56 American Economic Association [854 



Base 1880 1890* 1900 



Agricultural laborers . 352,565 = 100 . . 102.1 . . 173.6 



Farmers, planters, and overseers . . 828,800 = 100 . . 131.7 . . 127.4 



Disregarding the returns of the Eleventh Census, let 

 us consider what these per cents indicate. Starting in 

 1880 with a given ratio between the number of farm 

 employees and employers, we find that in twenty years 

 the employed, or dependent class, has increased 73.6 

 per cent while the employing, or independent class, 

 has increased only 27.4 per cent. In other words, 

 during the twenty year period from 1880 to 1900, 

 the dependent increased 46.2 per cent more rapidly 

 than did the independent class. With these figures in 

 mind, one needs but a moment's reflection to satisfy 

 himself that, at the rates of increase indicated, the de- 

 pendent class of farm operators must soon outnumber 

 the independent class. 2 There is no need here for ar- 



1 The returns of the Eleventh Census are known to have been very 

 defective in this, that "farmer's sons and daughters were often re- 

 ported as farmers rather than as farm laborers, thus very much com- 

 plicating the occupation returns in this class." (Letter of Carroll D. 

 Wright, under date of Dec. 29, 1899.) That some such error must 

 have crept into the returns is evident on a consideration of the rate 

 of increase of the two classes (i. ., "agricultural laborers" and 

 " farmers, planters, and overseers "), when taken together. The com- 

 bined rate of increase appears as follows : 



Base 1880 1890 1900 



Agricultural laborers, farmers, 



planters anH overseers . . . 1,181,365 = 100 . . 122.9 141.2 

 These figures show that the total population engaged in farming 

 increased at a uniform rate and there seems no good reason for sup- 

 posing that there was in fact any such extraordinary movement from 

 the class of employees to the class of employers and then back again 

 within the period of twenty years from 1880 to 1900, as indicated by 

 the returns. 



2 "Of these evils that which is most serious and general is the 

 divorce which machinery is bringing about between labor and capital. 

 So far has this already gone that people have come to think of the 

 two as things naturally distinct from each other, and to regard it as a 

 normal state of affairs that the persons who perform the manual toil 

 of a country shall be absolutety dependent for employment on a com- 



