The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1917-01-12

/ ting to from 40 to leo per cent. Var
/ ious manufacturing concerns have
enlarged their pay-rolls from 25 to
/, 20 per cent and have maintained
/ their full quota of employees.
Minnesota reports general wage in
creases ranging from to 20 per cent
by number OF the greatest manufac-
turing and business concerns of the
! state. Two small increases were
granted the employees of the street
car company and a big flour making
company granted its seventeen hun
| dred workers advances of from ten +"
! fifteen per cent. A steel and machi-
merry company, employing nearly
three thousand men, granted them
general increases of ten per cent each
in the year just closed
/ Skilled and common labor alike
has been benefited by comparatively
recent wage increases in KeniucE".
Ascending to figuers gathered by
private investigators. Data as TO in
| creases were available only in the
| cities, Louisville being the main
| Workers in Factories.
In the large institutions the re-
, ports showed they ranged from %
i per cent for 700 employees of large
wagon factory to ten per cent for
approximately 1850 persons employed
in cotton and flour mills and machine
shops III one instance an estimated
average of five per cent increase
was reported for 900 railroad clerks
and in another a salary bonus of ten
per cent for $50 empolyeS of a
wholesale paint concern was cited.
A comparatively small number of
concerns were able to state the
amount the higher wages involved.
Those so reporting, however, esti-
mated the increased annual outlay in
wages at $612,000. Increases for
common labor, the investigators
learned, had increased five cents an
hour to twenty cents, with employ
ment more than for several years.
Way Down in Texas.
According to Texas statistics COM
piled by c. w. Woodman, state Ia
Dor commissioner, salaries of wage
earners in that state have not in
creased as much as the cost of food
products His figures show that
during the last year the wage of I'M
skilled labor has increased only 2
per cent as compared with the previ-
Gus year, and for skilled labor the
increase has been between and S
per cent. Only about 10 per cent OF
the organized labor in Texas had any
increases at all, and the increase of
this 10 per cent has ranged from 10
to 40 per cent While many of the
industries in Texas have granted
slight increases in wages, the bulk
of them, according to Commissioner
Woodman have made no advances.
On the other hand, he figures that
the increase in the cost Of living has
been between 40 and so per cent in
Texas. In fact this increase is
working a hardship on wage earn
ers in the lumber district of East
Texas.
Fort Worth granted increases of
5 per cent TO all motormen, and
conductors on the street car line
and the packing companies OF that
city made the same increase in wag-
es equal to those given in Chicago
and Kansas City plants to all work.
men.
Wages paid by the Asa manufac-
turing and the 426 jobbing concerns
in Omaha were advanced an average
of from 10 to 1919 per cent, during
1916, according to E. V. Parrish,
manager of the publicity bureaus OF
the Omaha commercial club
Meat Packing Plants
Data collected by Mr.. Parrish
: shows that the meat packing houses,
the most extensive single industry
represented here, have raised the
wages of their 5000 empolyes IL per
cnt. AS their pay roofs in 1915 ag-
gregated $1o,OO0,O00 in round num-
bers, the Increase is approximately
81, 100000 annually.
The creamery industry, employing
about 1880 persons and paying out
! in wages in 1915 nearly $1,350,O00
granted advances of 1919 to Is per
cent. The smelter employees who
drew about $1,OO0,000 in wages in
1915, received Is per cent advances
f, in 1916
| The st. Louis manufacturing ter
ritory reports wage increases OF
! from ten to 1919 per cent in various
steel making and oil producing conf
panies and the granting by a large
wholesale dry goods concern of a
! bonus of one months salary for the
lyear Just ended With the beginnire
! of the present year the bonus was
Increased so as to reach ten per cent
of the salaries, the bonus to be paid
, each month.
| In Oklahoma few voluntary in
creases have been granted generally
in the state, according to the Daily
! Oklahoman, and local chamber OF
commerce officials, but small in
creases have been granted in some
cases as the result of strikes. Sew
eral Oklahoma City factories granted
| increases, among them one OF the
large packing houses and the street
car company.
CARS OWNED BY FARMERS