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It may, however, be added as a most striking illustration
of this that compared with the British Medical Association's
allowance of approximately 1/4 per man-unit for vegetables and
fruit the amounts expended by the families in the enquiry, grouping
them according to income, were as follows :—
Under 5/- 5/-to 6/8 6/3 to 7/6 7/6 to 10/- 10/- and
over
8d. 9d. 10±d. lid. 1/l½d.
No group, even the highest, could afford the British Medical
Association's standard, while the lowest had half that amount.
Table C supplements Tables A and B, and illustrates in a
different way the deprivations which follow a low income. This
table is based not on the actual expenditure per head but on the
number of families affected by a particular shortage. The outstanding
fact is the low consumption of valuable foods like liquid
milkf, butter, eggs and fruit. That nearly one third of these
families should be deprived of such essentials to a sound dietary
is a profound indictment of present standards of working class
living. It is also regrettable that wholemeal bread appears to
be rarely eaten.
With regard to beer and wines and spirits it is doubtful
whether the figures given are a true reflex of the facts. While,
however, they may be an under-estimate of the actual expenditure,
the candour with which other expenditure has been recorded
(e.g. tobacco, pocket money, etc.) makes it reasonable to conclude
that the amount spent on alcoholic liquor in families
in these categories is relatively small and substantially less than
is frequently supposed by critics of working class life.
Table D contains information as to the economic classification
of the families concerned in the enquiry. It brings out
the surprising fact that in as many as 45 per cent, of the families
the father was in employment indicating the exceedingly low level
of the wages paid in and around the borough.
The supplemental information with regard to rent and other
domestic expenditure forms the subject of a separate report.
It is appreciated that owing to the limitations of the material
available in this enquiry no precise significance can be claimed
for the figures actually obtained. On the other hand, the standards
of comparison employed have been deliberately chosen
on a low level in order to avoid any criticism that a higher standard
applied to restricted data might have evoked. The British
fTo some extent, the actual shortage of milk was made up by the Borough Council grant which
amounted to an average of 2/10 per family. This, however, is specially allocated to the
expectant or nursing mother or young children in the family and cannot be regarded as
generally available for the other members. The milk grant is of course made precisely because
the family income is insufficient to enable the family themselves to provide the milk needed.