The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-10-30

be hired at IS pence a day. None by the
month asked more than Sc. In Virginia
white men employed by the year were
given about $62 year. Slaves when hired
were clothed and their masters paid 1888
month. The average rate OF wages the
land over was Sos year, with food and
perhaps lodging Out of this small sum
the workman must, with his wife's help,
maintain his family. Then there were no
railroads. telegraphs. gas, steam or postal
facilities. The local postage on letter
sixty years ago was FIRE times what it Is to-
day. The swiftest transportation for the
rich was the mail coach. The poor seldom
travelled except on foot and when they
rode travelled slowly by wagon. Impris-
onment for debt was enforced to a barbar-
Gus extreme in America; cropping of the
ears for petty crime was part Of the legal
code.
As late as 1912 the wages of . frst-class
machinist in the Lowell. Mass. shops was
from 81 to sl25 a day. This was at the
close of the Southern Democratic low tar
if, the compromise tariff of 1888. Work
began ats a. N. and ended at 7:30 p. m,
with an hour for breakfast and three
quarters for dinner. What is more, many
of the things now regarded as common
necessaries of life were either unobtanable
or cost from two to four times as much as
now. There are persons still living on this
Coast who in their early manhood worked
in Illinois. Indiana or Missouri for 80
cents day, and for common calico, if
they bought any. had to pay from Is to 80
cents yard. Today the machinist does
not work to exceed ten hours; in many
places he works but eight hours; he gets
more than twice the wages he did forty
years ago, has better schools, better
houses. better living. In fifty years the
hours of labor have been reduced from
fourteen hours to eight or ten hours. the
wages are doubled, and necessities, and
not few OF the Injuries Of life, much
cheaper. A barrel of salt that cost $3.50
now costs so cents.
The Springfield, Mass. Republican is
authority for the following table showing
the increase in wages since the free trade
era before the rebellion:
Occupation. Per Cent Occupation Per Cent.
Gain Gain
RAILROADS ooi" hlps. "A
LOTION .........>...- oVtJouestic. .oo
Wooden. ............ Cd ron and wood. .......64
Paper. .53IDly labor. 40
buttons. ..............oo
CigAfe. Avefage.-.... 0Z
The United States census gives the aver
age weekly wages of 102 different employ
ments, including manufactures, mechan-
ical trades and unskilied labor. The
average is 1922 for the British workman
and $1l.90 for the American in ninety
three of the cases: in the other nine,
which are the more general trades, the
British averaged 1927, the American
$12.05. The unskiled laborers in the
C9ur d'Alene mines were stirred to such
a pitch of excitement that they became
murderers because they were refused $3.50
per day, having been offered So per pay,
while the unskilled coal miners in Eng
land struck because refused SIPS per day.
The average of wages in this country is
about n per cent. higher than in Great
cent. higher here than there. 80 that
through protection our laborer is about SO
per cent. better off than his free trade
brother.
The workingman lives in better house,
better warmed and lighted; he has high
school for his children; free libraries are
common everywhere; every man who can
not afford to pay gets the best of free med
ical and surgical aid; while famine is i'm
possible in country webbed all over with
great lines of railroad. 1t is perfectly
clear that the greatest part of this i'm
provement in the condition of theAmprican
farmer, mechanic and factory operative
has taken place under the high protective
tariff policy. Under the protective tariffs
of 1923 and 1872 we prospered; under the
Democratic revenue tariffs of 1S33-1si6
and 1857 our industrial prosperity de.
clined. The improvement of the condition
of the American workingman has been
steady since the policy of protection in
1861 was substituted for the revenue tariff
of 1857. 1t is perfectly clear that the poor
during the last thirty years have been
growing richer, not poorer. as the pes
simist economist and sulky anarchist pro-
claim. Sickness, the infirmities of old age
and the outrageous!y scant wages paid
women in the great cities of the East &C
count for deal of honest, inevitable pow
erty. but outside these classes the vas,
proportion of absolute. pinching poverty
dates back originally TO improvidence and
dissipation. The men are dissipated, the
women fond of disp .ay in dress and social
nonsense they cannot afford without dis
honor.
The practice of the methods of prov-
dence, frugaIty and self-deniai will raise
the smallest wage earners above the lives
of absolute poverty. The practice of these
methods will make man earning 81
day on this Coast an independent house
holder in twenty years. No man need be
pauper who Is sober. saving, industrious
and does not make a hasty marriage. A
man well married will save, while a man
who marries a woman who has the passion
for display as a bee IN her bonnet. is as
much 10 De commisersted as a woman Who
thinks she has married hero AMI possible
martyr and finds out she has married
sot and a satyr. Absolute pinching bow