Martha Bensley Bruère of New York city, author of Increasing Home Efficiency, maintained that twelve hundred dollars a year was the lowest standard for decent family living. This twelve hundred dollars she found from her study of family budgets to be distributed as follows:
“Food, $447.15, on the basis of 35 cents per day for an adult male and a sliding scale for others in the family; shelter, $144; clothes, $100, based on New York prices “where clothing is cheaper than any other place in the country,” she said; operation of household, including light, heat, etc., $150; advancement, meaning education, recreation, charities, church, savings, etc., $312; incidentals, $46, a total of $1,199.15.”
ELEMENTS ENTERING INTO COST OF FOOD
Edith E. Smith, president of the Pennsylvania Rural Progress Association, asserted that the fallacy that lessened production is the chief cause of high prices has been exploded and there is ample food produced if waste were eliminated. Said she:
“While city people are complaining of the prices paid the farmer, it is an absolute fact that the farmer has a hard time to make a living profit on his business. The farmer has to face the combined problems of production and distribution and he runs the gamut of both. If any manufacturer were compelled to face the difficulties of the farmer ... attempted it on so small a margin of profit, he would quickly go to the wall.”
Mrs. Smith showed that it costs a Pennsylvania or New York farmer about 50 per cent more to raise a hog or a steer than it costs the Iowa farmer and that the latter can ship his cattle to the New York market and sell them cheaper than the Pennsylvania farmer.
Mrs. Frank A. Pattison of Colonia, N. J., who was for some time in charge of the experiment station maintained by the New Jersey women’s clubs, spoke on Scientific Management in Home-Making. She showed how, by the introduction of mechanical devices, such as patent dish-washing machines or vacuum cleaners, it might be possible to minimize household drudgery without employing a servant and without using paper dishes or bare floors.
Everett P. Wheeler of the New York bar laid the high cost of living to increases in rent, due to governmental requirements and increased taxation; increases in the cost of food because of governmental inspection and regulations; legislation shortening the hours of work and increasing wages; the syndicalist movement and other influences that add to cost of production.
An interesting comment on the general discussion was made by Christine M. Frederick, national secretary of the Associated Clubs of Domestic Science, and consulting household editor of the Ladies’ Home Journal, who pointed out that the whims of women were in no small way responsible for the high cost of living.
H. B. Fullerton, of Medford, L. I., director of agricultural development for the Long Island Railroad, was the first speaker at the afternoon session on Public Control. He told of the development of the “Long Island Home Hamper,” which is a system of delivering, direct from producer to consumer, standard hampers containing food products at an established price.