Earnings of fathers.-Reports of earnings showed rather low incomes as compared with the general run of wages in other industries. Captains were paid per ton per trip, receiving about $75 or $80 for a trip. Captains who needed more assistance than members of the family could render paid the wages of "deck hands" out of their own income, usually $12 to $20 a trip, although young boys got less, sometimes receiving clothing in lieu of wages or part of wages. While half the captains included in this study had paid helpers, the majority of the families having four or more children did not hire crews. Many of the captains said that without the assistance of their children they could not have made both ends meet.
In addition to the wages of hired hands, the boat captain had to meet the expense of certain equipment and repairs. The "fall board" or gangplank over which the mules were led from the boat to shore had to be replaced frequently; the price of a new board was about $16. Troughs for the mules ranging in cost from $2.50 to $4.50 were supplied by some captains. Every man was expected to furnish oil for his "bow lamp," the expense varying with the number of hours that the boat was operated after dlark. This expenditure averaged about $10 per season. Some men were obliged to replace the stakes for tying up the boat at night. In every instance the boat was furnished by the company and certain necessary articles of equipment were usually provided, such as mules, feed, harness, and "lines." A few boatmen owned their mules, but in such cases the company furnished feed and made the captain a cash allowance for every trip on which his mules were used.
During 1920 most of the captains received less than $1,250 from boat work. About two-thirds supplemented such earnings either by winter employment or by incidental work during the season. For example, one man owned towing mules which he hired out; other captains secured small loads of incidental freight consisting of general merchandise, farm products, or shipments for the pleasure parks or summer camps. On the revenue from this incidental freight the company collected from the captains a toll of 7 cents on the dollar.
The one captain who had made more than $1,850 during the season of 1920 was a man who was somewhat in debt at the beginning of the season. With his wife and six children and one deck hand he undertook to operate two boats. The mother and father each took charge of one boat, keeping the vessels as close together as possible. The boats practically never stopped and every member of the family except the two youngest children, 3 and 5 years of age, had a definite schedule of duties. During the season they made 13 1/2 trips with one boat and 14 with the other. (The largest number of trips made by any one boat on the canal that season was 18 1/2.)
Earnings of children.-In six instances the children who "heated" with their families received pay for their work. One father had paid his 13-year-old son $5 a trip; another father had given his son, aged 17, $15 per trip. Two boys, 9 and 12 years of age, living under the guardianship of their older brother, had each received $8 per trip. Two other boys, 11 and 16 years of age, working for their stepfather, received, respectively, $7 and $12 per trip.
The seven boys who worked as regular boat hands independently of their families reported wages ranging from $5 to $15 a trip, three being paid $10 a trip. Except in the case of one boy, those wages were below the average paid to deck hands on the canal. None of these boys, except possibly one concerning whom complete information was not given, received clothing in addition to wages. All, of course, were fed and housed.
The total earnings for the children who received cash wages for boat work during the season of l920 ranged from $35 to $247.50, the highest amount having been received by one of the boys who was paid by his own father. Only six reported any employment other than boating. Two of these boys had worked In "factories," two in tanneries, one as a laborer for a building contractor, and one girl as a domestic.