Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-07-28
THE COST OF LIVING
Compared Between Protected Amer
lea and Free Trade England.
CLOTHING CHEAP BUT FIT BADLY
Food Is More Expensive in Albion, but
House Rents Not So High.
BRITONS FORCED TO BE VERY SAVING

|
A topic of never-failing interest on botl
sides of the Atlantic is the relative cost o.
living in England and the United States
The English press, always ready with al
opinion on this subject, has been discussing
it for some days with an assiduity which. il
view of the impending campaign, is some
what suspicious, writes London CORE
spondent to the Philadelphia Press.
There has been published recently a re
port from the British Consul at Chicago
on wages and the cost of living in the State
of what we know as the Middle West
Whether this report was timed by the IN.
thorities here so as to make its appearance
just before the election. we do not know
but it has unquestionably been used fol
| election purposes.
1t is held forth as sort of soothing syruI
for the disturbed spirits of those classes wht
have come pur lately into their politica
heritage, and who from the recklessness o.
new found freedom and the desperation en-.
gendered by long years of oppression, have
threatened to upset things in this staid, old
land, both politically and socially. Tt
! adapt such report to a purpose like this
! has not been easy, and we can hardly be.
lieve the undertaking has been successful
Larger Wages in America Admitted.
Not having read the report in full, we re.
train from adverse criticism upon it But
| to the conclusions drawn from it in British
| newspapers we can do no otherwise than to
dissent in the most emphatic terms. We
| cannot believe, in the first place, that such
inferences are warranted by the report itself.
Indeed, from what we have read of it, we
know they are not; and even though, by any
! possibility, the statement of British Con-
| sui should be found to Justify them, we are
| positively certain that these opinions would
| find no countenance 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 in
| England. It is 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 workers in
the same line over here. But the cost of
living-there's the rub, they tell us, and
their assumption is that the relative differ
ence in this respect is fully enough, If not
more than enough, to make up in England's
favor for the relative difference shown in
the wage sheets of the two countries.
This position is taken and strenuously
maintained by every English paper that
has fallen under our notice since the matter
came up for special discussion, and it will
certainly be through no want of pleading on
the part of ponderous British editors if this
notion is not crammed down the throats of
the British public.
An English Warming to ftmigrants.
One paper. an influential London daily,
warns those who are thinking of emigrating
to the United States to look before they
leap, and its warnings are emphasized by
the astounding observation that "bad as
is the condition of the British workmen, we
think that he is much better off than his
brother in America"
Now, what We propose to combat in this
letter is the assumption, which we hold to
be altogether baseless, that living in Eng.
land is so much cheaper than it is with us;
and, discarding the details for the present,
we shall offer only few cursory observa-
tions upon this point If workmen can buy
their necessaries at so low cost as is
claimed, 1t will surely transpire that living
in general can be conducted at a low rate,
for it is inconceivable that the general pub
lie would put up with prices which were
out of proportion altogether to those paid
for the same articles by the daily laborer.
What then are the facts"
age resident one sees at once how far
fetched is this idea of cheapness if he only
looks at the two items of railway and hotel
rates. To travel on the English railways in
a style at all comparable with that afforded
oniour American cars, you must travel first
class.
English Railway Travel Uncomfortable
Even then you will get no conveniences,
beyond that of a fairly comfortable seat,
and the rate will be 4 cents mile. Second
class costs about the same as the American
frst-class, that is, 8 cents a mile. Of course,
you can take third-class ticket if you like,
which will cost cent per mile less than
this. But your standing is impeached by
riding third while others are riding first
class on the same train. You will ''get
there" just as soon, but you will neither be
SO comfortable in body nor SO happy in
mind.
At iirst-class hotels in large towns you
European plan. The lowest price for O
fairly good room will be and 6, with and
6 for attendance. This means 81 30, and if
afterward you fee the many persons for
whose attentions you are supposed to have
paid, but have not, in the extra l and 6, it
will mean 81. Your meals you can take
where you please. But 1t will be q poor
meal of anv kind, and poorly served, which
you will get for less than so cents, barring,
of course, the English tea, and here again
you will have to drop pence for the waiter
each time. So that even when you have
saved all you can you will be running
closely upon the American 50 80 day rate.
But it is common and little humiliat-
ing, to have to get meals, for economy's
sake, outside the hostelry where you are
putting up; and vet, if you take them at
these cheap English hotels, look at the cost.
Seventy-fve cents for breakfast, 81 25 for
dinner, so cents for tea, and if you take the
regulation "fourth" meal, be it lunch or
supper, about 75 cents more; which foots up
for the day, including room, hotel rate of
something over S.. That's how cheap liv-
ing is in England-it you put up at a fairly
good hotel.
To weaken the force of these observations
it may be said that the ordinary run of peo-
pie do not trouble hotels, and that those
who do patronize them can afford to pay
we'll for their entertainment Which NAV
be quite true, but business men and those
who travel, whether in Euglann or Amer
ica, are compelled to patronize such places.
Not only, therefore, may we properly bring
them into account when the cost Of living !
is under treatment, but they may surely be |
held, in the scale of charges they maintain,
to express in some measure the current |
value of at least the comforts and luxuries |
of life, If not of Its ordinary necessaries
As to railway travel, hera the case is |
much stronger, for the poor man has to use |
the train as well as the rich. He does not |
travel SO much as his fellow-toiler in Amer
lea, because he cannot afford to do 80. He |