The Neihart herald. [volume] (Neihart, Mont.) 1890-1901, 1894-11-24
While the NeceSsaries of Life
Cost as Much in Central E,lr-
Opc as the United States
WAGES AVERAGE ABOUT HALF AS
High as Those Ptid in This
Country. This Is the Result
From II ltush to the Cities.

says, After an exhaustive examine
ton of the wages paid in the large
manufacturing establishments of
Lnxemberg, which he says are about
the same as paid in other parts of
Germany, George H. Murphy, United
States commercial agent there,
transmits to the state department a
report on the wages paid in the steel
and iron industries, with general
review on the whole subject of Ger
man wages.
He finds that, generally. speaking,
the average earnings of ordinary
workingmen amount to less than 500
per annum. Women earn about
half as much as men. The average
wages of miners and foundry hands
is less than 81 per day. The salaries
of primary school teachers are 1924
for males and $l7O for females.
A very large majority of the en-
ployes of the government earn less
than S4OO per annum. On the other
hand, still speaking generally, the
necessaries of life cost as much in
central Europe as in America. A
workingman's expenditure for cloth
ing and rent may possibly be some
what less than in America, but in the
town of Luxemburg coal costs s5
per ton; eggs, 2l cents per dozen;
rye -four, 3 cents; wheat -four, 5
cents; sugar, 8 cents; butter, %
cents; beef, 10 cents; veal and NUT
ton, 1G to 20 cents, and smoked
pork % cents per pound. Frugality
and industry can hardly be expected
to accomplish any miracle greater
than that of enabling thrifty work
man to keep out of debt.
This distressing state of affairs is
no doubt in part an unavoidable
result of the competitive demand for
employment which must exist in
every densely populated couAtry.
But the misery of the European poor
has been aggravated by that popular
craze which causes the large towns
and cities of Germany to grow with
rapidity as phenomenal as that
which is doubling and trebling the
population of our own western cities.
An important point of difference,
however, lies in the fact that foreign
migration largely accounts for de-
velopment of our towns, whereas
German cities expand almost entirely
at the expense of the rural districts.
Consequently the labor market is
glutted, wages keep falling and the
evil is enhanced by the increasing
use of labor-saving devices. The
competition between manufacturers
also forces down wages.
The policy of the countries of CEN
trail Europe seems to extend and in
fiate their manufacturing industries
suicidally. Their idea of national
prosperity and happiness seems to be
nothing more than the attainment of
the ability to export manufactures
and import food, and in support OF
this policy the governments taxing
workingmen and an import duty on
his food in order to give the manu-
facturer an export bounty. The
much talked-of disarmament of
Europe will, if ever realized, bring
further calamity by adding to the
labor markets millions of young men
untitled for country life by several
years residence in city barracks.
The development of our American
manufactures is undoubtedly OF
great Importance, but American
workmen and women have good
reason to favor the restriction of imi
grafton and to view with appre-
hensive tendency to initiate industries
beyond safe limits.