(Sum paid in the department during the month of June $3,065, or 193 principal clerks and clerks, $300 to $800 per annum.....per month.. num.. per month.. (Sum paid in the department during the month of June $1,292 or $14.50 per clerk.) per month.. 2 chief carriers, at $240 to $280 per annum.. meter 146 town postmen at $200 to $300 per annum. ...per day.. per month. per annum.. (Sum paid for these 612 agents during June $8,733.40 or $14 25 each.) 34 office keepers, special messengers on the railways, deliverers at stations, care-takers at telegraph depots from $80 to $340 per an num (Sum paid in June $516.65, or about $15 per agent.) per month.. XIV. TRADES AND LABOR-GOVERNMENT EMPLOY. Wages paid per annum to the trades and laborers in Government employ in Rouen. *These functionaries receive an additional allowance for house rent of $86.85 per annum for married men; $64.65 for bachelors. The sums placed in columns two and three represent the gross monthly salaries; 57 per cent. is deducted therefrom for civil service pensions. The forty senior supernumeraries receive a monthly allow ance of $9.65. Supernumeraries receive 50 francs ($9.65) a month after twelve to fifteen months' superannuation. Columns two and three are subject to 5 per cent. reduction for superannuation. XV. PRINTERS AND PRINTING OFFICES. Statement showing the wages paid per hour to printers (compositors, pressmen, proof-readers, &c.) in Rouen. BELGIUM. REPORT BY CONSUL WILSON, OF BRUSSELS. The maximum, minimum, and average wages paid the various classes of mechanics, laborers, and employés outside of the large manufacturing establishments in this district, per week of sixty hours, will be found in the herewith inclosed tables; but as the chief industries of the district, as well as of the entire kingdom, are carried on by large and thoroughly organized companies who, in order to secure competent and continuous labor from their workmen, make special provision for their wants; the rates of wages indicated in these tables do not by any means embrace all the compensation received by a great proportion of the working classes. By these various plans of organizing labor, manufacturers here generally obtain from their workmen the most efficient service, and at the same time secure to them not only regular and reasonably good wages, but a pension after a given number of years service, and many other advantages both to themselves and their families that no independent workman could secure. To illustrate this mode of employing labor, I will here give its chief features in a number of large establishments of different manufacture, personally visited for the purpose of obtaining reliable information on the subject. A BELGIUM MODEL LINEN FACTORY. The first of these visited was that of Mr. Rey Ainé, at Ruysbroeck, near Brussels, the largest linen manufacturer in this kingdom, employing in his various establishments an average of nearly 3,000 men and women, and whose annual exports to the United States, as indicated by the invoices sent to this office, amount to from 800,000 to 1,000,000 francs. In this establishment 3 per cent. of the wages of all workmen is retained by the proprietor for the purpose of creating what is known as the "invalid and pension fund," and this entitles every employé, in case of sickness, to the daily attendance of a physician during his or her illness free of charge. Invalids, also, receive half of their wages during their illness, and when convalescent, are furnished with meat and wine, according to the prescription of the physician. Women employés giving birth to children also receive the gratuitous attention of a physician as well as every other care their case requires. When a married workman dies his widow receives, during three years, one-third of the wages of her deceased husband, if he has been less than ten years in service, and half of his wages if he has served over ten years. The director, at his discretion, can continue this assistance longer than the above three years to widows with children, and generally, in such cases, the pension is paid until the children can earn their own living. A pension of 30 francs ($5.79) per month, and for life, is paid to all invalid workmen after fifteen years' service. Mr. Rey Ainé buys at wholesale the following merchandise, all of the first quality: Coal, flour, rice, sugar, coffee, chicory, cocao, pepper, salt, bread, potatoes, bacon, ham, lard, butter, eggs, petroleum, and, in gen eral, everything workmen are in need of, excepting clothing. He sells this merchandise to his workmen by adding to the cost price from 3 to 5 per cent. This profit pays the employés in charge of the store, and if any bal ance is left it is kept as a reserve fund to serve in case of a sudden augmentation in the price of articles of first necessity to workmen in order that he may continue to sell these articles to them at the old price. SCHOOLS. An employé of the establishment gives lessons of an hour and a half every evening in reading, writing, arithmetic, history, and geography to the boys of the factory until they are sixteen years of age. In this school there is also a savings bank, where each scholar of the school can deposit the savings he wishes to make. He can do this every fifteen days through the teacher, who deposits it in the treasury of the establishment in the scholar's name; and to encourage economy and saving, Mr. Rey Ainé gives 10 per cent. interest on all savings under 300 francs, and over that sum 7 per cent. until the scholar arrives at the age of twenty years. After twenty the young workman deposits his money in the "general workmen's bank" described below. The director very often assists at the evening lessons of the school, and often gives the boys good advice upon honest and moral conduct. Sisters of the "Sacred Heart" are paid by Mr. Rey Ainé to instruct and take care of the young children of the workmen. For this purpose he has appropriated two buildings, and the average number of scholars in them is about 350, nearly all children of workmen in his factory. GENERAL WORKMEN'S BANK. Every workman of the factory can deposit his economies in this bank and receive an annual interest of 5 per cent. for his money. This money will be returned to him on demand. Any workman who has already in the bank a certain sum, say about 1,000 francs, may obtain a loan of the money necessary to build a house for himself. This loan is made returnable by installments paid every fifteen days. At Ruysbroeck, the chief seat of this manufacture, there are already thirty workmen who have built their own houses in this manner. Eighty houses, of from three to six rooms, and with small gardens attached, belong to this gentleman, and are rented at half the ordinary price to meritorious workmen of his factory, for, say, from 5 to 10 francs per month for each house. The hygienic care of these houses is superintended by the director, who has a special watchman under his orders for this purpose, and who daily inspects them. For the purpose of encouraging temperate habits amongst the workmen, there is also connected with this establishment a kind of literary society, of which the director is president. It meets in a special hall every Sunday to read books and newspapers and to indulge in singing and other proper amusements. Its present total membership is 165. The second manufacturing establishment visited was that of the "Société anonyme de Loth," a large establishment within this consular district for the manufacture of woolen, merino, and mixed goods, employing an average of 1,500 workmen. The wages paid work-people in this mill will be found in table No. 2. Dwellings for the employes are owned by the company and rented to the work-people at a very low rate. For a small house containing four rooms, they pay about four francs per month, and for the same number of rooms, but larger, six francs. The employés here are free to purchase the necessaries of life where they choose. Their wages are paid them every fifteen days, but 2 per cent. is retained and deposited in a fund appropriated to their relief in case of sickness. This fund is administered by a commission named by the workmen themselves, who, in case of incapacity to work from the cause just named, are entitled to gratuitous medical treatment and half of their wages during their illness. This societyof employés have another savings institution amongst them, into which they pay a certain annual sum, which entitles them to support in old age. The establishment pays all charges in case of accident to any of their workmen, and has a school attached to their factory where their children are gratuitously taught. A METALLURGIC ESTABLISHMENT. The next manufactory visited was the large metallurgic establishment of the "Société anonyme de Marcinelle et Couillet" near Charleroi, embracing in their works blast furnaces, rolling mills, foundries, machine, and boiler shops, and employing 5,000 workmen. This company has an "assistance and pension fund" for its workpeople and employés, organized in the following manner: 2 per cent. is retained from the wages of the workmen, and 1 per cent. of the salaries of the employés, to which a subsidy of .75 per cent. of the total amount of wages paid to all workmen, and .45 per cent. of the amount paid to all employés is added by the company. Eight physicians are employed by the company to treat gratuitously the workmen of this establishment, including their wives and children Such workmen as are slightly wounded or not sick enough to be in bed, are sent to the company's hospital to be examined by the physicians; whilst those that cannot go out are visited at their homes; but the severely wounded and sick are permanently treated, and taken care of in the hospital belonging to the company at Couillet. Every workman wounded in the employment of the company, if treated outside of the hospital, receives from the day after the accident, 40 per cent. of his wages, with a maximum of 1.50 francs per day until his recovery; and every workman who has been ill from disease longer than one week, receives after the seventh day of his disability, 40 per cent. of his wages, with a maximum also of 1.50 francs per day. Workmen treated in the hospital receive, if unmarried, 10 per cent., and if married, 20 per cent. of their wages. No workman can receive assistance longer than six consecutive months; but if the doctors united in consultation declare that he has some incurable infirmity, and is incapable of doing any work, he is then placed on the pension list. Pensions are given to wounded and old workmen, based upon the number of years they have been in service and on the average wages paid them during the last two years of this service. Pensions for old age are not given to workmen and employés but after twenty-five years of consecutive service, and to secure this workmen must be sixty and employés sixty-five years of age. Assistance is also given to the widows of workmen killed by accident in the discharge of their duties; to the fathers and mothers, if they cannot earn their own living, of unmarried workmen killed whilst on duty; and to children, boys until they are twelve and girls thirteen years old, the father or mother of whom has been killed in service. All the workmen and employés in this establishment can deposit their savings at the company's treasury in Couillet, and receive 5 per cent. interest per year for their money. The following number of schools has been provided by the company for the children of their work-people free of charge: (1) Guardian schools. (2) Primary education for children. |