Van Buren Press- May 15, 1885 AVERAGE COST OF LIVING How many persons have even a rough idea of the average sum upon which by far the larger part of the citizens of the United States are fed, clothed and housed? A recent statistican estimates that eighty percent, of the population of this country is supported by from 45 to 50 cents per capita a day.At the later figure this makes $164.25 as the average annual cost of living; but as by average we mean the balance between extremes, there must be may persons who have not had even this sum to live upon. That fifty cents a day is a generous estimate will be admitted when it is remembered that many mill operatives earn only from five to seven dollars a week, and that the wages of farm hands run from twenty to thirty dollars a month, and that on these sums several persons are often supported. When it is remembered, too, that some other human beings have a yearly income equal to what is necessary for the subsistence of 500 or 1,000 of these "average" mortals, the startling contrast between the extremes of our modern society must be most evident. Thanks, Fran Alverson Warren