The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1882-10-20

PesSe, shoe TIC SiCdt mass Oh the
American people are obliged to earn
their living "by the sweat of their
brow" To the army of laborers
who are toiling yearly in this coun-
try, constantly and rapidly are being
added recruits from other lands, WHO
are coming here to receive the gen.
erous wages paid by American manu-
facturers. Last year 100000 laborers
came from Europe, $4,000 of whom
came from England, the nation that
pays the highest wages to her men of
any country on that side of the At
lantic. Yet careful study of the
table of prices paid by capa-
talists to laborers, as presented to
Congress by ex-Secretary Evarts, re-
veals the fact that England pays less
than two-thirds, Belgium less than
half, France and Denmark just about
one-third and Germany less than
one-third the wages paid by Ameri-
can manufacturers. These same
tables, also, show that the actual nee
essaries of life command much high
err prices in all other countries than
ours. In Belgium they cost 20 per
cent more; in France IS per cent
more in Germany 80 per cent more;
and in England at 80 per cent more.
Possibly it may be true that the liv-
ing which the foreign workmen actu-
ally has costs him less than that of
the American though that is very
doubtful, but the two are widely diff.
erent in quantity and quality.
The financial condition of the
working men abroad and in portions
of the United States is tersely CON-
pared by Senator Frye of Maine, as
follows Europe has 81 1000, 900 in
habitants, Massachusetts, has I,7oo,-
900. Europe has 1874 times as many
inhabitants as Massachusetts,. Both
are laboring communities both are
engaged principally in manufactures.
In Massachusetts,, the laborers have
Sa3I, 900, 900 of money in the saving
banks, one seventh as much as the
whole 3Is,ooo,ooo in Europe in their
saving banks, postal and Others"
These are official figures and the
showing they make is wonderful, and
yet it only shows a small part of the
laborers of Massachusetts,, which we
have no doubt is fully equal to ID
the entire savings of the laboring
classes in Europe, and in that re-
spect Massachusetts, is no more pros
porous than Michigan and probably
not as much so.
In the United States the wives of
the working men have, very general
ly, comfortable homes, tastefully dec
Grated, in many cases, with pictures
and other ornaments such as delight
the eye, and stimulate taste for the
beautiful. The children are all we'll
fed, we'll clothed, and may be well
educated, and become, If they will,
useful and honorable citizens. In
Europe, as every American visitor
well knows, the women, of the work
ing classes, carry bricks and mortar
for the masons, work in the fields
with the hoe and the scythe: and
report made to the British Parliament
only very few years since, shows,
that even in favored England there
were 10000 little bare-footed girls
from 6 to 10 years of age carrying
wet clay in the English brick yards,
at from a to 8 cents day.
In the light of these facts the
laborer may we'll ask him
self what is the cause of this great
difference in the wages and the So
cial condition of the working classes
on the two Continents is, that puts
him and his family on such differ
ent footing from that occupied by
his fellow laborer across the sea and
he will not have to look far to find
the correct answer to his question.
And when found he will find it to be
solely and simply, that he lives in a
country that protects its manufactu-
ries against ruinous competition in
her home markets, and its laborers
n