The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1903-09-19
ing its blacksmith shop. Russian peas
ants make more than 10O,0O0,0 900 spoons

ing its blacksmith shop. Russian peas
ants make more than 100, 0O0, 900 spoons
a year, 100000 of which are exported
to China and Asia, while more than
5o0,000,000 yards Of lace are also made
by them every year.
Many sof these farmers and farm
hands club togethr and build little fas-
tories in their Villages, in which they
| labor during the winter months and at
the close divide profits. In some dis
tricts in Russia calfskin shoes are made
so cheaply that they can be sold dit
wholesale for Is cents a pair. It is
GRIZZLY question of raw material, the
| labor cost amounting to but little. In
some: Of the cooperative associations
men, women and children work from
daylight to dark.
| There are thousands of lockmakers in
lula alone, and their products bring
| more than 100000 a year. Some Of
| these locks are made SO cheap that they
will sell for 10 cents a dozen, and others
| are so dear that they are cash worth
| $3.50. Men engaged in lockmaking
average less than 81 week, and if one
| nets $50 for winters work he is doing
extremely WELL SaddIers make about
Along the Volga there are thousands
of women who weave fishing nets in
| winter and labor on farms in the sum-
mer. Their average earnings are about
! 10 cents a day, while the children who
| help them are glad to get 5, 6, or
| I sents.
Factory System Coming.
The factory system, however, is being
rapidly introduced in Russia and, as
has been the experience in all machine
| using countries, the hand and domestic
system will soon be thing of the
past. During the past few years a
great number of big factories have been
established there, many of them built
by the French, English, Germans and
Americans, to avoid the tariff and to
take advantage of the cheap labor,
which to large extent come from
the ranks of the skilled home workers,
who learn to use machinery quickly.
ST. Petersburg is becoming a. manu-
featuring city, and has iron works of
all kinds. LODI, a. great cotton town in
western Russia, is grown faster than
any town in the United States, its
goods being shipped to all parts of Asia.
There are more than three-quarters of
a million people employed in the tex
tile trades, and in deying, bleaching and
printing, more than $4,000. Half a mil
lion are employed in ming and smelt-
ing, and fully the same number in
making food stuffs. The iron industry
gives employment to over 100000 men,
| while thousands are employed in the
oil fields.
Wages Very Low.
AS in all Eastern countries the wages
OF labor in Russia are very low, being
cents an hour and upward in fac
tories. The days work is spread over
many hours. There are thousands who
work for a cent an hour, and tens of
thousands who do not receive thirty
cents a day for ten, eleven and more
hours work. In the two great indus
trial provinces Of Vladimir and Mos
cow the men earn on an average from
$3.50 to So a month, or about 80 cents
day. Women get, $525 month, or
about $1.30 a week; boys of 16 81
month, while children are pair about
8 cents day. The highest wages are
paid in the engineering and machine
shops; the average being $3.50 Tor a.
ten-hour day. =, ~. ~ = *-'s*2 =
In the textile industries men get less
than SO per month and women about
%, the wooden hands receiving more
than those working in cotton. In the
silk mills women receive about $1.25 a
week, and men on the average not
more than 81 a week, although some
skilled laborers get as high as So a
week. The wages in sugar mills aver
age SO a month, while underground
coal miners get about SO a. week and
iron miners little less. The average
for all workers in the petroleum fields
| is $12 a. month, while farm hands, TAX
ing the statistics for the last fifteen
years, have averaged ten cents day
for planting and 81 cents for harvest
ing.
A Miserable Existence.
The Russian workman does not live;
he merely exists. The business of many
of them are little better than our
stables, but some Of the factories fur
nish their people with house rent free.
In Moscow 81 per cent of the work.
| men live in such homes. The staple
| food of the Russian workmen is rye
| bread and cabbage soup; he has little
meat. Twenty dollars will keep him
for six months or more.
! With the factory came legislation
favoring the laboring men. All fac
tories and mill owners in Russia are
obliged to contribute to hospitals and
to give medical assistance for their
! workmen, and labor pensions and
labor insurance both for death and ac-
cidents are maintained, though Of
course it all comes out of the worker
All wages are supposed to be paid in
cash. A workman cannot be dismissed
contrary to his contract with an en-
ployer, and fines are inflicted only
according to rules Of the labor depart
ment. If an employer abuses his en-
ploys the government my close his
factory and put him in jail.