Evening star., 1902-08-22
LABOR CONDITIONS
IRON AND STEEL INDUSTRY OF
BOTH WORLDS.
Conclusions of Commission Which Has
Studied Question From Many Stand
points-Americans Work Easiest.

Labor conditions in the iron and steel
Industries of the United States. in contrast
with those in the united kingdom and Eu-
-Gpeau countries generally. are discussed at
great length by the commission appointed
by the British Iron Trade Association,
which recently visited the United States and
thoroughly studied its great iron and steel
manufacturing establishments. This COM
mission consisted of Mr.. ]. S. jeans whose
name is already well known to the people
Of the United States as an authority upon
these subjects; Mr.. Axel Sahlin. an expert
in blast-furnace work; Mr.. Ebenezer
Parkes. whose special study was sheet and
bar mill practice; and Mr.. Enoch James,
who gave special attention to the steel in
dustry; while Mr.. Jeans special work was
TO report upon the general economic and in
duStrial conditions.
The report Of this commission, according
to some extracts which have reached the
treasury bureau of statistics, points out
that in the United States the iron and steel
industries are face to face with conditions
that make both the dearest and Chea pest
labor at present to be found in the world
the dearest in point of nominal Temunera-
ton, and the cheapest in industrial and
economic results. The wOrkmen at Amer
lean mills, says Mr.. James in his share of
the report, ARE generally supposed to be
working much harder than they do in this
country England, but this is not my own
view.
after much conversation with many men
In various branches who had been employed
In similar works in England, and some of
them subject to my own control the con
clusi)n l have arrived at is that the Ameri-
can workmen do not work so hard as the
men in England They have to be attentive
in guiding operations and quick in manipu-
Iatlng levers and similarly easy work. They
are also much more desirous of getting out
large quantities than in England. They are
better paid and more regular in their at
tendance at the works loss of time through
drinking habits or otherwise not being toll
Grated"
Americans More Skillful.
Mr.. 'Sahlin in his section of the report
says that the American workman generally
aspires to the higher grades of labor. Ieav-
ing the purely manual labor to workmen
from other countries. THUS it is" he saws
that around American blast furnaces the
American is found in a very decided mi
nority- He may be a foreman master me-
cdanic blast engineer, locomotive driver
or stove tender. but he will not work 81
hours per week. shoveling ore or wheeling
scrap For these duties are employed in the
south the negroes, and at the northern fur
Italians.
On this question of higher-grade work
ana hlSher-grade wages of American work.
men attention is called to the fact that in
~ 1 tam NpiES EOIlSn ana hungarian Ia
borers Were receiving 81 to 1.JO per day,
while American rollers working alongside
OF them were receiving on the average So
per day of eight hours The report quotes
MT Carnegie as stating recently that the
average wages of men in his employment
at Homestead was S3 per day, or an aver
age of 1SI pounds sterling per anuTn
against an average of 6S pounds sterling
per annum as the earnings of iron and
steel workers in Lancashire and 20 mounds
sterling per annum received by the steel
rollers in South Wales On the question of
cost of living. Mr.. Jeans declares. as the
result of his inquiries, that the average
american workman in most of the essen
tlaIs OF life can live, mutatis mutandfs as
cneapiy as he can in the old country
Inc Importance of the human factor"
says the London Statist, in summarizing
this report. lis fully realized by all the
members of the commission. 1t is al very
Wen to admire American plants the tnge-
nulty OF machine tools, the devices for say
ing labor, etc. but. as Mr.. Sahlin remarks
In his special report. 1T is not the guns
which win the battles. but the men who
stand behind them What the American
adnlres and honOrs is the ability to do;
mat capacity in man, through his own
Sagacity, nerve. enterprise and skill to
create and employ a fortune Nobody is
above his work Everybody works and
TOT the sake Of work, and thus has been
produced in America within a generation
an Industrial pOtentiality more wonderful
and more To be feared than all the factories
and machinery and plants that these
workers have created. 1t comes to this
then. that American labor is not more cffi-
cient, though it is better paid, than ours;
ara that American manufac cturing develop
ment Is due to the persistent unrestins- in
dustry which once characterized the Brit
on, but Tor which trade unionism and ath-
let1Cs nave given an apparently growing
ulStaSte All the reporters. however, seem
struck with the strenuousness of American
NE The comparative absence of leislrred
class is noted of the oh
acteristics of the principal cities and indus
trial centers of the United States In the
avenues of industry a man without q regu-
lar business or who is not concerned in the
development of some industry is as a fish
out OF water Nowhere, We are assured
IS the struggling youth more kindly en-
couraged. more generously aided and more
readily trusted than in America; and It is
pleasant TO read of an esprit de cOrps
among works managers which one would
hardly expect to find In a land of such fe-
yerish competition"