Washington, DC, 1998.
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Carroll D. Wright, Commissioner of Labor, Shows How Labor Fares Under Large Industrial Corporations.
True to its record for mendacity the Democratic party has raised a hullabaloo on the question of “trusts,” and large industrial combinations are characterized as “labor crushers” and “grinding monopolies.”
But as is usual with the calamity shrieks of the Democratic party an analysis of the real condition disproves these false assertions and shows conclusively that so far as injury to the worker is concerned, the “trusts,” the “labor crushers,” and the “grinding monopolies” are a bugaboo.
An investigation recently made by the Department of Labor, the result of which is given in Bulletin No. 29, of July, 1900, demonstrates that not only have the number of employees largely increased and wages advanced, but that the increase in wages paid by combinations for both skilled and unskilled labor was much greater than the increase in private companies; the unskilled laborers receiving an average gain of 19.39 per cent in the combinations as against 16.97 per cent in the private companies; while skilled labor received an average increase of 13.71 per cent
The following table presents a summary of the reports of 13 industrial combinations, ten of them formed in 1898 or 1899, showing the number and per cent of skilled and unskilled employees under each classified rate of wages before and after the formation of the “trusts”:
These figures show a consistent decrease in the number of laborers of the different grades up to $15.00 per week, while from $15.00 to $20.00, and from $20.00 to $25.00, the number is practically double when employed by combinations of capital as compared with the number employed at a like rate by the same companies operating independently. The number receiving from $25.00 to $30.00 per week decreased slightly, while those paid
For unskilled laborers the number receiving less than $5.00 per week has considerably increased, explained, says the Bulletin, by the fact that “the same combination is now putting out its products in a form which requires a great many low-paid employees for packing, wrapping, and labeling. This tends to reduce the average wages of unskilled laborers.”
Next are the figures showing the actual money paid for fourteen combinations. These tell the same story:
AVERAGE ANNUAL WAGES OF SKILLED AND UNSKILLED EMPLOYEES OF VARIOUS CLASSES BEFORE AND AFTER THE FORMATION OF THE COMBINATIONS AND THE PER CENT OF INCREASE OR DECREASE, FOR 14 COMBINATIONS.
(a) Not reported.
This table shows, for skilled laborers, an increase in wages by 10 combinations and a decrease by 2, and for unskilled laborers an increase by 11 and a decrease by but 1.
THE FOLLOWING TABLE SHOWS THE NUMBER OF SKILLED AND UNSKILLED EMPLOYEES IN 3 PRIVATE COMPANIES PAID EACH CLASSIFIED RATE OF WAGES PER WEEK, 1897 AND 1899.
While an examination of this table shows the same tendency to increased wages and employment, the increase is not nearly so marked as in the cases of the combinations.
These figures, gathered by Mr. Carroll D. Wright, the efficient Commissioner of Labor, who has been at the head of that Bureau through five successive National Administrations, and whose reports are everywhere conceded the highest credence, show beyond cavil that the “trust” monster which the Democratic party has conjured up is, so far at least as the wage-earner is concerned, neither more nor less than a political scarecrow.