The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1950-08-24
His Curiosity
About Tombstones
Led To BIS Index

Washington (LPA)-There was
strike, and as usual, the papers
were critical. So one Of the strikers
sat down and wrote TO the New
York Daily Tribune as follows:
"The carpenters Of our city Of
Philadelphia are upon strike for
an advance Of $.25 a day. This will
make $10.50 week. Take a work
ingman at from 30 to 40 years Of
age, with his wife and three child
ren. Now what will it take to
maintain a family Of five weekly +?
"a barrel of flour-$5.-will last
s weeks. This will have flour $.621a
week; sugar, lbs at SOB per
lb.-$.32 per week; butter, 2 lbs
at $.31H per lb.,c$.6212; milk,
$.02 per day,-$.14 per week; but
cher's meat, 2 lbs beef at $40 per
day,-$1.40 per week; potatoes,
half a bushel,-$.50; coffee and
tea per week, -$.25; candle light,
-$.14 per week; fuel, tons coal
at SIS. per annum, charcoal, chips,
matches, etcetera,-$5. per year;
This makes $40 per week for fuel.
Salt, pepper, vinegar, starch, soap,
yeast, now and then some eggs,
etc. $.25 per week; rent $500 per
week; bed-clothes and bedding,
$40; wearing appafel,-$2.0O per
week; newspapers, $.12.
"Let US now sum all up-$10.50.
81 ask, have | made the work
ingman's comfort too high? Where
is the money to pay for amuse-
ments, for ice-cream, for his pud-
dings, trips on Sunday up and down
the river in order to get some
fresh air; to pay the doctor or the
opothecary, to pay for pew rent
in the church, to purchase books
and musical Instruments"
That was in May 1851, and the
items in a typical family's market
basket have changed. But not the
concern over the "workingman's
comfort"
When union negotiators sit down
at the bargaining table today, they
talk about the "consumers-p price
index"Aa shorthand word for the
price of the grocery list cited by
the union carpenter a hundred
years ago. 1t is shorthand backed
up by the governments vast accu-
mutation of data on the price of
goods and services that a workers
family buys. 1t takes a building
full of economists in Washington,
plus a small army of "part-time
shoppers"-who periodically price
the 5O0-odd commodities in a typic-
al family budget-to figure out the
cost Of living.
The consumers price index is
the all important thermometer by
which the nations health is mea-
sured. What it amounts to is a de-
vice for measuring the price in one
community of a specific market
basket-or shopping list-of goods
and services.
1t all started with a man who
was curious about the tombstones
in an old graveyard. Carroll D.
Wright was Commissioner of Labor
in Massachusetts. Studying the
dates on tombstones, Wright got
to wondering about peoples life
spans-why some died young and
others lived to a ripe old age.
Wright searched for an answer in
the way people lived. His studies,
published for the Massachusetts
legislature in the 1870s, were the
first statistical Investigations of
the level of living of the American
workingman. With their publica-
ton, economics became for the first
time a study of the poor mans pro-
blems.
When Wright came to Washing
ton to become the first Commiss-
ioner of Labor Statistics in the
Bureau of Labor, the government
was launched in the field of "wel-
fare" economics.
Organized labor has at times
been sharply critical of the accur-
acy of the Labor Dept.'s pricing
system. After World War ii labor
charged the index did not accur-
ately reflect the inflationary spiral,
and was being used to hold down
wages. These charges resulted in
two separate Investigations. One,
ordered by the Secretary of Labor,
was made by Professor Frederick
Mills. The other, ordered by War
Labor Board Chairman Davis, was
made by the economist Wesley Nit
chell. AS a result, a 5 per cent
overall addition was tackled on to
the Bureau of Labor Statistics in
dex.
The Labor Departments Con-
sumer Price Index is mailed regu-
larly to $4,000 individuals and or
ganizations. In addition, 5000 re-
quests for consumer price informa-
tion are received each month. Most
of these are for collective bargain