238 INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION AND WAGES 
culture, factories, and steam railroads by improved me- 
chanical processes during the years 1923-25, may be taken 
as ultra-conservative. About 600,000 of these, he calcu- 
lated, came from the mills and factories, 100,000 from the 
steam transportation system, and 350,000 from agricul- 
ture. The number of factory and mill workers displaced 
was probably larger, as Mr. Gregg, to be conservative, 
took only one-half of the estimated decline in employment 
in manufacturing shown by the index figures for this 
period of the Federal Reserve Board and the Bureau of 
Labor Statistics. 
The depression in agriculture and the exodus to the 
cities accounted for probably two or three times the num- 
ber, as estimated by Mr. Gregg, who were displaced by 
agricultural machinery and who sought work in mines 
and manufacturing establishments. To all classes of dis- 
placed employees must also be added two other new and 
large groups seeking work: (1), an average of about 250,- 
000 each year from foreign immigration, and (2), between 
1,000,000 and 2,000,000 applicants from the native popula- 
tion who would normally each year reach the employable 
age, due allowance, of course, being made for those who 
would be eliminated from industrial employment through 
disability or death. 
Of even greater interest were Mr. Gregg’s estimates of 
the new industries and services which absorbed the work- 
ers thus displaced, together with the new additions to the 
labor supply brought about by immigration and by the 
normal increase of those of employable age. He frankly 
confessed that these calculations, which are reproduced 
on following page, were to some extent guesses, and that 
others might differ, but they might be accepted as indicat- 
ing the significant industrial trends that had been in prog- 
ress.