COST OF LIVING OF THE WORKING CLASSES IN THE PRINCIPAL INDUSTRIAL TOWNS OF THE GERMAN EMPIRE.

SCOPE OF THE INVESTIGATION.

Under the above title is presented the results of an investigation undertaken by the British Board of Trade in the 33 principal industrial towns of the German Empire in order to obtain, in regard to the condition of the working classes therein, information comparable with that given for the principal industrial towns of the United Kingdom in the report on the "Cost of Living of the Working Classes," presented to Parliament in December, 1907, by the Labor Department of the Board of Trade. (") The investigation has reference primarily to the rents of working-class dwellings, to the prices usually paid by the working classes for food and fuel, and to wages and hours of labor. It was conducted so far as practicable on lines identical with the inquiry for the towns of the United Kingdom, and the statistical material collected relates in the main to the same date (October, 1905), though in some instances, particularly in regard to prices and wages, information was procured for a later date (MarchApril, 1908).

In order to arrive at some estimate of the standard of living among the German industrial classes, over 5,000 budgets showing the expenditure for food by working-class families in a normal week, and representative of numerous occupations and of all grades of incomes, were obtained from the various towns investigated. These towns contain an aggregate population of some 9,000,000.

Any exact statistical comparison of cost of living in Germany with cost of living in England is not a simple matter. Even when all the difficulties of maintaining the same standard of investigation throughout have been successfully overcome there remains a difficulty inherent in the nature of things arising from the different habits and modes of living in the two countries. The point is well illustrated by the result obtained from the present investigation, "that an English workman migrating to Germany, and maintaining, so far as possible, his own standard of living would find the cost of rent, food, and fuel raised by about one-fifth, while the German workman who migrated to England, but retained his own habits of living, would find his

a See Bulletin of the Bureau of Labor, No. 77, July 1908, pp. 336 to 354.
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expenditure on the same items reduced by less than one-half that amount."

As a basis of comparison for the German towns among themselves the levels of rents, prices, and wages in Berlin have been taken as standards, and index numbers calculated for each of these items in every town, so as to afford an indication of the relative levels of the towns. The index numbers for rents and prices in each town have also been combined in a single index number, in order to determine the relative level for each town of the cost of living of the working classes, so far as it consists of expenditure for housing and food, and for this purpose, as the expenditure for food is much greater than that for rent, prices have been given a weight of 4 and rents a weight of 1 in the construction of the combined index number. The comparison of the rates of wages has been confined mainly to occupations in certain standard industries, as in the United Kingdom report, namely, the building trades, engineering (mechanical), and printing, which are found to a greater or less extent in all the towns. The general result of the comparison is that in German towns the workmen engaged in these industries receive about 17 per cent less in money wages in return for a week's work of about 10 per cent longer duration than the corresponding English workmen. In other words, their hourly rate of money remuneration is about three-fourths of the corresponding English rate, while the cost of food, rent, and fuel (measured by the English standard) is about one-fifth higher.

According to the report for the United Kingdom the prevailing type of dwelling occupied by the working classes in England and Wales, and to a less degree in Ireland, is a self-contained two-story dwelling, possessing generally four or five rooms and a separate scullery; in Germany the predominant type is a flat of two or three rooms with appurtenances, in a large tenement house. The German housing system, therefore, approximates more closely to the Scottish type-blocks of flats of two, three, or four stories-than to the English. English rents of working-class dwellings usually include local taxation, which is based on the rentable value of the dwellings; in Germany local taxation is levied on an entirely different basis, and is not included in rent. In regard to food the British workman's meat consists mainly of beef and mutton, while pork (even including bacon) is relatively small in amount; the German workman, on the other hand, eats chiefly pork (including sausage) and beef, and only a very little mutton. The pure wheat bread eaten by the working classes of the United Kingdom is replaced in Germany either by pure rye bread or, more commonly, by some mixture of rye and wheat. These are only a few indications of the difficulties which arise in international comparisons, and it seems desirable to repeat the warning that

in the construction of comparative index numbers it is impossible to make full allowance for diversity of national habits, tastes, and prejudices.

It may be pointed out that there is little if any difference between the general levels of rent in Germany and rent in England, though rents in England include a considerable element of local taxation, while rents in Germany do not; and that rents in Berlin exceed those of all the other German towns investigated (except Stuttgart) to practically the same extent as rents in London exceed those which prevail in other towns of the United Kingdom. Further, the range of town price levels in Germany, as in the United Kingdom, is not very great, though somewhat wider in the case of the German towns, with the result that the differences between the cost of living (so far as it relates to the expenditure for rent, food, and fuel) in one or another of the German towns investigated are not very much larger than those which exist between the towns of the United Kingdom. The general level of prices is, however, distinctly higher in Germany than in the United Kingdom, and in this connection an important instance of the effects of differences in national habits may be noticed. The English workman going to Germany and maintaining his accustomed standard of living would find his expenditure for food and fuel substantially increased; but in spite of the generally higher level of prices in Germany the German workman coming to England, and maintaining his own standard, would not find his expenditure reduced in a corresponding proportion. This is due mainly to the fact that the German workman takes much more than the English workman of certain food commodities, chiefly potatoes and milk, which are cheaper in German than in English towns. Finally, while nominal rents are as high in Germany as in England—and in fact higher, since they do not include local taxation, which the German workman must pay separately—and also while the general level of food prices in the German towns is higher than in England, wages in those trades for which a comparison has been made are substantially lower, even when longer hours are worked.

In addition to obtaining information comparable with that given in the report on the "Cost of living of the working classes in the principal industrial towns of the United Kingdom," much information was obtained as to the general conditions of industrial life and labor in Germany, including such matters as the distribution of occupations and organization of industry, wage agreements and hours of labor, factory rules, workmen's societies and institutions, housing, public health administration, vital statistics, municipal enterprises, and local taxation. Besides those used for purposes of comparison, the industrial occupations covered by the reports is of wide range.

RENTS OF WORKING-CLASS DWELLINGS.

THE GERMAN EMPIRE.

In order to ascertain the rents paid for the kind of dwellings usually occupied by the German working classes, information was obtained from the municipal authorities, from individual house owners, and from large numbers of tenants through the trade unions. In each town a number of houses were visited by the investigators, partly for the purpose of verifying the information obtained as to rents and partly that some account might be given in each case of the general character and standard of housing accommodation.

The prevalent type of working-class dwelling in Germany, as already stated, is a flat in a large house, containing a minimum of six or seven tenements. This may fairly be described as the common type of housing accommodations for all classes in Germany, and it is a characteristic feature of German towns that, while there are purely working-class districts, yet the working classes are generally scattered throughout the whole of a town, occupying either the upper floors of houses whose lower floors may be occupied by middle-class tenants, or else housed in buildings which lie concealed behind the better-class houses visible from the street. In some of the larger towns these houses with many tenements resemble large barracks built around small paved courtyards, there being in addition to the block fronting upon the street another block lying behind and parallel to it, and not infrequently also one or more side blocks either isolated or running back from the front block and connecting it with the one at the rear. The rents in these back and side houses are as a rule lower than those paid in the front blocks. In the more modern constructions there are many variations of this plan, tending on the whole to the elimination of either the back or the side blocks or of both.

The traditional and still normal working-class dwelling in such a house consists of three rooms (living room, bedroom, and kitchen), together with certain appurtenances, such as a share of the cellar for the storage of fuel, etc., and even for laundry use, and the use (on a particular day) of a loft for drying purposes. Many of the newer tenements have at the front or back a balcony, which is used in this latter way also. Two-room tenements, usually with appurtenances, are also very common, and these two types (with the threeroom tenement predominant) may be taken as representing the prevalent standard of working-class housing throughout Germany. Four-room tenements are of importance in this connection only in rare cases; tenements of one room, though fairly frequent, are not sufficiently so to be regarded as constituting an important type,

while working-class dwellings of five or more rooms are scarcely to be found.

From rent quotations obtained for over 107,000 working-class tenements the following table has been constructed to show the predominant range of weekly rents for tenements of various sizes in Germany as a whole, excluding Berlin. It should be stated that the rents include the charge for water, and in some cases small charges for chimney sweeping and the removal of refuse; but they do not include any element of local taxation.

WEEKLY RENTS IN TOWNS OF GERMANY (EXCLUDING BERLIN).

From the above table it will be seen that the three-room tenement was found to be an important type of working-class housing in every one of the towns investigated, that two-room tenements were of importance in two-thirds of the towns, and four-room tenements in rather less than one-half of the total number.

A comparison of the predominant range of rents (except for fourroom tenements), given in the above table, with those shown for Berlin, reveals the extent to which rents in the metropolis exceed those which prevail in other German towns. The contrast is brought out in the following brief table:

WEEKLY RENTS IN BERLIN AND IN OTHER GERMAN TOWNS COMPARED.

Thus, while the mean rent for two rooms in Berlin is $1.34, in the other towns as a whole it is only $0.75, and for three rooms in Berlin it is $1.97, and elsewhere only $1.00. It may be noted that rents are nearly as high in Stuttgart as in Berlin, the mean weekly rents for two and three rooms in that town being $1.26 and $1.97, respectively.