The Wenatchee daily world. [volume] (Wenatchee, Wash.) 1905-1971, 1909-06-04
.L|v|NGPR|CESHAvE
FALLEN
ACCORDING TO GOVERNMENT
BUREAU EXPERTS 1T is COST
ING LESS TO LIVE NOW THAN
NIT DID TWO YEARS AGO.

washington, ID. u, June g.
prices have gone down. 1t is costing
less to live
This is the cheerful summary of
the latest batch of statistics which
the bureau of labor of the depart
ment of commerce of labor has is
sued.
Deductions of the bureau are based
on compilation Of W holesale prices
and the decrease is discovered In the
figures for 1908, as compared with
1907. Two hundred and fifty-eight
commodities figure in the statistics
and the average of the prices shows
a decline of little more than per
cent from the prices of 1907.
The year 1907, however, marked
the high water mark in prices, and
the decline for 1908 brings that year
to a point that is still above the
prices of 1906 to 1907 per cent higher
than 1905. But despite the COM
Portable set of figures which the de-
partment has so laboriously compil-
ed, it is not safe to indulge in any
reckless extravaganza in the hope
that this downward tendency is go
ing to stay.
Prices Again Going Up.
Already a lot of the prices which
furnish the basis for the department
roseate deductions seem to have
started skyward again. The high
price of wheat has dragged lot of
other provisions upward with it.
Many of the commodities which de-
clined in 1905 and brought down the
price average for that year have al
ready scared to d point considerably
higher than the high water mark of
1907. How much relief the remain
der of the year will bring is in doubt,
but it will take a pretty busy bunch
of statisticians to get any particular
comfort out of it.
The decline for 1908 is the result
of the depression which began in Oc-
tober, 1907, and most of the declines
date from that month. Toward the
end of last year many of them had
begun to show marked signs OF re-
covery. and their cOnvalescense is
anything but slow, according to the
present price marks.
While the report which has just
been public is based on the wholesale
prices of 25S commodities, most car
fully worked out, that comparison
ended with December 81, 1908. Fol-
the months since then, the depart
ment has made no comparisons, al
though it is publishing weekly sum
maries of wholesale priwces of about
two score of the more important
commodities. 1t is from these price;
that the upward tendency of the
present markets is taken.
Prices Depend on Tariff.
AS far as any permanent tendency
in prices is concerned, nothing def
mite can be prophesied until the new
tariff law gets in its inning. In man!
OF the markets there is waiting at
titude, and present prices are no in
dications of the prices that are tt
come. Whether they will jump up
ward or slide downward, depends en-
tirely upon the outcome of the bill
The bulletin of the department
completes a comparison of prices TO
10 years, beginning with 1890.
The computations show that thu
average price for 1908 was So pc
cent below the average for 1907, thu
year of highest prices of this 19-yea
period. 1t exceeded the average o
every other year of the period. TIT
average for 1908 was 1928, TO
1907, 1895 ana for 1906, 1925.
The average prices were at thei