The Washington herald., 1908-02-16

I
and IN the cost Of their living since 1888;
and the minister Of agriculture's tnterna-
tional pigeon show. Meanwhile. Paris has
raised its funeral rates. says IS. D." in
the New York Evening Post
In the towns Of France outside Paris
inquiry was made as to days wages of
saddleTs shoemakers, cartwrights. car
penters, blacksmiths. plumbers navvies
masons. and painters. The average days
wage for each Of these laborers in 1873
was d trifie less than 40 American cents.
Twenty years later it had risen to 50
cents; by 1851 it had reached 50 cents,
and it has gone up cents since The
exact doubling Of wages outside Paris
took forty-three years; in ffty-three
years wages increased III per cent. And
the end is not get
Wages in Paris. and more or less in all
the large cities. were. Of course. much
higher during all these years The rise in
Paris has gone ahead Of that in the
provinces Of late years. Thus. in 1896
the average wages for Paris workmen in
forty-thTee trades were 13 cents an hour,
OF sl.27 a day; while in provincial towns
they were only cents an hour, or Z
cents a day IN 1901 the Paris workman
averaged SIS a day TO his provincial
brothers 50 cents. In 1905 Paris pay was
Is cents an hour. or $143lz a day. to 8
cents an hour or 81 cents a day in towns.
That is, in ten years Paris wages have
/ risen 13 per cent. while wages in the prov
/ inces have risen only g per cent.
Paris Dearest Place.
The cost Of living for ordinary work
men IS quite another story Outside Of
Paris and the largest cities there have
always been and there still are wide vari-
ations. IN certain farming districts liv-
ing even now is astoundingly cheap; in
/ factory regions it costs something like
/ city prices Paris, Of course. has all
I along been far and away the dearest
! For Paris family of four persons of
/ the ordinary laboring class the barely
necessary expenses for food and lodging
without heat and light. clothing, or
amusement have been carefully ealcu-
lated for ten-yesr periods. from 1SA to
1893: that is. for the 100 years before our
own time.
/ In the first ten years GSof 10 1S13l-what
may be called Napoleon's time-father
/ and mother and two growing children
could make out 10 live for q year Oh
/ sl77 worth of food and s15 for lodging.
or Sl93 for the twelve months The price
OF lodging, at the lowest living rate has
increased steadily. until il has more than
quadrupled. IN 1893 it was estimated ar
so "A year for the family of four The
price of food in Paris also grew, but not
at all so heavily. until 1883 when il reach
ed S219 for nouTishment needed To keep
| four Paris working bodies and souls to-
gether for one year Since that time,
that is during the last twenty wears,
/ there has been steady decrease in the
price of the food considered absolutely
/ necessary for these four persons In 1888
/ It had come down 20 ministerial fig
ures. which Parisians have trouble 10
I swallow.
Eat Better Food Now.
The labor ministry's estimate is doubt
less exact; but it does not take into the
1 account a revolutionary fact which has
cut across all such calculations within the
century II is the same amount and quail
/ ity of food, the same kind of lodging,
/ 100 years. Now the Paris workman and
his family are no longer content with the
food of lS9i nor with the cramped lodg-
/ ing OF that time. They drink no more
wine but it is still an essential part of
/ their fOod-and the wine is not so good.
But they eat very much more meat; but
ter is no longer a treat only for first
class feasts. and while il would seem
/ impossible 10 eat more bread than the
average Frencbman Of all classes con-
sumes, the Workman's bread is now
white In lodging there Is still great
economy OF room but wOrkmen in reg
ular employment live more and more in
the outskirts or i'm the suburbs OF the
great city: and il is precisely in their
quarters that decent apartment houses,
far better organized than the classical
New York tenement. have been building
for years The slums shown To foreign
ers are mostly nothing but parts of Old
Paris which have not been torn down.
IN sum. in and out OF Paris. wOTkmens
wages have more than doubled in fifty
wears: but the cost Of food and lodging
as they lived in 1904 has increased only
a third There is here some latitude for
that increase in the standard and COM
fort of living which custom has made
an absolute necessity 10 present-day
workmen. Supposing the present cost of
his family's living to be double that OF
the standard of 1891, the Paris workman
can still face the figures.
Prices Are Compared.
If his family of four ate. drank, and
lodged in 1905 as they would have done
in 1903, he would have to pay for 1t only
= t,as.
We have S5o6-while his present yearly
earnings tsupposing again that he earns
wages only six days in the week, which
is not the easel amount to $50 so that
he is still ahead Of the game. This woald
not leave enough for clothing. sickness.
self-indulgenee. But the truth is that
the Paris workman, when he does not
spend his money in drink, keeps his bud
get in far better order than the govern
ment He still saves enough on food and
lodging to dress also much better than
100 years ag0-provided only that strikes
or sickness or other causes do not take
both work and wages from him when
most needed Regularly too, in work
mans family of four, here are come
earnings besides those o. the man. and,
in France. at least both husband and
wife marry only when each has a small
sum of economies, TO be carefully kept
and increased against some future evil
day
The fundamental reason, however, why
the French workman elduTes less grind
ing poverty than is found in other cOun-
tries lies deeper than the habits Of saw
ing thrift ingrained in his race
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Reform.
From the Chicago Tribune.