New Britain herald., 1917-04-06

 OF DOLLAR SHRINkS.
Would Buy Three Pounds Less, in
 1916 Than ip 1907
Especial. to the Herald).

Special to the Herald).
 Washington, April 6.-If 3 dollars worth of food bought in 1907. weighed the market basket down ten pounds, in 1916 that dollar purchased only a trifie more than seven pounds The retail prices of food jumped 39 per cent. in 1916, as compared with 1907, according to the investigations of the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the U. s. Department of Labor, as reported in the April Monthly Review of the Bureau.
 Despite an average increase of 19 per cent. in wages per hour in the same period, and reduction in hours worked of four per cent, the rising cost of foods has operated to cut the pay of the American workingman about 16 per cent. expressed in terms of food his wages will buy. A work ingmanl who made three dollars day in 1907, working ten hours. in 1916 worked nine hours and thirty-six minutes a day and drew $3.4S for it; but it cost him $4.17 to buy the same quantity of food his $500 would cov- CT in 1907; so he really was 6s cents worse off.
 The Bureau of Labor Statistics gathers figures from weight lead ing cities of the United States, on union scales of wages, and from 46 cities on food prices. In these cities live about one-fifth (twenty millions) of our people. The wage returns come from eleven groups of organized workers. These figures are taken from two bulletins, giving scales of wages and hours of labor, and retail >H 4. centages showing proportionate rates of increase or reduction, are shown for each year. The department has learned that the abnormal increase in food prices shown in 1916 Is still further increased in January, to 56 per cent, and in February, to 62 per cent above the average cost in 1907. Of course, all these figures are based on averages. and may not apply exact ly to individual cases. If an army uniform were made on the average measurements of the soldiers it would represent their average size, but wouldn't fit one of them.
 Many Idle Hands in 1907.
 A vital fact should be. considered here. however; those figures do not account for idle time Until recently LIE uCpdIluAcHl COutu IOL Scl dIoS1dC- tory figures on this point. But it is matter of common knowledge that jobs now are chasing men. In 1907 there were no jobs to dodge. The land was. crowded with idle men. At a conference of workers held at the Department of Commerce and Labor in 1909 to discuss the problem of un- employment, Samuel Gompers, pres ident of the American Federation of Labor, stated that since October 1907, nearly 100000 workers were out of jobs." who had been working steadily prior to that time. Other estimates placed the number of men then idle at from three to four mill lions. Nowadays every. man who wants work can find it--and that is a very important fact.
 To make the difference in living costs plainer, take the experience of Denny O'Neill. Denny worked on the railroad in 1907 for $1.40 day of ten hours Denny is steady man and he kept his work right along. Hk got $8.4O in 1907. Denny's pay now on the averages found by the Depart ment of Labor-is $9.75 a week He works about twenty-odd minutes less each day than he did. In 1907 Denny paid five dollars a week for food. In 1916 Denny had to pay $6:95 a week for the same quantity of food. So Denny's living was actually cut during these nine years of rising wages He loses 60 cents a week, not counting rent which has not changed for Denny, nor counting clothes, which cost him more.
 The averages of food and of pay qualified by reductions in hours worked rose at about, thf same rate from 1912 to 1915, so that during that time wages would pay for about even quantities of food each year. Actually. workers enjoyed better con- ditions in 1915 than in 1912, because they had more and steadier work But war losses got into the equation \ in 1916 and pushed up food prices faster than wages. There were some crop shortages also which contributed their share. Besides this, showever, there is reason to fear that other ele- ments are conspiring to raise prices. Cold storage. rebilling. reshipping and withholding of commodities from mar ket are suspected to contribute to the
 present abnormal rise in the prices of food. Whether some persons have conspired to engross the markets the
 Department of Labor cannot state. But the reports of the Bureau of La bor Statistics seem to lend some color to such an opinion, viewed in the light of conditions revealed by comparison of figures through range of years ENGLAND TAKES TO GREGORY London April 6-For the first