The household furniture deemed essential in the fami lies of restricted income in American cities, is mainly the product of the modern factory. There are fewer heir looms and heavy pieces of substantial furniture than in the country, or in the cities of European countries. It is apt to be light, showy, and not especially durable. On the other hand it can be easily moved, it is well adapted to the special needs of modern life in cities, and can be purchased on instalment ; that is, on monthly payments, the aggregate of which will, however, be beyond the cash value of the articles purchased. On the whole, being light and of materials that can be more easily cleaned, it is probably to be preferred to the more lasting and costly furniture that it has replaced. A stove, a table, several chairs, a sofa, a bureau, cooking and table utensils, car pets, rugs or oilcloth, and two or more beds, according to the size of the family, may be enumerated as the requisites, and to these will be added, almost universally, some pictures, inexpensive mirrors, a clock, and probably a few books and ornaments. The addition of a sewing machine, which is not at all uncommon, may be regarded as a means of livelihood, or as an economy in the mak ing of clothes and in enabling them to last a longer time, rather than as an article of furniture.
Clothing is an important item in the family budget, although the kind and quantity vary so greatly that it can be described only in the most general terms. It is sufficient to say that besides working clothes, for which discarded suits originally made for other purposes are not deemed satisfactory, there must also be available a decent suit for holidays and formal occasions, and that, especially in the northern cities, where there are great extremes of heat and cold, there must be clothing adapted to each season. For winter, underclothes as well as outer garments of sufficient warmth are essential, and in summer also, undergarments are perhaps the rule rather than the exception. Shoes and hats are, of course, to be included and a moderate allowance for collars, ribbons, and other ornamental articles of apparel.
The standard of living is rapidly tending to include, if it does not already include, ready access to running water, a separate bath-room and a separate toilet-room for each family, and many other conveniences and decencies which need not be enumerated, since they depend upon local accidental customs and conditions. A plentiful supply of pure water, clean streets and pavements, good public schools, opportunity for religious worship, freedom to con gr6gate and hold public meetings for any lawful purposes, even-handed justice in the courts, an honest and efficient administration of the law, full participation in the selection of law-makers and other public officials, and the exercise of other political, civic, and social rights and privileges, are, equally with the features described more in detail, component parts of the standard of living. If justice in a given case should be denied, it may be quite as much the duty of a charitably disposed neighbor to aid in secur ing it as it is to provide food or shelter. The refusal of
the right to vote to those upon whom this right is con ferred by the constitution and law, may be as much an infringement of the standard of living as the payment of inadequate wages, or the withholding of material relief.
Medical attendance, under which should be included the care of the eyes and teeth, and other needs involving the services of specialists, obstetrical services, and necessary surgical attendance, and care, if necessary, during con valescence from illness, is included in the standard of liv ing, waiving for the present the question as to whether it should be met entirely from the ordinary income, or whether, like public education and privately supported libraries, it should come in part from public appropriations and private munificence. Newspapers and access to pub lic libraries are all but universal.
Finally, rational living demands not only time but oppor tunity for rest, recreation, and social enjoyment. Entire freedom from ordinary labor one day in seven, freedom from the necessity of working more than ten hours in each twenty-four, and in many occupations more than eight hours in the twenty-four, are the essentials, and still further deductions are likely to be made for ordinary holidays averaging eight or ten in the year, and some times, especially in the summer months, for Saturday half holiday. It is not material for our present purpose whether these deductions are at the expense of the em ployee or the employer. If employees are in position to obtain this free time at their own expense, and value it sufficiently to allow the deduction to be made, then the additional free time is a part of their standard of living just as are their food, their shelter, and their freedom from work on Sunday.
It is not possible to obtain a clear conception of the prevalent standard of living merely by enumerating the goods which at a given moment are in the possession of the families under consideration; it is necessary to follow their fortunes through an entire generation, or, what is equivalent, to consider the position of the children, the middle aged, and those of advanced years in the household economy. We must find out what happens in sickness, in hard times, and at times when there is a distinct re versal in the family fortunes. The family is on the right side of self-support only when, one year after another, in hard times as well as in periods of prosperity, they are able to remain independent ; they must be able to provide insurance against accident and death ; they must be able to keep the children at school until they are physically and mentally ready for work; they must be able to obtain sufficient relaxation and recreation to prevent premature breakdown of the physical system. Those who do not have the expense of rearing children, and who are there fore deprived of support from their own offspring when grown to manhood, must lay aside, either in the form of insurance or in that of savings, enough to provide for their own old age.