Note 529 — Chapter VI · THE EFFECT ON THE PARENTS

"Working-Class Households in Reading," by Professor A. L. Bowley, in The Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, June, 1913, p. 686. The minimum standard for food was computed by Mr. Rowntree, in 1901, as 3s. for an adult, and 2s. 3d. for a child. This standard has been raised by Professor Bowley to 3s. 6d. and 2s. 7d. respectively, since prices in Reading in 1912 were about sixteen per cent. higher than at York in 1901. The diet on which Mr. Rowntree based his computations was mainly vegetarian, and his minimum standard assumed a knowledge of food values and perfectly scientific expenditure. (Ibid., p. 684.) Taking a slightly different standard, Professor Bowley computes that "more than half the working-class children of Reading, during some part of their first fourteen years, live in households where the standard of life in question is not attained." (Ibid., p. 692.)