FOOTNOTES:

Mon.No. ofunionsreport'gNo. ofmemb'rsreport'gNo. idleat end ofmonthPercentidlePer cent idle19051904190319021902-5Mean for year9.311.216.917.514.815.1Jan.19184,53912,68215.22.525.820.520.922.4Feb.19085,15513,03115.319.421.617.818.719.4Mch.19225,9562,95211.619.227.117.617.320.3Apr.19290,3526,5837.311.817.017.315.315.4May19291,1636,3647.08.315.920.214.014.6June19292,1005,8016.39.113.723.114.515.1July19594,5717,2297.68.014.817.815.614.1Aug.19594,2205,4625.87.213.715.47.110.9Sept.19594,2905,2526.35.912.09.46.38.4Oct.19592,0526,3836.95.610.811.74.29.8Nov.19593,0427,0527.66.111.116.414.312.0Dec.19593,31814,35215.411.119.623.122.219.0

Other deductions that must be made from the apparent wage are the withholding of pay for long periods, exorbitant prices and rents obtained through company stores and houses, fines, and increases in the cost of living.

Therefore, it is not unreasonable to conclude that the per diem or weekly wage rate as given by the Bureau of Labor and other reports, affords, by itself, an accurate statement only ofthe maximum yearly wage. This should always be remembered in judging any facts hereafter adduced.

In the fifteenth volume of the bulletins of the Bureau of Labor will be found many interesting tables bearing on this question of wages. But as it is impracticable to quote them at any length here, a few of the more salient facts must suffice. Laborers in the flour mills of the South were working twelve hours a day for 11c. an hour.[55]Women in the carpet factories of the North were getting no more.[56]In the factory product of the clothing trade great numbers received less than 10c., 11c., and 12c. an hour (p. 35), and the compensation in sweatshops was much less. Male boarders in the knit-goods factories of the North-Central section were averaging less than $387.00 per annum. Women in the same factories were getting much less, some even as low as 7c. and 8c. an hour (p. 43). Silk-spinners in the North-Atlantic section were making only $5.00 a week, or less than $260.00 a year, for a nine and one-half hour day (p. 58). Male cigar-stemmers in the same section were making $6.00 a week (p. 59). In Michigan, in1905, there were 3414 boys between fourteen and sixteen earning on an average 77c. a day, and 1725 girls making 64c. a day. In 1904, the average yearly earnings in the food preparations industry was $441.00; in salt production, $451.00; on tobacco and cigars, $393.00 (p. 334).

In New Jersey, in 1904-5, the average earnings in the cigar industry were $316.70; silk-weaving, $480.11; woolen and worsted goods, $373.43. In the same State in 1903-4, there were 1985 adult males receiving less than $3.00 a week; 3234 between $3.00 and $4.00; 5595 between $4.00 and $5.00; 6037 between $5.00 and $6.00; 12,406 between $7.00 and $8.00; 14,300 between $8.00 and $9.00, though $9.00, working full time every week, would be only $468.00 a year.

The very latest reports available confirm these figures. In the cotton textile industry alone, 29,974 employees, or 53.77% of the total number investigated (11,484 men and 18,490 women) were being paid at a rate less than $6.00 a week.[57]If we take the $11.00 rate, or family living wage, we find that 19,382 men(89% of the total) fall below it (l. c.). And as only 55% of the men employed in this industry were single (l. c., p. 132), at least 7285 of these men must have been married, and hence receiving less than the normal family living wage. It must be remembered, too, that these figures are based upon the assumption that full time is made. Could we get the actual wages, these groups would be much larger. This is shown by the table on page 329 of this report, where actual wages average $1.32 less than computed full time earnings.

If we turn to the clothing industry, we find conditions even worse. In the five cities investigated (New York, Chicago, Baltimore, Rochester, and Philadelphia), 6788 employees, or 37% of the total (1217 men and 5571 women) were being paid at a rate less than the individual living wage of $6.00. Taking the family living wage of $11.00 as our standard, 3499 men, or 62% of the total, fail to reach it.[58]

Again it must be repeated, that the actual wages are from 7½ to 20½% lower than these figures (l. c., p. 161). In one New York specialorder shop, the earnings for December fall to 55% of the average (l. c., p. 178).

These figures, however, are for shop-workers only. Theaveragewages for home-workers are: Chicago, $4.35; Rochester, $4.14; New York, $3.61; Philadelphia, $2.88; and Baltimore, $2.24. "Here again the caution must be borne in mind that home-workers' wages, low as they are, often stand for the earnings of more than one worker. Sometimes, as reported on the books of the firm, it represents the earnings of more than one week" (l. c., p. 139). Ninety-eight per cent. of the married shop-finishers, and practically all of the home-finishers, too, earned less than $350.00 a year (l. c., p. 226). The average yearly earnings of home-workers are given as varying from $120.00 in New York to $196.00 in Rochester. From page 235 to 239 inclusive, the details of the earnings, size of families, and number of those working is gone into at great length. It must suffice here to say that families of five are recorded whose total yearly earnings are less than $100.00. One family of eleven is chronicled whose yearly income was $445.00, sixty-five dollars of which was earned by home-work.Working six days a week for ten hours a day, the home-worker cannot hope to make more than $156.00 a year.[59]

Seventy-six per cent. of the women employed in the glass industry earned less than six dollars a week.[60]Their average annual earnings, in fact, are stated as ranging from $163.00 for those sixteen years old to $292.00 for those from twenty-five to twenty-nine (l. c., p. 544). Nearly one-third of the female department-store employees receive less than $6.00 a week.[61]Yet many of them had other persons depending upon them (l. c., p. 55). One family, consisting of a mother, seventeen-year-old daughter, and three younger children, was supported by the daughter's $5.00 a week. They managed it by living in two rooms and eating practically nothing besides bread and tea or coffee (l. c., p. 56).

In New York State in 1906,[62]it was found that even among organized laborers reportingto the Bureau of Labor, 6078 men and 2011 women were earning less than the lowest individual living wage ($300.00), and 59,226 men and 8881 women (17.6% and 63.8% respectively) were earning less than the lowest family living wage ($600.00). If conditions were so bad among union men, they were probably much worse among unorganized workers.

In Pittsburgh, in the canneries, 59% of the girls make only $6.00 a week, or less (Butler, l. c., p. 38). Of those employed in the confectionery trades, only twenty-one earn as much as seven dollars (l. c., p. 50). And these two trades have inevitable dull seasons that cut wages much below these figures. Seven hundred out of nine hundred girls in the cracker business receive less than $6.00 a week (l. c., p. 70). Laundries are amongst the worst paying establishments, and there is practically no chance of advancement. The shakers-out never earn more than $4.00 a week, and usually only $3.00 or $3.50 (l. c., p. 170). No mangle girl makes more than $6.00 and most between $3.00 and $5.00 (p. 173). Broom-making often gives only $2.50 a week, and the highest is $5.00 (p. 252). Many box-makers earn only 60c. or 80c. a day, and 80% of the girls are being paidless than $6.00 a week (p. 261). Packing soap-powder in stifling rooms pays $4.50 (p. 270). Nearly 50% of the girls in the printing trades are below the $6.00 standard.

These, then, are the facts concerning wages. But no social fact can be entirely isolated. It is always intimately connected with many others, and no treatment of wages can be at all satisfactory without going to some extent into the ramifications of this subject along other lines. A chapter, therefore, will be devoted to the question of health and of morals as affected by industrial conditions and low wages.

FOOTNOTES:[49]Report of annual convention of the American Sociological Society, 1908, or Charities and the Commons, now the Survey, March 6, 1909.[50]Cf. p. 36f for discussion of fair wage.[51]Vol. XIX, p. 754.[52]Loc. cit., p. 755.[53]U. S. Bureau of Labor, "Men's Ready-Made Clothing," p. 113.[54]P. XI.[55]Loc. cit., p. 37.[56]P. 31.[57]U. S. Bureau of Labor, "Cotton Textile Industry," p. 305, 1910.[58]U. S. Bureau of Labor, "Men's Ready-Made Clothing," p. 129.[59]L. c., p. 301; cf. also 20th Annual Report Bureau of Labor Statistics of N. Y., pp. 66-67, here quoted.[60]U. S. Bureau of Labor, "Glass Industry," p. 405, 1911.[61]U. S. Bureau Lab., "Wage-Earning Women in Stores and Factories," p. 46, 1911.[62]Report of Bureau of Labor Statistics of New York for 1906, p. XXXI.

[49]Report of annual convention of the American Sociological Society, 1908, or Charities and the Commons, now the Survey, March 6, 1909.

[50]Cf. p. 36f for discussion of fair wage.

[51]Vol. XIX, p. 754.

[52]Loc. cit., p. 755.

[53]U. S. Bureau of Labor, "Men's Ready-Made Clothing," p. 113.

[54]P. XI.

[55]Loc. cit., p. 37.

[56]P. 31.

[57]U. S. Bureau of Labor, "Cotton Textile Industry," p. 305, 1910.

[58]U. S. Bureau of Labor, "Men's Ready-Made Clothing," p. 129.

[59]L. c., p. 301; cf. also 20th Annual Report Bureau of Labor Statistics of N. Y., pp. 66-67, here quoted.

[60]U. S. Bureau of Labor, "Glass Industry," p. 405, 1911.

[61]U. S. Bureau Lab., "Wage-Earning Women in Stores and Factories," p. 46, 1911.

[62]Report of Bureau of Labor Statistics of New York for 1906, p. XXXI.

The inevitable result of low wages is poor health. Bad housing conditions and insufficient food must follow upon the heels of scanty pay, unless the wages are supplemented in some other way; and that means anemia, tuberculosis, typhoid, and general physical debility. "In the New York block" bounded by E. Houston, Mott, Prince, and Elizabeth Sts., "one of every nine children born dies before it attains the age of five years. The death and disease rates are abnormal. The death rates for all ages in the City of New York in 1905-6 was 18.35 per thousand, and for those under five years it was 51.5; but in this block it was 24.0 for all ages and for those under five years it was 92.2."[63]"Nothing could be added to or taken away from these homes to add to their squalor." (P. 296.)

The conditions of many workers' homes can be learned in detail from pages 254-259 of the Federal report just quoted. Here only a few of the leading facts can be mentioned. Thus in Pittsburgh 51.1% of the families investigated had as many as three persons per sleeping room.[64]Eleven per cent. of female factory and miscellaneous employees and nine per cent. of store girls are rated as having "bad" housing conditions and bad food.[65]Very few girls doing "light housekeeping" get proper breakfasts (l. c., p. 18), or, indeed, any other meals. It is not because they can't cook, but because they have to keep food expenses to a minimum in order to buy clothes, pay room-rent, doctors, etc.

"'You see I'm dieting,' said a frail slip of a department-store girl as she held out her tray upon which the cafeteria cashier, in the presence of the Bureau's agent, put a two-cent check, covering the cost of the girl's lunch—a small dish of tapioca. She may have been dieting, but the evidences were pathetically against the need thereof, and there were some thingstelling other tales to a thoughtful observer. The girl's shoes and waist and skirt were plainly getting weary of well-doing, and to hold her position as sales-woman they must soon be replaced" (l. c., p. 17).

The tables on pages 80 and 81, to one who practises the "great transmigratory art" (as Charles Reade calls it) of putting yourself in another's place, tell pitiful stories of making ends meet (l. c., pp. 54-55).

Average weeklyearningsNo. of women with average weekly cost of living (food, shelter, heat, light, laundry)Un-der$1.00$1.00to$1.49$1.50to$1.99$2.00to$2.49$2.50to$2.99$3.00to$3.49$3.50to$3.99$4.00to$4.49$4.50to$4.99$5.00to$5.49$5.50to$5.99$6.00to$6.49$6.50andoverTotalTotal7172932263629191621247236[A]$1.00: $1.49....1......11..........31.50: 1.99......1..................12.00: 2.49..11121..............62.50: 2.99..1..21................43.00: 3.49....2221..............73.50: 3.991..121..3......1....94.00: 4.492222131............134.50: 4.991546..53..2..1....275.00: 5.492..3223312..1....195.50: 5.99..22222131..2....176.00: 6.49..3253321......1..206.50: 6.99......21..122......197.00: 7.49..141442............167.50: 7.991..331235....211228.00: 8.49..13135522..1....238.50: 8.99........11111........59.00: 9.49..1......2..2211..1109.50: 9.99........1..111....1..510.00: 10.49..........2............2410.50: 10.99................1........111.00: 11.49....1..............1..1311.50: 11.99..........1......1......212.00: 12.99..........1....2..11..513.00: 13.99............1............114.00: 14.99........1..........1....215.00 & over............1..........12

[A]16.6% of those for whom the information necessary was secured. In the cities investigated (New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Boston, Minneapolis, and St. Paul) there were, in 1905, 400,000 women employed in stores, mills, factories, and other similar establishments.

AverageWeeklyEarningsNo. of women havingwholly dependenton themNo. of women havingpartially dependenton them1person2persons3persons4personsTot.1person2persons3persons4personsTot.Total2481044654211511101$ 1.00: $ 1.49....................1.50: 1.99....................2.00: 2.49......1113....42.50: 2.99..........1..1..23.00: 3.491..1..221....33.50: 3.991......112..144.00: 4.492..1..3233194.50: 4.991..2254232115.00: 5.49....11271..2105.50: 5.9921....341....56.00: 6.49..11..25311106.50: 6.99..........411..67.00: 7.4931....411..137.50: 7.99..32..510....1118.00: 8.496..1..74..2178.50: 8.9921....32......29.00: 9.49..........221..59.50: 9.991......1....1..110.00: 10.49..........2......210.50: 10.99..1....1..........11.00: 11.491......11....1211.50: 11.991......1....1..112.00: 12.991......11..1..213.00: 13.99....................14.00: 14.991......1..........15.00: over1..1..2..1....1

But bad food and bad housing are not the only enemies of the workman's health. The nature of his daily toil and the conditions under which it is performed are often against him. Even ventilation becomes important when one has to spend ten, eleven, or twelve hours a day in one room, and yet this is almost entirely neglected.

In 1908 a special officer was appointed in New York State to make tests of the atmospheric conditions in places of business. One hundred and thirty-six factories were examined, and in some printing establishments as many as forty parts of carbonic-acid gas (CO2) in ten thousand volumes of air were found, though a legal limit of twelve is recommended. One cigar factory, with windows partly open,had eighty such parts. The following table will exhibit the results of this investigation.[66]

Parts of CO2in10,000 vols. air5-1213-2021-2526-3031-4042-6065-7075-80Factories ineach class82166806730833

Sometimes the exigencies of the trade require that there should be no draft, as in the handling of carbon filaments for incandescent lamps, and then the conditions of the atmosphere become acutely unhealthy. In addition, in some of the rooms numerous bunsen burners are always lighted and all currents of air carefully excluded to prevent their flickering.[67]

Elsewhere, the process of manufacture often vitiates the air, as the "blow-over" in bottle shops. "In some factories, at times the air is so full of this floating glass that the hair is whitened by merely passing through the room. It sticks to the perspiration on the face and arms of the boys and men and becomes a source of considerable irritation. Getting into the eyes it is especially troublesome" (l. c., p. 66). Something similar occurs in etching glass by asand-blast. Unless a hood and exhaust are provided, a pressure of from fifty to ninety pounds scatters fine sand and glass dust through the air and is breathed in by the operator (l. c., p. 440). Even worse, however, is the acid etching, as the fumes of hydrochloric acid cause severe irritation to the throat and lungs (l. c., p. 442).

Even when there is no such irritant in the air as just mentioned, extreme differences in temperature between the work-room and the outside, or between various parts of the shop, may be a source of serious danger to health. In the glass industry, many persons have to work in temperatures ranging from ninety to one hundred and forty degrees, and as high as fifty degrees above the outside air (l. c., p. 75). Industries where an artificial humidity is required, such as silk, cotton and flax spinning, are likely to induce rheumatism, pleurisy, etc. After working ten hours in a room filled with live steam to prevent breaking of threads, to pass into a New England blizzard is apt to produce serious results. The boys in bottle-making shops are obliged to pass continually from a temperature of 140 degrees at the "glory-hole" to one of 90 degrees or less in other parts (l. c., pp. 49ff.).

And even if conditions of atmosphere and ventilation are good, the mere fact of continuing work for thirteen hours seven days a week tells seriously upon the physical endurance of the strongest.[68]When night work is required in addition to the day's labor, as in the glass industry, the consequences are likely to be worse, especially where children are concerned.[69]Night work frequently means a presence in the factory of at least twenty hours out of the twenty-four. "During the course of the investigation there were found two cases of recent death, both children, which could be directly attributed to exhaustion due to double-shift work in the furnace room" (l. c., p. 122).

In the clothing trade, "some piece and task-workers reported that they commonly worked seventy-two and even seventy-eight hours a week during busy periods" (l. c., p. 115). "There were instances where women said they worked from 6 or 7 o'clock in the morning to 9, 10, or 11 o'clock at night" (l. c., p. 241). For store girls, "thirteen and one-half hours on Saturday is not only excessive but works considerablehardship."[70]"One girl worked 24½ hours at one stretch with but two half-hour intermissions for meals.... Four girls working in one establishment on the 'night force' one day for each week reported their 'longest day's' labor as 16¾, 20¼, 22½, 24¼ hours" (l. c., p. 205). On the elevated railways in Chicago, at the time of the investigation, 1907-08, women worked for 80½ hours a week (l. c., p. 208).

When the business requires the maintaining of practically one position all day, whether standing or sitting, such long hours are bound to have a bad physical effect. This is the case, for example, in department stores (l. c., p. 178); in the glass industry where many growing boys are cramped before the furnace holes all day long;[71]in many processes in the manufacture of incandescent lamps (l. c., p. 482-483); and numerous other occupations.

But there is frequently added to mere length of hours a feverish haste in working induced by starvation piece-rates or by the necessity of keeping up with a machine. When a womanperforates 3100 bulbs a day and welds tubes to them, there must be a constant nervous tension to attain such rapidity (l. c., p. 469). The even more complex operation of stem-making for these bulbs proceeds at a rate varying from 2600 to 3500 a day (l. c., p. 467). Three thousand stems and bulbs are assembled each day (p. 470), while in one day, an expert will test the candle-power of 5000 lamps (p. 472). The operation of mounting Tungsten filaments in small copper wire is very much like threading an exceedingly small needle. If one imagines this repeated 3000 times a day, with thread that has to be handled with the greatest care to prevent breaking, he will have some idea of the strain on eyes and nerves (p. 478). Twenty thousand completed lamps are tested daily at a piece rate of 6c. per thousand lamps (pp. 486-487).

Very frequently, too, these long hours at an intense strain must be spent at work positively dangerous on account of the process, such as matchmaking[72]or painting lamps.[73]Chemical poisoning is frequent in hatters' and furriers'work, and plumbism, which is very similar to phosphorous poisoning, besets any trade in which lead is used. This is the case, in the production of white, red, or yellow lead, industries in which goods dyed with them undergo the process of building, winding, weaving, etc., and such an apparently innocuous occupation as the manufacture of earthenware and pottery. "One of the first symptoms of plumbism is a blue gum, followed by loosening and dropping out of the teeth. Blindness, paralysis, and death in convulsions frequently follow. Besides plumbism there are serious indirect results from lead-poisoning in a number of industries."[74]Readers of George Bernard Shaw will remember that Mrs. Warren adopted her profession through fear of contracting this disease. Her sister had fallen a victim to it and the frightful ravages made among her friends drove her to this course. In other industries such as wool sorting, blanket stoving and tentering, and warp dressing, lock-jaw is an incident.

Closely allied to a question already discussed, that of ventilations, is the insidious injury wrought by dust in the air. Some trades inwhich this condition is pronounced, seem materially to shorten life, as shown by a bulletin of the United States Bureau of Labor for May, 1909, on "Mortality from Consumption in Certain Occupations." The proportion of those reaching the age of 65 and over among tobacco and cigar factory operatives was 1.8%; glove-makers, 2.3%; bakers, 2.4%; leather curriers and tanners, 2.9%; and confectioners, 3.1%: as against 4.7%, the average expected normal on the basis of all occupied males in the United States (l. c., p. 623).

Eighty-nine per cent. of the clergymen who died in 1900 were over 44, and 55% over 65 years of age; 76% of the lawyers dying in this year were over 44, and 41% over 65; 73% and 41% of the physicians had passed these respective ages; 80% and 37% of the bankers, officials of companies, etc., were over 44 and 65: yet more than half of the compositors dying in the United States for the year were under 49 years of age. About one-half of these died of pulmonary tuberculosis. Only 18% were over 60.[75]Between 1892 and 1898, 32% of the deaths of glass bottle-blowers were due to tuberculosis, largely induced, probably, by thestrain on the lungs, the "blow-over," and conditions of temperature.[76]

Industrial mortality insurance statistics show that 23% of the deaths of those employed in trades exposed to organic dust are from consumption and 14% from other respiratory diseases, as against 14.8% and 11.7%, the expected respective averages for the United States.[77]The following table taken from the bulletin just quoted will probably exhibit the results more strikingly (p. 626):

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