MEMBERSHIP OF WOMEN'S AND OF MIXED TRADE UNIONS IN GREAT BRITAIN, CLASSIFIED BY TRADES, 1908-Concluded.

Artistes..

Actors.

Firewood cutters:

Firewood Cutters...

Midwives:

General labor:

Amalgamated Union of Cooperative Employees...

National Amalgamated Union of Shop Assistants, Warehousemen, and Clerks..

National Association of Grocers' Assistants..

a 737

a 1

1,000

23, 404

1,020

National Midwives...

a 121

Figures for 1907; supplied from Report of the Labor Department of the Board of Trade on Trade Unions in 1905-1907, as there were no later figures available.

Including figures for 1907 for 77 unions; no later figures available. • Including figures for 1907 for 92 unions; no later figures available.

COST OF LIVING OF THE WORKING CLASSES IN THE PRINCIPAL INDUSTRIAL TOWNS OF FRANCE.

66

SCOPE OF THE INVESTIGATION.

Under the above title is presented the results of an investigation undertaken by the British Board of Trade in the 30 principal industrial towns of France in order to obtain, in regard to the condition of the working classes therein, information comparable to that given for the principal industrial towns of the United Kingdom and of Germany in the two reports previously published on the Cost of Living of the Working Classes." (") The investigation has reference primarily to the rents of working-class dwellings, to the prices usually paid by the working classes for food and fuel, and to wages and hours of labor. It was conducted as far as practicable on lines identical with the inquiries for the towns of the United Kingdom and of Germany, and the statistical material collected relates in the main to the same date (October, 1905), though some additional data for a few towns were secured for a later date (August-October, 1907).

In order to arrive at some estimate of the standard of living prevalent among the French industrial classes over 5,600 budgets, showing the expenditure for food by working-class families in a normal week, and representative of numerous occupations and of all grades of working-class incomes, were obtained from the various towns investigated. These towns contain an aggregate of over 6,000,000 inhabitants.

Any exact statistical comparison of cost of living in France with cost of living in England is not a simple matter. Even when all the difficulties of maintaining the same standard of investigation throughout have been successfully overcome there remains a difficulty arising from the difference in national tastes and modes of life. This is well illustrated by the statements that—

An English workman, with an average family, who should go to France and endeavor to maintain there his accustomed mode of living would find his expenditure on rent, food, and fuel substantially increased-though not to so large an extent as if he had gone to Germany.

See Bulletin of the Bureau of Labor, No. 77, July, 1908, pp. 336 to 354, and Bulletin No. 78, September, 1908, pp. 523 to 548.

He would find his wages to be lower than in the latter country and much below the English level, in spite of longer hours.

A French workman living in England according to his French standard would find a certain reduction in the cost of food, but a rise in the cost of housing accommodation.

As a basis of comparison for the French towns among themselves the levels of rents, prices, and wages in Paris have been taken as standards and index numbers calculated for each of these items in every town, so as to afford an indication of the relative levels of the towns. The index numbers for rents and prices in each town have also been combined in a single index number, in order to determine the relative level for each town of the cost of living of the working classes, so far as it consists of expenditure for housing and food, and for this purpose, because the expenditure for food is much greater than that for rent, prices have been given a weight of 5 and rents a weight of 1 in the construction of the combined index number. The comparison of the rates of wages has been confined mainly to occupations in certain standard industries, as the building trades, engineering (mechanical), and printing, which are found to a greater or less extent in all the towns. The general result of the comparison is that for skilled men in the building trades the weekly wages of the French workman appear to average about 68 per cent of those of the English artisan, and for skilled men in the engineering trades the French wages average 81 per cent of the English.

According to the report for the United Kingdom the prevailing type of dwelling occupied by the working classes in England and Wales, and to a less degree in Ireland, is a self-contained two-story dwelling, possessing generally four or five rooms and a kitchen. In the French towns there are two prevalent types of working-class housing accommodations. The first, which predominates in about one-half of the towns, is a flat of two or three rooms in a tenement house. The second type, found in about one-third of the towns, is a small house or cottage, standing generally in rows, but often detached, and consisting of one or two stories and of one to four rooms. English rents of working-class dwellings usually include local taxation, which is based on the rentable value of the dwellings. French local taxation is levied on an entirely different basis, and is not included in rent.

RENTS OF WORKING-CLASS DWELLINGS.

FRANCE.

In order to ascertain the rents paid for the kind of dwellings usually occupied by the French working classes, information was obtained from the municipal authorities, from individual house

owners, and from a large number of tenants. In each town several houses were visited by the investigators, partly for the purpose of verifying the information obtained as to rents and partly that some account might be given in each case of the general character and standard of housing accommodation.

From rent quotations obtained for about 60,000 working-class tenements the following table has been constructed to show the predominant range of weekly rents for tenements of various sizes in Paris and in other French towns. The rents do not include any elements of local taxation or as a rule any charge for water:

PREDOMINANT RANGE OF WEEKLY RENTS IN PARIS AND IN OTHER FRENCH TOWNS COMPARED.

The above table reveals the extent to which rents in the metropolis exceed those which prevail in other French towns. Thus, while the predominant range of rents for two rooms in Paris is $0.75 to $1.50 per week, in the other towns as a whole it is only 57 to 69 cents; for three rooms the respective rents are $1.12 to $1.80 for Paris and $0.71 to $1.01 for the other towns, and for four rooms $1.50 to $1.86 for Paris and only $0.85 to $1.05 for other localities.

The following table shows the predominant range of weekly rents in towns of France, together with the number of towns for which tenements of each size are reported and in which the mean rent is within the limits of the predominant range, below those limits, and above those limits. It will be seen that the two and three room tenements are of importance in more than two-thirds of the towns.

PREDOMINANT RANGE OF WEEKLY RENTS IN TOWNS OF FRANCE. [According to the detailed table on p. 69, Paris is apparently included in the number of towns shown in this table, but the predominant ranges of weekly rents are the same as those shown in the preceding table for "other French towns." The figures are given as shown in the original report.]

In the table following is shown the predominant range of weekly rents for tenements of one, two, three, or four rooms in each of the 30 towns investigated:

PREDOMINANT RANGE OF WEEKLY RENTS IN 30 SPECIFIED TOWNS OF FRANCE.

In the following table index numbers are given showing the relative rent level in each of the towns canvassed as compared with Paris. The means of the predominant rents for each class of tenements, as shown in the table on page 68, were taken as a base and the ratios of the mean predominant rents for the corresponding classes in the various towns as compared with this base were calculated. The average of the ratios for the various types of houses in each town gave an index number for the town as compared with the level for the French towns as a whole. The index number for Paris, computed in the same way, was then taken as the base (or 100) and the index number for the other towns adjusted accordingly.

RELATIVE RENT LEVEL OF SPECIFIED FRENCH TOWNS AS COMPARED WITH