Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 9).djvu/280

 of first necessity, A gentleman who has opportunities of being well acquainted with the {248} business of Philadelphia, has computed that in that county alone, there are at least 15,000 persons who are either entirely idle or are engaged in unproductive labour. He stated that he has had more than twenty applications for employment, when he could give work only to one, and that several other manufacturers say, that they cannot employ a tenth part of the applicants they meet with. The same gentleman estimates that there are about 150,000 unemployed persons along the Atlantic coast, and that there are 350,000 persons of the same description in other parts of the country.[132] It is not pretended that these enumerations are derived from accurate data, or that they are even very close approximations to the real numbers; but, taken in connection with other well known facts, they may be received as satisfactory evidence that the evil exists to a very considerable extent.[133]*