The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1886-04-15
THE PRICE OF LIFE.
From the Ne,us and Cbuoicr.

the contradictory opinions ana statements
which are published in Northern news
papers, from time to time, as to the con-
dition of wage.earners in different parts
of the North. These publications are OF
course, made Independently of each other,
and for different purposes, and it is only
by bringing them together that their true
force and application appear. Bearing
in mind the persistent claim of the man
ufacturers that the high prices of manu-
factursd products in this country are
made necessary by the hig h wages paid
to working men, and must be maintained
in order to keep up wages, soue OF the
statements which follow read strangely
enough.
Mr.. Edward Atkinson, of Boston, the
well.known authority on all questions Of
labor and wages, contributes to the last
number of Bradstreets long and inter.
esting article on "The Price of Life" in
the course of which he considers the
prices paid by working people for food
His conclusions are as follows:
"Ftom the best information which can
be obtained, the price of an adequate
supply of food served in the ordinary
way, either in boarding houses or in
workmen's families, is from 20 cents to
80 cents day for the mere cost of mate
rials. Probably no single man or woman
in Boston or New York could obtain at
any restaurant, or at any cheap boarding
house, suitable supply of nourishing
food, we'll cooked, at a cost of less than
80 cents or IS cents, or probably more.
In some of the factory towns, like
Lowell, mill operatives, who have their
rooms elsewhere, but who get their meals
in the factory boarding-houses, are served
with good, nutritious meals three times a
day at S1.6O to $3.50 week, or from %
cents to IS cents per day. But in these
cases the houses in which the.meals are
served belong to the factory corporations,
and yield little or no rent"
The cost of food alone, therefore, to
the factory operatives of New England
is not less than 25 cents day, under the
most favorable circumstances. This
takes no account of rent, clothing, light,
fuel, washing, medical attendance, &C.,
which Mr.. Atkinson comedies will amount
to as much more, making the price OF
life to the wage. Garner in New England
about So week, at low estimate.
For the purpose of enforcing its pro-
test against the reduction of the tariff
upon cloaks manufactured abroad, the
Philadelphia Press recently asserted that
the proposed reduction would destroy
the cloak-making industry in New York
city, and deprive 10000 persons of en-
ployment. What employment means, to
a large proportion of those who are en-
gagged in this important home industry ,
is shown by the New York Commercial
advertiser, which gives the results of
Labor Commissioner Peck's observations
in cloak making establishment in New
York, as follows:
"The room was less than ten feet
square, and here he found six women
and four sewing machines. The women
were working, 'as if driven by some
unseen power among piles of cloaks
ready to be put together, and their only
light was from small gable window that
opened upon the roof The air was
sitting and odoriferous with sewer gases,
and the commissioner relates that the
pale, abject countenances of the workers,
as they bent over their sewing, formed a
picture of physical suffering and want
such as be never saw before, and hopes
never to see again. The commissioner
learned, that by acorking sixteen or more
hours per day, two Of these women to-
gether would manage to turn nut one
cloak, for which the sweater or con-
tractor, paid theml6fty cents each. a
smaller room that opened from this
working-room contained sink, from
which arose frightful stencil. Upon
the Aoor,' writes the commissioner, was
mattress which in appearance partook
of the general filth to be found through
out the whole building, from cellar up,
ard it was upon such bed and in such
quarters that these cloakmakers, tired
and weary with the long days work, and
with a scanty, if any, supper, threw
themselves down to sleep and awaited
the coming days awful toll for bread. u
This is "the price of life' paid by
workingwomen in great industrial centres
of the United States, under system Of
tariff laws sustained mainly upon the
plea of protecting labor and paying high
wages. The price of the cloaks, it may
be added, is given as S35 to $40 each'
The profit of the manufacturer is not
known, but, whatever it is, it certainly is
not divided with the wage-earners whom
he employs.
Low wages, however, are not paid to
cloakmakers and other women, alone
Mr.. Atkinson's figures are based upon
the cost of food, clothing, rent, &C., to
the mill operatives in New England
towns, and should apply to other cities
than Lowell. The Philadelphia 7sle.
graph published few days ago special
dispatch from Norwich, Conn.,, which
contained the following explanation Of
the recent strike at that place:
zone thousand hands of the Baltic
Cotton Mill, eight miles North of this
city, quit work in body yesterday, and
the big mill is idle. They had not asked
for an advance in wages, or that the
hours of labor be shortened. They were
driven to take this course by the system
of pauper seryitude enforced in this mill. "