in
themselves, are rendered of little value by the absence of such statistics
as would give the true percentage of difference between American and
foreign wages. Several elaborate wages reports were also published between
1879 and 1882, which, while they gave the American side of the question
with great fullness, presented foreign wages very incompletely.

Always, however, impressed with the importance of making an accurate
comparison between wages and the cost of subsistence on the two sides of
the Atlantic, but unable to undertake a very wide inquiry with the funds
at its disposal, the Massachusetts Bureau determined, in the fall of 1883,
upon reducing to narrower limits than heretofore the field of
investigation. Instead of America and Europe, Massachusetts and Great
Britain were selected for comparison, the former as the chief
manufacturing State of America, the latter as her leading competitor.

With this view, a number of agents were sent to gather personally, from
the pay rolls of American and English manufactories, the rates of wages
paid in twenty-four of the leading industries which are common to the two
districts respectively. It was, at first, sought to extend the inquiry to
thirty-five different industries, a number which would practically have
covered the whole ground, but nine of these were finally abandoned for
want of sufficient British information.

It is a perfectly easy thing, as already indicated, to gather wage or
other statistics in the counting-houses of Massachusetts manufactories,
but quite a different matter when a collection of similar information is
attempted in this country, where most proprietors are unwilling, and many
altogether refuse, to give any information regarding their industries.

The following table, of which an enlarged facsimile, marked A, appears on
the wall, specifies the twenty-four industries from which the returns in
question were made, and the number of establishments making such returns
in each industry in either country:

_Table A_.

Industries. Massachusetts. Great Britain. Total

Agricultural implements 4 1 5
Artisans' tools 3 4 7
Boots and shoes 18 2 20
Brick 3 1 4
Building trades 32 24 56
Carpetings