MIGRATION AND BUSINESS CYCLES
not improbable that pig iron, related as it is to other industries as
well as manufacturing, may be an index of employment opportuni-
ties for immigrants at least as significant as the ordinary index of
numbers employed in factories, which at best does not make ad-
equate allowance for part-time employment.
TaBLE 13-B.—INDICES OF Economic CONDITIONS, BY FISCAL YEARS
ENDING JUNE 30TH: 1890-1922
NUMBER EM- NUMBER EM-
MILES OF MILES OF
YEAR PioyEDey RAILROAD® YEAR Moyo RAILROAD
FACTORIES? FACTORIES
(1890= 100) CONSTRUCTED | (1890= 100) CONSTRUCTED
1890 100.0 TRY 1910 177.7 5,908
1891 103.5 4,844 1911 176.9 4,740
1892 107.0 3,656 1912 181.2 3,301
1893 | 112.4 4,143 1913 189.5 3,003
1894 97.3 2,899 1914 190.3 2.511
1895 102.7 1,805 1915 180.4 831
1896 108.6 2,053 1916 | 208.3 1,653
1897 105.9 2,163 1917 233.9 Co
1898 110.5 2,026 1918 | 243.3 ai
1899 117.5 3,466 1919 242.2 J
1900 128.2 4,628 1920 253.0 To
1901 129.3 3,324 1921 208.1
1902 138.2 4,965 1922 192.7 at)
1903 146.8 6,169
1904 145.7 6,690
1905 148.4 5,084
1906 160.2 5,565
1907 170.2 6,188
1908 162.6 oe
1909 165.9 3.238
aAn estimate for the United States, based upon Census of Manufactures statistics for census years and
on interpolations in intervening years with the aid of State employment and unemployment statistics.
bStatistical Abstract of the United States. In 1908 and the subsequent years, these data exclude switch-
ing and terminal companies hence are not strictly comparable with those for the years prior to 1908.
To indicate the extent to which the fluctuations in pig iron pro-
duction are similar to those of other indices of economic conditions,
there is given in Chart 8 a comparison between pig iron production
and a composite index of business conditions, both expressed as
deviations from computed trends. This composite index is one
computed by Professor W. F. Ogburn and Dorothy S. Thomas,
using nine economic series, namely: wholesale prices (1870-1913),
commercial failures (1870-1920), bituminous coal production
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