Flesh and Blood So Cheap

Immigrants knew that the only way to survive was to work. Though a social safety net exists today that consists of unemployment insurance, Social Security income, and Medicare health insurance, Americans in the early 1900s did not benefit from any of these things. Immigrants were limited in their job options by their past experience. Many unskilled Italians took dangerous manual labor jobs. Bigoted critics disparaged them for taking on “work no white man could stand” (49). Others sang the praises of these workers, arguing that they were “doing the hard work of the nation” (49). Those who made enough to save some money were able to open small businesses, like bakeries, fruit stands, or shoe repair shops.

Many of the Russian Jews had already been merchants and artisans in Eastern Europe. In the US, they sold wares door-to-door, in pushcarts, or at markets. One famous market was the Pig Market on the Lower East Side, where you could buy anything but pork because of Jewish religious prohibition against eating pigs. Bargaining was the rule at these markets, with good bargainers respected and poor bargainers seen as “bumbling [fools]” (54).

Another important work sector for Jewish immigrants was the clothing industry. Ready-made clothing had existed since the 1700s, but mass production of uniforms during the Civil War led to standardized sizing for off-the-rack clothing. The invention and innovation of sewing machines made the manufacturing of ready-made clothing much faster, lowering prices and increasing availability. The styles available also expanded, so people no longer had to dress to their station and could, instead, wear the styles and fashions of the wealthier classes. This democratization of clothing offended some, who believed that one should dress appropriately for one’s class and station in life.

The labor that went into the mass production of clothing was difficult and often dangerous. It began with harvesting cotton, chiefly done by poor Southern whites and the Black descendants of freed slaves. Then, the cotton was taken to mills, where workers—often children aged nine to ten—worked dangerous looms with no safety features. The next step was the clothing manufacturer, who typically employed contractors for each stage of the process: cutting, basting, sewing, finishing, and pressing. Manufacturers, wanting the best profit for their goods, would often underpay contractors, who in turn “sweated” their workers—“squeezing as much work out of them as possible while paying them as little as possible” (63). Many of these sweatshop workers were young Jewish women.

Because many Russian Jews could not afford to move to America together, they would often send a daughter ahead to get a job and make money to help the rest of the family move. Even once the rest of the family arrived, the daughters still had to work to help with household expenses. Because of this, they were often left out of the educational opportunities given to their brothers.

Sweatshop workers were not paid a salary or hourly wages, but rather earned money by the piece—a set amount for a set number of items produced: “For an eighty-four-hour workweek, they earned from $2.50 to $4.00” (68). This led them to try to work as fast as possible—and often at a speed that caused many accidents and injuries. Workers did not have the option to take time off to recover.

Improvements in technology and changing women’s fashions led to a decrease in the number of sweatshops in the early 1900s. Women began favoring looser-fitting, more comfortable clothing like the shirtwaist, or “waist,” which became “a symbol of women’s liberation” (68).

Two men led the shirtwaist industry: Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, who had arrived at Ellis Island separately before teaming up to become contractors and later manufacturers. They built a large, modern factory that combined all of the manufacturing steps in one building. They used the most up-to-date technology, greatly increasing the amount of clothing workers were able to produce. By 1910, there were approximately 600 similar “new-model factories” (70). The workers in these factories were 55% Jewish and 35% Italian immigrant women. Factory jobs had their pros and cons. One pro was a better environment than the tenement sweatshops, with lighting and washing facilities. The pay was higher, too, ranging from $6 to $20 a week. Some cons were unethical behaviors by factory bosses: manipulating the clocks to get more minutes out of workers, or deducting pay for supplies or penalties.