$22 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
article I shall deal only with the women and children employed in the mechanical and manufacturing industries of the country, because this is sufficient for this time and purpose.
It does not seem that the tendencies of the times as to the employment of women and children can be shown by a comparison of statistics which take no account of the increasing number of both women and children employed in department stores, and of children who earn a precarious living as bootblacks and peddlers of newspapers. Blacking boots seems as much a mechanical industry as painting houses. The painters have, however, been included as engaged in manufacturing and mechanical industries, while the bootblacks have not, and these statistics are quoted as proving "conclusively" that the very general impression as to the increased employment of women and children is erroneous.
In this contribution to the Chicago Record Colonel Wright further says:
The total number of persons, men, women and children, engaged in the industries named was in 1890, 4,711,832, as against 2,732,595 in 1880, 2,053,996 in 1870 and 1,311,246 in 1860. Reduced to percentages these persons constituted in 1860 4.17 per cent of the whole population of the country, in 1870 5.33 per cent., in 1880 5.45 per cent., and in 1890 7.52 per cent. As a side fact from the one under discussion, I may remark that these figures show conclusively that a constantly increasing proportion of the total population is engaged in the mechanical and manufacturing industries of the country.
It is perhaps true that a larger proportion of our people are employed in these industries than formerly but can this be conclusively proved by these statistics? Our census statistics seem also to show that a larger proportion of our people are employed in gainful pursuits than formerly. Is this also true, and if so, does it indicate harder conditions; that the head of the family is less able to alone support the family than formerly.
Colonel Wright again says:
A more instructive comparison, however, is to be found in discussing the proportion of the total number of employé's engaged in manufacturing industries. This comparison shows that in 1860 20.66 per cent, of all the persons
