through several stages, much to the detriment of the workman who actually executes the orders.

Forty years ago Alton Locke gave us a powerful picture of the wicked sub-contracting tailor, who, spider-like, lured into his web the unfortunate victim, and sucked his blood for gain.

The mining and building trades contain various examples of such sub-contracts.

These two chief factors in the "sweating" problem, sub-contract and irregular home-work, are far more prevalent in female industries than in male. § 4.

He tells me that a number of sub-contracts will be given out to-morrow, and I have made up my mind to apply for one.

One of them looked up when Jogesh said: "Ganesh Babu, I have brought you my baibáhik, who is thinking of joining me in a sub-contract".

And then the sub-contracting system, whereunder the boss divided the work among lesser bosses who each ran a gang of toilers, speeding them up mercilessly, "sweating" them!

When a successful pattern has been produced, and arrangements and sub-contracts have been made for its repetition in large quantities, any considerable variation made in the details (even if it be the suppression of ornament) will cause an addition to the cost which those only who understand something of a manufacturer's business can appreciate.

SWEATING SYSTEM, a term which began to be used about 1848 to describe an iniquitous system of sub-contracting in the tailoring trade.