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249
Thus it will be seen that of all the Italians in the Borough 18 per
cent, work as asphalters, paviors, etc., 12 per cent, are engaged in
the ice-cream industry, 13 per cent, deal in other occupations, concerning
the preparation or sale of food, 8 per cent, in modelling
work, and 6 per cent, are engaged in organ-making and playing. It
will be desirable to note briefly the chief facts respecting these
employments:—
1. Asphalters, Paviors and Mosaic Floor Workers.—A few Englishmen
are employed in this line of work, but, practically speaking, it
is mostly done throughout London by Italians. They come as a
rule from Piacenza, Parma, Milan and Piedmont generally. They
work in gangs for special firms, paving companies, or building contractors.
Usually they work by the day and not by the hour, being
paid about 4s. to 4s. 6d. per diem. The common hours of work are
from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., and after work is over they retire to their
quarters and spend the evenings in the common rooms of the houses
in which they live, smoking, singing, or hanging about. The head of
a well-known asphalting firm states that he em ploys thirty to forty
Italians for laying asphalte, and he prefers Italians to Englishmen
for two chief reasons. In the first place, they are said to be more
reliable, and in the second place they can stand the heat of the hot
new pavement better than English workmen. The mosaic work is,
as a rule, marble work. Small pieces of Carrara marble are set in
ordinary cement, and the whole, when set, is rubbed down smooth
and polished with a stone rubber. It appears that there are practically
no English mosaic workers, the whole of the work being in the
hands of the Italians, though some of the coloured marble comes
from Belguim. Such mosaic flooring is increasingly used for public
offices and buildings, in corridors, lavatories, &c. One firm alone in
Central London employs 80 to 100 Italians in this process of
flooring. The busy season is in the summer, much less work being
done in the winter. The work is not of course confined to London.
Many of these Italian mosaic-floor workers are sent into the
provinces for longer or shorter periods. The wages are the same as
in the asphalting, 4s. to 4s. 6d. a day.
2. The ice-cream industry was fully dealt with in my last report.*
* Report on Health of Finsbury, 1902, pp. 109-115.