daily compensation of all other employees ranges from $1.95 to $2.55. The Iowa Bridge Companies[1] report an average daily compensation for general officers of $4.33, and for all other employees $2.01. These companies are small, and the variation between the returns to the officers and wage-earners is probably typical of that existing in many small businesses.
The railroads report a divergence between the compensation of general officers and of other employees which is considerable. For all operating railroads in the United States, the average daily compensation of general officers was $12.99[2] For Class I. roads (annual earnings over $1,000,000) the average is, in the Eastern District, $19.52; in the Southern District, $14.63; and in the Western, $16.63. In Class II. and Class III. roads the average is much lower. "The other officers" (there were in 1911 5,628 "general officers" and 10,196 "other officers" on all operating roads) received an average daily compensation of $6.27. For Class I. roads the average, as before, was somewhat higher than for Class II. and III. roads. Although the compensation rates for "other officers" do not greatly exceed the rates for the best-paid wage-earners, the rates of pay among general officers is much higher than for the wage-earners. With the exception of enginemen, conductors and machinists, no group of railroad employees receives an average daily compensation of more than $3.00 a day. For conductors and enginemen it is $4.16 and $4.79, respectively, and for machinists, $3.14. For most of the employees the average daily compensation ranges around $2.00. The same relation exists between the average wage of the great bulk of railroad employees and that of "other officers" as that shown for the Iowa Terminal and Bridge Companies. The compensation of the "general officers" on the railroads is very much higher.
Although the facts are most readily usable in the railroad industry, an examination of the figures from street and electric railways, mines and quarries, telegraph and telephone companies, and manufacturing industries tends to confirm the general impression made by the railroad statistics. For small concerns, and for second-grade officers, the rate of return is not greatly in excess of the rate for the better-paid wage-earners. The general, or first-class, officers who are responsible for large enterprises do receive, as a group, a rate of return which is ordinarily from five to ten times greater than the rate paid to wage earners.
There is another point of great significance which must be borne in mind in this connection. The salaries of general officers are high in individual instances, nevertheless the aggregate of salaries paid is
