Wage Earning and Education Part 14

The general conditions of labor such as wages, hours of labor, and so on, are the same for teamsters and chauffeurs. They earn about the same wages, belong to the same union, and work about the same hours.

The wages range from 25 to 37 cents an hour. Earnings in the better paid jobs compare favorably with those in several of the skilled trades. Automobile repairmen earn from 30 to 45 cents an hour, and work from nine to 10 hours a day. The working day for teamsters and chauffeurs is somewhat longer, ranging from 10 to 12 hours. At the present time these occupations are only partially organized in trade unions.

The report recommends the establishment of a course in automobile construction and operation in the technical high schools. In view of the constantly increasing use of automobiles such a course would be of value to many boys besides those who enter employment as chauffeurs and truck drivers.

STREET RAILROAD TRANSPORTATION

There are employed in Cleveland at present approximately 2,500 motormen and street car conductors. Almost all of them are of American birth, and the majority are natives of the city.

As in railroad work each applicant for employment must pa.s.s an examination, although the requirements are less exacting than those demanded in railroad work. The preliminary training occupies about 10 days, during which the motorman is taught by actual car operation how to operate the controller, how to apply and release the brakes, and other duties connected with the careful running of the car through crowded streets. The conductor is taught the names of the streets, how and when to call them, where stops are to be made, when to turn lights on and off, how to act in case of accidents, and the various duties which deal with the sale, collection, and reporting of transfers and tickets.

No one is admitted into the service before the age of 21 or after 35.

Promotion usually comes in the form of better runs. The chances of promotion to positions above the grade of conductor or motorman are very slight. About 90 per cent of the men belong to the local union.

Union rates of pay for motormen and conductors are higher in Cleveland than in most cities in the country, in spite of the fact that this is the only large city in the country with a three cent street car fare.

The wages of both motormen and conductors are 29 cents an hour for the first year and 32 in succeeding years. The hours of labor are very irregular. The usual working day is from 10 to 12 hours.

The author of the report is of the opinion that no special instruction for this type of workers can be given by the public schools.

CHAPTER XIX

SUMMARY OF REPORT ON THE PRINTING TRADES

A smaller proportion of the industrial population in Cleveland is engaged in printing than in most large cities. The number of persons employed in printing occupations in 1915 is estimated at approximately 3,900, made up chiefly of skilled workmen. Little common labor is used in any department of the industry.

The business of printing is usually conducted in small establishments.

There are not more than six plants in the city which employ over 75 wage earners. Data collected from 44 local printing shops, showed an average working force of only 36 persons. Due largely to this characteristic printing affords an unusual number of opportunities for advancement to the skilled workers in the industry. The smaller the establishments are the greater is the proportion of proprietors, superintendents, managers and foremen to the total number of wage earners. Ten per cent of the total working force in the printing industry is employed in supervisory and directive positions. In many of the large manufacturing industries of the city the proportion in such work is less than three per cent.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Diagram 12.--Number of men in each 100 in printing and five other industries earning each cla.s.s of weekly wage. Black indicates less than $18, hatching, $18 to $25, and outline $25 and over]

No other manufacturing industry employs so large a proportion of American born workers. In recent years many of the skilled industrial trades have been recruited to a very large extent from foreign labor, but in printing the American worker has so far held his own remarkably well. This is due in part to the relatively high wages and desirable working conditions and to the necessity in all branches of printing for a working knowledge of English.

Practically all of the trades are thoroughly organized. The unions are united in a body called the Council of the Allied Printing Trades.

Although only about half of the shops in the city employ union labor exclusively, the union regulations as to wages and hours of labor are observed in both open and closed shops.

Printing workers are among the best paid industrial wage earners in the city. A comparison of the weekly earnings in the various manufacturing industries is shown in Diagram 12. This comparison is based upon the 1914 report of the Ohio Industrial Commission.

The comparison of the earnings of women in various industries, shown in Diagram 13, is less favorable to printing. On the basis of the proportion of women that earn $12 and over per week this industry takes third place. It should be noted, however, that nearly all the women employed are engaged in semi-skilled work in binderies,--a lower grade of work than that done by most women workers in clothing factories, where wages are higher. Compared with other occupations that require about the same amount of experience and training, in textile, tobacco, and confectionery manufacturing establishments, the wages of women employed in the printing industry are relatively high.

Wage earners in printing establishments lose less time through irregularity of employment than do those in most other factory industries. The kind of work done by women is more seasonal than that done by men, although less so than in other manufacturing industries which employ large numbers of women.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Diagram 13.--Number of women in each 100 in printing and six other industries earning each cla.s.s of weekly wage. Black indicates less than $8, hatching $8 to $12, and outline $12 and over]

COMPOSING ROOM WORKERS

Nearly all the workers in this department of the industry are hand or machine compositors. Until about 30 years ago, before practical type-setting machines were invented, all type was set by hand. Today the hand compositor, except in very small shops, works only on jobs requiring special type and special arrangement, such as advertis.e.m.e.nts, t.i.tle covers of books, letter heads, and so on.

In the city there are about 1,200 people employed in composing room occupations, or about 30 per cent of the total number of workers in the industry. This number includes some 50 women employed as proof-readers and copy-holders. Nine-tenths of the composing room workers are members of the International Typographical Union, although the number of shops that employ union men exclusively, called closed shops, approximates only one-half of the total number in the city. The remainder, while employing union labor, observing union hours, and paying union wages, reserve the right to hire non-union workmen.

Composing room workers are the best paid in the industry. A comparison of average wages in newspaper and job establishments is shown in Table 27.

TABLE 27.--AVERAGE DAILY EARNINGS OF JOB AND NEWSPAPER COMPOSING-ROOM WORKERS, 1915

-------------------------+---------------+------------+ Newspaper Workers in trade Job offices offices -------------------------+---------------+------------+ Foremen $5.19 $6.65 Linotype machinists 4.66 4.84 Proof-readers 4.63 3.98 Monotype operators 4.57 .. Linotypers 4.28 4.65 Monotype casters 3.96 4.30 Stonemen 3.94 4.89 Hand-compositors 3.48 4.58 Copy-holders 2.30 2.93 Apprentices 1.64 1.30 -------------------------+---------------+------------+

Compositors suffer most from the diseases that are common to indoor workers. The stooping position in which much of the work is done, together with insufficient ventilation and the presence of gases from the molten metal used in monotype and linotype machines, favors the development of lung diseases. The number of deaths from consumption among compositors is more than double that in most outdoor occupations.

The apprentices.h.i.+p system has held its own in the compositor's trade better than in most industrial occupations. In the establishments visited by the Survey Staff there were approximately 15 apprentices to each 100 hand and machine compositors. As a rule there is no real system or method of instruction. The points princ.i.p.ally insisted upon by the union, which strongly favors the apprentices.h.i.+p system, are that the number of apprentices employed shall not exceed that stipulated in the agreement between the employers and the union, and that each apprentice shall be required to serve the full term of five years.

During the first and second years the apprentice is required to perform general work in the composing room under the direction of the foreman. In the third year he joins the union as an apprentice. The apprentices.h.i.+p agreement stipulates that during this year he must be employed four hours each day at composition and distribution. In the fourth and fifth years the number of hours per day on such work is increased to six and seven respectively. During the last two years of his term he must take the evening trade course given by the International Typographical Union, the expense of tuition being met by the local union. The agreement contains no stipulation as to wages for the first and second years. The wage for the third year is $9 a week, for the fourth year $12, and for the fifth, $15. Apprentices in newspaper composing rooms are permitted to spend the last six months of their period working on type-setting machines.

THE PRESSROOM

The pressroom occupations include platen and cylinder pressmen, web or newspaper pressmen, platen and cylinder pressfeeders, plate printers, cutters, flyboys and apprentices. Approximately 15 per cent of the men employed are cylinder pressmen, about 10 per cent platen pressmen, and less than three per cent web pressmen. Pressfeeders comprise over 40 per cent of the whole group. Nearly nine-tenths of all pressroom workers are employed in job establishments. Five occupations--those of cutters, floormen, flyboys, plate printers, and web pressmen--give employment to fewer than 40 men each.

The average daily earnings of pressroom workers in the establishments from which wage data were collected during the survey are shown in Table 28.

The hourly rates of pay are high as compared with those in other occupations requiring an equal or greater amount of skill and knowledge. Cylinder pressmen earn more per hour than do tool and die makers--the most highly skilled of the metal trades--and platen pressmen in charge of five or more presses earn more than all-round machinists and boiler makers. The rate for cylinder pressfeeders is about three cents an hour higher than that received for specialized machine work in the metal trades.

TABLE 28.--AVERAGE DAILY EARNINGS OF PRESSROOM WORKERS, 1915

_Job pressroom workers_ Foremen $4.78 Cylinder pressmen 3.63 Cutters 3.41 Platen pressmen 2.97 Floormen 2.91 Cylinder pressfeeders, men 2.54 Cylinder pressfeeders, women 1.77 Platen pressfeeders, men 1.83 Platen pressfeeders, women 1.70 Flyboys 1.56

_Newspaper pressroom workers_ Foremen 6.11 Web pressmen 4.33 Web pressmen's a.s.sistants 2.95

Formal apprentices.h.i.+p is practically unknown. The boy begins as a pressfeeder, usually on a platen press, and in the course of time gets to be a platen pressman. A knowledge of platen presswork does not qualify a man to run a cylinder press, and as a rule the platen pressman who wants to change must serve some time as a cylinder pressfeeder and cylinder pressman's a.s.sistant. There is no organized system for training beginners. The boy who wants to become a pressman must pick up the trade through experience and practice, the length of time required depending chiefly on how frequently changes occur among the force of pressmen employed in the shop.

THE BINDERY

The bindery is the only department of the industry in which any considerable number of women are employed. Some of the occupations, such as gathering, sewing, and st.i.tching, are practically monopolized by women. They are also employed extensively in hand and machine folding. About one-fifth are gatherers and one-fifth sewers and st.i.tchers. The other three-fifths are distributed among a number of occupations usually cla.s.sed as general bindery work.

The occupations in which men predominate are forwarding, ruling, and finis.h.i.+ng, and cutting. The forwarders comprise more than one-fourth of the total number of men engaged in bindery work. The other two skilled trades--ruling and finis.h.i.+ng--give employment to about 35 men each.

The average daily earnings in the various occupations, based on returns from 44 establishments, were as shown in Table 29.

TABLE 29.--AVERAGE DAILY EARNINGS OF BINDERY WORKERS, 1915

------------------------------+-----------+-----------+ Workers in trade Men Women ------------------------------+-----------+-----------+ Foremen $4.78 $2.05 Rulers 3.56 .. Finishers 3.51 .. Forwarders 3.23 .. Cutters 3.21 .. Machine-folders 2.81 1.49 Wire-st.i.tchers .. 1.57 Apprentices 1.53 .. Gatherers .. 1.52 Sewers .. 1.52 Other bindery operatives 1.40 1.51 ------------------------------+-----------+-----------+