POVERTY LINE. The words "poverty line" have only come into use in comparatively recent years, and probably, to the general public, they merely represent a vague social cleavage be tween people living in varying degrees of security and comfort and people who are constantly exposed to actual privation. To the social student, however, the term has gradually acquired both greater content and greater precision.
It was first made familiar by Charles Booth, in his monu mental Life and Labour of the People, commenced in 1886. In analysing the population of London, he divided it into eight classes, four of which he defined as poor, the other four as "above the line of poverty." "My 'poor,' " he wrote, "may be described as living under a struggle to obtain the necessaries of life and make both ends meet, while the 'very poor' live in a state of chronic want. It may be their own fault that this is so : that is another question ; my first business is simply with the num bers who, from whatever cause, do live under conditions of poverty or destitution." Booth found 3o% of the population of London living under such conditions, or "below the line of poverty." Illuminating, however, as were Booth's researches, they left the actual basis of the poverty line indefinite. In 1899 Seebohm Rowntree made a somewhat similar investigation into poverty in York, a city with a population at that time of about 76,00o. The comparative smallness of the area covered enabled him to undertake a closer analysis of the poverty problem and to dis tinguish between "primary" and "secondary" poverty.
By the former he implied poverty due solely to lack of suffi cient income to maintain a family of normal size in a state of physical efficiency, even though all the resources available were economically administered. "Secondary" poverty, on the other hand, was due to the expenditure of some part of the income on objects other than the maintenance of physical efficiency.
Requirements of Physical Efficiency.—In order to fix his primary poverty line it was necessary to calculate the bare mini mum requirements of physical efficiency and the cost of satisfy ing these. The procedure was as follows: The requirements of physical efficiency were classified under three headings : (I) Food, (2) House rent including rates, (3) Household sundries, such as clothing, light, fuel, etc. With regard
to food, certain standards, in terms of calories per day, were established, in the light of the latest scientific evidence available.
for adult males, adult females, and children of varying ages. The standard adopted for the adult male was 3,500 calories per day, this being the amount required for men doing moderate work. Due proportions of this were fixed for women, adolescents and children. In this way the food required by any given family could be expressed in the terms of a common unit, namely, the calories consumed "per man per day." The dietary selected by Rowntree to provide the necessary calories was based upon the cheapest rations falling within the Local Government board order for work houses, and included no alcohol, no tobacco and no meat, with the exception of a little bacon, being less generous than the average dietary required for workhouse purposes. It was then priced according to the cheapest rate ruling in York at that time, and the following figures were adopted as representing the necessary minimum expenditure for food, viz., 3s. each per week for adults, and 2s.3d. each per week for children.
With regard to rent, the actual sums then paid were taken as the necessary minimum. As regards household sundries, the sum allowed for a family of father, mother and three children for clothing, fuel and all other sundries was 4s. I'd. per week—a figure arrived at after detailed investigation. Allowing 4s. for rent, these figures totalled up to Li is. 8d. a week for a family of five. With the prices ruling on Feb. 1, 1928, this figure becomes L2 IS. I'd., made up as follows :—food Li 3s. I id.; cloth ing, fuel, and all other sundries los. 8d. ; rent 6s., and compulsory insurance is. 4d. No allowance was made for so much as a tram ride or a postage stamp during the year, or for any expenditure whatever upon moral, mental, or social development, and even the sick club and the funeral club were excluded. The aim was simply to ascertain the lowest cost at which bare physical effi ciency could be achieved, if the housewife were a woman of con siderable experience, commonsense, and strength of will.