The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1916-12-15


and few vegetables, many not even
getting the vegetables; with no pos
sible margin OF income to cover sick
ness and unemployment; many of
them driven to accept help from
charitable institutions, or to allow
themselves and their children to
starve.
1t has been said frequently that
workingmen, getting 81 to 81 day,
have supported their families, bought
little homes and given their children
fair education, and l have seen in
stances of this, but let me say that
IN most, if not all of these cases, tho
family was SO situated that it was
possible to have garden, perhaps a
COW, chickens, ETC., and in such cir
cumstances these are the families,
who in these times are nearest able
to live on the low wage; but we must
consider the utter imposSibility of the
average city workingman keeping a
cow, chickens or operating a garden,
and in the absence of such auxiliaries,
the life of such people is, to say the
least hard in the extreme, and in many
cases hopeless, revolving, intOlerable
existence.
Wages paid in and around Mankato:
Bricklayers, 60 to 70 cents per hour,
So to Sc per day; stOnemasOns, 45
cents per hour, 81 to 81 so per day;
carpenters, 80 to 40 cents per hour, So
to 81 per day; machinists, SO to 81
per day; cement and tile workers,
$2.25 to $3.50 per day; bridge laborers,
So to $3.50 per day. Quarrymen aver
age $3.50 per day, although some
hustIers on piece work can make 500
to $25 a week, or $3.50 to $4.25 day.
Coal handlers, So per day; railroad
sectionmen, SLIGO to $3.50 per day;
hack drivers, $40 to $14 per week;
teamsters, dray and baggage, $40 to
S12 per week, which is cut to an av-
erage of SO per week in winter.
Many of the ve-mentiOned are
either subjected to periods of unem
ployment or to cuts in wages during
the very cold weather, so that un-
skilled laborers during the winter,
when they need the most, are either
out of work, or forced to $1.75 to So
day.
Workinqman Had Drifted Away.
Rev. G. j. Shut, leader in the dis
cussion, remarked that the church
had not drifted away from the work.
ingman, but many of the working
men had drifted away from the
church; that both the church and the
workingman in many respects had
failed at times to live up to the teach
ings Of the Master of the carpenter
shop of NAZARETH and that the work.
ingman should be made to feel that
the church had friendly attitude
towards him and this friendly attitude
could and should be maintained. He
spoke of the attitude of different
workingmen towards the church. The
union workingman desired the CO.
operation of the church in working
out the social problems. The social
list believed that the workingman
would have to work out these prob
lens by himself. The l.. w. w. mem
Der was positively hostile to the
church.
The After Discussion. ro,ta
Those who participated in the AFT
er discussion included DR.. J. A. Han
dent c.. H. Cooper, DR.. j. w. AM,
ufeWS, w. u MAidlp, peN. hin n.
Paden, Judge Lorin Cray and others.
The trend Of opinion was plainly
that while the church had not been
giving as much attention, as might
be right and proper, towards social
problems and in particular to the con-
dition of the wage workers, Ele
church was doing better than it used
to do in that respect. There was
distinct trend in the church towards
the study of these problems and there
was in the church a growing spirit of
sympathy towards the wageworke,',
growing feeling that bond of un-
ion should be created between the
church and the workingman, and that
the workingman should and could
be made to feel that the church was
his true friend.