NCE -Supplement. 



SM»T 



- ,,v>^^IDAY, OCTOBER 30, 1885. 



MASSACHUSETTS LABOR STATISTICS. 



The sixteenth annual report of the Massachusetts 

 bureau of labor statistics offers a good example of 

 the modern method of treatmg social questions. 

 It aims to establish the conduct of the common- 

 wealth toward the laboring class oti facts and 

 safely drawn conclusions, not on theories and 

 speculations. It is perhaps the most typical fact 

 in the modern aspect of the state toward the 

 workingman, that there exist bureaus of labor 

 statistics. 



A very painstaking piece of work is the tabula- 

 tion of ' Wages and prices ' from 1752 to 1860 in 

 this country. The tables give (1) the price for each 

 year of the staple articles, (2) the price of these 

 articles from year to year, and (3) a convenient 

 summary of the changes ui prices by periods of 

 about ten years. The value of these tables must 

 depend largely on their great usefulness to future 

 work in this direction. They form the text from 

 which quite a various number of lessons may be 

 read. 



The industrial history of the coimtry may be 

 made to faU into three periods. 



(1) The early industrial period, previous to 

 about 1815. This period serves as a background 

 from which future prosperity stands out the more 

 boldly. It is a period of hand labor ; of few in- 

 dustries ; of no speciahzation — each artisan going 

 through the whole series of processes of his craft ; 

 with Httle money, so that barter was a great factor 

 in the mechanism of exchange ; with little educa- 

 tion for the workingman, and a more absolute con- 

 trol of his welfare in the hands of the employer, 

 who not seldom took an undue advantage of his 

 position. 



(2) The period of transition (1815-1830), charac- 

 terized by a gradual dissolution of the old and a 

 gradual adoption of the new ; from which finally 

 resulted 



(3) The present period. The first great fact 

 which stamps this period is the development of 

 invention. New forces were employed and labor 

 saved ; natural products were adapted to serve 

 human wants, and waste utilized. From 1841 to 45, 

 2547 patents for inventions were issued ; in 1856-60, 

 18,479. In 1855 an annual product of one million 

 dollars (in 1875 of three million), was made by the 

 rubber interest of Massachusetts, which thirty 



years before was mere waste caoutchouc gum. 

 Specialization completely transformed the methods 

 of labor. Each man makes one thing alone ; by 

 this means his share of the amount produced is 

 enormously increased. In 1855 each operator in 

 a shoe factory (under the old regime) x^roduced 

 455 pairs of shoes ; in 1875, 1205 pairs ; while the 

 average wages have risen from $205 per year to 

 $397, and the actual time of employment has de- 

 creased 12 per cent. The introduction of machin- 

 ery utilizes ignorant labor, and does not create it, as 

 is often supposed. The lowest industrial class is 

 thus raised in the social scale. The daughters of 

 American farmers and mechanics were formerly 

 the operators. Now skilled labor is not required. 

 Accordingly their places are taken by a more igno- 

 rant class, while they move upward to higher 

 calhngs, in which their entire mode of life is bet- 

 ter than that of their predecessors. 



A second great difference between the present 

 period and its forerunners, is the change in the 

 status of the laborer before the law. The govern- 

 ment now limits the hours of work, prevents the 

 employment of minors, abohshes imprisonment 

 for debt, exempts the workman's tools from at- 

 tachment, provides fire-escapes, authorizes co-oper- 

 ative associations, extends the benefits of free 

 education, and much besides. The " difference 

 in scale of living between the employer class and 

 the laborer of the early period was far less than 

 that between the workman of to-day and liis pre- 

 decessor." The tables tell the same story. The 

 general tendency, broken only by temporary 

 fluctuations, has been toward a rise in wages. The 

 workingman of to-day is paid better, has more 

 time to himself, and, in many cases, has even an 

 increasing share of the net product of his labor. 

 Prices, however, have advanced, and the final 

 question is, have the wages increased more than 

 the prices ? The general increase in the wages, as 

 shown by comparing the periods ending 1830 and 

 1860, is 52^, while the increase in prices averages 

 13^. Since 1860 the Massachusetts workmen may 

 be said to have gained a ' pecuniary betterment ' 

 of over 10^. 



In the last paragraph we reached the ti'ue test 

 of the welfare of the workman : the relation be- 

 tween wages and prices. To this question, the 

 essay on the 'comparative wages and prices' in 

 Massachusetts and Great Britain, from 1860-83, is 

 a valuable contribution. This essay is a condensa- 

 tion of three previous reports by the labor bureau, 



