I Wish Those Masons In London Who Strike For Nine Hours'
Work With Ten Hours' Pay Could Be Driven To The Labor Market Of
Western America For A Spell.
And moreover, which astonished me, I
have seen men driven and hurried, as it were forced forward at
their work, in a manner which, to an English workman, would be
intolerable.
This surprised me much, as it was at variance with
our - or perhaps I should say with my - preconceived ideas as to
American freedom. I had fancied that an American citizen would not
submit to be driven; that the spirit of the country, if not the
spirit of the individual, would have made it impossible. I thought
that the shoe would have pinched quite on the other foot. But I
found that such driving did exist, and American masters in the West
with whom I had an opportunity of discussing the subject all
admitted it. "Those men'll never half move unless they're driven,"
a foreman said to me once as we stood together over some twenty men
who were at their work. "They kinder look for it, and don't well
know how to get along when they miss it." It was not his business
at this moment to drive - nor was he driving. He was standing at
some little distance from the scene with me, and speculating on the
sight before him. I thought the men were working at their best;
but their movements did not satisfy his practiced eye, and he saw
at a glance that there was no one immediately over them.
But there is worse even than this. Wages in these regions are what
we should call high. An agricultural laborer will earn perhaps
fifteen dollars a month and his board, and a town laborer will earn
a dollar a day. A dollar may be taken as representing four
shillings, though it is in fact more. Food in these parts is much
cheaper than in England, and therefore the wages must be considered
as very good. In making, however, a just calculation it must be
borne in mind that clothing is dearer than in England, and that
much more of it is necessary. The wages nevertheless are high, and
will enable the laborer to save money, if only he can get them
paid. The complaint that wages are held back, and not even
ultimately paid, is very common. There is no fixed rule for
satisfying all such claims once a week, and thus debts to laborers
are contracted, and when contracted are ignored. With us there is
a feeling that it is pitiful, mean almost beyond expression, to
wrong a laborer of his hire. We have men who go in debt to
tradesmen perhaps without a thought of paying them; but when we
speak of such a one who has descended into the lowest mire of
insolvency, we say that he has not paid his washerwoman. Out there
in the West the washerwoman is as fair game as the tailor, the
domestic servant as the wine merchant.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 111 of 277
Words from 56981 to 57490
of 143277
