Digging to the Roots of a Dying Tree 33 



age' American income for 1917, taking every man, 

 woman and child engaged in gainful occupations, falls 

 somewhere around $1,250. This average means com- 

 paratively little for our purpose, which is to ascertain 

 the economic situation of the millions who left the 

 farm to engage in city life. If comparatively few of 

 them are in the millionaire class, probably hardly more 

 are among those receiving the poorest pay. They were 

 largely made up of the young, energetic and ambitious, 

 equipped with a fair degree of education. They deliber- 

 ately set out to improve their situation in life. To a 

 large extent they are skilled mechanics, trained office 

 people, small merchants, or professional men or women. 



A careful survey of 2,000 families in Chicago, taken 

 at random from the city directory, gave $1,500 as the 

 commonest household income. My own guess (and it is 

 only a guess, from which the reader may dissent), is 

 that the income of the element we have especially in 

 mind averages somewhat above rather than below that 

 figure. 



In the absence of such complete data as we would 

 wish, the best we can do is to say this : The farm 

 worker's labor income is $350 a year, plus rent, fuel, 

 milk and vegetables. Let the city reader add the cost 

 of those four items to $350, then subtract the sum from 

 his total income, and he will be able to compare his own 

 economic lot with that of his rural brother. Probably 

 it would not be far wrong to say that the sum so ob- 

 tained would average about $1,000; nor to deduce the 

 conclusion that the average city man is ahead by any- 

 where from 50 to 100 per cent. 



