Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1911-09-23
COST OF LIVING
SOARING WITH No
RELIEF IN SIGHT
Price of Meat Thirty Per Cent.
Higher Than a Few
Years Ago.
RECIPROCITY DEFEAT
BLAMED FOR ADVANCE
Increases of Sensational Char
acter Recorded at Several
Grain Centres.

Again the price of foodstuffs is soar
ing, and now it costs more than 30 per
cent. than 1t did a few years ago to
set a meal. And the end is not in
sight. It is said that prices will soar
still higher. Wheat and flour have ad-
vanied to sky-high prices. Oats, too,
are way up. Coffee and sugar are again
raised a notch. The same thing APP
plies to all foodstuffs.
The defeat in Canada of the reel
proeity measure is blamed for the in
crease in prices. 1t is said that if free
trade with Canada were established 1t
would act as a check on the trusts.
and that none of them would dare
raise the prices If Canadian foodstuffs
were admitted free of duty.
The report of the bureau of statistics
of New Jersey for 1911, which is now
nearing completion, will show in a
series of tables the retail prices for a
list of ffty-two selected articles of
food supplies which prevailed in the
principal cities anu lOWHS VI tic btot|
during the month of June, 1911.
The same inquiry has been a feature
of the annual report of the bureau each
year since 1898, and during that time
but few changes have been made In the
list of articles used in making the in
vestigation, and none at all in the form
in which the data obtained are pre-
scented. The rule has also been strict
~ adhered to of having the price lists
filled by the same dealers each year,
and always the figures quoted are those
that prevailed during the month of
June.
Increase In state Bill.
The conditions for making COMPARE
sons of the lists of the several years
covered by the inquiry are as nearly
perfect in every respect as could be
desired. The practise has been to make
comparisons of the prices each year
with those of the Immediately preceding
year, and also to compare them with
those reported for 1898, thus showing
the increases and decreases of each
year, and. also the aggregates of the
SAME for an increasingly longer period,
which now amounts to thirteen years.
A clear chart showing the trend of
food cost throughout the State is thus
furnished, the substantial accuracy of
which cannot be doubted.
The average cost of the entire bill of
goods throughout the entire State is
$13, 743. In 1910 the average cost was
! 3,143; an increase is therefore shown
in the cost of these food supplies as a
whole, amounting to $500, or 4.56 per
cent. Of the fifty articles which APP
pear on the list, thirty-six show de-
creases, and fourteen show Increases.
The preponderance of increases over
decreases Notwithstanding the much
greater number of the former, is due
entirely to a remarkably great ad-
vance In the price of new and old
potatoes, which averaged 1904 and 1899
more per bushel, respectively, in 1911
than In 1910. Excluding potatoes from
the bill, the comparisons would show
a net reduction in last years prices
for the entire bill amounting to s543, or
4.13 per cent.
Increase In Wages.
The average yearly earnings of all
classes of labor. skilled and unskilled,
including men, women and minors, EN-
ployed in manufacturing industry in
New Jersey for 1870, the latest wage
| statistics available, was s531.94, which
was an Increase over the previous year
OF 1851, or 2.97 per cent.
The greatest advance in wheat dur
ing yesterday was recorded at Duluth.
There traders were paying as high as
8 cents a bushel more for the grain
than they did before reciprocity was
rejected. Minneapolis, the greatest
milling centre of the country, showed
a maximum net advance of 6 cents.
A further blow to consumers, at
least, a certain class, may result when
masters have studied the situation in
the barley markets, In some centres
the price advanced as much as 8 cents.
This, if maintained, will probably mean
increased cost of material to brewers
and, as has been the history of pre-
vious similar conditions, the smaller
sized beer glasses may again become
popular with sa~loon-keepers.
Reciprocity, according to experts, had
no direct effect upon meat products
and its defeat is not likely to add tc
the cost of lard, bacon and han.