TAIUFPS DO NOT AFFECT THE PRICE OF BREAD 149 



German Living and Wages — Government Report 



withdrawn 



" It H rarely that an official report, issued by the Statistical 

 Department, lias to be withdrawn from circulation because of the 

 incori-ectne.ss of its facts and figures. Bat this fate has befallen the 

 Blue-Book, published on Friday week, dealing with the cost of living 

 and wages of the worker in Germany and England. Yesterday it 

 was impossible to procure a copy from the publishers. The book 

 has been recalled for corrections. 



" It represented that the cost of living in Germany was as 118 

 to 100 in England ; that tlie hours of labour in Germany were as 

 111 to 100 in this country ; that net rents in Germany were 

 as 123 to 100 in England ; and that per hour the British worker 

 received one-third more than the German. 



" On a close scrutiny being applied, it was noticed that these 

 figures omitted many articles of food, and items of expenditure. 

 For example, rates, which are far heavier in England than in 

 Germany, were omitted from the cost of rent, and tobacco and beer, 

 which are far cheaper in Germany than in England, did not figure 

 in the workman's weekly budget. 



" There were, too, positive blunders. Thus the price of bread in 

 six of the chief German towns was represented at four times the real 

 figure. A correction to that effect was issued early in the present 

 week. Another extraordinary error is that the price of meat in 

 Germany is quoted without bone and fat, whereas in England the 

 price includes bone and fat." * 



One of two things becomes clear from this remarkable 

 document of the Board of Trade, namely — either that that 

 important economic department were profoundly ignorant of 

 their subject — which is hardly likely, as the price of German 

 bread and the cost of living in Germany are now as well known 

 to thousands of our countrymen as they are in Germany itself 

 — or that they deliberately put forward a false statement, with 

 the object of wilfully misleading the people, in order to serve 

 some mean political purpose. 



Baneful Effect of Government Mis-statements 



Whatever may have been the mainspring of their action, it 

 would appear that the Government played a mean trick on the 

 country, and in spite of the efforts of their political opponents 

 to minimise the harm that is sure to result from misleading 

 statements of this nature, it is certain that millions of people 

 still believe that bread in Germany is dearer than it is with 

 us, and that our workers have considerable advantage over 

 their German confreres in respect to wages and cost of living. 



* Daily Mail, July 4, 1908. 



