Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1892-04-07


other rooms wa used as a bedroom,
and the tn I'd was call. d the pariOr.
This was The hes life eight hard work
ing people earned. / called on a
Or inter- " tn work. who was relative
/ of an American friend. and ound him,
his wife and child, living in one room,
| These cases are not selected, but are
/ so usual as to cause n comment My
| friend AMI ! invited the printer out to
dinner. which cost Us -. 50 for the
three We had turkey and other
di,h,s, and it ,ctually made ne feel
good to SCI th,t man eat be had
probably never before been able TO sit
down to that kind of = meal.
"Clothing alone is cheaper, but the
additional COS f food and shelter
over that America, of the same
kind, will amount in two months 10
what is saved in a y ar by cheaper
clothing. Clothing is cheaper because
the work is done almost wholly by
women and children. From the back
of the sheep to the back Of the wearer
the wool is seldom out of woman 5
hands. Women Up it, weave it, dye
it and make it up in o clothing. Their
highest wages are less than s. per
week, and the lowest 81 week. /
bought a suit of clothes in London and
asked the tailor why it was SO cheap,
about one-third less than it would have
cost me in the United States. He told
me this fact about women doing the
work, and told me he had at work
making up clothing in the upper floor
sixty girls, and that the foreman re-
ived about $40 per week, and the
girls from "a. IS down to 81.
"A man about fo,ty, who was one
of the hundred laboring men who came
to this country on the boat we re-
turned on. told me that he had been
working all his life to get enough
money to b ing his family to the
United States without success, but had
saved enough to pay his own way,
and expected soon to be able to send
back for his family. Another man. a
foreman in large establishment, was
happy at the prospect of $l5 a week
position in the United States thst a
friend had promised to get for him.
Going up from London on the
train talked with the tranmen, aud
afterward verified my figures. The
be t paid and most skilled railroad
engineers get from 40 to so shillings
week, which in our money is SO. 60 to
Sl2 week. Firemen, o. stockers a.
as they arr called there, get from IS
to IS week Guards (conductors)
get from 50 to Sc per week. Their
pay is graded according to service,
starting at 10 sh llings-- shilling is
"a cents. When they rea h 23shillings,
the highest point, the men are dis
charged on some prst' e or other, so
that the average is kept down to about
20 shillings. Clerks get from 50 to IS
per week and bookkeeper4 from 50 to
$40 per week. / can give you figures
in the other occupations. tut they are
in about the same proportion to Ameri-
can wage, 30 10 500 per cent lower.
English labor has had its vitality
Slapped. The laboring classes do not
know what lite is, and, blindlv and
stubbornly deluded by the idea that
England is the greatest nation on the
globe, they refuse to believe that any
other nation can IL better. They are
dull. sluggish, unambitious, unenter-
pri,ing, and almost content with their
wretched existence. In massive and
heavy machinery they alone equal us.
In ingenius implements and tools they
slowly adopt Ame lean work. The
printer of whom | spoke told me that
dll ttt HliG WI n III A%OlAAAit " stc dOilC
by American printers. who were paid
American wages, and that in every
large newspaper Office in the city the
American Hoe press was in use.
could give you Owens of instances
where they are using American ma
chimes of light, quick and perfect
action. In my own line of business I
was compelled to laugh at English
wo.k. England is fifty years behind
us The work is rough and poorly
done, and hardly build ne is COM
pletely o properly equipped.
The inveutive gen us of England
is dead, the lab r NC man half dead.
England is on the decline, and the
cause is the pursuit of the god Of cheap
ness. To undersell other nations their
labor has been oppressed and para
lyzed. To sell cheaper women and
children have supplied the place of
L. i \ II