taken from the official report on Industrial Statistics of Pennsylvania for the year 1884. These tables are not made up from returns from any particular mine, or from the mines of any particular locality, but by averaging the entire aggregate of returns from the whole State.

The first of these tables, entitled "Theoretical Wages," is an exhibit of the wages, per week and per year, of wage-workers in and about iron-ore mines, on the basis of constant employment during the whole year.

TABLE I.-Iron-Ore Mines; Theoretical Wages.

The foregoing exhibit is made up by tabulating returns made by the employers of labor in the iron-ore mines of Pennsylvania. But when this exhibit is tested and scaled down to the amounts actually paid by them to their employees, the figures reduce themselves to those contained in the following table:

TABLE II-Iron-Ore Mines; Exhibit of Actual Wages.

To explain more clearly how these tables have been made up we quote the statement respecting them of the Secretary of Internal Affairs for the State of Pennsylvania. He says:

"In the compilation of the tables of wages paid to wage-workers in Pennsylvania, we have deemed it proper to travel out of the beaten path. . . . . Table I. shows the highest rates of wages paid per diem, multiplied by six full working days, to show the highest weekly wages, and this multiplied by fifty-two, to show the highest annual wages. Table II. gives the average daily wages, multiplied by the number of days actually employed per annum, and this product divided by fifty-two shows the actual weekly wages paid and received."

These tables show, by comparing them, how the general public are systematically deceived and deluded as regards the actual wages received by toilers in the iron-ore mines of Pennsylvania, and as regards their actual condition. Table II. tells the ghastly truth, and yet, not the whole truth. For even from the scanty wages exhibited in Table II. deductions are made for various. reasons and pretexts not shown in the table. And while we are writing this, to-day's issue of a Philadelphia paper is before us, containing the statement that the present wages in the ore-mines of the most extensive iron-ore region in Pennsylvania are fifty cents per day, and sixty cents for experts.

Another of the leading industries of Pennsylvania, is that of mining coal. At different times, and according to the activity of the coal trade, it employs from 120,000 to 150,000 miners, laborers, and mechanics. The tables which we shall give below are taken from the official report on the industries of Pennsylvania for the year 1884. They have been prepared from the reports of operators who employed about 82,000 wage-workers in the anthracite coalmines, and about 37,000 wage-workers in the bituminous coalmines.

Respecting these tables the Secretary of Internal Affairs says: "The great difference between theoretical wages and actual wages, is to be accounted for by the difference actually existing between theoretical working time and actual time employed. This difference amounts to one hundred and twenty-eight days in the anthracite, and one hundred and ten days in the bituminous coalfields."

We first give the tables which exhibit respectively the theoretical and the actual wages in the anthracite coal regions :

TABLE I.-Exhibit of Highest Average Wages in the Anthracite Coal Mines of Pennsylvania, Based on full Working Time.

Were this "theoretical" exhibit realized in actual fact by wage

workers in the anthracite coal-fields, there would be little reason

for complaint, and we are inclined to think that the wage-workers would not complain. But the table of actual wages, which we give below, shows that the foregoing table is simply a "word of promise to the ear, but broken to the hope."

Compare now with that table the one which follows:

TABLE II.-Exhibit of Actual Wages at the Anthracite Coal Mines of Pennsylvania, Based on Actual Time Employed.

By glancing from one to the other of these tables the vast difference between the "theoretical" and the actual condition, as regards wages, of the toilers at the anthracite coal-mines, will be

seen.

To save the trouble of a laborious comparison we tabulate the differences, per week and per year :

TABLE III.—Exhibit of Differences between Theoretical and Actual Wages, and Consequent Loss, per Week and per Year, at the Anthracite Mines of Pennsylvania.

Loss of Wages.

Per Week.

$7 36

5 00

Per Year.

$382 72
260 00
236 08

180 96

.

4 54

3 48

Drivers and runners,.

326

Firemen,

169 52

In the bituminous coal regions a like discrepancy exists between the nominal or theoretical and the actual wages, as the following tables prove. They show, too, that the condition of wage-workers in the bituminous coal-fields is even worse than that of wageworkers in the anthracite coal-fields:

TABLE I.-Exhibit of Highest Average Wages Paid in the Bituminous Coal Mines of Pennsylvania, Based on Full Working Time.

How wofully short of this "theoretical exhibit" are the actual wages of the workers in the bituminous coal-fields of Pennsylvania is shown by the table which immediately follows:

TABLE II.-Exhibit of Actual Wages Paid in the Bituminous Coal Mines of Pennsylvania, Based on Actual Time Employed.

After examining this latter table, the fact must be considered that these "actual" wages are subject to various drawbacks and deductions enforced against employees, and which their necessitous condition compels them to submit to. These drawbacks and deductions amount to from twenty to twenty-five per cent. of wages that the employees are credited with upon their employers' books. When this fact is taken into consideration, it becomes evident that it is scarcely possible for the wage-workers to obtain for themselves and their familes mere subsistence, not to speak of a decent and comfortable livelihood. There seems to be no opportunity or chance, even, of them rising above the condition of mere serfs, compelled to toil hopelessly during life, on the terms and conditions which their employers prescribe.

To show more clearly the discrepancy between the "theoretical" wages of employees in the bituminous coal-fields, as furnished by

employers, and published from time to time in our newspapers, and the actual wages (excluding, too, even, drawbacks and deductions commonly made from them), we give below a table compiled by the Secretary of Internal Affairs, exhibiting the losses incurred per week by wage-workers, owing to irregular employment. To this table we have added a column, showing from the same official figures the losses per year :

Exhibit of Differences Between Theoretical and Actual Wages Paid per Week [and per Year] in Bituminous Mines in

By comparing this table of “losses" per week and per year of wage-workers in the bituminous coal regions in Pennsylvania, owing to irregular employment, with the table of actual wages credited them, a clearer idea will be obtained of their real condition. The brief comment of the Secretary of Internal Affairs upon this point contains a ghastly truth, the deep significance of which is well worth pondering over; "It must be confessed," he says, "that the weekly wages of Pennsylvania coal operatives is not calculated to admit of a saving fund against the day of sickness or disaster. . . . . Looking at the result, and it is one that has been obtained after full and impartial investigation, we are forced to the conclusion that more steady and certain employment throughout the year to employees in the coal fields of Pennsylvania would be more beneficial to the wage-workers than would a nominal rise in daily wages. Not that we think that the present daily wages are sufficient, but rather that the daily wages paid under the present system of broken time is calculated to deceive the wage-workers themselves, who, for the most part, forget the past danger of uncertainty in their employments, and, with a generous hope, multiply their certain daily wages by a certain full time which, alas! never comes."

The space allowed us is limited, and this fact prevents us from going into details of the wages and condition of wage-workers in