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Per cent which earnings of husband form of total yearly income of family, by general nativity and race of head of

family.

[This chart shows only races with 20 or more families reporting.

The totals, however, are for all races.]

Of the foreign-born, the largest proportionate income from earnings of husband, 83.9 per cent, is shown by the Ruthenians, and the smallest, or 62.1 per cent, by the Irish, no foreign race reporting a proportion as high as that shown by the whites native-born of native father. The income from earnings of wife, as shown by the various races, is too small to deserve specific mention. The largest proportionate income from contributions of children is shown by the Irish, with 34.1 per cent, followed by the English and Welsh, with 27.9 per cent and 23.8 per cent, respectively, while the smallest, or 2.5 per cent, is shown by the Ruthenians. Of the income from payments of boarders and lodgers, the largest proportion, or 19.8 per cent, is shown by the Magyars, followed by the Lithuanians and North Italians, with 18.7 per cent and 18.4 per cent, respectively, the proportions of the other races ranging from 17.6 per cent, as shown by the Croatians, to 0.9 per cent, as shown by the Welsh. Each race shows a certain proportionate income from other sources, ranging from 4.7 per cent as shown by the Welsh, to 0.3 per cent as shown by the Croatians.

The following table shows the per cent of total yearly income from husband, by locality and by general nativity and race of head of family:

TABLE 58.-Per cent of total family income within the year from earnings of husband, by locality and by general nativity and race of head of family.

(STUDY OF HOUSEHOLDS.)

[This table includes only races with 20 or more selected families reporting in each of two or more localities. The totals, however, are for all races. For selection of families, see Vol. II, p. 284.]

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@ This total includes persons in households not given in the localities, because within a locality no race was tabulated unless 10 or more schedules were secured.

Not computed, owing to small number involved.

This table shows that of the total number of families the heads of which are employed in the bituminous coal-mining industry, the proportion of the total yearly income from the earnings of husband is 77.4 per cent, the different localities ranging from 88.4 per cent, as shown in the Middle West, to 71.6 per cent, as shown in the South. The families of whites native-born of native father show the largest proportion, or 86 per cent, of total income derived from earnings of husbands in the Southwest, as compared with 75.7 per cent of the total income derived from husbands of families of the same class

in Pennsylvania. Considering the foreign-born, the North Italians and Lithuanians show larger proportions of family income from earnings of husbands among families in the Middle West than among those of the Southwest and in Pennsylvania. The South Italians of the Middle West report 90 per cent of their total income derived from earnings of husband, as compared with 81.4 per cent of the family income derived from the same source in the Southwest, 83.1 per cent in Pennsylvania, and 78.5 per cent in the South. Of the Magyars, 81.6 per cent of the family income in Pennsylvania arises from the earnings of husbands, and 62 per cent is reported for the South. The Poles and Slovaks depend more largely upon the earnings of the head for the support of the family in the Southwest and Pennsylvania than in the South and the Middle West.

CHAPTER IV.

WORKING CONDITIONS.

Hours of work—Methods of wage payments-Deductions from earnings of employees— Company houses-The company-store system-Benefits received by employees in addition to wages-Regularity of employment-The immigrant and organized labor[Text Tables 59 to 64 and General Table 19].

HOURS OF WORK.

The maximum hours worked by bituminous miners and the regular hours for other employees of coal and coke companies throughout the United States vary in the several localities, within the same locality, and, in certain localities, within the same mine. The most general difference occurs between localities controlled by organized labor and those without any formal wage agreements. In nonunion localities in Pennsylvania, for instance, both the inside and outside men, with few exceptions, work ten hours a day and sixty hours a week, while in localities that have been unionized, such as those of the Middle West and Southwest, the general practice is to work eight hours a day and forty-eight hours a week. In one section of the South, the Birmingham district, ten hours a day and sixty hours a week is the rule generally followed, although the employees in certain occupations work only fifty-five hours a week. In another section, the West Virginia district, some of the mines are unionized, and where this is the case nine hours constitute a day's work; otherwise the employees work as in the nonunionized mines of Pennsylvania and the South. In both the Middle West and Southwest, where the mines are strongly unionized, as a result of an agreement between the operators and the unions, eight hours and forty-eight hours constitute a day's work and a week's work, respectively. The hours of work are irregular for certain employees of the coke companies, although the employees, generally speaking, are required to work ten hours a day and sixty hours a week.

METHODS OF WAGE PAYMENTS.

The frequency and methods of wage payments, like the required hours of work, are not the same in all localities. Throughout Pennsylvania, the Middle West, and the Southwest, the employees are paid, almost without exception, twice a month, while in the Birmingham district, and at the majority of the mines in the West Virginia and Virginia districts of the South, they are paid once a month. Where agreements with the unions are in force in West Virginia, and by a few individual companies outside of the union districts, wages are paid semimonthly.

DEDUCTIONS FROM EARNINGS OF EMPLOYEES.

In all localities on regular pay days wages are nominally paid in cash. In the interim, however, in the South and Southwest, scrip or store orders, and in the Middle West store orders, are issued to the employees, while in Pennsylvania the employee may "draw checks” from the pay clerk. This scrip, store order, or check is good only at the store of the company or at some store with which the company has an agreement to honor it. These store orders, checks, or scrip are presented to the companies on pay days, and the amounts deducted from the wages of the employee. In addition, many other items, such as charges for blacksmithing, rent of "company houses," medical or hospital service, dues in benefit societies maintained by the companies, dues in the union, etc., are also deducted from the earnings of employees.

COMPANY HOUSES.

In all localities where the mines are some distance from towns or cities some provision for the care of the employees and their families has been necessary. As a result of this situation, mining camps or villages have come into existence. These villages in which the employees live are much alike in all sections of the country. Cheaply constructed frame houses, usually double, in some localities one story, in others two, are built in regular rows. The streets are but slightly improved. Some are covered with coke ashes or slate from the mines; others are the original clay, and in winter and spring are a mass of mud. The gutters are open, shallow ditches, often washed into gullies. At one end of the street is usually located the "company store," at the other a schoolhouse and a church. In some villages the ground about the houses is fenced off, with sufficient space for small gardens. The water supply is often of doubtful purity.

The type of house in which the employee lives varies in the different localities and very often in the same locality, some companies erecting a better class of house than others. In Pennsylvania, for example, the usual type is a two-story double frame building of 8 or 10 and in some cases 12 rooms, designed to accommodate two families. Some are plastered and fairly well finished inside; others are much rougher in their finish. Water is usually supplied by outside hydrants set at regular intervals on either side of the street. Toilets are invariably of the dry type and are built at the rear of the lot along the alleys. The houses in the South are of many types and sizes. In one community in Virginia, for example, many of the houses are of 2 or 3 rooms, one story high. In other communities double houses are found. These are of two sizes and are two stories high, having 6 rooms to the house and 3 to the section, or 8 and 4, respectively. Where these houses have 6 rooms, the front is built two stories and the rear one story, with a wall from front to rear dividing the house into two sections, while the 8-room houses are two stories front and rear. Houses of this type are constructed of dressed lumber, painted on the outside, and ceiled with regulation 3-inch ceiling, dressed and matched. Another type in this section, and preferred to that first described, is the 4-room single house one story in height, built of a good quality of lumber and well painted. These houses have an 8-foot hall and are either plastered or papered inside. In the West Virginia district the

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