the same ratio the total number of workers at the middle of 1920 was probably about 42,500,000.
Further examination of this subject has revealed the necessity for considerable revisions in the enumeration of workers by classes. Thus, the last census has shown the total number of farms at the beginning of 1920 to have been only 6,450,000, with but little increase during the previous 10 years. The total number of farmers, in the sense of proprietors or operators, was undoubtedly about the same as the number of farms.
According to the census for 1910 the total number of farm laborers was a little in excess of the total number of farmers. However, the census reckoned all persons, of both sexes, 10 years old or over, engaged in agriculture. Dr. W. I. King has estimated the number of farm laborers in 1916 at 2,373,000. The census basis of reckoning is undoubtedly too high from the economic standpoint, but on the other hand I have the feeling that Dr. King’s figuring is too low.[1]
A revised estimate by myself of the number of workers in the United States in 1916 is as follows:
NuMBER OF WorKERS IN THE UNITED StaTEs In 1916
Farmers...........0.0 000s ccc eee eee nene 6,400,000 Farm laborers...........0.0.0 0.00 ce cee cece eee 4,600,000 11,000,000 Lumbermen..........0..0. 0.0000 c cece eee eens 200,000 Fishermen............0.00. 0000 cece cence 175,000 Coal miners............0.0 0000 cc cece eee eens 750,000 Metal miners......................0. cee e eeu 150,000 Quarrymen.......00 0.0 eee 50,000 1,000,000 Petroleum producers...................00000005 50,000 Factory workers.......... 0.000.002 e cece eee 7,250,000 Hand trades........00. 00. cee cece een ee 400,000
- ↑ Doctor King’s estimate for agricultural laborers excludes workers on home farms, a very considerable number, as he says.
