Part 3

In the United States, until the quite recent, and still but partial, revival of the trade, the decline of shipbuilding had been very remarkable. In a country possessed of less natural resource, the suffering, which would have been entailed on the particular industries, would have been almost insupportable. According to Mr. Wells, 15,000 men were employed in New York, in 1860, in building and repairing marine steam engines. In 1870, fewer than 700 found employment in the same branch of industry.

In France, it would seem, from the report of Mr. West, that a wooden ship costs from £3 to £4 a ton more than a similar ship built in England or Canada; and in regard to iron steamers, the price of wrought iron in France for shipbuilding purposes is so much higher than in England, as to make competition impossible.

Amid the many difficulties of the present time, English employers may perhaps take comfort by looking abroad, where they will generally find that the same problems, with which they have to deal, are presenting themselves, and often in a still more aggravated form.

The engineering trade.

Passing from shipbuilding to engineering, I have ascertained that in an establishment on the largest scale, in which the cost of production has been minimised to the utmost, the increased cost of production in 1871 over 1870 was, for wages, 2.73 per cent., and for materials, 2.59 per cent. Again, the increase in 1872 over 1871 was, for wages, 7.97, and for materials, 7.94 per cent., thus showing that the most liberal application of capital, the most ingenious machinery, and skilful administration, had failed to compensate for the great advance in the rate of wages.

I may also quote the following details from a report received from an engineering establishment with which I am connected.

The average wages of some of the most important trades in our employ in 1871, 1872, and 1873, were as follows:—

Trade. Year 1871. Year 1872. Year 1873. _s._ _d._ _s._ _d._ _s._ _d._ Fitters 29 0 30 0 33 0 Turners 30 0 31 0 34 0 Planers 24 0 25 0 28 0 Slotters 24 0 25 0 28 0 Drillers 20 0 21 0 23 0 Moulders 34 0 34 0 36 0 Dressers 24 0 24 0 26 0 Coppersmiths 32 0 33 0 36 0 Smiths 31 0 32 0 35 0 Strikers 19 0 20 0 22 0 Patternmakers 31 0 33 0 36 0 Joiners 30 0 31 0 34 0 Carpenters 42 0 42 0 42 0 Painters 29 0 29 0 32 0 Platers (boilermakers) 34 0 34 0 36 0 Riveters 28 0 30 0 32 0 Holders-up 24 0 24 0 26 0 Platers (ship yard) 35 0 35 0 36 0 Riveters 30 0 30 0 30 0 Holders-up 23 0 23 0 24 0 Labourers 18 0 18 0 20 0

In reply to my inquiry, as to the effect of the nine hours’ movement in diminishing the amount of work turned out, I am informed that, while wages have considerably advanced, no increased activity on the part of the men has taken place. Indeed, less work is performed in nine hours now than formerly when ten hours constituted an ordinary day’s work.

The rise of wages has been very considerable in the last two years. The price of locomotives has, in consequence of these various causes, increased from 25 to 30 per cent. An ordinary passenger engine, which might have been built in 1871 for £2,200, cost in 1872 £2,400, and in the present year the price would be £2,600. In modern marine engines the cost of materials and labour is about equal. An engine, which might have been built in 1871, at £40 per horse-power, would have cost in 1872 £46. In the present year the price has advanced from £55 to £60 per horse-power.

In one of the largest steel and iron works in the North I learn that the wages of skilled hands are now from ten to sixteen shillings a day, and have increased 25 per cent. since 1870.

Lastly, I am informed that there is no appreciable difference in the dress or appearance of the working man in the town, in which my works are situated, that there is more money and more time spent in the public-house, and that time in the morning is not so well kept now as it was before the nine hours’ movement commenced. It is suggested to me that the improvement in wages and the shortening of the time came too suddenly upon the working man.

It is sometimes difficult to overcome a feeling of depression as to the future of our mechanical industry. But, when we look to the progress made in the past, there is no ground for discouragement. The value of our exports of steam engines in 1866 was £1,760,000, in 1872 £2,995,000. The value of our exports of machinery of other sorts was, in 1866, £2,998,000; in 1872, £5,606,000. The past has been prosperous, and there is no reason why a cloud should overshadow the future of our industry, if only the time-honoured rule be observed, of giving a fair day’s work for a fair day’s wages.

Rise of wages on Continent.

I now proceed to examine the situation of affairs among our continental rivals. Valuable materials for such investigation are furnished to our hands by the recently-published reports of our Secretaries of Legation, and by a most important pamphlet prepared by Mr. Redgrave. From these authorities we learn that, in the last ten years, wages at Verviers, a great centre of industry in Belgium, have gradually increased by 20 per cent. and that the working hours are shorter than they were. At Ghent the rate of wages has risen 60 per cent. in the last fifteen years. The average prices of the necessaries of life show an increase in Belgium of 50 per cent. in the last thirty years. Beef and mutton are now 8_d._ per pound, and bread is about 8_d._ the four-pound loaf. The rise of wages has, however, been greater in proportion than the increase in the cost of lodging, clothes, and food.

In Prussia, Mr. Plunkett states that there is a universal tendency to reduce the hours of labour, and to raise the rate of wages. The Breslau Chamber of Commerce state that, in consequence of the increased cost both of labour and raw material, the prices of cotton carded yarn had advanced 10 per cent. on the best and 16 per cent. on the ordinary qualities. In the Silesian cloth trade, in 1871, prices rose 15 per cent.

In the spinning and weaving factories in Silesia, according to a statement by Dr. G. Reichenheim, quoted by Mr. Plunkett, the increase in the rate of wages in the last ten years has been about 30 per cent. for female weavers, while in the case of male labour it is more than double. The same complaints are made, which we hear in this country, as to the effect of higher pay in rendering the operatives less careful in their work, and more insubordinate than formerly.

Low wages and cheap production not convertible terms.

The most recent inquiries tend to establish the fact, which I have, on former occasions, endeavoured to urge on the attention of employers, that underpaid labour is by no means the most economical. It does not follow that, when a workman receives more pay for exactly the same amount of labour, there is no increase in the cost of production. It would be absurd to put such an interpretation on the axiom assumed by my father, when estimating the cost of work, that the cost of labour in a fully peopled country was, as a general rule, the same, whatever might be the nominal rate of daily wages. But, where the principle of payment by the piece is adopted, (and, trades-union opposition notwithstanding, no other system of payment can be really equitable), there it will be found that labour, when stimulated by a liberal reward, is far more productive than that of the ill-paid operative. The reports to which I have referred are full of illustrations on this point.

Belgium.

In Belgium, all the factory occupiers are of opinion that the English operatives are far superior to the Flemish. An Englishman, being better fed, possesses greater physical power, produces as much work in ten hours as a Fleming in twelve, and, understanding the machinery which he works, he can point to the cause of an accident; whereas in Ghent half-an-hour is constantly lost in seeking for the reason of a stoppage. Although the rates of wages are lower, and the hours of labour longer; English manufacturers have but little to fear from Belgian competition.

Russia.

Mr. Egerton states, that, in Russia, 13 hours a day is the average length of the hours of labour, children generally working the same time as men; and yet there is no country in which there is so great a waste of labour. In mills where the best and newest machinery is used, it is necessary to limit the earnings, which, if large in amount, would be expended in drinking. In England a spinner will, with his assistants, attend to 2,000 spindles. In Russia, he never has more than 1,000, and generally 500 spindles under his charge.

Switzerland.

Mr. Gosling says of the Swiss workman, that he is inferior to the British workman in physical strength and energy.

France.

The French manufacturers insist strongly on the greater cost of production in their country as compared with England. They estimate the cost of wages per week for the hands employed upon 10,000 spindles at £59. 10_s._, as compared with £41, which would be the corresponding amount in an English factory. ‘The value of the English workman,’ says Mr. Redgrave, ‘still remains pre-eminent, although the interval between him and his competitors is not so great as it was; he has not retrograded, but they have advanced.’ We see too much of intemperance in England, but there is much reason to complain in Belgium and the manufacturing districts of France, where the cheapness of intoxicating liquors is a fearful temptation to the working classes.

Increasing production with the same number of hands.

The progressive development in the skill of our factory operatives has been clearly shown in the comparison, instituted by Messrs. Bridges and Holmes, of the tasks, now performed, with the amount of work allotted to the hands, as ascertained by the Factory Commission of 1833. Messrs. Bridges and Holmes estimate that the proportion of spindles in 1833 was 112 to each hand, while the corresponding number at the present day would be 517 spindles. The speed of the mule has been so much increased, that more stretches are now made in 10½ hours than formerly in twelve. In 1848 a female would have had only two looms, now she will attend to four. The speed of the power looms in 1833 varied between 90 and 112; it now varies between 170 and 200 picks a minute. Notwithstanding all the improvements of mechanism, the cotton-weaver of the present day is subject to a greater strain than his predecessor of forty years ago.

From a consideration of all these facts, we have reason to congratulate employers in England on the possession of a body of workmen superior to those of any other country. We may also assert, on their behalf, that in no other country of the Old World is the same solicitude displayed for the welfare of the workmen.

I observe with regret the frequently repeated manifestations of disaffection on the part of the working classes on the Continent towards their employers. Lord Brabazon, in his able report on the condition of the industrial classes in France, quotes some painful illustrations of the entire want of confidence between class and class in that distracted country, where ‘Communistic principles have done so much to alienate the affections of the workmen from their employers,’ and where a large proportion of those engaged in manufacturing industry live in a condition of wretchedness and misery, of which, I venture to hope, very few of those, who can command regular employment in this country, have any experience. At Elbœuf we are told of a certain manufacturer who, during the period of dearth, bought a large quantity of provisions, with the view of reselling them to his workmen at a low rate, but who was obliged to renounce his humane project; because the workpeople imagined it was a pretext for making money out of their misery. At Lyons, where no social distinctions keep asunder the numerous small employers from the employed, the sympathy which formerly existed between the owner of the loom and his assistants is no longer found.

When I turn from this gloomy picture to those bright recollections, the most precious portion of the heritage, which I have received from my lamented father, and call to mind the cordial relations, which he always preserved with vast multitudes of workmen, and with a large staff of agents of every grade and disposition of mind; still more, when I see among contemporary employers so many evidences of the same success in conciliating their dependents, I thank my God from the very bottom of my heart, that I was born an Englishman.

Employment of children in Belgium.

While in England we are happily doing away with the great evil of employing young children in our factories, all the Chambers of Commerce in Belgium unite in deploring the increasing moral and physical degeneracy of the working classes, owing to the premature employment of children. In the Belgian factories for spinning and weaving flax, cotton, and wool, children from ten to twelve years old are very generally admitted, and work twelve hours a day. In the Belgian coal-pits 8,000 children under fourteen years of age, of both sexes, are employed. Of children between ten and twelve 2,400 are employed, 700 above and 1,700 below ground.

In 1866, out of their total population of 4,827,000, more than one-half were unable to read or write. The necessity for the employment of children is best proved by the description given by Mr. Kennedy, of the position of the Belgian operatives at Alost and Tirmonde, where a first-class hand earns £28 a year, while the smallest sum on which a man can exist is £20 a year. Indeed, existence is only made possible by the employment of children in factories, and by the possession of a small garden in which vegetables are raised.

Employment of women in England.

In the English factories, where a larger proportion of women are employed than in the factories abroad, it has recently been proposed that the number of hours of labour should be limited by law. The proposal is supported by Messrs. Bridges and Holmes, on the ground that, by exciting a spirit of rivalry between them, women can be goaded on to over-exert themselves in a manner, which would not be observed among men. A woman, we are told, who can mind four looms without an assistant has a certain position, and becomes an object of attention. ‘Hoo’s a four-loomer; hoo’s like to be wed,’ will be commonly remarked of such an one.

The Association of Employers, though differing on almost every other subject from Messrs. Bridges and Holmes, suggest that women should be excluded from factories for three months after their confinement. Great evils have been found, by experience, to ensue from the too early return of the mothers to factory labour. Let us venture to hope that another Session of Parliament will not be allowed to pass by, without placing on the Statute Book a legal prohibition against a practice, which is universally condemned by those most competent to form an opinion.

Shorter hours of labour.

The demand for a reduction of the hours of labour, which has been so strongly and successfully urged by certain classes of our operatives, is not universally supported either at home or abroad.

The average length of a working day in Switzerland is twelve hours, exclusive of the time for meals. The general tendency is to a reduction of hours, and laws have been passed, limiting the length of the working day in some cantons to twelve hours. These changes are, however, almost entirely due to the efforts of local politicians. A proposal of this nature recently made in Zurich, and sanctioned by the Cantonal Legislature, was eventually thrown out by the popular vote.

At Rouen, Mr. Redgrave found no strong desire for a diminution of the hours of labour in the cotton factories. The operatives were chiefly solicitous for a rise of wages. On this subject the workpeople of all countries seem to entertain similar views. Messrs. Bridges and Holmes, in their report on the condition of operatives in English factories, say that the workpeople are by no means unanimous. Among the women especially, many are apathetic, and some are positively opposed to a limitation of the working hours.

In the United States, at Lowell, near Boston, I ascertained by personal inquiry on the spot, that the working hours were sixty per week, and that no indication had yet been given of a disposition among the operatives to reduce the hours.

Decline of pauperism.

Though there may be reason to regret that the working class have not reaped more substantial and universal benefits from the recent additions to their wages; we have at least the satisfaction of knowing that there has been some slight decrease in the amount of pauperism, and in the proportion of persons in receipt of relief to the whole population.

Emigration.

Meanwhile the tide of emigration has never ceased to flow. The proportion, too, of English and Scotch to Irish has, of late years, much increased. In 1872 the wide labour field of the United States absorbed 199,000 out of a total number of 252,000 emigrants from the United Kingdom. In the same period 33,000 sailed for the ports of British North America. The United States offer many advantages to the newly-arrived emigrants. The homestead law gives, for a merely nominal sum, the right to a homestead and 160 acres of land to every individual, who is actually a citizen of the United States, or has declared his intention of becoming such.

In examining the various circumstances, which tend to raise the price of labour in England, the prevailing high wages in the United States, and the increased facilities for emigration, must ever be kept in view. The nominal rate of wages in America may indeed frequently convey a delusive idea of prosperity; yet it cannot be doubted that the thrifty, skilful, and industrious artisan has large opportunities of advancement in the New World.

A great majority of the emigrants go out to join some friends already satisfactorily established. When this is not the case, it is essential to the emigrant’s success that he should have accumulated not merely a sufficient sum, to defray the cost of his voyage across the Atlantic, but enough to enable him to travel, if necessary, far into the interior, and to visit, it may be several, rapidly rising cities in the West, before finally settling down. The artisan, who is able to maintain himself for some months after landing at New York, and to make a wide exploration of the country, will be sure in the end to find a favourable opening. Alas, how few of those who emigrate from this country are possessed of such resources!

Wages in America.

Many examples of the prosperity of the working classes came under my own observation on a recent visit to America. The workpeople are paid as far as possible by the piece. The monthly pay-sheet at the Merrimac Mills, at Lowell, where 2,600 hands are employed, amounts to 75,000 dollars, which gives an average of thirty dollars a month, or 30_s._ a week. The majority of the workpeople are Americans, but there are many from Canada and the Old Country. The proprietors of the mills have established several lodging-houses for the unmarried women whom they employ. At each of these houses some thirty women are lodged. The house is placed under the supervision of a respectable matron. The cost of living is 3½ dollars a week, and female operatives can earn from 14_s._ to 16_s._ a week over and above the cost of their board and lodging. The men pay for board 2_s._ a day, and their wages vary from 7_s._ to 10_s._ a day.

At the Lonsdale Company’s Cotton Mills, near Providence, in a factory containing 40,000 spindles, one spinner attends to 1,408 spindles, and in weaving, one weaver attends to from four to six looms. In England, the proportion would be, on the average, one hand to every three looms, working at a higher speed than they have attained in America. Male weavers were earning from 44_s._ to 52_s._, and female weavers from 40_s._ to 44_s._ weekly. Spinners earn from 4_s._ to 6_s._ a day. Women pay for board and lodging in lodging-houses, provided by their employers, 12_s._, and men 16_s._ a week. The operatives, earning these wages, are better able to save money than the operatives in our own country; and many of the hands at the Lonsdale Mills have £1,000 to their credit in the Savings Bank. At the great Harmony Mills at Cohoes, near Albany, where 4,000 hands are employed, two-thirds are emigrants to the States, principally English and Scotch, although there are many Germans and some French. The general wages are for women from 3_s._ to 6_s._ a day, for men from 6_s._ to 10_s._ a day. The cost of living is moderate, and assuming that a female operative earns 28_s._ a week—by no means a high average—she has 16_s._ a week to spend on dress and luxuries. At Cohoes a weaver attends to four, five, or six looms, but the machinery is not worked at so high a rate of speed as in Lancashire. The mule is never worked at a speed exceeding three stretches a minute.

In Quebec wages have of late been rapidly advancing. Artisans can now command 8_s._ a day, and labourers employed in unloading ships, whose employment, however, is uncertain in summer, and in winter wholly ceases, earn 10_s._ to 12_s._ a day. A man with a family can live well on 4_s._ a day. The long winter is the great drawback to the prosperity of the working class in Canada. Quebec has its Wapping, its extensive suburbs, chiefly occupied by the working classes; and there is no external indication in these quarters of a condition of life superior to that attained by the majority of our working men at home. In the Ottawa district, in Canada, the young farmers are able to find employment in winter by leaving their homes, and going up to the forests to cut timber. They earn 30_s._ a week, and they are boarded in addition. In the spring the lumberer returns home with a considerable sum of money saved. He carries on his farming operations throughout the open season, and returns to the forests in the autumn. The life is toilsome, and involves a long separation from the fireside at home; but the perseverance of a few years will result in the accumulation of a valuable capital for farming operations, and secure to the settler his future independence.

Ottawa is one of the rising towns of Canada. Its prosperity is derived from the timber trade, and from its being the seat of the Government. Wages in Ottawa were last year (I speak of 1872) extravagantly high. Masons were earning 14_s._ a day. All classes of artisans employed in building were paid from 10_s._ to 12_s._ a day. For four or five months in winter building operations are suspended; but provisions are cheap, and house rent is the only costly item.