Watch the rocks, theyre falling daily, Shows the average weekly wages for a variety of occupations and industries in New Zealand. Source: Shows lawyers' incomes instates and regions, by size of community served, by the age of the lawyer, number of years in practice, etc. Source: BLS, Shows the retail prices of food and commodities in various cities throughout south Manchuria. Wages are expressed in both foreign currency and dollars. Wages are shown in Greek drachmas. Wages are shown in Mexican pesos. Wages are shown in Spanish pesetas. The struggle between workers and managers in the workplace played out vividly in the Pennsylvania coal mines. This was the room and pillar method of mining common in the Appalachian bituminous coalfields. . Other enslaved African Americans escaped from the salt works to Ohio, a free state only 60 miles away. His pictures also reflect a variegated experience in Appalachia, countering stereotypes by depicting middle-class miners, racial diversity, and community pride. Source: AAUP report. Wages are shown in contemporary US dollars. Average earnings by occupation and districts. Source: Teachers' salaries and salary trends in 1923. Source: AAUP report, p. 162. When he lit the fuse, the lead miner hollered, Fire in the hole, and scuttled out of the room with his buddy. See table 164 for average annual wage. Data was originally published in the Industrial Bulletin of the State Department of Labor. Owners claimed property rights and managerial entitlements over the workplace. Source: Compares 1922 to1940 wage rates for a variety of RR jobs, pp. In some cases, when a shot backfired out of the hole, it ignited coal dust or gas in the miners room and sent fire bursting into the main tunnel, where it could burn or suffocate the mules and their drivers passing through. Source: U.S. BLS Bulletin, no. By 1854, forty-six percent of all American pig iron had been smelted with anthracite coal as a fuel, and by 1860 anthracite's share of pig iron was more than fifty-six . Source: BLS, Shows the average pay for a 48 hour week throughout 5 different industries in Milan. View object record Miner's hat, about 1930 Salary data for teachers, principals and school administrators in New York City, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Detroit, St. Louis, Chicago and Kansas City. It also summarizes the years from 1907-1922. Industries and occupations included are toilers, manufacturing, construction, mining, and more. This table covers pages 357-360 in this source. The average hourly pay for a Coal Mine Worker is $21.49. Source: BLS. Source: Table shows 52 years of time-series prices on individual foods, such as. The deal, brokered by. Fearful of the danger, frightened by the blackest darkness he could imagine, and repelled by the coal dust that clung to him like a layer of skin, Washington vowed to get an education and rise out of the coal pits, just as he had risen up from slavery.. Stealing another mans coal was considered a terrible crime. A thief could commit this offense easily, simply by removing one miners brass check from his coal car and replacing it with his own; but the miners often detected this kind of trickery and banded together to demand the thiefs termination. After workers had advanced the mine face to the end of the seam, veterans began the dangerous work of removing the massive coal pillars that stood between the rooms and helped support the mine top. Coal miner Bill Keating composed the ballad Down, Down, Down to break my loneliness and to show my mule I was in a friendly mood., President John L. Lewis, United Mine Workers, convention badge, 1936. Source: Very simple table shows average hours and earnings for all production workers in manufacturing for each year from 1919-1960. Links to government documents and primary sources listing retail prices for products and services, as well as wages for common occupations. Wages are in contemporary US dollars. The carpenters, mechanics, mule skinners, and other mine employees, who enjoyed no such latitude, were known by pit-face miners as company men. By contrast, the pit-face miners saw themselves as autonomous workmen who labored for themselves as well as for the company. Shows the average daily wages Greek workers were receiving in metal mines, lignite mines, smelting and refining plants, and quarries. Shows salaries for sevenoccupations inpolice departments of 25American cities. When a miner and his helper approached the entry to their room, danger lurked in almost every move they made. over the years. Full chapter extends from pp. Every workingman was supposed to have his turn when it came to getting an empty coal car, because each collier deserved an equal opportunity to get his load to the weigh station. Most trapper boys learned how to overcome their fears by watching and listening to the colliers who went underground with them. Source: American Druggist, January 1923 issue. Source: BLS, Shows the cost of foodstuffs, clothing, and other necessities in Hungary. After the top fell, they returned to break and load the fallen coal before another layer of the top came crashing down with a tremendous roar. Dining room: Source: BLS Monthly Labor Review (July 1930). Boys frequently were assigned the most-dangerous jobs. Source: BLS, Shows the average wages for an 8 hour work day in Riga within various industry groups. Wages are shown in Finnish marks. At dawn, the workers reported to the payroll clerk in the company office, where they were handed numbered brass checks to attach to each coal car they loaded. About half of the surveyed penal institutions gave prisoners some compensation, based on its use as incentive toward good work and better behavior, and to provide the convict with a small way to provide for his family. Shows wages and prices in kronen, along with the exchange rate to translate into U.S. dollars. Fascinating book that shows various imported items (such as kid gloves, bloomers, silk nightgown, men's pipe, electric flatiron, glass lamp, etc.) Provides detailed breakouts by occupation. Compares average retail prices for "warehoused" name brand grocery items at independent and chain stores in Cincinnati. Others opened large wooden doors just before speeding cars passed through. Coal loaders at the face depended on mule drivers and motor men to honor the old tradition of a square turna custom through which colliers sought to control output and equalize earning opportunities by ensuring that each miner would receive the same number of cars during a workday, in the words of a mine industry historian. Source: BLS. Use the following hyperlinks to see values for AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY. 525. Shows salaries for officers, managers, clerks, operators, etc. Iowa farm houses averaged around 8 rooms and had an average value of $3,043. Shows breakouts for automobile manufacture, cigar making, boots/shoe making, men's clothing, iron/steel and more. 2012-08-05 00:38:00. Source: BLS, Shows the average wage rates for 19 different occupations in Hamburg, Germany. 45-57. These were the underground attitudes Frank Keeney absorbed as he entered manhood as a coal miner. Source: BLS Bulletin no. Infant's: "The fees and cost of books, instruments, board, room, laundry and incidentals will hardly be less than $400 per session of thirty-two weeks." At the far end of the room, the miner lay down on his side and cut under the bottom of the coal face with his pick, inching his way into the cut and hoping the coal was hard enough not to collapse on him. See data considerations for explanation. 407. Describes the labor policy of New Zealand in the 1920's and throughout the rest of the early 20th century. This risk increased enormously when inexperienced miners failed to undercut the coal before blasting and took the risk of shooting on the solid.. Engineers working for Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron Co. used this model to visualize the coal seams and design their mines. See also "C" tab above for carpenters, cement workers, etc. $20.00 per week. Shows average wages (with and without board) by province. Shows average charge per case for appendicitis, childbirth, heart troubles, cancer, dental problems and more. Unskilled labor hired by cities for construction, repair or cleaning of streets. Shows the average daily wages paid to masons, electricians, bricklayers, bakers, blacksmiths and more. Retreat mining was a risky business, but at least the miners engineered these cave-ins. Under other circumstances, mine tops fell without warning. Source: BLS Monthly labor review, Apr 1926, Shows the average retail prices of various foodstuffs throughout Switzerland. For easier browsing, the information is. Workers focused on the pace of work, safety, and wages. Following legal tradition, companies usually placed blame and responsibility for injuries on the workers. One task was to test for the build-up of flammable methane gas. Compares 1927 and 1913 earnings. Source:Federal Reserve Bank of Saint Louis. Lists the price of bricks, flooring, framing lumber, rough boards, Portland cement, roofing material, house paint and more. Wages are shown in Latvian rubles. Inside workers are further classified as (1) miners and laborers who cut and load coal onto conveyors or into mine cars, and (2) all other employees whose occupations relate to transportation, timbering, pumping, ventilation, and other general underground work. It may be necessary to read the chapters pertaining to the country, but you can find the actual minimum wages in the discussion. Bulletin of the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, No. Acquiring a sense of humor helped mask a workers dread of the mine, but joking was no substitute for learning how to be careful. Source: BLS, Shows the average daily wage in both yen and US dollars. Study showed how much a family of five would need to live in Washington DC in 1920. Priced by the single unit. A man sometimes had to get down on his hands and knees, with his left shoulder, well padded, against the car, bracing himself with his toes against the ties and the dirt of the floor, wrote a former miner, while his partner controlled the brakes to keep the car from rolling back on the pusher if he slipped or grew tired. Back injuries, broken legs, and severed feet and fingers were common. One-page table shows average charges for residential electricity each year from 1924-1934, for cities over 50,000 in population. Bulletin of the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, No. Source: Lists prices of typical food items, housing expenses, clothing, fuel, light and more. An experienced miner would often work calmly under conditions that would terrify a novice, wrote a veteran of the bituminous mines. A strong, skilled coal loader might fill five or more cars in a day. In some cases, when word came around that a miner had been scolded or punished by a boss, workers would gather on a pile of slate to talk about the incident, and the bolder ones with a manly bearing toward the boss would speak up for their fellow worker. Coal mining is a dangerous job requiring skill and judgment. Even in a good week, there was unpaid work to perform: propping up newly opened rooms with wooden posts, laying track to his room, and lowering the floor of the main tunnel so loaded coal cars could pass through. Each table is for a different New Zealand city. Every three or four hundred feet, passageways were cut, creating narrower, corridor-like rooms that led to a coal face where each miner and his buddy worked in their own room. The colliers left large pillars of coal standing as they cut the face forward and sideways through breakthroughs that led to parallel rooms. Also tells pay for court clerks and marshals. Wages are shown in 1931 US dollars. Careless miners always fail. Table shows average cost to rent houses by the number of rooms in each of 25 New Zealand cities and towns. Shows weekly wages for male and female workers in common industries such as textile manufacture and mining, and also more uncommon like ice cream manufacture and hospitality services. Shows the average weekly hours and hourly wages for workers in the boot and shoe industry. Shows average wages by industry in both rubles and US currency. Miscellaneous: The mine was run by the Japanese, who had occupied the area, along with the rest of the puppet state of Manchukuo, using prisoners of war or poorly-paid Chinese locals as their miners. A Latvian immigrant and devout member of the Russian Orthodox Church of the Old Believers, Michael Simon wore this cross as he labored in Pennsylvania coal mines. Shows the hourly, daily, and biannual earnings of different occupations in the Missouri coal industry between 1890-1922. Occupations included are limited before 1916. Source: BLS, Shows the retail prices of foodstuffs and other staple goods in the Mexican capital. Starts on p. 44. Prices are shown in Swiss francs. Shows starting salary and increases granted based on marital status and number of children. Engineers used anemometers to measure airflow within mines. After the Civil War, industrialization meant a nearly limitless demand for anthracite and bituminous coal, and hundreds of thousands of new jobs spurred a population boom in the region, which stretches from western New York state to Alabama. Shows the income of each member of a Zurich household and the amount that household spent on various necessities like food, clothing, rent, etc. "75 Years of American Finance: A Graphic Presentation 1861-1935" The study pays particular attention to women who made less than the average wage. Source: This calculator can be used to determine the historical purchasing power of currency in the United Kingdom from 1270 to 2017. Source: BLS Bulletins. Prices are shown in Japanese yen. Wiki User. By law, judges earned 1,500 per year. Broken out by men's and women's jobs. 408, Shows the wages of a variety of occupations in the capital of Argentina. Source: BLS. 297. Then, with their lamps casting a dim yellow light on the dark hillside, the men and boys disappeared one by one into the hole, like ants entering a colony. 8836. how much did coal miners get paid in the 1950s. Girl's: Boys labored inside, sorting coal by size and removing rock. Part of a section on Negro women's wages. Shows pay tables based on years of service,for Army and Navygenerals, admirals, colonels, lieutenants, captains, ensigns, etc. Wages are shown in pounds, shillings, and pence. Source: BLS, Shows the minimum hourly wages of various occupations in Brussels. Here Are the Best Reviewed Books of the Month. This bibliography lists reports that show income, budgets, consumer expenditures, etc. By 1910, more Italian immigrants lived in McDowell County than anywhere else in the state. Lists ticket prices in NYC, Boston, Philadelphia, Cleveland and eight more cities in NY, PA, OH and MA. Read more Employment in coal mining industry in the United Kingdom (UK) 1920-2021 . Covers elementary, junior high, and high school teachers in American cities with populations of 2,500 or more. In 1974, the Environmental Protection Agency commissioned photojournalist Jack Corn to document the plight of the American coal miner in Appalachia. Data available for additional years inMissouri Farm Census by Counties, Missouri State Dept of Agriculture. Lists wages paid to auto mechanics, office workers, window cleaners, barbers and hairdressers, bartenders in saloons, domestic servants, people working in social agencies, and more. Describes the labor policy of South Africa in the 1920's and throughout the rest of the early 20th century. This website does a good job of organizing a complex topic. Source: One-page table shows 80 years of average retail prices for bread, milk, eggs and other common food items. ), carriages, cribs, high chairs, etc. Musical instruments: Before the 1930s, many boys worked in mines. Farm laborers in Missouri earned an average $41.90/month in 1921. At suppertime, youngsters like Frank would sit with the men on a pile of slate and listen as veterans of the mine would sing songs, spin yarns, and tell jokes; they would rib the boys, trick them for laughs, and tell them tall tales of the devilish apparitions that appeared to them down in the hole. Shows the average daily wages of Japanese and Chinese workers in various occupations for the South Manchuria Railway Co. Wages are shown in both contemporary yen and US dollars. Boys discovered that serious men turned into jokers when they toiled underground. Three decades earlier a boy about the same agea newly emancipated slavehad worked in the same minefield. Issues of Telephone engineer & management detail rates for telephone service in many states. After undercutting the face, the collier turned the crank on a five-and-a-half-foot-long breast auger and pushed with all his weight to bore a hole high on the face. The 1920 Montgomery Ward mail order catalog showed the price of. From. After checking in, they climbed up a steep trail from the office to the portal of a mine. Report published in 1923 gives wages for Arkansas women by occupation and race. Wages are shown in German marks. See the. by STATE In 1927, "$30 per month was taken as the average minimum expenditure for rent in Boston for the [working class] family of four living on the American standard.". Smoke from explosions of black powder,the reek of oil lamps, and the pervading coal dust made breathable air something of an obsession with the miner, one miner recalled. These deposits could produce firedamp, which contained methane and sometimes carbon dioxide that seeped out of the coal seams. Retreat mining required the rapid destruction of these pillars, each containing tons of valuable coal, before the mine collapsed. Managers liked immigrants because they worked for low wages. Source: BLS, Shows the average daily wages and hours of a variety of occupations in Madrid. Article compares the cost of renting versus buying a home in 1928. For example, the 1920 volume gives rates in Ohio and Minnesota, Illinois and Indiana, and more. Table shows average 1929 and 1931 weekly wages of full-time store employees, managers, and supervisors by kind and size of chain and location. It was usually undertaken by women, and sometimes children. Wages are shown in both German marks and contemporary U.S. dollars. In West Virginia, where mineswere cut near the mountaintops, the overburden was looser and more prone to collapse than in the deeper shaft mines of the North. Source: BLS. Shows typical pay in stock companies, dramas, musical comedies, vaudeville and screen, from extras to Hollywood stars. Literary giants have thoughts on the new edits to Roald Dahl's works. Shows data for unskilled male laborers in each of 13 industries, as well as an overall average. 59-71. Typewriters, school supplies, office supplies, fountain pens, more fountain pens, books, drawing sets, home office furniture. College professor salaries, 1928 (Source: AAUP report). Coal powered industrial America. Shows the average weekly earnings by industry and occupation. Wage rates by occupation in foreign countries (sometimes just to a certain city in the foreign country), assembled for easy comparison to U.S. wage rates for the same occupations. Mine foremen attempted various forms of industrial discipline to maximize productivity, but in the early 1900s, coal miners experienced little of the supervision foremen and factory managers imposed on workers; in fact, veteran colliers often became surly when a mine foreman came by their place on his little scooter to check on them. See answers (2) Best Answer. Regardless of what their state government might or might not do to protect them, the miners of West Virginia had to rely on themselves and their buddies, rather than on company fire bosses and state mine inspectors, whose numbers were few and whose visits were infrequent. West Virginias drift mines were cut into the mountains horizontally and its slope mines descended gradually into the earth. The region's first coal miners primarily were African Americans, both enslaved and free. 664. 294-295. Includes clam, lobster, oyster industries and more. Bathroom: Source: BLS, Shows the average retail prices of staple foodstuffs in Madrid, Spain. (Jack Corn/EPA) A ppalachian coal production has been on shaky ground almost since the industry's inception in the mid 19th century. The workday ended at 5:30 in the evening when the sunlight had already faded over the mountains. It provided a $1.20-a- day wage increase effective Jan, and an increase of 80 cents a day beginning April 1, 1959. Source: National Education Association of the United States. Industrial home work was most common in clothing manufacturing and tobacco industries (rolling cigars, etc.) Frank Keeney left no account of how he felt the day he entered the mine portal, but one imagines the dread that might have accompanied a ten-year-old boys first trip into the hole. Shows average dollar amount spent annually in categories such as food, clothing, maintenance of health, personal goods, furniture and more. The mine operators assumed that if they paid a worker according to the number of tons he loaded, they would foster a competitive climate underground; and in a sense, the tonnage system worked this way. 467. Includes breakouts for adults and. Shows the average monthly wages of multiple occupation in the Alaskan fishing industry. Source: BLS, Shows wages of various industrial and agricultural gender, in both Romanian leu and contemporary U.S. dollars. From the Newcomb-Endicott store, Detroit, Michigan. Chart shows median wages of women employed in Philadelphia households as chambermaids, cleaners, cooks, waitresses, laundress, seamstress, and children's nurses (nannies.) Wages are based on the average weekly full-time positions from large cities. In the late 1800s mining was rough physical labor. Kitchen: Milk cost an average 33 per half gallon in 1920. Source: This table provides average yearly wages per industry or trade type, including transportation, education and agriculture, among others. 613. Veteran colliers knew competitive individualism bred greed, hostility, thievery, and a disregard for mine safety. Coal mine owners and superintendents rarely went underground. This calculator allows you to compare the buying power of wages earned at different points in history. Bedroom: Also shows rowboat and pack horse rental rates, cost for guided tours, and transportation fares. In the 1920s decade, 8% to 12%of peopleaged18-21enrolled incollege. Source: U.S. Congressional Serial Set Vol. Covers more than 1,200 cities. Shows firemen salaries for 25 American cities including New York City, Chicago, New Orleans, Indianapolis, Buffalo, Boston, Detroit, Cleveland, St. Louis, Kansas City and more. Before the 1920s most miners were independent contractors. $180 - $5k. Every workday a panel of miners, ranging from fourteen to twenty-eight men, passed through a main entry and then turneddown a side entry. Shows the wages of Japanese mining workers by gender and age. Each table spans 2 book pages, and row labels only show on even-numbered pages. Source: BLS, Shows the earnings over different times for both government employees and manual workers in Hamburg. Time became important to managers as they changed their labor model. Coal mining jobs - Hours and earnings, 1919-1933; Coal mining wages by state, 1923 Source: Miners' wages and the cost of coal: an inquiry into the wages system., pp. More passenger air fares from other sources: Household items: The correct use of explosives depended on the miners skill and knowledge of how to drill, how much powder to use, and how to damp a charge properly. Ukrainian immigrant Nick Gurski began working in the Boone County coal mines in the 1920s. Few words meant more to mine workers than manliness, a quality that connoted dignity, respectability, defiant egalitarianism, and patriarchal male supremacy, in the words of historian David Montgomery. Union wages by occupation and city, 1922-1928, Women's median wages by state and industry, 1910s-1920s, Cigarette packs - Average retail price by brand, 1929, Average college expenses and tuition by institution, 1928, Family budgets by income group, 1918-1930, https://libraryguides.missouri.edu/pricesandwages, Common labor - Average entrance wage rates, 1926-1934, Union wages by occupation and city, 1920-1921, Steam fitters' and sprinkler fitters' helpers, Structural-iron workers: finishers' helpers, Union wages by occupation and city, 1929-1930, Captains, masters, mates, pilots, and engineers, Maintenance-of-way employees: Gang foremen, Maintenance-of-way employees: Assistant gang foremen, Maintenance-of-way employees: Iron workers, Maintenance-of-way employees: Masons, bricklayers, and plasterers, Maintenance-of-way employees: Section laborers, Maintenance-of-way employees: Crossing and bridge flagmen and gatemen, War and postwar wages, prices, and hours, 1914-23 and 1939-44, Urban Negro weekly earnings by sex and occupational class, 1925, Negro wages by occupation - Chicago, 1920, Teacher salaries by race - North Carolina, 1922, Teacher salaries by race - Texas, 1925-1926, Accountants, auditors, bookkeepers, etc. First, the men had topush an empty coal car up wooden rails that they had installed on their own time. Occupations wages shown in 1930 US dollars. Wages are shown in both US and English currency. In the late 1800s mining was rough physical labor. Manufacturing wages -- SEE box further below. in FOREIGN COUNTRIES, FOOD The strike was officially called to a halt on March the 3rd 1985. For best detail, see the full chapters on. 5-6. COST OF LIVING Wages are shown in contemporary U.S. dollars. Typically, workers could get an advance on pay, in company-issued paper currency, called scrip, or tokens to buy goods.