THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



EMPLOYMENT. 



Keepers, per day 



Keeper's helper, per day 

 Common laborer, per day 



Cai'penter, per day 



Blacksmiths, per day . . . 



$1 47 



1 35 



1 00 



1 23 



1 23 and 1 00 



English. 



$1 61 



81 



75 



1 05 



1 13 



With this we compare American and English wages in non- 

 protected occupations.* Mr. Wells gives from the last census the 



EMPLOYMENT. 



Carpenters, per week 



Bricklayers, per week 



Masons, per week 



Locomotive-engineers, per week 



English. 



|!9 45 



9 45 



9 45 



1 30 to 12 15 



average pay of the railroad employes of this country as $450 per 

 annum ; and that of the iron- workers as $312. The difference in 

 the degree of skill required is not obvious, nor apparently suffi- 

 cient to explain the great discrepancy. Lastly, we may cite the 

 statistics brought together by Mr. Gunton in his " Wealth and 

 Progress," and comiDiled from the concurrent data and results of 

 Giffin, Mulhall, Levi, the United States census, and other great 

 authorities. The comparison is made between several countries, 

 none of whom have a tariff anything like as high as that of the 

 United States. Mr. Gunton thus states the " rise in actual wages " 

 in non-agricultural occupations, making the most favorable allow- 

 ance to France and Germany, as follows : 



These are very surprising facts, which merit careful attention. 

 The very idea that American workingmen are not in every way in 

 a better position than the English is so strange that we are natu- 

 rally incredulous. The fact that we have such vast quantities of 

 land, practically free, inviting the poorly paid to settle, would 

 seem to be a sure defense of high wages, and doubtless is such. 

 But there is an explanation, though it is probably but a partial 

 one, in the effects of the tariff. The cost of living has been con- 

 stantly rising in this country, while that in England has been f all- 



* These figures are given for New York and London in the Government publication, 

 "Labor in Foreign Countries," pp. 635 and 1663 to 1667. 



