Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 3.djvu/370

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35 6 THE AM ERIC AX JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

separately, but were included with the adults. The census of 1850 reported all hands employed 957,059 males 731,137, females 225,922; and the census of 1860 reported all hands employed 1,311,246 males 1,040,349, females 270,897. These figures are correctly quoted in the census of 1870, but in the Tenth and Eleventh Censuses the falsification occurs of tab- ulating them with those of the later censuses as males above sixteen, females above fifteen. This falsification has evidently misled Miss Annie Marion McLean in her contribution to the preceding issue of the JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY, " Factory Legis- lation for Women in the United States." That she has been still further misled by our incomparable census statistics is seen by her remark accompanying her table showing the proportion of female to male employes. "The actual increase has been steady, but relatively there has been a decrease since 1850, as will be seen."

As was shown in the writer's first paper, the earlier manu- facturing statistics failed to include large classes of employes that were almost exclusively males. The number thus omitted was estimated by Superintendent Walker to have been 500,000 in 1870. Including this number the proportion of females to males in 1 8; o would be I to 6.5, instead of I to 4.9 as she has it. Allowing for the children which her figures include as females over fifteen and for the males that the censuses of 1850 and 1860 failed to include, the proportion of females to males was probably no greater in 1850 and 1860 than in 1870. Of these facts Col- onel Wright failed to take note. While comparisons of the per- centage of females and children to the total number of employes are utterly misleading, they seem no more misleading than the comparison made by Colonel Wright of the total number of children reported at the censuses of 1880 and 1890. Such com- parison seems to indicate a large decrease in the employment of children and a complete reversal of the tendency noted by him in 1875. According to the census figures the number of children employed in manufacturing and mechanical industry was, in 1870, 114,628; in 1880, 181,121, and in 1890, 121,194. This is