TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION F. 823 
the watering of plants.’ He says: ‘The detection of waste is carried out by means 
of meters placed on the mains, which record automatically the quantity of water 
passing hour by hour throughout the day and night. The whole area served by a 
given water supply is mapped out into small districts, each of which is controlled 
by one of these detective meters. The chart traced by the apparatus shows pre- 
cisely how much water is used in each of the twenty-four hours. It records in a 
grephic form and with singular fidelity the daily life of the people. It shows when 
they get up in the morning, when they go to bed at night, when they wash the tea- 
things, the children, and the clothes; it shows in a suburban district when the 
head of the household comes home from the city and starts watering his flowers ; 
it shows when the watering-cart goesround; but, above all, it shows when the 
water is running away to waste and how much.’ 
I quote this not to multiply examples of the waste of wealth, but to illustrate 
the insight which a few figures, such as those recorded by this meter, give us into 
the lives of the people. How much more does the account-hook, a detective meter 
of every economic action, give us an animated photograph of the family life! 
Nothing is so calculated to stimulate social sympathy or to suggest questions for 
consideration. Like a doctor's notes of his patients the facts are not for publication 
in any form which wil] reveal the identity of the subject; but when we have 
enough of them they will be of the highest scientific value. We have at present 
too few to offer any useful generalisations. All that can be done is to serve as a 
finger-post to point the road along which there is work to be done. 
If nothing has been said about the waste and extravagance of the wealthier 
classes, it is because economy is with them of less moment. They suffer little or 
no privation from extravagance, and derive less advantage from checking it than 
those to whom every little isa help. And so far as much of this waste is con 
cerned, they sin against the light. It is one thing to point out a more excellent 
way to the unwary, another to preach to those who, seeing the better, follow the 
worse. 
But the expenditure of the working classes is also, from a scientific point of 
view, vastly more important. Their expenses are more uniform, less disturbed by 
fantasy, or hospitality, or expensive travel, and will give us more insight into the 
hitherto inscrutable laws of demand. The time is far removed when any reduc- 
tion in the cost of living could be successfully made the pretext for a reduction in 
the rate of wages. The Committee on the Aged Deserving Poor recommends 
under certain conditions pensions varying with the ‘cost of living in the locality.’ 
The same factor, we are told, enters into the adjustment of postmen’s wages as 
between town and town. How are we to know the comparative cost of living 
without these details of expenditure ? How else can we measure wi'h any exact- 
ness the progress of civilisation itself? How else can we discover the cohesive 
force of the family in holding together the structure of society, the mutual succour 
of young and old, the strong and the infirm or sick, the well-to-do and the victim 
of accident or ill-luck ? To what department soever of economic life we turn our 
eyes we find live men and women, born into families, living in families, their social 
happiness and efficiency largely dependent on their family lives, and when we 
consider how greatly our knowledge and insight into society will be increased by 
a more intimate acquaintance with the economies of the family, we may well 
cherish the highest hopes for the future progress of our science. The theory of this 
subject, at any rate, is not ‘complete.’ It has not even been begun. 
Upon certain aspects of the spending or using of wealth as opposed to the get- 
ting of wealth, like the expenditure of central and local governments, it would hardly 
be proper for me to enlarge. The first is subject to the watchful control of the 
taxpayer, of Parliament, and of a highly trained civil service ; the second to the 
jealous criticism of the ratepayer and his representative. But there is some social 
expenditure, like the scandalous multiplication of advertisements (which by a refine- 
ment of cruelty give us no rest night or day), which is wicked to a degree. In all 
these matters of the consumption of wealth, individually and collectively, we 
are as yet, it must be again repeated, too ignorant of the facts. An unimagi- 
native people as we are, we are fortunately fond enough of travel to have sugges- 
