RELATION BETWEEN PAY AND STANDARD OE LIVING 
17 
food, rent, and operation goods. Apparently the scales for these 
groups of goods give too great weight to additional members of the 
family. The data available are not sufficient for judging whether 
this means that too little allowance was made for adults or that 
more allowance should be made for the fact that these goods can be 
purchased and utilized to better advantage when the families are 
large. The average for the other groups of goods show considerable 
variation with increased size of family, but these variations are 
not noticeably downward. 
Table 6. — The average expenditures for all purposes per cost-consumption writ 
in comparison with the average expenditures per family for the year ended 
December 31, 1919, among 861 farm homes of selected localities of Kentucky, 
Tennessee, and Texas, arranged according to number of children 
Families 
in groups 
Expenditures for all 
purposes 
Number of children per family 
Per 
family 
Sum of 
all per 
cost -con- 
sumption 
unit 
None 
Number 
130 
183 
163 
Dollars 
1,191 
1,259 
1,404 
1,488 
1,496 
1,614 
1,730 
2,022 
Dollars 
575 
1. 
516 
2 
495 
3 
131 
93 
56 
473 
4 
446 
5 
428 
6 
47 
58 
419 
7 
431 
All families. " 
861 
1,437 
490 
It is realized that the household-size index scales here used are 
based on too little information to be considered final. At best they 
seem to be only fair approximation of the conditions found among 
many families of this study. 
The validity of each set of scales was tested by the method of 
''least squares," to see which sets contained the largest degree of 
error. It was found that the most unsatisfactory units were in con- 
nection with food, rent, operation goods, and personal goods. The 
results were fairly satisfactory for clothing, furniture and furnish- 
ings, maintenance of health, advancement, and life and health insur- 
ance. It is hoped that their use here may lead to a still more satis- 
factory means of comparing the cost of the different goods among 
various families. For this reason the sum of costs obtained by their 
use, and the percentage of these costs devoted to advancement, will 
be subordinated throughout the study by total expenditures per 
family. The use of both of these units of comparison should throw 
additional light on the relation of the ability to pay to the standard 
of living and give a suggestion as to which of the units of compari- 
son is superior. 
CRITERIA OF THE ABILITY OF FARMERS TO PAY 
As with the standard of living, some measure or measures of the 
ability of farmers to pay must be explained and accepted before the 
facts on which conclusions are to be based can be presented. The 
