240 INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION AND WAGES 
already been pointed out, a high degree of unemployment 
in terms of numbers followed for a time by very acute 
conditions in many industrial and urban centers. Numeri- 
cal estimates of unemployment at this time ranged all the 
way up to the United States Department of Labor’s absurd 
figures of 1,874,050, which (if there should have been 
added the 2,000,000 each year who reach working age, 
together with an annual influx of 250,000 immigrants) 
would have given a total of 8,000,000 unemployed at the 
beginning of 1928, as contrasted with the estimate of 
4,000,000 submitted by the Labor Bureau, Inc., of New 
York City. 
This latter calculation allowed for and deducted the 
estimated number of displaced workers during the five 
years, 1923-1927, and may be considered as good an esti- 
mate as could have been made during the winter of 1927- 
1928. 
With the opening of spring, industrial activity again 
began to expand, and serious unemployment gradually 
disappeared. This temporary and restricted condition in 
1927-1928, however, clearly showed, as a result of the new 
industrial revolution, that, should there be any considerable 
slackening of industrial output, or should industry as a 
whole reach a point of stabilization where its constant 
acceleration and expansion, as characterized by the new 
order of mass production, would cease, the inevitable result 
would be an unemployment situation which would cause 
unprecedented distress and suffering.