58
ASCHAFFENBURG.*
holdings, when two and three cows are kept, can any produce he turned
into money. Some of the peasants cultivate fruit with success. Dessert apples
and pears of good stocks are grown, and for the former as much as 8a. to los.
per cwt. can be obtained, though cider-apples only fetch 6s. In the working of
the farms the wives and daughters take a prominent part. Often, indeed, the
great bulk of the work falls upon them, and the men only give a hand in the
early morning or late evening during the busy seasons. TV here the work is more
equally distributed the men take occasional " days off” from their factory employment,
and the manufacturers are never unwilling to encourage their interest
in rural life and labour. At least one Aschaffenburg firm, indeed, has a loan fund
for the purpose of advancing money to its workpeople to enable them to buy plots
-of land in the villages ; advances are made up to £7 10s. on any one transaction,
and repayment may be made at Is., 2s., or 3s. at once, interest of 2 per cent,
being charged on the outstanding debt meantime. Most of the properties are
mortgaged to the extent of one-half, but their owners make steady efforts to free
themselves from debt.
Another Aschaffenburg industry whose workpeople live for the most part out
of the town is the ready-made clothing industry. There are in Aschaffenburg
about a dozen factories of different size engaged in the manufacture of men’s
and boys’ clothing. The cutters, packers and distributors work and live in
town, but the great majority of the tailors are scattered about in the villages of
the Spessart, as the district surrounding Aschaffenburg is called. Work is
fetched and brought back twice a week by rail and road, and at each visit
of the workers there is a settlement of accounts. The amount which is paid
in wages by Aschaffenburg manufacturers alone—for some of the tailors work
for employers in other towns as well—is estimated at from £1,400 to £1,650 per
week, the higher figure being the estimate of one of the largest employers
of labour, while the number of workpeople of both sexes wholly or partially
employed is placed at 2,500. In his last report the Factory Inspector for
the district remarks—" The Wages in the main go to the Odenwald and Spessart
villages. The often lamented migration from the country is in this way
checked, and the money benefits the other manual occupations and visibly
promotes the prosperity of the entire population.” At the present time
the supply of workers is not equal to the demand, though a man can
earn 4s. 6d. a day where he earned 2s. and 2s. 6d. 20 years ago. Men’s
and boys’ clothes of a cheap kind are made exclusively, and the chief
sale is to the towns of Rhenish-Westphalia, Alsace-Lorraine, Baden, and
Wurtemberg, and to Switzerland and Holland ; not 10 per cent, of these
Bavarian goods are sold in Bavaria. Every worker is restricted to a certain
garment—coat, waistcoat, trousers, overcoat, as the case may be. In nearly
all cases the machines used now belong to the workers : their cost is from
£4 to £10. The busiest times are late spring and winter, and while
many home workers have fair employment all the year round, an average
would probably be from 30 to 32 weeks. It is seldom that a tailor Is
without the help of some assistant, old or young, who relieves him of the
simpler operations incidental to his work, like tacking, buttonhole making and
button sewing, so that he may confine his attention to straightforward machine
work. Now and then, however, a tailor owns a buttonhole machine and works
for others.
The earnings of the tailors vary greatly according to the class and quality of
clothing made and the number of assistants employed. The work is all piece-work
and the normal rates for single garments vary from la. to 2a. 3d. for coats, according
to size and quality of material, 6d. to Is. for trousers, the same for waistcoats, and
2a. to 4a. for overcoats, the workers providing their own thread and silk.
Beginners .earn not more than la. 6d. or 2a. a day, but a man soon "gets
his hand in, owing to the use of the machine, and he can then double these
earnings In good times independent workers earn 5a. a day, and inferior men
3a. and 3a. bd., but taking the year together these averages are not reached. It
must aisc be remembered that from the gross earnings have to be deducted the
cost of materials, light, oil, charcoal for the flat iron, and wear and tear of machines.
Although relatively high wages sire the rule they are the results of
excessive exertion, 1^, 13, and 14 hours a day being common. Even earnings
