\YllAT SHALL WE DO t 



rents vary from as low as 2s. Gd. a week to 5s., and 

 some of the better houses 7s. 6d. a week. The latter 

 houses are occupied by foremen and men earning say 

 $7 50 a week, and who, perhaps, have one or more 

 children employed in the neighboring works or facto- 

 ries. Men working in the Bessemer pits are paid 

 from 5s. Gd. to Gs., or about $1 50 per day/' 



From Hanley, the center of the crockery interest, 

 Mr. Porter writes under date of March 12th : 



" Here then are about three fourths of the operators 

 at $8 14 and $G 86 a week, if we take the employers' 

 estimate (which is disputed by the men). Then the 

 printers, of whom Mr. Lane says there would be forty 

 in a factory employing two hundred hands in white 

 ware, are the lowest paid of all only $6 55 per 

 week. All three of these classes, aggregating un- 

 doubtedly over three fourths of the entire skilled 

 labor of the Pottery District, receive far less than the 

 average. I have merely gone into these details to 

 show the absurdity of averaging wages. The un- 

 skilled hands in those potteries make from 4s., or $1, 

 to perhaps 1, or $5, a week. 



" ' How much do you make ? ' said I to a dark eyed 

 young woman in the print shop. 



" ' Ah moost do a many to mek oot mah dee's 

 work/ 



" ' How much money a week, I mean ? ' 

 " ' Oh, we doan't make more than ten shillins/ 

 "The only fair method of comparing wages is to 

 take the same department of work in each country. 

 For example, plate makers in England average $7 50 



