I enclose rates of payment our men get while employed on time, but our boiler-platers work almost wholly by the piece. Also rates paid to men in the ship-yard while on time, but this system of payment has been almost entirely abandoned there in favor of piece work, which you may safely say reduces the cost of labor from ten to twenty per cent., as compared with time work. However, for such of them as are employed on time, the rates I give you are correct.
In the foregoing prices of ships I have given you, you may say that 27½ per cent. of the total cost at present price of materials may be put down against labor, but of course this will vary as the prices of materials vary.
Rates of wages paid on Clyde to men employed in the manufacture of iron ships—apprentices excluded:
| d. | |
| Carpenters | 7 |
| Joiners | 7¼ |
| Blacksmiths | 6½ |
| Platers | 6½ |
| Rivetters | 5¾ |
| Laborers | 3¾ |
| Angle iron-smiths | 6¼ |
| Riggers | 6¾ |
| Hammer-men | 4¼ |
| Holders up | 4¼ |
Rates of wages paid on Clyde to men employed in the manufacture of marine engines and boilers—apprentices excluded:
| d. | |
| Smiters | 6.6 |
| Strikers or hammer-men | 4.23 |
| Angle iron-smiths | 6.5 |
| Boiler platers | 7.07 |
| Rivetters and caulkers | 6.23 |
| Holders up | 4.7 |
| Iron turners | 6.47 |
| Iron finishers | 6.10 |
| Engine fitters and erectors | 6.16 |
| Planing machinists | 5.64 |
| Shaping | 5.17 |
| Slotting | 5.3 |
| Drilling | 4.9 |
| Pattern-Makers | 7.53 |
| Carpenters | 7 |
| Joiners | 5.5 |
| Engine-drivers | 4.55 |
| Ordinary laborers | 4 |
N. B.—The above are the average rates of each class of men as detailed, and the rates given are the amount paid in pence and in fractions or decimals of pence per hour. Fifty-one hours constitute a working week. Boiler-platers work mostly by the piece, but the rates given are those paid when they are on time.
January, 1878."
I have endeavored in vain to procure from Mr. Roach his corresponding prices of steamships and labor rates. The nearest approach to the latter has been obtained from the Secretary of the New York Free Trade Club, who has handed me a note under date of February 7th, from a well known iron ship and engine building firm of New York. They enclose their tariff of wages with those remarks: