Dearness of “Cheap Labour.”

South Canterbury Times, Issue 7073, 20 February 1893, Page 2

Dearness of “Cheap Labour.”

L * Q u ali t ßiyos * ia fc ‘ he aw**. porary the results of a most importßntiD . qmry into The Social Condition of Labour," undertaken and carried through by the De-par-men tof Labour at Washington. The inquiry was limited to the important indugnos of opal, iron, steel, and glass, cotton, wooden, silk, and linen textiles, in America and m Europe. Cost of production returns were received from 454 American and 164 Burope&n establishments ; budgets of cost of living were secured from 2,490 workmen employed in those industries in America, and 770 in Europe ; while the wages of several thousand labourers, at least one-third European, were tabulated. This is Mr Gould’s final conclusion : What inferences are we to draw from the foregoing statistics ? Unmistakeably this, lhat higher daily wages in America do not mean a correspondingly enhanced labour cost to the manufacturer. Bub why so ? Some say because of the more perfect mechanical agencies that are put into the hands of the workman in American rolling mills. There, is reason in this answer, if we take the. average conditions, but. it does not represent Che whole truth. Moreover, it cannot bn H oed rr l “. j comparison between England and the United States, since in the former country mechanical processes have been perfected almost to the same degree as in the latter, tarlicularlv will the explanation fail in the present case, since the three establishments chosen are nearly alike in equipment and occupy a very high rank in their respective, countries. f “I? applicable to steel-making, it should equally hold true of bar iron, but statistics 6ra GTeQ fIBB probability. The real explanation I believe to be, that greater physical force, as the result of bettor nourishment, in combination with superior intelligence and skill, make the working man in the United States more efficient. His determination to maintain a high standard of )W» causes him to put forth greater effort, end this reacts to the benefit of the employer as well as to his own- Wo should give th© principal credit of the higher wages in America neither to the manufacturer, the tariff, nop aqy other agency, but the working man himself, who will act labour for less than wfll enable him to live on a high social plane That he can carry out bis policy with bnt littl ’ disadvantage to his employer in econoa ' competition, teaches a lesson of far-roaoh' ° importance. Instead of a Ricardian reo’ where the wages of Labour become sufficient to permit a eustentation of aft a it look# a ,

industrial to those who the The result a paper well-fed Scbulze-Gaemojl^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^H that yob to more the upon coat the that, higher German lower than Germany oonclu of questionably the competition/ wage-atandard respect than dangerous the moat