Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1869-04-23

in our manufacturing towns have advanced |
Is per cent since 1SG0-G1, the remuneration
Of labor has advanced only so or 60 per
sent. Mr.. Kelley places the advance in
The price of the necossaries of life at so per |
cent, and of pay for labor at 80 to 100 per
cent. Commissioner Wells states that his
were made with perfect fairness
from statistics furnished by the leading
of the United States, to the
number of 1900, in all sections of the coun-
try. Had the wages of day laborers been
the tables would have shown
even a greater wrong to the poor from the
joint effects of an inflated currency and un-
equal taxation. Continuing the discussion,
Mr.. Wells takes the items of flour and salt,
showing by transcript from the books of
the Subsistence Department of the United
States Army, that the advance in the cost
of flour from 1860 to 1865 was SO per cent.
also, from the report of meeting at which
Mr.. Kelley himself took part, that salt has
advanced from 10 to 20 cents bushel be-
fore the war to 60 and 10 cents at the pres
ent time. Upon the subject of rents, Com
missioner Wells produces table, furnished
by prominent real estate agent in Kelley's
district, embracing list of 26 houses which
rented in 1860 to laboring men at from IS to
SIG month. The rents for this year show
an advance Of more than 1870 per cent, the
lowest being 100 per cent. For more ex-
pensive houses the advance has been over
1856 per cent Further this advance is in a
most undue ratio to the advance in the
value of real estate. In other words, the
capitalist receives from the laboring classes
return for his investment 100 per cent
greater than what was Noted him in 1860.
This may be balanced by increased taxes,
but not entirely. From the official report
of the "tuardians of the Poor" in Philadel-
phia, it is shown that the increase in the
price of beef, mutton, coffee, rice, Hour
sugar, &C., from 1860 to 1867, was 80 per ct
With regard to the increase in the compen-
sation for labor, Mr.. Wells presents table
made by the architect of the U. S. Treasury,
showing the comparative prices paid for
ordinary laborers and skilled worllmen in
1861 and 1865. The general average in
crease in the wages of skilled workmon is
5sl per cent. 1t is well known that the day
labor employed by the United States Gov
ernment is paid at the highest rates Of the
trade and class to which it belongs. In the
manufacturing cities of Lowell and Law
renee, the average advance in the price of
leading articles of domestic consumption
exceeds 81 per cent, while the increase Of
wages is from &c to 20 per cent. In practi
cal confirmation of these figures, Mr.. Wells
LOT o,,1
ingmon tostifying to their personal ex
pericnce of the disposition in the advance
of the price of living and the remuneration
of labor. To show that the country as VOL
as the city is affected in this manner, Mr..
Wells gives a letter from Hon. Amasa
Walker, containing a tabular statement of
the prices of necessaries of life, and the
labor of boot and shoe operatives in the
town of North Brookfield. This shows the
advance in the cost of the former, from 1850
to 1868, to have been over 9S per cent, while
wages have advanced 81 per cent. The re-
port of the oneida community shows a con-
slant increase for several years in the cost
of living, until it now averages from three
to four dollars. Now, considering that
ports four persons beside himself, Mr..
Wells asks how large proportion earn
the amount necessary to sustain their tami
lies according to the scale of the commune
ty, which is certainly neither luxurious or
eXtravagant. Mr.. Wells does not claim that
these conclusions apply equally to tho
West, but that like causes have produced
like effects. In one instance in the town
of Canton, Ohio, in 1867, wages had adj
vanced So or 60 per cent, and the cost of
articles of consumption about 1870 per cent.
Mr.. Kelley, however, asserts that labor is
now UNNECESSARILY better employed than
in 1860. In reply to this, Mr.. Welts quotes
| the report of the Guardians of the Poor in
Philadelphia, which show that, cut of a
population of about 100000, there We're last
year los, 2G0 persons wholly or partially in
capable of self-support. The Secretary of
the New York Association for Improving
the Condition of the Poor, in Il report of its
operations of 1865, also calls attention TO the
evidences Of increased destitution among
all classes of workingmcu, including the
skilled laborcrs and some professional
men. From the same authority we also
learn that although the pa winter has
been exceedingly mild in the city of New
York, the distress has been greater than
! during the severe winter of 1S67-'6S, al
though the distress during this latter
| period had never then found parallel in
the experience of any previous years.
| Letters from extensive manufacturers
| throughout the country also attest the fact
that laborers and workmen are more plcn-
| ty than in 1860. With regard to the statis-
ties Of Life Insurance and Savings Banks
to which Mr.. Kelley appealed as showing
the prosperous condition of the working
classes, Mr.. Wells says that the former af-
| fords no basis for calculation, because OF
the multiplication of companies and the
| fact that so few of those who work for day
wages take out policies; and that the statis-
ties of Savings Banks indicate anything
but prosperity, inasmuch as the laboring
classes, SO far AS they are represented by
the depositors Of 1860, have not been able
to keep at interest the sum (reckoned in
gold which at that time they had laid by
Besides this, formerly the deposits in thest
institutions represented in great part tn,
hard-earned accumulations of persons wht
were entirely dependent for support upoi
the wages received for the performance o
daily routine labor. Now, on the contrary
all the evidence tends TO show that exactl,
the contrary condition of affairs has beei
established. Thus, for example, in tn
manufacturing city of Lawrence, Massa
chusetts, with a population of $4,000, c
whom 5000 are operatives directly employ
ed in the mills, 1868 persons are returne
,, as savings-bank depositors in that place 70
the year ending October, 1868 but of thi
number only one-iourth, we are official
: informed, were operatives. In short, th
!, recent increase of savings bank deposits i
the Eastern States is chiefly due to the fac
that they are more lightly taxed than an
other kind of invested property. The sir
gle fact, therefore, of recent rapid acct
=. mutation in the deposits of savings bank
"does not, Of ITSELF" to use the language
i the Bank Commissioners of Massachusetts
in, thair ranOrt fnr 1897 gFafTor1 ,n,, ~,