EFFECTS OF THE WAR ON LABOR. 153 



cnce through the operations of the war ; traders and 

 camp followers, and armies of fugitives and refugees, 

 estimated by hundreds of thousands ; in all swelling 

 the grand total of those dependent on the war for em- 

 ployment and subsistence to fully three and one half 

 millions of persons in the North, or quite one half of 

 its whole industrial population, who, in 1865, by the 

 ending of the war were deprived of their employments 

 and means of subsistence, and thrown into idleness. 



By adding to this amount the number who were 

 similarly affected in the South, we find that we have 

 had in our country more than four millions who found 

 their occupations gone by the close of the war, and 

 who were compelled to find new employments or re- 

 main idle. 



These enormous bodies of men, animals, and the 

 machinery that were used in the destructive employ- 

 ments of the war, were the tremendous forces that, to 

 find employment and subsistence, were at once hurled 

 back upon the peaceful industries of the country, that 

 had already been developed far beyond the normal 

 requirements of the people by the abnormal demands 

 of the preceding four years. 



It must be noted that at the time when one half of 

 the producing force of the North had been taken from 

 the normal industries of peace, and were employed in 

 the occupations of war, with its enormous consump- 

 tion and destruction, the other half, who still re- 

 mained in the peaceful industries, not only fully sup- 

 plied all the demands of society and more than made 

 good all the waste and destruction of the war, but 

 they also enabled the whole people to live in greater 



