The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-11-12
INCREASE OF WAGES.
Protection as Affecting the American
Wage Garner.

The extent to which American labor
has gained in employment and in wages
paid in the past four years, by reason
of the restoration of Industrial activity
in place of the dullness, depression and
enforced idleness of the desolate period
following the free-trade experiment at
tariff making in 1894, cannot, for obvi-
Gus reasons, be accurately stated in
figures. 1t is impossible for any but
government agencies to cover the
ground with anything like complete
ness.
Employers of labor do not, as a
| rule, take kindly to inquiries as to facts
concerning wages gross sum of output,
etc. Hence an unofficial pol of the in
| dustrial situation is certain to be at
| tended with difficulties. The American
| Protective Tariff league has just COM
| pleted it's industrial census for the
month of March, 1899, using that month
as the basis of comparison with March,
1895, the former being 10 months after
| the enactment Of the Dingley tariff,
| while the latter was seven months af-
ter the enactment of the Wilson tariff
Of 1894. In the case of the earlier period,
the country had had considerably long
er than seven months in which to settle
down to an average level of results and
conditions, for the reason that the
period of web defined stagnation really
| began very soon after the election of
| Grover Cleveland in November 1892.
Counting the time during which domes-
tic producers were engaged in reducing
their scale of operations in anticipation
of free-trade tariff times. together with
the seven months of actual experience
under a free-trade tariff, we have a
| total period Of time practically the
same as the 10 months between Aug. l,
1897, and April /, 1899.
| 1t is, however, tc be borne in mind
| that our returns for March, 1899, flat
tering and significant though they be,
fall considerably short of adequately
expressing the real progress made in 10
months of practical protection. Every
body knows that very important ad-
vance in the wage rate of the whole
country has gone into effect since the
close of March, 1899. our census month.
Therefore, our census fails to present
the full facts of increased prosperity
| among American wage earners.
We show that, compared with March,
| 1895, there was in the 1857 establish
ments reporting a gain of 1874 in the
number of hands employed, or a gain
| of 1886 per cent for March, 1885, that
| there was a gain on the gross sum of
! wages paid of SO, 461 ,235.5S, this being
| 54.09 per cent more than in March,
| 1895; and that while in March, 1885, the
average rate of wages per capita for
the month was 1885, the average
wage rate per capita in March, 1899,
had increased to $36.S6, being a gain of
10.49 per cent. Had this census been
extended so as to include the months
of April and May, 1899, the months in
which the heaviest and most general
advances in wages occurred, the per-
centage of increase in the per capita
wage rate would undoubtedly have
been above 10 per cent.
The figures in condensed from are as
| follows:
Number of reports received, covering
March, 1898, and March, 1S99-1957.
Numbers of hands employed:
March, 1895-191 1924
March, 1S99-267 4S61a
Gain for March, 1S99-39.56 per cent.
Amount of wages paid:
March, 1856 398, O44.53.
March, 1S99,-S9,S59, 2S0.3S.
Gain for March, 1S99-5409 per cent.
Average wages per capita:
| March, 1S95-$33.36.
| March, 1899-$36.S6
Gain for March, 1S99-10.49 per cent.
| Such is the story of protection and
prosperity as affecting the American
wage -earner.-From American Econo-
mist.