The Spokane press. [volume] (Spokane, Wash.) 1902-1939, 1907-09-07
Continued from page ID

stood off, clothing may be
patched The family may be cold
but it must eat
The expense account shows the
family is spending from 1915 to
$3.50 a week for food. How much
is eaten depends on whether it is
rent week, or whether father has
work. But it comes to an average
Of 1898 week for food for the
family. This is s10S a week to feed
each adult mouth, and children in
proportion.
| What does the family eat? Mostly
bakers bread There is practically
no baking done at home. COSTS
too much to run the stove and have
not time anyway" A quarter of all
the money spent for food goes to
the bakery. Practically no oatmeal
cornmeal or rice are used. While
these are Cheap and nutritious, the
cost of fire and the time for prepar-
alton prohibit them Pies and
cake are found frequently also in
the budget. When there is not
money for meat or IRE, the poor
often unwisely spend their pittance
for pies and cakes.
More than half of the total in
come of the family is spent for
food.
This one statement spells ruin
for any family establishment For
it has been found by the govern
ment experts that two-thirds of a
/ small income is imperatively need
] ed for such things as shelter,
This typical family is found to
| spend but cents Il week for each
adult for fruit. And this is for ap-
pies. Bananas, cantaloupes, grapes,
lemons, watermelons, oranges and
even dried prunes are practically
unknown to the poor, They cannot
afford them.
Bread, meat, coffee and tea are
| the staples. Sixty per cent of the
food expense goes for bread and
meat. Bread is more expensive. A
loaf now weighs but ii ounces, and
still costs 5 cents. The family gen.
orally buys stale bread for cents
loaf
For meat the family eats sau-
sage, cheap stew meat, pork and
the cheapest round steak. The price
seldom exceeds cents a pound,
quality according. The family eats
no chicken. 1t Is too expensive
Fish is used considerably. Half the
year the family uses no eggs and
for 4 months no milk. Cheap pre-
| serves often replace butter. When
butter is bought it is at the rate of
cents for quarter of pound.
! Ice is a luxury beyond these fami-
lies. The only indulgence is tobac-
co at 20 cents a week.
The family lives in 4 miserable
rooms, paying about 81 a month
The house has no bathroom. nor
running water, and it is unsanitary.
The water has to be carried from a
distance. There is no privacy. The
location is undesirable and incon-
venient. On basis of a third more
than its assessed valuation the rent
ought to be $3.50 (Which would
yield 10 per cent cross. So the
poor family pays Al per cent more
for rent than the people who are
better off
After paying for food and rent
and incidentals, there is little left
for clothes. Father has no best
suit. children are so shabby they
are ashamed to be sent to school;
boy has had to be sent to the in
dustrial home to save expenses;
fathers working clothes are so
ragged that he cannot exercise his
ambition to get better job. the
only relief is from an occasional
contribution from relatives or char
ity.
The family makes no regular ap-
preparation for fuel. Father picks
up wood about the contractors
yard gets some coal along the rail
road tracks, and the children for
age for whatever will burn. Cooking
is done in summer over an oil
stove; in winter the kitchen range
furnishes heat and cooking also.
Kerosene is bought for 4 cents a
quart and 2 cents pint. Often the
family buys a penny's worth of kerr
osene to run the stove for a meal.
When coal is bought it is by the
| bushel at the rate of $40 a ton.
The family furnishes its house on
the installment plan. 1t is always
making payments on some Install
ment purchase, chair, bright rug,
stove, bed or sewing machine. 1t
is the only way in which such
things can be purchased, and it mat
tiers not that the sewing machine
costs SIS, when it could be bought
for cash for $95, and other things in
proportion.
The family pays IS cents week
for industrial insurance and bur
ial." Enormous profits are made by
the industrial insurance companies.
1t also is paying on account of an
old debt, incurred when the last
baby came. This debt, which
amounts to $45, is drawing interest
at the rate of 1870 per cent. For this
is what is charged by the shylock
loan companies with which the poor
are forced to deal. There are so
such companies doing business in
Washington, and proportionate in
other cities, in defiance of laws pro-
hibiting usury. They hang on the