138

THE COTTON TRADE IN ENGLAND

textile industries), and is given in German weights and

measures: —

Flour (1 German lb.)Bread ,, „

Beef (14) „Beef ,,Bacon ,,Sugar ,,Potatoes „

Milk (1 litre)

Hyde.

Pfennige.

.. 16

.. 18 (wheat).. 75 to 80

63 to 73.. 27 to 28.. 5-2.. 15 to 22

Chemnitz .

Pfennige.

22

15 (rye)

80

66 to 70 (with adjuncts)

80 to 90

30 to 34

5-2

20

In Hyde a dividend of 14 per cent, is paid on the sales; in Chem-nitz , in shops, 6j per cent., in co-operative store, 8'3 per cent. (25pfennige per 3 marks).

The higher wages, in connection with the lower food prices,make possible an extraordinarily good nourishment of the English operative. The English workman lives on meat and wheat-flourbread, whilst potatoes mostly form the chief sustenance of theGerman factory-worker. If the English operative, as shown above,minds two to three times as much machinery as the German , healso 1 certainly eats two to three times as much—not in quantity,but in nourishing value from a physiological point of view.

(b) In the second consideration there are certain mental qualifi-cations which make the English operative specially capable forworking on the machine, the achieved results of a developmentnow almost a hundred years old. In Lancashire, not only werethe fathers, but even the grandfathers of the present race machinespinners and weavers.

It is thereby shown how untrue the assertion was that machinelabour pressed down the mental level of the operative. The Eng-lish cotton- operative, as well as the North of England factoryworker in general, is to-day a son of the generation of technicalskill. Technical problems awaken his most lively interest. Thefact stands alone of its kind, that the organ of the cotton opera-tives in Lancashire, the “ Cotton Factory Times,” always has a

14. In England the single piece of meat is sold, according to quality, atvarious prices; so-called adjuncts (bones, etc.) are not to be found. Theselatter are generally sold separately.