An examination of the work of that bureau shows that, in 1887, there
were 816,470 persons engaged in wage earning in the State of
Massachusetts. Of those, 241,589, or nearly 30 per cent., were idle
during some part of the year--ranging from one to six or more months.
The average of their unemployed time was about four months, or one-third
of the year.
Now, 240,000 people idle for one-third of their whole time is
equivalent, in money loss, to the total idleness of one-third of that
number, or 80,000 people, for the entire year. The whole number of
persons enrolled for labor in the State being 816,470, this is
equivalent to the total idleness of one-tenth of the people engaged in
all occupations.
If a number equivalent to one-tenth of the people in all occupations are
idle twelve months in the year in a State like Massachusetts, where
labor is better organized, better classified, and more efficiently
ordered than elsewhere in this country, it can not be presumed that any
other State of the Union will exhibit a smaller proportion of unemployed
laborers.
The Census Report of 1880 states the number of persons employed in all
occupations as 17,392,099, out of a population of 50,155,783, or a
percentage of 34.68 of the entire population. Our present population
being not less than 65,000,000, if we assume, as we are warranted in
doing, that a like proportion of the population is engaged in
occupations of all sorts, it is clear that we have to-day a working
population of 22,254,000 persons.
Accepting as correct the careful deductions from the Reports of the
Massachusetts Bureau of Labor that a number equivalent to ten per cent.
of the people are always out of employment we find that at the present
time there are 2,250,000 persons involuntarily idle in this country. How
faintly does the term "the army of the unemployed" describe this vast
number of eager and willing men seeking in vain the opportunity to earn
a livelihood for themselves and families.
Were the business of the country in the active condition in which it
could not avoid being if our money system were perfectly adjusted to
industry, and if employers were competing for laborers with the same
degree of eagerness that laborers are competing for employment, the
average wage of a day for a working man would not be less than $2. This
would make but the moderate sum of $50 a month for each workman, which,
under the most thrifty system of household economy, can not be
considered more than enough for the support of an American family.