National Republican., 1875-11-10
LABOR IN EUROPE AND AMERICA.

laborer in the leading nations of antiquity,
including notice of the peasantry of Gaul
in the period Immediately preceding the
fall of the Roman empire. These are fol-
lowed by chapter on labor in Europe un-
der the feudal system, and another on ''the
feudal period in England" The latter
traces the gradual rise of the masses from
condition of serfdom or villanage to that of
free laborers, sketches their condition and
mode of life, and presents extended tables
and extracts from ancient documents show
ing the rates of wages and the prices of va
rious commodities during the thirteenth,
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The
\ next two chapters trace the origin and devel-
opment of the English poor law system and
the land enclosures of the sixteenth century.
Another chapter, illustrated by copious ta-
bles of wages and prices, sketches the con-
dition of the English working classes from
the reign of Queen Elizabeth to that of
George III. This is followed by chapter
on the era of machinery, in which are
traced the powerful effects upon the condi-
tions of industry and the relations of labor
and capital produced by the extensive SUBJ
stitution of machinery for hand labor, which
took place during the latter part of the
eighteenth and the early part of the nine
teenth century, together with the legisla-
tion for the protection of women and chill
dren employed in factories and other large
establishments, adopted by the British Gov
ernment as a means of counteracting some
of the evils which the new methods of
production involved. This is followed
by an account of the trades
unions of the United Kingdom, their num-
Der and strength, the resources, member
ship and regulations of some of the princi.
pal unions, and a brief history of some of
the more formidable strikes which have
taken place in Great Britain within the
last sixty-fve years.
This concludes the historical portion of
the work. The next section, comprising
195 pages, is devoted TO statistics relating
to wages and prices, and accounts of the
condition of the working people in Great
Britain and Ireland. 1t opens, however,
with a series of tables on the trade between
the United States and the United Kingdom,
tending to show the intimate connection
between the industries of the two couu-
tries, and the interest which we, as peo-
pie, have in knowing the exact condition
of the labor market among our British
cousins. From one of these tables 1t ap-
pears that during the fiscal year 1874 our
imports of iron and steel and the manu-
factures thereof from the United Kingdom
exceed S26, 900. Our imports of tin
manufactures from the same source exceed
S13, 100000; of woolen manufactures,
$50, 600, ,0C0; of cotton manufactures, $i9,-
C00GO0; of flax manufactures, $16,OOO,-
eco, and OF silk manufactures, $4,000, 900.
Another table gives the total value of the
imports from the United Kingdom for each
year from 1921 to June 80, 1874, inclusive.
From this it appears that our imports had
increased from S24, 0OO 900 in 1921 to
S24S, 900, 600 in 1872, when they attained
their maximum. In the year ended June
80, 1874, this had fallen TO $3.50, 900, 900.
Another table shows that the total number
Of immigrants from Great Britain and
Ireland who came to this country from 1920
to 1874, inclusive, was 4, ,419. 469.
The tables on wages are so full and elab-
orate that we cannot do more than present
the results arrived at in regard to q few of
the principal trades. The average weekly
wages during the year 1873 in the several
trades connected with boiler-making and
iron ship.building in thirty-nine OF the
towns most heavily engaged in that trade
were as follows, the amounts being reduced
to United States coin. Smiths, $S.97; platers,
$S.64; riveters, S7.4S; caulkers, S682; hold
ers-up, $5.92. The average hours of their
labor throughout the year in the same
trade were fiftY-one and half per week.
The average wages of carpenters and join
ers in sixty large towns for the same year
were 1924 per week in summer, and $40
per week in winter, the hours of labor be-
ing, respectively, fifty nine per week and
ffty-four per week in the two seasons
named. The average wages of stone -masons
for the year 1874 in the principal towns of |
Scotland were fifteen cents an hour, plus
small fraction, and the hours of labor fifty |
one per week. In many of the smaller
towns the wages were lower and the hours
of labor longer, but the cost of living was
doubtless somewhat less.
The wages Of printers (both composltors
and machine meD) in London are about
S. II for fifty-fo hours work, though a
few men of unusual quickness and of steady
habits receive from S1.21 10 $1.93 more
than the rate just mentioned. The wages
paid in the provinces vary from 1926 to
$7.9S per week. Piece work is paid for
by the LOCO ems, the price il London
being from six pence to seven pence per
1,G0O according to the kind of work, and
the average earnings from $S.71 to $9.78
per week. In the provincial towns the
prices and earnings are little lower. The
wages of many classes of laborers are
stated in detail for different towns and Sec
tions of the country, but space will not per-
NIT US to present any of these figures in
the present article. We may, however,
present few interesting results from o
table showing the earnings and expendi- |
lures of Iworkingmen's families in some
of the principal towns of England and Scot
land. In 1872 the earnings of family in
Birmingham, consisting of the father,
mother and five children, were $435.24;
their expenditures for the same year
$42S.T9. The earnings of a family in Brad
ford, consisting OF two adults and three
children, were $530.4O; their expenditures
for the same year S495.44. A family in
Huddersfeld, consisting of two adults and
two children, received $374.40, against an
expenditure of $406.s0, showing that they
must either have gone in debt or drawn
upon previous earnings to meet the de-
fic1ency of the year. A family in Man
chester, consisting of two adults and five
children, received $4S1.92, and ex-
pended s3s276. Similar statements are
given for number of other manufacturing
towns. The part of the work which is de-
voted to an account of the condition of the
working classes of the United Kingdom
r -