The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1912-06-19
WAGES AND COST OF LIVING.


has completed the second Of Its COM
parative studies of railway conditions
In the United States and the prin-
Icipal countries of Europe. This re-
lates to the wages paid railway en-
ployes and the cost of living, and is
based on the latest years for which
comparative data are available. The
report is valuable demonstra-
ton of the fact that the United
States railway employee or other
workmen owes the big advantage
shown to the protective principle. 1t
| is the principle that raises the stand
ard of labor in America
The average daily compensation of
railway employees of all classes for
the year 1910 was, in the United
States, 1928; in the United Kingdom,
s1.05; excluding supplementary allow
ances negligibly affecting the average,
lit was in Prussia-Hesse eighty-one
cents, and in Austria eighty-nine cents.
The lowest paid railway employe in
the United States, the ordinary track
man, receives a greater compensation
than many of the railway employees of
France, even those Of higher grades
and with responsible duties. The
compensation Of railway employees is
from two or three times as high In the
United States as in Italy
A recent report of the English
Board of Trade on railway wages
shows that the average weekly pay
of enginemen in the United Kingdom
in 1907 was Silt; of firemen, 1857.
| In the same year enginemen on Amer
lean railways received an average
weekly compensation Of $3.50, count
/ ing six days to the week, and firemen
$15.24. Recent returns make it clear
that In 1912 enginemen and f1remen
in the United States are compensated
at rates of pay for specific runs Thar
are two, three and four times as high
as the corresponding rates on repre-
sentative English railways. The an
nual compensation of enginemen in
the United States. as reported by two
representative railway companies,
now ranges from $1100 in switching
service to more than $500 in paBsen-
ger service, and of firemen from 500
in switching service. to more than
$1,000 in passenger service.
For continental Europe official re-
turns in requisite detail are not avail
able for a later year than 1908. The
salaries and allowances of the typical
enginemen in Germany amounted for
that year to s646.S8, in Austria to
$50 so; of a fireman in Germany to
s42459, in Austria to s5s2O3 The
, annual compensation of ensinemen on
two OF the principal railways of
France ranged in 1908 from $50566 to
s906.91. and of firemen from s324.24
to $595.9s. In Italy enginemen re.
ceived in 1908, salary and allowances
included. from s5S1.1D to sS12.70
: year. In these continental coun
: tries the maximum compensation is
received only after many years Of
service,
! The average annual compensation
of enginemen in the United States II
1908, on an estimated basis of SOC
: days service, was S1335; of fremen
, 1892 In this country the rate to these
employees does not depend on lengtr
;, of service.
In Belgium enginemen received II
1907 from s2316 to $3.50 a month
firemen, from s1737 to $23.16 {
!, month conductors and station EN-
n ployes, from forty-six cents to ninety
six cents a day In the United States
in the same year 1907. enginemer
, averaged, on the basis of twenty-five
< days service, s10750 a month; fire
n men, $3.50 a month; conductors
:. 1888 a day; station employees, from
s17S to sos day.
:. The rental of three or four-roon
:. house or flat is almost as high in Der
: lin, Paris, or London as Throughout
T, the United States. but in England an;
. on the continent it generally run
e from $40 to 500 year less. TIL
IS quantity of food and fuel estimated b.
y the Board of Trade of England as tn
II standard consumation of a typica
s workingman's family costs in tn
IS United States us per cent more tina,
3 in France or in Germany; $50 pc
= -