Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-10-09

from the ranks of telegraph boys They
begin at 18. For two years they are on
probation, getting 18 shillings q week the
first year and 19 shillings the second. Then,
If confirmed in their position. they rise an
nually from that sum ut rate of 2 shillings
week each year until they get $40 dollars
week. This is the maximum while they
remain in what is called the second class,
but when one is lucky enough to get pro-
moted to one of the few vacancies occurring
in the first class, he may 20 on from $40, at
rise of so cents week at the end of each
year, until he gets to the very tip-top, viz,
S14 week. BY this time, of course, he
will be very far advanced in years, and Mr..
Cooke estimates that the average pay of
those who have served as sorters from IL
until they are 80 years of age will be about
SO per week.
For information in regard to the pay Of
telegraph men am indebted to personal
acquaintance, who is one of them, and to
Mr. Flowers. London Secretary to the
Postal Telegraph Clerks Association.
Entrance is by competitive examination in
dictation, arithmetic, geography, etc: Out
of the numerous candidates, who must all
be between IL and 81 years of age, 60 or 70
per cent will fail. The force in London,
including subs, is about 800, and of these
about 500 are females These, of course,
work on a lower scale than the men; they
have less responsibility and poorer pay. The
highest a woman can ever get is put at
approach this altitude from q very low
point, indeed. The regulations for those of
the masculine gender, are as follows:
The Top Notch Less Than $1,000.
The first three months are spent "at
SCHOOL," then there is probation of eight
months at So week. After that. if ap-
first year they get S235, and they are raised
at the rate of $50 year until their salary
reaches the sum of $3.50 per annum. To get
anything beyond this they must be fortunate
enough, like the ,second-class sorters, to
capture one of the slow-coming vacancies in
the first class. Visited by such rare good
luck as this, they may then 90 on at the $50
q year rise until they reach the goal Of
telegrapher's pay, which is $3.50 a year
This is for London only, and as an in
stance of the practical working Of this scale
of pay, and of how hard it is to get from
the second class into the first class, give
the following petition from second class
telegraphists engaged at the London Stock
Exchange. The. figures show what salary
is being paid to men who are deemed good
headquarters of all England.
STOCK EXCHANGE, July IL, 1892.
To the Controller;
SIR-We, the undersigned telegraph clerks
OF the Stock Exchange office, beg to Solicit
the favor Of All interview with you in order
to point out the present unsatisfactory ma
ture OF our position as compared with that
OF clerks of very little more service and TO
inquire as to our prospects for the first class.
the protracted delay of which Is causing US
serious Inconvenience and anxiety.
Slate, 992. Beavis, ESQ. Catlin, SSa.
Davis, s9l. Hampson, ESQ. Lock. sS4
Rudkin, f91. Wheeler, ESQ. Billiard, e9l
Morgan, eel Martin, Ess.
Better Paid in London Than Out.
The interview solicited in this petition
was refused, but what will specially inter-
est Americans will be the fact that in the
above list the lowest salary is S420, and
that the man receiving it must have given
more than six years of work at a still lower
wage to entitle himself even to that sum
per annum, while the solitary man who is
getting $460, the highest in the list, cotfld
have entitled himself to that princely an
nual stipend, according to the official scale,
only by serving at lower rate for between
seven and eight years.
From document issued to candidates for
Parliament by provincial telegraph clerks,
1 learn that while the highest salary in
London. attainable only by very few
operators after many years of service, is
$3.50, the highest outside of London-this
also being attainable only by old and long
tried mems but S72a If these figures
are. not accurate can only say that ac-
curacy must not be looked for in the official
sources of Information, and beyond this
have nothing to add. HENRY TUCKLEY.