Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1910-02-24
NOW AND 10 YEARS AGO
Writer In Review of Reviews COM
pares To=Day's Prices With
Those of 1900.
HIGHER THAN IN WAR TIMES.
Proper Standard of Living Cannot
Be Maintained by the Average
Wage Garner.

Agnes c. Laut in the Review of Re
views gives an illustration of the ex-
orbitant advance in the cost of living.
not based on theory, but dealing in
facts such as every householder in
these days is compelled to face. AS
compared with ten years ago, she says:
THE increase in the simplest arti.
cles for mere subsistence is marked
not by cents and fractions of a cent
but by %, so and 100, and, in the
case of lard, actually 200 per cent *
and this increased cost of living
falls on the average wage Garner, espe-
cially the Office wage Garner, who has
no labor union to send his market
value up-falls with the heavy hand of
a tax collector in time of war or
tribute levied by a conqueror. As a
matter of fact, with the exception Of
two or three staples, like cotton and
wheat, prices are higher to-day in
America than they have ever been In
time of war. Never has the country
been so prosperous. Never has there
been vaster abundance of all the
staples supplying human subsistence,
yet never in the history of America
have all the staples of living gone to
such level CT eXtortionate prices"
The Russell Sage foundation report
on the standard of living in 1907 said
that it required 10 statistician to show
that $500 and 800 a year was wholly
inadequate to maintain a proper stand
ard of living, and no self-respecting
family should be asked or expected to
live on such an income" The COM
mittee expressed the opinion that with
an income of between $500 and $500
a family can barely support itself, pro-
vided it is subject to no extraordinary
expenditure. Statistics show that the
average income of a worker in the
United States does not begin to equal
$500 a year. Il is really under $500
But take as illustration an income
between $500 and $500, with the fam
lily unit as five-two parents and three
children. A few years ago a family
of this size could lease apartments at
$14 or SIG or SIS a month, in typi-
cal city. To-day decent sanitary sur
roundings will cost from $25 to $50
a month-$30O to $3.50 a year-one-
half of the income. 1t is estimated
that where the income ranges from
$500 to 5000 year, with a family of
five, so per cent must go for food
Add thereto the rent, and so there is
left but $3.50 to 5000 at the outset for
clothing, illness, fuel, carfare, educa-
ton, insurance and incidentals At
present prices the absolute minimum
at which a family of five can be cloth
ed is 800 a year Economists figure
that man can be poorly fed at 20
cents a day; adequately fed at %
cents. With a family of five this
means $35 a month. So the writer
says:
Screw it down as you will, you
cannot keep your family of five in
health and keep the food bill below
$500 \If you screw your food bill
lower somebody is going to be skimp-
ed as to brain and Drawn. Screw your
rent below $500, somebody must pay
carfare, or take dodgers, or live in
dark rooms for low rent. Pay for
plain but adequate food and housing
and you are coming out with a deficit
on incomes and from the 5000 income
with less than 5000 left for clothes,
carfare, fuel, clothing, education, i'll.
ness, incidentals."
day beginners are compelled to care
for themselves at an absolute limit of
cents a day for raw material, out
of which they cook nutritious food At
later day, the estimate is increased
to II cents a day. But taking the
lowest possible limit C cents) for
bare material, handled with all the
knowledge and care of science, the low
wage Garner is unable to meet the
conditions, or, if he were, with fam
lily of five his food bill is equivalent
to $500 a year. 1t is readily seen at
his best the small wage Garner will
need his entire income for fuel, food
and rent, leaving clothing and other
incidentals of living to be met with a
deficit. The result is, poorer housing,
overcrowding, with nothing for edu-
cation, health, recreation-just plain
undertaking tainted food, child labor
and other attendant ills. Where the
income runs to $1,000, better housing
and better clothing is essential so
that the wage Garner can move in the
sphere to which his position entities
him. No matter how economical he
may be, fully $1,100 of his income is
absorbed in essentials, and there are
still the items of education, illness,
insurance, recreation, wear and tear
and savings. All the resources of
economy must be brought into play by
him to make ends meet