are over one-fourth, while in the rural districts the proportion is only one-third as high. The difference between city and country in the ratio of breadwinners to population is thus partly explained by the greater proportion of female breadwinners in the cities.

BREADWINNERS CLASSIFIED BY AGE.

In the discussion of age it was shown (p. 48) that the proportion of children under 10 in Porto Rico is larger than almost anywhere else in the civilized world. In the vast majority of cases, such children are dependent upon their elders for support. It is not quite accurate, therefore, to compare the number of persons engaged in gainful occupations, practically all of whom are over 10, with the total population, nearly a third of whom are under 10. A more specific comparison, that of breadwinners with the population over 10, is made below.

When the children under 10 are excluded, the difference already noted (p. 86) between Porto Rico and the United States in the ratio of breadwinners disappears. But the difference between the two and Cuba still remains.

When similar percentages are computed for the seven departments, it appears that the lowest, Arecibo, differs from the highest, Ponce, by only 2.8 per cent, while, when the total population is included, the lowest differs from the highest by 3.4 per cent. This shows that the differences between the departments are partly, though not entirely, due to their differences in the proportion of young children. In the following table the number and per cent of persons in gainful occupations are given with details of age, and for comparison percentage columns for Cuba and the United States are introduced.

In Porto Rico over one-fifth of the children between 10 and 14 are reported as engaged in gainful occupations; between 15 and 19 nearly one-half are so reported; and from that age to that of 65, between fivetenths and six-tenths of the persons are reported as at work. During the later years of life, from 35 to 65, the proportion of persons at work in Porto Rico is lower than in either Cuba or the United States, but for persons over 65 the minimum is found in the United States. The high proportion of children in gainful occupations is closely connected not merely with the poverty of the masses in Porto Rico, but also with her backward industrial condition and the slight development of the school system, which has appeared from the illiteracy and education tables.

BREADWINNERS CLASSIFIED BY AGE AND SEX.

In the following table the number of breadwinners in Porto Rico of the specified sex and age is given, and the percentage that the breadwinners make of the total number of persons of a given age and sex is shown in parallel columns for Porto Rico, Cuba, and the United States. The figures for Porto Rico from which the percentages have been computed may be derived from those on page 306.

Number and per cent of persons, of sex and age specified, engaged in gainful occupations.

If the percentages for the three countries in the above table be carefully compared, it will appear that, generally speaking, Porto Rico occupies an intermediate position between Cuba and the United States. Among the three countries Cuba has the largest and Porto Rico the smallest proportion of male breadwinners, while on the other hand the United States has the largest and Cuba the smallest proportion of female breadwinners. This is true, not only of the total population over 10, but of most of the separate age groups.

A noteworthy difference between both of the West India islands on the one hand and the United States on the other is the large proportion of male breadwinners between 10 and 15 years of age. The proportion of these in Porto Rico is more than three times, and in Cuba nearly four times, as great as the proportion in the United States.

Of male breadwinners between 15 and 19, the proportion in the two West India islands is greater than it is in the United States by one-half, but thereafter the proportions of male breadwinners in the three countries do not differ very widely. During the latest years of life, over 55, the proportion is lowest in the United States, undoubtedly owing to the considerable number of persons who have withdrawn from gainful occupations and are living on their own savings or on the surplus of other members of the household. Boys and old men are thus at work in Porto Rico to a greater degree than they are in the United States. In the three columns for women another remarkable difference appears between the two West India islands and the United States. In the latter the proportion of female breadwinners rises rapidly in the years of early life to a maximum between 20 and 24 years of age, when three women out of ten are in gainful occupations. In this age period the proportion of female wage earners in the United States is almost double that at any age in Porto Rico or Cuba, but the proportion declines so rapidly that from the age of 35 it is at each period lower than in Cuba, and in each period but the last lower than in Porto Rico. Wage earning on the part of women in the United States thus seems to be in many cases only a preliminary to marriage and the duties of family life, while in Porto Rico and Cuba it would seem that female breadwinners more commonly work through the years of.

later life.

It has so often been found that the departments differ but slightly from each other in their census figures, that it is hardly worth while to push the analysis to that detail. The city and country districts, however, have been found in some cases to differ widely, and to determine whether a material difference exists in the present case the following table has been compiled, in which by "urban districts" are meant the two cities of more than 25,000 inhabitants-Ponce and San Juan, and by "rural districts" is meant the rest of the island. Reference to the extended tables will show that these are the only two cities which are separately reported.

Per cent of persons in urban and rural districts, of age and sex specified, who were engaged in gainful occupations.

From the first two columns of the preceding table it appears that gainful occupations are less common in the rural than in the urban districts of Porto Rico at every age period except that from 10 to 14, and that of 65+. Child labor is apparently, and the labor of old people is certainly, more common in the country districts than it is in the larger cities. The greater proportion for the cities in the other age periods, and the larger proportion of children in the country, result in a ratio of breadwinners to total population in the urban districts much greater than in the country.

Passing to the two columns for males, one notices that gainful occupations for that sex are usually more common in the rural districts, the only important exception being the two age periods between 20 and 30, when the proportion of breadwinners in city and country is about the same. The minor difference in the proportion under 10 may be neglected. Many may be surprised that the proportion of males engaged in gainful occupations is greater in the country districts at almost every age period, and yet that for the total of all ages the proportion of males in gainful occupations in the cities is greater. At first one is at a loss to understand how an excess at each age period, or practically that, can sum to a deficiency in the total. The paradox is explained by noticing that the proportion of children in the urban districts is very much less than in the rural districts, and that, consequently, the proportion of total population eligible for gainful occupations is much greater. In the two cities under consideration only 20.9 per cent of the total population are under 10, while in the rest of the island no less than 31.4 per cent are under 10. If in each case the male children are subtracted from the total male population, one finds that, of the total males over 10 in cities, 84.1 per cent were breadwinners, but in the rural districts 83.2 per cent were breadwinners.

Lastly, if one compares the two columns giving the proportion of female breadwinners in city and country, it appears that at each age period the female breadwinners are somewhat more numerous in the urban than in the rural districts, the excess rising in the cities at the age period 30 to 34 to more than three times that in the country districts. at the same age period. And, owing largely to the smaller proportion of children in the cities, as just mentioned, the female breadwinners of all ages in cities are relatively thrice as numerous as in the country.

BREADWINNERS CLASSIFIED BY RACE.

In the following table the absolute and relative number of persons engaged in gainful occupations is given with distinction of race:

This shows that the proportion of breadwinners was somewhat higher among the colored than among the whites. In the following table the corresponding per cents for the United States (1890) and for Cuba are introduced:

The difference between the two races appears in all three countries, but in Porto Rico it is only about three-fourths of the difference in Cuba, and less than half the difference in the United States. To elucidate these differences the classification by sex may be added to that by race.

BREADWINNERS CLASSIFIED BY RACE AND SEX.

The following table gives the absolute and relative numbers for Porto Rico:

The difference between white and colored among males is too small to be significant. The difference between the two races is due entirely to the fact that gainful occupations are followed by colored women to nearly twice the extent that they are by white women. To determine whether this is true also of other countries the percentage figures are given side by side in the following table:

In all three countries the proportion of breadwinners among white males was slightly higher than the proportion among colored males; but in all three this difference is outweighed by the fact that colored women are at work more generally than white women. The difference between the women of the two races in this regard, however, is less