Arizona republican., 1902-08-25

Washington, August 24.-Labor con- of the United States, in contrast with those in the United Kingdom and Eur opean countries generally, are discussed at great length by the commission ap- pointed by the British Iron Trade as sociation which recently visited the United States and thoroughly studied its great iron and steel manufacturing establishments. This commission con- sisted of Mir. J. s. Jeans, whose name is already we'll known to the people of the United States as an authority upon these subjects; MT. AXel Sahlin, an ex- pert in blast furnace work; MT. Eben- eZer Parkes, whose special study was sheet and bar-mill practice, and Mir. Enoch James, who gave special atten- tion to the steel industry; while MT. Jeans special work was to report upon the general economic and industrial conditions.
 The report of this commission, ac- cording to some extracts which have reached the treasury bureau of statis- tics, points out that in the United States the iron and steel industries are face to face with conditions that make both the dearest and cheapest labor al present to be found in the world-the dearest in point of nominal renumera- tion, and the cheapest in industrial and economic results. "The workmen at American mills,'' says Mir. James in his share of the report. "are generally sup posed 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 conclusion l have arrived al is s.that the American wcrkmen do not work so hard as the men in England. They have to
 be attentive in guiding operations and quick in manipulating levers and sim ilarly 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 attendance at the works. loss of time through drinking habits or otherwise not being tolerated"
 MT. Sahlin in his section of the report says that the American workman gen. erally aspires to the higher grades or labor leaving the purely manual labor
 to workmen from other countries. Thus it is,' he says, that around American blast furnaces the American is found in a very decided minority
 He may be a foreman, master mechan- ic. blast engineer locomotive driver. or stove tender but he will not work S4 hours per week shoveling ore or wheel ing scrap. For these duties are en- ployed in the south the negroes, and at the northern furnaces immigrants. mostly Irish. Slavs or Italians" On
 this question of higher grade work and higher grade wages of American work men. attention is called to the fact that in certain works Polish and Hungari- an laborers were receiving $1 to $1 50 per day, while American rollers work Ing alongside of them were receiving on the average SIP 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 $3 per day. or an aver age of 1S7 pounds sterling per annum, against an average of 6S pounds ster- ling per annum as the earnings of iron and steel workers in Lancashire and 70 pounds sterling per annum received by the steel rollers in South Wales. On the question of cost of living, MT. Jeans declares, as the result of his inquiries, that "the average American workman.
 in most of the essentials of life. can live, 'mutatis mutandis,' as cheaply as he can in the old country"
 "The importance of the human fac tor.' says the London Statist in sum-
 marking this report, lis fully realized by all the members of the commission.