The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1908-04-14
TRADE STRIDES IN ITALY
Remarkable Renaissance is Now
Well Under Way.
CHEAP LABOR ABUNDANT
Workers Paid Equal to Fifteen
Cents Day--Low Wages Due to
Employment of Large Number Of
Women--Cotton Plantations Es-
tablished.

The United States Consul at MI
Ian reports most remarkable re-
birth In Italian Industries, says the
New York Press. He paints a pic
ture of the possibilities that indi-
Gates desire on the part Of the Ital-
commercially and industrially in
their rast. The story Of what the
peninsula once was, as told by Ma
caulay In his essay on Machiviavelli,
is to be repeated by the cities Of
Piedmont, Tuscany and Lombardy,
at least the consul seems to think SO.
He points to the resources Of the In
dustrial classes In cheap even skilled
labor. Women work at cotton and
silk weaving at prices one would
hardly credit. when ten to thirty-five
cents day are the wages paid. With
these, and with people long used to
labor, with fairly well trained
masses of men and women, the fac
tories are holding their own at homo
and ready or getting ready to invade
markets long held by the English,
Germans and French. Consul Dun
ming adds:
"The fundamental condition fac
ing that portion of the American ex-
port trade desirious of entering Italy
Is the wide difference in the cost of
labor in the two countries. American
manufacturers dealing, or intepding
to deal, with the consular district of
Milan ought to have always in mind
that condition and the supplement-
airy fact that the inhabitants of Lom-
hardy are hardly surpassed by any
other people in mental and manual
cleverness. Ability to meet a large
portion of their own wants with
their own handiwork, and at a cost
OF production made low by an over
productive population, renders the
Lombard quite as Independent in
these days as he was six hundred
years ago. One of the main factors
in the low cost of production in the
| Italian field is the work of women,
taken advantage of in an unusual
| degree.
THE district is over1owing with
! resources, chief among which is to
| be esteemed the abundant and low
| priced labor of men, women and
| children, and of women In particu-
| lar. In this regard Lombardy differs
| not at all from what weknow to be
| good commercial history in Ameri-
can manufacturing centers. The les
| sons which have been studied and
| learned at Lawrence. Brockton, Mer-
iden. Waterbury, Troy, Rochester,
| Paterson, Lynn and other towns of
| that type in America will be applied
| In the Lombardy OF the early future
| as the local manufacturers find
| themselves driven harder by foreign
competition. Lombardy unquestion-
| ably aims to be the supply house of
Italy, How nearly It approaches to
that estate seems to me to be no
small concern to us.
Taking for example, girls under
| Is years OF age, 1t appears that in
factories employing 20 operatives or
less they number 80 per cent. of the
| total number of persons on tho pay
roll and receive an average wage of
IL American cents a day. In fac
tories employing from 20 to 100
operatives the percentage of girls
under 10 years of age Is 27, with an
average daily wage slightly less than
! the other Casa little over 10
cents. In factories employing from
100 to 500 operatives "a per cent.
are girls under 10 years old, with
average wage of nearly 12 cents per
day. When more than 500 operatives
are employed-the number of these
being of course small-the percent
age of girls under Is years is 81.
and their average earnings are IA
cents day. Thus in Italy 1t seems
that the larger factories offer the
best conditions for young girls and
give steadier labor and are not shut
down so many days in year as the
smaller shops. Incidentally, the cot
ton mills pay better wages to girls
than prevail in tho silk manufact-
uring industry.
"As to the average days wages,
1912 per cent. of women workers
Darn sums up to the equal of Is
cents a day; 30.4 per cent. earn
from 10 to 20 cents; 43.7 per cent.
earn from 20 to 80 cents, and 1915
per cent. earn from 80 to 40 cents.
The percentage of women who earn
more than 40 cents day is only 32.
Good domestic servants are hired at
from So to S5 a month. German
| girls, known as superior cooks and
maids, can earn as much as 81 a
month. All the above figures apply
TO Lombardy alone"