The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-09-13
THE GOOD OLD TIMES.

The condition Of labor today in America
compared with its small wages and narrow
comforts less than century ago presents
striking contrast. Up to the beginning
Of this century laborers lived in the rudest
sheds, were paid from $ TO IS month.
working from sunrise TO sunset; In the
city Of Albany wages we're 40 cents day,
yet clothing vas much higher than IL is to
day,and days wages bought but two yards
ofcaiico. McMaster says that good farm
hand brought 50 a month and strong
boy was glad to get 81 month 70 work at
the hardest manual employment on the
farm or in the shop. Butter was from
to 10 cents pound; potatoes and turnips
sold for shilling bushel. Women went
out to work for p cents month and their
| board. girl who could earn IL cents at
| the spinning wheel by hard days work
| thought she was doing we'll The poor
| suffered and there was more want and
Indebtedness in proportion to the popula-
| ton than there is in the United States
today. imprisonment for debt was the
law of the land. Agriculture, even when
conducted by wealthy 'fancy" farmers,
| like Jefferson, was rude and unthrifty. JEFF
| ferson made his land return him
but eight bushels Of wheat or
eighteen Of Indian corn to the acre
The New England farmer in 1870 was
| attired in cotton jeans and shirtings
that cost 30 cents a yard; his bed ticking
| cost 30 cents yard and his pockethandkeT-
| chief 20 cents. His wife's calico dress cost
| IS cents a yard, and when she vas able to
| be stylish she wore muslin at - cents a
| yard, Bingham at 50, and cambria at 81.
| Pins we're Is cents paper, and for matches
| everybody borrowed fire. and the hoe and
the scythe were the leading farm imple-
ments. Sugar in 1850 cost 18H cents a
| pound for cheap brown grades.
On the other hand, while what the farm
er bought cost more than double what it
| costs today, what he sold brought not
| much more than one half what it brings
| today. In 1870 butter brought in Massa-
| chusetts II cents; dressed beef 81 cents a
| pound. AS late as 1919 when Pennsyl-
| vania had less than 10000 inhabitants
| against >, 260,0O0 today, INLAND travel was
| very costly. From New Orleans to Hi
| nois by steamboat was $l25; it cost as
| much to travel by canal boat "a it does to-
day by rail, and by the quickest transport
| tation it took two days TO go 100 miles.
Hay brought then but 81 ton; butter
| but Is cents; beef cents pound and
| mutton 81 cents. AS late as 1870 calico
was % cents a yard; today it is cents;
| brown sugar was Is cents; today but
| cents for granulated. In 1880, in Massa-
| chusetts, butter sold for Is cents; today for
| 30 to 30 cents; dressed beef for ~ cents a
pound, which today brings from IL to IS
| cents.
Comparing the New England prices of
| August, 1858, about third OF a GEN.
fury ago. for what the farmer pro-
| duces, with the prices OF today, we
| find that for his butter, pork, oats.
| eggs, cheese, hay, apples, maple sugar,
| poultry, veal, lamb, mutton, beef and rye
straw he gets decidedly increased prices,
while in the same period of thirty-three
| years the local prices have fallen for such
articles of prime necessity as tea, -four.
sugar, cotton cloth, boots and shoes, farm
| tools, wagons, prints, clothing, ticking, oil.
iuEHlLufe, BlHsHdinS ana 1eed. Vi twenty
items selected for comparison the farmer
| now takes the benefit of fourteen as COM
| pared with the year 1858, while only four
commodities stand against him. viz: the
| price of coffee, Goldfish, molasses and farm
labor, The chief item of increased ex-
penses is farm labor, which has increased
IN cost s per cent, but the farmer gets
decidedly higher prices in New England
| for his products than he did in 1s58. and
! pays less price for what he consumes.
He has done so well that he has become
extravagant; he has driving horses in
| place OF mere draught team: he has a
buggy in place of the old farm wagon: he
and his family wear more fashionable and
| expensive clothing; and even the ri ne has
| given way to the cigar
The improvement in the condition of tho
| American farmer and his labor has not been
more conspicuous than that of the Ameri.
! can manufacturer and mechanic A first
| class mechanic in Lowell and Lawrence in
| 1870 worked fourteen hours for $I.25. The
| rise IN wages in America has been
! remarkable, as is shown in the followino
| comparison Of the total yearly wages for
| the same industries in Massachusetts, and
| Lancashire:
Grsat DIFF Per