Among the working classes in the United Kingdom are included all who, whether as workers for others or as workers for themselves, are employed in manual labor, be it productive of wealth or not; and they are divided into five classes, viz. professional, domestic, commercial, agricultural, and industrial. The total number of workers is estimated at eleven millions, and the average weekly earnings in the United Kingdom are: Men, under twenty, $1.59; from twenty to sixty, $4.18; women, under twenty, $1.72; from twenty to sixty, $2.41. Average weekly earnings from every avocation in Great Britain and Ireland, $3.16.
Thirty per cent of the people of the United Kingdom live in houses the rental of which is less than $31 per annum, and seventeen per cent in those under $45 per year.
In the preparation of the following table we have consulted Professor Levi’s work on Wages and Earnings in England; “Government and the Telegraphs” (London, 1868); “Special Report on the Electric Telegraph Bill”; “Publications of the Statistical Bureau at Washington”; and the official records of the Western Union Telegraph Company.
| Statement showing the Average Cost of Labor in England and the United States. | ||
|---|---|---|
| Prices paid per Day. | England. | United States. |
| Carpenters and Builders | $1.14 | $3.25 |
| Dock Laborers | .68 | 2.25 |
| Engineers | 1.32 | 3.85 |
| Farm Laborers | .42 | 2.00 |
| Iron Founders | 1.10 | 3.25 |
| Moulders | 1.25 | 3.50 |
| Letter-Carriers[[9]] | .74 | 2.18 |
| Printers | 1.02 | 2.50 |
| Policemen | .85 | 3.00 |
| Railroad Conductors | .92 | 3.85 |
| Soldiers | .22 | .62 |
| Servant-girls | .16 | .48 |
| Telegraph Employees[[10]] | .41 | 1.29 |
[9]. The number of letter-carriers employed by the British Post-Office Department for the year 1866 was 11,449, and the total expenditures for the same $2,664,000, being an average of $232.68 per annum for each man.
The number of letter-carriers employed by the Post-Office Department of the United States for the year 1866 was 863, and the total expenditures for the same $589,236.41, being an average of $682.77 for each man.
[10]. The cost of labor of telegraph employees is obtained by dividing the total amount paid for labor by the number of persons employed of all kinds. The average price per day for operators in the United States is $2.25, and in England 62 cents.
With a knowledge of the great difference in the cost of labor and material in Europe and America which the above statistics show, we cannot comprehend the propriety of Mr. Washburne’s assertion that the whole cost of constructing telegraphic lines must be less here than in Belgium or Switzerland.
Even our poles are purchased in the Dominion of Canada, and paid for in gold. The cost of transportation from the St. Lawrence to New York cannot be much, if any, more than the cost of their delivery at London, Havre, or Brussels.
In the United States, telegraph-poles are of cedar or chestnut,—more generally of the former. In England, the larch is the most common; in Russia, the pine; in France, pine, alder, poplar, and other white woods; and in Germany, spruce and pine.[[11]]