tion in the broadest sense,-not the minor problems of rates of wages and hours of labor."

Thus he was a sociologist rather than an economist; and, as he interpreted the science of sociology, it is the science which studies for the betterment of society and the world.

In all his work, President Wright was guided and inspired by a temperamental characteristic which must be fully understood if we would know the man and properly interpret his works. It was common for his friends and students, in analyzing the spirit pervading his work, to speak of him as an optimist. No untoward concatenation of events seemed able to shake his serene confidence that all things are working out for the best in God's scheme for the universe. He possessed a radiant faith in humanity and in the orderly evolution of human society. It was not merely the spirit of hope, not merely the habit of looking at the bright side of things, or the blind acceptance of the useful proverb that it is always darkest just before the dawn: it was something deeper and more comprehensive than a mere temperamental characteristic. It had its root in the complete acceptance of the great fundamental law which governs this universe and all things in it,-the law of progressive evolution.

The statisticians have a habit of representing the meaning of figures by the graphic chart, commonly called the art of cartography. A symbolism frequently used is the curve. There is hardly any line of statistics that does not yield readily to this form of graphic presentation. The peculiarity about these curve lines, when applied to sociological statistics, is that, while they frequently show a tendency to drop, and the depression is often sharp and sudden and sometimes prolonged over a long period, yet, if the statistical range covers a period sufficiently long to justify final conclusions, it is found that the curve line, once it begins to recover its upward movement, lands at a point higher than that at which it rested when the tendency to drop began. In other words, while the progress of the world is often interrupted by the operation of temporary causes, nevertheless there is always progress. Despite set-backs

here and there, despite the fact that we can often see no sign, the upward tendency exists and persists, and the world is growing better all the time. That is the philosophy and the inspiration of President Wright's interpretation of statistics. That is the spirit he read into them, not arbitrarily, not temperamentally, but because he was big enough and broad enough and sane enough to know that that must be, in accordance with the immutable law which governs this universe. That is why his influence and his teachings were so healthy, so wholesome, so powerful for good. No man in this country has done more to teach the people how to read aright the lessons which all honest statistics teach them, when rightly understood and honestly interpreted.

He has taught the nation that every new collision between labor and capital, so far from sowing new dragons' teeth to fructify into new crops of dissension, tends to bring into clearer light the economic principles which must, in the end, determine the relations between these two great forces of industrial life, each as necessary to the other as the two poles of an electric battery. He has taught that every such conflict illumines anew the great ethical principle underlying the whole question,-that neither party to such a conflict has any rights which in the slightest degree interfere with the rights of others.

Looking still deeper into President's Wright's philosophy, we find its full and final explanation in the profoundly religious spirit of the man. It seems perfectly natural that he was frequently called upon to occupy the pulpit in the church to which he was devoted, for the delivery of a lay sermon. We can best show how the religious spirit moulded and guided his thought by quoting from the concluding words of his "Practical Sociology":

"There is a new religion," he wrote, "a religion of progress. . . . The study of life's problems convinces me that there is coming a revival of a religion which shall hold in its power the church, industry, commerce, and the whole social fabric. Any solution, all solutions, must embody within themselves

some phase of such a religion, and unless they do, they will have no force."

Here is revealed a reasoned and deep-rooted trust in the essential beneficence of the all-pervading divine purpose, which President Wright found writ large in the history of all ages and human society everywhere.

THE FEDERAL CENSUS OF OCCUPATIONS.*

BY WILLIAM C. HUNT.

In preparing to take the Thirteenth Census, the time for which is fast approaching, the Census Office will be confronted with no more important duty probably than to provide for the proper return and classification of occupations, so far as, in the nature of things, this may be possible.

The Federal census at its inception was comparatively simple in its requirements, and at the first six enumerations was mainly concerned with the distribution of the free and slave population according to sex and age, to which were added two or three other inquiries at some of the later enumerations. These inquiries concerning population were made in connection with the name of the head of the family only, and were supplemented, in 1810, 1820, and 1840, by attempts, mostly unsuccessful, to collect statistics of industry.

At the Seventh Census, in 1850, however, there was not only a very material extension of the census inquiries, but an important change in the method of enumeration, by which instead of the return in simple form of the number of each of the various classes of persons in each family, in connection with the name of the head of the family only, as in the preceding censuses, there was inaugurated the present system of individual enumeration, whereby a detailed return was required concerning each living inhabitant, each decedent, each farm, and each establishment of productive industry. These changes in scope and method mark the beginning of the era of modern censustaking in this country, and since that census the inquiries have been enlarged to cover many additional features with respect to population as well as the inclusion of many new subjects, which, particularly since 1880, have come to be considered as

*Paper read at the annual meeting of the American Statistical Association, Atlantic City, Dec. 29, 1908.

entirely legitimate matters for census investigation. But along with this great expansion in the character and extent of the census inquiries there is one subject at least concerning which altogether satisfactory results have not been obtained, and that is the return and classification of occupations; and it may in truth be said that it now constitutes the one feature of present-day census-taking in which there is the greatest need for improvement. It is a task, moreover, which presents many difficulties in its execution, and to what extent improvement in these respects can reasonably be expected is, after all, a matter of conditions; and it is largely for the purpose of setting forth these conditions as clearly as may be that this paper has been prepared. In other words, it is not the purpose to present or even suggest any particular scheme for the classification of occupations at the Thirteenth Census, but simply to state the conditions under which the work has been prosecuted in the past, and to indicate, so far as is now possible, the means by which it is hoped both to improve the quality of the returns themselves, and to make more effective the agencies of tabulation, so as to secure in the end a very much improved, if not wholly satisfactory, presentation of the occupations of the people.

The first inquiry with respect to occupations was at the Fourth Census, in 1820. It was not repeated in 1830, but, with this exception, there has been constant inquiry at each succeeding census as a part of the enumeration of population. There have been to date, therefore, eight censuses of occupations, and these fall naturally into three groups: the first comprising the returns of 1820 and 1840; the second, those of 1850 and 1860; and the third, those of 1870, 1880, 1890, and 1900.

At the census of 1820, in conformity to the instructions provided for the marshals and their assistants who were charged with the duty of taking the census, a return was required of the number of persons (including slaves) engaged in each of three great classes of occupations, namely, agriculture, commerce, and manufactures. The inquiry was contained in the population schedule, and, under the system of enumeration