Show I l' l i f. f j HA T E B BY f CE 4 l ln n HoU the Bureau of o Home 4 r k EC lJ 0 the e nite tats e r Department o 01 LaborIs Labor s 's Working Out the Cost to A p 4 iL r k the Average American 7 7 Family of Rearing a aChild ak k 7 Child i to th Age Cf r hr of 18 and Some Y- Y I IR R alk C Very Interesting C y N 7 t v f f 1 i f k R. R Ai Things Which N Y r 1 q Ym- Ym ew Have Been n Q n Y T sY r y r ra a 4 a 4 i d r r anJa 1 y k i y y j Learned W y m er r W r f vY a K r j kr x Jf l By Nell Ray av Clarke r j J lSE JO OHN N and Mary Iary looked at each other S Should uld it be a baby aby o orr a good low low- automobile They would like to have both or of course but they didn't feel that that Johns Johns John's salary wo would ld warrant that yet Being blithe but sensible young people people peo- peo th they y concluded they would look before before be- be fore they l leaped aped and gab the cost of both r Finding out the out the cost of owning and f running a small smail car was easy But not so the baby Mary began con con- st sting ng her friends about the cost the cost of their children Ann had had a special room i is the hospital hero herself her her- o self and na the baby and her initial cost had totaled nearly a a. a thousand dollars not not counting the cost of the layette ayette and the crib and baby buggy She was feed feed- ingher r YOung son special milk and other special fo folds ds d's and she lamented the fact that his food bill was was' almost as as' large as asher asher her own Sarah arah on the other hand had put her pride in her pocket and gone to the clinics had a bed in the ward and had got off with an initial expenditure of ab about ut i She had followed Government Gov- Gov advice about the feeding and care care of f her baby and the sturdy little tad hadn't cost them much except Sar Sarah's hs h's time and energy BUT UT Mary wasn't satisfied Aft After all these w were re individual cases She felt that there ought to be some figures available on the amount that a baby should cost his first year lib His his third year and on until I he was 18 or even when he should be in college She was conscientious conscientious' about the responsibility she would be assuming and she wanted to know just where she stood So she wrote t to U Uncle cle Sam about it It I Js is for the purpose of getting f for forthe r the hundreds of J Johns and Marys over the country s some me real information not only about their babies but also about some of the other q questions which are constantly being asked in the home home What does does' it cost to rear a child When does it pay a married woman to w work rk outside her home Is it more economical to purchase articles ready made or to tomake tomake make them at that home the Bureau of Home Economics Economics' has recently been gath gathering ring data from all over the country on family expenditures and purchasing habits When this information has been classified we will have some standards by which the adequacy of certain levels of living may be judged Our beneficent Uncle Samuel has set a w woman man to the task of doing this work for incidentally us-incidentally a woman who has a husband and of her own but who has managed somehow or other othere l e to keep up her economic research on pro problems which affect the home th the e c child the wife and the husband chIefly among the salaried classes because Lecause th the e United States s Bureau of Labor has mada made mad e a through study of many of these fields field s among the th laboring classes classes Every day this bureau receives letters let let- tors fr from m persons in different pa parts ts o othe f the country asking for suggestions a ato as a's ast s to t ho X ho y they might better spend pend their r incomes incomes-incomes ranging from the very small to more than average the woman woma n conducting the research said For instance one cautious and far far- seeing young man wrote me recently asking how much it would cost him to get et m married how y much his first child would cost him liim his second and his third and he wanted his ansWer by return mail It is an interesting fact that most of the letters in the low income groups always always al- al ways come to the department from women showing the everlasting fight to tomake to tomake make ends meet while the lett letters rs in inthe th the income high groups almost always always' come from men Usually the latter say that th t they are trying to to apply some some of the accounting cost methods familiar to them in their businesses to their home home expenditures in order to save money ONE request came from a widow with two boys of 12 arid and 14 asking how best to divide her income of a month She wished to keep her sons in school until they finished high school at least and she wanted to know what part of her income should go for rent for food for clothing and so on OI down the line Since she gave the details details' of of her family the situation in the town where she lives there thele is is the possibility of working out a plan t that at will fit her needs No authority can supply a budget re ready dy There is no a aone aone one best bErst plan for spending a given in- in corne conre of of a family with a certain number of children hildren A good plan of spending for foron forone on one family with three children and an income income in- in come of 2500 a year might be a very poor plan for another family living inthe in inthe the same town with the same number of children and the he same income In order to answer such letters it is necessary for us to know how people are actually spending their money the investigator continued We have haye information information mation along this line for industrial groups The Th Bureau of Labor and vanous various van vari- ous private organizations organizations' and individuals have for some years m made de studies of the expenditures of the families of working workingmen men m n in industrial towns towns The Department Department Depart Depart- ment of Agriculture has be been n making studies of the way in which divide di- di divide vide their incomes and what they get in return for them Here at the Bureau of Home Economics Eco Eco- ve lave been making two studies studies' of fa ily expenditures one with a group of farm families families' and one with a group of homemakers living in in the city in order to get further information as as to how people spend their money arid and what they get for it Women in various parts of the country hayEt undertaken to keep accurate records of everything th that t is is' spent in the family each day These records will be sent in for one year At the end of that time there will be information on many points We certainly have a wide variety in the families which are keeping the records We Ve have young married couples several of them with their first babies some of the families have had new babies during the year and there are families with older children and a few couples around GO 60 years of age w whose ose children have grown up and gone away away from home We Weare are going to know before very long whether the tales that a thousand dollars is the least that a respectable baby can cost are true We will know w F ar r. r W S iY ir 1 f t t 10 irr Y t t t t B 1 B 0 0 Iy w. w I f- f 1 t 4 Little Paulina Longworth was born to great wealth and high social position S She c and her mother Alice R Roosevelt sevel Long Long- woith al are e here shown hown out for 11 a 1 i I what the cost o of f children of ther ages willbe will be the their r clothes sl th ir cial eq equipment equip equip- ip- ip ment theIr recreatIOn what it costs to have then th cared for when the parents go out in n the evening When a woman an em employs employs' pI ys help h ip she is making a record of exactly what wh t the help was for and how much she paid for it Food costs fOr the family and the exact quantities and kinds kinds' of food will be known What Wha the family spends for books for furniture and for all other items items' will al also be recorded JUDGING from the figures figures' now available available avail avail- able Mary and John could invest in ina a son or daughter at a more reasonable figure than they would have to pay for fora a priced medium I car and furthermore the upkeep on a young son or daughter would not be nearly so high as that of the car Carrying the comparison compari- compari son still further the upkeep f the son after the initial investment nt would in increase in- in crease with age just justas as that on a car car does but the car must he be replaced after a few years So far faras as the question n has been studied t to date t the e expenditures en forone for forone one child until his birthday may be divided into three or or f four ur main groups The first of these is of course the cost cost costor or the ih cost of f his installation installation in- in in life the fir t item which must be taken into consideration in any profit and account th The second item is food od comparable tithe t the fuel which h C l keeps any machi machine going The third is the clothing and shelter helter comparable comparable com com- parable to the garage ren rent for foi the car and lastly there is the the expenditure for health recreation edu education tion and sundries sundries sun sun- dries comparable to the th repairs to the automobile The initial cost of a baby to its family varies vades as does docs the ta taste te manifested manifested mani- mani by th the f family mily in th the ch choice ce of an automobile le with the thee e economic status of the family and with other fa factors tors such as class racial traditions and wisdom In New York City in 1924 births were registered 80 per per cent cent of which were attended by a physician From a study of a large groUp of cases one statistician learned learned- that where the 4 h y l Y y Millions l of ff dollars form the background of this handsome youngster who is is posing with his r. r H Y father Count Ludwig Salm yon lion The boys boy's mother mother- the o former l Rogers a and d the Count Coun t each fought bItterly for his c custody mother had the services of a general practitioner either in her home or in the h hospital spital the minimum cost for care in the hospital ward was around With better care the cost amounted to where a specialist was in in attendance attendance at- at the minimum shot to between bet and and where the patients were well well-to-do the cost was about 1000 From Froni this the man of figures deduced that for the rank and file of citizens provided no abnormalities developed the cost of being born ranged from to How However since ver being born occurs only once in an individuals individual's life he suggested sug that the initial cost might be distributed over the period of the life life- time in the cost accounting of the yearly exp expenditure necessary to maintain life Incidentally with reference to this one item the parents of an adopted child have an advantage over the real parents parent The cost of adoption papers papers in inmost inmost most cases seldom ranges above 25 in l lawyers fees The s second c nd ite item jn in the cost of a child food is an insistent ever demand The United States D Department of Labor Working on the basis of a family of jive five composed of the father mother and three children aged 11 5 and 2 years with an annual annual income of 2500 has estimated that the food for the boy from his birth to the age of 18 would be approximately 2400 and f for r a girl about 2330 Th This i is based on a rather l low w food consumption figure figue however Clothing on this same basis for the boy up until he is 18 was placed at The amount for shelter necessarily depends on the locality in which the family lives but for a family of five to live on an income of 2500 it would be impossible for them to pay more than 45 45 a month for rent Charging each child with sixth one of the entire expense expense ex- ex pense for the family for shelter the total for one child for eighteen years would amount to 1620 An additional for each child must be added to cover cover the charges for the eighteen years for fuel and light as well as sixth one of the family expenditure for furniture household equipment and upkeep during the eighteen years years This brings the general estimate for forthe forthe the cost of one child for the eighteen years of his life to about for a z r b r iv d r b viv t LIU S. S I c. c t. t boy and for for fora a girl the extra amount charged to the account of the young lady l dy b being ing for lor adornment Distributing Dis- Dis the amount a over the eighteen years year's of the hilds hild's life this means that he costs the mother and father who have h ve an income of 2500 only 1 p per n year ar and f for r t the e three children only D DR R ROYAL MEEKER of the department department depart depart- ment ment of economics of Carlton College Col- Col College lege has just completed a survey of the living costs of teachers in the schools of Minneapolis l in order to set up some standard family budget by which teachers might govern overn their expendi- expendi tures He says that he was sugg suggesting sting neither a luxury y budget nor or a poverty poverty- line budget but a minimum under which the family o of five might be decently nourished shed and clothed According to his budget the housewife mUst do the laundry laundry laun- laun dry the cleaning and the mending as aswell aswell well as the cooking He calls attention to the fact that often a wife objects just as much to a home as the husband does to an home This is how he suggests that the family fortunes be divided on the basis of incomes of a little more than hood food h housing using fuel gas and electricity furniture and nd furnishings clo hing to be distributed as follows The husband the wife 13 boy of 12 70 girl of 6 62 boy of 2 30 This leaves a total or of listed as miscellaneous to be distributed among such items as insurance retirement fund care of the health church charity organizations newspapers books magazines education education tion and vacation amusements the barber servant and day work laundry telephone postage and auto upkeep Dr Meeker has also suggested a budget for the family of five where the income is around The annual cost of putting a child through school is is' is of interest in this connection although the main portion of this burden is borne by the State when the child attends the public schools The United States Bureau of Education estimates that for 1925 the total expenditure per pupil in average attendance in the public schools of the United States averages per child The amount varies of course in the different States but where the State expends a small amount of money per pupil the burden upon the parents is necessarily gre greater ter In New York State for instance the American Council Council- on Education estimated estimated esti- esti mated that the annual cast to the State of putting a child through the elementary elementary elemen- elemen tary sch schools was and through h the secondary schools When a child starts start's in the kindergarten and finally graduates s from the high school the State has expended 1750 upon his education edu- edu cation The parents in States of such high standards are thereby relieved of expense for the education of their children children chil- chil dren except perhaps for 50 over the eighteen years for such incidentals as asI I f stationery and the like The item of education in the family budget is of interest because where the State does not supply books and other necessities th the parents must go down in their pockets ets to make up the deficiency which sometimes seems seems' a greater hardship hardship hard hard- ship than paying their proportionate share of the t taxes HERE is another r important item in inthe inthe T THERE the cost of a baby which has a |