THE STANDARD OF LIVING In attempting to•describe in detail what is demanded by the standard of living in the larger cities of the United States, it will be better at the outset not to consider princi pally dependent families or those which are at the lowest round of income and expenditure. To apply the standard to the case of those who are thus situated is the principal task of the practical charity worker, but in order to ascer tain what measure is to be applied, we must consider the circumstances of those who have not encountered excep tional misfortune and whose earning capacity is not abnor mally deficient. We shall not, of course, discover a clearly defined class with identical incomes or with uni form expenditures. On the contrary, on account of the great diversity in the number of persons constituting the family unit, in the relative number of wage-earners, in occupations, in the percentage of time employed, in the exceptional expenses of various kinds, and in the degree of judgment exercised in the use of money, it will be found that no two families are in exactly the same position. Notwithstanding this, it is possible in general terms to describe some of the elements of usual expenditure, from which sufficiently clear calculations may be made for prac tical purposes when it is desired to ascertain whether a given individual or family is falling below it.
Possibly food is the most elementary necessity of life, but in the plans of a majority of the families in question it is fair to say that the problem of rent is one which receives earlier attention and causes greater anxiety ; and it is possible that if the items for which provision must be made were arranged in the order of their impor tance to the majority of the poor in the great cities, among 29 the unexpected features of such a table would be, that in advance of both food and shelter would appear provision for burial, so strong and universal is the desire not to be buried in a pauper grave. Some form of life insurance sufficient to meet the burial expenses of the individual insured may therefore be enumerated first, however dis tasteful the idea of burial insurance may be to those who are in more comfortable circumstances, and however ex pensive the prevalent forms of insurance may appear. The insurance may take the form of membership in a mutual benefit society of some kind, or it may be an incident to a local political organization, or to membership in a church, but in a large number of instances it will probably be in the nature of "industrial insurance," obtained by small weekly payments, the amount of the policy varying with the length of time for which payments have been made, and other conditions specified in the contract.
For shelter a family of five persons will require not less than three rooms, and even with eight or nine persons in the family, five rooms will usually in a city of tenement houses be considered reasonable provision. It is also essen
tial that the building used for dwelling purposes shall be constructed in such a way as to give to the tenants a reasonable amount of light and air ; protection from fire ; lighted halls, and safeguards against any special dangers to life and limb, such as result from buildings which are structurally defective. As it is obvious that the number of rooms is not of itself a test of the adequacy of the apartment, various attempts have been made, by pre scribing the number of cubic feet for each family or the number of cubic feet for each occupant of a room, to establish a satisfactory minimum. Such progress has been made in the building laws that it is perhaps sufficient to say, for the more enlightened communities, that the standard of living requires compliance with the statutes and local ordinances which have been enacted. There is no community, however progressive, in which such pro visions are not frequently violated.
The ordinary diet of American working people is abundant and varied. It includes daily use of meat, vegetables, milk, fruit, and coffee or tea. The ordinary budget, therefore, from which shortcomings are to be measured, is exceptionally high, at least as far as the quan tity and variety of articles of food are concerned. Possibly not so much can be said as to its preparation or as to the extent to which it is adapted to the physiological needs of the people. Reformers are therefore rightly directing their energies toward improvement in cooking, in the selection of foods, and in the forming of dietaries that are well adapted to the kind of labor to be performed. In a word, it may be laid down for our purpose that the standard of living must include enough to eat, both for adults and children, and not too small a number of different articles of food. It may be added that in a normal family life the meals are served regularly, the entire family participating in a com mon meal usually three times a day. Of course individual wage-earners may find themselves at a distance from home at meal time, especially at the time of the midday meal, and may therefore be obliged to eat at restaurants or from a dinner pail. The however, among many of those for whom the economic struggle is most severe, of feeding at any time without regard to a formal meal, is a distinct and unfortunate departure from normal family life. Especially pernicious is the practice of giving to children a few pennies to buy cakes or other things to eat when they are hungry, instead of providing a regular meal to be eaten under the oversight of the mother, or in com pany with the entire family ; and all such irregularities must be looked upon as a departure from a satisfactory standard.