32 COST OF LIVING IN THE UNITED STATES 
States Bureau of Labor Statistics for the country as a whole 
in 19013! another pre-war budget was one of Chapin’s in 
New York in 1907.2 To offset these, if any modification were 
needed to bring them more nearly in line with conditions in 
1914, budgets collected in 1915 and 1917 were combined with 
them.? The result, although largely weighted by the Bureau 
of Labor Statistics budget of 1901, because it covered the 
largest number of families, was sufficiently different from it 
to reflect changes in the intervening years and very fairly 
depicts the relative importance attached to the different 
TaBLE 2: PERCENTAGE DISTRIBUTION OF EXPENDITURES 
For THE Principal ITEMs IN THE ANNUAL BUDGETS 
or Wace Earners’ FaMiLIES 
Authority, Date, Locality Covered, 
Number of Families 
United States Bureau of Labor 
Statistics 
1901: United States, 
11,156 families... ... 
1917: New York City, 
608 families. ..... 
1917: Philadelphia, 
512 families. .....x 
United States Railroad Wage 
Commission 
1915: United States, 
265 families. ..... 
Dallas Wage Commission 
1917: Dallas, Tex., 
50 families. ..... 
Robert C. Chapin 
1907: New York City, 
31 families with in| 
comes $1,000 to $1,099 
Average, weighted according 
to number of families... . 
Food 
Shelter 
5 Fuel and 3 All 
Clothing ! Liane | Sundries | Teams 
43.13 
18.12 
12.95 
14.84 
15.07 
£60 
70.11 
100.00 
100.00 
100.00 
45.01 
12.91 
4.61 
12 63 
43.31 
17 04 
| 4095 
23974 
220 | 
20.0 
15.0 
60 
M10 
100.00 
45 O01 
14.51 
12.87 
0112 
18 20 
100.00 
44.7 | 18.1 | 155 | es 172 | 10000 
13.13 | 17.65 13.21 | 5.63 | 20.38 | 100.00 
s Includes expenditures for ice, telephone, water and laundry, as well as for fuel 
and light. 
b Includes Dallas, Tex. Excluding Dallas, the average proportion of the total 
expenditure for fuel and light is 5.61%. 
1 Eighteenth Annual Report of the Commissioner of Labor, op. ¢it., p. 101, 
2 Chapin, op. cit., p. 70. 
_ & Monthly Review of the U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, March, 1918, p. 112; 
ibid., April, 1918, p. 152; United States Railroad Administration, Report of the 
Railroad Wage Commission to the Director General of Railroads, Washington, 
1918, pp. 87, 91; Dallas Wage Commission. Report of the Survey Committee, 
Dallas. 1917. ». 5.