FRENCH COST OF LIVING

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 16, 19 January 1924, Page 16

FRENCH COST OF LIVING

FIVE HUNDRED PEE CENT. INCREASE.

The high and ever-increasing cost of living is causing disquietude among those workers whoso wages are not increased sufficiently to meet the soaring prices, writes the Parisian correspondent of the "Daily Telegraph." The Minister of Labour's figures showing that, whereas the budget of a working family of four persons averaged 100 francs in 1914,' it now t^kes ,540 francs, are subjected to criticism. The Minister of Labour is asked on what articles of food^he.bases his calculation, for it is contended that the cost of food consumed 'in a workman's home has ' increased from 500 to 600 per cent. Proof of this contention is furnished by a comparison of prices of 1914 and now. Take a few articles of everyday necessity.' Here are the prices for 1914 and 1923 as furnished by a housewife in Seine-et-Oise :

As to the wagas of small employees of the State, M. de Lasteyrie has declared that since 1919 there had baen important increases of-wages as compared with those paid before the war. Tho Federation of Functionaries has drawn up a table of wages, which, for single and married men without children, are 15f 10c a day, rising to 19f 60c. These refer to Pans, where there is a residence allowance of 1200f a year. Married men with one child receive from 16f to 20f 45a a day. There is an additional franc for men with two children, while a father 6f three children is. paid from 18f 603 to 23f a day. The wages are lower in the provinces. The Federation of i Functionaries recalls that a oommission which sat in 1919 considered that wages paid before the war were notoriously insufficient, and that they should have been 5f instead of 3f 50c a. day. The recommendations were made on the basis that the cost of living would bo stabilised to double that before the war. But as the index of the cost of living for the whole of France is now officially^" put at\3sl, ifcisargned tljat the 700f allow? ance should be maintained independent of new increases.

Bread, per kilo 35c If 15c Wine, per litre' ■ 25c If 40c Neck of mutton, per lb 60c 3f 50c Butter, per'lb ; If 40c 8£ Camembert cheese .. 60c 3f Potatoes, per kilo ...' 10c ■ 70c Coal, par 100 kilos 3f 20f