Evening star., 1930-11-30
~ FRANCIS W. HIRsT.

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for practical business purposes
by large corporations and for political
or politico-economic purposes by gov
ernments. Whether the scientific econ
omist can teach the city man how TO
make money or the politician how to
keep in office may be disputed.
Certainly 1t is hardly to be expected
that an economist who has been turned
into the servant of q bank or industrial
company. or who has been persuaded to
join the civil service by the govern
ment in power, will maintain high
standard of excellence. Originality in
outlook or in speculative theory de-
mands perfect independence and free
dom. A professor writing to order Is q
mind in chains.
Examines Maintenance Costs.
Nevertheless, scientific methods ap-
piled to research work often produce
valuable and interesting publications
and In the end contribute usefully to
the spread of information about social
and economic conditions at home and
abroad. To this class belongs q study
recently prepared for Unilever, Ltd, the
big soap and margarine combine, which
has been reprinted in the Economist.
It's object is to ascertain the compar-
ative cost of maintaining, in seven of
the most highly civilized and, probably,
also the cheapest countries in Europe,
typical English standards of life CORE
spending to English salaries of $500,
FL 500 and $4,000 per annum. Unfor-
tunately, America Is left out of the pic
ture, but perhaps some enterprising
university in the United States will
give US comparable statistics for the
United States, Canada, Mexico and the
republics of South America.
Task DificuIt One.
Although Unilever's study, with its
tables, only covers about a couple Of
pages of the Economist, the work of
preparation involved must have been
cult one. The unit taken Is that of
married couple with two children, boy
of is and girl of IL years old. The
calculations cover cost Of food, of serv-
ants, clothing, rent, direct and indirect
taxation Gncluding local taxation), ed
ucation, motor cars, medical attendance
and pleasures. AS in England and some
other countries, the rate of income tax
depends partly on whether the income
Is earned or unearned. Unilever's study
assumes that the income is entirely
earned and that none Is derived from
investments.
4Hc 1lBuI cS 1OT ENBLdLu WeEc uCTLNcO
from trustworthy statistics and from
well known social and economic facts.
To obtain comparative data for con-
tinental countries, a QUESTIONABLE was
sent to the Offices of Unilever abroad,
and the information so acquired was
checked in various ways.
Style Is Considered.
The comparative expenditures on food
and clothing of a salaried EngliShman
at home and abroad, and the wages of
servants in the different countries, were
not difficult to ascertain, but one Is q
ing various distributive clothing firms
and associations, Unilever's inquirers
made allowances for the cost Of main
tanning the average English style Of
dress, adjusting 1t to suit special local
conditions, which they illustrate by re-
marking that "in Scandinavia q fur coat
Is o necessity, in France luxury"
should imagine that a salaried en-
ploye in Sweden with $500 year would
not be able to regard fur coat for
himself and his wife as q necessity; and
most people who wish to combine
warmth with comfort in a very cold
Winter would much prefer a good
woolen coat to a coat of inferior fur.
Unilever's continental Offices have
supplied the items of rent, local taxa
ton, the cost of heating, lighting,
water, etc. Some dif1culty arose as re-
CARDS direct taxation, because In some
countries (perhapS the reference Is to
France) Unilever understands that
taxation laws and regulations are not
strictly applied"
Tariffs PerpIex.
In the same way, perplexities may
have been caused by differences In
tariffs, because protective customs duties
raise prices of living, especially for
small householders. by far more than
the revenue they bring in to the ex-
chequer. Another difiiculty arises from
education, because rich persons in Eng
land are apt to send their sons, and
often their daughters, to expensive So
called public schools, at which the
average charge per annum will vary
from ESQ to f250.
In the specimen tables published by
Unilever, the differences between the
annual salary and the annual expendi-
ture Is shown separately under the
heading of Surplus for Savings" along
with such items as life insurance, clubs.
tastes differ so much that 1t Is, OF
It is the same with motoring. In
Unilever's calculation, motor enters
into the English budget when man
with q wife and two children possess
an income of $500 per annum, whereas,
1t Is said, in most European countries
the equivalent salaries of 5000 or even
FL 900 would not carry an allowance
for the upkeep of motor car. can
not help thinking that the average Eng
lishman with 5000 year, living In Lon
don, seldom possesses motor car,
though doubtless he has one II ne lives
in the suburbs or in small provincial
town.
Costs Lowest In Belgium.
We now come to the results OF the
investigation-that Is to say, the estt-
mated yearly expenditure OF an average
English family of four persons, together
with the corresponding cost Of main
tanning a similar standard OF comfort
In Belgium (Antwerp), France, Den
mark (Copenhagen), Sweden (Stock-
holrn), Norway (OSlo), Holland (Rot-
terdam) and Germany (Berlin).
It will be noticed that the French
is not based upon an aver
age for Paris, and that in Belgium ana
Holland, Antwerp and Rotterdam are
taken instead of the capitals, probably
because Brussels and Amsterdam are
notoriously expensive. But might not
the same be said of Stockholm and
Berlin, compared with other cities of
Sweden and Germany?
we begin with incomes Of $500, taking
the English index figure as 100 and the
rest in percentages of 100. The tables
show that for the possessor Of $500 per
annum the cost of living Is lowest In
Belgium, where the index number Is
only 87.4. In Holland 1t is 97.4. 1t Is
highest in Sweden, where 1t Is 1885,, and
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