CHEMNITZ. 
140 
As regards the number employed in the building trades, no statistics of 
in the succeeding ten years, judging by the growth of the population, which has 
risen from 159,000 in 1895 to 244,000 in 1905. Assuming a corresponding 
expansion in che building trades, the number of workpeople employed in them 
would be little short of 8,000 in 1905. 
The number of persons working directly or indirectly for Chemnitz firms, 
but residing outside, cannot, of course, be stated even approximately, but is 
undoubtedly very large. Numbers of women from the surrounding towns and 
villages of the Erzgebirge may be seen at almost any hour of the day, with large 
baskets of hose slung knapsack-fashion over their shoulders, either going to, or 
coming from, some Chemnitz hosiery firm, from whom they receive regular 
employment in working ornamental designs in hand embroidery on the finer 
sorts of stockings and socks. Again, cartloads of hose made of Egyptian cotton 
in its natural colour are often to be seen entering Chemnitz from some outlying 
town, where the goods have been manufactured. These are on their way to 
some local dyeing mill, after leaving which they are exported as Chemnitz 
hosiery, mostly to the United States or South America. Indeed, it appears that 
the greater part of the hosiery exported from Chemnitz has been manufactured in 
some other town in the Erzgebirge, and this applies in a greater or less 
degree to many other articles supplied by Chemnitz firms. The town, therefore, 
is of great importance not only as a manufacturing but also as a distributing 
centre. 
Except for the inferior grades of unskilled labour, the piece-wage system 
is practically universal in all the greater industries of Chemnitz, so that in 
determining rates of wages it has been necessary in almost every case to ascertain 
from the factory pay-sheets the amount most frequently earned by an adult 
wage system is more generally in operation, very few wages and hours agreements 
have as yet been concluded, so that there is some, though not very much, 
variation in the conditions of labour among the many small enterprises engaged 
in those trades. This scarcity of wages agreements, in a town where labour is 
strongly organised, is noteworthy and difficult to explain. Indeed, the only 
trades in which the conditions of labour are regulated by agreements in Chemnitz 
are those of the brewers, printers, carpenters, joiners, painters, cabinetmakers, 
turners (wood), and coppersmiths. 
Returns of the predominant wages and hours of labour have been obtained 
from 35 of the principal employers of labour, including the municipality, which 
owns the gas works, the electric light and power supply, and the water works. 
In addition to these a return was obtained from the Metalworkers’ Federation 
with regard to the wages and hours of labour of a large number of its members 
working for a great machine-making concern, whose officials declined to furnish 
any information on the subject. The following table of predominant wages and 
hours of labour is based on these returns :— 
Wages and Hours of Labour in the Principal Occupations, October, 1905. 
* The wa 2 es and hours of labour stated for the building trades are for a full week in 
more recent date than those of the occupation census of 1895 are available. The 
number was then ascertained to be 5,073, but must have increased considerably 
workman in a full week without overtime. On the other hand, in the minor 
industries, such as the various branches of the building trades, where the time- 
Weekly Wages. 
Weekly Hours of 
Labour. 
Building Trades* .-— 
Bricklayers and Masons 
Carpenters 
Joiners ... 
Painters ... 
64 
57 
52 
54 
64 
Stonemasons 
Stucco workers 
Labourers 
summer