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in Lancashire gets all his necessaries for existence from the society.I am specially indebted to Mr. J. C. Gray, the general secretary ofthe Co-operative Union in Manchester.
I single out pre-eminently the representative of that great in-dustry of Lancashire —the mule-Bpinner. The two spinners whomI choose are in the average position of that operative class—anaverage from which exceptions are the fewer since in the chiefspinning districts all spinning-mills pay exactly the same wages,on the basis of the wage list agreed upon with the operatives.
The man is 42 years old, his wife 41 ; they have seven children— three boys of 9, 16, and 18 years of age; and four girls, agedrespectively 3, 6, 12, and 14. The family lives in a house in one ofthe environs of Oldham. The house, in which, comparativelyspeaking, there is a saving, consists of two rooms downstairs (5 by44 yds. and 4 by 41s yds.), a kitchen joined to the house behind, asmall cellar, and two bedrooms a storey high. Hie rent amounts to4s. per week. To my question as to what formed the principalfood of the family the man gave the answer applicable for theoperative of the North of England—wheaten bread and meat.Meat, mostly beef, is eaten daily at least once, potatoes, coffee,vegetables, etc., performing only the part of accessories.
The man and four of the children work in the factory; the manas mule-spinner, the two eldest boys as piecers, and the two eldestgirls in the preparation rooms. The hours of labour amount to564 per week for both father and children. The weekly earningsof the man reach 40s.; but since there are only 49 to 50 weeks inthe year to be reckoned as working ones, the yearly income is putat £98. The yearly earnings of the children amount to £92 19s.3d. Since the wife and the younger children earn nothing, theincome of the family from wages accordingly amounts to £19019s. 3d. The wages of father and children flow together, as isgenerally customary in the North of England, into the familyexchequer 1 —a circumstance which ensures so much the more thehigh standard of living of this working population, since marriagesdo not take place much too early. In addition to the income men-tioned there comes one from savings and co-operative societies’dividends, amounting to £15 yearly. The total income, therefore,amounts to £206.
The man is a member of the Oldham Co-operative Society and ofthe trade union of mule-spinners, which extends over the whole ofLancashire . Tn the co-operative shops everything is bought—not