WHAT THE MINER REALLY MAKES.
By John McDowell
[Rev. John McDowell, in The Pilgrim for July.] THERE is a wide difference of opinion regarding the actual wages of the striking anthracite miner. The nominal wages as figured by the operator vary from $50 to $75 a month. The actual wages as figured by the miner vary from $30 to $38 a month. This difference is due to the fact that the operator figures on the basis of full time, while the fact is that the miner rarely makes full time, and is compelled to figure according to the actual number of days he has worked, which in the past ten years have averaged little over fifteen days to the month. The Report of the Pennsylvania Bureau of Mines and Mining for 1899 shows that the average wages of the miner for that year would not exceed $285, an average of $23.71 per month. Peter Roberts, in his recent publication on the Anthracite Coal Industry, gives the average monthly earnings of the miner for the years 1898 as $34.10, and that of the day laborer is $22.40—an average of $1.37 per day for the miner and 90 cents for the laborer. I take from my notebook the following statement made by an old miner whose word can not be questioned:— Family of six: Average monthly wages for twelve months—Nov. 1900 to Nov. 1901—$36.00. Rent $4.50; clothes and shoes, $6.00; doctor and medicine, $1.50; coal, $2.00; lodge and church, $1.50; household goods, $2.00; total, $17.50. There is left a balance of $18.50 for food for six during the month!