THE COST OF LIVING.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLV, Issue 139, 19 June 1911, Page 6

THE COST OF LIVING.

An important report on tne 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 the United Kingdom, Germany, France, and Belgium. A special .inquiry *was carried out in 28 selected towns, including all the greakcities and industrial centres, with the exception of Sjaq Francisco, and the subjects covered1 w.ere wages, hours of worki housing, and/rents, food prices and family expenditure. The conclusions of jnost general interest are- those which embody comparisons between. American, and British conditions', and. they ,are summarised by Mr G. R. ABkwjth in his prefatory note. He says: , Summarising now the results of the international comparison, it appears that the ratio of the weekly wages for certain occupations in the United States and England and Wales respectively at the dates ..of the two inquiries is: 243—100 in the building trades, '213—100 'in the engineering trades, 346—1i00 iri" the < printing trades, ' and1 232.—100 'in ' all these trades together. Allowing for, a alight advance in wages in England and Wales between the dates of the two inquiries, the oqmbined ratio would fee 230—100, The/ weekly hofrrs of labor were found to be 11 per cent, shorter in the building trades in the United States than in England and Wales, seven ,per oeitt. shorter in the printing trades, but six per .cent, longer in the engineering trades, the, ratio shown by'all the occupations in these three, trade groups together bring 96—100.. As regards rents, the American workman pays on the whole a little more than twice as much as the English workman for the same amount of Muse accommodation, the actual ratio being 207—100; the minimum oi the pre-dominant range of rents for the United States towns as a. whole exceeding by from 59 to 77 per cent, the maximum of the range for towns in England and Wales for dwellings containing the same number of rooms. The retail prices of food, obtained by weighing the ascertained predominant- prices according, to the consumption shown by the British Budget, fjhow, when allowance is made for'the increase which took place iii this country between, October, 1905, and February. 1909, a ratio'or 138— 100 for the United States and Eng~ landland arid Wales respectively; Putting these details; together, and assuming that an English workman with an average family maintained under American conditions,. the standard of expenditure oil fokl to which he had been accustomed, Mr Askwith concludes that his wages would be higher in the United States by about 130 per cent., with slightly shorter' hours," while on the other hand his expenditure on food and rent would be higher by about 52 per cent. The general report, after restating these , calcula.tions, adds the conclusion of the* section dealing with this part of the subject:—"Thus, according to this ratio, the'miney earnings of the workman in the United States are rather more than two and a-quarter times as great as in England and, Wales, and, since there is no proof that employment is more intermittent in . the United States than in this country, a much greater margin is available, even vrh&n allowance has been made for the increased expenditure on food and ren The margin is clearly large, making possible a command of the necessaries and conveniences and minor luxuries of life that is both nominally and really- greater than that enjoyed by the. corresponding class in this country, although the effective margin is itself, in practice, curtailed by- a scale of expenditure to some extent necessarily and to some extent voluntarily adopted in accord-

a nee with a different and. a hikher standard of material comfort." When wages and hours are put together the hourl- rate of earnings in America works 1 out'at 240 against 100 in England, ,or nearly two and a-half times as high. The average weekly rent per room works out at 2s 7£ti. in America against Is 3d in England; this includes .rates, as in England, as far as taxation is oomtmrabje. ■ Food prices also are, fully dealt with. On <the basis of the average' American workingman's budget the realisation is 100 to 125. That is to say, an English workman' would pay 88 per cent, more for food in America on his ordinary scale, but, an American only pays in the United States 25 per cent." more than he would in England-