Rensselaer Republican, Volume 21, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 November 1888 — MORE MONEY MADE HERE. [ARTICLE]

MORE MONEY MADE HERE.

A Comparison of Wajfas Paid illiners in England n..d America. The free-trade organs have a good deal to say about the low wages paid to miners in tire coal and iron regions of this country. It is true that the return for -the tremendous tebm and- great- risk which miners have to undcrgmseems~dis-~ proportionate, and that it iloes not compare very favorably with the pay which men receive in certain other industries. But this; seems to be something universally characteristic of the miners’ callring- The circumstance thrit a good deal of mine labor comes very near the definition oL unskilled probably has considerable to do with.it. It is absurd at any rate for the American free traders to use the low-average of Himel's’ wages in this country as an argument in favor of the destruction of the laritf. for. low as they may be, the stipends of linglish miners ard far lower. A <•oinparison of the two may be iustructisc. This little table gives English ami Amerfeu. wages for mining bituminous coal: Weekly Weekly - . wages, ..wages— Occupation. England. U. S. Hewers ,$5 2S sl2 00 •Ttuihelers 5 04 12 00 Sbifters.. t sii 10 o> Mastmen 5 28 11 00 B.mkmen... 4 511 II 00 S.-reenmen 4 20 - 9 00 Helpers of 5 28 10 00 Drivers 75 9 00 FuriiaoeMreu.. . A.lLi . «1 03 Switchkeepers 3 50- 7 50 C ir linen 4 80 " 9 00 Smiths, 5 70 15 00 Joiners. -70 15 00 Engineers,. (• 50 15 00 Firemen 4 08 10 00 Plate layers...... 4 08 10 00 Thus-- it will Ire seemthat English bituminous coal-miners receive wages only about half as large as do their American brethren. The superior condition of our own wage earm rs in this industry is quite conclusivelyuhown by the fact that • very many of them are tlieriiselves immi-„ grants who have found here more com-’ forts than they could get abroad- Nine or ten dollars a week,—the lowest wages paid full-grown men in American coal mines, according to this table, are quite as low as anyboily, except the freewould ‘like to see them go. An -approximation to the niiserabie pittance of four dollars and less which some classes of English miners receive may be a desirable thing froni-a free trade point of view, but genuine Americans would regard it as purcluising mere cheapness at an exorbitant cost. Four-dollars-a-week men may do for a inonarehy, but they are not the kind of citizens for a free republic.—LKiston Journal.