Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1917-01-28

tribute to the investigation and be
benefited by il.
This analysis of what it costs wage
earners to live in the District of Co
lumbia is being made in compliance
with a special resolution of Congress.
The work has been laid out systemat-
ically. The city has been divided into
eight sections and the ten young wom-
an agents are assigned certain por-
lions of these sections to cover every
day.
Each morning, armed with forty
printed schedules of questions bearing
the heading "U. S. Department of La
bor." they sally forth to delve into the
a11-important subject of the cost of
present-day living and to collect part
of this comprehensive body of data
which will show what Washington
people get for their money.
Curiosity is aroused rs to the per-
sonality of the women who have been
chosen for this work. The ten-Mrs.
Sophia V Harris, Mrs. Minnie Patter-
son. Miss Dorothea Davis. Miss Ida NJ.
Peck. Miss Helen Dart, Miss Dorothy
Pope. Miss Irene Graham. Miss Mabel
Winslow. Mrs. Andrena Stratton and
Miss Ethel NJ. Smith-all passed civil
service examination for special and eX
pert agent. They are all college bred
specialists in sociology. economics and
kindred subjects. Some of them have
had previous experience in assembling
cost of living data.
Personal inquiry is their method of
working. Necessarily, much of the in
formation in answer to their questions
is given by housewives from memory
although it has been found that some
housewives are exact bookkeeperS and
keep accounts of income and expendi
lures in a thoroughly businesslike
fashion. BY careful questioning and
checking, the agents are able to secure
statements for each of the questions
that. In most cases, are believed by the
agents and their informantS to be very
accurate presentations of the various
items. Also. while the individual state
ments may not be absolutely correct to
the last penny. it can be safely assumed
that averages based on number of
these statements will very closely rep
resent the entire class of families from
which each set was secured.
*
In cases where the averages. in the
final tabulations, are based on a small
number of family statements. they may
be accepted with a due amount of eau
ton. for though the family statements
may be perfectly accurate, the average
may not include a sufficiently large
number to represent fairly the class
for which they stand.
The work in which the young wom-
an agents are concerned does not. at
the present time, deal with the final
averages or tables of statistics They
are now getting the material for their
plot" as the playwright would say,
and it takes the form of a house-to-
house canvass. During the coming
week. which marks the beginning of
the third week of their work, they
will be in the northeast and southeast
divisions of the city.
Their questions are divided into two
general classifications-famil expendi-
lures for the year for food, and family
expenditures for other things besides
food. After setting down the name and
address of the head of the family, they
figure out the years earnings of hus-
band. wife Gf she works. and children.
and ascertain the family's total income
from all sources. Then they begin to
probe into the question of expenditures
for food OF course all of these ques-
lions are of an extremely personal ma