418 
REMSCHEID. 
strike lasts. There are sub-committees for each important branch of local 
industry, and these committees represent the employers in all negotiations in 
regard to wages. There is no separate Chamber of Commerce for Remscheid, 
but the town forms part of the district represented by the Lennep Chamber. 
Two special efforts on 11 social welfare ” lines call for some mention here. The 
first is the work of the Association for the Care of Sick Workpeople, which sends 
working men and women away for longer cures than they could obtain from the 
Sickness Insurance Offices. The other is the office established by the Bergische 
Stahl-Industrie for the management of its various sickness, pension and other 
institutions, and for enquiry into the general conditions of its workpeople, with 
a view to any action which it may be desirable and possible for the firm to take. 
One of the agencies to which the firm attaches great importance is the savings 
bank. Single men and others under 25 years are required to save at least 5 per 
cent, of their earnings, while those beyond that age are under no compulsion. 
The prescribed savings are as follows :—Workers of the age of 14 years, l\d. at 
every fortnightly settlement ; 15 years, 9\d. ; 16 years, Is. ; 17 years, Is. 2W. ; 
18 years, Is. 4£d. ; 19 years, Is. 7\d. ; 20 years, Is. 9\d. ; 21 years, 2s. ; but 
it is open to the depositor to save as much more as he likes. The deposits are 
lodged in the Municipal Savings Bank, which pays interest of 4 per cent, on 
deposits up to £30 and 3J¡ per cent, on deposits above that amount, and the 
firm adds 2 per cent. On reaching the age of 25 years or on marriage a 
depositor is given control of his savings, and while serving in the army he may 
make fortnightly withdrawals to the maximum extent of one-sixth of the whole 
deposit in one year. It is found that nearly 50 per cent, of the workpeople save 
and 60 per cent, of these savers do it voluntarily, while, as a rule, 6 per cent, of 
the earnings are put by. The number of depositors in 1905-6 was 731 and 
their accumulated savings, with interest to date, amounted to £5.374. The net 
addition during the year, less withdrawals, had been £560. 
Wages agreements are in force for the rasp and file cutters, the file-grinders, 
and the smiths and hammerers. In the latter case there was an increase of 
wages in the beginning of the year 1906, and the claim made by the men, and 
recognised by the employers, was based on the increased cost of food com 
modities. These agreements are very detailed and complicated, and in the case 
of the file-cutters contain some hundreds of separate items. Some of the file- 
cutters’ agreements provide for lower rates being paid for goods intended for 
export, the reduction varying from 6 to 10 per cent., but it is stated that this 
differentiation is now in practice of little account. For other employments 
there are no rates uniform throughout Remscheid ; each firm makes its own 
arrangements with its workpeople. 
The Employers’ Union maintains that the average wages in Remscheid 
occupations are distinctly higher than the average for corresponding occupations 
in the West German industrial district as a whole ; and this contention seems 
to be borne out by the figures for 1901 so far as the Bergische Stahl-Industrie 
firm is concerned. This firm has published the following statement :— 
Industry. 
Rhineland-Westphalia Foundries 
and Rolling Mills Association. 
Düsseldorf District of above Asso 
ciation, including Remscheid. 
Bergische Stahl-Industrie 
Employees to whom 
figures relate. 
All, including 
officials. 
Workmen only 
Average Earnings, 
l'J04. 
£ s. d. 
68 6 5 
71 8 7 
72 8 7 
Average per working 
day, 1004. 
S. d. 
4 7 
9 
10 
The average wages for the last firm were in 1899 £73 or 4s. UM. per day ; 
they then dropped (with the general decline) to £68 KB. or 4s. Id. per day in 
1902 ; by 1904 they were back almost to the old level, and the rise has since 
continued.