The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1892-07-31
ALWAYS. OPEN FOR DEBATE
The Question of the Relative Cost of Liv-
ing in England and the United States.
In the Matter of Rents the Enelishman Has
an Advantage, but in ALI Other Respects
the American is the More Favored.

Special Correspondence of the Indianapolis Journal
LONDON. July 16.-A topic of never-fail-
ing interest on both sides of the Atlantic is
the relative cost of living in England and
the United States. The English press.
always ready with an opinion on this sub
ject. has been discussing 1t for some days
with an assiduity which. in view of the
pending campai gn, 10 somewhat suspicious.
There has been published recently a report
from the British consul at Chicago on
wages and the cost of living In the States
of what we know as the middle West.
Whether this report was timed by the
authorities here so as to make its appear
ance just before the election, we do not
know. but it has unquestionably been
used for election purposes. 1t is held
forth as O sort of soothing syrup
for the disturbed spirits of those
classes who have come but lately into
their political heritage, and who, for the
recklessness of new-found freedom and the
desperation engendered by long years of
oppression, have threatened to upset things
in tins staid, old land, both politically and
socially. To adapt such report to q pur-
pose like this has not been easy. and we
can hardly believe the undertaking has
been successful Not having read the re-
port in full. we refrain from adverse criti-
cism upon It But to the conclusions
drawn from 1T in British newspapers we
can do no otherwise that dissent IN the
most emphatic terms. We cannot believe,
in the first place, that such differences are
war; anted by the report itself. Indeed.
nf l.,
they are not; and even though. by any pos
sibilfy, THE statementsof the British con-
sui should be found TO Justify them, we
are positively certain that these opinions
would find no c0untenanoe In the true
facts of the case.
1t Is admitted in the comments of the
press that wages in the United States are
far. very far, In advance of what IS paid
England. 1t ia even conceded that In some
branches of industry the average earnings
of the American worker will amount per
week to double the sum pocketed by work
cost of livlng-there's the rub. they tell us,
and their assumption is that the relative
difference In this respect Is fully enough.
If not moro than enough, to make up in
Englands favor for the relative diff
ference shown in the wage sheets of
the two countries This position 10 taken
and strenuously maintained BIZ every Eng
lish paper that has fallen under our notice
since the matter came mp for special dis
cussion and 1t Will certainly he through no
want of pleading on the part of ponderous
British editors If this notion Is not
crammed down the throets of the British
pubic. One paper, al influential London
daily. warns those who are thinking of
emigrating to the United States to look be-
fore they leap. and its warnings are en-
phasiZed by the astounding Observable
that bad as is the condition of the British
workman. we think that he Is much better
of than his brother in America
Now, what we propose to combat in this
letter 10 tho assumption, which We hold TO
be altogether baselees. that living in Eng
land is so much cheaper than it 10 with US;
aud. discarding details for the present. wa
shall offer only few cursory observations
upon this point. IL wOrkmen can buy their
necessarIes at SO low cost as is claimed, il
will surely transpire that living in general
can be conducted at q low rate. for il is in
conceivable that the general public would
put mp with prices which were out of pro-
portion altogether to those paid for tho