The diamond drill. (Crystal Falls, Iron County, Mich.) 1887-1996, 1899-04-01
THE WAGE IMPROVEMENT.
letter Times Have Deem Comiu9
Ever since the RepubiicaR
Victory or IsO1.

ne HutucIous ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Oh su-
vances in wages, particularly for the
many thousands employed in the iron
and cotton industries, is but the natu-
raj movement toward better times for
wage-earners which set in soon after
the election in November, 1896. AT that
time n million would-be workers were
out of employment, and those who had
employment were not fully occupied.
The improvement from the date Of the
recovery in December, 1896, was slow
but progressive. Industries began 10
work full hours and then they began
TO employ more men as prospects i'm
proved Two years this improvement
went on silently, until the mass of men
who were idle in 1896 were taken off of
the streets into the workshops and the
factories which had been working ten
hours on half the days were operating
on full time and some of them day and
night.
All this time there was no apparent
improvement in wages. Agitators,
calamityites and demagogues allied to
disaster declared that there could be
no better times until there should be
an advance i'm wages. The regular EN-
ployment which succeeded three or
four days a week and the demand for
labor which had absorbed the million
Of idle men, thus adding 20 the ag-
gregate weekly amount paid TO wage
workers 10 or 20 per cent, were as
much an advance OF wages as IL few
cents a day had been added 1t is the
full employment OF labor at fair
price which measures the general pros
perity of the country, because such en-
ployment gives TO workers the largest
aggregate Of wages.
As the year opened the improvement
in demand and prices made il possible
TO take the next stepin two or three Of
the larger Industries, which was the
advance OF wages This followed natu-
rally after the absorption Of the un-
employed. The upward movement had
begun. In the past two weeks the
wages Of more men were advanced ten
per cent. than during any similar time
In our industrial period. And the re-
markable fact about this advance is
that il has been made without strike.
without a demand, but by the free act
Of employers. In this connection the
returns Of wages by the recent bulletin
Of the Massachusetts, bureau Of labor
shows some interesting facts The av-
GRACE OF daily wages paid in IL employ
ments in 12 cities of the United States
was as follows: 1870. $2.20A; 1850,
S2.3lh; i'm 1890, SPAS; in 1893, S2.49; in
1896 $40; 1897, $40; 1895, S2.3sia.
But for the fall in the wages Of brick
layers the wages OF 1895 would have
shown n gain over the preceding year.
by Bradstreet's index numbers il APP
pears that in October, 1890, given guam
titles Of l07 staples cost 105,996, that
the same quantities could be pur-
chased during the entire year 1896 for
G5.777, and that prices began to rise in
1897. and during 1898 the cost thereof
averaged 1881 This means that be-
tween 1890 and 1896 wages fell only 1922
per cent, while prices fell 3s per cent.
and between 1890 and 1893 prices fell
POS per cent.
This means that IL all wage-earners
could have had full employment be-
tween 1890 and 1896 at ten or fifteen per
cent, lower wages. the fall in prices
was so much greater that they would
have been quite as well of IL not better
off. II was not the decline i'm wages
Of the employed which caused the dis
tress during the period which followed
the Inauguration OF Mr.. Cleveland In
1893, but the entire loss OF pay by n
considerable per cent. Of those who live
by wages and the partial loss by half
or two-thirds employment by others.
indianapolis Journal.