Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1871-09-13
WoRCES TER.
snmrrhlnr Ahonl WINGS.

In this country, both society and the state arc
ORGANIZED on principles very different from
those which regulate the old world. Therefore,
in our country, the way to competence and re-
spectacle positions in life, is open, not to special
privileged class, as in most of the countries of
Europe but to all classes. Industry, thrift, the
public schools, ability and good character, will
enable one young man to go as far as another
towards success in all that is necessary to make
life comfortable and prosperous. To maintain
this advantage for our people, it has been neces-
sary to protect our industrial system against
disastrous competition with that of Europe,
where labor is degraded and oppressed by infu-
ences inherited from the age of serfdom, which
are still a controlling power in the social system
of every European country, with scarcely an
execution. Free traders, if they could fully
succeed in their aims, would constrain us to
adopt the wages system of Europe, or give up
large part of our business. What the wages
system of England is, we have several times
pointed out. Whatit is in Germany, appears
in the following statement in regard TO wages in
that country:
e"The average earnings of nottingham is
4 thalers per week "a thaler is 663 cents of
"A j. q
six members at least thalers The result, says
a Berlin correspondent, is a series of efforts at
cheap living cheap enjoyment and general self
denial. 1t is only master workman that COM
mands thaler per day. know of one who, TO
secure this sum, which is absolutely required for
his family. rises al three in the morning and
manages a steam engine till nine O'Clock at
night Occasionally he must work through the
whole night and all Sunday without any addi-
tional wages. A common day laborer, who has
mastered no trade, is glad TO get employment at
20 cents day. Walters in the hotels and res
taurants do not average this. Male "help' gets
about 81 a month. A servant girl earns SIS
year. Higher work gets gradually better paid,
yet only in comparison.
A teacher in the common schools gets from
$3.50 to $500 year. In gymnasiums, or what
corresponds to our colleges, the professors, who
are required TO be graduates of one of the great
universities, get, on an average, $500. pro-
fessor in the university gets rarely more than
$500, besides the fees of his hearers. Tutors in
the wealthy families, a position which the great
Kant and nearly every German literateur has
filled, rarely get more than $500 year. One,
who is a graduate of a university, who speaks,
besides his own language, French, English and
Italian, and can read not only Greek and Latin,
but also Hebrew and Russian, and who is, be-
sides, professional historian, and has made
original investigations in the literature and
times of Hesiod on which subject he is no mean
authority, receives $500 year in addition to his
board"
American working men, whether farmers,
teachers, or mechanics will understand the
change that would bewrought in their condition,
should they be reduced to such wages, or even
to wages amounting TO no more than twice
the sums here specified. We can understand,
also, why the aims and proceedings of the
''labor unions" of Europe are not adapted to
n