Republican farmer., 1919-08-15
COST OF LIVING NOT CONFINED
 70 AMERICA

The advance of prices is not con fined to the United States or to the countries which participated in the war. It has been world wide. Nor
 has it occurred exclusively in the
 products required for war purposes, nor for the use of the millions en-
 gagged in the war. Practically every
 article entering international trade has advanced in price in the country in which produced. irrespective of their proximity to the war area. Nor have prices been reduced to a per ceptible degree in any part of the world since the close of the war. There are, of course, few exceptions to this general rule, but they are so few and so plainly due to peculiar conditions that they prove the rule'' that the advance has been world wida and that the termination of the war has not reversed the movement or at least caused any material decline in any consid erable proportion of the important articles of world produc- tion. and world consumption. The extent of the increases in world prices and their distribution to all parts of the globe irrespective of relation to the war area is illustrated by a compilation by The National City Bank of New fork showing the
  duction of the principal articles l forming the international trade of the world and comparing these 1919 prices with those of the month pre-
 ceding the war. In the distant Orient, in the tropical world. in the interior of Africa, Australia, and South America, and in the islands of the Pacific the prices demanded for the articles offered for exportation | l.a far above those of the pre- war , period, the advances ranging from 50 per cent. to 100 per cent. and | som etimes 150 per cent.
 Rice, for example, of which the United States imported about 4oo,- 100000 pounds from China and Japan in 1918, cost in the country Of production 7.2c per pound for that imported in December 1918 against 2.6c per pound for that imported in the month preceding the war, July 1914
 Nitrate of soda, drawn chiefly from Chile, for which the war demands ceased at the date of the Armistice, cost in the country of production $574O per ton for that imported iii May 1919 against $26.65 per ton for that imported in the month preceding the war.
 Raw silk, of which we obtain our entire supply from China and Japan, cost in those countries an average of S612 per pound for the imports of the closing month of the war. and $3.s4 per pound in the mouth pre- ceding the war.
 Wood pulp bleached, chiefly from Canada and not produced in the war countries, cost in the country of pro- auction $16o per ton for the quantity imported into the United States in January 1919 against $49 per ton for that imported in the month preceding the war.
 Goat skins imported from China, India. Mexico and South America cost in those countries an average of 62.Sc per pound for those reaching the United States in May 1919 against 24.5c per pound for those imported from the same countries in the month preceding the war.
 Flaxseed, imported chiefly from Argentine and not an article demand ed for war purpose. cost in the coun- : try of production $3 per bushel for | that reaching us in January 1s1s against $1.47 per bushel paid for that | imported in July 1914.