ACCEPTANCE OF NEW THEORY 133
prices and result ultimately in the exploitation of all
other classes of industrial workers.
The contention was also made that the use of a
budgetary family of 5 members as a standard family
(father, mother, and 3 dependent children) was unsound,
 as the Reports of the United States Census
Bureau showed that the average American family
consisted of only 4.4 persons. The assumption of a
“normal” family of 5, therefore, meant, it was stated,
that industry would be forced to pay for the support
of millions of children who were supposititious, or in
other words, did not actually exist. The Census, it
was pointed out, in terms of figures showed only
35,000,000 family dependents, as contrasted with the
standard budgetary studies, which, on the basis of
24,000,000 actual families, would provide wages for
73,000,000 dependent children, or 38,000,000 more
than the Census actually reported. If a basic wage
were to be established, it was concluded, therefore,
it should be determined on the basis of a man and
wife only, with specific allowances in addition for each
child, as had already been done in France and other
countries.
The Census also, it was stated, showed that for
each family there were 1.36 male workers or a total
of approximately 33,000,000 as compared with the
24,000,000 families. Why should each of these wageearners,
 it was then asked, receive wages based on a
family of 5, when for each average family there was
more than one male worker, or an average excess of
36 male wage-earners per family? If each individual
worker was supposed to support a “normal” family
of 5, 1.36 workers per family should be supporting 6.8
persons per family.

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