XXXIX 
In the Printing Trades the wages of both hand and machine compositors 
have been increased by the revised national agreement which came into force in 
January, 1907, and will remain in operation until December 31st, 1911. 
Under this agreement " local additions,” taking the form of a percentage added 
to a general minimum rate, are fixed according to the estimated cost of living 
in the various towns. The effect of the new agreement amounts, in the towns 
recently re-visited, to an increase of 11 per cent, in rates of wages. 
As regards the Textile Industries, wages in the woollen industry at Aachen 
have risen on the average by some 6 per cent., or from 5 6 per cent, for dyers to 
nearly 9 per cent, for weavers. The increase in the latter case is, however, an 
increase of earnings partly accounted for by the introduction of the two-loom 
system. Labourers’ wages appear to be unchanged. At Mülhausen labourers’ 
wages in the same trade have risen by some 5 per cent, and wool washers’ wages 
by 10 per cent., but in other sections of the trade there is little change to 
report. In the Mülhausen cotton industry labourers’ wages and carders’ wages 
have advanced by 20 per cent., blowing-room hands’ by 9 per cent., weavers’ 
and spinners’ by 8 per cent. In the dyeing trade at the same town wages are 
unaltered. 
The wages of Municipal Employees appear to have risen generally in all 
the towns investigated, though the information obtained is rather sporadic. At 
Berlin roadmakers’ wages have been increased by 7'0 per cent., the wages of 
waterworks labourers by 10‘6 per cent., and those of gasworks stoker.s by 
4*3 per cent, while the wages of the gasworks labourers have remained 
unchanged. At Chemnitz the wages of gasworks stokers and labourers have 
been increased by 7*4 and 13 5 per cent, respectively, and those of waterworks 
labourers by 15*0 per cent. At Magdeburg the wages of the gasworks stokers 
have risen by 7*5 per cent. At Mannheim all the municipal employees are 
classified into four groups, and in these groups the commencing wages have 
been increased by 8*8 to 11*2 per cent., and the maximum wages by 7*6 to 
9 per cent. At Mülhausen a somewhat similar classification of the employees 
is adopted, and the rise in mean wages in the different classes ranges from 2 to 
13 per cent. The employees in several of the towns had petitioned for increases 
of pay on the ground of the increased cost of living. If the figures given may 
be taken as typical, there would seem to have been an average rise of some 
7 or 8 per cent. 
If the data for all the above-mentioned trades be taken together, an 
estimate of a rise of 8 or 9 per cent, in the general level of weekly wages and 
earnings between October, 1905, and March, 1908 (that is, in a period marked 
until near its close by great industrial activity), may be regarded as approxi 
mately accurate. 
This rise in wages has been accompanied by some tendency to reduction of 
hours, especially where the normal hours previously exceeded 57-60 per week. 
In the Engineering Trade at Berlin hours have been reduced by some 6 or 
7 per cent., in Mannheim by 2J per cent., and in Mülhausen by 3J per cent., 
though at Chemnitz and at Magdeburg the predominant hours are unchanged. 
In the Building Trade the more important changes are reductions of 6 per cent, 
in the hours of masons, carpenters, cabinet-makers and labourers at Chemnitz, 
and the same for painters at Magdeburg. The hours for bricklayers, masons, 
carpenters and labourers have been reduced by some 3 per cent, at Aachen, and 
those of masons and carpenters by 2 per cent, at Magdeburg. Otherwise there 
is little change to report. In the Printing Trade hours are unchanged. In 
the Woollen Industry hours are unaltered at Aachen, but have been reduced by 
about 4 per cent, at Mülhausen, where the normal hours in the Cotton Industry 
have also been reduced from 66 to 60, or by 9 per cent., and those in the 
Textile Printing and Dyeing Trade by about 2J per cent. The hours of Municipal 
Employees appear to have remained, for the most part, unchanged, but the hours 
of stokers and labourers in the Berlin gasworks have been reduced by 26 per 
cent, and 10 per cent, respectively.