The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1947-12-25
NEW FAMILY BUDGET PRICES BY
GOVERNMENT SHOWS COSTS RISE

OWSNOSI y kISE
scared to nearly $40 week or
24c a meal in 1947.
The family" whose budget was
priced by BIS lives in rented
house or apartment, with running
water, private bath and toilet
facilities, central heating In the
northern part of the country, and
including light, heat and fuel. On
this basis, the total cost of housing
and home maintenance ranged
from $72 month in Washington
to slightly under $50 a month in
Kansas City in June 1947. Since
then, rents have risen sharply.
/ Clothing bought by the family,
according to the budget provided
mostly for replacing outgrown chill
dren's shoes-three pair year
for the boy and four pairs for the
little girl. The husband has new
overcoat once every seven years,
the wife buys coat every four
years, and only two housedresses
year. On this scale, the clothing
budget ranges from $462 in Wash
ington to $410 in Kansas City.
The costs of clothing, rent, and
foods all have risen since last
June, when the budget items were
priced by BIS, Clague pointed out.
He ventured an estimate that this
amounted to about 3 per cent or
per cent on the costs of all goods
and services covered in the bud
get.
Because of current high prices, no
provision was made for replace
ment of automobiles by families IN
the modest but adequate" budget
class. Medical costs are difficult
to figure the BIS found, since there
is no agency that set standards OF
adequate medical care such as can
be found for housing or for food
consumption. Further compllcatlng
their problem is the fact that most
American families don't pay for
all the medical care they receive
large-scale bills coming with ter
rible suddenness which causes such
families to turn to free services In
hospitals or clinics, or to go INTO
debt. An arbitrary standard OF four
doctors calls for each member OF
the family, plus some other serv-
ices, would cost $184 year in
Washington and $l52 in Kansas
City.
No provision is made in the bud
get for savings or insurance that
might be classed as savings. The
"family" has no telephone, and
spends only $50 to $50 a year on
all gifts including birthdays and
Christmas, on contributions to
church or charity.
"This is not" Clague told report
ers, "a budget that will tax the
productive capacity Of the Amerl-
can economy" He added that 1t
was impossible to compare the total
costs of the family budget with any
available wage figures. The city
family of four with the man the
sole wage-earner represents only
a small number of the wage earn
ers whose income is averaged In
the BIS figures. In Indianapolis,
for instance, only 116 per cent OF
wage-earners in a study in l945
would have qualified as heads OF
the family for whom the budget
was priced.
The rise i'm the cost of living,
Clague assured reporters, has been
greater than the rise in wages, so
that it is safe to assure that the
family Of four is now either going
below the standards it maintained a
few years ago, ar going into debt
as purchasing power falls behind
prices.
Members of the technical advis-
ory committee that supervised the
study included Samuel Jacobs, ClO
liaison officer at OPA, whose place
later was taken by Mrs. Katherine
p. Ellickson of the CIO research de-
partment, and Broadus Mitchell, ut
the time Of the study, research di-
rector for the Int'l Ladies Garment
Workers Union-AFL.