STATUS OF THE LRBOR FORCE 



mfiRCH 24-30, 1940 



EACH FIGURE REPRESENTS 1,000 WORKERS 



10,300 



4,800 



RAILROADS 



1,000 



PUBLIC EMERGENCY WORKS 



OTHER, 

 INDUSTRIES 



^^4i4i4i^4i^4i4 



19,500 



UNEMPLOYED 



lllf f lis 



CMM. CMM. C^IE cK CO. CMM. CB. CMM 



Figure 5. — The agriculture, mining, forest, and railroad industries, and Federal work projects 

 represent the principal sources of income for northern Idaho. To a large extent the workers in other 

 industries are indirectly supported by these basic industries. 



Every one of the 45 groups into which 

 the Bureau of the Census classifies all 

 industries is represented to some degree 

 in northern Idaho, but 5 of them may be 

 regarded as the basic sources of income 

 in this area — agriculture, mining, forest 

 industries, the railroads,^ and public 

 emergency work. The workers in these 

 5 industrial groups represent about 55 

 percent ot the gainfully employed, and 

 the income from these industries indi- 

 rectly supports the majority of the 

 workers in the other industries. 



In a very real sense northern Idaho 

 lives on its natural resources. The 

 principal activities of its people are 

 centered on extracting raw materials 

 from farm lands, forests, and mines. It 

 is essentially a rural community with 

 no large cities, no important trade cen- 

 ters, and hardly more than enough 

 manufacturing to reduce the raw mate- 

 rials to a transportable form and bulk. 

 Because it leans heavily upon extractive 

 industries and shares little ot the wealth 

 created by the manufacture o\ its raw 

 materials into finished products, the 

 economy ot northern Idaho leaves 

 much to be desired. 



The 1940 population census presents 

 a cross section of a labor force of 52,000 

 workers as ot the week of March 24—30, 

 1940, which is highlighted in figure 5. 



' Northern Idaho is crossed by three transcon- 

 tinental rail systems: The Chicago, Milwaukee,. 

 St. Paul and Pacific, the Northern Pacific, and 

 the Great Northern. Since they are primarily 

 east-west lines rather than local carriers, it seems 

 fitting to consider them as basic sources of in- 

 come as far as northern Idaho is concerned. 



lands dot the settled portions ot the forest belt shown on 

 the type map, although most ot the individual clearings 

 are too small to show. 



Rconoimc Structure 



The business structure ot northern Idaho is closely 

 tied to that ot western Montana and northeastern Wash- 

 ington. These three areas together make up the region 

 known in the West as the Inland Empire. Except for 

 political ties, the common interest of northern Idaho with 

 the rest of the Inland Empire is even stronger than it is 

 with the southern part ot Idaho. Industry and commerce 

 in northern Idaho are keyed to those ot Spokane, Wash., 

 the nerve center ot this region. 



Table 1. — Land area classified according to land use, l'>39 



Land use Land area 



Forest: \l /lOO acre.i 



Commercial ' H. 867. 4 



Noncommercial .. . 3,462.4 



Percent 

 54.9 

 27.7 







Total ... 10, 329. 8 



S2. fl 







Xonforest- 





Cultivated, pasture, and grass -. 2. UMi 1 



Town sites 17. 5 



Brush j 14. 1 



Barren. 49.4 



Total. 2.1X1.1 



.\ II uses . . . , 12,510.9 



16.8 

 . 1 

 . 1 



