and rubber. shoes involves a considerable period of training and 
represents skilled labour. The manufacture of articles such as 
rubber heels, which needs little beyond the plant and labour for 
mixing and vulcanisation, is not subject to this limitation, and as 
the essential equipment is comparatively inexpensive, such works 
can be established without difficulty in any part of the world, A 
circumstance which tends to localise certain branches of the in- 
dustry and to increase the size of the economic unit, is the seasonal 
character of the market for certain classes of goods, for instance, 
hot-water bottles, football bladders and golf balls. The manufac- 
ture of such articles is generally confined to large works covering 
a range of products so as to facilitate internal labour transference. 
In certain cases as, for example, in the manufacture of perambu- 
lator tyres and dental rubber, the rubber factory forms a small 
department of a larger works. 
Wages in 
the indus- 
try. 
Practice in 
Canadian 
and United 
States 
Factories. 
119. It is thus very difficult to attach any definite meanings to 
figures of the average wages in the rubber industry in different 
countries. The industry itself is not a unit. Where the rubber 
factory is, so to speak, incidental to a main trade of a locality or 
is only a branch of a larger factory, wages naturally tend to conform 
with those in the main industry. In certain sections of the 
industry wages run definitely higher than in others. Thus wages 
in a tyre factory generally exceed those in a waterproofing 
factory in the same country. Those in a boot and shoe factory 
differ from those in factories for tyres or waterproofed gar- 
ments. Thus differences between the average wages of different 
countries reflect differences in the character of the manufactures 
of different countries. Comparisons between average wages in 
different countries are therefore very misleading. ‘We have given 
in Appendix VI the information regarding ‘‘ money ’’ wages with 
which we have been supplied, but we -deprecate the institution 
therefrom of close comparisons between country and country. 
120. It seems undoubted, however, that wages in the rubber 
industry in Canada and the United States rule higher than those 
in the United Kingdom, where also they are generally higher than 
in factories on the Continent of Europe. The general principles 
on which wages are earned in rubber factories in Canada and in 
the United States differ from those followed in factories in- Great 
Britain. - Payment at piece rates on output is far more general in 
Northern America than in England, and earnings depend to a 
larger extent on the effort of the individual and not even of the 
** team *’ of which he may form a part. It is reported that many 
individual employees attain an exceptional speed ir operation. 
Due very largely to the vast output of standardized articles from 
large factories the value of output per employee in the United States