229] THE STANDARD RATE 97 



greater is the number of passes through the rolls required 

 and, consequently, a longer time is required to reduce a ton 

 of bar-plate to the specified gauge number, the price per ton 

 for sheets of the same dimensions consequently increasing 

 with the gauge number.*^ Of course, it does not rise pro- 

 portionately, since the difficulty does not increase in abso- 

 lute ratio. The rates for rolling in " finishing " mills vary 

 not only with the width of the rolls and the sizes of the 

 iron, but also with the shapes. The great variety of shapes 

 makes it necessary that the price list shall be descriptive of 

 patterns as well as a schedule of rates according to differ- 

 ences in measurements.*^ 



Questions of rate differentiation are particularly difficult 

 when the matter of the materials employed in production 

 is involved. Such variations are more complex than varia- 

 tions in size and shape, and the greater effect upon earnings 

 of price differentials according to materials has made the 

 latter of greater relative importance. This is particularly 

 true in the price for boiling. In this division of the trade, 

 a tonnage rate for boilers is paid for working metal through 

 a process. This rate originally presupposed that the pig 

 iron worked was of standard grade, and the first scales con- 

 tained no foot-note provisions for variations." 



Gradually the manufacturers began to substitute iron of 

 lower grade, or other materials to be worked with pig iron, 

 and frequently these several materials were mixed and 

 worked together. This practice gave rise to disputes as to 

 the rates of pay, and consequently it became necessary to 

 provide rates for these various materials or mixtures. As 



*i Gauges eight and heavier, called " plates," are rolled in the 

 plate mill; up to nineteen gauge — " firebed " — is rolled in a jobbing 

 mill ; gauges nineteen and lighter, — " sheets," — are made in sheet 

 mills (Western Scales of Prices, 1916, pp. 36-39). 



■»- Il)id., 1916, pp. 25-34. 



*' The first scale (February 13, 1863) may be found in the national 

 Labor Tribune, February 7, 1874, also in the Report of the Pennsyl- 

 vania Bureau of Statistics, 1887, p. G. 15. The second scale (July 

 23, 1867) is given in the Vulcan Record, no. 13, December, 1873, 

 p. 36, and also in the Report of the Massachusetts Bureau of Labor, 

 i88r, p. 12. The third scale (Ai)ril 14, 1875) is contained in the Vul- 

 can Record, no. 16, 1875, pp. 34-35. 

 7 



