.LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
[Letters of the length of one of our leading paragraphs are often more read, and therefore more effective, than those which fill treble the space.] THE INDEX FIGURE.
[To THE EDITOR or THE "SPECTATOR"] Sie,—In your last number several of your correspondents confirm your view that the official " Index Figure " in regard to the cost of living is quite fictitious. I saw with surprise that your able contributor " Onlooker" went so far as to say that the cost of living has trebled since the war. This, I am sure, is fanciful as regards the expenses of middle-class house- holds.
1 do not choose to publish my name, but you, Sir, will know that I occupy a public position, and can be trusted to tell the truth if I give some figures from my private accounts, which I keep with accuracy. From my annual expenses, as given below. I eliminate doctors, holidays, charities, and other varying charges. I include rent, housekeeping, repairs, fire and light, books, service and private expenses for myself and my wife, living in a quiet and regular way with two servants. On these things we spent in 1913 £570, in 1914 020. in 1915 2546, in 1916 £342, in 1917 2595, in 1918 2667, in 1919 2662, in six months of 1920 2350. No doubt with the war we became more frugal, and the rationing tended to limit expenditure. We have learned not to disdain margarine and oatmeal and fresh herrings. But I can assure you that I have not in any marked way altered my scale of living, and have never wholly given up occasional small parties and wine at dinner. The actual cost of my living has thus not inereased more than 25 or 30 per cent. I darosay that if I had insisted on having exactly the things to which I was accustomed, whatever they cost, the percentage of increase would have been considerably higher, as it might have been had I children to educate. But the official Index Figure is obviously fanciful. Every one who is used to statistics knows that by using them unfairly one can prove any point one pleases. and by using them mechanically one reaches absurdities. It is by the Income Tax that the Government really oppresses me, deducting a great proportion of my earnings and of the interest derived from the painful savings of past years.
It seems that the salaries in the Civil Service rise automati- cally in dependence on the fanciful Index Figure. In that case the servants of the State follow the example of the miners, railway-men, and others who possess a monopoly, in shifting all the burden of increased frugality, which is the duty of every one, from their own shoulders on to thee. of the unfortunate classes who cannot increase their incomes, and have in silence, to bear a crushing burden.—I am, Sir, Ise.,
Civts.
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