BATHING SUITS & STEAKS

Greymouth Evening Star, 6 January 1937, Page 2

BATHING SUITS & STEAKS

BUSINESS MEN AVANT TO KNOW

WASHINGTON, November 27.

Future economic planning in the United States will centre largely around an extensive survey of the ijonsulming habits of the American people, now being made jointly by the Bureau of Labour Statistics and the Bureau of Home Economics. More than 3000 interrogators have been going -about approximately 200 selected communities in all parts of the country, knocking on every fourth door and asking such questions as: ’“How many bathing suits did your family buy last year? “How many miles do you get per gallon of gasoline? “How many cakes of soap did your family use last year?” If the interrogator finds the family he has tackled is a fair subject for the federal “study of consumer purchases,” he or she will ask the lady of the house detailed questions that take approximately two hours to answer.

When approximately 60,000 persons have answered the questions, a special staff of Government analysts will set to work to deduce from the replies salient facts about living standards in the United States and in different types of communities therein. The first results of the study will be announced next spring. The “consumption habit” survey 'was recommended by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce back in 1932 when attention was called to the need of business for a “new and comprehensive study of the costs of living of a representative number of people throughout the country.” The last study of this type was made in 1918-19, a period of abnormal economic conditions, and was somewhat limited in its usefulness in that it was confined to wage earners and clerical workers.

'rhe new study was undertaken a« a WJ’A project. Ninety per cent of those engaged in the survey were taken from the relief rolls.

The bureau of home economics is directing the field work in 18 small cities, 132 villages and 13 farm areas, while the Bureau of Labour statistics is in charge of studies being made in two metropolitan areas —New York and Chicago, 16 middle-sized cities and 10 small cities. Families of all income groups are being covered in the investigation, ranging from those living on 1500 dollars and less to those with incomes up to 10,000 dollars a year. PIANOS AND SHOES OUT. Although no conclusions have yet been drawn, those in charge are certain that notable changes will he shown in the consumption habits of the American people since 1919. Pianos and high shoes have decreased in numbers: automobiles have become almost a necessity, with the wage earner pul ting a greater proportion of his income into them than he suspects. A multitude of things will be learned from the completed statistics. Business men. advertisers, economists and various government bureaus have expressed keen interest in the results. Among the. thousand and one questions to be answered are these:

Do families of the same make-up and same income in the same-sized town in the North and South buy the same things, or do the northerners invest in more modern conveniences, as has been stated?

How do rural families differ from urban families in their spending habits?

Al what income levels do families begin to buy such luxuries as radios and silk underwear?

Should the advertising of marked down sales be directed to persons of one income group, rather than another?

How do spending habits change when people move from the country to the city?

Is it true that the reading public is switching from books to magaz i n < s ?

What are the outstanding hobbies of low-income groups and high incomegroups? Do farmers’ wives make use of beauty shops? At what income levels do families

substitute mechanical refrigeration for ice?

How many families spend all their income? How many are running into debt ?

How many people on farms are underfed ?

Over and above these questions are the deeper ones which the social planners for America's future will he aided in answering; chiefly, "What level of material income must Americans have so everybody will have enough Io eat?

"If all incomes were raised to a certain level, what sort of things would people buy?"