Vol. VIII. No. 90. 
IMPERIAL INSTITUTE JOURNAL. 
[June, 1902.] 151 
LABOUR RETROSPECT. 
United Kingdom. — The depression in the cotton industry continues, 
16,000,000 spindles engaged in spinning yarn for the Manchester market, and 
employing 48,000 workpeople, having been working only four days a week 
for about two months. In the shipbuilding centres employment seems but 
moderately regular, and complaints continue about the absence of new work. 
In the iron and steel trades large orders are required to enable works to 
remain well employed, although branches affected by work for the Coronation 
were busy enough to warrant a curtailment of the Whitsun holidays. 
Regarding the petition of employees in the Government dockyards for 
increased pay and improvement in conditions of labour, the Lords of the 
Admiralty have replied that they are unable to accede to the requests made. 
Shipwrights were reminded that their pay was increased in 1901, and the 
skilled and ordinary labourers were informed that no good reason had been 
shown for making any change, especially as is. advance was recently granted. 
A small concession was made to engine-fitter apprentices, and the 
draughtsmen’s application is to be further considered. In future, in order 
to give the representatives of the various trades an opportunity of setting forth 
their requests, the several dockyards will be visited by officials of the Board 
of Admiralty regularly each year. The lock-out in the Stourbridge flint glass trade 
continues, both Messrs. Webb & Sons’ and Messrs. Webb, Shaw & Co.’s glass 
houses being carried on by non-union labour. Mr. J. J. Rudge, the General 
Secretary, of Manchester, has invited all the manufacturers of the district, on 
behalf of the Society, to attend a meeting of masters and workmen to discuss 
the state of trade, and to consider suggestions for the development and 
improvement of the same. 
Colonies. — The State Premier of Queensland has despatched a letter 
to Mr. Barton on the subject of the pearl fisheries in Torres Straits, pointing 
out that the present aspect of things indicates the loss to Queensland of 
almost the entire pearling industry, owing to fishermen having licences from 
the Queensland Government being prohibited, under the recent Federal 
legislation, from employing alien labour for diving purposes. Negotiations 
have been on foot for the transference of several of the establishments to 
Meruka. A special agent has been despatched to report to the Ministry upon 
the position, and as to whether the exclusion of coloured divers will force 
those interested to become Dutch subjects in order to carry on the industry 
successfully. In Victoria, the unemployed question is becoming very 
serious, and petitions have been put forward for the establishment of labour 
bureaux in various centres. The Government are of opinion that the 
financial condition of the State does not allow of the starting of new public 
works. The Victorian Employers’ Federation have issued a manifesto urging 
employers and capitalists to actively combat what they term “ the experi- 
mental socialistic legislation” being forced upon them. Regarding the 
Factories Act, they say that while thoroughly in accord with factory laws 
dealing with sanitation, protection of life and limb, and like matters, 
they are distinctly opposed to undue Government interference in the 
fixing of wages and hours. They believe that the tendency of the so-called 
Conciliation and Arbitration Acts operating in New Zealand and New South 
Wales, and proposed to be introduced in Victoria, is to produce irritation 
rather than conciliation, and they call upon employers and producers to take 
joint action to ensure peace, security, and freedom from Government inter- 
ference, so that both workman and employer may be left free to carry on 
their legitimate business. 
On the subject of native labour, the report of the Transvaal Chamber of 
Mines deals at some length, and what is reported is sufficient to remove all 
doubts of any serious difficulty being encountered in procuring an adequate 
supply in the future. An agreement has been entered into with the Govern- 
ment of Southern Rhodesia for the participation of mines of that country, if 
possible, to the extent of 12-J per cent, of the natives collected by the 
Association in the province of Mozambique. By this arrangement a uniform 
system of recruiting is secured, to the mutual advantage of the mines of both 
countries. The question of native wages was likewise dealt with, and a 
revised schedule was agreed upon, which will result in a material saving to the 
mines. At the same time, the rates fixed were reasonable, and will not, in 
the opinion of the committee, in any way interfere with the inflow of native 
labour. It is considered probable that, as the development of the industry 
proceeds, it will be necessary to go outside South Africa to complete the 
labour supply, and, with this contingency in view, representations were made 
to the High Commissioner with respect to recruiting in British East Africa 
Protectorate and the Uganda Protectorate, with a request for information as 
to the prospects of success in those quarters. So far as regards Zanzibar, the 
committee were advised that labour would be unobtainable. 
India. — The latest cable advices report an increase of 16,000 in the 
number on relief works and gratuitous relief, chiefly in Bombay Presidency. 
Persons relieved, however, are in a satisfactory condition. The increase in 
number is due to cessation of harvesting, and will continue until the monsoon 
bursts. Although prices show a tendency to rise, they are nowhere 
excessively high. Rain has been general, with quite a heavy fall in several 
districts of Burma and Bengal, but in Deccan and Central India only light. 
Mail advices from Madras say that the distress in Cuddapah is intensify- 
ing, crops having failed. Labour is also reported scarce. Work at the 
Kolar goldfields has been seriously interfered with by the drought, and 
practically all operations had to be suspended. The chairman of the 
Bombay Millowners’ Association reported at the annual meeting that the 
prospects of the mill industry were more cheerful. The manufacture of yarn 
and cloth had been on a more extensive scale than in the previous year, when 
the short time stoppages and plague combined detrimentally affected the mill 
interests. During the year under consideration they had felt the loss of 
many workpeople from plague ; but, on the whole, not much machinery had 
been stopped from this cause. The chairman considered the outlook as 
considerably brighter. 
Foreign Countries. — In the United States, upwards of 145,000 
men, miners, breaker boys and others, connected with the anthracite coal 
trade, struck work about the middle of the month for an advance of 10 per 
cent, in the rates paid for contract work, and an eight-hour day for those 
employed at a weekly rate of wages. Considerable unrest has prevailed 
generally in labour circles in the United States during the past month, a 
recent estimate, apart from the miners’ strike, giving the number of workmen 
who have struck for higher wages, shorter hours, or other reason, as 120,000, 
a greater proportion being in the building and textile trades. Settlements 
were generally favourable to the men, owing to the activity prevailing in all 
branches of industry. The wages of 200,000 men, in the larger sheet and 
tinplate mills, have been fixed until July, 1903, by the adoption by the 
Amalgamated Association of the wage committee’s report. 
A resume by the British Consul at Chicago of labour conditions in the 
United States, with particular reference to his consular district, contains 
many points of interest. The year 1901 was, he states, very prosperous for 
the wage-earner in all trades, as work was steady all through the year, 
the usual time of idleness having been much curtailed. In Chicago it is 
said to have been the best year since 1892, the year of the World’s 
Fair, and while wages have been increased slightly since then, the cost of 
living has been increased and is still increasing enormously. Notwith- 
standing the prosperity there are still more than sufficient men in all lines, 
except at certain times of the year for labourers, and working men of all 
trades should be very careful about coming to Chicago. The demand for 
unskilled labour has been very good, owing to the activity in railroad 
building throughout the States. There have been few strikes. 1 he 
machinists demanded a 10 per cent, advance and a nine hours’ day, which 
demands were granted in nearly every case. The iron moulders struck for 
the abolition of the differential scale of wages paid to bench and floor 
builders, and demanded 12s. 4d. per day instead of 10s. 3d. and ns. 3d. 
The employers offered 10s. iod. and ns. 7d. which was refused, and most 
of the employers acceded to their demands. As a rule wages have 
remained the same as in 1900. The average annual earning of skilled work- 
men in Illinois is estimated at ^118. 7s, ; women ^50. 15s. yd., and children 
under 16 ^34. 9s. id. The cost of living is very high. Skilled workmen 
pay from £2 to £5 per month for their fiats or houses. Dun's Review 
places the cost of living at ^20. 19s. per head, per year, for the necessaries 
of life, a rise of 6 per cent, during the year, of 40 per cent, since 1897. 
These figures are the average for the United States, and expenses are, 
probably, at least 20 per cent, higher. This year the working men made 
probably a little more than the average given, as the work was ^steadier than 
usual. The increase in the number of men employed in the Chicago factories 
in the year is 9 per cent.; women, 16 per cent.: and children under 16, 
39 per cent. There are now 19,839 children employed in the factories. 
A very great deal of work is done by piece-work, and it is very difficult to 
arrive at accurate figures of wages earned in the different trades, as in 
small shops non-union men work much cheaper than in large shops, where 
they are working with union men and get almost union wages. In some 
factories machines are run by boys earning 2s. id. per day, but about 7s. 2d. 
is the basis on which the calculations for piece-work in many machine and 
other shops are made. Machinists earn from 7s. 2d. to ns. 3d. for nine to 
ten hours per day; iron moulders, from 7s. 3d. to 12s. 4d. for 10 hours per 
day ; carpenters, from 9s. 3d. to 14s. for eight and ten hours, but in 
comparing wages the cost of living must be considered as well as broken 
time. In the sweating shops and shirt-making shops the wages paid are 
very small. In the tailoring trade union and non-union contractors are paid 
as follows : trousers, 3s. id. and 2s. 3d., and vests, 2s. 8d. and is. iod. 
The union workers are paid : trousers, operators, 9d. per pair ; pressers, yd. ; 
trimmers, 4d. ; finishers, 7d. ; vests, operators, 7d. ; basters, 6d. ; pressers, 4d. ; 
trimmers, 2d. ; and finishers, id. ; and the wages earned are about 42s. per 
week for union, and 25s. 2d. for non-union shops. The American workman, 
as a rule, goes home and does not spend much of his time in the drinking 
saloons, while very few take an interest in sport, or bet on horse-racing. 
Writing with regard to the agricultural strikes which have lately occurred 
in Italy, the British Consul says that these disturbances, which have greatly 
inconvenienced agriculturists during the past year, are a novel feature. 
These strikes began to break out in the spring, and were directly due to the 
operation of the bodies which have existed for some years past in the 
large towns under the name of Camere di Lavoro (Chambers of Labour), 
and have conducted strikes almost in every industry. Until the last year 
their action had been confined to the industrial centres, but they have 
extended their operations to the rural population, and succeeded in creating 
Leagues of Resistance, as they are called, among the peasants. I hese 
leagues, at a critical moment for agriculture, either struck or threatened to 
strike work unless the landlords consented to modify the conditions under 
which the peasants occupied their holdings. The demands of the peasants 
referred chiefly to the rent at which the buildings occupied by them were 
estimated, and, in the second place, to the days of labour which, under 
their contracts, they were obliged to devote to the landlords at an almost 
nominal rate ot pay. This latter point had acquired considerable importance 
from the fact that, in the course of time, abuses had undoubtedly grown up as 
regards the exaction of this obligation. The great majority of the landlords 
were willing to discuss the matter of rent and other minor questions which 
had been raised with their peasants, but they naturally objected to treat 
with the professional agitators from towns, who arrogated to themselves the 
right to act for the peasants. They were, however, compelled to waive their 
objections, and concessions were agreed upon under which work was resumed 
before cultivation had suffered any damage. There still remains, unfortunately, 
a general feeling of insecurity. A general and prolonged strike in the dairying 
branch of agriculture would threaten the existence of the very numerous and 
costly herd of milch cows which form so large a part of the riches of 
Lombardy and of the adjoining low-lying provinces, 
V 
