332

MANNHEIM.

In  the  soap  and  oil  industry  the  rate  of  pay  for  unskilled  labour  is  from  19s.  10c/.
to  22s.  10d.
Polishers  and  inlayers  in  the  plate  glass  trade  earn  25s.  2d.,  but  they  also
live  rent  free.  In  this  industry,  as  in  others,  there  has  been  a  steady  advance
in  wages  during  late  years,  as  the  following  table  shows  :  —

Weekly  Bates  of  Wages  in  the  Plate  Glass  Trade.
1896.

1870.

1888.

1906.

Polishers,  &c.  ...
Unskilled  labourers

s.  d.
18  0
12  0

s.  d.
20  5
12  0

s.  d.
22  10
15  8

s.  d.
25  2
20  5

The  rate  of  pay  for  outdoor  labour  ranges  from  os.  to  4s.  per  day.  The
municipal  authority  pays  for  such  labour  a  standard  rate  of  21s.  7d.  per  week,
which  is  somewhat  above  the  rate  paid  to  the  lower  grades  of  workers  in
industries  which  depend  predominantly  on  unskilled  labour.  It  may  be  noted
that  the  wages  of  agricultural  labour  in  the  district  around  Mannheim  are  os.  4c/.
per  day  in  summer  and  2s.  Sd.  in  winter  without  food,  and  2s.  6c/.  and  Is.  lie/,
respectively  with  food.
Mannheim  is  an  important  centre  of  the  tobacco  and  cigar  industry,  of
which  the  Grand  Duchy  of  Baden  is  peculiarly  the  home  in  Germany,  since
it  both  grows  the  tobacco  plant  in  large  quantities  and  manufactures  the
leaf  in  a  multitude  of  towns  and  villages.  In  1905  the  cigar  industry
employed  16'9  per  cent,  of  all  the  workpeople  in  Baden  who  were  engaged  in
factories  and  workshops  (in  absolute  figures  35,290  out  of  208,993),  as  well  as
a  considerable  number  of  home  workers.  Mannheim  itself  has  41  tobacco
factories  which  employed  in  October,  1905,  203  male  and  820  female  workpeople, ­
  242  of  the  latter  being  married.  In  the  main,  only  the  work  of  packing,
sorting,  and  forwarding—together  with  a  certain  amount  of  manufacture  for
samples  and  for  immediate  local  use—is  done  in  town,  however,  and  the  real  work
of  cigar  making,  in  all  its  various  processes,  is  a  rural  industry.  The  reason
for  this  is  that  only  in  the  country  is  a  sufficiency  of  labour  procurable  at  a  low
rate  of  pay.  The  work  is  as  a  rule  piece  work,  and  the  earnings  depend  upon
individual  skill  and  celerity  and  also  upon  the  quality  of  the  cigars  made.  In
town  cutters  can  earn  20s.  4d.  per  week,  sorters  and  packers  from  14s.  5d.  to  18s.,
and  in  the  village  factories  male  cigar  makers  earn  from  12s.  to  18s.  6c/.  on
piece,  working  60  hours  a  week,  and  females  8s.  to  12s  6c/.  In  the  country
whole  families  often  work  together,  both  in  the  factory  and  at  home.  The
father  may  make  the  wrapper,  his  wife  and  girls  do  the  rolling,  and  by  thus
co-operating  as  much  as  30s.  may  be  earned.  As,  however,  work  is  in  many
cases  intermittent  and  is  made  to  fit  in  with  household  and  other  duties,  earnings
are  very  irregular.

An  enumeration  made  in  1905  by  the  Baden  Factory  Inspectors  of  the
wages  paid  in  eleven  large  cigar  manufactories,  employing  3,741  workpeople
(32  58  per  cent,  males  and  67*42  per  cent,  females),  showed  weekly  earnings  as
follows  (the  figures  are  given  for  1897  for  purpose  of  comparison)  :—

Year.

Percentage  of  the  whole  whose  earnings  were  as  under.

5s.  but
not  over
105.

Over  105.
but  not  over
125.

Over  125.
but  not  over
155.

Over  1Õ5.
but  not  over
185.

Over  185.
but  not  over
215.

Over  215.

1905  ...
1897  ...

61-65
64-0

16-65
21-66

15-50
11*28

414
179

104
0  67

1*02
0-60