the occupational activities of the city. It contains a certain number
of recruits for each of the principal types of wage-earning pursuits.
A few of the boys will later enter professional life; many will take
up some sort of clerical work; a still larger number will be employed
in commercial occupations; and the largest group of all will become
wage-earners in manufacturing and mechanical pursuits.

The future occupation cannot be foretold accurately with respect to
any particular boy, but we do know that, whatever their individual
tastes and abilities, the boys must finally engage in activities
similar to those in which the adult born native male population is
engaged, and in approximately the same proportions. We do not know,
for example, whether Johnny Jones will become a doctor or a carpenter,
but we do know that of each 1,000 boys in the public schools about
seven will become doctors and about 25 will become carpenters, because
for many years about those proportions of the boys of native birth in
Cleveland have become doctors and carpenters.

One of the most impressive facts which comes to light in the study of
occupational statistics is the constancy in these proportions. The
business of any community requires certain kinds of work to be
performed and the relative amount of work required and consequently
the relative number of workers vary but slightly over a long period of
time. This principle is illustrated in a striking way by the list of
occupations selected at random presented in Table 7, showing the
number of persons engaged in the occupations specified among each 100
male workers at two successive census years.


TABLE 7--PER CENT OF TOTAL MALE WORKING POPULATION ENGAGED IN