New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-07-23

borhood Of Cardiff. South Wales for dollar week,
or four times what the miners pitmon and laborers
here nav for them The Bochum Company also
have extensive premises, In which 200 single
msn can find economical and comfortable board
and lodgings ut Q cost Of less than mark . day
The company have also built square Of dwellings,
for foremen and clerks and their families.
1t may be said that this place is an exceptional
one but such is not the have yet to visit an
important iron or steel works IN this district OF
Germany where the interests OF the work people are
not looked after. At Essen. as shall show the
artisans are we'll cared for The Osnabrtick Iron
and Steel Works ow ms great extent of land and
large number of w,rkmen's houses, and has
founded for its workmen a cooperative store, baths
and well endowed sick-fund. The great works at
Oberhausen- on-RuhI, employing between 5000 aud
10, 900 hands; the Phoenix Mining and Iron Com
pany near Ruhror- on Rhine, employing 5000
hands the Union Works at Dortmund, employing
1000 and indeed nearly all others, furnish cheap
and healthy houses for their workmen and nave
established cooperative stores where for cash the
hands can buy food at cost price. In the manu-
featuring districts of England, next to the public
house. the miserable little chambers shops aud pro-
vision stores rob the workingman. 1t is folly to
quote the wholesale prices of provisions and draw
your deductions what it Gusts a workingman in
England to live, from such price-lsts Price the
goods in these shops they peddled out in hall
penny woIths and penny worths and the profit Will
be found to be enormous Indeed, when one sees
how these little shops abound all hands in the
PoteIes the Black Country, the cloth districts. the
cotton region, the mining towns, ETC.. OF England
ana takes into consideration the small amount of
money they turn over IN the course OF the year,
he can better appreciate how they suck the very
life blood out Of the wage Garner who once falls
into their clutches In these working districts OF
Germany the small shop keeper Is conspicuous for
his absence and the cooperative stores are conducted
solely for the benefit of the employed, some of the
firms informing me- that the expenses OF manage
ment arc entirely betrayed by the employer. In
two particulars then, Ind the northwestern Cor
man iron steel and coal worker better OIL than the
Engish-i e. he has a better house for about one
| quarter certainly one third, the rent; he has
ch,aper market to buy his provisions. COM
parison of the price OF the necessaries of life in
both countries will also sho that the cost of living
in Germany is much less than IN England but am
not going to discuss that phase of the question now
though shall establish it in subsequent letters.
1t has been loudly proclaimed by persons un-
happily wholly ignorant of the facts. that II wages
were low IN England they were 30 and even 100
per cent lower protected Germany. TO hear
these assumptions one would think that Germany
had pursued protective policy as Wisely persist
| emily and for many years as the United States
and hence ths tables badly turned on the free
| trade writer when it is known that he has been
using for comparison the vegetables OF freetrade
Germany of ls73-'79 and not OF protected Germany
of 1s79-'s3 Surprising as 1T may be to some, have
now in my possession figures that was permitted
| to take from the books of the Union Muug, Iron
| and Steel Works, of Dortmund, a CON pany employ
| ing between 1000 and 5000 hands, which will not
only show the increase In the ages of the several
departments of industry under protection, but will
surprise alike free-traders in England and the
| United States by showing that the actual aver
| age earnings of men employed in tho Bessemer
| works and in pudding at Dortmund. in some cases
exceed the rates of wages paid for the same work in
England as returned by the English Board Of Trade
| I have several times shown that tho rates OF
wages are always higher than tho average earnings
rs no account In taken Of lost time, etc. The
| figures obtained from DortmGnd are complete sud
trust worthy statements and their accuracy can he
sworn TO, az made them up from the books Of the
company For this letter shall only be able 10 make
a comparison of the wages paid for cOal-mining In
England and Germany which Is as follows