impression) the relative expenditure for fresh meat and for meat foods is nearly as large among the Chinese as among the Caucasians other than Portuguese. The relative expenditure for meat foods among the Hawaiians is larger than among the Caucasians, the high percentage being due principally to the large consumption of fresh fish by the natives. The Japanese show the smallest relative expenditure for meat foods, probably not on account of a distaste for these articles of diet, but because the family income of the people of this race is relatively smaller. The large expenditure for rice by the Chinese and Japanese and for poi by the Hawaiians are facts that required no statistical verification. The variety of the dietary, as indicated by the average number of items, differs widely in case of different race groups. While in general standard of living and income the Hawaiians are more nearly on a par with Caucasians, other than the Portuguese, than any other race, in variety of diet they stand at the opposite extreme. This suggests that inherited tastes and customs may be least affected by changing conditions of civilization in the matter of food, provided the physical environment is not profoundly modified. The Portuguese spend more for bread and flour than any other people. AVERAGE ANNUAL EXPENDITURES PER FAMILY FOR SELECTED ARTICLES OF FOOD, BY RACE, 1910. PER CENT OF ANNUAL EXPENDITURES PER FAMILY FOR SELECTED ARTICLES OF FOOD, OF TOTAL FOOD EXPENDITURE, BY RACE. The table showing the distribution of miscellaneous expenditures for the different race groups must be qualified by the consideration that the average incomes of families of different groups vary widely, and that this variation must affect the percentage columns as well as the columns of absolute expenditure. DISTRIBUTION OF MISCELLANEOUS EXPENDITURES SHOWING THE PER CENT EACH IS OF TOTAL EXPENDITURES, BY RACE. Total.. 134. 13 14. 73 129. 25 22.75 103. 64 13. 59 69.97 18.03 114. 26 15.92 108.72 15.52 1 Including 1 Filipino and 1 Mexican family. 2 Including Part-Hawaiian. * Including 1 Spanish family. Caucasians spend more absolutely for health and physical care than any other race, but they spend a smaller proportion of their income for this purpose than do Japanese. It is to be suspected that the Japanese expenditure under this head is somewhat abnormal, possibly on account of the high birth rate. The low expenditure of the Hawaiians is due rather to a tendency to self-neglect in case of illness than to an unusually high standard of health. For educational and intellectual purposes the Caucasians, other than Portuguese, spend a smaller relative amount than any other prople, except the Portuguese themselves. The Chinese spend three times as much for education, in proportion to their incomes as do the whites, and nearly twice as much absolutely, though their families are not materially larger. These figures would command more confidence if the number of families compared in case of different races were more nearly equal. The Chinese also spend absolutely more than four times as much for charity, and relatively to their incomes more than six times as much as do the Caucasians. Portuguese and other Caucasians apparently spend most for transportation. The item of "taxes and insurance" evidently includes dues to benefit societies, and this explains the high proportion of total income paid under this head by Portuguese. "Interest and debts" account for a small percentage of the expenditure of the Hawaiians and Portuguese; in the case of the latter race this is due principally to payments upon homes. The figures are not fully representative because the Chinese have a method of borrowing money, often availed of, through loan associations,' and the results of this borrowing apparently did not find their way into the schedules. The item "tobacco and liquors" is not accurate, the true expenditure undoubtedly being under reported by some of the races. The following table was made up in an attempt to trace the influence of Hawaiian residence upon the expenditures of Portuguese families. The figures are not so suggestive as they might be because the age of the heads of the families and the membership of families is different in case of the two different classes. The native-born Portuguese are younger, and, partly for that reason, have smaller 1 Such an association is formed by a Chinaman, who finds himself compelled to raise a sum of money immediately and without security. He selects a number of his friends, whose combined resources will supply the sum he needs, and forms an association in the following manner: Assuming A to require $200, which he expects to be able to repay in ten months. (1) A fund of $200 is formed by 10 of his associates contributing $20 each. This fund is then maintained by monthly contributions by 10 of the associates. The first month A is not a contributor, but borrows the entire fund. During the following 10 months he contributes $20 monthly to that fund, thus repaying the entire sum he borrowed, but without interest. (2) At the beginning of the second month, A visits the members of the association and has each member, according to his need for money, bid for the loan of the fund contributed that month. His bid, which represents interest, takes the form of a discount on the contributions of the other nine members, excluding A, who is bound to pay the full $20 each month. The highest bidder, B, then receives, as a loan, the fund, which amounts to A's $20, plus the equal contributions of the other 9 members. This equal contribution represents $20, discounted by the amount B offers for the use of the money. Upon receiving this loan, B becomes obligated to pay $20, without discount, into the fund each succeeding month during the life of the association. At the end of the second month, the 9 members, who have not yet borrowed, again bid in the same manner as the 10 members did the previous month for the use of the fund contributed that month. (3) The fund for the third month is composed of $20 contributed by each A and B and by the contributions of the other 8 members, excluding the highest bidder for that month. Each of the eight contributions again equals $20, less the discount that the borrowing member pays for the use of the money. This is continued each month until the term of the association has expired-the number of $20 contributors constantly growing and the number of qualified bidders for the use of the money constantly decreasing in the same ratio. The process is indicated by the following table, which represents the history of a loan association composed of 11 members, indicated by A to K, successively. The serial order of the letters is the same as the months upon which the person represented by each respective letter was the highest bidder. It must be noted that, after having been the highest bidder once, a member is excluded from subsequent bidding. Member K does not bid, but takes the ten $20 contributions for which his associates have bound themselves, in repayment for the sums he has previously paid into the funds plus interest. families, smaller incomes, and less average expenditure. However, the per capita figures in this table contain some suggestions as to the changing economic status of the native Portuguese as compared with the foreign born. COMPARISON OF NATIVE-BORN AND FOREIGN-BORN PORTUGUESE AS TO INCOME, EXPENDITURES, SIZE OF FAMILY, AND HOME CONDITIONS. The figures showing the industrial status of children in families of different nationalities merely confirm the facts brought out by a previous table, to the effect that in Portuguese families the number of youthful workers is relatively larger than in the families of the other groups. Hawaiian children apparently enter school later, upon an average, than those of other races, and leave school earlier without entering upon any definite occupation. CHILDREN AT WORK, AT SCHOOL, AND AT HOME, CLASSIFIED BY AGE AND BY The Japanese, occupying largely one-room tenements, pay more for rent per room than do the members of any other race, and in this instance the rate of rent is no indication of the class of accomodations furnished. The relative rent paid by Portuguese and by other Caucasians, on the other hand, is measured very largely by the character of the buildings occupied and the neighborhood in which they stand. The fuel figures have little special significance, it being only necessary to repeat that the high expenditure of the Portuguese is due to the amount of baking done in the families. The following table shows, by race, the average annual expenditure for room-rent and fuel: AVERAGE EXPENDITURE PER FAMILY FOR FUEL AND FOR RENT PER ROOM, BY The following table contains certain data regarding representative families of working people from the present investigation compared with data from the investigation of the cost of living in the United States, published in the Eighteenth Annual Report of the Commissioner of Labor (1903), and the résumé of the investigation made by the Imperial Statistical Office of Germany as to the cost of living of the 852 families in that country, published in Bulletin No. 88 of the United States Bureau of Labor. COMPARISON OF AVERAGE ANNUAL INCOME AND EXPENDITURE AMONG FAMILIES IN HAWAII, THE UNITED STATES, AND GERMANY. [Figures for the United States refer to the year 1901; for Germany to the period January 1, 1907, to April 30, 1908.] 4.8 Germany 4.. Total.... United States:3 Foreign-born. 4. 1 12.43 272.67 76.65 Native-born.. 3.9 7.45 263. 13 Total....... 4.0 650.98 79.49 1.47 9.49 266. 47 4.6 521.71 84.7 2.7 79.72 1.0 83.54 .4 80.23 11.2 67.62 2.2 807.61 78.03 1.5 6.02 $458.80 $106.25 $119.65 $56. 75 $910.32 $158.32 7.29 246.84 93.26 59.25 22.53 568.22 39. 19 10. 19 370.33 157.36 81.58 23.83 762.65 165.09 25. 19 45.37 388.06 33.00 717.68 89.93 11.47 353.46 111.31 634.85 74.95 1.47 111.49 81.78 112.22 3 Figures relate to 11,156 families (not including boarders and lodgers), except those showing per cent of income earned by husband, wife, children; those figures relate to 25,440 families (including boarders and lodgers). 4 Figures do not include lodgers. • Deficit. |