PREFACE
Since Professor R. C. Chapin estimated that a New York family consisting of a man, wife and three children under fourteen could maintain "a normal standard, at least so far as the physical man is concerned," on an annual income of $900, speculation has been rife as to the number of families whose incomes equalled that sum. Controversy was futile. No recent wage study had been made, and aside from the reports of the State bureaus of labor, which were popularly supposed to contain little or no data of importance, no available wage figures existed.
But some relation must be established between the $900 efficiency standard and the wages actually paid in American industry, else the Chapin Study would lose much of its force. The publication of a Federal Report on Wages in the Bethlehem Steel Works gave the needed impetus and we plunged into the work. This "we" is used advisedly,—not editorially, since Nellie Marguerite Seeds Nearing did a large amount of statistical compilation; Professor
Robert E. Chaddock proved an excellent adviser
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