488 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



does the wage rate among male clerks rise above $1,250; in an even 

 smaller number of instances do wage rates of female clerks rise 

 above $750. 



V. The Income of Wage-earners in Transportation and 



Commerce 



One of the most unsatisfactory situations which an analysis of wage 

 statistics reveals, is the paucity of the wage figures relating to trans- 

 portation and commerce. It is in these fields that inquisitorial bodies 

 have the greatest authority; yet it is in these fields, strangely enough, 

 that the wage statistics are least satisfactory. With the exception of 

 the Census volumes for 1913 on express, and telephone and telegraph, 

 and of a special report by the Bureau of Labor on the telephone in- 

 dustry, there is little or nothing of note. 



The wages in the railroad industry, employing as it does more than 

 a million and a half persons, are stated only as averages. The excuse 

 for this statement of railroad wages in terms of averages — it requires 

 some excuse, for, though the averages are given by districts and for ten 

 wage-earning occupations and two groups of miscellaneous wage-earn- 

 ers, these again classified by districts and by the class of railroads, they 

 are still averages, and therefore suffer under all of the disqualifications 

 that averages are heir to — seems to be that the length of time and the 

 conditions of the work done by different employees vary so greatly that 

 no classified statement could do justice to the situation. Pursuant of 

 such philosophy the Interstate Commerce Commission has done, under 

 the circumstances, the most misleading thing that it could possibly 

 have done — that is, it has published averages; and the State Eailroad 

 Commissions, following the footsteps which, unknown to them, led so 

 directly into this statistical quagmire, also have published nothing but 

 averages. 



Granted that, in the case of railroad employees, the classified or 

 group system of stating wages is inaccurate, how much more inaccurate 

 does the average become? Instead of accepting errors at their face 

 value, the average thus obtained compounds and augments error. Nor 

 is this a case in which errors tend to neutralize each other. What avails 

 an average of the wages of switch tenders in Maine and in Ohio? 

 Wliat avails an average wage for "all other employees and laborers," 

 including for the United States nearly a third of a million men ? The 

 method carries its own refutation. Except as a basis of comparison 

 from year to year, the figures are meaningless and absurd. 



The difficulties lying in the path of obtaining classified wages for 

 railroad employees do not seem to be so great as the protestors claim 

 them to be. Why should not the Interstate Commerce Commission se- 

 cure from each railroad a statement for the first week in June and 

 December showing the number of employees of each class who had 



