The French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1896-1912, 1907-06-20
COST OF LIVING GOES UP
HlGH-WATER MARK FOR SEVENTEEN
YEAR PERIOD IN 1906.
LabOr Bureaus Statistics Now Include
Retail Prices. and Show Why 1t is
Hard to Save Money-NO Direct
Reasons Assigned in Report

The Bureau of Labor has taken
another look into the cost of living
and it finds it is still increasing,
writes the Washington correspond
ent of the New York Evening Post.
Its latest examination had to do with
wholesale prices only. 1t is now max
ing a study of retail prices. The in
vestigation- just completed shows
that wholesale prices, considering
! 25S commodities as a whole, reached
a higher level in 1906 than at any
other time during the seventeen-year
period covered. The average for the
year 1906 was So per cent. higher
than for 1905; 36.5 per cen higher
than for 1897, the year OF lowest
prices during the seventeen-year
period, and 22.4 per cent. higher than
the average for the ten years from
1890 to 1899. Prices reached their
highest point during the seventeen
year period in December, 1905, the
average fo- that month being Al per
cent. higher than the average for the
year 1905, and 6.3 per cent. higher
than the average for December, 1905.
The study of the bureau ives ez-
tended to farm products, foods,
clothes and clothing, fuel and light
ing, metals and implements, lumber
and building materials, drugs and
chemicals, house furnishing goods
and miscellaneous commodities. Only
two of the nine groups showed a de-
crsas in price as compared with
19O5-farm products and drugs and
chemicals. Seven groups showed an
increase in price, this increase reach
ing 1914 per cent. in the case of met
ais and implements, and 90 per cent.
in the case of lumber and building
materials.
Changing Prices of Food.
The average price for 1906 of farm
products, taken as a whole, differs
but little from that of 1905, a de-
crease of only oue-half of one per
cent. being shown. Food as a whole
increased So per cent. in average
prize for 1906, as compared with
1905. The principal articles showing
an increase we're cheese, fish, fruit,
hog products, rice and vegetables.
No change took place in the price of
bread. A slight decrease in the
wholesale cost of coffee, eggs, wheat
-four, corn meal, beef, sugar and tea
is shown.
OF the se~venty-five articles incIud-
ed under clothes and clothing, sixty
six showed an increase in price, five
showed no change, and only four
showed a decrease. In the group, as
a whole, there was an average in
crease Of IL per cent. in price. In
fuel and lighting, as a group, there
was an increase in price of % per
cent. There was an advance in the
price of anthracite coal of domestic
sizes, coke and petroleum, and a de-
crease in candles broken anthracite
coal and bituminous coal. There was
a greater increase in price for metals
and implements than n other
group In this group the increase for
1906 I'VE 1905 was 1914 per cent.
OF a total of thirty-eight articles
in the group there was an increase
in price Of twenty-nine articles, in
Guiding tools, barbed wire, copper.
lead, pig iron, nails, silver, tin plates,
etc. Twenty-four of the twenty-seven
articles included under lumber and
building material increased in price
In 1906 The only three articles that
showed a decrease were pine doors,
1inseed of and quartered oak. In
the group, as a whole, there was an
increase in price of 90 per cent.
The only one of nine groups under
consideration that decreased in price
to any considerable extent was that
/ of drugs and chemicals. In this
! group there vas g. decrease ef.7.2
| per cent. There was an increase in
l price of both grain and wood alcohol.
and in that of birthstone. House
furnishing goods, as . whole, in
creased IT. per cent. in price. More
than half the articles in this group,
namely, earthenware, glassware,
woodenware and articles of cutlery
did not change the price. The in
crease in the general average Of price
in this group was caused by the in
crease in the price of wooden furni-
ture. In the miscellaneous group
there was an advance in the prices
of cottonseed oil and meal, jute, malt,
proof spirits, rope and starch. There
was no change in the price of soap
and smoking tobacco, and there was
a decrease in the price Of news and
wrapping paper, rubber and plug to-
bacco. Taken together, the group
of miscellaneous articles increased
IA per cent.
Commodities, Raw and Manufactured
Many students of price statistics
desire to distinguish between raw
commodities and manufactured com
modities. With a view to such
presentation the bureau has divided
the commodities included in its re
cent investigation into the two
classes. AS thus grouped it appear,
that the average wholesale price O.
raw commodities for 1905 was g.!
per cent. higher than for 1905, anC