i STEAM COAL - Clpdigital.org

WAGE, LIVING AND LABOR
CONDITIONS IN ENGLAND.
Marshal Halstead, United States consul at Birmingham,
England, in a recent report on relative
wages paid in the United States and Great Britain,
presents a clinching argument against the oftrefuted
yet oft-repeated statement that the British
workman does less work, lives better and is in a
general way better off than his American brother.
It is in the form of a letter in his possession,
written by an Englishman who, after working for
14 years in various parts of his native country,
emigrated to America. The writer says: "It is
nonsense to say the American works harder than
the Englishman, that he has more brains, that
the circumstances are different. I find a great
amount of sameness. The only difference I find
is that it is ten times easier to make a living
here than at home. The people are doing well,
consequently they are better buyers. No man
here, if he is worth his salt, will work for a bare
living. If he is a skilled man the manufacturer
has to pay in a fair proportion to his profits. I
used to hear, to refute all this, that in America
living was so expensive it neutralized all this high
wage benefit. I contend that this is wrong. To
start with, many American workmen own their
own homes. Such necessities of life as bread and
meat are cheaper. Fuel is dearer, so is clothing,
but not much. Anyhow, the great point is this:
The American artisan is a far better dressed man,
better fed, and more extravagant than his English
confrere; his children are given a free and better
education; he is thought more of. The snobs have
not as yet come here who look down on a man
who works, but honor him for it, and consequently
give him more respect for himself. I have visited
the lower parts of such large cities as San Francisco,
St. Louis and Pittsburgh, but in none, except
New York, have I seen a tenth part of the
dirt and poverty to he seen every day in similar
cities in England."
In the matter of wages and saving capacity two
examples from actual observation are given. One
of them is from a communication in which the
writer states that to his personal knowledge "several
foremen in some of the leading engineering
works in England received only 36 shillings ( $8.75 )
per week, that some of them had charge of over
40 men, while those doing the same class of work
in the United States would receive from 28 shillings
($6.81) to £2 ($9.73) per day, and in some
cases more." In conclusion he said that "wages
in England, compared with those in the United
States, are very low indeed."
A workman writing from Belfast to the London
Times stated that he and a fellow-workman were
each in receipt of 30 shillings ($7.30) a week in
Belfast; that his friend had emigrated to the
THE COAL TRADE BULLETIN. 33
United States, and when writing his experiences
concerning wages and cost of living said that his
expenditure had heen 27 shillings ($6.56) a week
in Belfast and his saving power only 3 shillings
(72 cents). In the United States, his wages being
twice those he had received in Belfast and his
expenditure only equivalent to 36 shillings ($8.75),
his saving power was 24 shillings ($5.83). In
other words, as this Ulster man put it in his communication
to the London Times, for every shilling
(24 cents) he used to save" in Great Britain
he could save 8 shillings ($1.95) in the United
States, besides having better educational facilities
provided for his children.
Regarding living in general, an American sent
to England to represent his firm says it costs more
to live in England than it did in the United States.
He thinks that, having made more money because
he has had a commission in addition to a salary,
he has heen more extravagant, but feels sure that
living here is as expensive as in the United States,
and often smiles when he thinks of the parting
words of his American employer who explained
what a promotion he was getting by being sent to
England on a salary guarantee, because "I could
live so much cheaper in England." An American
who had a food line thought living here as high
as in the United States and has bought three suits
of clothes the last time he was home.
"It would surprise our home folk to know how
many things Americans who live abroad buy when
on home trips," the consul continues. "One American
woman, the wife of a manufacturer here, said
to me: 'My friends thing I must be insane because
I buy so many things when I am home each
year, as though having lived abroad so long and
going home each year I do not know better than
they do what I am about.' "
Writing from Liverpool, Consul James Boyle
says:
Certainly trade generally is not in as good condition
as it was last year, or for several years
previously. Municipal and national statistics
show an ever-increasing number of men out of
employment; the wages for skilled men show a
continual lowering during the last twelve months;
the savings in the banks by working people have
decreased; the popular resorts where the British
workmen are accustomed to go by the hundreds
of thousands during the summer for a holiday.
show a marked diminution of visitors; and the
shopkeepers, not only in London, hut in the other
large cities of the country, as well as in the small
towns and villages, are complaining of the slackness
of business. The outlook for the coming
winter is so bad that the local government board
(national) issued a circular October 6 to the metropolitan
hoard of guardians, calling a conference
to consider steps to alleviate the feared abnormal