STATISTICS OF LABOR. 317 



ducts of the mechanical industries of the United States amount 

 to overfii-e thousand million dollars annually." 



And on page 25, the following : 



" The examination of the boot and shoe interest will enable 

 the legislature to see more clearly the relation of the statistics 

 presented to other facts gathered during the investigation. 

 This industry is taken for illustration, because it is the largest 

 in the State, the product being $90,000,000 per annum." 



Both of these statements are grossly erroneous 

 inexcusably so and tend directly to foster the most 

 fatal delusions. The mechanical industries of the 

 United States hardly reach two thousand million 

 dollars annually, in place of five thousand millions ; 

 nor do the industries of that- State, which enter into 

 the immediate production of boots and shoes, equal 

 $25,000,000, in place of the $90,000,000 claimed. 



No doubt there have been sold in Massachusetts 

 boots and shoes to the amount of $90,000,000 ; but 

 of the industries that went into their production that 

 State furnished but a small part ; only about one 

 fifth. The hides of which the leather was made were 

 the product of the industries of Texas, and other dis- 

 tant States of Mexico, South America, Europe., 

 Asia, and Africa. The industries which converted 

 the hides into leather were those of Maine, and other 

 States in the Union, as well as of foreign countries. 

 Neither of these employments are part or portion of 

 the manufacture of boots and shoes, as generally un- 

 derstood, nor as classified in the Labor Bureau Re- 

 ports. So, also, of the thread, cloth, pegs, paper, 

 buttons, etc., which enter into the composition of the 



