The wageworker., 1906-09-28
NEWS OF TRADE AND LABOR
General information Concerning Those Doing
the Work of the World.

look at few things that have been
done by organized labor" He pro-
ceeds to enumerate few: "A hun
dred years ago men, women and chill
dren toiled from IS to 81 hours a week
-13 to IA hours a day. This was the
average. but many employers ground
16 hours a day out of their jaded wage
slaves. In 1900 every laboring man
and mechanic was at work at a. m.
AT 10 they had an hour for lunch, at
an hour for dinner, and then on till
dark. AS late as 1856 men and women
began work in some factories at 4:30
a. IN. and in New England it was the
custom to light the lamps and work
an hour before dawn as well as an
hour after, thus stealing two hours
day from rest. The average laborer
100 years ago had fewer comforts and
less consideration than the horse or
dog has to-day. There was no society
for the prevention of cruelty to wage
workers. The laborer lived in a house
of unpainted boards. He had sand on
the floor instead of carpet, and his
dishes were made of pewter instead
of china. If he had fresh meat once
good share of his wages was paid in
rum and gin. Then when he got drunk
his employer had him arrested JEFF
ferson tells us that the topic of conver-
sation at large dinner party given by
President John Adams was the 'enOr-
nous price of labor President Adams
declared that he had hired men ten
years before for $50 a year and board,
while now he was obliged to pay the
enormous sum of $3.50 a year. The
city of Washington was built by work
ers who got not more than so cents
day. The diggers, choppers, hodcar-
riers. etc, got $40 year, and worked,
as all laborers did, from sunrise to
sunset. When this century began
wages in New York were 40 cents a
day and in Baltimore SO cents. The
average rate all over the country was
sos a year, with board and perhaps
| lodging AS late as 1885 the Balti-
more weaverS were working II hours
a day for 65 cents. AT Great Falls,
| N. H., in 1914, the factory girls labored
i from 5 a. m. until Z p. M, with only
| Is minutes for breakfast and 30 min
utes for dinner. What they earned we
do not know, but all they received was
| $1.25 to 50 week"
| For the last three or four years the
manufacturers in the metal industry
| have been waging a fight on the
unions and in some districts they have
| been successful in establishing the
| open shop. The National Metal Trades
| association two years ago ceased to
make agreements with the unions and
this year the National Founders asso-
| citation has adopted the same policy.
| Whether the latter is to be successful
depends on the final outcome of the
| strike of iron molders which has been
| in progress in a number of cities since
| May 1.
The strike of the Freight Handlers
union at Duluth and Superior has been
settled by President D. J. keefe of the
International Longshoremen, Marine,
and Transport Workers association in
negotiation with the Northern Pacific
railway. All of the old employees are
to be reinstated without discrimina-
ton regardless of what part they had
taken in the recent strike. The wages
are to be 35 cents per hour for the
entire navigation season of 1906.
An endeavor is to be made to ANAL
gamate the various unions in the West
Australian timber industry, so that
they will better be able to resist any
attempt to reduce wages when the
present agreement expires.
The first family strike recorded in
Chicago was ordered recently when
| 20 TO, tI,D
aid of their husbands to win an in
crease in wages demanded by window
washers in large buildings down town
The labor agitations in recent years
in France are said to have had an i'm
portant effect in leading to a "concen
tration of industries" In 1896 there
were 2,334,471 Independent establish
ments in France; in 1901 the tota
number of such establishments was
2,245,356, diminution in five years
of nearly 100, 900 establishments. The
number now is said to be very much
smaller. The small establishment:
are reported to have been the one:
which have largely gone out of busi
ness. During the period of 1896 tt
1901 no less than 102, 1855 small firm:
, disappeared, while establishments EN-
) ployins from 81 to 100 workmen in
, creased by 1885, and the number o
+ large firms, employing more than 10'
, workmen each, increased from 1913 IL
1896 to 4,623 in 1901. The presen
agitation, with a demand for shorte
: hours and increased wages, is said t.
D have added greatly to this concentra
, tion of business in certain lines to th'
. large firms.
1 The exact date of the origin of trad
:. unions in America is unknown. Their
: have been no medieval conditions
t and it is believed that there were n
:, labor unions in the colonies, but
/. strike of journeymen bakers, it is said
occurred in New York city as early a
f 1741.
f The International Association @