ACCEPTANCE OF NEW THEORY 137 
In addition to this need for families of three chil- 
dren, the fundamental question, it was also pointed 
out, was not really a statistical one. Statistical aver- 
ages included young married couples with as yet few 
or no children and also married couples with all their 
children grown and fully self-supporting. The ques- 
tion, however, concerned rather the average size of 
the average family at a particular, but very important, 
point in their career. It also embraced the opportu- 
nity for a single man to be able to be married and to 
pass successfully over this acutely stressful period of 
family development. 
As to the ability of industry to pay a living wage, 
it was shown further by careful analysis, based on the 
Reports of the Census Bureau and the National 
Bureau of Economic Research, that the output of in- 
dustry was sufficient to pay all unskilled workers a 
living wage, and also corresponding increases in dif- 
ferentials to those above the grade of unskilled labor- 
ars. 
[n this connection, it was emphasized further that 
the living wage was concerned solely with adult male 
heads of families, and that it did not directly apply to 
women or children gainfully employed ; to proprietors 
and others engaged in business of their own; to pro- 
fessional people, to those engaged in anti-social work, 
or to chronic idlers or incapables. With these funda- 
mental reservations in mind, it was then shown that, 
according to the United States Census of 1920, there 
were 41,609,192 persons, 10 years of age and over, 
engaged in various gainful occupations, but after 
sliminating the classes described in general above to 
which the living wage would not apply—women, pro- 
prietors, officials and managers, children and appren-