Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1884-12-23
FOREIGN PAUPER LABOR.
Companions Of Wages I'm the United
States and EurOpe-The Better Pay
and the Improved Conditions Of
Living OF American Work ing men
Figures Taken from the Official Con.
sui RenOPts.

Living Of American Work ing mem
Figures Taken from the Official Con.
sui Reports.
In the voluminous review recently sent to the
House Of Representatives of the reports from
consuls Of the United States In relation to the
state Of labor in Europe, Secretary Frelinghuy-
sen says
sit appears, comparing cities Of Europe with
those OF the United States. that brcklayers 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; brickmakers,
nearly three times brass-founders and cabinet
makers, nearly twice: confectioners, twice; cigar
makers, nearly three times; coopers. once and a
half as much; draymen, transfers and street
railway drivers, nearly twice. dyers. more than
twice; engravers, nearly three times: furriers,
twice; horse shOers three and One-haf times;
jewelers., more than one and one-half times;
iaOorersr porters, etc, more than twice; lithO-
graphers. three times telegraph operators, twice
and One-half; sailmakers, more than twice; print
ers. twice and one-half sadders and harness.
makers. more than one and one-half times; steve
d0res. more than twice and One-fourth times;
tailOrs, twice, and tinsmiths once and three
fOurths wages paid to similar trades and callings
In London"
COMPARATIVE COST OF LIVING.
Relative to the prices of necessaries of life,
the secretary says: SIT is frequently asserted
that the cheapness of living in Europe more
than equaizes the lower wages there paid. In
the volume on labor in Europe published by
this department in 1878 it was shown that the
prices OF food in the UnitedStates were actually
lower than in Europe and that the working
classes in the United States could purchase
more and better alment. dollar for dollar,
than the working classes of any country in Eu-
rope. The contrary impression is probably due
TO the fact that the working people of Europe
live more cheaply than the working people of
the United States, from which it is inferred that
the purchasing power Of their wages is greater
than the purchasing power of similar wages
here. 1t appears from the reports that the
american workman consumes more and better
food than the mechanic OF labOrer abroad, and
that the cost of this food is as small in the
United States as in Europe
1T should be borne in mind in making q COM
parson that the better classes of food-the 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 table OF the
better grade Of skilled workman, rarely absent
from some one meal of the day, and often
present at the morning and evening meal
while the concurrent testimony is that even to
are. in the main. Injuries which are seldom en-
loyed The lower classes of Europe usually
eat dark or black bread. SO that even wheat
Hour and wheat may be set aside with the
meats as furnishing no sufficient cases for COM
parlsOn. The working classes of Europe live
mainly on black or rye bread. potatoes. cheap
coffee and tea, vegetable soups, and lard and
olive oils of a low grade take the place of
butter. The standard MONDAY meal of the
Workingmen OF Mayence is thus given by Con-
m Sr,ifh h. SD@x4%
peas or beans cooked together. in the form of a
thick soup, to which little green cabbage or
lettuce is sometimes added. This dish they eat
day after day, with very little change in the
character of its contents or in the manner of
preparation. This is the dinner eaten at his
work The food OF the wife and children at
home is said to be cheaper and less nutritious.
COOPERATION AND CLOTHING.
sit should not be forgotten that the manipu-
laton Of the food supplies. after they reach
England, is conducted on the most economic
plan. under the benefcent control of the great
cooperative societies. Everything is done
that can be done to bring the producer and con-
sumner as directly and closely together as posi-
BILE. and the competition for custom which pre-
walls keeps the handling cost at the lowest pos
sible minimum, So that the prices of the CO.
operative stores of England approximate to
wholesale prices elsewhere.
III SCuVldi, ClotLlug Cdfl Ue puFc0aSeu
cheaper in Europe than in the United States,
especially clothing Of the higher grades As
to relative quantity and quality OF clothing the
basis for an identical comparison do not exist.
The same influence which prompts the higher
paid workman in the United States to purchase
better and more varied food than his European
cOmrade extends also to his clothing, for he
buys more and better garments.
RESIDENCES AND RENTS.
House rent in Europe is apparently lower
than here, but the habitatons are usually infe-
riOr to those in the United States. In Dundee,
one OF the most thriving industrial centers in
Europe, 3D. $50 persons live in S,72O houses of
one room each; .374 persons live in 16, 1877
houses of two rooms each OF workingmen's
houses in Manchester, Consul Shaw writes:
Great numbers of houses visited by me con-
tanned only one living room. and this served as
parlor. Kitchen, dning-rOom. sitting-rOom. and.
In some instances also as bedroom
Secretary Frelinghuysen continues: "The
question of artisans dwellings in Great Britain
has OF late years attracted very large share of
public and legislative attention, and in no coun-
Try In the world has the general government, in
the direction of their amelioratiOn, been more
earnest and more successful
FIGURES FOR THE CONTINENT.
ION the continent, where the conditions of
life are not only widely different from those Of
eral countries and even in the several local dis
tricts OF the same country, opportunities for
Identical comparison with analogous conditions
in the United States are rarer and tables of
relative 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 the individual
is measured as much by the ability to purchase
and the extent of the demand as by the nature
OF the accommodation offered while both are
influenced and controlled by climatic influences
and by national habits and traditions"
The relative cost Of manufacture in different
countries is thus treated:
'Ihere are certain natural and artificial con-
ditions which so largely affect the direct con-
tiOn in any analytical examination Of the great
questions of labor; but. from their abstruseness.
they are less evident to the general mind and
more debatable than the simple relations shown
in the reports Of the cOnsuls. 1t would be
legitimate field of inquiry to ascertain what are
the conditions which enable England to manu-
facture machinery and other products at less
price than similar goods can be manufactured
In France and at prices equal to those in Ger
many, while the rates OF wages paid to the
workmen engaged in those manufactures in
England are. on the whole, higher than those
paid for similar labor in France, and more than
double those paid in Germany"
The Old Home.
1t sleeps beneath the sunny hill
AS in a tranquil dream;
The giant elmS are spreading still
Above the meadow stream.
Wild birds that Join in music sweet