Benjamin Seebhom Rowntree

Practically the whole of this class are living either in a state of actual poverty,* or so near to that state that they are liable to sink into it at any moment. They live constantly from hand to mouth. So long as the wage-earner is in work the family manages to get along, but a week's illness or lack of work means short rations, or running into debt, or more often both of these. Extraordinary expenditure, such as the purchase of a piece of furniture, is met by reducing the sum spent on food. As a rule, in such cases it is the wife and sometimes the children who have to forego a portion of their food, the importance of maintaining the strength of the wage-earner is " If there's any think extra to buy, such as a pair of boots for one of the children, a woman in Class "B" told one of my investigators, "me and the children goes without dinner---or maybe only 'as a cup o' tea and a bit o' bread, but Jim (her husband) oil- ers takes 'is dinner to work, and I give it 'im as usual ; 'e never knows we go with- out, and I never tells 'im."