Land Problems and National Welfare 



that most families of rural labourers have, under 

 normal conditions, sufficient food to keep them 

 in a fit condition, which, alas ! is not the case 

 with a large percentage of the families of urban 

 unskilled workmen. 



It is regrettable that more weekly budgets 

 are not available to show the household ex- 

 penditure of the rural labourer. I have only- 

 been able to find one or two, which I tabulate 

 below ; and for the sake of comparison I in- 

 clude in the tables some examples of urban 

 labourers' household budgets which I have 

 taken from Lady Bell's instructive book, " At 

 the Works." 



I also quote various paragraphs from Mr. 

 Seebohm Rowntree's work, " Lessons from 

 Belgium," as bearing on the subject before 

 us. 



" The Belgian small-holders are quite as 

 well fed as even the highest class of town 

 workers." 



The next paragraph applies to urban work- 

 men and not to country labourers. 



" The Belgian workman devotes a larger 

 proportion of his income to food; he can do this 

 because his rent is less, 117% of total income 

 as against 18% in York." 



It is a very important fact for rural workmen 

 to realise that, in spite of the possibility of 

 higher wages in towns, there is actually a large 



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