The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1904-09-11
ssTF4E BELGIAN WORKMAN. AZ
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From this report It 4 appears that the
great majority Of the laboring popula-I
ton work from ten to eleven and a half
hours and that only a bout one In ton
work less than ten hours. Tie wages
are extremely low. OF all I he working
people Of the country (lncludng women
and children) enga ged n In Il privat to ind
tries. about a. quarter earn less tina n 80
cents a. day, a not her quarter ca IN from
40 to- so cents. and mot her qua rter from
20 n to 50 4 cents. Less than one In six
one In a hundred OF the whole Nv orking
population earn over s 40! a. day. VI Even
fif we take only the q dult male Wy rkers,
z the wages are Very oW.f5$ Only v about one
ma n In ten earns over 30 cents a. day,
and only one In twenty earns over 5 !: 20.
The wa ges OF ~ omen a re- ma turally much
less Almost a. quar- ters of all the people
engaged In industrial enterprises arc
women. and OF these women about two
sfifths earn less than 30 cents "a da " and
snine-tentlls less than 80 cents a day To
find a woman engaged many private in
sdustry earning over s1.0f d. s. day is like
looking for a needle In a. hay sta elk, the
census showing that only one n 1000
earn this MA gnificent sa larry. The boys
and girls under sixteen are pa Id %lnss pro-
portion, ono quarter Of them earning 10
cents IA day OF. less, IS and only one sixth.
earning as much as 4 30 cents day,
OF course, one III cannot straig ntway
compare Belgian or. 81 n@ fact, any Conti-
mental wages with those paid In Amer
lea. The conditions are different. the
standard of living Is different, and the
cost ofsithc art lcles that the workmen
CONSUME s$also different. 1t. is not true,
however. that the condition of the work y
men In Belgium. or, In fact, IN any
Continental country Is at all comparable
with that OF workmen inb$thc United
States. Tho Belgians say tina they ear
less but that It costs them less to live
sbut5lthe truth, Is that they I've for less
because they live on less. X In the mining
districts the workmen live in we'll built
little brick houses. but they have on y a
few rooms to il famlysaThe@ clothing Is
much cheap though n 80 much poorer
in quality and articles OF which IL Dor
forms III large part OF the cost IRE also
generally cheaper Tho ordinary arti-
clos however, which tile WORKING man
must 5llsc Y arc! almost as dear, and In
some cases considerably dearer tlangin
the United States. At Liegc for In
stance, wheat bread costs only from 2 1-2
to 3 cents a pound, but on the other
hand fresh & Gigs cost lin October) 8
cents apiece fresh butter rs to 80 cents
a pound; beef % to 26 cents a. pound;
#pOTkT III pONltAs
and lard from to is cents according
to whether 1t is American or Belgian
Other prices arc equally comparable with
those In America Sugar costs from 5
to 6 cents a pound. rice from 3 to s cents
a pound, and petroleum from l2 to It
cents u gallon. In other words. rnpre--.
pared food Is upon tn eWhole rs eXpen-,
siye, and In the case OF meat, butter and
eggs. more expensive than ln4the Uni.
Tod 0tat ne rarfS nf Belgium
the working men rarely obtain meat,
and then only the Inferior cuts and
much Of the lassitude and lack of energy
OF the worker Is perhaps accountable to
the fact that he is llndernorlshcd.
There arc many articles which Bel
GUM Is able Ito produce much more
Echenply than the United States, but IN
other industries tha' cost OF production
ia grea ter than With us, TO some ex-
tent this may be due to the low wages
of the workman and the consequent IN
effectiveness OF his work, Low wages
usually mean high cost OF production
because the work done BY cheap labor
Sers is usually Of n low grade. To some
extent, however. the low wages are due
to the smler nturl resources OF the
country. Near Licge we visited q nuns
her of coal mines and We're surprised 10
find that the veins Of coal which We're
exploited were so thin, so superlmposed
upon each other, ana Mt such q u pltcll,
that they could not have been worked
at all III tho United States, In our soft
coal mines, the average output per man
Is from three to four tons per day..
hut In Belgium the average output per r
man Der day Is only about tWo-thirds OF
a ton. This Belgian miners earn only
$3.50 a year, which y less than one,half
az what the American miner receives,
hut despite this fact the cost of produce
ing coal at the Belgian mines Is over
$3.50 per ton, Mhle In tile United States
Sit Is not far from sl,oo per ton, 1,
st9 Upon the whole, tho conditions OF the
miners appear to 10 slightly better than