The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1895-01-25

miss from your mind all conclusions
formed on mere a priori reasoning. l
have been in this sort Of work 81 years,
beginning in Boston. In 1869 Massachu-
sets began it on a small scale, with only
chief, deputy chief and a small contin-
gent fund to hire clerks as needed, and 1t
is an interesting fact that the other clerk
who was with me is there yet. The first
man at the head of it had more or less
trouble, and in 1873 Mr.. Wright was ap-
pointed commissioner. I began with him.
and we have ever since, except when !
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
ments. I came to Washington in 1880 to
work on the tenth census and had charge
of the division Of wealth, debt and taxa
ton till this bureau was established. And,
by the way, there is a great deal of mis-
leading priori reasoning on the census
figures"
An Optimistic Chief Clerk
well, granting tho claptrap and non
sense, as aforesaid, can you tell me how
and why there is so much discomfort In
labor ranksY''
There isn't. No, don't mean that
exactly. mean that there is no moro dis
content than there always,has been since
modern conditions prevailed. The oldest
histories tell us of uprisings Of laborers,
both free and slave. You remember the
secession Of the plebeians from Rome and
the fable about the different members of
Ao odxz oh f1 Gaid 70
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 exactness. Beware Of all a
priori reasonings on statistics. They are
worse than useless. AS to disseminated
labor, the situation Is nothing like so bad
as it was in 1851"
'sBut how many laborers are out of
work right now in the United Statesi"
Nobody knows, nor Is IL possible to
find out In a hurry. 1t is the fashion of
agitators to put the number at 5000, 900,
but you and know that to be nonsense.
Counting farmers, stockmen and many
other classes, you must see that Dine-tenths
of the people work right on in hard times
as in good little harder If anything in
hard times. In truth, there are some good
reasons for believing that real wealth Is
created faster IN hard times than in good;
that there IL more productive work and
less waste. But the census statistics on
real wealth are usually OF very little value.
Here Is the basic fact: There Is just as
much grain, cotton, live stock and thou
sand other things produced this year as
any other, and all the cooking and house
keeping, transportation, teaching, preach
ing and other professional work goes right
w. on. Three millionsl Why, don't you see
II so many habitual producers were idle at
once 1t would throw the country into Jim
jaInsl However, let us avoid priori rea-
soning on statistics
Time no Object.
Then what causes the popular opinion
on that NATTER"
Loose habits Of thought and statement.
Stin more perhaps that in treating of
labor the organs OF opinion deal only with
organized labor. And what proportion Of
labor Is organized? Now, TO show you how
very vague and unsatisfactory current fig
ures are, take this almanac" Here Mr.
Weaver quoted at great length from a
statistical almanac showing that the 30
trades included in the American Fedora
ton Of Labor and the affiliated local
unions contain altogether less than a mil
lion laborers, but the figures are generally
familiar to the public. Now, the com
piler, as happen TO know, took unusual
pains TO get the table correct to the close Of
last year, but he simply had to take the
information given him by Mr.. Gompers
and scores Of local officials, of whom very
few are accustomed to making exact sta
tistics- OF our work, on the other hand.
here is beautiful illustration of popular
error. In getting up our volume on strikes
and lockouts we found that in the rather
York and Brooklyn for center there had
been 5000 strikes in seven years. Most of
them the people paid no attention IN.
They were not even mentioned In the pa.
mars So this thinS of BRINGING industrial