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    370 ON THE OBSTACLES TO THE

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    ^ ¦ <» The Fact Revealed In Tlie Census ...

    said that some larger ones can perform the work of twelve seamstresses . Let us suppose , however , that an average machine can do

    the work of five only , then four will be thrown out of work when their use "becomes general . It is said , however , that as the cost of

    making clothes will be lessened by the use of the machine more will be boughtso that the same number of people will in the end be

    , employed ; and the example of the power-loom ( which threw large numbers of weavers out of work at first , "but which was the ultimate

    cause of many more being employed ) is quoted to show that the distress occasioned by the sewing machine will only be temporary . The

    cases , however , are widely different . A great part of the value of ¦ woven manufactures consisted in the labor bestowed on themso that

    , by diminishing the expense in that particular the price was materially reducedand people were enabled to purchase a much larger

    quan-, tity . But in the present instance this is not so . A very small part of the expense of a silk dress consists in the labor of making it up .

    Perhaps the wages of the milliner ' s girl who makes up a dress worth & ve pounds may be five shillings . Now let this be deducted from

    the total of the account , so that the work shall cost absolutely nothing ; yet it will not encourage ladies to buy more gowns , for the

    diminution of price is fractional . Neither in coarser materials will any considerable saying in price be effected ; yet , unless the

    reduction be so great as to induce the entire population to buy _~ Q . ve times as much clothing as they do at presentnumbers of women must be

    , permanently deprived of employment . And this calculation is founded on the supposition that the

    machines will never improve , but will remain doing on an average the work of five women a day ; . though in reality it is probable they will

    soon work at a much faster rate . The distress thus caused will spread into the country . In many small towns five or six

    dressmakers have contrived to earn a living ; but now the first one among them who can collect capital enough to buy a machine will be able

    not only to undersell the others , but to excel them in the beauty of the work done ; and thus collecting the whole of their custom to

    herself , can drive them out of the trade . Then unless they are sufficiently educated to turn to some other profession they must either

    become domestic servants , for wHch their previous life has unfitted themor take refuge in the workhouse . We wish to attract attention

    to these , points , because we fear that much valuable time is now often spent in schools in teaching a trade which will shortly become

    obsolete . It will always be useful to women to know how to sew , that

    they may make and inend their own and their children ' s clothes ; but one hour's teaching a day , or two hours three times a week ,

    continued for two or three years , would give them sufficient skill for the purpose . It was perfectly right when sewing was an art by

    which women . could earn a comfortable living , that girls should

    pass two or three hours a day in learning it ; but now the time so

    370 On The Obstacles To The

    370 ON THE OBSTACLES TO THE

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Feb. 1, 1860, page 370, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01021860/page/10/