156 LAND AND LABOR. 



alone, at least two and one half millions were men 

 immediately dependent upon their employments for 

 subsistence for themselves and their families, or others 

 relying on them for support. Out of this two and 

 one half millions of unemployed men not more than 

 five hundred thousand ever found employment in new 

 or more largely developed industries in railroad 

 "building and municipal work (see Edward Atkinson's 

 Industrial Redistribution in the International Re- 

 view), and that for a very short period, which ended 

 in 1873, leaving entirely unaccounted for at least two 

 million persons. 



The returned soldiers were of the most able men in 

 our country, developed and disciplined by military 

 service, who could not and would not remain idle if 

 work could be found or made. The workmen thrown 

 out of the abnormal industries were the equals of 

 those still engaged in the normal employments, and 

 they, also, could exist only by work. The absolute 

 necessities of all compelled the effort to find employ- 

 ment somewhere, in something, that they and those 

 dependent on them might live. 



So far as possible the machinery and muscle that 

 had been " ministering to the work of destruction " 

 were turned to the work of ministering to the normal 

 wants and comforts of society. Many went to the 

 western lands and became farmers ; hundreds of thou- 

 sands sought trade and brokerage as middlemen, as 

 will be seen in the enormous increase of traders shown 

 in the chapter on money ; still others dipped into any 

 and every speculation that could be devised. Yet 

 many failed in finding or devising any employment, 



