Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1889-12-12
FACTS FOR wAeE-woRKERs.
Another Exposition of the Contrast Be-
tween America and Europe.

Another Exposition of the Contrast Be-
tween America and Europe.
The free-trade professors promulgate
the theories which they find in their
books; these working-men (who visited
Europe to investigate the industrial con-
dition there) with a practical knowledge
of the conditions which affect their own
employments, are able to compare these
conditions with those which exist abroad.
1t is something more than coincidence
that every one of them, as he describes
the work and workers abroad in the in
dustry with which he is most familiar,
reaches the conclusion that he and his
fellows in this country are vastly better
off in all particulars than their fellow
craftsmen in other lands. We like the
hard-headed common sense which char
acterizes these letters; we are delighted
with the simple and ingenious way in
which these working-men topple over
the favorite free-trade theories without
any direct allusion to them; and we are
firm in our conviction that these reports
will make more protectionists than the
free-trade scribes and orators can I'M
make between the present date and 1892.
For example, the cabinet-makerO of the
party tells US about the wages paid in
that trade in England. This is trade
in which skill counts for a great deal,
and the scale of wages in this country is
high. In England the term of appren-
| ticeship is five years. The first year the
apprentice receives seventy-ive cents
no IL I'D
vanced to S1.25 per week; the third year
he is encouraged by a compensation of
S1.S715 per week; the fourth year his
wages jump to $3.50 per week, and in his
| fifth year habits of reckless extrava-
gance are fostered in him by wages
amounting to S. per week. After this
he is entitled to the full wages of jour
newman. And what are these? Eight
cen cents an hour. This, the writer of
the letter observes, sis the amount gen
orally though not universally. paid"
| We infer, therefore, that inferior arti-
sans do not get so much, but that really
| first-class cabinet-makers can hope to
earn eighteen cents an hour, which
amounts to S10.17 for a week of 5615
working hours.
The comparison which A. B. Capron
makes between American and European
wool-weavers, in another letter in the
series, is interesting. He regards En-
gland as the mistress of the art of ''stuff-
ing shoddy into every known fabric,
from priests surplice to the garments
of her little street acrobats and match
venders." He says of the foreign work
men:
1.-The European employee, as l met
| him, was seen under his best conditions.
| He was not standing alone and unaided
and entirely dependent upon his own
| efforts, but surrounded and sustained IN
every direction by the beneficiary sup
port of his master. If he was well
! housed, fairly we'll fed and clad, his re-
| lations to all these surroundings were
something like those of the child to his
parent. The master made these things
| possible to him. In wages he was guar
| anteed certain amount, and if by eX-
| ira exertion he could earn over the guar
| antee he was permitted to do so, but the
| American working-man on the same
plane of life is far better fixed in all that
| tHJtTS luJO OlC SIGdI sum VI tA4SOCllCC
than his European brother. The thing
that panied me most was the too plain
evidence of mastership and servitude,
even between manager and employee.
1.-THE self-respect of the American
toiler was wanting in nearly every in
stance"
The foreign weaver earns about S7.25
a week, and pays one-seventh of that for
the rooms which shelter him. But,
Mr.. Capron says:
"The greater portion of the help en-
ployed in the mills l have visited are
females, and they range from the child
of ten or twelve years to the gray-haired
matron. The children are rather puny,
and the mothers are gaunt, hungry
looking creatures, and have pallid look
that is far from interesting. Their
working clothes would not bring a shil-
ling to the individual; they work in
their bare feet on stone floors, and their
heads look as though the use of comb
would be torture.
Bread and beer seem to be the staple
articles of diet, and it is a common prac-
tice TO send child of about the size OF
the can she carries for the beer that is
to wash down the bread. How the
bread comes to the house is beyond my
ken."-BOston Journal.