ed
number of members, exclusive of lodgers. For the same 2,500 families,
it brings out from another point of view the relation of the family to
the lodgers. There is presented both the number and percent of
families that had a specified number of lodgers, and also, the number
and percent of families that had a specified number of members
exclusive of lodgers. For example, 178 families had three lodgers
each, which was 7.1 per cent of the total 2,500 families. And of these
48 families had only one other member; 57 had two other members; 36
had three other; 23 four other; 9 five other; 3 six other, and 1 seven
other. Out of 1,353 families that did not accommodate lodgers, 898
families, 67.8 per cent, had three members or less. Of 1,147 families
that did accommodate lodgers, 606, 52.8 per cent, had more lodgers
than natural members. And if we take the totals, 392, 15.7 per cent,
of the families had besides lodgers only one natural member; 909, 36.4
per cent, of the families had in addition to lodgers two members only,
and 508, 20.3 per cent, had besides lodgers three members only; 329
families, 13.2 per cent of the total, had four natural members; 325,
12.9 per cent, had five to seven natural members, and 38, 1.5 per
cent, had eight or more natural members. This makes it clear that
1,809 of the 2,500 families had three natural members or less, if
lodgers are not counted. To take a statement in a percentage that
probably will be applicable to the whole City, one may say that, even
including relatives who may have been lodgers, 72.6 per cent of Negro
families had three members or less, if the lodgers are excluded--a
fact of almost startling social significance. All this is a cause for
serious concern, and any constructive steps for social betterment
should give attention to the causes and remedies for this condition as
one of the first and most urgent problems.

To sum up the general condition of wage-earners: The Negro population
has increased decade by decade, except from 1840 to 1850 and from 1850
to 1860, preceding and during the Abolition and Civil War crisis. It
is made up of young persons and adults in the vigorous working period,
and has a small number of children under fifteen years of age. The
population is recruited largely by immigrants from the South and the
West Indies, who do not survive or remain in the City to a very old
age. Among the wage-earners probably single people predominate.
Largely because of high