THE ECONOMIC OUTLOOK. 465 



ings-banks, and the decrease in pauperism are also entitled to the 

 highest consideration in this discussion. In the United States the ag- 

 gregate savings-bank deposits increased from ^849,581, 000 in 1873, to 

 $2,152,932,000 in 1886, an increase of over 150 per cent in thirteen 

 years, while the increase in the population of the country during 

 that same time was probably not in excess of 30 per cent. The 

 increase in the deposits of the savings-banks of all other countries, for 

 which data are accessible, show the same law of rapid increase, though 

 not in so large a progressive ratio as in the United States. Thus, in 

 Great Britain the increase between 1875 and 1885 as regards deposits 

 was 40 per cent, and in the number of depositors over 50 per cent,* 

 while the increase in population during the same period was about 10 

 per cent. Switzerland and Sweden and Norway lead all the nations 

 of Europe in the ratio of savings-deposits to the population — the increase, 

 comparing 1860 with 1881, having been from the ratio of 4"2 to 35*5 in 

 the former, and in the case of the latter, from 6'8 to 18'1. In Prussia, 

 where the savings-banks are used almost exclusively by the poorer 

 classes, the deposits for 1886 showed an increase of 876,000,000 marks 

 over the year 1878. The percentage increase in deposits and de- 

 positors in France and Italy in recent years has also been large, and 

 far in excess of any percentage increase in their population. The ag- 

 gregate savings-deposits in various institutions and societies for the 

 Continent of Europe, in 1885, was estimated at £338,000,000 ; or, in- 

 cluding Great Britain, £538,000,000 ($2,690,000,000). 



There are no statistics of national pauperism in the United States, 

 and general conclusions are based mainly on the returns made in the 

 eight States of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Massachu- 

 setts, Wisconsin, and Michigan. A report made by the standing corn- 

 in full operation, and therefore the full details of the results of but one month (Xovem- 

 ber, 1887), can be here furnished. 



For this month the family consisted of twenty-one adult persons (females), including 

 matron and servants ; and the entire disbursements for all running expenses, except for 

 fuel and rent, were $236.41, which were itemized as follows: food, §151.19; gas and 

 oil, S8.83 ; ice, §1.30 ; incidentals, $9.54 ; furnishing, $9.05 ; salary of matron, $20.00 ; 

 wages, $36.50. The average expense per individual per week was $2.8 If. The average 

 expenditure for food for each individual per week was $1.74; per day 24 cents. The 

 sum of $276.30 was received for board, leaving a balance applicable for fuel and rent, for 

 the month, of $49.71. The persons composing the family were not factory-hands, but 

 stenographers, milliners, type-writers, and a few art students. The food furnished was 

 not what would be properly called " cheap," but every way excellent ; and the table is 

 believed to far excel what will ordinarily command a charge of from $8 to $10 per week. 

 ■ As might be inferred, the larger rooms of the house were required to accommodate more 

 than one person, but there was no crowding. 



* The amount of deposits in the British Savings-Bank for 1886 was .£98,000,000 

 ($490,000,000). But besides the savings-banks, there are in Great Britain a number of 

 institutions for the promotion of thrift, which have no exact counterpart in the United 

 States, and which hold also large amounts of the savings of the people, as railway sav- 

 ings-banks, incorporated provident building societies (with £50,000,000 of funds in 1885), 

 friendly societies, etc., and in all of which the deposits are rapidly increasing. 

 VOL. xxxii. — 30 



