The Kalida venture. [volume] (Kalida, Ohio) 1841-1865, 1853-07-29
IMPRO OvEMENT OF THE WORKING
CLASSES

wages Of agricultural laborers in Eng
land, last year, were forty cents day
The wages Of journeymen carpenter
now, in Waterford, Ireland, are eighty
three cents a day.
In GENITAL India the wages Of a fel,
laborer are now six cents q day, he 6nd
ing his own food; women receive 4I
cents, and boys three cents. House
servants are better paid, as they are OBJ
lliged TO wear rather better clothes.
Thirty years ago, field hand cos, hi
owner, in the Southern States less thar
a dollars q week, (interest on his price
and cost Of keep;) now the cos, 10 twic,
as much.
In 1851, average wages at Lowell
Massachusetts,, in the factories, for 70,
males, 'hirty.ihree cents day; for ma!el
eighty cents, clear Of board; or 6fty-tw.
cents day for females, and one dollal
twelve cents for males without board
The wages in lS40 were precisely the
same there.
The wages o! labor at Greenwich
Hospital, England, for carpenters, brick.
layers, and mssons, doubled from A. d
1885 to 1928 from q. Cd, to s.. ($l.20
per dav.)
The weekly wages of husbandry labol
in England, in 1900, were equal to the
price Of fifly>iour pin,s Of wheat; in 1870,
TO eighty-two pints; in 1882, to ninety
pints. (Sixty>four pints make q bushel. J
From William Penn's cash book il ap.
pears that in 1889 i, required 1877 days
Of unskilled labor 10 earn tun OF -four
cash wages, 80 cents day. In 1884,
such a laborer a, Phladelphia could earn
tun Of nour in rs days--cash wages,
rs cents per day. Flour was, at the
former period, $45 81; at the latter,
$5S 80 per ,un.
Thus, in lS2 years in England, the
wages Of unskilled labor had nearly
doubled, when estimated in wheat. In
cash they had quite doubled, and in
nearly all other commodities they had
many times multiplied their nominal
value. Even in the year 1918 q co.ta>
gers Sunday hat cost 20 shillings, now I
shillings; a shir,, los. 3d., nov Ss.; CAL
leo, 2s. 3d., now Cd. /; brown sugar, led,
now I'D. In IA years, from 1920 10
1884, cotton cloth fell from l2ad 10 Sd.
In these years the price Of cloth di.
mnished 81 per cent, wages remaining
in money price the same. But what is
more remarkable, the money price of all
the British and Irish products and man
ufacturss exported from England had
fallen in these IA years full 40 per cent.
The reduction continued steadily, till in
1850 GAL 63 would purchase as much
of all the articles which make up the
mul,ifosm exports Of Grea, Britain, as
$94 would have purchased 80 years be-
fore, The money wages remaining the
same, the real wages had more than
doubled in 80 years in perhaps every
thing but wheat and house rent.
The wages Of women in the United
States, measured in the same way, have
irebled since the year l6ls--,he period
Of the general introduction Of machinery
into manufactures.
The wages Of husbandry in France
have in like manner irebled in $50 years.
While the process Of doubling the wages
Of labor was going on in England, the
population rose TO fourteen millions.
The facts Of political economy muet
have another and iairer hearing than the
old school authorities could give lhem.--
Increase Of population, and the unlimited
multiplication Of products by the use o
machinery do no. depress wages, but, OF
the contrary, the improvement. Of the
condition Of the laborer everywhere keep:
even pace with oil such increase.
The laws which govern society are
better than the disciples Of the dismal
science imagine. Life is not necessarily
battle, nor humanity a failure. We
have, indeed, great deal TO learn, but
we have as much 10 hope for, which will
come in the fulness Of time. The pres
ent good Of this faith is, that We can
thank God and take courage.--Nas. ErG.
49, D.n.~ -.z..~ -o, GraS rv,ada IN