APPENDIX. The following additional statements were furnished by witnesses subsequently to their examination, and were, with the selected correspondence, ordered to be published as an appendix: A. THE SHOE AND LEATHER TRADE.-INFORMATION IN CONNECTION WITH THE STATEMENT OF MR. GEORGE WALKER, p. 271. WORCESTER, MASS., January 16, 1879. To the honorable the Labor Committee of the Forty-fifth Congress: GENTLEMEN: Not being able to appear before your committee to testify in our own behalf, we beg leave to submit through our representative, the Hon. W. W. Rice, the report of the committee appointed to investigate and report the amount earned by workmen employed at the four principal branches of the boot trade in the city of Worcester, Mass., for the year 1878, without regard to the number of hours worked each day or the number of days employed during the year (the workmen averaged about nine months' work). Respectfully submitted. GEO. G. BAILEY, The Hon. ABRAM S. HEWITT, Chairman of Congressional Labor Committee. N. B.-An affidavit will be made in support of the inclosed report if deemed necessary. G. G. BAILEY, Chairman Committee, No. 10 Howard street, Worcester, Mass. WORCESTER MASS., January 16, 1879. At a public meeting of the boot and shoe makers of this city, held Monday evening, December 30, 1878, the committee appointed to ascertain the amount of wages earned by the workmen engaged in the four principal branches of the trade, and also the cost of living, beg leave to submit the following amount of earnings and expenditures for the year 1878; no-consideration for the number of hours per day or days employed in the year: Per annum. $460 00 300 00 310 00 520 00 Allowing the families to average six persons, father, mother, and four children, you get the average per head per annum and per week. Allowing for rent per year at $6 per month For fuel per year ......... $72.00 30 00 102 00 Crimpers' families, deducting for rent and fuel, receive each, for food, clothing, school-books, and doctor's bills, $59.67 per annum, or $1.144 per week. Hand-siders, deducting for rent and fuel, receive each, for food, clothing, schoolbooks, and doctor's bills, $33 per annum, or $0.633 per week. Bottomers, deducting for rent and fuel, receive each, for food, clothing, school-books, and doctor's bills, $34.67 per annum, or $0.66 per week. Treers, deducting for rent and fuel, receive each, for food, clothing, school-books, doctor's bills, $69.67 per annum, or $1.34 per week. G. G. BAILEY, Committer. B. WAGES AND PRICES, 1860, 1872, AND 1878. IN CONNECTION WITH STATEMENT OF CARROLL D. WRIGHT, p. 284. [Advance sheets from the Tenth Annual Report of the Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor.| We presented in the bureau report for 1874 the "comparative rates of wages and hours of labor in Massachusetts and foreign countries," and also the "prices of provisions, &c., and purchase-power of money in Massachusetts and Europe." The wages and prices there given were for the year 1872, the European figures having been collected in that year. These wages and prices were figured and presented upon a double standard-that of the United States paper dollar of 1872, and also on the gold basis. For many reasons it seemed to us that a showing of wages and prices for 1878, which could be compared with the returns of previous years, would be of great value. The small premium on gold during the year 1878, which premium was extinguished before the close of the year, renders our quotations of wages and prices for 1878 gold values, and allows of direct comparison with the gold values arrived at for 1872. In obtaining our figures for 1878 we deemed it advisable and important to also obtain quotations for some year previous to 1872. We decided upon 1860, not because we have any statistics to prove that 1860 was more or less prosperous than 1859 or 1861, but principally because it was the year just preceding the war, and the popular mind has fallen into the groove of speaking of things as they were "before the war." In a statistical sense, we should be as much warranted in comparing 1878 with any other year preceding as with 1860. Before beginning our investigations, we were aware that the popular opinion was that we had reached "hard pan," and that in wages and prices 1878 and 1860 were so near alike as to lead people to feel that "the good old times had come again." While we could not see how any believer in the material advancement of the country could find much satisfaction in proving that we are now where we were in 1860, our sole object was to gain the facts. If they sustained the public opinion, well and good. If they showed that public opinion was in error, in a greater or less degree, then we had performed our duty of ascertaining facts and supplying valuable and incontrovertible data for the information and use of the legislature, the press, and the public generally, In our presentations for 1860 and 1878 we have aimed to make such showings as will allow of strict comparison with our figures for 1872. We consider First. The comparative rate of wages for 1860, 1872, and 1878. It should be remembered that, for each year, our quotations are average weekly wages, and not earnings. A man's average weekly wage, when employed, may be $10 per week; but it does not follow that his yearly earnings may be obtained by multiplying $10 by 52, the number of weeks in the year. Statistical statements are so often quoted in a misleading way we feel obliged to make this explicit definition of our use of the terms wages and earnings. Second. We present, in Part V of this report, some facts in relation to the hours of labor. It will there be seen that 263,452 persons, in 1875, worked an average number of 266.6 days out of a possible yearly working period of 308 days. This average period of 41.4 days unemployed, or about seven weeks of six working days each, shows that it is not fair to multiply average weekly wages by more than 45 (weeks) in order to obtain approximate yearly earnings; and then, in the case of each industry, as will be seen in our consideration of the hours of labor, the time unemployed varies. Third. We give prices of groceries, provisions, fuel, dry goods, boots and shoes, rent, and board for 1860, 1872, and 1878. Our agents have secured these prices from retail dealers who supply consumers directly. In no case have we made use of quotations from wholesale price lists. The dealer who furnished figures for 1878 from his books also supplied, from his old records, the prices for 1860. Our quotations for 1860, and 1878 are strictly comparable with the prices obtained for 1872. In this investigation, as in the previous one, to secure the prices of provisions, rent, &c., we have taken the testimony of respectable dealers in the various articles given, in town and country; and, while the prices furnished us have differed materially in many instances, yet, when we ascertained the prices for the same grade of goods, we have been satisfied of the accuracy of our information. Where prices are given, we mean for a good fair article, unless especially stated otherwise; and although many, in comparing our figures with their actual expense, may discover seeming discrepancies, nevertheless they would find that they were caused by some corresponding discrepancy in quality. It is of course impossible to give a price that can be verified in every town in the State. We have aimed at a standard price, and it is sufficiently reliable and accurate for our purpose. Fourth. We give a table showing the purchase-power of money in 1860, 1825, and 1878, using the gold dollar as the standard. We mean, by purchase-power of money, what quantity the gold dollar would buy of any article entering into the cost of living in the different years mentioned. Of course a perfect comparison cannot be made, from the fact that the prices are not likely to represent exactly the same grade of goods for each year. We consider, however, that the table shows, as clearly as any statistics possibly can, what a man's wages were worth to him in 1860, 1872, and 1878, provided his manner of living remained the same. In the prosecution of our investigations for 1860 and 1878, thirty-four cities and towns were visited, and in each, with a few unavoidable exceptions explained hereinafter, comparative wages and prices were secured by our agents for both the years named. The columns in succeeding tables, giving figures for 1872, are drawn from our report for 1874, to which we have previously referred. In order to show the comprehensiveness of our investigations, it is necessary to make certain comparisons. The thirty-four cities and towns visited employed in 1875, according to the census returns, 170,346 persons in manufacturing and mechanical industries, or 55+ per cent, of 308,963, the whole number of employés in those industries in the State at the time the census of 1875. was taken. Our agents secured in these places the wages for 1860 and 1878, of 63,515 employés, being 37 + per cent, of all employed in those cities and towns, and 20+ per cent. of all employed in the State. The following table shows in.detail the whole number employed in manufacturing and mechanical industries in each city and town visited, according to the census of 1875, and the number of employés in each city and town for which wages for 1860 and 1878 were obtained by our agents: TABLE L-The investigation by cities and towns. Our investigations, as regards industries, covered forty-seven occupations, in which 306,887 persons were employed in 1875. We obtained the wages of 63,515 employés for 1860 and 1878, being 20 per cent. of the whole number. The distribution in detail by occupations, as we have similarly shown by cities and towns, may be found in the following table: TABLE II.-The investigation by occupations. If the validity of the figures which we present for 1860 and 1878 is questioned because the results do not coincide with public opinion previously expressed, we can say, in support of our returns, that they were secured by our agents on the spot where the parties were employed; that in the boot and shoe towns, where possible, the figures obtained were compared with those of the Crispin organization; that every practica ble means for the verification of figures presented has been made use of by this bureau; and that, finally, we consider a showing is fully representative and worthy of credence which is based upon returns for 37 per cent. of all employés in 34 impor tant manufacturing cities and towns, and which covers 20 per cent. of the employés in 47 principal branches of industry, especially when it is borne in mind that the shops and factories visited were taken at random by our agents, who were only instructed to make returns for a certain number of employés in certain industries in certain towns In the boot and shoe and cotton and woolen industries we have returns for 33,609 out of 127,302, or 26+ per cent. We are satisfied that our figures are founded upon such full and accurate returns that they cannot be effectually gainsaid. WAGES. Our first presentation of wages is a table showing the average weekly wage in the different occupations considered for the years 1860, 1872, and 1878, based upon the standard of gold. In addition we give a column which shows the actual money increase or decrease in average weekly wages for 1878 as compared with 1860. In some cases it was impossible to obtain the wages for 1860. Many industries have been started since then. Some have grown from the position of minor industries to that of important ones; and their conditions for 1860 and 1878 are not comparable. Others have changed their character so much, owing to the introduction of machinery, that comparative figures would be misleading; and they are consequently not given. In some instances, where wages for 1860 were not obtainable, the figures for 1572 appear, and allow of comparison with those for 1878. We have stated that the wages of 63,515 |