The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1877-06-16
not work. The Low state Of civilization

not work. The low state Of civilization
and the ign otSnc5 cf even the simplest laW .
in which x Is foGn1 necessary to keep hu-
man beings, IN order that they may sub
init to slavery, do more 10 prevent them
from working hard than the lash does to
make then work at all. Ii was pointed
out some lime ago that two Middlesex
mowers WI. NOW in q day m much grass
a. six Russian serfs and in spite Of the
deArness of provisiOns in England, and
their cheapness in Russia, the moving Of
a quantity of hay which would cost an
English farmer half cepeck will cost a
Russian proprietor three or four copecks. %
1t was, IN short, considered a. proven that
in Russia, where everything was cheap,
the labor of serf was doubly M expen-
sive an that Of a laborer in England. Men
will not work their very best unless they
have an incentive to do 90. This great
truth has at last made itself know Il 20 some
OF our great capitalists. Mr.. Thomas
Brassey and other large employers have
found out that nnderpaid labor In by no
means economical Here are few proofs
When the North Devon Railway was
being made, men were working at q. q
day vt first, then 10. 3D., and then Sc. Cd.
Nevertheless it was found that the work
was execrted more cheaply than when they
were getting lower rate. So also in car
rying out the large sewage works in Oxford
Street, London, bricklayers we're gradually
raised from is. to los a-day, and at the
higher rate Of wages bricks were laid at a
cheaper rate while at the building Of
Basingstoke Station one London workman
m "A "a Aaxy AfA L. ~.
country ones at 3s. Cd. each. Add to these
instances few more, all showing that in
telligent workmen well ll-paid are cheaper
than bad workmen ill-paid. As Mr..
Frederic Harrison puts it THE work
man whose intelligence requires no more
than minimum Of supervision is a cheap
bargain even at the maximum wage"
''It is said by one Of our Factory Inspec-
tors that in France one workman looks af-
ter IA spindles. In England one minder
and two assistants can manage mule with
22OO spindles- IL Is an obvious economy
to employ such q minder at even higher
rates as compared with the French. This |
IS the process by which, in our cotton in |
dustry, as in SO many others, wages have !
been rising, profits have been growing, |
and goods have been Oheapene6 all at the |
same time" Increased wages are always /
to be got when there is an increase in the |
product Of labor, although even the rate i
of wages be lower Thus a spinner in /
Glasgow (Messrs. HouldswOrth's) employ u
ed on a mule, and spinning cotton l2O
hanks to the pound, produced in 1923,
working "a hours in the week, 46 pounds
Of yarn, his nett weekly earnings for which
amounted to 26s I'd. In 1888, the rate ef
wages having In the meantime been re-
duced l31 per cent, and the time Of work
ing having been lessened to 50 hours. the
spinner was enabled, by the greater per
lection OF the machinery, to produce on a
mule of the same number Of spindles, 525
pounds Of yarn of the same finencss, and
his nets weekly earnings advanced to 29s.
lOd. Similar causos raised the remunera-
tIon Of the Belfast spinners from 5s. cd.
a week in 1871 by successive gradations to
%. in 1872; and almost every trade can
tell the same story. Mr.. Brassey strength
enc this position by pointing out that in
the construction Of the Paris and Rouen
Railway, although the English navies
earned 5s. a-day, while the Frenchmen
employed recaiVed only 2s- Ga A-day, zee
1t was found, ON comparing the cost Of two
az ROOAe cuttings Ah PtONASCiy SAnliAN NlE-
that the excavation was made
at a lower cost per cubic yard by the Eng
lish navies than by the French laborers
and it must he remembered, too, thot the
former worked one and a-half hours a-day
less than the latter. Another authority
has told us that, a few years ago, ten la
borers in Ireland raised the same quanti-
ty Of produce that four laborers raised in
England, and the result Of lthe work Of the
one was generally Inferior in quality TO
that OF the other. Quarry-owners tellthe
same tale, and it was the opinion Of the
late Sir Francis Crossley that our agricul
tural laborers would do more work if they
we're better paid.
ITO be continued