force that comes from numbers, still, as is well stated by the Chief of the Massachusetts Bureau, after an experience of eight successive years, an average based upon fifty returns, may be as true as one founded on fifty thousand." We doubt not that trivial errors may appear in this, our first report; but to avoid them we carefully examined each blank as it came in, and whenever a statement seemed strange, or a discrepancy appeared, we at once sent out correspondence to investigate its truth. On this account we are prone to say that the averages contained in this report are as nearly accurate as those in any labor report published.

The returns are from every county in the State, and while they do not represent every establishment in which persons are employed, yet they do represent the true condition of the wage-working class as far as can be pictured by their wages, earnings, savings, or debt.

To give a clearer idea of the matter, the following table illustrates the character of the blanks sent out and the number returned:

The Bureau issued in all 1,334 blanks to employers, and of these 382 were returned; an average of 29 per cent.; of employes' blanks, 1,833 were sent out and 663 returned; an average of 36 per cent. Let us here compare this with the number of returns received by other 'bureaus the first year of their existence, and note the average percentage for each State.

This demonstrates clearly that in spite of every obstacle, the Missouri Bureau of Labor Statistics, in the aggregate, has received a greater number of returns for its first year than any other similar bureau for the same period.

The returns received from employes are from the most intelligent and better paid class. Those from employers represent the oldest and best established concerns in the State. A large number of minor industries have not been reached, but the returns from the leading industries are sufficient to convince the most skeptical in regard to the necessity for some action to promote the welfare and advancement of the working people of the State. True, we are no worse off than other and older States, but if the evils now cropping out in our midst and evidenced by the general discontent of our mechanics and workers, are not in some way met and remedied, we will inevitably and before long drop into the dangers affecting European countries.

To our mind there is much that this Bureau has accomplished, yet subjects of the most vital public interest still remain to be examined. There is a broad field of labor yet untouched. But preliminary to entering it one great good has been achieved, and that is the educational influence our schedules or blanks have had upon the public. Parties who never kept any account of their business, workingmen without any definite idea of what they earned or what they spent, these are preparing to be able next year to give a proper report. And this is really a great benefit to the State, for it is educating our people into the scientific, political and economical uses to which statistical facts can be applied.

And now, in conclusion, we submit that this report for the first year, more scanty in details and imperfect in material than we desire, must be preliminary to other reports, more minute, elaborate and satisfactory. We ask the attention of the Legislature to certain defects in the law, and trust that power and means may be given the Bureau to carry on the work so auspiciously inaugurated.

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PART II.

AGRICULTURE-ITS INDUCEMENTS.

Missouri is peculiarly and specially adapted to all classes of industry, but in none does it present more natural advantages than in the cultivation of the soil. It has been well said that "agriculture is: the basis of all industries and the primary source of all wealth." And with this axiom before us, we must admit that as a State we cannot pay too much attention to the development of our immense landed resources. Our broad inviting acres offer abundance of room for more than double our present population. Rich in all that goes to make up the natural resources of a State, Missouri offers every inducement to immigration. Here we have cheap lands, a richness of soil unsurpassed, a wealth of territory startling in growth and grand immensity. All we lack is a sufficiency of people with large means, and people with small means-people fitted to till the soil-to purchase and cultivate our farms and unimproved lands.

In touching this subject we wish it understood from the start that it is the desire of the Bureau to do all in its power to promote and encourage the agricultural interests of the State; but in doing so it will be with an earnest desire to secure their permanent prosperity.

How often do we hear it said that the surplus labor in large cities could find plenty of work and good pay by hiring out as farm hands, or by opening up small farms of their own. And at the same time it is stated that very little capital is needed for a farmer to start with, and many who begin with very little soon acquire good homes of their own and become independent. This statement seems very plausible and is a panacea to the thousands of unemployed. The truth of it, although often questioned, has never been made a subject of investigation. It is true Missouri offers great inducements in agriculture to those possessed of sufficient money capital, but it remains to be shown

what chance there is for those destitute of money. And also what facilities are opened for the employment of additional farm laborers. This information we have labored to secure, and in procuring it for this report, we have tried to obtain every fact of importance bearing upon the subject.

To the city mechanic or laborer out of work; the offer of employment and pay is a temptation very inviting. But before seeking relief in agriculture there are certain considerations to be studied. Mechanics and laborers, such as are out of employment in cities, know very little of agriculture, and those of that class who have tried it, have the most convincing arguments against it as a remedy for surplus labor. A man reared in the life of a city, knowing little of farm labor, will find farming a hard and unprofitable occupation, by no means as poetic as some may fancy. True, it may produce a living, but for a man with small means, it is only with excessive tcil and drudgery, and to get rid of this drudgery many farmers' sons leave their homes for the uncertainties of city life. We know it to be a fact that city workingmen have in many cases invested their small savings in farms, and from unfitness for the work or failure in the crop, lost all they possessed and returned again to city life. Colonies have started, settlements have been organized, and nine out of ten of those composed of city workingmen have ended in disaster and loss.

Agriculture in our present age has become more and more a science. It now requires a knowledge of details and a thoroughness of comprehension unknown in former years. This knowledge can be expected only from those who have followed farming from youth, or who make it their patient study. Muscular exertion has given way to chemistry, improved plows and labor-saving machinery, and as fast as these come in the hired laborer on our farms goes out to crowd our cities, and thus increase the number of unemployed. In this stage of the nineteenth century, to go on the soil and till it by the old methods of hand labor is a waste of effort, both unproductive and inadvisable.

Thus far we have granted the possibility of procuring a farm, but before this is reached it must be remembered that: First, it takes money to reach the land; second, it takes money to buy the land; third, it takes money to cultivate the land. And under such circumstances what can be done by the mechanic and laborer, out of work and out of money, and even by the poverty-stricken farmer? This is the first question. But it will be said employment can be given them as farm laborers. This may be true here and there at harvest time, but at that season the evil of unemployed labor is not so manifest. In solving this question of what shall be done for the unemployed, let it

be solved finally and upon correct principles. While we are setting our surplus city labor to work on farms, the very same power of invention and machinery is fast throwing idle the hand laborers employed on farms. This same farm labor comes crowding into the large cities every Winter! It increases the number of unemployed, reduces wages in the cities by competing for work, and, in the last extremity, when denied the chance to labor, it haunts our soup-houses and stretches forth its bony hand for charity. And thus the question will again come up: "What is to be done with the labor that improved machinery and new methods of labor have made in excess of demand?" And the solution of this question demands the best thought and energy of the whole Nation.

We recognize, as we stated at the outset, the true value of agriculture to the State. But there is this fact, that while in 1870, over 52 per cent. of the people in Missouri were engaged in agricultural pursuits, only 16 per cent. followed manufacturing and mechanical occupations. And this relative proportion has not much altered. Such a preponderance in agricultural pursuits must be overcome by the development of our immense mining and manufacturing resources. Our State can reach its grandest destiny by giving greater encouragement to these interests.

With a free desire to get the facts as to how far Missouri offers employment in agricultural pursuits, and with a desire to make known all the inducements, so to show plainly what capital is required for small farming and what possibilities are at hand, this Bureau issued a circular blank to each county clerk in the 114 counties of the State. In filling out the blanks, the county clerks inform us they invariably called to their aid some of the best informed and most prominent farmers in the several counties. This should be sufficient guarantee as to the accuracy of the returns. Of the 114 blanks sent out, full returns were made from 103 counties—a sufficiency upon which to base a fair averrge. The following is a copy of the circular sent out with each blank:

STATE OF MISSOURI,

BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS,
ST. LOUIS, October, 1879.

DEAR SIR-On account of the large number of mechanics and laborers out of employment in the large cities in the State, and the belief that for some time there will not be an adequate demand in the cities for this labor, it has therefore been frequently suggested that the present surplus of labor could find an abundance of paying work by engaging in agriculture; and it is further claimed by many, that willing men, with nerve and muscle, with little or no capital, can go into the farming districts and in a few years acquire homes of their own, and become independent.