Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1919-09-08
TO SHOW ACTUAL j.
COMFORT NEEDS
BUDGET of Minimum individ-
ual and Family Supplies
to Be Framed.

Minimum comfort budgets" aim
ing to show Congress just what gov
eminent employe and his family
should have to live on for a year. will
be drawn up by the joint congress
sional commission on Redistribution
of salaries in the District.
Members of the research division OF
the commission will frame such com
fort budgets" in connection with their
Investigation into the cost of living
here, in cooperation with the bureau
of labor statistics of the Department
of Labor
The minimum comfort budgets
unlike thousands of budgets drawn
up for individual and family use, will
make things, not dollars. the basis
of the schedule. Three comfort bud
gets will probably be framed-one
for single male federal workers here
one for single female workers. ana
one for an average government EN-
ploye's family consisting of hsband. wife
and three children.
Articles of Diet as Basis.
Instead of basing the budget on
dollars the comfort budget will take
bread, meat and other necessities or
life as the fundamental basis of all
the figuring. The single mans cases
will be taken, and it will be determln-
ed Just exactly what he must have in
clothes. food, etc, for year. Noth,
ing will be left to guesswork. and
every item for minimum comfort VIII
be included.
When such a budget of articles is
made up for a class it will be taken
to proper authorities and to retail
Il % taf
what such things cost now, 1919. in
round, American dollars. or the paper
equivalent thereof. Just what man,
woman. or man, wife and chlidren
need for minimum comfort in Hte.
as BELTS a government employe. will
be the main consideration.
The money values will be interest
ing and instructive. but in this case
the money values are secondary.
Thousands of budgets have been
made. and new ones are made each
month. purporting to show that a
family should only pay is per cent of
it's income per month for rent, when.
as a matter of fact. one couldn't
hardly get a shed for that amount.
There are too many plain budgets.
good. bad and indifferent, already,
many hold. and the Redistribution
commission doesn't wish to enter into
competition.
New in Budget Line.
But a budget which will say plainly,
"A male clerk needs 800 1oaves of
bread per year for his minimum COM
fort" or "A female clerk needs at
least two corsets year for minimum
comfort" Is going to be something
new in the budget line and there
fore will, it is believed. compel atten-
ton.
There is a fine line that divides
actual existing from living. with
minimum comforts, and another fine
line that divides that section or group
from the division OF luxuries. Modern
ideas of decent living are somewhat
above the first group. and perhaps
short of the luxury group. Minimum
comforts" probably include. it is held.
some little luxuries-at least, things
that would seem luxuries to those in
the bare existence group.
Workers on the commission stah
regard the problem of framing their
'.frlinimun comfort budgets" as fas-
chatting. and are determined to make
the budgets as practicable and useful
as possible. The budgets must neces-
sarily be theoretical, since they can
not include things unknown, such as
accidents, etc. They will be intensely
practical, however. since they will
contain the food one eats. the clothes
one wears, the soap with which one
washes, and practically every ether
need in the daily lie -----