396 New Yoek at the World's Columbian Exposition. 



observation and investigation, corrected by statistics, furnish a guide as 

 to the possibilities. Mr. Carrol D. "Wright, in his Sixth Annual Eeport 

 (1890) on the Cost of the Production of Iron, Steel, etc., shows that in 

 2,490 families investigated, of various nationalities, 1,294 being 

 American, the percentage of expenditure to income was: Rent, 

 twelve and two-tenths per cent ; clothing, eighteen and three-tenths per 

 cent ; food, tiiirty-nine per cent. The average income for these 

 families was $622.14. 



Mr. Edward Atkinson, in his Science of Nutrition, quoting from Mr. 

 Wright's Eeport of the Bureau of Labor Statistics of Massachusetts 

 for 1884, gives the percentage of income spent for food in families of 

 that State, whose income is $600 or less, as from sixty-three to sixty- 

 four per cent. The cost of clothing is practically the same throughout 

 the country ; likewise the average cost of food, since the higher price 

 of certain articles in one locality is counterbalanced by the cheapness 

 of others. The item of rent is that which must vary most in difEerent 

 localities, being, of course, much greater for the same number of rooms 

 in the city than in towns or in the country. 



As the Workingman's Home was a New York State exhibit, inquiries 

 were carried on in the various cities of the State, and the results showed 

 that suites of four rooms, with decent conveniences, or small detached 

 houses, could not generally be had at less than ten dollars a month. 

 This would be the maximum of what a workingman could pay and still 

 have sufficient food and decent clothing. Accordingly, ten dollars a 

 month, or $120 a year, was set aside for rent. 



Statistics showed the greatest variation in the matter of expenditure 

 for food ; from thirty-nine per cent of the income among the coal and 

 iron workers to sixty-four per cent among the Massachusetts laborers, 

 largely factory operatives. A careful study of the food question shows 

 that sixty-four per cent of the income spent for food is extravagantly 

 disproportionate and unnecessary. For forty per cent of the $500 

 income, or for $200 a year, our supposed family can have sufficient 

 nutritious food to satisfy not only the appetite-but also all physiological 

 requirements as shown by scientific investigation. Hence $200 was 

 allowed for food. 



A consideration of the clothing resulted in the decision that $100 

 properly expended would clothe the entire family neatly and 

 comfortably. 



The apportionment of income stands, therefore : 



Income $500 



Rent, at $10 per month $120 



Clothing 100 



Food 200 



Fuel 30 



Miscellaneous 50 



Total 500 



In brief, the exhibit of tlie New York State Workingman's Model 

 Home undertook to answer, partially at least, the following questions : 



