New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-09-17
WAGES AND The TARIFF-X.


ings since the protective system was adopted
in this country more than twice as much as
British farm labor has gained in the same time
has peculiar significance which will be better
understood wher the rate Of increase III other
wages has been considered. Professor Leone
Levi in Great Britain the best authority, whose
figures are accepted and used in discussion by
the ablest advocates Of the British policy
makes the increase in average earnings of in
dustral labor 6 per cent from 1867 to 1884.
1t should be remembered that in Great Britain
there was no such remarkable change IN the
nominal rate Of wages, from 1860 to 1867. rs
there was in this country in that period of cur
rency depreciation here. Mr.. Schoenhofs and
other statistics show substantially the same
rate of increase in agricultural earnings from
1860 to 1880 that Professor Levi finds from
1867 to 1884, and there is every reason to be-
lieve that the increase in other wages was for
the two periods substantially the same.
The only comparison of wages in this coun-
try which, like that of Professor Levi, has en-
braced wages in many industries, is that OF
Commissioner Carroll ID. Wright, now Chief Of
the Bureau of Labor Statistics under President
Cleveland, who reported in 1888 that the adj
vance in wages in Massachusetts, since 1860
had been over % per cent. This would not
be quite double the rate fixed by Professor
Levi for British wages. But Commissioner
Wrght's figures were for Massachusetts, alone;
they did not embrace the same industries for
the two dates compared, and there is no claim
or indication that they represented earnings
in the same establishments or in the same kinds
of work. Mr. Wright compared the average
in thirty industries in 1860 with the aver
age in twenty-four Of the same and in ten
other industries in 1888, which is obviously
an unreliable method. There is intrinsic evil
dence too, that the same establishments were
not reported at different dates thus, in cloth
ing Mr.. Wright reported the average at SIS 81
in 1880 and $12 16 in 1881, and in leather at
50 90 in 1880 and $12 81 in 1881, and in
furniture at 50 SO in 1880 and SI2 AZ in
1881. Such differences can como only from
reporting wages for different establishments in
the different years. To appreciate how widely
wages vary in different establishments It may
be noticed that one concern in Massachusetts,,
according to the census, paid an average Of
only 81 OIL in cotton manufacture. while an
other paid an average of 81 IL 12 in the same
manufacture and in the same year
Another fatal defect in nearly all comparisons
is that no account is taken of tho relative i'm
portance of industries considered, or of the
number Of workers engaged in each. de-
crease Of So 81 in average weekly wages of
1,GlS workers IN shIp-yards in Massachusetts,
tables outweighs, more than three times over,
the increase in the average wages Of 90, OLA
operatives in cotton, woollcn and silk man
ufactures Inspection Of the census report also
teaches that no comparison Of wages at a single
locality or in single establishment is Of much
value isolated instances appear In which lower
wages were paid in 1880 than in 1860, though
the average in all establishments Of the same
kind shows a great increase. A paper mill in
Georgia reports an average of only 81 cents
daily for thirteen classes of hands, while an
other in Pennsylvania reports an average o.
So o. daily for the same thirteen classes of
hands. Differences in the kind Of work done,
not expressed in the general name given TO an
establishment, often involve wide differences
in the wages paid. Unless the same estab-
lishments are reported for both periods, and
wages VI ndhuS eHbdsc" "O Oho sdhlc hIhuS Va
work the comparison can have but little value.
All these objections and causes Of error are
more fully avoided by the returns given in the
census volume Of wages than in any other
source OF information yet discovered. For
hundreds Of establishments the wages paid
each year for twenty years or more are given,
covering the same class of hands and the same
kinds Of labor in about 2 600 distinct Occu-
pations or positions. Here it may fairly be
assumed that the average Of daily wages paid
to twenty kinds of hands in particular cs-
tablishment in 1860. and to the same kinds
of hands in the same establishment in 1850,
measures the difference in rate of wages in that
establishment. and that the average for es-