82
BOCHUM.
An analysis of the average net wages per shift of 25,789 adult miners in the
North and South Bochum districts during the last quarter of 1905 gives the
following result : —
Underground Workers :—
Hewers and Trammers .
Repairers, &c.
Surface Workers—Adults.
North Bochum.
Number of
Workpeople.
8,096
4,471
3,185
Net Wa?es
per Shift.
S. d.
5 2
3 4
3 4
South Bochum.
Number of
Workpeople.
5,243
2,883
1,911
Net Wages
per Shift.
S. d.
4 9
3 5
3 4
A wider survey is covered by the returns published by the official
“ Zeitschrift für das Berg-, Hütten-, und Salinenwesen.” These show that the net
wages per shift of coal miners in the Dortmund district (including Bochum)
have ranged as follows between the years 1886 and 1905 :—
Years.
1886
1890
1895
1900
1905
Average ofi
All Workmen.
Hewers and
Trammers.
S. d.
2 7
s. d.
2 11
4 0
3 9
5 2
4 10
Other Underground
Workmen.
.9. d.
2 2
2 11
2 8
3 4
3 5
Surface
Workmen.
S. d.
2 4
2 10
2 9
3 4
3 5
A return of the Knappschafts-Verein at Bochum, the miners’ association
which administers the Insurance Laws in relation to this industry, shows that
in 1905, 6'7 per cent, of its 269,699 members had daily earnings of 2s. Id. or
under, 16 4 per cent, earned from 2s. Id. to 3s. 10<A, 32*4 per cent, earned
from 3s. 10c/. to 5s., and 44 5 per cent earned over 5s.
The yearly output per head, averaged over the entire number of miners
employed, has been as follows in the Dortmund mining district during the
past six years:—1900, 267 tons; 1901, 243 tons; 1902, 241 tons; 1903,
257 tons ; 1904, 254 tons ; 1905, 248 tons. The output averaged over the
hewers and trammers only was as follows :—1900, 520 tons per head ; 1901,
483 tons ; 1902, 480 tons ; 1903, 515 tons ; 1904, 508 tons ; 1905, 497 tons.
In addition to the provision of cheap dwellings upon a large scale—a
subject dealt with more particularly in the section " Rents ”—some of the colliery
companies extend certain of the benefits conferred upon the miners by the
Insurance Laws to the members of their families. In several cases the
wives and children of miners receive medical attendance free of charge, and in
one instance dental attention is added. One company pays half the cost of
hospital treatment for any member of the household where necessary, and sends
batches of children to health resorts every summer. A good deal is also
done to promote the welfare of the younger colliers and the unmarried men
generally. The latter in 1905 formed 38*2 per cent, of all the miners in the pits
of North Bochum and 37T per cent, in the pits of South Bochum. For these
workmen there exist special boarding houses at which lodging and food are
provided at cost price or even less, and the unmarried men of one colliery
are obliged to use the quarters so offered. In the outside districts young men
living away from home generally lodge with miners’ families, paying from
£2 to £3 per month for full board and the share of a bedroom. Two
large colliery companies conduct co-operative stores for the benefit of their
men, the profits being divided amongst the purchasers at the year’s end.
All these institutions and efforts, however, are secondary in influence and
importance to the wide-reaching system of insurance provided by the law.
It is estimated that the cost to employers and employees of the threefold
insurance benefit amounts to £8 10s. per head annually.
In the coal mines of Westphalia there is a large and increasing proportion
of German-Polish labourers, and the amount of foreign labour has also grown
considerably during recent years. Of the miners in the entire Dortmund
mining district, as delimited for administrative purposes, 33 69 per cent, were
