COST OF LIVING.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 14052, 25 May 1911, Page 9

COST OF LIVING.

CONDITIONS IN AMERICA.

BOARD OF TRADE REPORT,

(tiiou oca owx cow-BsroKDßsr.) LONDON, April 13. An important report on the cost of living in American towns has been issued by the Board of Trade, and comprises the fifth. of a series which has already embraced tho United Kingdom, Germany, France, and Belgium. A special enquiry was carried out in twenty-eight selected towns, including all the groat cities and industrial centres, with tho exception of San Francisco, and the subjects covered were wages, hours of work, ' _ousing, and rents, food prices, and family expenditure. Tho data wero collected in February, 1909, which somewhat spoils them for exact comparison with, th© statistics for other countries, collected mainly in October, 1905, but duo allowance is made for this difference in tho statistical comparison in the report between the United States and bho United Kingdom. Tho conclusions of most general interest are those which embody comparisons between American and British conditions, and the-y are summarised by Mr G. R. Askwith in his prefatory note. He says:—Summarising now tho ! results of the international comparison, it appears that the ratio of tho v weekly wages for certain occupations in tho United States and England ond Wales respectively at the dates of tho two enquiries is 243-100 in tlie building tirades, 213-100 in tlie engineering trades. 246-100 in the printing trades, and 232-100 in all theso trades together. Allowing for a slight advance in wages in England and Wales i between tho dates of tho two enquiries, the combined ratio would be iwiO-100. The weekly hours of labour -were found to be 11 per cent, shorter iv the building trades in tho United States than in England and Wales, 7 percent. shorter in tho printinc; trades, but. 6 per cent, longer in tho engineering - trades, the ratio shown by all tho occupations in these three trade groups together being 96-100. As regards rents, the American workman pays on the whole a littlo more than twico as much as tho English workman for the same amount of house accommodation, the actual ratio being 207-100; the minimum of tho predominant range of rents for tho United States towns as a whole exceeding by from 50 to 77, per cent, the maximum of tho range for towns in England and Wal_<> for dwellings ' containing tho same number of rooms. The retail prices of- food, obtained by weighting the ascertained predominant prices according to the consumption shown by tho British budgets, show, when allow- ' anco is made For the increase which took place in thi_ country between Oo- . tober 1905, and February 1909, a ratio of 138—100 for the United States and England and Wales respectively. Putting theso details together and assuming that an English workman . with an average family maintained under American conditions the .standard of expenditure on food to which he hnd been accustomed. Mr Askwith concludes that his wages would be higher in the United States by about 180 por cent, with slightly shorter hours, whilo the other hand his expenditure on food ' and rent would bo higher by about 62 por cent.

The general renort after re-stating - these calculations, adds at-tho conclusion of the Bection dealing with this part of the subject: "Thus, according to this ratio, the money earnings orthe workman in tho United States are' rather more than 2} times as great as in England and Wales, and, since thero is no proof that .employment iB more intermittent t in the 'United -States than . in this country, a much greater margin is available, even when- allowance has been made for tho - increased expenditure on food and ront. . y Tiro* margin is clearly largo, making possible a'com-, mand of tho necessaries and convoni- „ enccs and minor luxuries.of life that is both nominally and really greater than . that enjoyed by tho corresponding classin this country,,although the effective margin is itself, in practice, curtailed by a scale of expenditure to some extent neceiisarily, and to some extent vol- ' untarily, adopted in accordance with a . different and a higher standard of ma- - terial comfort." - ■ When wages and hours are put i»gother the hourly rate'of earnings in America works out at 240 against 100 in England, or nearly 2. times aa high. - Tho average weekly rent per roomworks out at 2_-7.d in-America against - Is 3d in England r< this includes rates,' as in England, as far as -taxation. is - comparable. Food prices also are fully dealt with. On the basis of the average American ' working-man's budget tho relation is 100 to 125. That is to say, an English - workman would pay 88 per cent moro'. for food in America on His ordinary. - scale, but an American only pays in. , the United States 25 per.cent mora' than bo'would in England; -V \