New York Paper - The Contract Wage System for Mines (with Discussion)

Practically all underground work on the Minnesota iron ranges is done by miners working on a so-called contract wage system. This system, while it has certain advantages over the straight day's pay or company-account method of wage payment, has serious and vital defects. In view of the scarcity and demands of labor, it is important that employers of labor scrutinize their systems of wage payments carefully, not only to save losses and trouble, due to labor disturbances, but also to secure the greatest efficiency of their workmen and reduce their operating costs. It is admitted that an adequate, just, and equitable wage is the prime factor in bringing about these benefits. The wage of labor and its method of application and payment have been, and always will be, the main factors in the unrest and dissatis. faction of labor. Not only does labor want and need an adequate wage, assuming that work is adequately performed, but it wants and is entitled to a just and equitable wage. Labor must have respect for the fairness of the wage and for the fairness of the management in the application of the wage It is conceded that the Minnesota iron miners are now, and have been, in the main paid adequately, but the inherent defects of the so-called contract system prevent any just or equitable application of this wage to the various units of the labor body. The defects of the contract system, with its obvious inequalities, favoritisms, and injustices, are cancers in the brain of labor. Every thinking miner realizes these defects and knows just what they are; the unthinking do not realize the details of the subject, but each month they are forcibly reminded of these defects through the pay envelope. As practiced on the iron ranges, however, the so-called "contract " system is not a contract and the name is a misnomer. No true contractual obligation exists. As usually practised, the contract system involves the setting of a price per foot in development work, or per foot or per car, usually the latter, in slicing or stoping, by the mining captain, and assumes its acceptance, though often under protest, by the men. A price is set for each working place, in which there are usually two men per shift. This price includes labor and supplies, such as explosives, fuse and caps, shovels, carbide, etc., and the men divide the total earnings less the amount expended for supplies. The cost of the supplies charged to the men varies