Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 3.djvu/644

 630 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

adopted in grouping those engaged in occupations as being the most convenient mode of tabulation, and at the same time show- ing the actual facts relative to the employment of children. While the age at which children may engage in occupations varies according to the laws of the different states, the majority of the states have fixed the age of non-employment at fourteen, or some year under that age.

The census office has published the total annual value of the products of establishments engaged in the manufacturing and mechanical industries as #9,372,437,283. It is asserted that this is wrong, and that it should be reduced by $5,162,044,076, the cost of materials, and the difference #4,210,393,207 given as the true value of products. This latter sum comes nearer repre- senting the enhanced value of the raw materials, or the value added by the expenditure of capital, labor, and other manufactur- ing processes. It is the amount added to the wealth of the coun- try by manufacturing processes, but it is not the true value of the products of the manufacturing establishments of the country. One writer criticising these totals even went so far as to say that the two values had been published in official reports as the value of the products of industry, yet one was 66 per cent, greater than the other, and that the public was expected to accept both as showing the same thing. The public will accept nothing of the kind, though the writer referred to may.

WM. M. STUART,

Late Chief of Division of Manufactures* Census Office.