Dinner: Roast beef, brown gravy, string beans, sweet potatoes, cottage pudding, vanilla sauce, bread, coffee.

Supper: Cold boiled ham, canned peaches, bread, butter,

tea.

Judged by this official standard, the Hungarian and Bulgarian workmen, with their daily fare of one or two pounds of meat per man, do not appear to have "introduced a lower standard."

Concerning the Italians, material for a comparison of their food expenditure with that of native white Americans is furnished in the Report of the Immigration Commission on iron and steel manufacturing in the South. The Italians whose budgets were reported were all unskilled, earning from $7.50 to $12.50 per week, with the exception of one foreman of unskilled laborers, who was earning $15.00 and had an 18-year-old boy who contributed $7.00 a week to the family income. The Americans were all skilled mechanics with a weekly income of from $18.00 to $25.00, except one carpenter whose wages were $12.00 a week. In Table 77 the food expenditures of these families have been reduced to nutrition units per man per day according to the scale adopted by the United States Department of Agriculture.

Although the budgets secured by the investigation of

TABLE 77.

AVERAGE EXPENDITURE PER MAN PER DAY OF SELECTED FAMILIES OF SOUTH ITALIAN AND NATIVE WHITE WORKERS IN THE IRON

AND STEEL DISTRICT OF THE SOUTH."

For an explanation of the method used, see Robert Coit Chapin: The Standard of Living among Workingmen's Families in New York City, pp. 125-126. For details see Appendix, Table XVII.

the Immigration Commission included none for unskilled American workmen and only one for an Italian employed in a supervisory capacity, all the rest relating to unskilled Italian laborers, yet the preceding table shows that the food expenditure of the South Italian laborer is the same as that of the Southern white skilled mechanic.'

A special investigation of the expenditures of single laborers in construction camps was made by the Bureau of Labor in 1906. Fresh and salt meats were found to be essential parts of the bills of fare of "Hungarian" and "Slav" laborers. The same information was obtained concerning Hungarian laborers in an iron and steel plant in Ohio: "They used beef as a rule three times a day." At Hansford, Pa., the bill of fare of Hungarians and Slavs on week days was as follows:

"Breakfast: Bread and coffee. Lunch: Four or five sandwiches (beef). Dinner in the evening: Soup, boiled or roast beef, one half to three fourths of a pound a head. Vegetables and coffee."

According to Dr. Roberts, who has made a study of the conditions of labor in the anthracite coal mines, "the Slavs have good bread made of the best wheat or rye; they consume daily about a pound of beef for boiling or of fat pork or bologna sausage, a quantity of potatoes, cabbage, milk, coffee, and beer, butter and cheese, sugar, eggs, and fish."

An earlier investigation made by the Bureau of Labor among the Slav and Hungarian workmen in the iron mines of Pennsylvania showed that, in 1890, their bill of fare included "two pounds of meat per man per day, one for dinner and one for supper.

113

The one exceptionally high average, 62 cents per man per day, was obtained from a native machinist, who was employed in the railroad shops at $23.00 per week and had only his wife and a small child dependent upon him.

64

The term Hungarian" often comprises all immigrants from Hungary, most of whom belong to various Slav races. Bulgarians are also "Slavs."

3 Bulletin of the Bureau of Labor, No. 72, p. 475.

With respect to Italians, a distinction must be drawn between families and single men, or married men whose families have remained in Italy. It is learned from the investigation of the Bureau of Labor, that men who are employed in construction camps live principally on vegetables and reduce their expenditures to a minimum, in an effort to save as much as possible of their wages. Italian families, however, do not differ in the matter of food expenditures from families of other nationalities with the same income. Beside the budgets of the Immigration Commission which have been analyzed above, this fact is brought out in Professor Chapin's monograph on the standard of living among New York workingmen, based upon a canvass of 391 families in the summer of 1907.

The following table, giving the classification of food expenditures by income and nationality, is compiled from Professor Chapin's budget statistics, the nationalities being arranged in the descending order of their average expenditure per man per day:

TABLE 78.

AVERAGE FOOD EXPENDITURES PER MAN PER DAY, BY INCOME AND

Austrian, Hungarian, and other S. E. European
Bohemian...

25.I

24.3

Robert Chapin, loc. cit., p. 141.

The Italians in every income group expended more for food than the Hungarians and Slavs. In every income group below $900 per year, they expended more for food than any other nationality, including native Americans.1 Among the families with an income from $900 to $1000, the Italians expended as much as the Teutons and the Irish, and more than the Bohemians who are regarded as "desirable" immigrants. In the highest group the Italian expended more than the Celts and the Teutons. According to Professor Underbill, of Yale University, who has made a study of the nutritive value of various foods, 22 cents per man per day must be regarded as the minimum upon which physical existence can be maintained. It appears from the preceding table, that the Irish were the only race which denied themselves that minimum when their earnings were low. To sum up, Professor Chapin's analysis gives no indication of a sliding scale of racial standards of living.

All the native Americans but one were sons of native fathers, or of immigrants from Northern and Western Europe. The one exception was the son of a Bohemian father, but Bohemians are not among the "undesirable."—Chapin, loc. tit., p. 39.

The most extensive investigation of its kind, comprising more than 25,000 family budgets, was made by the United States Bureau of Labor ten years ago. Table 79, compiled from its report, is a comparative statement of food expenditures of "normal" families classified by annual income and country of birth. A "normal" family, it will be remembered, is one supported solely by the earnings of husband and father. All families with abnormally low incomes (under $400 annually) have been excluded from this comparison. No nationality with less than ten families in each income group is shown separately, but all foreign-born are included in the total.

TABLE 79.

EXPENDITURES FOR FOOD IN NORMAL FAMILIES WITH AN INCOME FROM

$400 TO $700, CLASSIFIED BY NATIVITY AND INCOME.'

The lowest expenditures for food within the same income group were found among native white workmen with incomes under $500 and above $600; in the middle group the lowest place was held by the Italians, the next to the lowest by native white Americans. The highest expendi

• Eighteenth Annual Report of the Commissioner of Labor, Table V D. pp. 560-563.