Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1907-05-07
The Increased Cost Of Living.

lar went farther in those days. is fire.
quently revived of late in connection
with comments on the increased cost of
living. Everybody knows that there
are more dollars to throw across rivers
or elsewhere than in the time of Wash
ington, and they are more easily
earned, but the average man-who OF
course enjoys more Injuries of life
than he used to. has steady employ
mcnt at better pay and has more
money in the savings bank-realizes
in recent years in the cost of almost
all of the necessities of life. The
scientific experts at Washington have
been figuring on the matter and the
bureau of labor reports that careful
investigation of wholesale prices of va
riOus commodities discloses that the
cost of living was greater last year
than any other year during the 17-year
period under examination.
OF 25S commodities. considered as a
whole, the average for 1906 was Sc
per cent. higher than for 1905; 365
per cent. higher than for 1S97-the
year of lowest prices during the IL
year period-and 22.4 per cent.
higher than the average for the ten
years from 1890 to 1900. Prices
reached their highest point during the
17-vear period in December. 1906,
the average for that month being
81 per cont higher than the average
for the year 1896 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, metals
and implements. lumber and building
materials. drugs and chemicals, house
furnishing goods and miscellaneous
commodities. Only two of the nine
groups showed a decrease in price as
compared with 19O6-farm products
and drugs and chemicals Seven
groups showed an increase in price,
this increase reaching 1914 per cent. in
the case of metals and implements
and 9.5 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, n decrease of
only one half of one per cent. being
shown. Food, as a whole, increased
3.6 per cent. in average price for 1906
as compared with 1905 The principal
articles showing an Increase were
cheese, fish, fruit, hog products, milk,
rice and vegetables. No change took
place in the price Of bread. A slight
decrease in the wholesale cost of cof-
fec. eggs, wheat flour, corn meal, beef,
sugar and tea is shown.
OF the - articles included under
clothes and clothing. sixty-six
showed an increase in price, five
showed no change, and only four
showed decrease. In the group, as
n whole, there was an average in
creaS" of IL per cent. in price. In fuel
ard lighting as group there was an
increase in price of 3 per cent. There
was an advance in the price of anthra-
cite coal of domestic sizes, coke and
petroleum, and a decrease in candles,
broken anthracite coal and bituminous
coal
House furnishing goods, as n whole,
increased IL per cent in price. More
than half the articles in this group,
namely earthenware, glassware. wood
enware and articles of cutlery did not
change price. TIE increase in the
general average was caused by the
increase in the price of wooden furni-
ture.
In the miscellaneous group there
was an advance in the prices Of cot
tonseed, oil and meal. jute. malt, proof
spirits. rope and starch. There was
no change in the price of soap and
smoking tobacco and a decrease in the
price Of news and wrapping paper
rubber and plug tobacco. Taken to-
gether the group of miscellaneous arti-
cles increased "a per cent.
The bureau has made no attempt to
go into the causes of the rise and fall
Of prices further than to make this
statement:
"The causes are too complex. the
relative influence OF each too uncertain
in some cases involving too many
economic questions, to permit their dis
CuSsiOn i'm connection with the present
article. II will be sufficient to cnum-
crate some of the influences that cause
changes in prices. Such influences in
clude variations in harvest; changes in
demand due to changes in fashions
seasons. etc: legislation ordering in
ternal revenue taxes. import duties or
bounties; inspection as to purity or
authorizations; use of substituteS-as,
for instance an advance in the price OF