Baraboo weekly news. [volume] (Baraboo, Wis.) 1912-197?, 1913-07-10
WAGES not HIGH
IN OLD ENGLAND
E. G. Marriott Writes OF
Conditions of Working
men in Native Land.
FREE TRADE WOULD Be BAD
Farm Laborer Gets o. Cents
a Day-Other Occupa-
tons Paid Small Sums.


Wollaston, England, June "a, 1913
Wollaston is an old time English
village of about $500 people, more or
less, composed chiefly of shoemakers
and farm laborers l think there are
ten shoe factories here, each employing
from 20 to 100 men, women and child-
rem. No newspaper is published heres
no drug store, no shoe store, quite
few grocery stores and the cooperative
store that sells most everything; also
two dry goods and notion stores.
These are kept, one by cousin of the
| Moulds of Baraboo and one by our
cousin. Most of the factories have
telephones, otherwise there is only one
in the village, that being at the Nag's
Head inn, kept by Mr.. and Mrs. w.
J. Cooke, who is truly the most pro-
gressive man in the village While he
is 'fine English gentleman" he is to
me more fitted to run large hotel In
London or in the United States. We
have stayed with him nearly five
months this trip and two months four
wears ago and with all of the trials of
hotel life we have never seen anything
but smiles nor heard anything but
good words from him. Mr.. Cooke is
now mayor of Wollaston and chair
man OF the school board.
Wollaston as you will notice is
mostly made up of shoemakers and
strange as it may seem TO some Bara-
boo people, it's not an uncommon
thing for four, five or six of US old
shopmates of so or more years ago to
meet for d social chat.
Prices and Wages
I have had the best of opportunities
to study the conditions of the working
classes of England in many cities and
countries and while the wages are
higher in the city the cost OF living
makes up the difference. The farm
Iabore7 gets 81 cents per day and this
is raise from so cents per day of 20
years ago. Mind, he boards himself,
pays rent and most of them have from
two to twelve children, but when they
have ten or twelve, the older ones
work at small wages. AS to prices OF
meat and other eatables will
say that as far as we can see
meat is Just about the same price
. here as in Baraboo only it differs as
to The way it is sold, butcher gets
beef, pig or sheep, cuts it up into
lioints mo steaks here) and very elabor-
ately displays each cut in the window
with tie price per pound or the
- price per cut marked on the cut The
r Ebetter cuts, think, run just little
higher and the cheaper cuts were
lower than with us. Mutton is about
E the same unless it is chops. They
are little desrer than with us but
much better. Pork and lard are
lust about as with us. Bread is most
all baked in the bake shops and sells
for 6 cents for 2 h. loaf and IL cents
for Id loaf, full weight. House
> rent for farm laboFer is from 90
; cents to Is cents per week. Clothing
is very much cheaper. A fair suit
- can be bought for five dollars, good
one for ten Still as I see the farm
people here they are we'll dressed
and we'll fed especially on Sundays
but how they do il the good Lord
r. knows for L am sure L do not
; About the Shoe Makers.
S, OF course we all lie. us shoemakers)
20 know that shoemen have different
IL scales of wages but the highest man ]
can find here is paid $3.50 go
shillings) per week and | have inter
viewed many shoemakers and find in
Wollaston that if man averages $6
n per week the year through he is de-
e ing well. Of course they quit every
of Saturday at 1890 and they have many
more holidays such as Christmas and
New Years week, Easter and Whit
son week each, also bank holidays
in August a week and sometimes two
weeks. So you see that a shoe
"a maker does not work over 10 months
Al