STATISTICS OF LABOR. ,'}J7 



The answer to this prean is found in the examina- 

 tion here made, and heard in the cry that comes up 

 from every industry and interest. On page 24 I find 

 the following : 



"In reality the wa^es paid for prison labor $1,624,515 per 

 annum represent a product of $9,747,090, or less than one 

 fifth of one per cent, of the products of the United States." 



A clear net product of $8,122,575 from labor which 

 costs only $1,624,515, appears to the ordinary reader 

 a most excellent thing. But the trouble is, the state- 

 ment is deceptive, not possessing one element of fact. 



So, also, on page 26, the following is found : - 



" The product of each person employed in the manufacture 

 of boots and shoes in Massachusetts is $1,858 per year; that is, 

 48,090 operatives the number of persons so employed in 1875 

 produced $89,375,792 worth of goods." 



The product of each person employed in the manu- 

 facture of boots and shoes in Massachusetts, is not 

 $1,858 per year, as has been already shown. Yet the 

 statement is continually appearing and reappearing, 

 with similar misrepresentations touching other prod- 

 ucts, throughout the reports of that State, and in 

 many other authoritative places and forms. 



It is well to commend to these popular statisticians 

 a more careful study of that maxim of Napoleon's, 

 quoted on page xviii, vol. II, Massachusetts Census 

 Reports, 1875, as follows : 



" Statistics mean the keeping of an exact account of a na- 

 tion's affairs, and without such an account there is no safety." 



There is one other point in the Tenth Annual Re- 



