684 



RAILWAY SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. 



2. Clothing ready for use carpets, blankets, laces, 

 and all other articles made from vegetable or animal 

 fibers, on the basis of a computation from the census 

 returns, the figures of the imports, and an estimate ol 

 the cost of converting cloth into clothing, etc. 



Clothing $1,740,000,000 



3. Shelter for the increase of population, now ap- 

 proximating 2,000 ? 000 per year, on the basis of one 

 dwelling or part ot a dwelling to each five persons, at 

 an average cost of $500, or $iOO per capita : 



Shelter $200,000,000 



The relative importance of food, as compared 

 with some other important articles of produc- 

 tion, may be realized most fully by contrasting 

 the value of dairy products and eggs at the 

 ratio of the consumption of the factory opera- 

 tives, whose ration has been given in the pre- 

 vious table, with other commodities which as- 

 sume a more conspicuous place in public esti- 

 mation. 



At the standard of the average consumption 

 of adult men and women who are engaged in 

 factory-work in Massachusetts and Maryland, 

 the average sum expended for dairy products, 

 carefully purchased in considerable quantities, 

 for milk, butter, cheese, and eggs is five and 

 six tenths cents per day (5 T 6 iJ ), for which sum 

 expended each one is supplied with about 

 half a pint of milk, one and a half to two 

 ounces of butter, one half an egg per day, and 

 a scrap of cheese. These proportions vary 

 slightly, but are substantially consistent with 

 the facts. The present population of the Unit- 

 ed States is about 57,000, 000, and if we reckon 

 two children under ten as one adult, their con- 

 suming power is that of 50,000,000 adults. At 

 the ratio of five and six tenths cents' worth to 

 each adult, the annual cost of milk, butter, 

 cheese, and eggs is $1,019,000,000. The annual 

 value of eggs was computed separately for 1873 

 for the census at $80,000,000. On this basis, 

 the value of eggs is now $92,500,000, and we 

 are also importing largely even from Denmark 

 and Holland : 



Dairy and eggs in 1884, as above . . $1,019,000,000 



92,500,000 



90,000,000 



Domestic eggs separately, in 1834 



Pig-iron in 1884, not over 4,500,000 tons, at not 



over $20 to consumers 



Wool in 1884, domestic production, estimated, 



320,000,000 Ibs., at 20c 



Silver product, valued in gold 



64,000,000 

 40,000,000 



But, in order that the importance of the 

 railway as a prime factor in the mechanism of 

 distribution may be fully comprehended, con- 

 sideration must be given to the occupations of 

 the people that are to be subsisted. These oc- 

 cupations must, again, be considered with re- 

 spect to the place in which they are or must 

 be carried on. This classification may be made 

 with very great accuracy from the census of 

 1880, because the occupations of the people 

 were stated by themselves to the same enu- 

 merators that counted the number. 



In the census year there were 17,392,099 

 persons employed in gainful work. Each one 

 of these persons sustained a little less than two 

 others. The value of their product may be 

 fairly estimated at $600 for each person occu- 



pied, or at a little less than $200 for each man, 

 woman, and child. In the distribution of tins 

 product must be found the source of profits, 

 taxes, and wages. In the following classifica- 

 tion, the specific numbers in each separate 

 occupation are sometimes given exactly, some- 

 times by computing those whose occupations 

 are analogous : 



It will be apparent that all the members of 

 Class I that are occupied in mental or admin- 

 istrative work must perform their several func- 

 tions within the limits of, but must be scattered 

 over all parts of, the United States. Tlie same 

 rule applies to Class II, merchants, tradesmen, 

 and other distributors; to Class IV, persons 

 engaged in mechanical work that is individual 

 rather than collective ; to Class V, employes 

 of transportation companies, domestic servants, 

 and the like ; and to the whole of Class VII, 

 laborers, except a small portion of those en- 

 gaged in mining. The product of perhaps one 

 third of those that are engaged in Class III, 

 collective factory-work, and of perhaps 2| per 

 cent, of the farmers and farm -laborers, being 

 the proportion occupied on sugar, swamp rice, 

 hemp, barley, and flax; and, lastly, of 10 per 

 cent, of the miners, might, perhaps, be im- 

 ported from foreign countries as a matter of 

 choice. The rest of these occupations must 



