a period
of poverty before the children become old enough to work; this is often
partially relieved by the employment of the mother. When, however, the
children begin to go into the mills, a considerable increase in income
takes place very rapidly.

The most important industry in Fall River is the manufacture of cotton
cloth. There are in the city 111 cotton mills and an additional number
of industries directly allied to cotton manufacturing. Retail selling
is confined, with the exception of two or three large food stores and
three or four department stores, largely to small neighborhood stores,
the proprietors of which are of the same nationality as the people to
whose trade they cater, or, in the case of specialty clothing stores,
Jews.

COST OF LIVING IN OCTOBER, 1919

_Food._ To obtain the average cost of food, several budgets including
articles sufficient for a week's supply for a family of man, wife and
three children were used as a basis. From these were constructed food
budgets designed to meet the requirements of a minimum standard and of
one slightly above the minimum. Prices were collected from four of the
large down-town stores, from branches of two different chain stores,
one of them represented by 21 separate branches, and from various
neighborhood grocery stores: one Polish, one Portuguese and two
French. When there was more than one quality of an article the price
used was the lowest consistent with what appeared to be good value.
The quotations collected for each article were averaged and are given
in Tables 1 and 2.

TABLE 1: MINIMUM FOOD BUDGET FOR A WEEK FOR A MAN, WIFE AND THREE
CHILDREN UNDER FOURTEEN YEARS OF AGE, FALL RIVER, MASSACHUSETTS,
OCTOBER, 1919

(National Industrial Conference Board)

======================================================================
| Cost, | | Cost,
Item and amount |October, | Item and amount |October,
| 1919 | | 1919
------------------------+---------+--------------------------+--------
_Meat and Fish_ | | _Fruit_ |
2 lbs. flank |$ .32 | 3 qts. apples |$ .27
2 lbs. chuck | .40 | 3 oranges | .12
1/2 lb. bacon | .21 | 4 bananas | .15
1 lb. dried cod | .20 | 1/2 lb. raisi