4:: 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Ei&ht-Hour Day and Labor Prices 
! N PAGE 21G we had a brief note on the 
case of carpenters who work eight hours 
and obtain as much money as a farmer 
receives for about 20 hours. There has 
been quite a little discussion of this. 
Iiere are two ideas—out of the usual way 
of looking at it. 
As It Looks to a Factory Man 
Your issue of February 9. which was the first one 
I received as your subscriber, I read from cover to 
cover and was deeply interested in the editorial 
articles it contained. T'nder the 
caption of “Tilings to Think 
About" I think the article con¬ 
cerning the ‘•Eight-hour Day*’ 
will create a misleading impres¬ 
sion in regard to conditions as 
they exist in mills and factories 
in our mill towns and cities. 
Conditions one would find there 
are vastly different from those 
enjoyed by the building trades. 
At the age of 14 years 1 grad¬ 
uated from grammar school and 
obtained employment as an ap¬ 
prentice machinist. I studied 
drafting nights, and finally en¬ 
tered an architect’s office. My 
health failed, and my folks 
bought a lb-acre run-down New 
England farm. We cut hay 
enough to keep out* horse three 
months the first year. They paid 
cash for the place which left 
them with no working capital. 
At the end of five years we had 
eight cows and a horse with hay 
enough to winter them, f left, 
the farm about this time and 
drove street cars for two years, 
then entered a machine simp, 
eventually working into the 
draftfing department there, and 
at present am employed as tool 
where. But when the war was over what hap¬ 
pened? The management announced a 20 per cent 
wage cut to everyone and in some instances this 
brought piece work rates lower than they were for 
the same work in the year 1900. Shortly after this 
a short time period of 24 hours a week was inaugu¬ 
rated and lasted for two years. 
The par value of this company’s stock is $5. 
During the. war it sold for from $25 to $20. and 
at the dull period it dropped to $8, still $3 above 
par. As we all too fully realize, there was no 
general reduction in living expenses, yet the 350 
This shows a field under irrigation seeded to rye in the Fall. The rve is 
(he disk harrow before being plowed under, a good way to handle a cover 
soil stalled with organic matter, overhead irrigation, what cannot be done 
designer for. the 
small precision tool department of one of the larg¬ 
est manufacturing concerns of its kind in the coun¬ 
try. I have never been affiliated with any labor or¬ 
ganization. 
One case r will cite is taken from a non-union 
shop I worked in during the war period. There 
was never a general increase in wages during all 
the years of the war. Of course individuals who 
demanded more money received various amounts 
.as raises. There were a lot who could not bring 
them elves to face the proper official for more 
money, and were content to work, taking all the 
overtime possible at time and a half pay, other¬ 
wise receiving their same old wage. It was a 
shop where nearly all were old help who owned 
homes in town and had lived their lifetime there 
■and were afraid to take a chance on locating else- 
°r 400 employees of this concern had to exist on 
a wage schedule that was possible in 1900, and 
for two years got 24 hours a week at that rate. 
the factory in which I am now employed is non¬ 
union. but one or two 10 per cent increases were 
made during the war period, and the same number 
of decreases were made shortly after the war. The 
Plant is still operating on a weekly total of 10 hours 
less than is usual under normal conditions. 
It seems to me that farmers and wage-earners are 
in a general way in about the same predicament. In 
the case of Labor, especially unorganized labor, they 
must accept the wage offered them. In the case of 
the farmer he must, in too great a majority of cases, 
sell at a price that is set for him. The laborer must 
buy, and buy at prices that are set for him. The 
farmer must buy. and whatever he buys the price is 
fixed for him. When a farmer buvs a machine 
costing $100 it is p’rettv safe to assume that machine 
was built with a total labor and manufacturing cost 
of less than $25. I have an article in mind retailing 
for $4.50 apiece. Nearly every farmer owns one 
or two. The total labor, material and manufactu¬ 
ring costs, including tools, is 87c per piece. As tool 
designer I have access to these records of costs. 
In the / ictorial Review for January, in a similar 
article to the one I am discussing, the following 
comparisons were made: It takes 63% dozen eggs 
to pay a plasterer for one day’s work of eight hours 
in New York. Tt takes 42 lbs. of butter, or the 
output from 14 cows, fed and 
milked for 24 hours, to pay 
a plumber .814 for a day. It 
takes a hog weighing 175 lbs. 
representing eight months feed¬ 
ing and care, to pay a carpenter 
$14 for one day’s work. This 
comparison is quite misleading. 
To buy those 02% dozen eggs in 
New York at that time would re¬ 
quire at least three days’ work 
of eight hours, or possibly more, 
as I think New York prices are 
higher than those in the city I 
am quoting from. It would take 
over two days for a plumber bo 
be able to buy that butter in New 
York. As for the hog, I think 
about, three days’ pay might pur¬ 
chase it, dressed, in New York. 
I also know a carpenter could 
work a day and send to Canisteo, 
N. Y.. and buy 400 to 450 quarts 
of milk, but to buy the same milk 
at retail in New York he would 
probably be able to buy about 90 
quarts. It seems the greatest 
difference is that between what 
the farmer has to accept and 
what the wage-earner has to pay. 
The trouble as I see it is not so 
much the fact that labor is being 
overpaid as it is that farmers are being underpaid. 
When building and manufacturing costs increase 
the builder or manufacturer meets it with an in¬ 
creased selling price. 4\ hen (lie* cost of farming 
increases the farmer raises a righteous complaint, 
but somebody else sets tin* selling price. The 
point I am trying to illustrate is this: The farmer 
phj s top prices for everything he buys. The price 
is set for him. and he must pay it or go without. 
He must sell at the lowest prices in far too many 
cases, and this price is set for him with the privi¬ 
lege of selling or keeping his stuff. 
What is the solution? I >o you think if all these 
high daily wages were cut to $5 it would change 
farming conditions enough to be even noticeable? I 
havffl ilways felt that the more money wage-earners 
received the more they spent, creating a greater 
demand for farm products, and in reality benefit- 
chopped up with 
crop. With the 
with such soil? 
Plowing Under a Rye Crop for Green Manure. This Fills the Soil with Humus. Fig. 141. 
