The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-12-22
The Superior Advantages and Comforts
Enjoyed by American TOilers.
They Receive Much Better Pay, Wear Better
Clothing, Eat More and Better Food,
and Live in Better Houses.
LABOR IN EUROPE.
Interesting Facts CoIlAted from Reports of
United States COnsuls.

huySen has sent a voluminous letter to the
House Of Representatives, reviewing the reports
from consuls of the United States in relation to
the state of labor in Europe. In his remarks the
Secretary says British results are principally
selected for comparisons, as English wages are,
generally speaking, the highest in Europe. and
English trade conditions have more in common
with American customs and usages than those
of other countries. He says:
ut appears, comparing the cities of Europe
with those in the United States that bricklayers
and masons in Chicago are paid very nearly
three times the wages, plasterers nearly four
times, skaters three times, plumbers nearly
three times carpenters twice, blacksmiths twice.
bookbinders more than twice, confectioners
twice, cigar makers nearly three times, coopers
one and one-half as much; draymen, teamsters
aud street-railway drivers nearly twice; dyers
more than twice, engravers nearly
three times, furriers twice, horse-shoers
three and onehalf times jewellers
more than one and one-half times; laborers,
porters, etc. more than twice. photographers
three times, telegraph operators twice and one
half, saddlers and harness-makers more than one
and one-half times, stevedores more than twice
and onefourth- times, tailors twice, and tin
smiths one and three quarters the wages paid
to similar trades and callings in London"
Relative to the prices of necessaries of life the
Secretary says:
'It is frequently asserted that the eheapness
of living in Europe more than equalizes the
lower wages there paid. In a volume on labor
in Europe published by this department in 1875,
it was shown that prices of food in the United
4I,o
that the working classes in the United States
could purchase more and better aliment dollar
for dollar, tlsa tine working classes in any
country in Europe The contrary impression is
probably due to the fact that the working people of
Europe live more cheauly than the working peo-
pie of the United States, from which tbs inferred
that the purchasingpower of their wagesis greater
than the purchasing power of similar wages
here 1t appears from the reports that the
American workman consumes more and better
food than mechanics and laborers abroad, and
that the cost of this food is as small as in Eu-
rope. 1t should be borne in mind in making
comparisons, that the better classes Of food
beef, mutton veal, butter and rice-are not
only, for the most part, cheaper in the great
cities of the United States than in Europe but
they are here daily necessaries for the tables of
the better grade of skilled workmen, rarely alb
sent from some one meal of the day, and often
present at the morning and evening meals, while
concurrent testimony is that, even to the best
paid working classes of Europe, they are in the
main, luxuries which are seldom enjoyed The
lower classes of Europe usually eat dark or
black bread, so that even wheat -four and wheat
bread may be s. aside as furnishing no suffi-
cient basis for com parison. The working classes
of Europe live mainly on black or rye bread, po-
tatoes, cheap coffee or tea vegetable soups and
lard and olive oil Of a low grade takes
the place of butter The standard
MONDAY meal of the working men
of Mayence is thus given by Consul Smith: Po-
tatoes and a little meal, with peas or beans
cooked together in the form of a thick SOUP to
which little green cabbage or lettuce is some
times added. This dish they eat, day after day,
with very little change in the character of it's
contents or the manner of its preparation. This
dinner is eaten at work. The dinner of the wife
and children at home is said to be cheaper and
less nutritious.
1T should not be forgotten that manipulation
of food and supplies, after they reach England
is conducted on a most economic plan, under the
benefcent control of great cooperative societies
Every thing is done that can be done to bring the
producer and the consumer as directly and
closely together as possible, and the competition
for custom which prevails keeps the handling
cost at the lowest possible minimum, so that the
prices of the cooperative stores of England ap
proXimate to wholesale prices elsewhere.
In general, clothing can be purchased cheaper
in Europe than in the United States AS to the
relation of quantity and quality of clothing,
bases for indirect comparison do not exist The
same influence which prompts the higher paid
workmen in the United States to purchase better
and more varied food than his European com
rade extends also to his clothing, for he buys
more and better garments.
House rent in Europe is apparently lower
than here, but the habitations usually infe-
rior to those in the United States. In Dundee,
one of the most thriving industrial centers in
Europe, 2, f30 persons live in S62 houses of one
room each H,374 persons live in l6, 1877 houses
of two rooms each. Of workingmens homes in
Manchester Consul Shaw writes: Great mum
bers of houses visited by me contained
only one lving-rOom this served as par
lOr, kitchen, dining sitting room,
and, in some instances, also as bed
room. The question of artisans dwell
lings in Great Britain has, of late years,
attracted a very large share of public and legis-
latiye attention, and in no country in the world
has the general movement in the direction of
their aineliOration been more earnest and more
successful. On the continent, where the cOndi-
tions of life are not only widely different from
those of England, but exhibit wide contrasts in
the several countries, and even in local districts
of the same country, opportunities for identical
comparison with analogous conditions in the
United States are rarer, and the tables relative
to rentals do not afford trustworthy means OF
estimating general results There, as here, the
question is one of locality and the amount of
physical comfort obtainable by individuals is
measured as much by locality to purchase and
extent of demand, as by the nature Of the ae