ntage of average weekly wages
in Massachusetts, we must, therefore, agree upon a figure somewhere
between these two extremes, viz., that of 48.28 per cent., derived from
tables in which Great Britain is credited with the high wage, and that of
75.94 per cent., derived from those tables in which she is credited with
the average of the returns made upon the different bases. The mean of
these figures is 62.11 per cent., which is considered to be the result of
the investigation, and may be formulated as follows: The general average
weekly wages paid to _employes_ in twenty-four manufacturing industries
common to Massachusetts and Great Britain is 62 per cent., higher in the
former than the general average weekly wages paid in the same industries
in the latter country.

But the question of wages forms only one side of the working man's
account; on the other stands the cost of living, and no comparisons of
prosperity, in given industrial communities, are of any value which omit
to take into consideration the relative ease with which such communities
can procure the means of subsistence. Table C presents a summary of
prices, gathered in 1883, of the chief items in a working man's
expenditure, and their cost in Massachusetts and Great Britain.

_Table C_.

---------------------------------------------------------
Articles. |Percentage higher | Percentage higher
| in Mass. | in Great Britain
---------------------------------------------------------
Groceries | 16.18 | -
Provisions | - | 20.00
Fuel | 104.98 | -
Dry goods | 13.26 | -
Boots and shoes | 42.75 | -
Clothing | 45.06 | -
Rents | 89.62 | -
---------------------------------------------------------

Having agreed that wages are probably 62 per cent. higher in
Massachusetts than in Great Britain, it would be easy, if we could
ascertain what proportion of a working man's income is spent respectively
in groceries, provisions, clothing, etc., to determine what advantage an
operative derives from the higher wages of the United States. Dr. Engel,
the chief of the Prussian Bureau of Statistics, puts us in possession of
this information, and, as the result of a laborious inquiry, has
formulated a certain economic law which governs the relations between
income and expenditu