Waterbury evening Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1887-1895, 1894-12-13

miss from your mind all conclusions
formed on mere n priori reasoning. /
have been in this sort of work 81 years,
beginning in Boston. In 1869 Massachu-
setts began il on n small scale, with only
n chief Il deputy chief and n small contin-
gent fund to hire clerks rs needed, and 1t
is an interesting fact that the other clerk
wko was with me is there yet. The first
man at the head of il had more or less
trouble and in 1878 Mr.. Wright was ap-
pointed commissioner. l began with him,
and we have ever since, except when I
was in the census work. worked together
in increasing harmony. That was posi-
lively the first labor bureau in the world,
but many other states followed in rapid
succession, and now France and England
have them, and Belgium and Germany are
organizing. Those nations copy our meth
DDS largely, but have some advantages in
the more paternal nature of their govern
mcntS. l came TO Washington in 1850 to
work on the tenth census and had charge
of the division of wealth, debt and taxa
tion till this bureau was established. And,
by the way, there is great deal of mis-
leading n priori reasoning on the census
figures"
An Optimistic Chief Clerk.
Well. granting the claptrap and nom
sense, as aforesaid, can you tell me how
many laborers are unemployed at present
and why there is so much discomfort in
labor ranks"
There isn't. No. don't mean that
exactly l mean that there is no more dis
| content than there always has been since
| modern conditions prevailed The oldest
histories tell us of uprisin2s of laborers,
both free and slave. You remember the
secession of the plebeians from Rome and
| the fable about the different members of
the body which is said to have rcconciled
| them. But in this age capital and labor
have entirely new relations, which came
in with steam, electricity and the marvel
Gus increase of inventions and machinery,
| and we have an entirely new problem.
| There is but one safe way-to gather the
statistics with cxactncss. Beware of all n
| priori rcasoninGs on statistics. They are
worse than useless. AS to discontinued
| labor, the situation is nothing like so bad
| as il was in 1S15-1.'
But how many laborers are out OF
| work right now in the United States:"
| Nobody knows, nor is it possible &c
| find out in a hurry. 1t is tho fashion OF
agitators to put the number ut 5000, 600,
| but YOU and | know that to be nonsense.
| Counting farmers, stockmen and many
| other classes, you must see that nine-tenths
| of the people work right on in hard times
| as in cood-a little harder if anything in
| reasons for believing that real wealth i:
created faster in hard times than in good
| that there is more productive work and
| less waste. But the census statistics or
| real wealth arc usually of very little value
| Here is the basic fact: There is just n:
much grain, cotton, live stock and n thou
sand other things produced this year a:
any other, and all the cooking and house
keeping, transportation, teaching, preach
a.
on. Three millions. Why, don't you Sc,
if so many habitual producers were idle a
once il would throw the country into Jim
jams: However, let us avoid a priori rea
soning on statistics"
Time no Object.
Then what causes the popular opinion
on that matter"
Loose habits of thought and statement
Still more perhaps that in treating o
labor the organs of opinion deal only will
organized labor. And what proportion o
labor is organized: Now, TO show you how
very vague and unsatisfactory current fig
ures are, take this almanac" Here Mr.
Weaver quoted ut great length from
| statistical almanac showing that the a.
trades included in the american Fedora
ton of Labor and the affiliated loca
unions contain altogether less than q mil
lion laborers, but the figures are general.
familiar to the public Now, the com
piler, as happen to know, took unusun
pains to get the table correct TO the close O
| last year, but he simply had to take tn
Information given him by Mr.. Gomper
and scores Of local officials, of whom YER
few are accustomed to making exact sta
tistics OF our work, on the other hand
here is n beautiful illustration of popula
error In getting up our volume on strike
and IOckouts we found that in the rattle
small metropolitan section having Ney
York and Brooklyn for a center there ha
been :. 900 strikes in seven years Most @
them the people paid no attention &,
They were not even mentioned in the ID
! pcrs- so this thing of bringing industrii
statistics down TO date is an impossibilit,
Two years from now we shall be able
tell You what the exact condition was
December, 1924, hut we cannot do IL nov
Here Is the last volume We have Issued
the ninth annual-nn building and loa
associations How lDEg do you guess "
were in getting that -up2''
II am not n Yankee and don't guess
reckon It took a long time and u might
sight of work.
verify, IL did We had 20 men out l
field work. They got the last complete
years report Of each association and Il
then condition. All that had 20 be sun
married, tabulatcd. corrected and the
printed, and you know how the publ
printing was behind So the informatio
is nearly three years old by the time
gets to the public. And how do you sur
pose we could tell you anything wort
hearing ON the present condition. No; sta
tistics to be of real value are necessaril
historical Here's a volume that Is bear
ty-our third annual, issued In 1887.
!. 1t are details of all strikes and lockout
down to 1856, but no sooner was it OF
than the people called for more, and "
: now have a force Of field workers OF
bringing &c down to July, 1894. We hor
to get the reports In by next March, an
possibly the campaign orators of 1896 wi
have the completed work to argue from
70 took N three years 20 get mp our sixt