Wages in 1873: Address read before the Social Science Association at Norwich

by Earl Thomas Brassey Brassey

In examining the various circumstances, which tend to raise the price of labour in England, the prevailing high wages in the United States, and the increased facilities for emigration, must ever be kept in view. The nominal rate of wages in America may indeed frequently convey a delusive idea of prosperity; yet it cannot be doubted that the thrifty, skilful, and industrious artisan has large opportunities of advancement in the New World.

A great majority of the emigrants go out to join some friends already satisfactorily established. When this is not the case, it is essential to the emigrant’s success that he should have accumulated not merely a sufficient sum, to defray the cost of his voyage across the Atlantic, but enough to enable him to travel, if necessary, far into the interior, and to visit, it may be several, rapidly rising cities in the West, before finally settling down. The artisan, who is able to maintain himself for some months after landing at New York, and to make a wide exploration of the country, will be sure in the end to find a favourable opening. Alas, how few of those who emigrate from this country are possessed of such resources!

Wages in America.

Many examples of the prosperity of the working classes came under my own observation on a recent visit to America. The workpeople are paid as far as possible by the piece. The monthly pay-sheet at the Merrimac Mills, at Lowell, where 2,600 hands are employed, amounts to 75,000 dollars, which gives an average of thirty dollars a month, or 30s. a week. The majority of the workpeople are Americans, but there are many from Canada and the Old Country. The proprietors of the mills have established several lodging-houses for the unmarried women whom they employ. At each of these houses some thirty women are lodged. The house is placed under the supervision of a respectable matron. The cost of living is 3½ dollars a week, and female operatives can earn from 14s. to 16s. a week over and above the cost of their board and lodging. The men pay for board 2s. a day, and their wages vary from 7s. to 10s. a day.

At the Lonsdale Company’s Cotton Mills, near Providence, in a factory containing 40,000 spindles, one spinner attends to 1,408 spindles, and in weaving, one weaver attends to from four to six looms. In England, the proportion would be, on the average, one hand to every three looms, working at a higher speed than they have attained in America. Male weavers were earning from 44s. to 52s., and female weavers from 40s. to 44s. weekly. Spinners earn from 4s. to 6s. a day. Women pay for board and lodging in lodging-houses, provided by their employers, 12s., and men 16s. a week. The operatives, earning these wages, are better able to save money than the operatives in our own country; and many of the hands at the Lonsdale Mills have £1,000 to their credit in the Savings Bank. At the great Harmony Mills at Cohoes, near Albany, where 4,000 hands are employed, two-thirds are emigrants to the States, principally English and Scotch, although there are many Germans and some French. The general wages are for women from 3s. to 6s. a day, for men from 6s. to 10s. a day. The cost of living is moderate, and assuming that a female operative earns 28s. a week—by no means a high average—she has 16s. a week to spend on dress and luxuries. At Cohoes a weaver attends to four, five, or six looms, but the machinery is not worked at so high a rate of speed as in Lancashire. The mule is never worked at a speed exceeding three stretches a minute.

In Quebec wages have of late been rapidly advancing. Artisans can now command 8s. a day, and labourers employed in unloading ships, whose employment, however, is uncertain in summer, and in winter wholly ceases, earn 10s. to 12s. a day. A man with a family can live well on 4s. a day. The long winter is the great drawback to the prosperity of the working class in Canada. Quebec has its Wapping, its extensive suburbs, chiefly occupied by the working classes; and there is no external indication in these quarters of a condition of life superior to that attained by the majority of our working men at home. In the Ottawa district, in Canada, the young farmers are able to find employment in winter by leaving their homes, and going up to the forests to cut timber. They earn 30s. a week, and they are boarded in addition. In the spring the lumberer returns home with a considerable sum of money saved. He carries on his farming operations throughout the open season, and returns to the forests in the autumn. The life is toilsome, and involves a long separation from the fireside at home; but the perseverance of a few years will result in the accumulation of a valuable capital for farming operations, and secure to the settler his future independence.

Ottawa is one of the rising towns of Canada. Its prosperity is derived from the timber trade, and from its being the seat of the Government. Wages in Ottawa were last year (I speak of 1872) extravagantly high. Masons were earning 14s. a day. All classes of artisans employed in building were paid from 10s. to 12s. a day. For four or five months in winter building operations are suspended; but provisions are cheap, and house rent is the only costly item.

At Hamilton, in Upper Canada, the wages for artisans are 8s. a day. House-rent is about 28s. a month. The expense of fuel in winter is nearly equal to the sum paid for house-rent. Food is cheap. A stock of salt beef can be laid down for the winter at the price of 1½d. a pound. The agriculturists in the Hamilton district are in a prosperous condition. Every settler travels in a light waggon, drawn by a pair of serviceable horses. The population seemed robust and healthy.

In other settlements forming part of the Dominion, the appearance of the people was less satisfactory. At Charlottetown, in Prince Edward’s Island, the universal vehicle is drawn by one horse instead of two, as at Hamilton. It was sad to see the population generally so pale and thin, and, in appearance, sickly and out of health. It is hard to find a reason for this marked physical deterioration of the descendants of Scotch, Irish, and English settlers. Probably the long winter is, to a great extent, the cause. The impossibility of active outdoor operations at that season, and the consequent temptation to spend the day in smoking and drinking in over-heated rooms, is extremely prejudicial to the health of the population. At Picton, in Nova Scotia, the inhabitants appeared more robust. The wages for ordinary shipwrights are 8s. a day, and taking into consideration the cost of living, the working classes are as well off as in any part of Canada.

In comparing the American and English operatives, or, rather, the English operatives, when transplanted to the States, with the hands who have remained in the Old Country, it would seem that there is, as a rule, a higher development of skill in the individual operatives. The difference is attributable to the conviction that the present high rate of wages in the States could not be maintained; unless the utmost skill and diligence were put forth.