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Show 1 1 i Making Tomorrows World By IVJILTER WILLIAMS, LL.D. (Dean of thz School of Joarailitm of the Unlxsiilu of MiaoarO THE HIGHER COST OF LIVING cheapness, advertised In some shop windows at $ to 10 rents a pound. Dogs are eaten to a small extent, not for cheapness, but as a fancied euro for certain ailments. The bread ordinarily or-dinarily consumed among: the working classes is of two kinds. The most general gen-eral is a heavy, close kind made up in shape not unlike an ordinary American Ameri-can brick but larger. It is of a dark brown color, baked of rye, ground wet, and costs about 3 cents a pound. The other bread is lighter in color, a larger and differently shaped loaf, and costs 4 cents a pound. Good coffee costs from 30 to 50 cents a pound. Many workmen buy a mixture of cheap coffee and chickory at 20 cents to 25 cents a pound, or what is called malt coffee at 6 to 8 cents. Butter is little used at ordinary meals. A substitute, butter oil, sells at 16 cents a pound, and oleomargarine from 10 to 25 cents. Sugar sells for 5 to 6 cents a pound. It is a beet sugar, granulated and weak sweet stuffs, if they are really sweet which is not often in Germany ara dear. Milk, sold from, central dairies, is about 3 cents a pint. Vegetables are cheap, potatoes, a common food, particularly bo. The onion and the cabbage, German favorites, favor-ites, are Inexpensive and, as might be expected In a land of highly organized education, a delicious cauliflower, which Mark Twain called a cabbage with a college education, is sold for three cents. Wood is bought in small bundles, a few cents worth at a time, and coal, usually in the form of briquettes,, bri-quettes,, coal dust moulded into brick shape, is not of high cost, except near the mines, but is of small heating value. All these prices are 20 per cent, or more higher than ten years ago. Clothing, Cloth-ing, a rather inferior grade, Is 10 to 15 per cent, higher and rents, except In favored localities, are 20 to 30 pei cent, higher. Official figures on file In the Rathaus or Town Hall at Munich Mu-nich show Increases in five years ol from 10 to 20 per cent, in the priceE . V A Vienna, Austria. Aus-tria. The world today may be growing better. Upon that point there are differences differ-ences of opinion. The cost of living liv-ing in the world, however, is higher high-er today than yesterday. Upon Up-on this there are no differences of opinion. The discussion dis-cussion of this higher cost, which is confined to no one country coun-try or continent but is world-w world-w 1 d e o f the causes and of eating more and dressing better than they did ten or fifteen years ago. It is a question of supply and demand we always get back to that. To sum the matter up in an instance, you can say that because the Poles, who formerly lived on rye bread, are now demanding demand-ing wheat bread, the world has to pay more for its wheat." Which, being be-ing interpreted, means that living is higher because more people want more things. But do they get them? Here are some replies that each may interpret for himself. German Metal Workers' Budget. The German workman, better situated situat-ed than his comrades in industry in other countries of the continent of Europe, Is shown at his best in a report re-port issued by the Metal Workers' union. This report gives the actual budgets of income and expense of 320 of the workmen in this best-paid Industry. In-dustry. The average was an income of $480 a year, of which $375 was from the workman's own labor, the rest from that of his family and aids and benefits. His annual expense was $475, divided $255 for food, drink and tobacco, $65 for rent and taxes, $55 for clothing, $25 for sick, trades and other subscription, $70 for sundries, and, leaving a saving of about $5 a year. Budget of Unskilled Laborer. The figures of the unskilled laborer are not so favorable, of course. They are also more difficult to obtain. A case of a factory laborer's home at Dusseldorf Is not exceptional, however, how-ever, and serves for testimony. In this case the flat which was the workman's home was on the third floor and consisted con-sisted of three rooms. The occupants were a laborer and his family, a wife and eight children. His wages were $5 a week of 60 hours. The rooms were 14 by 10 feet In size, the rent $7 a month and the local taxes $6 a year. In this case, therefore, the laborer la-borer received $260 a year and paid in rent and taxes more than one-third. His wife said that they bought a little lit-tle meat for Sundays about two pounds; children never ate the meat but they had the soup. She would like, she said, to get the children milk and eggs but could not afford to buy the possible cures Is general. In parliaments and In chambers of commerce. In pulpits and on the streets, in shops and factories, in workmen's homes and international hotels, one hears the discussion on every hand. The very skies of the European continent rain pamphlets pamph-lets on the subject and In response to inquiry, at any national or municipal bureau, there is a deluge of statistics. In the major countries, where the government gov-ernment reports are comprehensive in their scope, official figures showing the cost of living in smallest detail may be obtained. Even government figures, however, may be untrustworthy. Let us confirm or correct them in shop, market, savings bank and average home. The "sights" of travel do not appeal ap-peal to me. It Is of far more interest to learn how the Egyptians live than to see the Sphynx by moonlight, to observe the customs of the Frenchman or German in his real home than to look down on Napoleon's tomb in Paris or look up at the Schloss in the most un-German city of Berlin. , Just this personal note as preface to and explanation of the homeliness of a letter, for the figures of which, gathered gath-ered in several countries and a dozen doz-en German towns from actual prices paid, have been supplemented by those I 5 I i II It III II Scene In Vienna. 01 an ioousiuus. Savings Deposits Increasing. The standard of living is increasing. The average man in Germany, France, Austria-Hungary and Great Britain, aa in America, is not content to live on the same level of expenditure as did his fathers. Despite this higher standard stand-ard and the increased cost, he is each year saving more money. Ten years ago the savings deposits in postal and other banks in Great Britain averaged $1.25 per capita less than today. During Dur-ing the same period the savings deposits de-posits in German savings banks increased in-creased from eight to fifteen million marks, two million to three and three-fourths three-fourths million dollars, and the number num-ber of depositors from 8,670,709 to 12,-362,140. 12,-362,140. What is true in this regard of Great Britain and Germany is true of France, Austria-Hungary, Holland, Belgium. In all these countries the cost of living liv-ing has increased to a marked degree, but at the same time there has been a measureable increase in the savings of the people as well as in the stand; ards of living. Over against this must be considered the 40,000 unemployed in Berlin, the strikes in Belgium, and Great Britain and the wide-spread and ill-concealed distress for lack pi food that every great European city shows as cold weather comes. "Yei ain't so 'ungry w'en it's "ot," said a crippled workman in a London park Plea for New Economic Science. A British scientist, discovering the complicated economic problem of the cost of living, argues that the time has come for the establishment of a new constructive science, the aim of whicb would be to evolve and teach the prin ciples under which economic equi? ibrium in the life of communities migh be attained. Congestion of population in the towns, the desertion of the farm, low wages and the increasingly high cost of living are, in his view, ail related. re-lated. . The world is capable of sup porting all its inhabitants in abundance. abund-ance. Rs failure to do so is due to the non-emergence of an organizing science. Every individual is entitled to secure an economic place in the world and every normal individual is capable of filling such a place. Poverty Pov-erty is not really, therefore, necessary. neces-sary. We need not have the poor always with us. There is something wrong with a world where cost ol living becomes to any people oppressively oppres-sively high. Resources, even in these old 'countries of Europe, as in the newer United States, are undeveloped. Countries which now import goods and export food will in time consume their own food a,nd manufacture their own goods. Development of the nation's resources, adequate and comprehensive comprehen-sive transportation, and an equitable distribution of the profits of labor and capital, may not bring prices down, but will accomplish what is more to be desired, an increase of the average aver-age man's income to keep pace with the increased cost of his food and clothing. Living in the world today costs more, but it is worth more. The average av-erage European is willing, though not anxious, to pay the extra price, if he has the means to do so extravagance is not a common trait of Europeans, but with German thrift and French frugality, he wishes to get his money's worth. And, more, he is becoming concerned as to who or what is responsible re-sponsible for the high increased prices and why the benefits, if any, of high prices, as well as their burdens, should not fall to his share. That is the meaning mean-ing of the unrest in Europe which manifests itself today in many ways, political party platforms, parliamentary parliament-ary discussion, legislation, street talk, home conversation, newspaper discus- I sion, and too often hunger strikes and riots. It i3 the disturbance which the underdog makes in struggling for a bigger bone. (Copyright. 18A-1, by Joseph B. Bovles.) I of official reports, particularly an Illuminating Il-luminating one by George H. Roberts, a British member of parliament, a representative rep-resentative of the Typographical association, as-sociation, and his colleagues. Prices of Necessities Increased. How does the other fellow, assuming that he works for his daily bread, live? The disputed Sauerbeck figures for England and Wales show a gradual grad-ual increase in wages, but in the last ten years a much greater increase in prices of necessities. The consumption consump-tion of wheat and wheat flour a mark of a standard living in weBtern lands has remained about the same in Great Britain, decreased in France, and increased in Germany and the United States. As to the amount of consumption, France comes first, the United States and Great Britain second, sec-ond, and Germany last. The importations importa-tions of meat, coffee, tea, sugar and rice into northern European countries have necessarily increased in the last ten years. This shows an increase in the standard of life of the people which, to a degree, explains the higher cost which the other fellow Inust pay. "More People Want More Things." "The question of the increased cost Df living," said Harold Cox, the British Brit-ish authority, "is an extraordinarily difficult problem. I believe, however, the general explanation is to be found :n the fact that w-ages have been ris-.ng ris-.ng tkroughout the world, especially imong the poorer classes and the nore backward races, for example, in India and in eastern Europe. The result re-sult is that the labor cost of produc-Jon produc-Jon has been increased This may lave been offset to a limited extent jy the increased use of machinery and Ihe wider cultivation of the new coun-'xies coun-'xies of the world, but the improved sconomic position of the poorer class-!s class-!s their increased demand and in-ireased in-ireased consumption is the root ause of the rise in prices. It must be f : ' -r- d that these classes are them, bne earned a little money by selling fruit on the streets, sometimes as much as 75 cents a week. She complained com-plained bitterly about prices of food and goods rising. There was a loaf of black, rye bread on the table. For it she said she paid 3 cents a pound. Hard Lot of a Molder's Family. Another case is from Chemnitz, up the concrete stairs of a row of dull tenement houses to the third story. The father, mother and eight children had three rooms, 15 by 8 feet in size, kitchen, living room and bed room. The rent was $65 a year. The father, a moulder, was paid 12 cents an hour ( and worked 56 hours a week. The ten ' members of the family occupied the one bed room. Among the children were three girls, aged seventeen, sixteen six-teen and fifteen years. The few beds and the baby's cot took up nearly all the available floor space, leaving enly about 15 inches for the occupants to walk to their beds. The mother evidently evi-dently endeavored to keep the place clean but what a struggle. She wondered won-dered if the prices of food kept going up, what would happen. The workman's wife in Germany, as elsewhere on the continent, has little to spend but she makes that little go a long way. Her home is small but it is generally well-kept. She frequently supplements her husband's income by working for pay at home or outside, washing, sweeping the streets or at other employments, while at the same time she keeps house. Her children are many but, despite ' terrible overcrowding, over-crowding, are clean and orderly. Food Prices. Prices of foodstuffs vary somewhat in different markets. Those usually paid by the average mechanic or German Ger-man of the middle class may best serve as typical. In the meat diet, pork is a large item. It ranges from 20 to 25 cents a pound. Beef may be bought from 15 to 30 cents, veal it 20 cents. .Karrs meat is eaten lor |