Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1902-09-25
British Commission Finds Amer.
lean Labor Has Enormous
Productive Capacity
TRADE UNIONS LESS IMPORTANT
Per Ton Cost Of Rolling Steel Reduc.
ed to Fifteenth Part in Few
Years Yet American Workmen Re-
csive Better Wages Than Before
SURPRISES Europe.

tions in the United States is the subject
of a chapter in the recently published
report of the commission from the Brit
ish Iron Trade Association which Wis
tied the United States a few months
since and reported upon industrial con-
ditions, and especially those relating
to iron and steel. Discussing this inn
portant question of the condition of la
DOR in the United States. as viewed
from the standpoint of the English citi-
zen and manufacturer, the report says:
States is another matter that has re-
ceived good deal of attention, as be-
ing fundamental in the progress of
American industries, if not also in the
relative progress of some of our own.
The influence of trade unionism is not
nearly SO strong nor SO aggressive in
the United States as in Great Britain.
The reason is largely capable of matlle-
NAUTICAL demonstration. A recent report
by the New York department of labor
shows that while in Great Britain at a
recent date there We're 100000 trade
unionists, there We're only 100000 In
the United States and Canada for about
twice the population, while Germany is
credited with $4,000, or about one-half
the British figure. The trades union is
not generally recognized as a militant
force in the United States, except now
and again. Few employers are ready to
acknowledge that it has any influence
worth naming.
."The almost absolute freedom of la
Dor has been the chief instrument
whereby 1t has won sucn conquests in
the field of industrial economy during
the last quarter of q century. In all
countries industrial processes have
been greatly cheapened during that Pc
riod, bat in America the cheapening
appears to have been carried farther
than anywhere else. According to fig
ures recently made public by Mr.. Will
lam Garrett. rail roller in an up-to-
date rail mill, is paid less than cent
PER ton for rolling, against Is cents at
a not very remote date. Within that
time. again n wire rod roller has seen
his earnings per ton reduced from $2.12
to is cents per ton, and yet he earns
larger wages at the lower figure. while
S cents are paid today for heating bill
lets to make wire rods, against so cents
during the period referred to. If rod
rollers, says Mr.. Garrett, were to re-
ceive the same wages per ton that they
did twenty years ago, they would earn
$424 per day.
THE average output per worker has
in all cases increased enormously. At
f,,r-
naces I was told that 1000 men are
employed for an output of 24.50O tons
per week, including all the hands en-
.ployed in handling and stocking raw
materials, transport, etc. This gives an
average of 1868 tons of pig per man per
week, or 1868 tons per man per annum.
The minimum wage paid at the blast
furnaces is s1.5O per day of twelve
hours. did not get the average wage
paid at these works, but Mr.. A. G. Din
Key, the manager of the Homestead
works, recently testified that the aver
age earnings of the workmen there, ex-
Guiding officials, is s2.73 per day, while
the earnings of rollers and heaters rise
to SIS per day. Wages, in short, are
generally so good, and the men have
their futures SO much in their own
hands, that they have every encourage
ment to do the best they can both for
their employers and for themselves.
",rhe human factor and the personal
equation appear to count in the United
States for more than they generally do
In Europe. Workmen appear to enjoy
a larger measure of independence,
based on the knowledge of the fact that
work is more easy to obtain than in old
er countries; that they are able. as a
rule, to save money, and are. therefore,
less dependent than when living, as is
not unusual in Europe, from hand to
mouth and that they are living under a
political regime which is founded on
democratic principles.
"Two features of the relations Of en-
ployers and employed may be named as
exercising powerful influence on the
amity of their connection-the first, the
and reward of work.
mems inventions. and the second, the
readiness with which workmen OF ex-
ceptional capacity can themselves be-
come employers and capitalists"
RUMoR OF HARVESTER STRIKE.