Fortunes for Farmers 



but that is another problem — one that will doubt- 

 less be attacked on another side shortly. 



Standard allowances like old age pensions are 

 worth more in the country than in the town, but 

 the Insurance (191 1) Act may bear harshly on 

 agricultural labourers. A man receiving 15s. a 

 week is charged as much as a miner or bricklayer 

 who may be earning ios. or 15s. a day, whilst the 

 agricultural labourer is much healthier than the 

 town-worker. The Act is unjust to country 

 dwellers. 



The average family in England is five souls — 

 man, wife, and three children — and the least on 

 which they can efficiently be maintained in a city, 

 says Rowntree, is 21s. 8d. Food for adults, 3s., for 

 children 2s. 3d. — 12s. gd.; clothing for adults 6d., 

 for children 5d. — 2s. 3d.; rent, 4s.; fuel, is. iod.; 

 all else, 2d. each — iod. Total: Food, 12s. o,d., 

 clothes, 2s. 3d., rent 4s., fuel is. iod., all else iod. 

 — 21s. 8d. 



In our cities ten per cent of the population have 

 less than this sum, and eighteen per cent more 

 come below it for some reason — either they spend 

 money on tobacco or amusements, or more on 

 clothes or drink — at any rate, they sink below, 

 and there are twenty-eight per cent, or nearly a 

 third of the people of our cities, living in poverty! 

 The cost of living in a city comes out as below : 



40 



