Year: 1875

Tho Difference Between the Cost in 1873 and 1875.

 When the panic of 1878 gave severe

 shock to trade in all departments, om

 people said, naturally and inevitably,

 that there must shortly be great reduc-

 tion in the cost of living. That there

 has been considerable reduction since

 that time every one knows but few

 people realize, except, perhaps, in their

 own cases, how far the result has been

 obtained by a fall in the price of the

 necessaries of life, and how far by Q

 change in the style of living. This cer-

 tainly is an interesting question, and one

 which has @ great deal to do with the

 larger question of the revival of trade.

 When the expense of living is diminish

 ed by the fall of prices to point within

 the current rate of profit in industry and

 commerce, trade will begin to revive

 but it cannot revive so longas people are

 constantly straining-as the great ma jority are-to see to what point they can reduce expenditure.

 The New York Times publishes an ar

 ticle in which the cost of living is com pared with the cost in 1873. In this it shows that it costs as much now as it did then to furnish table in the same man. ner. This is an important fact. The purchase of food constitutes large pro- portion-from one-fifth, probably, to one third-of the expenditures of the average family. It is also a very essen tial clement in the price of board. The paper says: Our Investigations show that while there has been decline of about eight per cent. in the wholesale price of wheat flour, and of thirty-three per cent. on that of cornmeal-an article of food too little used-there has been 0 considerable advance in the wholesale price of salt beef and pork, and no ap- preciable change in the retail prices of meats and vegetables, or in that of bread. Thls is fact which cannot be ignored in considering the question of revival of trade, for until food is cheaper it will be difficult to reduce the price of labor, and until labor is reduced in price, manufacturing cannot proftably go on. In rents the changes are marked, and they are particularly significant. The rents of the more expensive class of houses are about twenty five per cent. lower-in some cases even more than this-than they were in 1878. .-s

 The case it sums up as follows: A family living according to the same as in 1873 expends about the same as then for food, about one-fourth less for rent, and. rather more than one fourth less for clothing. Thenet reduc- tion in the cost of living may thus beset down approximately as one-fifth. That there has been, in a great proportion of cases, and probably ill Q majority, a greater reduction than this in actual ex- penditure, we believe to be probable, though it is D subject on which specula- tion is necessarily very unsatisfactory, because there is little extended and &C., curate information to be had regarding it. It may be remarked also that this by the reduction of the of living is sure Ill the long run, other things being equal, to bring down the cost of living. It IS simply falling off in demand. In certain cases, this decrease in demand is offset by foreign or extraneous demand, as in the case of breadstuffs and the medium priced houses; but on the whole, the process must have the effect of bringing down prices. It is probable that we have not gone so far in this direction as we shall yet go. A good many men found themselves obliged to curtail their rent this year more may be ill the same position next year. Meanwhile, pro cess is going on which will facilitate Q reduction of rents: houses are changing hands to a considerable extent to satisfy mortgages, often without expensive fore closure, but by surrender of the prop erty to the holder of the mortgage, the '' margin" being given up: A similar change may be expected in other de- partments, and it will go on until our fall below our production, md then, and not till then, the revival ,f trade will commence.