The Ordway new era., 1918-07-19
Labor Conditions That Exist in
DoWntrodden Germany.
AMERICA FIGHTING OWN WAR
Purpose Is to obviate the kaisers
Dominance and His Desire to
Germanize Our Industries.
BY EDWARD MOTT wooLLEv.

When heard 1t said that the United
States is fighting the war for France
or England pictured in my mind some
of the things that would happen here
in America If our industries were
Germanized. Optimism is mighty
fine thing, and 1t is easy to say that
Germany could never get foothold in
this country. Certainly we believe
that 1t never can-and we are bending
all our energies to prevent such dire
possibility; but a little pessimism at
times may help clinch our purpose, so
let us visualize American industry re-
duced to the German and Austrian
plane.
These cOuntries-and am speaking
now of normal times preceding the
war-are amazingly different iDdustri-
ally from this country of ours. We
can scarcely deny that the reason for
this lies in no small degree in the
difference in governments. Germany,
with its autocratic grip on all busi-
ness, its secret as well as open ma
nipulation of corporations, its partner
ship in combinations. and its military
dominance of all industry and of all
men, would strangle us If she had the
chance over here.
We are fighting to keep her out. We
must keep her out, and in doing so we
fight our own war.
Not long after the beginning of the
war in 1914 / made some studies of
European wages. 1t was too late then
TO get my data on the spot, for Ger
many, Austria and France were on
fire and all industry was upset but l
spent several weeks in digging
through official European documents
and in getting facts from men who
had been managing factories in Eu-
rope; also from workmen who had
been employed in foreign plants. To
see these men personally made jour
neys of hundreds of miles.
Wages in Germany.
Just before the war the normal
wages in Chemnitz. Germany, were APP
proximately these:
From Sc to IS week for mnsons,
plumbers, painters, and bricklayers; !;
81 to 50 for plasterers; about $3.50
for gas filters; Sc to 50 for machin-
lists; 81 to SO for molders; about the
same for pattern makers; SO for sad
dlers.
Transfers worked for about dol
lar day. In the textile trade wages
ran from Sc to 81 week, and un-
skilled men generally received less
than S4 n week and seldom more than
$5. Municipal employees drew from
their local governments S4 to Sc n
week.
Wages in Berlin were about 20 per
cent higher; also living expenses.
It is something of shock to the
American mechanic when he reads
such figures as these. Here in our
glorious America the contrast was
Amazing at that timc-and would he
again in peace times. But in war all
opportunities for comparison ara
wiped out. reproduce below some
New York wages in 1910. four years
before the beginning of the war. In
1914 some of these wages We're at
least 10 per cent higher. ] gathered
the facts from official sources and
they are correct.
You may compare New York with
Berlin, though of course you must
heavily discount these American
figures when you apply them to
smaller communities. You must also
take off similar percentages when You
compute German wages in the smaller
towns.
In New York then, plasterers We're
getting $3.50 day, and plasterers'
laborers got S3.25; cement and con-
crete masons, 81, and their labOrers
SO; granite cutters, So; boiler makers,
So, and their helpers $3.50; electrical
workers, $3.50; steam filters, So, and
their helpers So painters. 81; ashes
tos workers, $3.50. and their helpers
$3.50; elevator constructors, 81; sta
tionary engineerso s4.50; portable and
hoisting engineers, $3.50; cabinet
makers. So; decorators and gilders.
s4.50;, ironworkers, So; slate roof
ers S5.
Long Hours Of Toll.
In Chemnitz about this time news
paper compositors received something
like S14 a week. In New York the
union scale at that time on morning
newspapers was S31 n week. while
bookwork paid S2l. At the time my
figures were gathered, in 1915, news
paper compositors in New York were
getting from S5 to SO a day, accord
ing to the shift on which they work.
ed. Book compositors drew 81 to s5
n day.
You must remember that the New
York wages have cited were paid for
8 hours work, while in Germany the
day was usually from to 10 hours.
Among authoritative data that had
been gathered In Germany in 1905 !
found canvass of 5,046 workiRgmen's
families, showing that only 1877 had