Now let us consider the cheap tailoring trade in the East End. It appears, upon the evidence of Dr. Ogle, whose work it is to prepare the statistical part of the Census, and whose opinion upon all such matters stands deservedly high, that of the persons engaged in the tailoring trade, in the parish of St. George's-in-the-East, over 80 per cent. are foreigners. Mr. Zeitlin, Secretary of the Jews' branch of the Tailors' Association, himself a Russian Jew, stated before the same Committee that there were altogether employed in the East End of London about 25,000 tailors, of whom 10,000 are men and 15,000 women. Out of the 10,000 men, "mostly foreigners and not born here," three-parts are Jewish, and one part not Jewish; and of the women three-parts are English, and one part Jewesses.
Mr. John Burnett, Labour Correspondent of the Board of Trade, who was specially deputed in August 1887 to make inquiries into the Sweating system in the East End of London, reported that matters were much worse there of late years, because of the "enormous influx of pauper foreigners." He made a rough calculation that of some 20,000 tailors in the East End of London, 15,000 were foreigners--that is, persons not born in England; and of the remaining 5000, nearly all were Jews born in England, who might almost be described as foreigners also, since in their habits and their customs they have nothing in common with the native community. He stated that there were not more than 250 Englishmen employed in the cheap tailoring trade in the whole East End of London. They have all been driven out by Jews. There is, however, still a considerable employment of Englishwomen. Mr. Burnett also drafted a memorandum on the immigration of foreigners, and in it he stated that in respect of the trades and districts chiefly affected by it, the evil had assumed serious aspects. He considered that London, Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle-on-Tyne, Glasgow--to some extent Edinburgh, and also some other Scotch towns--were affected by the evil. There is of course the general lack of actual statistics as to the precise amount of the foreign population in these towns; but the Glasgow Trades' Council, for instance, though it has no specific information to hand on the subject, states generally that the tailoring in that city is overrun by Polish Jews. Mr. Burnett contemplates the time when the ready-made clothing trade will be entirely in foreign hands.