arious parts of
the country. Home-economics experts will furnish us with figures which
may be used as a basis for apportioning this amount among departments
of household expenses. That the figures offered by these experts
differ more or less widely need not disturb us. It is perhaps too
early in such work for final authoritative estimates.

The following apportionment is taken from Chapin's _The Standard of
Living among Workingmen's Families in New York City_ and has to do
with the minimum income required for normal living for a family of
father, mother, and three children on Manhattan Island:

Food $359.00
Housing 168.00
Fuel and light 41.00
Clothing 113.00
Carfare 16.00
Health 22.00
Insurance 18.00
Sundry items 74.00
-------
$811.00

"Families having from $900 to $1,000 a year," concludes Dr. Chapin,
"are able, in general, to get food enough to keep body and soul
together, and clothing and shelter enough to meet the most urgent
demands of decency." Regarding incomes below $900, he says, "Whether
an income between $800 and $900 can be made to suffice is a question
to which our data do not warrant a dogmatic answer."

The two apportionments given below have been made by the federal
government and concern the maintenance of a normal standard in two
industrial sections of the country. In each case the family is assumed
to be, as in Dr. Chapin's estimate,[1] made up of father, mother, and
three children.

Fall River, Georgia and
Mass. North Carolina
Food $312.00 $286.67
Housing 132.00 44.81
Clothing 136.80 113.00
Fuel and light 42.75 49.16
Health 11.65 16.40
Insurance 18.40 18.20
Sundry items 78.00 72.60
------- -------
$731.90 $600.74

These estimates do no more than suggest the minimum upon which the
various items of living expense can be met and the proportion to each
account. People who can do more upon their incomes than merely live
must look farther for help.

Mrs. Bruere in her _Increasing Home Efficiency_ offers the following
as a minimum schedule[3] for efficient living: