MR ROWNTREE'S PRIMARY POVERTY LINE _s._ _d._ Expenditure on Food 12 9 Rent and Rates 4 0 Clothing, including Boots 2 3 Fuel 1 10 Lighting, washing materials, furniture, crockery, etc. 0 10 ------- 21 8 ======= It will be seen that nothing is allowed for drink, or tobacco, or newspapers, or postage stamps, or any relaxation whatever. Yet 15 per cent. of the working people of York were found to be living _below_ a primary poverty line conceived on such a scale as this. For boots, clothing, underclothing, hats, furniture, glass, crockery, utensils, curtains, washing materials, and gas or oil, only 3s. 1d. per week or £8 per annum (32s. per head per annum). Need we wonder, then, if Lancashire is only called upon by 44,000,000 British people for £20,000,000 worth of cotton goods? The Board of Trade recently gave us (Cd. 2337) some useful studies of workmen's budgets which show that even Mr Rowntree's 3s. 1d. per week for goods is a larger sum than is expended by most workmen's families with about 21s. per week. The Board of Trade examined 1,944 workmen's budgets with the following results:— AVERAGE EXPENDITURE ON FOOD BY URBAN WORKMEN'S FAMILIES IN 1904 Average Average Balance of Number no. of Average expenditure income of children weekly on after Families. living at income. food. expenditure home. on food. _s. d._ _s. d._ _s. d._ Under 25s. 261 3.1 21 4½ 14 4¾ 6 11¾ Between 25s. and 30s. 289 3.3 26 11¾ 17 10¼ 9 1½ Between 30s. and 35s. 416 3.2 31 11¼ 20 9¼ 11 2 Between 35s. and 40s. 382 3.4 36 6¼ 22 3½ 14 2¾ Above 40s. 596 4.4 52 0½ 29 8 22 4½ As the Board of Trade point out "It is not to be supposed that the returns received represent in their exact proportions the different grades of working-class incomes in the towns of the United Kingdom. The higher range of family incomes is unduly represented in the returns, partly owing to the fact that the more intelligent operatives have supplied returns more readily and more accurately than those belonging to the unskilled labouring classes."