80 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



was somewhat higher in 1899 and in 1902 than in 1866. It is 

 very evident, however, that the line of wages for the whole of 

 the United States is very largely controlled by the wage rates 

 in the Southern States. It is hardly fair to strike an average of 

 wages by considering together the wages of two such different 

 classes of people as the whites and the blacks. We can avoid 

 this incongruity for a considerable portion of the period under 

 consideration. 



Taking the number of agricultural laborers in the Mountain, 

 Pacific, Eastern, and Western states (i.e. the whole of the United 

 States, exclusive of the Southern States), to have been in 1899 

 as reported in 1900, we find that the average rate of wages per 

 month, with board, was, in 1899, I7-3I. 1 In like manner, the 

 average monthly wage in the same region in 1890 is found to 

 have been $15.81; in 1879 it was $I3.I4; 2 in 1869 it was 

 $12. 29. 3 The increase in the average rate per month, during 

 the period from 1869 to 1899, was 40.8 per cent. 



In the matter of general well-being the agricultural laborers, 

 in the North at any rate, have, of course, shared the homes of 

 their employers ; clothing has certainly been cheaper in late 

 years ; and, altogether, it seems safe to say that the condition 

 of the dependent white agricultural laborers is much improved. 4 



1 In getting this average, I found first the total number of agricultural laborers 

 in each of the geographical divisions named and then found the total wage pay- 

 ment in each group at the rates given in the table on page 78. The sum of these 

 wage payments divided by the total number of agricultural laborers in all the 

 groups gives the quotient $17.31. 



2 The number of agricultural laborers in 1879 * s assumed to have been the 

 same as that reported in 1880, and the average rate of wages in the Mountain 

 States is assumed to have been the same as was reported for the Pacific States. 



8 The number of agricultural laborers in 1869 is assumed to have been the 

 same as was reported in 1870, and the average rate of wages in the Mountain 

 States is assumed to have been the same as was reported for the Pacific States. 



In the matter of the 20,321 agricultural laborers reported by the Ninth Census 

 as being in the territories, it should be noted that these have been apportioned 

 somewhat arbitrarily, as follows : to the Mountain States, 1 5,000 ; to the Pacific 

 States, 1500; to the Western States, 3821. 



4 Eine weitere Verbesserung des Arbeitereinkommens ist in der vermehrten 

 Kaufkraft des Geldes zu suchen. Sowohl die Kleidungsstiicke als auch andere 

 Gebrauchsartikel sind durch die hervorragende Anwendung der Machinenarbeit 

 in der Industrie bedeutend im Preise heruntergegangen ; dazu sind auch die 



