The Brunswick news. [volume] (Brunswick, Ga.) 1906-2016, 1917-10-02

Mayor Mitchell Likewise did George
B. Mcclure. vice president of the
State Federation of Labor; Charles
E. Hughes, former governor; Alton B
Parker former presidential candidate
and many others.
to 1882
Others have computed rough index
numbers back to the thirteenth cen.
tury and, with some breaks. back even
to the eighth century
The "edict of Diocleton in 301 A
d. affords data for a still more an
cient and still rougher comparison.
The prices there mentioned of eleven
inds of foods are found (by Prof. Fer
guson of Bryn Mawr) to be on the
average so per cent or 60 per cent
of the prices in the United States in
1912. In other words, the index mum
Der of prices for Rome in 3O1 A. D.
stood at so or 60 as compared with
100 in America today. But this does
not imply that the Roman people
were better off. On the contrary.
from the same edict we find that Rom
| an wages were only per cent to 20
per cent of American wages in 1912.
That is the Roman workmen got say,
10 per cent of the money wages of
the modern American workman while
| he had to pay, say, half as much as
the American for food. Consequently
| (if we may trust so scanty figures), !,
he enjoyed only one-fifth as much
real income
/ 1t is an interesting fact that, through
out the ages, while prices have some
| times fallen, they have generally
| risen, although as the Roman COM
parison shows, this does not neces-
sarily, or even usually mean increas-
| ing hardship. Prices are. now five,
| to ten times as high as a thousand
years ago in France and from four
| to six times as high as five hundred
years ago.
] And so we are not the only genera
| ton to complain of the high cost of
| living. In the sixteenth century we
| find the complaint that wheat cost
from three to ten times its average
price during the three preceding cen
| turies and "all things else, whatever,
| susttnance for man, was likewise
raised without all conscience or rea-
| SON. We are told that five pounds,
two hundred and sixty years before
| 1907 bought as much as twenty-eight
pounds or thirty pounds at that date.
We may say, by the way, that this
great upward movement of prices in
| the sixteenth century followed the i'm
| portation into Europe of silver from
| the new world
17So-1oo9.
| But we have no really good measure
| of price movements before 1882 at
which date Jevons' index number for
| England begins Between 1889 and
1909 his index number rose from IS
to 161, or practically doubled in TWEEN
| ty years.
Here again it is significant that, dur
ing these twenty years, there was a
great outpouring from the mines, of
gold and silver, especially silver.
| There we're also the Napoleonic wars
and deprecated paper money.
1s0e-1S4e.
Between 1909 and 1S49 prices fell
Jevons' index number fell from 161 to
64 That is, in these forty years Eng
! lish prices were reduced to less than
half.
1849-1873.
Between sfS49 and 1873 (although
with two interruptions) British prices
rose, according to Sauerbeck's well.
known index number, from n. to Ill
| A similar rise occurred in the other
countries for which we, have index
numbers for that period, namely: the
4 United States, France and Germany
J Whatever the cause of this rise in