PEEFACE. 



IN the preparation of this volume it has been my 

 purpose to bring into the discussion those great 

 factors that have been, heretofore, so uniformly over- 

 lopked, or designedly ignored. The condition of the 

 great masses of the people their idleness and their 

 employment, with their consumption as well as pro- 

 duction appear to me to be matters of the utmost 

 importance. The radical ctiaiige_2n__alLoui^jiiethods 

 of production is~another~thing that seems to be of 

 great interest, and vitally affecting_th& welfare o 

 mankind. But I have failed to find that others 

 have deemed them of sufficient moment to merit 

 even the most casual inquiry. 



It has long been a decided conviction in my mind 

 that a knowledge of the condition of the people is of 

 as great importance as the knowledge of their num- 

 ber, and I succeeded in having a clause added to the 

 last census bill, providing for an enumeration to be 

 made* of the number who were found idle, also of the 

 employed, and the amount of their employment dur- 

 ing the previous year. But the method adopted in 

 taking the census made it valueless. The workers 

 themselves, who alone could have answered, were not 



iii 



