COST OF LIVING.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1414, 15 April 1912, Page 5

COST OF LIVING.

4 WORLD-WIDE INQUIRY SUGGESTED. Br Tclefrraph—PrcEfi Association—Copyright Ottawa, April 12. The Department of Labour is communicating with the Unitcil States Government as to the possibility of co-operating in the general study of the conditions underlying the increased cost of living in the United States, and planning a world-wide inquiry if the other nations agree. HOW PRICES HAVE RISEN. CAUSES OF THE INCREASE. It is generally admitted (writes the London correspondent of the "Sydney Herald") that one of the primary causes of the industrial unrest which , exists in Great Britain to-day is the increase in the cost of living, resulting from a rise in prices which has continued for some years. The workers find that their wages are not sufficient to meet the cost of the ordinary necessities of life, and thereforo they are agitating for increased wages. A general upward tendency of e prices exists in all civilised countries, but the cause of •it is so involved that President Taft has suggested the appointment of an international conference to consider the matter. 1 The Board of Trade lias adopted a system which reveals' at a glance the cost of living in any particular year, as compared with other years, but its statistics do not extend further than the year 1895. The prices of 23 of tho principal articles of food are taken, and after allowing for the relative importance of each of these 1 articles in an ordinary household budget, the index number of each article is ar- , rival at—tliat is to say, the number , which indicates tho expenditure on tho article by an ordinary working class fani--1 ily. as compared with the other 22 articles. The system involves some com- ■ plox arithmetical calculations, lnit tho i results are plninly stated. Taking the . year 1900 as the standard of comparison ; for tho years before it and after it, and representing tho cost of tho 23 nrticles of t food in London for that year by tho " number 100,' the statistics of tho Bonrd • of Trade show the following variations ) in retail prices-.— Year 1895, 93.2; 189G, 92.0; 1897, 9G.2; i 1898, 100.8; 1899, 96.4; 1900, 100.0; 1901, . 101.9; 1902, 101.6; 1903, 103.2; 1904, 104.3; 1905, 103.7; 1906, 103.2; 1907, 105.8; 190S, i 108.4; 1909, 108.2; 1910, 109.9; 1911, 109.3. It will thus be seen that there has ) been a rise of 9.3 per cent, in the cost of t articles of food from the year 1900 up to tho present, and that tho year 1900 sliowI ed an advance over tho five previous years except that of 1898. Professor AY. J. Ashley (Professor of Commerce in the 3 University of Birmingham), who lias in. 3 quired into the causes of tho general risa in prices, "has arrived at the conclusion a that the situation lias been brought about bv three tilings: (1) a temporary l shortage in the supply of particular lead- ' ing commodities, (2) an improvement in trade, (3) tho increase in tho world s gold s output. As becomes a professor of "the dismal science," lie does not allow conside eration for the human element to interfere with liis theories or his conclusions, but it is rather startling to find liim de- , daring that "liigli prices are not neces- ' sarily bad things." He st-it.es. in the course of a pamphlet oil "The R;so in - Prices" which has just been published: "High prices may go along with national f prosperity, and low prices along witli , general depression. It may bo better to 1 have abundant and well-paid emplovs ment, with general lu>h prices, than illpaid ' employment with general low '"tHs in a snirit of absolute cheerfulness that th» professor arrives at the conclusion that no remedy is needed for the ri c p in prices, nnfl flint"- infittov 6s will ntliiict themselves; but even lie has n dim realisation that the adjustment will not bf brought about without a great deal ll_ of hardship and suffering on the general 13 mass of the community. All incomes >n Tint - oteoMolv fixed." w ' JV thomsplves in cour. B jv of tirjo tn inn new level of prices. The "djiistmpnt will not nlwnvs be easy, and the difficulties which arise in the process are to Iw reckoned as so much drawback to 110 general and ultimate advantage. In the sixteenth century the price which most slowlv responded tn the general movement was the price of labour. And it is genernllv agreed that there resulted a real lowering of tho standard if of comfort of those dependent on wnges.