64 American Economic Association [86 



MONTHLY WAGES SYMPATHETIC VARIATIONS IN WAGE 

 RATES 



McMaster 1 cites authorities showing that, in 1794, 

 " in the States north of Pennsylvania," the wages of 

 common laborers did not exceed three dollars per 

 month, while " in Vermont, good men were hired for 

 eighteen pounds a year, which was equal to four dol- 

 lars per month, and out of this found their clothes." 

 Speaking of wages, generally, in 1802, he says : 2 " The 

 average rate of wages the land over was sixty- 

 five dollars a year, with food, and, perhaps, lodging." 

 In 1811, ''throughout central Pennsylvania eight dol- 

 lars per month of twenty-six working days, was paid to 

 farm hands when fed and clothed." 3 At Adrian, Mich- 

 igan, in 1849, according to an apparently reliable 

 authority : u The most common labor with board is 

 worth from $50 to $75 a year. A higher quality, in 

 which some care and responsibility are added, is worth 

 $100 to $I2O." 4 A similar report from Richmond, 

 Massachusetts, made in the same year, states : " Men 

 get from ten to sixteen dollars per month and boarded, 

 for six months commencing in April." 5 



On the period from 1866 to 1899, ^ quote from a re- 

 port of the Department of Agriculture, 6 as follows : 



1 McMaster : History of the People of the Uuited States, Vol. !! 

 p. 179- 



*Idem. Vol. II, p. 617. 

 3 Idem. Vol. Ill, p. 510. 

 *U. S. Patent Office Report, 1849-50, p. 186. 



5 Idem. 1849-50, p. 92. 



6 Division of Statistics, Misc. Bull. No. 22, p. 16. 



