The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1886-11-25
GERMAN wAeE-woRKERs.
Omcial Figures Full of Interest to Ameri-
can Workingmen.

The State Department is receiving q
| .arge amount of interesting informa-
ton from our. consular corps abroad.
Among the recent reports is the follow
ing in relation to wages and labor in
Germany:
The common Isborers among the
weavers in the mills around Crefeld.
Germany, receive 1886 per week, and
| the day swork is little less than twelve
hours. Carpenters, machinists, spin
ners. etc., are paid from 1857 to 1924
per week. Consul Potter reports that
these people are able to live on these
wages, Notwithstanding that coffee is
retailed at 80 cents per pound, butter
at 81, beef at IA and salt pork at 18.
One. mill operative gives figures to
show that his family of four costs on
an average SO cents per week for each
! for food. 1t is wonderful how they do
! it, Cottages are rented to the en-
| ployes by the mill owners at about
| $40 per year. and if the family occu-
pies the cottage continuously for 10
! years then, by a provision of the con-
| tract, the property becomes absolutely
| theirs. If the promises are abandoned
before the expiration of that time the
renters accumulated rights are for
feited. This advantage Of this system
to employees and employers is evident.
| The proprietor secures and retains
good and skillful workmen, while the
| employee, through kind of compul-
| sorry system of saving, secures home
for his old age.
Farm laborers about Crefold receive
! 81 per year with board. when in
charge of teams. Second laborers are
| paid only 500 annually with board. A
farm hand when living separately can
| earn $l42, the wife being paid $11.90
during harvest time. With the sale of
| goats milk, a pig and vegetables, the
| laborer's family receives 1928 per an
| mum.
Farms around Mayence, in the Grand
| Duchy of Hesse, are not conducted ON
the most advanced principles, and the
land is very much cut up into small
parcels and worked by multitudes of
proprietors, and hand-labor plays an
| important part. Twelve years is the
time for which a farm is rented, reports
Consul Smith, and the rental is about
1925 per annum per year.
Consul Harper, at Munich, reports
that farms in Bavaria are rented at
$2.40 to Sl.78 per acre, according to
size. Farm laborers receive from 1928
to 81 per year, with board. Day La
borers. without board, are paid So to
| AZ cents per day for men, and % to 35
for women. The shortest days work
| in winter is ten hours, and the longest
DAYS work in summer is fifteen hours.
In Brunswick Colonel Fox reports
that the method of farming is expen-
sive. and the soil is worked to give the
greatest possible yield, especially where
the sugar beet is raised. Here the de-
| mand for labor is extended. and in beet
raising all classes of hands are en-
ployed. Country schools are closed at
such periods that the children may help
in wedding out the beets. On the larger
estates there are families which have a
bit of land leased from the proprietor
| at nominal rental, tine members bind
ing themselves to work on the estate.
Members of the family receive the
market wages.
In the vicinity of Gandersheim man,
wife and child will earn 1854 per
annum. The proprietor of the Watsum
estate pays men 36 cents per day, sum-
mer and winter, working eleven hours
daily. Women bind the grain behind
| the scythe, and are paid for such work
| 80 to 81 cents per day. Men earn so
| to II cents.
Consul Dittmer, at Stettin, reports
that proprietors of large estates use the
American threshing machine to some
extent. Farm lsborers are paid 81
cents per day. They generally live in
small houses belonging to the estate.
In Alsace-Lorraine, Consul Ballow
states that the farm-owners are combin-
ing for an exchange of work, and the
laborers are demanding higher wages.
Consul Tanner of Chembitz, Saxony,
writes that there are large number
of ponds of all sizes which stud the
| fields in all directions and are source
| of income to the owners. These ponds
TEEN with carp which are left to shift
| for themselves until they are year
| old, when they are fit for the market,
bringing from II to 20 cents per pound.
In the winter the ponds yield ice which
| is sold at fair price. The customary
wages paid to hired servants on farms
is $57 to men and S29 to women per
year with board. Field hands receive So
cents per day without board. women 81
cents.
Consul Bishoff. of Sonnebergh, Thu.
| Yingia, states that in Siegers flannel
factory at Pressneck common hands
are paid $1.67 per week, spinners
I 1921. weavers 1857.
In Bremen Consul Looming reports
that in the Osnabruck iron-steel works
the wages paid per week of sixty hours
are So to $3.50 to ordinary laborers
and S5 to So to skilled hands
In Breslau Consul Dithmar reports
that agricultural laborers are paid from
$19 to 1924 in cash besides food and
cottage, and the wife of the laborer is
bound to work in the field at II cents
per day. Agricultural laborers are
| paid in Elderfield % cents per day with
board, or Sc to 62a without board. -
| Cor. st. Louis Chronicle
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