The consul at Nice writes: The laboring man's food consists principally of Indian meal, vegetables, bread, and wine. Meat he seldom eats. In many districts in France the laborers supplement their agricultural earnings by secondary employments, such as weaving, wood-cutting, sawing, wooden-shoe making, &c. The consul at Lyons says that from 8 to 10 per cent. of the agricultural laborers in his district are engaged in these secondary employments, which yield to each laborer about $40 per annum. Not only must the husband labor for the support of his family, but the wife and children must also labor for the general fund in order to make ends meet. The Lyons report gives a most interesting insight into the economies which enter into the yearly subsistence of the French agricultural laborer's family, and one cannot help being struck with the amount of sobriety, patience, and mutual sacrifices which the insight displays. Had this same economy and patient industry the scope and plentifulness which the more generous agricultural opportunities of the · United States afford, to what happy results would it not lead? The married farm laborer, who supports and lodges himself, may earn in the Lyons district $150 per annum, divided as follows: Husband's wages, $80; wife's wages, $30; children's wages, $40. The cost of living to such a family, per annum, is calculated as follows: An average struck from all the reports-seven in number-gives the following results in regard to the rates of wages paid to the several trades in France; the rates paid similar trades in New York and Chicago will help you to make comparison between both countries: Statement showing the rates of weekly wages paid in France and in the United States. The foregoing statement shows that wages in New York and in Chicago are, on an average, nearly three times as much as the wages throughout France. It is to be regretted that the reports do not give any very extended information concerning the articles and prices of the necessaries of life in the several districts of France. The following list, although very limited, may enable you to form an idea of the relative cost of food-supplies in France and the United States: Statement showing the retail prices of certain articles of food in the cities of Bordeaux and La Rochelle and in the cities of New York and Chicago. When the workingmen of France are able to buy the foregoing articles, it may be assumed that they purchase the lowest priced. There is no doubt, therefore, that articles of food of the same qualities are very much cheaper in the United States than in France. Thus, while wages are very much higher in the United States than in France, the necessaries of life are cheaper with us. The report of the consulate-general at Paris gives the average daily wages throughout France as 45 cents and the average annual income of the typical French family-father, mother, and five children, one of the latter old enough to work-as $180. The annual expenses of this family are: Bread, $66.40; meat, $17.60; vegetables and fruit, $11; wine and beer, $20.60; milk and eggs, $5.40; sugar and salt, $4.40; rent and taxes, $13.20; fire and light, $7; clothing, $18; sundries, $10; total, $167.60. Habits of the workingmen.-The habits of the French working classes may be summed up in the words "orderly and industrious." The consul at Bordeaux reports them patient, orderly, and prudent; their trade societies in that important district are entirely devoted to benevolent purposes. Unfortunately he has to record the increase of the demoralizing habit of resorting to cafés. It would seem that as times get bad and trade and commerce degenerate, drinking and drinking places increase. No less than 2,000 cafés are reported in and around Bordeaux, and when legitimate tradesmen have to close their doors on account of business depression, the same houses are certain to be reopened as cafés. Paper money.-The reports herewith do not enable me to give you any very extended information regarding the paper money of France. The report from Lyons says that the Bank of France had, in May, 1878, bank-notes in circulation to the amount of $440,418,000, which was being retired at that time at the rate of from 5,000,000 to 30,000,000 of francs per week. As the foregoing notes are in largé denominations, and as there are no small bank-notes in circulation, it may be said that gold and silver constitute the currency of France. The report from Paris estimates the amount of gold and silver in circulation in France, since 1795, as follows: Gold, 8,435,427,000 francs; silver, 5,287,966,000 francs; or a total circulation of gold and silver of 13,723,393,000 francs. Of this total, the amount in circulation at the present time is estimated by the consul-general at 8,000,000,000 francs. GERMANY. Germany may be considered the labor country of Europe. In all other countries there seems to be room for comparatively large populations which live without working, but the genius of the German mind affords no asylum for idleness. The labor reports herewith submitted from Germany are, therefore, worthy of the most careful analyzation, and, happily, they are very full and ably written, and cover the principal portions of the empire. The ordeal through which the German labor market has passed, and through which it is still passing, will be painfully impressed upon the mind on the most cursory review of these reports. The commercial depression which has weighed so heavily on all countries during the last five years, and which, finally, fell with such crushing effect upon labor everywhere for all disruptions and disarrangements, financial, commercial, or political, no matter what their origin may be, eventually fall heaviest on the workingmen-seems to have been more acutely felt in Germany than in any other country in Europe, and nothing but that patient fortitude, so characteristic of the people, subsidized by untiring industry and the most painful economy, has enabled the German workingmen to pull through these dark years. That you may fully appreciate the condition of the German laborer, the straits to which he is subjected in order to supply the barest necessaries of life to his family, and also to enable the American laborer to compare his own condition with that of his fellow-workingman in Germany, I herewith give you some extracts from the consular reports covering the condition of the working classes in the various districts of the empire. Barmen.-The condition of the laboring classes of the mining and iron industries is very distressing; the price of iron is so low that nothing can be earned, and coal is 40 per cent. below the average of the last twenty-five years. Wages are reduced and many hands discharged. In this district it is at present difficult, if not impossible, for a workingman to earn more than enough for his individual support, and every member of the family must contribute to the general fund; hence, from their earliest years, each member is inured to incessant toil and privation.-From the report of Consul Stanton. Bremen. In order to make life possible, at this rate, women in the country raise garden produce and work in the fields; in the towns, they keep shops, peddle, wash, sew, &c.-From the report of Consul King. The following extract from the annual commercial report for the year 1878 of Consul-General Fairchild, of Paris, successor to Consul-General Torbert, by whom the foregoing report was written, wlll be found interesting in connection with the subject of money in France: "The circulation of bank-notes in France on the 28th December, 1876, amounted to $512,553,587; on the 27th December, 1877, $493,677, 202; decrease, $18,876,385: on the 27th December, 1877, $493,677,202; on the 22d November, 1878, $451,156,346; decrease, $42,520,856. "The amount of paper money in circulation in France is limited by law to 3,000,000,000 francs, or (5 francs to the dollar) $600,000,000. The amount in circulation on the 22d November, 1878, was, as above stated, $451,156,346. "Cash and ingots on hand the 22d November, 1878, amounted to $414,840,038; amount of notes (paper money) in circulation, $451,156,436. Brunswick.-With steady work and the assistance of each member of the household, the workingman can "make both ends meet."-From the report of Consul Fox.* Chemnitz. At the present time large numbers are unable to obtain employment; the country is full of tramps, both honest and vagabondish; and almost every dwelling in this city is visited daily by at least a half a dozen beggars, although begging is prohibited by law. In this district (Saxony) labor is subdivided, giving one man's work to two, in order to employ the largest possible number. As the husband's earnings are not sufficient for the support of his family, the wife and older children must contribute their share of the weekly earnings. This is a general rule, and applies to all families whose support is dependent on labor.-From the report of Consul Griggs. Frankfort-on-the-Main.-The condition of the laborer is not enviable; his opportunities are few; luxuries are almost unknown to him; and he is even obliged to use frugally the necessaries of life in order to live upon what he can earn. Butter and meat are luxuries. The American people would consider such a life bitterly hard and joyless. From the report of Consul-General Lee. Leipsic.-Females are largely employed in business houses, and a person traveling through the country receives the impression that all the work in the fields is done by women.-From the report of Consul Stewart. Sonneberg. The workingman rarely eats meat at all in any other form than sausage, and his wife and children scarcely know its taste, so little do they get of it. There is poverty in superabundance in the workingman's home, often verging upon squallor; his children are generally barefooted, and his wife looks haggard and weary of her lot. From the report Consul Winser. Rates of wages.-To enable you to compare the rates of wages paid in Germany with the rates prevailing in New York and in Chicago, I herewith submit a statement showing the weekly wages earned, as averaged from the several reports, in Germany, and the rates paid in those two cities. Weekly wages in Germany and in New York and Chicago. To enable you to carry the comparison still further, I submit a table showing the food-prices in Germany and in the United States. *The figures presented in the report of Consul Fox do not show how the working. man can "make both ends meet," unless the members of his family earn an amount equal to that earned by the head of the family. Statement showing the retail prices of the necessaries of life in Germany and the prices of similar articles in New York and in Chicago. It will be seen by the foregoing tables that while the rates of wages in New York and Chicago are, on an average, three times the rates in Germany, the prices of the necessaries of life in those two cities are much less than the average prices for all Germany. Assuming that, whenever the German workingman can buy the greater part of the articles mentioned in the foregoing list, he buys the cheapest, the difference in favor of the American workingman is very marked. The average weekly wages of the agricultural laborers of Germany are as follows: Men, without board or lodging. Women, without board or lodging. Women, with board and lodging. $3.50 1.80 155 60 A few extracts from the consular reports will give you a better idea of the every-day life of the German farm laborer than any disquisition which might be indulged in. In order to make life possible at these rates, women raise their own garden produce, and, when they can, work in the fields.-Consul at Bremen. The laborers are really part and parcel of the estate. Wages in money are often merely nominal.-Consul at Dresden. A large portion of the outdoor as well as the indoor work is performed by women, who receive from 20 to 50 per cent. less than men are paid for like services. The laborers are obliged to use frugally even the bare necessaries of life in order to live upon what they earn.-Consul-general at Frankfort-on-the-Main. The agricultural laborers, as a class, are much inferior in point of intelligence and refinement to those of the United States; they are simple in manners, their wants are but few, and they cling with great tenacity to the customs of their ancestors. They are generally honest and law-abiding, very frugal and saving, even to parsimony, and always manage to live within their small earnings.-Consul at Hamburg. A person traveling through the country receives the impression that all the fieldwork is done by women.-Consul at Leipsic. The wages paid hardly cover the necessaries of life; many seldom taste meat more than once a week.-Consul at Mannheim. |