THE NATIONAL INCOME, 1924. By Arthur L. Bowley and Sir
Josiah Stamp. (Clarendon Press. 3s. 6d.)—This remarkable little book by our two leading statisticians deserves to be widely read and closely studied. Professor Bowley's earlier essay on " The Division of the Product of Industry," as shown by the figures for 1911, is a classic, and this is even more important. We may cite the general conclusions. So far from " the rich becoming richer and the poor poorer," as street-corner orators affirm, real wages in 1924 were about 11 per cent. higher than in 1911, while " the real income available for saving or expenditure in the hands of the rich is definitely less than before the War." " The sum devoted to luxurious expenditure is (allowing for the rise of prices) definitely less than in 1911." But " the standard of living reached by the lower-paid regular wage-earners has, when they are not suffering from unemployment, definitely risen." This, it must be said, accords with the general view of thought- ful observers. The product of industry has been redistributed to some extent. If the product were larger, there would be more to share.
Previous page
