Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-01-17
THE COST OF LIVING.
ADMINISTRATIONS AT HOME.
By Frederic ]. Haskin.

Few questions before the American
people have been more frequently inves-
tigated than the question of prices and
! the related subject Of the cost Of living.
The federal government has frequently
looked into the matter directly and in
directly. Every investigation of the tariff
has involved this question, and many in
vestigatiOns which have had only an
incidental relation to the tariff have been
| made. Perhaps the safest and most de-
pendable statistics bearing upon the SUBJ
ject are those which have been collected
from time to time by the United States
bureau of labor.
While the activities Of this bureau deal
with all those matters which affect labor.
It's studies of prices have been such as to
| bring out information nowhere else to be
found. The operations of this bureau are
| KEEP, out of politics, and on the whole its
conclusions are. perhaps freer from par
tisan bias than those of any other in
Vest1gat1ng organization that has existed
| in the United States. Last year it issued
| a bulletin presenting the results OF its
| inquiries into wholesale prices in the
| United States covering the period from
1880 to 1910. A few years ago 1t made
widespread inquiry into the relation
| ship between wholesale and retail prices.
1T also has conducted Investigations into
| the cost of production of iron, steel,
! textiles and glass. in 1863 and 1907 it
| made inquiries into the cost OF living and
the retail prices of food.
The method by which the bureau of la
Dor makes it's Investigations into retail
prices is an interesting one. 1t has Sc
lected retail stores situated in sections
of the cities occupied by iaborers ana
| mechanics who are supposed TO make
from 5000 to 81 200 a year, SD as to get
the actual cost of living to the working
! classes. The agent is given the name OF
the store from which the commodities
were secured the previous year. the list
Of commodities and the prices each
month of each one of the commodities.
He then visits the same store and gets
the price of those commodities by the
month from the books of the concern it
self. His figures are turned into the
bureau, and before being used they are
gone over carefully in the division of
examination and criticism.
x
Other reports coming in from different,
agents I'm either the same territory or
Thorough Steps Taken ritory are
to Verify All Figures. com AIRED
with these. II on the face of it there
seems to be any irregularity in any re-
port 1t is sent back to the agent and he
is required to go back to the store and
verify the figures. In one instance an
agent of the bureau sent in report
which, upon comparison with other re-
ports from the same neighborhood, was
found to be incorrect. The agent was
sent back and substantiated his figures
Later he was called off and another
agent sent out, who found that the first
agent had taken the word of the store
keeper, but had not gone to his books
The bureau has no power to require
merchant to produce his books, yet it
has gone to them for some twenty years.
and in many cases it has got Information
the publication of which was unpleasant
to the merchants. In ninety-eight cases
out of a hundred its agents are given &C.
cess to the books of the merchant II
the agents are unable to get their in
formation from the merchants they go
to the patrons and get their little gro
Gerry store pass books. From these they
are able to get the actual written rec
ords of sales. They never take any fig
ures which are not gathered from actual
written records.
The bureau finds it much more difficult
to gather statistics of retail prices than
of wholesale prices. In the case of
wholesale prices the articles are standard
lied and they can be followed from year
to year. In the case of retail prices
there is frequently a great deal of sub
stitution, especially in the cheaper stores.
The average housewives one desire is
that there shall be SteadinesS OF price.
The slightest variation upsets her calcu-
1ations. great many people buy but
ter at so much per pound throughout the
year. The housewife will deal with
man who agrees to sell her coffee and
butter at certain price throughout the
whole year. When prices are going up
the retailer will let them go up Il little
before he increases his price. but if they
drop down. he is not likely to change it
so quickly If he concludes it is up
permanently he will probably reduce the
grade of his article enough to make the
difference. For instance, grocer de-
clared to- Commissioner Neill that he
could reduce his beef two grades on his
class of customers ands they would not
know the difference. Likewise he said