Morning journal and courier., 1892-08-08

LONDON, July 81.
To the Editor OF the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
To read in the papers that q contractor
for the erection of long stretch of build
ing in this city had just been granted an
increase upon his bid amounting to the
snug sum of five hundred pounds, for the
alleged reason that there had recently been
an all round increase in wages among the
various classes of workmen he was en-
ploying, seemed to be SO unusual and so
very refreshing an item of news that we
at once marked it for further investiga-
ton. What made this instance all the
more notable was that the concession had
come from a Loddon vestry, our previous
observations having fully convinced us
that of all the numerous forms of local
mis- government by means of which, in the
different sections of this metropolis, the
poor are oppressed, and ill-paid labor is
ground as between the upper and neither
millstones, the vestry, in any prize chow
of things unpopular and odious, would
have an easy walkover for the blue rib
bon. Personifed, the vestry means Bum
BILE, and Bundle, to the Londoner, is a
synonym for fussiness and petty oppres-
sion. Vestry wages in most parishes are a
positive scandal. A long week of hard
toll on the streets is compensated at Green
wich, we are told, by the pittance of TWEEN
ty shillings, and the rate is only a little
higher elsewhere. But here was an in
stance in which apparently some good had
come out of the vestry. 1t was the Bat
tersea vestry, by the wsy-that section of
London which had just done another good
thing in the return of Mr.. John Burns as
a labor representative to parliament. Pos
sibly these two events were not merely CO.
| incident, but were related to each other
| logically, and it may be that both were
prophetic of the dawning here before long
| of veritable workingman's era Surely
| this is not inprscticable, if it be true, as
Lord Salisbury said in his election mani
festo, that under the existing constitution
the working classes are powerful enough
to obtain any measure which they believe
will conduce to their welfare.
| But that feature of this vestry incident
which we judged would specially interest
/ readers in America was the statement that
there had Just been an increase of wages
in all branches of the building trade.
Here, we thought, is a chance for an in
vestigation which will serve two useful
ends. 1t will enable US to verify q news
| paper statement which may be said to be
important, il true" and at the same time
we shall be able, by personal inquiry from
| those Immediately concerned, to fud out
beyond mistake, and to lay the matter be-
fore the American public in such q man
ner that they will not be mistaken in re-
gard to it, precisely what wages are in this
trade, increase or no increase, at the pres
ent moment of time. Thus we found
ourselves before long within the inclosure
at Battersea where the new town hall and
parochial Offices were going up, and from
the manager, who received us quite civilly
and spoke as though he had nothing to
conceal, we readily obtained the informs-
ton which follows.
1t was true that Mr.. Wallis, the coltrac-
tor, had been granted an additional sum
OF money, over and above the price at
| which the job was taken, and ii was also a
fact that the grant had been made in view
of an Unforeseen increase in wages, but
this increase, save only in single instance.
was not an actual, but merely a prospec-
tive one. For the trades generally the
new scale would not take effect until No
vember, and at present the only class
which had enjoyed the rare sensation OF
an increase in the rate of pay was the
bricklsyers. These had just ''gone up
from ninepence an hour to ninepence hA'.
penny. This is about equivalent to q rise
of one cent, and in the summer week OF
ffty-two and one-half hours it makes, OF
course, a difference of about that number
of cents in the amount they take home tc
support the family upon. Roughly speak
ing, therefore, the weekly earnings of g
frst-rate bricklsyer in London, providing
he works full time, are ten dollars since
the rise, as against nine dollars and fifty
cents before. In winter, of course, both
hours and pay suffer diminution. Al
that season, when living is at it's highest
he would get probably less than nine dol
} lars for full week, even under the recent
increase, and when 1t is remembered tha
=, If he finds only the apology for a dwelling
within the pop- IS districts of Londor
} his rent viii him two and half o.
: three do I~esk, and that he will hay