1 • 1! r i- ■" 1 1' i '. 1 ' r' vril'jj'
186
Side by side with this is given the budget of a machine fitter atLondon. The husband is 43 year's old, and the wife the same age.They have six children—two boys and four girls—from 6 to 17years old. The husband earns 41s. per week; the children, ofwhom tho eldest son is becoming a machine fitter and the daughterworks in a cotton factory, earn together 18s. The man estimateshis annual income at £105, to which sum £45 is added by thechildren; the total income is therefore £150. There are 50 work-ing weeks taken into account, because two weeks have to bereckoned for sickness and holidays (9 days yearly). The mandeclares he lias never lost any time on account of labour disputesor want of work. He is a member of the Amalgamated Engineers,to which society he contributes Is per week, and for which he isentitled to sick pay, and support in case of want of work and inold age. In addition, he spends Is. lOd. per week for furtherinsurance objects, partly with the friendly society called the Heartsof Oak, for the object of sick insurance. The house, which com-prises five rooms, is comparatively dear, as in general dwelling-houses in London are dearer than those of the North Englishoperatives. Three rooms are applied to sleeping purposes, andtwo for living in (two rooms 14 by 12 ft., three rooms 10 by 9 ft).In this case, also, meat and wlieaten bread form the chief nourish-ment, Tho budget shows meagre savings, in connection withwhich, however, the considerable applications for insurance pur-poses have to be taken into account.
The figures given reveal tho enormous advance of the English operatives when compared with the “ thirties” (see page 88). ()n
the other hand, numerous German operatives’ budgets that havebeen published bring us to the conclusion that the standard ofliving of German operatives at the present time about balancesthat of .the English in the “thirties”—a further proof for thedependence of the position of operatives on the condition ofeconomical development. In the same degree that Germany hasadvanced less towards centralised industry, and that hand labourstill preponderates over machine labour, is the standard of livingof the German operative less than that of the workers of thepresent English centralised industry.
In most of the German workers’ published budgets the incomescarcely covers the expenditure; very frequently a deficit occurswhich is balanced by benevolence and poor relief, in many cases