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This is an interesting topic, and for that reason, i would be very surprised if someone hasn't already done exactly what you're proposing. After all, the relative wordiness of languages is a practical problem for translators, and one would think linguists would also find it interesting. I might try a literature search before reinventing the wheel.
But if i had to do this tonight, i'd use the "Communist Manifesto" mainly because it's in the public domain, has been translated with relatively modern language, and has been rendered into many many languages. Even more importantly, the marxists.org site has a handy page with links to many -- but not all -- the translations from a singe web page. (It's easier to work from a single page than to poke around on sites in languages i don't understand.) Finally, i'd pipe the output of lynx -dump into wc -m. wc counts new line & EOF characters, but wothehell, quick-n-dirty would fit the parameters you've laid out.
When all is said & done, it's your project, so go ahead and do it your way. I'd be curious to know what you find, even if you exclude the languages i'm most interested in.
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