The San Angelo press. (San Angelo, Tex.) 1897-1907, 1905-03-30
The Increased Cost of Foods.


crease in the cost Of food. When
1t is considered that the average
American family whose income
does not exceed 1920 spends (as
has been ascertained by govern
ment investigators) nearly 10 per
cent. of his entire income on food
it is easily seen how great a differ
ence is made by rise III prices of
ten to twenty-five cents ON every
dollars worth of edible supplies,
covering meats, vegetables, and -,
practically, all other eatables.
As compared with the average
prices governing during the pc
Rod from 1890 TO 1900, it is reck.
oned by the United States Bureau
of Labor that hams and salt
beef have gone up II per cent,
salt pork and bacon 30 per cent. Z,
lard 30 per cent, fresh vegetables
IL per cent, Corn-meal rs per
cent, crackers, 10 per cent, New
Orleans molasses 20 per cent,
beans 81 per cent, herrings 81
per cent, salt 81 per cent, pepper
~ per cent, and currants l21 per
cent. These are only a few il
Illustrative items.
Poor Mrs. Benedict, when she
goes to market, finds that her
housekeeping money does not go
far. She does her best pricing
various articles from stall to stall
and buying each thing where it
is cheapest-or one should rather
say, least dear-but the result is
very discouraging. Less beef
than is really wanted, and infer
Tor cuts of that, must be made TO
do. As for fresh vegetables, they
are likely to be 80 high as to be
impossible. Eggs have climbed
nearly 30 per cent, and the best
ones, which are the only kind
worth buying, come Mt % cents a
dozen in summer, whereas half
a-dozen years ago they could have
been purchased for twenty.one or
twenty-five cents Sometimes,
indeed, they went lower, but we
are speaking here of average
prices.
In those happy days choice
"chuck" roast could be had for
six cents pound; now it costs
n rantu Dri,,,n riI rnost &C l,nc
was fifteen and n half cents; now
it is seventeen and n half. Soup
meat came at eight and a half
cents; now it is eleven cents.
Porterhouse steak was twenty-one
cents; now it is twenty-five. Sir
lon steak was seventeen cents;
now it is twenty. Round steak
was sixteen cents; now it is eigh-
teen, Meanwhile chickens have
gone up enormously. Fowls that
used to cost twelve cents pound
are now eighteen cents, while
roasting chickens have assembled
from twenty cents to twenty-five.
Turkeys are no longer for poor
folks, even at Thanksgiving and
Christmas.
No wonder that Mrs. Benedict
finds that her market money runs
short. If she would have de-
cent quality of butter on her ia
BILE, she must pay 30 cents
pound for it, whereas only four or
five years ago it could be had for
twenty-four cents. The cheese
that used to cost fifteen cents now
comes at eighteen. Molasses is
sixty cents gallon instead of
forty-eightp; milk is eight cents
quart, instead of seven; lard is
thirteen cents pound, instead of
nine, and, when it comes to fish
the rise Is proportlonate, Cod
steak, for instance, has climed
from fifteen to eighteen cents
pound. Bread, luckily, still re-
mains at five cents n pound loaf
in most places.
Mrs, Benedict's marketing ac-
count, only the other day, showed
that potatoes cost her twenty-five
cents peck, where as the price
five of SIX years ago was only
eighteen cents, But. of course,
one can't get along without pota-
toes, Rice is an economical veg
etable, but it has gone up a cent
and half a pound incidentally
to the general rise in the necessa-
ries OF life. She buys a good
deal of pork, because it is cheap
er than other kinds of meat; but
the fact is that 1t is pretty nearly
as dear as beef used to be, chops
having gone up from eleven to
fifteen cents, and roast pork in
nearly as great n proportion.
Hams that were formerly twelve
cents a pound are now sixteen
cents. Most kinds of groceries,
happily, do not seem to have in
creased much in price, but it is
certainly true that the unolitv