TABLE XIII

UNEMPLOYMENT IN THE BLUMS OP POUB CITIES, 1893 '



Total populaiion of alum
districts canvassed


cilum population

unemployed

Number Per cent


Months unemployeS
Total Averagt


Baltimore 18,048
Chicago 19,748
New York 28,996
Philadelphia 17,060


1564 8.67
3135 15.88
2615 9.02
2591 15.19


» 6255 ' 3.6
7327 3.1
6116 3.1
5132 2.9



When it is noted that these percentages of the unem-
ployed are calculated on the basis of the entire popula-
tion, a little more of the significance of this table will be
grasped. Suppose a full half of the people to be wage-
earners — surely a generous estimate — there would have
been in Baltimore 17.34 per cent, in Chicago 31.76 per
cent, in New York 18.04 per cent, and in Philadelphia
30.38 per cent of the bread-winners out of work an average
of over three months — and this in a slum population,
people who, having the smallest resources naturally suflFer
most when their earnings are curtailed.
The facts that in Kansas, in 1904, 184 workmen selected
at random were employed an average of only 267.7 days;*
that in Illinois, in 1886, 85,329 workmen were unoccupied
an average of over 28 per cent of their time; ^ that in Indi-
ana, in 1900, 408 men replying to inquiries by the state
labor bureau reported an average idleness of 78 days;' and

' Bulletin of the Department of Labor, no. 13, p. 706.
' 7th Special Report erf the United States Commismmer of Labor, p. 66,
and ibid.
• Not including those for whom reports were not made.
• Kansas Bureau of Labor and Industry, 1904, p. 330.
' Journal of Political Economy, vol. vi, p. 253.
• Indiana Bureau of Statistics, 1899-1900, p. 199.
