CHAPTER I.

THE COST OF LIVING.

The decennial censuses, which are year by year becoming more reliable and valuable, show, approximately, the wealth of the nation. But these statistics do not pretend to, and, from the nature of the case, can give little insight into the social condition of our people, especially of that large class of bread-winners, the working people, whose families comprise more than ninety in every hundred of the population. Efforts in this direction have not been wanting, even before the day of labor bureaus ; yet, until recently, they have resulted only in information, at best incomplete and unsatisfactory, concerning the nominal earnings of the wage-laborer, the extent of woman and child labor, in what kind of dwelling his family is housed, and the like. Such facts do not even exhibit the merest superficial view of the daily life of our workingmen's families. To get at their real condition we must go farther and find out in what manner their income is spent-what part is used up in providing for subsistence, for clothing and for shelter, and if anything is left for other purposes than mere physical sustenance-the keeping of the body and soul together. Do they save anything from their earnings? How many are in debt? What portion is propertyless, and have we an American proletariat? How little do we actually know about all this! He who said that one-half of the world had no knowledge of the way in which the other half lived stated but a part of the truth.

The need of the information referred to has come to be generally recognized by the social reformer as well as the economist and statesman; and it is gratifying to know that the exertions which are now being made in this country to obtain detailed and accurate budgets of the income and expenditures of our wage-earners and their families are meeting with considerable success.

In Europe, eminent economists for a long time past have devoted

themselves to this "labor of love," and among them the distinguished German statistician, Dr. Ernst Engel, formerly Director of the Prussian Statistical Bureau, who has spent over thirty years of his busy life in this work. He considers well-kept family account books to be the surest way of gauging the social climate, showing, as they must, the relative income and outlay. If compared year by year, they are a true index of the gradual social development or degeneration of a people,* for they photograph its style of living-what the masses eat, drink and wear, the way they are sheltered, and the amount they save, or spend in amusement; from them, too, we can learn whether the industrial progress has increased wages and decreased the cost of living-whether, as has been asserted, the working people are gaining a constantly increasing share of an increasing product, with less effort or labor in each decade, as the decade passes. Further, these household budgets are a fair indication of the relative condition of the various industries, which, if flourishing, should show a like change in the earnings and general comfort of equally industrious and economical employes. To the workingman himself, this subject is of the greatest moment, for the value of his wages lies in their purchasing power. The struggle for existence is daily becoming keener and the average wage-laborer must practice the strictest economy, or he will find himself behind at the end of the season. If he has kept an accurate account of his daily expenses and his periodical receipts, he can soon find out the reason why both ends did not meet, notwithstanding the fact that his neighbor's family which earns no more has had no difficulty. Now, we fully agree with a well-known American economist, who thinks that "it is not altogether desirable either to advise or to attempt to promote such changes in the diet as might, under the pressure of necessity, make a considerable saving”—to see how near one can safely approach the starvation point; but the laboring man, above all others, should remember that over one-half of the struggle of life is the struggle for food, and should learn the best way to economize it-"how he can feed himself well and

*

*Engel: "Rechnungsbuch der Hausfrau."

Edward Atkinson: "The Application of Science to the Production and Consumption of Food."

cheaply," as a German writer puts it.* The first step towards the discovery of this secret is a little domestic bookkeeping. If the wageearner himself has no inclination that way, let his wife or daughter write down the weekly items of income and expenditure-what has been paid to the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker. Over one hundred years ago an author, writing of this matter, observed that he had never known a man keeping a correct account of his household debits and credits who did not save something. Benjamin Franklin, who truly was called one of the greatest of Americans, expressed the same idea with his epigramatic "A penny saved is a penny gained." All this is as true to-day as it was then. The careful workingman wants to realize at the end of each week just where he stands and how much there is left to begin another week with ; while the practical housewife needs not so much information about the quantity of oxygen and nitrogen contained in the various kinds of foods as to know how many cents her husband, whose income foots up but a few hundred dollars, can afford to expend for bread and butter. Yet a knowledge of the relative quantity of nutriments in our food material is by no means a matter of small consequence. Such a knowledge would directly add to the purchasing power of wages, for it would prevent the great wastefulness practiced by the poor and rich alike, which, indeed, is a consummation devoutedly to be wished and amply justifies the reproduction in the next chapter, of some suggestions on the "Chemistry and Economy of Foods" from the interesting paper read by Prof. W. O. Atwater, before the late National Convention of the Chiefs of the U. S. Bureaus of Labor Statistics.

Dr. Meinert: "Wie nachrt man sich gut und billig." In this connection the following table, showing the average expenditures for meat in the places named, will be interesting. The data have been deduced from statistics referred to in this chapter:

Interest in the collection of workingmen's budgets was first awakened by Mr. Fletcher, of the English Statistical Society, who during the '30s drew attention to their value, which has since been fully appreciated by both scholars and statesmen. At the first International Statistical Congress, held in 1853, at Brussels, one of the "sections" was devoted to the subject of the "household budgets of the working classes," the material for which had been gathered by two eminent Belgian economists, one of whom, Ducpetiaux, published at about this time, his celebrated work on "Budgets economiques des classes laborienses," which was followed by one from the pen of the Frenchman, Prof. Leplay, on "Les onvriers Europeens." A study of the facts therein reported led to the discovery by Dr. Engel of his economic law, known by the name of Engel's Law of Subsistence. These statistics showed that the percentage spent for food increased in the inverse ratio of the income, that is, the smaller the income of the family the larger was the relative proportion spent for mere subsistence.* The Belgian families were divided by Ducpetiaux into three classes with incomes of $62, $82 and $121, respectively. The first required an additional support from public or private charity; the second just came out even, spending everything for physical sustenance, while the third had more or less left for those items which are generally classed as sundries. One of the indirect results of the interest excited by this publication was the improvement of the Belgian laboring classes, both through legislative and individual effort.

By 1857, Dr. Engel had secured sufficient data from different families in Saxony to enunciate the following economic law referred to above, the gist of which is that the poorer the family the larger is the relative percentage of outlay for subsistence; that the percentages of outlay for clothing and shelter do not vary materially whatever the income; and lastly, with the increase of income the percentage of outlay for "sundries" also increases :

*For example, out of an income of 160 marks (838), there was spent 72.96 per cent. for food, and so on; with an income of 2,400 marks (8564), this percentage had decreased to 56.90.

The approximate correctness of this economic law has been demonstrated by other investigators. Ballin in his "Hanshalt der Arbeitenden Klassen "* shows that the wealthy Berlinese families expend 30 per cent., the middle classes up to 50 per cent., and the laborers from 50 to 70 per cent. of their total expenditures for food and drink. Col. C. D. Wright, averaging the results obtained by Dr. Engel with those in Massachusetts and Great Britain, concludes † that the law would stand for Massachusetts, on an annual expenditure of $750, as follows: Subsistence, 51.76 per cent.; clothing, 16.32 per cent.; rent, 16.25 per cent. ; fuel, 5.10 per cent. ; sundry expenses, 10.57 per cent.; total, 100 per cent.; and for Great Britain, on a total expenditure of $500 annually, as follows: Subsistence, 56.45 per cent.; clothing, 15.54 per cent.; rent, 13.66 per cent.; fuel, 4.83 per cent.; sundries, 9.52 per cent.; total, 100 per cent. The observations recently made in our own State, Massachusetts, England and Illinois are given below. Few cases, probably, will be found to which the law exactly applies; and it will vary in different countries. But it is a fair average rule, and as such is especially of practical value, because it enables the wageearner to calculate just what part of his income may be expended for the different items of physical sustenance without embarrassment. The comforts, however meagre, are to be remembered as well as the necessaries-the provision for health, education, for old age, and for wives and children, as well as the provision for to-day's meal.

The Massachusetts Bureau of Labor Statistics corroborated Engel's propositions by an investigation conducted in 1874, when there were

*Page 47.

+Mass. Report (1884), p. 467.