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. 募 397 budgets collected. In 1884, nineteen fresh budgets were obtained and a comparison made with sixteen gathered in Great Britain in 1883. Last year the Illinois Bureau made a similar investigation in that State; while this Bureau now publishes the annual (1884-5) accounts of receipts and expenditures from 319 families in New Jersey. The difficulty in obtaining accurate consumption-statistics is well known to those who have attempted this work. It is rare to find a workingman who notes down the little daily items of outlay. Many have their "pass books," but even these do not show all the food expenditures, which, to a great extent, must be estimated. For these and other reasons, it has been found impracticable, in our present effort, to obtain the quantity of food consumed-something which should always accompany the price, and without which the budget is to that extent incomplete.* The amount paid out for rent, clothing, fuel and light, on the other hand, generally can be stated pretty fairly. Our own tables in detail are published at the close of this chapter, in connection with the Massachusetts and English budgets lately collected, as well as some German accounts obtained from a valuable work recently issued. These tables are summarized in the follow ing pages. What kind of blank should be prepared and how far it should go into detailed inquiries has not yet been settled. In 1853 the Brussels International Congress, mentioned above, recommended a scheme, which is given in Engel's Rechnungsbuch der Hausfrau, referred to above. The following schedule for a blank to obtain "the daily ration of food of working people in different sections of the country" was prepared by Mr. Edward Atkinson for the consideration of the Chiefs of the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics: |