ACCEPTANCE OF NEW THEORY 135

abundant surplus to exchange for coffee, tea, sugar,
and other commodities which were necessary to healthful
 and comfortable living standards, but which were
not produced in the United States. This analysis was
made without reference to the possibilities of improving
 methods of production, but on the basis of actual,
prevailing conditions.?
As to the contention that the use of the family of
five members as a unit was unsound, inasmuch as the
Census figures showed that the average American
family contains only 4.4 persons, it was stated that
the choice of the three-child family did not rest at all
upon Census averages. The reasons for such a choice
were (1) that it was socially desirable that every
family should have at least three children if the race
was to perpetuate itself; (2) that the average marriage
 resulted in at least three children; (3) that usually
during some period in the marriage life, at least three
children were of dependent ages; and (4) that the
living wage needs to provide a sufficient income to
support a family at its period of maximum expense.
This, it was argued, did not secure complete justice,
as families with more than three children would suffer,
but as a practical working proposition it was felt that
the three-child unit secured approximate justice.?
As to the importance of the average family having
at least three children if the race is to perpetuate itself,
it was submitted that Doctor Louis I. Dublin, Statistician
 of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company,
gave a conclusive answer in an address before tke

1 “The Practicability of a Living Wage,” Employees Exhibit No. 21, Before
the United States Anthracite Coal Commission, Washington, 1920,
? Proceedings Before the U. S. Railroad Labor Board—Maintenance of
Way Employees Case—1922, Especially Statement of Representative of Employees
 entitled “The Ability of the Country to Pay a Living Wage.”
0