Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 86.djvu/499

Rh found much oftener than once in a hundred times, while a wage of less than $500 is paid in three fourths or four fifths of the cases.

Although so many data have been compiled for textiles, the other industries have not been neglected. A number of wage figures are available for lumber and kindred industries. The Tariff Board published a report on the wages for certain selected occupations in the paper industry, and the Bureau of Labor has a study of wages in the lumber and furniture industries. The men employed in the paper industry receive rates of less than $750 in four fifths of the instances, and of less than $1,000 in nineteen twentieths of the instances. The wage rates in the lumber, millwork, and furniture industries are approximately the same as those for pulp and paper, although lumber falls lower than either of the other two. Two fifths of the men in the lumber industry receive less than $500 per year; nine tenths receive less than $750. Millworkers receive less than $750 in three fifths of the cases, and less than $1,000 in three fourths; while furniture makers (male) receive less than $750 in half of the cases, and less than $1,000 in nine tenths of the cases.

The data presented by the Department of Labor for the clothing industry are so meager as to be almost unusable. The total number of persons included in the statement is six thousand women, and seven thousand men. Since there is no certainty as to the manner in which the selection was made, and since there is little or no corroborating evidence, the material must be passed over.

The study of wages in the cigar industry, which the Department presents, is somewhat more illuminating, because it is more careful and detailed.ibid., pp. 5-25. Still, the number of employees for whom evidence is submitted is woefully small. Among the 3,615 males, three tenths received a wage of less than $750, and half a wage under $1,000, Four fifths of the 7,551 females received less than $750. Any one who takes the pains to examine these figures can not help feeling that they do not adequately represent the cigar industry.

An interesting analysis of the work of women in the finishing department of the glass industry appeared in connection with the study of "Woman and Child Wage-Earners." The study, which covered the glass industry with a degree of thoroughness, shows 2,774 women engaged in finishing, for whom satisfactory data could be secured. The chief interest in these figures lies, not in the wage scale which they reveal—there is nothing unusual in that—but in the fact that Mr. Manly, in making the study, procured for this group of women the