One of the necessary articles which steadily advanced in price after the Dingley Bill passed, was shoes. It was an advance which was particularly hard on the poor, for shoes are one of the heaviest expenses in clothing a family. One of the budgets reported in a recent investigation of living expenses in New York City was that of a family of four persons, respectable, hard-working, and anxious to get ahead. Their total income was $600. These four persons kept themselves “neat and clean” on $40.00 a year. Out of this $40.00, $11.81, _or over one-fourth of the total, went for shoes and mending shoes_. In another budget of a larger amount ($895) $61.90 was spent for clothing in a family of eight persons, and out of this $8.00 went for shoes for the father, $1.25 for the mother, $8.33 for the six children, or $17.58 of the entire appropriation for clothes and shoes. In the budget of a shop girl there is perhaps no one item which costs more anxiety than that of shoes, none more important. She _must_ have them. They should be strong and weather-proof, for she must go and come in pouring rains and drifting snows. They should be well fitting, for she must often stand in them all day. The amounts spent in keeping themselves shod vary greatly, of course, according to the care of the girls, the distance they walk, the quality of the article bought; but when compared with the total allowance for clothes, the result is something appalling. Among the budgets of a recent investigation, was one of a woman forty years old, who had worked sixteen years at $6.00 a week in a well-managed New York factory. She sat at her work. She could have earned $8.00 a week by taking a place at the counter, but argued that the better clothes required and the wear and tear of standing would be really more expensive, so kept the $6.00 place. By limiting food she could save $1.00 a week. This gave her $53.00 a year for doctor, dentist, amusements, clothing, and “extras.” She spent $22.05 for clothes the year her budget was examined, and of this $7.16 went for shoes and rubbers. This woman was an especially careful person. Usually the sum credited to shoes is larger. They range from this one of $7.16 up to $26.60 spent by a girl who said she could not keep her feet dry on less than a pair of $2 shoes per month—$24.00 a year—with one pair for dress at $2.60; $26 for shoes on an income of $9.00 a week, cut down the year of the investigation to an average of $7.50 by illness! It was hard enough for the poor to buy shoes before the Dingley tariff, but with every year since it has been harder. In woman’s ordinary shoes there was an increase of something like 25 per cent in the years from 1890 to 1899. There was a corresponding increase in all varieties of boots and shoes. Say that it has been 20 per cent and see what that means to your family of four which can spend but $40.00 a year on clothes and must put $11.81 of it on shoes.