June 23, 1921] 



NATURE 



515 



change, people do not maintain their previous 

 mode of life in absolute fixity, and in war-time 

 they cannot do so. What, then, is to be done? 

 The Committee" appointed in March, 1918, to 

 report on "the actual increase since June, 1914, 

 in the cost of living- to the working classes," 

 under the chairmanship of Lord Sumner, based 

 its number on the actual expenditure on living 

 — i.e. if a working-class family of definite size 

 spent ;^.x in the earlier year, and ;£|'y in the later 

 year, the index-number of "cost of living" was 

 taken as y/x. However interesting such a figure ^ 

 may be — and it obviously has its interest — it is 

 certainly not deserving of the title "an index- 

 number of cost of living." To its use for regu- 

 lating wages Labour leaders made the obvious 

 objection : " If we can buy next to no food, you 

 Avill say that we need have next to no wages." 

 Had the Committee suggested (and the suggestion 

 arises naturally out of its report) that, in the 

 case of food, the Calorie-value of the dietary 

 « should be kept constant, this objection would 

 . have been obviated. If an index-number is to 

 '. deserve the name of an index-number of cost of 

 living at all, there must be fixity of a standard 

 of some kind. 



But the virulence of the discussion that has 

 centred round the Ministry of Labour number is 

 largely due to this fact, that it has been used as 

 the basis of wages-regulation. Need a number 

 for regulating wages (if they ought to be so regu- 

 lated, which is itself a very debatable question) 

 be a number for "cost of living "? For example, 

 Customs and Excise duties certainly contribute 

 to cost of living; but they are meant to be paid 

 by those who choose to consume the dutiable com- 

 modities. Ought they, then, to be included, as 

 duties are included in the Ministry of Labour 

 number, in an index for regulating wages, thus 

 merely shifting payment to the employer? Again, 

 ought luxuries to be included? Neither tobacco 

 nor newspapers can be called necessities. They 

 ■are rightly included when it is a question of con- 

 structing an index-number of "cost of living." 

 Ought they to be included in a number for wages- 

 regulation, as in the Ministry of Labour number? 

 These, and the like, are certainly questions that 

 ought to be discussed, and if it is realised that 

 the index-number is intended to serve the purpose 

 of regulating wages, and not of indicating some 



" Cd. 8<)8o, 1918. Cf. also Cd. 76, 1919, on "Cost of Living of Rural 

 Workers," and the paper by Dr. A. L. Bowley on tlie measurement of 

 change"; in the cost of living, Joi rn. Stat. Soc , vol. Ixxxii. , 1919. 



** Indexes of " expenditure on i- od " as against food prices were given for 

 some time during the war in the Labour Gazette. 



NO. 2695, VOL. 107] 



vaguely conceived "cost of living," it may be 

 possible to arrive at definite and agreed answers. 

 The revision of the Ministry of Labour nlimber 

 will certainly have to be considered in the near 

 future. Any revision should be carried out with 

 a definite conception of the real end in view. If 

 the Ministry of Labour would extend its views 

 so far as to have some regard to working 

 members of the community other than those who 

 work with their hands for a weekly wage, it might 

 consider the formation of a number more nearly 

 related to the expenditure of the middle classes. 

 No index-number of prices exists which forms 

 any adequate basis for the regulation of salaries. 

 Both the Ministry of Labour number and various 

 wholesale numbers have, we believe, been used, 

 but they are not satisfactory. 



It is, in fact, time that the entire question of 

 regulating wages and salaries in accordance with 

 price movements, its justification, the formation 

 of index-numbers for different classes of wage- 

 earners (skilled and unskilled labour do not have 

 the same budget ; miners who get coal free and 

 houses free ought not to have their wages affected 

 by movements in rents and coal prices) and of 

 salary-earners, and the relation that should sub- 

 sist between a given movement in the index and 

 the movement in the wage or salary should be 

 fundamentally reconsidered. 



Psychology and Psychopathology. 



(i) Instinct and the Unconscious : A Contribution 

 to a Biological Theory of the Psycho-Neuroses. 

 By Dr. W. H. R. Rivers. (The Cambridge 

 Medical Series.) Pp. viii-f252. (Cambridge: 

 At the L'niversity Press, 1920.) 165. net. 



(2) Psychoanalysis : Its History, Theory, and Prac- 

 tice. By Andre Tridon. Pp. xi -1-272. (London: 

 Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, and Co., Ltd., 

 191 9.) 1 05. 6d. net. 



(i) 'T^HE investigations and theories of Freud 

 X have exerted a profound eifect upon the 

 development of psychology. This can be seen not 

 only in the rapidly increasing body of teaching put 

 forth by Freud and his orthodox followers, but still 

 more in the mass of writings now appearing which 

 are based largely on certain of Freud's funda- 

 mental doctrines, although they are developed 

 along lines diverging widely from those accepted 

 by the psychoanalyst. 



In this latter group Dr. Rivers's work merits 

 special attention, because, unlike so many of that 

 prolific harvest of psychological and psychopath©- 



