OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMMIGRANTS 5
(1870-1920), pig iron production (1870-1920), railroad freight ton
mileage (1882-1920), bank clearings outside New York (1881-1915),
employment in Massachusetts (1889-1920), railroad mileage constructed
 (1870-1888), and imports (1870-1888).:
CHART 8
CycLes IN Economic CoNDITIONS IN THE UNITED STATES:
1870-1919.
Unit= one standard deviation
-—-+ Pig Iron Production
o—o Composite Index of Economic Conditions
-*n =,
zo
1870-1879 | 1880-1869 | :90-1899 jon: - 919
*The numerical data for pig iron are in Table 14. For source of the “Composite
Index,” see accompanying text.
It will be noted that all major cycles and most of the minor
fluctuations are common to the two curves, that there is no lag of
sufficient extent to be obvious in these annual data, and that only
in a few years are changes in the two series opposite in direction.
It appears that, on the whole, no marked differences in results will
arise whether pig iron production or such a composite index as that
plotted in Chart 8 is used in analyzing annual cycles in economic
conditions.
*‘The Influence of the Business Cycle on Certain Social Conditions,” Journal of
the American Statistical Association, September, 1922, p. 327.

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