WAGES COMPARED. |

Evening Post, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 135, 4 December 1909, Page 10

WAGES COMPARED. |

ENGLISH AND GERMAN WORKERS.

A statement was recently made by Captain Boyd Carpenter, prospective Unionist candidate for Colne Valley, that the conditions of the workers in Germany are, on the whole, better than the conditions of the workers in England, and that a sovereign goes further in Germany than in England. This statement was challenged by Mr. F. D. Aclarid, M.P., Under-Secretary for War, and a public debate between the two gentlemen was held recently in the presence of 700 persons, over whom Mr. Alfred Sykes, J.P., of Huddersaeld, presided. As challenger (.reports the Chronicle) Mr.. Acland opened the debate. Keferring to the advantage given by the German State in the matter of insurance and similar points, he admitted Germany was ahead of us, but there was a substantial redu< tion in workers' wages for that. He would endeavour to show that the cost of living was higher, hours of labour longer, and wages lower in Germany than in England. No comparison could bo made between the two nations ,ia respect of the cost of living owing to difference in the manner of living. With regard to rents, the Government had got returns from 107,000 tenemente, and came- to the conclusion that rents were the same m Germany as in England, but with xate3 deducted they found that what the Englishman paid 100s for the German paid 1235. The Government found that the only things in food which were cheaper in Germany than in England were milk and potatoes. In regard to wages, the Government! had chosen trader well represented in the great centres, and found that wages in Germany in the engineering, municipal, and printing trades were onesixth less than in England; the hours of labour were one-tenth more, and the hourly rates were one-tenth more in Germany than in England. He admitted that wages had gone up in Germany since the winter of 1905, on account of the increased cost of Hying. The lot of the German workers was not in any way made better by an increase of wages in such circumstances. Captain Boyd Carpenter said the Government report was based on conclusions as to the imagined position of an English workingman residing in Germany and maintaining his own habits and customs. The question had also been dealt with by the Government from the wages point of view only in merely three industries — engineering, building, and printing. The German wage-earner had derived a greater benefit from increases of wages during the last thirty years than had th© wage-earners in England. Taking the last five years, the rate of increase in wages was estimated at from 37 to 38 per cent., whilst the increase in the cost in living Represented 22 per cent. The Board of Trade found that in the engineering trade there was only a rise of 1.5 per cent. ; in the building trade generally there was a slight increase, but in three trades — masons, plasterers, and painters — a decrease;. Tn the printing trade! the increase was 1 per cent.