Indeed, and a year before Congress slapped us with the income tax. 32 cents per hour- If I read the Madis book on the great Model 12- Winchester was paying $10/day for say a lathe hand- Henry Ford $5/day for an assembly line worker- and a blacksmith at Parker bros. 32 cents/hour-times 8 hours- assume a six day week-huum- hard to buy a VH from Parker in 1913 if you were an employee, unless they had a employee purchase plan. Even harder to buy a Trojan in 1913- in 1915, maybe easier-Wonder what L.C. Smith (Hunter Brothers) and Ithaca paid their labor in 1913?? I started pulling lathe shavings and sweeping up in my GrandFather's Machine Shop on Erie Street back in HS 1956-57.Non-union shop, I made .90/hour to start- when I graduated HS I was up to $1.75 hour- then I worked for the Gov't for a few years. A top hand in his shop back then was the jig bore operator- $5.25 hour, lathe and milling machine hands-around $4.35, shaper and drill press about $3.90. He paid his help well for those times to keep the unions out-Nowadays it is all CNC and computers--When I first started to learn on a lathe (a big LeBlond) 12" swing and 36" bed the first thing I learned was to Never leave a chuck key in any of the three position of the chuck-overhead in the ceiling beams, the shop was built in 1896- was a chuck key with its handle firmly embedded into the split wood of the beam- if the man had the drive in reverse when he pushed the on button, it might have driven that key as a projectile into his head. The second thing I learned was to NEVER place a file across the ways-ol;d lessons well taught, well remembered too. LeBlond and Cinncinati, Goos and DeLeew, Hanchett, all those old quality made in the USA machines, now all made in China-if my Grandfather were around he would not believe it-
