ECCENTRIC OFFICIAL STATISTICS 359
meant some week antedating by at least ten years the week selected in 1895 or 1896. In the 931 establishments furnishing complete data, it appears that the percentage of increase for the different classes was as follows: Males 18 years of age or over 63.1 per cent.; males under 1 8 years of age 80.6 per cent.; females 18 years of age or over 66.3 per cent.; females under 18 years of age 89.1 per cent.
Observation seems to indicate that establishments, particu- larly in trade, in which females and children form the larger proportion of employes have increased more rapidly in numbers than other establishments, in fact it has been claimed that they were driving other establishments out of existence and in this state has led to the insertion in party platforms of planks pro- posing such regulation as would limit the increase of such estab- lishments. A law of this nature met defeat by a small margin of votes in the last session of our legislature and the common council of Chicago subsequently enacted an ordinance having the same purpose.
If it be true, as appears, that such establishments are rapidly increasing in number as well as in size, an investigation as to employment in establishments that existed ten years ago and which takes no account of establishments that have come into existence during the period, must fail to fully indicate the extent to which the employment of women and children has increased.
As those studying the report find themselves confronted with census statistics seeming to prove the contrary of what is shown by the investigation, it becomes necessary to continue our investigations as to the reliability and comparability of census statistics. As the question of the employment of women and children and the questions of wages and improved conditions are shown by Colonel Wright to be intimately related, let us also consider the statistics by which ' Colonel Wright in his latest article, "Are the Rich Growing Richer and the Poor Poorer?" {Atlantic Monthly, Sept. 1897) undertakes to demonstrate that the poor are growing better off. In this article Colonel Wright declares, " Fortunately there are facts at hand which
