After giving the budgets of these twenty-one families in full, the investigators attempt to formulate a “minimum standard” and a “fair standard” of living. For the former the food cost is based on the prison dietary; the housing standard on the rent of a mill house; and the other items—clothing, furniture, fuel, light, and sundries—on the least amount spent by any family for each item, excluding those that were manifestly impossibly low. On this basis the “minimum standard” for a family consisting of a man, his wife, and three children under twelve was reckoned as possible at an expenditure of $408.26 a year. This amount, the authors state, is “so low that one would expect few families to live on it.” Frankly, from the description of what is included, I should be inclined to say that no family could: “If the family live upon this sum without suffering, wisdom to properly apportion the income is necessary. There can be no amusements or recreations that involve any expense. No tobacco can be used. No newspapers can be purchased. The children cannot go to school, because there will be no money to buy their books. Household articles that are worn out or destroyed cannot be replaced. The above sum provides for neither birth nor death nor any illness that demands a doctor’s attention or calls for medicine. Even though all these things are eliminated, if the family is not to suffer, the mother must be a woman of rare ability. She must know how to make her own and her children’s clothing; she must be physically able to do all of the household work, including the washing. And she must know enough to purchase with her allowance food that has the proper nutritive value.” Such a “standard of living” cannot be considered adequate, falls far short of being scientific and it seems to me doubtful wisdom to consider as a “standard” at all a program so bankrupt of actual family needs. The “fair standard” is worked out on a similar scheme. It includes somewhat more generous provision of food and allowance for certain other factors which “these people have come to regard ... as essential to their every-day life.” This “fair standard” is estimated at $600.74 for the average family. [Illustration: CHART OF THE WEEKLY EARNINGS OF ONE OF THE TWENTY-ONE SOUTHERN FAMILIES ] A series of novel diagrams is presented showing, for each family, their earnings from week to week, their average earnings for the year and a comparison of this with the minimum and fair standards.