ASCHAFFENBURG. $9
of 80s. a week, when divided between 72 or 84 hours of work, only
give a rate per hour of between 4d. and 5d., without deductions, and in most
cases 3d. and 3\d. represent a maximum hourly rate. The Aschaffenburg
Chamber of Commerce comments in its report for 1905 : fc£ It is an evil which
should be discouraged that in the endeavour to ) get on ’ as quickly as possible
the tailors work long hours and keep their assistants at work as long. The
tailors themselves admit the charge, but on the other hand they plead
that as they work by piece and are subject to the fluctuations of the market,
they must make the best of every good opportunity when it occurs. But, adds
the Chamber of Commerce, “ the circumstance that by far the greater part of
the home workers engaged in the Aschaffenburg clothing industry do not sit
uninterruptedly in the workshop, but have simultaneous employment in
agriculture, has an extremely favourable influence on their health.” This is
the effect that would he anticipated did a systematic combination of indoor and
outdoor work really exist. In practice, however, it is not generally the case
that the tailor devotes any large portion of his time to farm work, and very
many of the workers of both sexes never once work on the farm all the year round.
A common arrangement is for the head of the family to he responsible for the
farm and for grown-up children to work at the sewing machines and on the
bench, the mother and the younger people, if such exist, helping as occasion
offers. Ho one who has seen the workers in their homes can doubt that
overwork is common.
In order to see the village tailors of the Aschaffenburg clothing trade at
work it is not necessary to go far. A typical village is Sulzbach, lying only a
few miles away, and having a population of about 1,000. In 25 per cent, of its
households tailoring is carried on, and it is noteworthy that of the persons so
employed over 80 per cent, are adults, more than half of these being females,
while 35 per cent, are married. The village is irregularly built, and
some of the older houses, which stood long before the clothing trade
brought hitherto unknown sources of income to the village, are typical peasant
dwellings of the poorer sort. The newer houses, on the other hand, are very
good, and reveal a degreee of comfort and welfare which is seldom characteristic
of rural life under normal conditions. They are as a rule single-family houses,
consisting of a ground floor and an upper story or attic, giving two rooms and a
kitchen below and two rooms above. The living and bedrooms vary in size
from 160 to 200 square feet, but the kitchens are little more than half this size.
The windows are small, but that is a peculiarity of the locality. A house of
this kind, with the land upon which it stands, costs about £200. The smaller
farms have an area of some 30 ares or J acre, the larger ones of 2 hectares or
5 acres. The cropped land is devoted to rye, oats, maize and potatoes.
Few of these rural tailors are merely tenants : a system ot peasant
proprietorship on a small scale is the rule of the country, though only in
exceptional cases are the holdings entirely unencumbered. A frugal family
first save £50, £75, or £100, and whatever beyond this is necessary to the
purchase of a little plot of land they borrow from the Raiffeisen credit bank at
4 or A\ per cent. The cost of land per are (= 100 square metres = nearly
4 poles) varies from 10s. to £2 10s. according to position, and upon both land
and buildings the bank is generally ready to lend up to two-thirds of the
ascertained value. After the land comes the house, as soon as the savings have
acrain accumulated, so that another appeal can be made to the bank, and the
ambition of the peasant tailor is then complete. Almost everyone saves, be it
little or much. Every Sunday a treasurer goes round to the tailors’ houses to
receive the surplus money that can be spared as a result of the weekly settlement
in Aschaffenburg, and as soon as. £5 has accumulated in any man’s name it is
deposited in the bank and receives interest.. The weekly savings may not exceed
2s, 3 5 . or 4s., but in many cases a family is able to put by as much as £20 and
£25 in the course of the year.
In a town of Aschaffenburg’s size it is impossible that the efforts which
employers make, outside the obligations imposed by the law, for the amelioration
of their workpeople’s condition can be on a ambitious scale. Nevertheless,
much is done by them to encourage on the workers’ part a feeling of solidarity
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