SHEFFIELD.

Report, by Consul Webster, on (1) rates of wages; (2) cost of living; (3) present state of trade; (4) habits of the workingmen and workingwomen; for the district of Sheffield.

Referring to the Department circular of April 11, 1878, requiring information upon certain subjects, I beg to present the following report:

1. RATES OF WAGES.

The rates of wages in most of the Sheffield trades have been kept up to the standard of five years ago, and in many cases they have been advanced, notwithstanding the great depression in business. But, although the rates have advanced, the amounts actually earned are much diminished, from the fact that there is so much less work to be done. The fact must be considered, however, that men can now earn larger amounts in a given time than in former years on account of the increased facilities, which enable them to work more rapidly. For instance, the steel for round, half-round, flat, and three-square files was formerly made square, and the fileforger was obliged to hammer it into the required shape. The same was true of steel for cutlery, including razors, edgetools, and many other articles. Now, the steel comes to the hand of the forger from the manufacturer already rolled into shapes suited to the various purposes for which it is designed, thus saving much time and trouble to the forger. The use of machinery also-the use of steam power, instead of leg power, for instance-in many operations which were formerly done by "hand labor," is greatly to the advantage of the workman, since he now receives as much per dozen for the articles he makes as he did formerly, when he could only turn out one-half or twothirds as many in a day. In such cases machinery has been the friend of the workingman, although he has been in the habit of looking upon it as his enemy.

The following table gives a fair average of what men in the various trades can earn, if working full time, at the present rates of wages:

Railway employés: *

Engine-drivers, 12 hours per day..
Firemen, 12 hours per day

Passenger guards, per week.

Goods guards, per week of 72 hours.
Pointsmen, per week of 72 hours..
Watchmen, per week of 72 hours

....

Passenger porters, per week of 72 hours..
Goods porters, per week of 72 hours.
Engine-fitters, per week of 66 hours
Examiners, per week of 72 hours.
Oilers (boys), per week of 72 hours
Laborers, per week of 72 hours..

Workers in iron (founderies, machine-shops, &c.,) per week:

Puddlers..

Men in goods department work six days per week, while those in passenger department work seven days. Engine-drivers, working 18 hours, get pay for two days; 16 hours, one day and a half; 14 hours, one day and a quarter.

The prices of provisions have advanced in some cases, but in other cases they have receded sufficiently to make the average cost of living very nearly the same at present as in any time in the last five years.

American fresh meats and American and Australian canned meats are extensively sold, and have tended to keep down the prices. These are now so abundant and so cheap, that the poor can have an ample supply; yet it is a fact that there is a stronger prejudice against American fresh and canned meats among the ignorant poor than among the better and more intelligent classes.

The following are the prices of the principal necessaries of life at the present time in Sheffield:

The present condition of trade is anything but prosperous in this district, which has heretofore furnished so large a share of the exports of England.

4. HABITS OF THE WORKING MEN AND WOMEN.

I fear I may not be able to give as definite information on the "business habits and systems" of this district as was intended. Here, as everywhere else, men differ greatly in their willingness and ability to work. A bold recklessness as to earning and spending prevails among the Sheffield workingmen. Many a man who can easily earn his $14 or $19 a week will be satisfied with earning half that sum, or just enough to provide him with his food, beer, and sporting, allowing his wife but

*12 cents per pound more in winter.

a mere pittance of his wages for herself and children. Large numbers who might make themselves independent make no provision for the future, except to pay into their club a shilling or two per week, which insures them, if not in arrears, some aid in case of sickness. This method of insurance, good in itself, seems to operate here to paralyze the desire to save. Whether this indifference as to any provision that exists so largely among the workingmen has any connection with the certainty that there is the workhouse for them as a last resource is a question that will suggest itself; a question that is answered in the affirmative by many; a very important question as bearing upon the best methods of dealing with the poor. One thing, however, seems evident, that, notwithstanding the great depression in the manufacturing interests of Sheffield, there would be but little destitution among the working people but for their drinking habits. Any one walking our streets will see where the earnings of the workingman go, and in very many cases the earnings of the workingwomen also; for there is in this town a far greater proportion of women employed in the heavier kinds of labor than will be found in the large towns of the United States, excepting, it may be, the great cotton-manufacturing centers. This fact is to be considered in estimating the amount of earnings that go to the support of families, such earnings being larger than might at first appear. Were these sums properly used, there would be comparatively little suffering from poverty.

The amount spent in intoxicating drink in Great Britain during the year 1877, according to the excise returns, was more than $700,000,000. Sheffield's share of this expenditure would amount to more than $5,000,000. A considerable part of this sum would not come from the earnings of what are termed the laboring classes; but a sufficient amount comes from that source, if saved, to place a great proportion of them above want. The waste of money on drink implies, also, a very great loss of time. This amounts, at a moderate estimate, to one day a week, on an average, to the workingmen of Sheffield. The loss of one day a week to 40,000 workingmen means the loss of $40,000 per week at the low estimate of $1 per day each; this gives a total loss to the workingmen of Sheffield per year, by lost time alone through drink, of $2,180,000, and the better the times the greater the loss.

Making all allowances, the foregoing estimates are thought to be under than over the truth. There is but little doubt in the minds of those who know the working population of Sheffield that almost the whole of this loss of time is fairly chargeable upon the drink habit.

This subject could be followed out to startling results. It is introduced here as being in part an answer to the fifth inquiry, and as bearing upon the question of Sheffield's-and England's-ability to continue to compete successfully in the markets of the world with any nation whose producing classes are temperate, and, therefore, industrious and thrifty, a subject to be considered in the discussion of the means by which our country can, by an honorable rivalry, attain to commercial superiority.

UNITED STATES CONSULATE,

C. B. WEBSTER.

Sheffield, July 16, 1878.