The Hartford herald. [volume] (Hartford, Ky.) 1875-1926, 1907-05-22
THE COST OF LIVING
Continues to Climb in the
Country.
STATISTICS BY GOV. BUREAU
Show an Increase of sos
Per Cent. Over that of
Ten Years Ago.

taken another look into the cost Of
living. and it finds il is still incress-
ing Its latest examination had 10 do
with wholesale prices only. 1t Is now
making a study Of retail prices. The
investigation just completed shows
that wholesale prices, considering 25S
commodities as a whole, reached a
higher level in 1906 than at any 9TH
Ct time during the seventeen-year Pc
riod covered The average for the
year 1905 was So per cent higher than
tor 1908, 36.j per cent. higher than
for 1897, the year Of lowest prices dur
ing the seventeen-yeaT period, and
pa per cent, higher than the aver
age for the ten years from 1890 70
I 1889. Prices reached their highest
point during the seventeen-year per-
Tod in December, 1906, the average
for that month being Al per cent.
higher than the average for the year
1906, and SO per cent higher than
the average for December, 1905.
The study of the bureau was eX-
tended to farm products, foods, clothes
and clothing, fuel and lighting, met
ais and implements, lumber and build
ing materials, drugs and chemicals
lhnnse furnishing -gnods- and miacells-l.--
sous commodities. Only two of the
nine groups showed a decrease in
price as compared with 1905-farm
products and drugs and chemicals
Seven groups showed an increase in
price. this Increase reaching 104 Der
cent. in the case of metals and imple-
ments, and SO per cent. in the case
Of lumber and building materials.
The average price for 1906 OF farm
products, taken as a whole, differs
but little from that of 1905, decrease
of only one-half of / per cent. being
shown. Food, as a whole increased
3.6 per cent. in average price as com
pared with 1905. The principal arti
cles showing an increase were cheese,
fish, fruit, hog products, milk, rice
and vegetables. No change took place
in the price of bread. A slight de-
crease in the wholesale cost of coffee,
eggs, wheat flour, corn meal, beef, SUI
gar and tea is shown.
OF the seventy-five articles includ-
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 de-
crease in candles, broken anthracite
coal and bituminOus coal. There was
a greater increase in price for metals
and implements than any other group.
In this group the increase for 1906
over 1905 was 104 per cent.
OF a total Of thirty-eight articles in
the group, there was an increase in
price Of twenty-nine articles, includ-
ing tools, barbed wire, copper, lead,
pig iron, nails, silver, tin plates etc.
Twenty-four of the twenty-seven ar
ticles included under lumber and build |
ing material increased in price in
1906. The only three articles that
showed a decrease were pine doors,
linseed oil, and quartered oak In
the group, as a whole, there Was an
increase in price of SO 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 was a decrease of 10 per cent. |
There was increase in price of both |
grain and wood alcohol and in that of
birthstone. House furnishing goods,
as a whole, increased II per cent in |
price. More than half the articles in |
ware, woodenware, and articles of
cutlery, did not change in price. The |
increase in the general average of
price in this group was caused by the |
increase in the price of wooden fur
niture. 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 new and
wrapping paper, rubber, and plug to-
bacco. Taken altogether, the group
of miscellaneous articles increased "A
per cent.