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 expenditure. From him we learn (see Table D) that: _Table D_. A working man with an income of £60 per annum spends as follows: Per cent. of income. Shillings. / meat.... 248 1. On subsistence 62 or \ groceries 496 2. " clothing 16 " 192 3. " rent 12 " 144 4. " fuel 5 " 60 5. " sundries 5 " 60 ------ Total shillings 1,200 Or £60 Now, referring to Table C, it will be seen that the same man's expenditure in America would be: Shillings. S.