RECENT GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS.

[The Secretaries of the Treasury, War, and Navy Departments have consented to furnish statements of all contracts for constructions and repairs entered into by them. These, as received, will appear from time to time in the Bulletin.]

The following contracts have been made by the office of the Supervising Architect of the Treasury:

ST. ALBANS, VT.-March 8, 1897. Contract with Richardson & Burgess, Washington, D. C., for rebuilding and completion of customhouse and post-office, except heating apparatus, $43,713.75. Work to be completed within ten months.

LITTLE ROCK, ARK.-March 19, 1897. Contract with Bailey, Koerner & Co., Louisville, Ky., for construction and completion of courthouse and post-office, except heating apparatus and elevator car, $68,023. Work to be completed within eight months.

ROCK ISLAND, ILL.-March 27, 1897. Contract with Heidemann & Schroeder for completion of interior finish of attic or third story of postoffice, $2,633.70. Work to be completed within ninety days.

WASHINGTON, D. C.-March 29, 1897. Contract with Philadelphia Steam Heating Company, Philadelphia, Pa., for boiler plant, lowpressure and exhaust steam-heating and ventilating apparatus, hot and cold water supply, fire-protection system, and water-filtering plant for post-office, $111,373. Work to be completed within two hundred and fifty days.

SAPELO SOUND, GEORGIA.-March 29, 1897. Contract with James A. Bryan, Savannah, Ga., for construction of wharf, gangway, spur, and boathouse at quarantine station, Blackbeards Island, Sapelo Sound, $13,788. Work to be completed within one hundred and twenty days. KANSAS CITY, Mo.-March 30, 1897. Contract with the HaughNoelke Iron Works and the Jeffersonville, Madison and Indianapolis Railroad, Indianapolis, Ind., for steel and iron construction, cast-iron finish, and stairs above fifth floor of dome of post-office and court-house, $17,676. Work to be completed within four months.

KANSAS CITY, Mo.-April 5, 1897. Contract with the Willis Manufacturing Company, Galesburg, Ill., for roof covering, skylights, down pipes, etc., of post-office and court-house, $9,980. Work to be completed within four months.

DETROIT, MICH.-April 9, 1897. Contract with the Central Iron Works, Quincy, Ill., for two hydraulic passenger elevators in post-office, court-house, etc., $6,950. Work to be completed within one hundred and twenty days.

WORKERS AT GAINFUL OCCUPATIONS AT THE FEDERAL CENSUSES OF 1870, 1880, AND 1890.

BY WILLIAM C. HUNT.

The first attempt to determine through the United States census the number of persons engaged in the various classes of remunerative labor, from an inquiry on the population schedule, was made in 1820, at the fourth decennial census of the country. At that census the inquiry related simply to the number of persons engaged in each of three great classes of occupations-agriculture, commerce, and manufactures, the number in each household so employed being entered on the population schedule by the census taker at the time of the enumeration. The results of this inquiry were as follows:

PERSONS ENGAGED IN GAINFUL OCCUPATIONS, BY SELECTED CLASSES, 1820.

The total number of persons engaged in these three classes of occupations in 1820 was 2,492,645, but this number must not be taken as representing, in any sense, the whole number of persons engaged in all

kinds of remunerative labor at that census. The inquiry was limited to the number engaged in these three classes, and no effort was made to ascertain the specific occupation in which each person was engaged. The marshals, employed then as enumerators, determined, therefore, each for himself, the limit of occupations for these three classes and drew the line of separation between them. As there could not have been uniformity of judgment, it is apparent that this system could not result in either completeness or accuracy.

In 1830 no like attempt was made, but at the census of 1840 a similar inquiry was made as to the number of persons engaged in each of seven general classes of employment, with the following results:

PERSONS ENGAGED IN GAINFUL OCCUPATIONS, BY SELECTED CLASSES, 1810.

The total number of persons represented by these seven classes of occupations in 1840 comprehended more nearly the whole number of persons engaged in gainful occupations than was the case in 1820, although it is evident from the above classification that servants and the large number of persons engaged in other domestic and personal services, and probably government officials, clerks, and employees, are not included.

Since and including the census of 1850, information has been obtained as to the specific occupation followed as a means of livelihood. In 1850 the inquiry concerning occupations was limited to free males over 15 years of age, and the printed results comprehended simply an alphabetical list comprising 323 occupation designations, but no attempt was made to classify them according to the number engaged in any of the great classes, as agriculture, manufactures, and the like. In 1860 the specific occupations were given in the printed census report for all free persons over 15 years of age, without distinction as to sex, in an alphabetical list comprising 584 items, but without other description or classification.

In 1870 occupations were classified under four general heads, namely, agriculture, professional and personal services, trade and transportation, and manufactures and mechanical and mining industries, compris ing 338 occupation designations. This presentation of occupations comprehended all persons 10 years of age or over, subdivided according

to sex, three age periods, and, for those of foreign birth, according to twelve principal nationalities.

In 1880 a classification of occupations similar to that of 1870 was made, the number of specific occupations being reduced to 265, and the subdivision by sex, age, and principal nationalities maintained, but on a somewhat restricted basis with respect to nationality.

In 1890 the same general plan of classifying occupations was observed as in 1870 and 1880, but several changes were made for various reasons, and the number of specific occupations reduced to 218. In making these changes and consolidations, the desirability of following the general plan of classification used in the censuses of 1870 and 1880 was not lost sight of, so that the figures obtained in 1890 are in the main comparable with the results of the two preceding censuses; but the subdivision according to sex, age periods, and nationalities of the foreign born was in 1890 very much extended and many other important details added. The census of 1890 probably constitutes the most complete presentation of occupation data that has ever been produced in this or any other country; it not only fully comprehends the subdivision by sex, age periods, and principal nationalities, as given in the censuses of 1870 and 1880, but also a classification according to general nativity and color, conjugal condition, illiteracy, inability to speak English, months unemployed, citizenship, and birthplace of mothers.

In order that proper comparison may be made between the different censuses, a rearrangement of occupations under each of the general classes, in accordance with the classification used in 1890, has been extended by the Census Office to the printed results of preceding censuses, bringing into classified form the results for 1850 and 1860, which in the printed reports are presented in an alphabetical list, and giving for 1870 and 1880 the readjusted totals for each of the general classes. The results of this rearrangement appear as a part of the analysis of the occupation tables in Part II of the census report on population. The completed results for the censuses prior to 1890 have been made available for use by this Department, as well as the final results for 1890, so far as they are applicable to the purposes of this article.

As.already stated, the census report for 1850 gave the occupations of only free males over 15 years of age, and that for 1860 for free persons 16 years of age or over, without distinction of sex, but at the censuses of 1870, 1880, and 1890 the statistics of occupations included all persons of each sex 10 years of age or over. The table following shows, by sex, the total number of persons enumerated, the whole number of persons 10 years of age or over, the number of persons of that age engaged in gainful occupations, and the percentage of persons at work, first, of the total number of persons enumerated, and second, of the whole number of persons 10 years of age or over, as returned at each of the last three censuses.

NUMBER AND PER CENT OF PERSONS 10 YEARS OF AGE OR OVER ENGAGED IN GAINFUL OCCUPATIONS, BY SEX, 1870, 1880, AND 1890.

The whole number of persons engaged in gainful occupations in 1870 constituted 32.43 per cent of the total population, but at the census of 1890 there were 36.31 per cent of the population engaged in such remunerative labor. Considered as regards the whole number of persons 10 years of age or over, those engaged in gainful occupations constituted 44.30 per cent in 1870 and 47.95 per cent in 1890.

At the census of 1840 the 4,798,859 persons (presumably 10 years of age or over) engaged in seven general classes of employment constituted 28.11 per cent of the total population (17,069,453) and 41.27 per cent of the whole number of persons 10 years of age or over (11,629,006). Of the total male population in 1870, 54.73 per cent were engaged in gainful occupations as compared with 58.69 per cent in 1890. The males at work constituted 74.83 per cent of all males 10 years of age or over in 1870, 78.70 per cent in 1880, and 77.29 per cent in 1890. The slight decrease in the proportion of males who were at work in 1890 as compared with 1880 is due to the very much smaller number of children at work in 1890, as explained later on.

The whole number of females engaged in remunerative labor constituted 9.63 per cent of all of that sex in 1870 and 12.81 per cent of all females in 1890. Of the total number of females 10 years of age or over, those at work constituted 13.14 per cent in 1870 and 16.97 per cent in 1890.

The distribution of persons engaged in gainful occupations, in the aggregate and by sex, according to the number and per cent reported for each class of occupations, is shown for 1870, 1880, and 1890 in the table following.