Connecticut western news., 1876-01-14
AMERICA AND ENGLAND.
Wages in the two Countries as Developed by the Statistics of the United States Bureau.

Wages in the two Countries as Developed by the Statistics of the United States Bureau.
 The report upon "Labor in Europe and America" by MT. B. Young, Chief of the United States Bureau of Statis- tics, touches especially upon one i'm portant economical topic, the purchasing power of wages on the two continents. The question for the foreign mechanic or laborer who wishes to immigrate to this country is not so much the rate of wages he can get here, as what the wages | will bring, and it is an interesting point | for the economist what the true position of the laborer is in America compared with Europe. If we compare two manu- featuring oenters, such as Bradford, in England, and the leading towns of Pennsylvania, in this country, we find the following difference of retail prices in leading articles of consumption and in the cost of house rent and board. These values are expressed in gold, for the sake of greater convenience. The laborer in Bradford in 1874 paid $3. 75 for his barrel of flour in Pennsylvania $7 for the same quality. The English mans beef for roasting cost him 21 to "A cents per pound, the Americans IF j; English veal, the best cuts, was 24 cents, the American IS; English leg mutton "A cents, Am rican 16. The great stand by of the laborer, corned or salted pork, was 16 to 20 cents in Bradford, 133 in Pennsylvania. Butter was 34 to 3S cents for the English laborer, 35a for the American. Milk and eggs were about the same in the two countries. c,.,.,.. | Tn tho ohox7o and oAhor orki o1oo of TWO
 visions, it will be seen that the American workman has very considerable advan- tage. In the cost of groceries, however, he is not so fortunate. The English mans Oolong tea costs him from thirty six to eighty cents, the American's s ninety one green Rio coffee is only six teen to twenty cents in Bradford and | twenty-six and half i'm Pennsylvania. Good brown sugar costs the Englishman seven to eight cents, the American nine and three-quarters. Singularly enough, coal is more, expensive in Pennsylvania than in the English manufacturing town, being five dollars and sixty cents per ton in the former and four dollars and thirty-eight cents in the latter. In vantage, his brown shirtings being l y the Americans are thirteen and one- forty-t two cents, the Americans very Cotton flannel is thirty to thirty-six Pennsylvania. In prints, the American against ten to sixteen for the English. l o&0 r101 more expensive in America, being fifty eight cents to about forty in Bradford. Boots are cheaper to the Englishman, being two dollars and eighty-eight cents to three dollars and eighty-four cents, against four dollars and forty cents in Pennsylvania. In house rent and board, the Englishman's wages will go about fifty per cent. further than the American s, four room tenements costing the Bradford laborer five dollars and seventy-six cents to seven dollars and twenty cents per month, while the American must pay nine dollars and thirty seven cents. If single man, he can board himself in the English manu- featuring town for from two dollars and eighty eight cents to three dollars and sixty cents per week in the Pennsyl- vania town, if mechanic, he must pay four dollars and seventy-f cents. If the boarder is woman, she must pay in England one dollar and sixty-eight cents to two dollars and sixteen cents per week; in Pennsylvania, if a factory hand, three dollars and fifty-nine cents.
 It will be seen from these figures that the purchasing power of wages in the two countries is not materially different | %a f17n
 and domestic dry go 1ds, the low prices of some articles in one country being counterbalanced by the higher prices of But when the matter of house rent and a very considerable advantage, though that is, the American laborer gets better lodging and food than the English.
 If we compare, on the other hand, find that the wool-sorter in Bradford re- ceives $6.77 per week in the United States, $1O91. A wool-washer, $5. 08, against $8.97 in this country. For drawing and spinning wool the wages are $9.O7 in Bradford, against SIS. 61 here. The weaver receives $7.26 in Eng ldlu, dSdl1SG SpO.Cf III b1llS Couuul J Whhc the overseer has only $7.56, against $18.05 in the United States. In wo- mems labor, in woolen mills, there is an eqnaI advantage in this country, the American factory hand usually receives double what the English woman can earn. The condition, then, of the Eng lsh factory laborer in a woolen and steel manufacturing region, like Bradford, as compared with manufacturing States like Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, would seem to be this his wages have about the same purchasing power in each country, excepting in house rent and board; in these the American suf
 fers at disadvantage of fully one half, while on the other hand his average wages is one hundred per cent. greater than his competitors. The ultimate su- periority seems, then, to rest with the American factory laborer, at least ill tho | districts above mentiOned.- MeaN York