Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 5.djvu/135

 REVIEWS 121

These discrepancies are probably insignificant. It appears, however, that in 1866 there was one employ^ only who received S2.50. Colonel Wright's authority for stating that the wages in the establishment for that year were from $2. 50 to S3 does not appear. He further states that wages were the same — /. e., from S2.50 to S3 — in 1891. We find in the tables, however, that of the twenty-nine compositors employed at that period but one received $t„ while three received but $2. The wages were, therefore, from S2 (not $2.50) to S3. The average for the establishment is put at S2.53, not, as seems to be implied by Colonel Wright's showing, $2. 75.

The author quotes no wages for 1872 or 1873, the period just before the panic. As a rule they were higher, if I am not mistaken, than in 1891. Colonel Wright accounts for the higher wages in 1866 by the depreciation of the currency, but the Aldrich report quotes the average premium on gold for 1872 at 109. i. For the Connecticut establishment referred to above, average wages for 1872 are quoted as S3°SK> and as $2. 53 in 1891. A fall seems, therefore, to be indicated from $2.80 (gold value) to 82.53. The average pay of all the composi- tors in the four establishments of the Aldrich report appears to have been $2.55 in 1891, whereas Colonel Wright's propositions tend to the impression that the average was much nearer $3. The fall from an average of over $3 in 1872 is not mentioned.

Continuing to quote from the Aldrich report. Colonel Wright says (p. 230): "A building firm in Connecticut paid journeyman carpenters in 1840 from $1.25 to $1.62 per day; in i860, from $1.2^ to Si. 75 per day; in 1891, from 83 to S3. 25 per day. A firm of builders in New York paid carpenters in 1840 S1.50 per day; in 1860,82; in 1866,83.50; in 1891, 83-50-" Colonel Wright here correctly quotes the data as given for two building-trades establishments, but he has selected the two concerns which furnish the highest quotation of wages of carpenters in 1 89 1, and which show the greatest increase since 1840 or i860. I can- not, therefore, understand how he is justified in the implications of the following sentence : "Similar quotations could be made for carpenters and painters in different parts of the eastern states." This would seem to mean that the foregoing quotations are representative, but, if I am correct in my calculation, the average wage of carpenters in all of the building-trades establishments, nine in number, of the Aldrich report, was, in 1891, 82.75. In like manner, if I understand the Aldrich report, the average wage of the twenty-eight establishments in which carpenters are employed is 82.56. Yet Colonel Wright's