In Paris.

The net results, then, are: Taking the provinces as a whole, the wages of labour are not adequate even to supply the normal budget of the Labour Bureau; and they do not supply it: numbers of families in France never taste beef. Even in the case of skilled labour 84 per cent. of wages must go in food, and there is not enough left over for rent.

Even taking the low figures given, only in Paris is it possible for the workman to live on his wages; even there the cost of living takes 87 per cent. of the wages of manual labour.

The condition of things indicated by these results cannot be normal; there follows one of the following alternatives, which are often found in one and the same household—namely, that the wife and children are also wage-earners, and poverty entails distress and charitable relief. The family taken by the Labour Bureau consists of a man, his wife, and two children. This is a very small family. But even where the husband is a skilled workman, unless the wife and children are also bread-winners, the condition of the family is one of extreme discomfort.