The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1886-08-14
COST OE LIVING.
Inc Astonishing Calculation Made by "A
Massachusetts Statistican.


cost to which decent and comfortable
living can be reduced has been an
swered lately with much detail by Mr..
Edward Atkinson, a Massachusetts,
gentleman who has great fondness
for working over economical statistics,
which he handles in an able and work
manlike fashion.
The present price of a very comfort
able subsistence for single man in
Boston, for instance, he fixes at 5000
year, from which sum it may be
reduced, if necessity requires, to $3.50
year by the exercise of intelligent
care, for, as he truly says, it takes a
great deal of intelligence to get the
most comfort for the least cost.
He finds that decent room, toler.
ably furnished and moderately warmed
in winter, can be hired for 800 year,
and, as it can be occupied by two young
men, the cost to them will be $50 each.
A full and comfortable supply of cloth
ing. according to Mr.. Atkinson's in
vestigations, can be bought for S45
year. This includes best suit for
Sundays and holidays, to be worn
three years, and a common suit for
everyday use, to be replenished an
nually. The amount may be made
considerably less than $45 by dispens-
ing with the best overcoat, for instance,
and by wearing satinet instead OF
wooden in winter.
Here we have, at the outside, $95 for
rent and clothing. Add SIS for wash
ing and $40 for fuel, and the sum is
$3.50. The ordinary calculation is that
a workingman must expend rs much
for food as for all the rest of his SUBJ
sistence, or at least S120 or $3.50 more.
But Mr.. Atkinson contends that such
an expenditure is made necessary only
by wastefulness and ignorance of what
to buy. how to buy it and how to cook
it, and that it is entirely possible to
buy an ample and nutritious ration, in
considerable variety, in the city of
Boston, at not exceeding cents day
and prepare it for use within cents
day." The necessary cost Of food he
therefore fixes at one dollar a week, or
S52 year, and this is the daily bill OF
fare he presents as obtainable for that
sum:
.'One-quarter to three-quarters of
pound of good meat; three-quarters of
a pound of bread; one-half to one
pound of potatoes, or some other vege-
table; one-half pound of oatmeal; one
half ounce of butter; one ounce of
sugar; large bowl of tea or coffee,
with spoonful of condensed milk; an
orange, an apple or some dried fruit. y
The allowance of cost for meat seems
small, but he makes It small because
he provides for the purchase of the
trimmings of the best joints, which are
now thrown into scrap heap and sold
for a cent a pound or less, to be rem
dered into fat. 1t is true that the price
of this wasted meat would rise some
what if the people were intelligent
enough to buy it, but, on the other
hand, the price of the best cuts would
be likely to decline on account of the
use of the other. 1t is because the
English know how to take advantage
of the coarse parts of beef and mutton
much better than we do, according to
Mr.. Atkinson, that the cost of the best
cuts of American beef is less in London
than it is in New York or Boston. 1--WE
pay the highest price for what we call
the best part, and we waste the rest, or
else it is sold at small price to the
keepers of jails, to be served to per-
sons in form which makes it better
food than three-quarters of the work
ingmen outside of iails can secure at
much higher cost"
He says, for instance, that he has
purchased himself good meat, which is
now wasted, at one cent pound, in
parcels of ten pounds. at which price
the marketman said he would select
any quantity at any time. To the
meat he added ten pints of water, with
suitable seasoning, and made rich and
nutritious bouillon, and had remaining
the stewed meat in the broth, ''very
nutritious and appetizing food. (" The
whole cost him only 129 cents, includ-
ing fuel, which was kerosene burned
in hand-lamp. The meat was cooked
in an air-tight vessel surrounded by
hot water.
Mr.. Atkinson concludes that 1.-The
price of a well-conditioned life in the
city of Boston for food, shelter. cloth
ing, fuel and laundry may be covered
by the sum of $172, leaving within the
limit of $500 year $28 for sundries or
luxuries." The problem is to prevent
the waste of food, for ''the price of
food is half the price of life, and half
the price of food is wasted for want of
knowledge how to buy it and how to
cook it.
Solve that problem, says Mr.. Atkin-
son, and you solve the labor question,
for if a man knows how to live .'he
can live to-day at a very low price, and
if he be intelligent he may earn the
price ut the cost of very little labor"
The views and figures of this Boston