Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 86.djvu/504

500 paid occupations of the country. The following summary shows the available figures:

The volume of the Thirteenth Census devoted to mines and quarries omitted any statement of classified wages. The only general data on the subject appear in the special Census report on mines and quarries issued in 1902. The data contained in this volume are now so thoroughly out of date that only a brief reference to them will be made.

There were in 1903 581,728 wage-earners engaged in the production of all forms of minerals. The wage rates per day of these men are given by industries, by occupations, and by geographical divisions.

The tables showing the classified earnings of all wage-earners in the mining industry report 16 per cent, of the men as receiving less than $1.74 per day ($500 a year); 62 per cent, received less than $2.49 per day ($750 per year); and 93 per cent, received less than $3.49 per day ($1,050 per year). This showing, on its face, makes the wage scale in the mining industry correspond rather closely with that in the manufacturing and mercantile industries.

One further fact of the greatest significance must be borne in mind,—the ratio of unemployment in the mining industry, particularly in the coal-mining industry, is comparatively high. The federal report on the production of coal in 1910 shows an average number of days worked in the bituminous coal mines of 217 out of a possible 306, and in the anthracite coal mines of 229 out of a possible 306 days. Under the circumstances it is not fair to make a direct comparison between the wage rates in manufacturing and in mining, derived by multiplying the day rate by 306. The proportion of unemployment, particularly in the coal mining industries, is very much higher.

Almost one half of the total number of persons employed in mining in 1902 were in the bituminous coal mines. Of the bituminous coal