The force of an organized public opinion, even that of a respectable minority, brought to bear upon notorious "sweating" firms, would doubtless be of great avail, if carefully applied.
At the same time, it must not for a moment be imagined that the problem of poverty would be solved if we could insure, by the payment of higher prices for better qualities of goods, the extermination of the sweating trades.

This low, degraded and degrading work enables large numbers of poor inefficient workers to eke out a bare subsistence.

If it were taken away, the direct result would be an accession of poverty and misery.

The demand for skilled labour would be greater, but the unskilled labourer cannot pass the barrier and compete for this; the overflow of helpless, hopeless, feeble, unskilled labour would be greater than ever.

Whatever the ultimate effects of decreasing the demand for unskilled labour might be, the misery of the immediate effects could not be lightly set aside.
This contradiction of the present certain effect and the probable future effects confronts the philanthropist at every turn.