STATISTICS OF LABOR. 315 



useful study for those who will take it up. The only 

 change that the factors are subject to are their steady 

 development in the direction in which they have been 

 moving for the last half century. 



The only direction in which there has been an ab- 

 sorption from the great mass of practical idlers, has 

 been toward trade, which has enormously developed, 

 and other unproductive pursuits, that have absorbed 

 literally their millions (see pages 192-3), until those 

 interests have become as demoralized as the produc- 

 tive industries, and still the idleness is not dimin- 

 ished. There is not a manufacturer in that State 

 who does not know that he can double the number of 

 his employes whenever he requires them and will pay 

 living wages ; a fact as well known in the Bureau of 

 Statistics as in any mill, workshop, or factory in that 

 State. And yet this same Bureau would make the 

 world believe that three per cent, represents the idle- 

 ness in our country. The idea that doubling the 

 number of hands employed might also double the 

 number of persons who would thus find the means to 

 buy and consume their products, has not yet dawned 

 on the minds of the manufacturers, nor of the politi- 

 cal economists in that Bureau. And it is also pos- 

 sible that the application of the six hour rule might 

 help them to an understanding of the principle laid 

 down by Adam Smith, that the manufacturer finds 

 his wealth in the multitude of hands he employs. 



Attention is drawn to these points to show how ut- 

 terly worthless and deceitful have been the attempts 

 to belittle the idleness in that State and in our coun- 

 try. The only answer required by the statement 



