224 
ELBERFELD. 
The following were the wages and hours of municipal workpeople at the 
same date :— 
Road Department :— 
Workpeople in the permanent service of the municipality receive, after a 
year’s uninterrupted employment, two-thirds of their wages during absence 
owing to military duties, if married or responsible for the support of relatives ; 
they are allowed to perform all their civic duties (e.g. as jurymen, electors, 
witnesses, members of public bodies, &c.), also urgent duties of a private 
character, without loss, and after four years’ service they have claim to an 
annual holiday of four days, and after ten years’ service to one of a week. 
Although the factory dominates the textile industry in Elberfeld to-day, 
the hand loom weaver is still a factor to be reckoned with, both by the manu 
facturer who employs him and the house owner who finds him accommodation. 
In some hundreds of houses one room at least is given up to the loom and its 
auxiliary mechanism. For the most part it is the older generation, the 
handloom weavers by descent, who perpetuate this primitive form of pro 
duction, and comparatively few young people are to-day being brought up 
to their fathers’ calling in Elberfeld itself, though it is otherwise in many 
of the villages round about. The handloom weaver owns his loom, and 
works for wages, the manufacturer supplying all the raw material and cards, 
and paying the price fixed either on the delivery of a certain length of 
material or on the completion of the commission. In reality there is little 
difference between the position of the hand loom weaver and the factory 
operative, save the sentimental one that the home worker is his own master, to 
the extent that he is subject to no regulations as to when he shall begin and 
when cease work. In practice he begins quite as early as the factory weaver and 
he continues much longer. From twelve to fourteen hours a day is the usual 
worktime, the loom seldom stopping until dusk even in the long summer 
evenings ; yet the weaver has a certain compensation in the independence of 
his movements. As a rule the goods woven are waistcoat and other silk 
materials which are of too “ fancy ” a character for the power loom. The 
handloom weaver nowadays regards 25a. as good earnings for a long week’s 
work, in which the wife has done her part as well ; but earnings of 
20a. and even. 15a. are not uncommon when work is interrupted or 
time broken. It should also be remembered that a large amount of time is 
lost when the loom is changed to a new class of goods, and for this loss, 
which may run to some days, the weaver receives no compensation. Bad 
times also come when there is no work at all, for the manufacturer has first to 
Foremen... 
Paviors ... 
Paviors’ labourers 
Road makers 
„ sweepers ... 
32s. 
31&. 6d. 
21s. 
19s. 6d. 
21s. 
60 
60 
60 
60 
60 
Gasworks :— 
Foremen.. 
Stokers .. 
Labourers 
47 s. 
30s. 
22s. 
60 
60 
60 
Waterworks :— 
Skilled men 
Stokers ... 
Labourers 
60 
56 
60 
Electrical Works and Lighting :— 
Fitters and Installers ... 
Enginemen 
Stokers ... 
Fitters ... 
60 
60 
60 
60 
keep his factory employed and the hand loom weaver can only count on what