In every discussion of the subject first consideration is given to the price of food. This amounts to measuring the cost of living with an elastic string. The proportion of the cost of food to the cost of living varies in every land, in every occupation and in every household. It amounts to less than 40% in an average American family, but each family fixes it for itself. Following certain well recognized economic laws the percentage for subsistence increases as the income decreases. For instance, in France families with an income of under $4.80 per week spend 63% of it for food alone, whereas those with $9.60 a week spend 53%. In England, families averaging $5.12 a week spend 67% on food, while those of $9.60 spend 57% or less. In Germany, a similar inquiry showed that families with an average income of $4.23 per week spent 68.7% on food (excluding beer), or 69.5% (with beer); whereas families with an income of $9.60 per week spent less than 57% on food "excluding beer."
The exhaustive investigation made by Commissioner Carroll D. Wright when head of the Bureau of Labor in 1903 anticipated for the United States these results of more recent European inquiries, as appears from the following table showing the per cent of total expenditure made for various purposes in normal families according to classified incomes:
| Per Cent of Expenditure for Various Purposes in 11,156 Normal Families, by Classified Incomes, 1901. | ||||||||
| Classified income | Rent | Fuel | Lighting | Food | Clothing | Sundries | ||
| Under | $200 | 16.93 | 6.69 | 1.27 | 50.85 | 8.68 | 15.58 | |
| $200 | or under | $300 | 18.02 | 6.09 | 1.13 | 47.33 | 8.66 | 18.77 |
| $300 | or under | $400 | 18.69 | 5.97 | 1.14 | 48.09 | 10.02 | 16.09 |
| $400 | or under | $500 | 18.57 | 5.54 | 1.12 | 46.88 | 11.39 | 16.50 |
| $500 | or under | $600 | 18.43 | 5.09 | 1.12 | 46.16 | 11.98 | 17.22 |
| $600 | or under | $700 | 18.48 | 4.65 | 1.12 | 43.48 | 12.88 | 19.39 |
| $700 | or under | $800 | 18.17 | 4.14 | 1.12 | 41.44 | 13.50 | 21.63 |
| $800 | or under | $900 | 17.07 | 3.87 | 1.10 | 41.37 | 13.57 | 23.02 |
| $900 | or under | $1000 | 17.58 | 3.85 | 1.11 | 39.90 | 14.35 | 23.21 |
| $1000 | or under | $1100 | 17.53 | 3.77 | 1.16 | 38.79 | 15.06 | 23.69 |
| $1100 | or under | $1200 | 16.59 | 3.63 | 1.08 | 37.68 | 14.89 | 26.13 |
| $1200 | or over | 17.40 | 3.85 | 1.18 | 36.45 | 15.72 | 25.40 | |
| All classes | 18.12 | 4.57 | 1.12 | 43.13 | 12.95 | 20.11 | ||
While it is scarcely believable that many American families with incomes under $200 spent less than $100 a year on food—the European percentage in such cases being more credible—there is no reason to question the general economic law reflected in this table, that "the proportion of income spent on food diminishes as the income increases." But it is governed more by individual tendencies, character and taste than by any rule or principle. Each family works out the problem on its own account.
According to the evidence presented at recent arbitration hearings in this city, American switchmen, as a body, belong in the classes whose family expenditures are $1,000 or over. Irrespective of the incomes of other members of their families, the arbitrators found "that the actual monthly earnings of switchmen in the Chicago district, for those who worked full time runs from about $80 to $100 per month." This means over $1,000 yearly compensation. Therefore they are in the class which spends less than 39% of its income on food.
The average income for all railway employes engaged in train service, that is, enginemen, firemen, conductors and other trainmen, is probably above the highest figure in the foregoing table and therefore the proportion of their income spent for food would be approximately 36%.
But accepting 40% as approximately the proportion of the pay of all railway employes spent on food, it follows that it takes only two-fifths of one per cent increase in wages to take care of an increase of one per cent in the price of food.
With this in mind it becomes instructive to follow the retail prices of the various articles of food as selected by Mr. Wright in his inquiry into the cost of living in 1901 and adopted by the Bureau of Labor in subsequent Bulletins. These for thirty articles of food for the eighteen years 1890 to 1907, as given in Bulletin No. 77 of the Bureau of Labor, and for the two years 1908-1909 as computed from Bradstreet's index and other sources of commodity prices, are given in the following statement relatively to the average price for 1890 to 1899 == 100: